Continue reading HERE

Source: https://warontherocks.com/2025/12/weak-in-battle-dangerous-in-resistance-venezuelas-military-preparedness-and-possible-responses-to-u-s-action/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOyk0tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe3Hx-tS–B6HnA4-CEEoU2kl3V6SHWuwO4bj376uNNzLDAkz_2SjcyH9MNzA_aem_Uyvo6_8l58HuEp-MmtguTQ

The post Weak in Battle, Dangerous in Resistance: Venezuela’s Military Preparedness and Possible Responses to U.S. Action first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Comey, Clapper, Brennan and a whole laundry list of bad guys are in a lot of trouble. I feel sorriest for us. We already knew. Now we’ve got to relive the whole thing in agonizing detail. If they just would plead guilty it would save us all a lot of time. 

Trump is back from Asia and giving interviews. You don’t have the time to watch everything he says, but it’s out there. The media is always on the brink of “getting him.” They’re still carrying on about Epstein. But if they’d have had anything, they certainly would have trotted it out during the election. He’s flying above the fray, getting things done. 

The media is rife with Trump\Epstien news, except it’s not news at all. Epstein apparently wrote something that would do Trump’s presidency in, but whatever. If they’d have had something incriminating they would have used it long ago. The media can’t stand what’s happening, they try to spin it to deceive us.

I don’t know if we’re supposed to believe everything is going wrong, we used to. I’d like to spend a good hour with my Grandfather and my Dad, watching the news. The old timey networks are working overtime trying to make us believe Donald Trump is guilty of something that will spell doom for his presidency. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying it.

But that’s not the case with the old guard. They couldn’t destroy everything they’d written, and some of the material they thought would never see the light of day has been exposed. Apparently the people that were supposed to be destroying information in burn bags took off early and who knows what will be revealed. They’re probably saving it for the trials. We won’t even watch, because we knew what was going on in real time.

We’re peppered with news about South America, and we’re sending our big guns down there, to Venezuela in particular. If that’s what has to be done, I guess there’s no way around it. But the big one that the news media thinks will go bad is Ukraine. Maybe Putin thinks he has the upper hand, but who knows? Trump is out to stop it. I think he wants stopping wars to be part of his legacy, but time will tell. 

Socialists have been elected in New York and Seattle. We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out, but people are fleeing both places. We’ll see how socialism works when there’s no one to pay everybody. It’ll be entertaining to see how it goes, but I wouldn’t bet against the President

The shutdown that everyone’s been worrying about is over, until January. 

Who would ever have thought that we’d be hosting the President of Syria? Maybe everything is going to work out, in the short term. God is blessing the United States in ways we can barely comprehend. 

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – November 14, 2025 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Sean Parnell, who is Hegseth’s assistant defense secretary for public affairs, announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford, its on-board warplanes, and the other ships in its strike group are deploying to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations … and counter narco-terrorism” in the region.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/24/us-aircraft-carrier-deploying-south-america-venezuela-tensions/86878837007/

The post Trump deploys aircraft carrier strike group to South America amid Venezuela tensions first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The sources had few details of the operation, but President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations. The Pentagon had been directed to prepare options.

Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration, part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.aol.com/news/us-military-deploying-forces-southern-101700208.html

The post US military deploying forces to southern Caribbean against drug groups first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The exercise involves three Russian Navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine, which will arrive on June 12 at the Port of Havana in Cuba and stay for one week, according to a statement from the Cuban military per the Miami Herald.

Cuban officials said the visit is part of the “friendly” relations between Russia and Cuba and does not pose a threat to the region because “none of the ships carry nuclear weapons.”

U.S. officials similarly do not see the naval exercises as a direct threat, despite heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over the latter country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/06/06/russia-naval-exercise-cuba/7461717697431/

The post Russia to conduct naval exercises in Caribbean first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Although they come from different places, those embarking on these journeys face the same situation—they are leaving their homes because of a lack of opportunities, violence, or even food shortages. Occurring at a hitherto unseen speed and magnitude, this phenomenon has created an unprecedented migration crisis for Latin America and the Caribbean. What are the characteristics of each?

Migration from Venezuela involves one of the biggest and most rapid flows of vulnerable persons globally. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as of February 2019, the country’s economic and social crisis had led to the exodus of 3.4 million persons. Most have left in the past 12 months and have gone to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile, the main receiving countries. The magnitude of this crisis makes it the second biggest globally after the Syrian crisis.

The movement of persons from the Northern Triangle to the United States has been taking place for a much longer time. Between 1980 and 2015, the number of migrants from this subregion who were living in the United States increased by an annual average of 8 percent and in 2017, their total number in the United States stood at close to 3 million. Most persons leave because of the shortage of good jobs, high rates of crime and violence, and the desire to be reunited with their families. Remittances to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which amounted to almost US$20 billion in 2017, have become one of the main pillars of their economies, accounting for nearly 15 percent of their combined GDPs.

With the movement of persons come challenges and opportunities for both the source and destination areas, as I mentioned last week at the conference “Migration and Cities. The Path to Inclusive Integration,” held in Madrid.

According to a World Bank report published last November, the cost of additional education, health, water, early childhood, humanitarian, employment, and institution building services resulting from migration from Venezuela is estimated at between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent of Colombia’s GDP, a figure that will certainly increase given the growing number of persons leaving Venezuela. Despite this, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have opened their doors to migrants in a gesture of solidarity commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis. In terms of opportunities, migration can create economic growth when it is well managed.

As happens in other regions, Northern Triangle migration breaks family and community ties and disrupts the support networks in the originating countries. It can, however, contribute to poverty reduction, human capital improvement, and greater investment as a result of the transfer of remittances. El Salvador provides the most compelling evidence of this, where it is estimated that in 2014 the poverty rate would have been 12 percent higher without those remittances. Another analysis conducted in Guatemala using data from that same year demonstrated that the likelihood that a family would face food insecurity decreases by 40 percent when it receives remittances.

At the World Bank, we are supporting the region using the experience gained in other areas of the world such as the Horn of Africa or the Middle East.  We are assisting Colombia by analyzing the effects of migration and short- and medium-term response strategies. Similar studies involving Peru and Ecuador are also being carried out. In addition, we recently announced Colombia’s eligibility for funding from the Global Concessional Financing Facility, a platform that supports countries hosting large numbers of refugees. Furthermore, the refugee issue will be one of the main topics discussed at the upcoming Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to take place in less than three weeks. Going forward, we will continue our commitment by providing technical and financial assistance to migrant-receiving countries.

In the Northern Triangle, we are helping to improve access to health and education, boost the competitiveness and productivity of small producers, and enhance food security in areas impacted by drought and climate change such as the Dry Corridor, while at the same time assisting with crime and violence prevention and conducting analyses of key issues such as job creation. The aim of all these activities is to provide persons seeking a brighter future with options other than fleeing to another country.

Our efforts complement the work being done by other development organizations, governments, and civil society, although they will have to be redoubled given the projected continuation of these migration flows. The only way we will be able to tackle what is likely the greatest humanitarian crisis facing Latin America and the Caribbean today is through commitment and genuine solidarity with persons facing the dual vulnerabilities of poverty and migration.

*Axel van Trotsenburg is the World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean

Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2019/03/29/america-latina-y-el-caribe-frente-a-una-crisis-migratoria-sin-precedentes

The post Facing an Unprecedented Migration Crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Guatemalan soldiers stand guard at a police checkpoint on the Motagua River to stop the advance of Honduran migrants in Zacapa, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

Guatemalan soldiers stand guard at a police checkpoint on the Motagua River to stop the advance of Honduran migrants in Zacapa, Guatemala, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

A Honduran migrant woman trying to reach the U.S. cries after she was detained in the Guatemalan department of Chiquimula, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

12 more photos at the source

EL FLORIDO, Guatemala (AP) — A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. Small groups pressed on toward the Mexican border, while others accepted rides from authorities back to Honduras.

Many of the migrants were driven by an increasingly desperate situation in Honduras, where the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes in November have piled atop chronic poverty and gang violence. That combined with a hope that the new U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden would be more welcoming gave birth to the year’s first caravan.

But Tuesday, buses carrying dozens of migrants and police patrol vehicles carrying handfuls arrived sporadically through the morning at the Guatemala-Honduras border crossing of El Florido. They were passed from Guatemalan border agents to their Honduran counterparts and then boarded buses that would take them back to their hometowns.

Some 25 miles into Guatemala where hundreds of migrants had been stalled at a roadblock in Vado Hondo for several days, traffic flowed smoothly Tuesday and few migrants remained. Guatemala’s immigration authorities reported that through Monday more than 2,300 migrants had been returned to Honduras.

Carlos Hernandez, a 29-year-old shoemaker from Honduras, sat on the roadside unable to move forward and without any reason to go back.

“I lost everything, children, house, everything,” Hernández said through tears in reference to the hurricanes. “Everyone died there, I don’t have anything. Who am I going to return to?”

Eber Sosa, an 18-year-old, bricklayer, expressed the hope of many that something would change with the new U.S. administration.

“Now that the new president (Biden) is here we are waiting for the answer, all of us immigrants who are here from Honduras,” Sosa said. “We are looking to see what the new president says to move forward.”

If Guatemala’s government had indeed dissolved the year’s first caravan, it would be a relief to the incoming U.S. administration. Biden has promised immigration reform, but for now plans to leave Trump-era border policies in place fearing a surge of migrants when he takes office.

Guatemala’s government had made clear it would stop the caravan for immigration and health reasons before it had even formed in San Pedro Sula, Honduras last week. President Alejandro Giammattei said 2,000 police and soldiers would be sent to the border.

Those forces did not stop the caravan at the border, but a series of strategically places roadblocks where forces deployed tear gas and batons dissolved the mass of people.

On Tuesday, Michael Kozak, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, commended Guatemala via Twitter for “carrying out its responsibilities by responding appropriately & lawfully to the recent migrant caravan.”

Central American migrants began turning increasingly to caravans as a low-cost alternative to hiring a smuggler in 2018. Migrants gain a degree of safety in numbers and initially pushed successfully through Guatemala and Mexico. However, the U.S. government has led an effort to coordinate a more aggressive response from countries along the way to try to keep them from advancing far.

Caravans still represent only a fraction of the overall immigration flow that moves largely undetected.

In the past year, Guatemala has become a critical bulwark against the caravans, egged on by the more aggressive immigration policies of the Trump administration. Guatemalan forces effectively dissolved multiple migrant caravans last year.

In Tecun Uman, across the Suchiate river from Mexico, Rev. Fernando Cuevas said Tuesday there were not more than 70 migrants in the border town. Those who arrive do so in small groups, mostly family units, and try to cross to Mexico almost immediately.

Some go to the bridge to request asylum, while others attempt to cross the river.

Where hundreds of migrants massed last January before crossing into Mexico, this time Guatemala’s highway roadblocks appear to have stopped most. Most of those who have made it through carry the required proof of a negative coronavirus test and passports, Cuevas said.

Cuevas said both sides of the river are militarized. In Tecun Uman, Guatemala deployed large numbers of National Police who made a local community center their barracks and patrol the streets looking for migrants. Two buses from the Mexican government sit in the central plaza in front of his church waiting to drive migrants back to the Honduras border, he said.

“We are seeing a situation a little different from other years when the migrants had access and free transit,” Cuevas said. His church had prepared for the arrival of migrants like a year earlier, but now he expects few will make it. “We don’t expect them in great numbers nor organized. We don’t expect more than 100 at one time will be here.”

Mexico had sent thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents to that border last week in preparation. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to respect human rights, but also to enforce an orderly, legal migration.

One year ago, Mexican forces in riot gear rounded up hundreds of Central American migrants as they stopped to rest along a rural highway after crossing into the country.

Associated Press journalist Oliver de Ros reported this story in El Florido and AP writer AP writer Christopher Sherman reported from Mexico City.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-honduras-gangs-coronavirus-pandemic-immigration-c381b8ac9f22291188a403b7bbeb1d51

The post Large migrant caravan dissolves in Guatemala first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post 34,000 Haitians Still Displaced 10 Years on from Quake first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Hurricane Michael is slashing Cuba and is forecast to be a “dangerous major hurricane” when it smacks the US Gulf Coast on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.

The forecast indicates Michael may be a Category 3 hurricane — with winds from 111 to 129 mph — when it strikes.

“Life-threatening storm surge is possible along portions of the Florida Gulf Coast regardless of the storm’s exact track or intensity,” the center said. “Well-built framed homes may incur major damage or removal of roof decking and gable ends. Many trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking numerous roads. Electricity and water will be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes.”

Floridians scurried to prepare after Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 26 counties.

“Heavy rainfall from Michael could produce life-threatening flash flooding from the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region into portions of the Carolinas through Thursday,” the hurricane center said.

Michael has undergone a period of “rapid Intensification” — defined as an increase of sustained winds of 35 mph in a 24-hour period. The storm went from 40 mph on Sunday to 75 mph on Monday and is expected to undergo rapid intensification again in the next 24 hours.

The storm now has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. A Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph.

At 2 p.m. ET, Michael was centered about 145 miles northeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and 20 miles southwest of the western tip of Cuba. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.

Track the storm

The storm is aiming at a region that stretches from Mobile, Alabama, through the Florida Panhandle and into the Big Bend area of northern Florida.

A hurricane watch has been declared for the Alabama-Florida border to the Suwannee River in Florida. Tropical storm and storm surge watches have been issued from the Mississippi-Alabama border to Tampa Bay.

As forecast, Michael would be the first Category 3 or higher hurricane to hit the Panhandle since Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Monday, it became the seventh hurricane of 2018 in the Atlantic Basin. On average, the Atlantic would have about five hurricanes by October 8.

‘Everybody’s got to get ready’

Scott warned that Michael could reach land as a Category 2 hurricane, with winds in excess of 100 mph.

“This storm will be life-threatening and extremely dangerous,” Scott said at a press briefing.

“This storm has the potential to bring devastating impacts to communities across the Panhandle and Big Bend and every family must be prepared.”

Scott activated 500 National Guard troops in advance of the storm.

“Everybody’s got to get ready. Don’t take a chance,” he said. “We’re going to get storm surge, we have wind, we have a chance of flooding, we have a significant chance of tornadoes.”

The governor declared a state of emergency for Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Gadsden, Liberty, Franklin, Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Hamilton, Suwannee, Lafayette, Dixie, Columbia, Gilchrist, Levy and Citrus counties.

A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for coastal areas of Gulf County, according to a news release from the Port St. Joe Police Department.

Florida State University campuses in Tallahassee and Panama City plan to close Tuesday through Friday.

In western Cuba, hurricane conditions expected

In the Caribbean, a hurricane warning is in effect for the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio. Tropical storm warnings are posted for the Isle of Youth in Cuba and the coast of Mexico from Tulum to Cabo Catoche, including Cozumel.

“Hurricane conditions will spread over portions of western Cuba this afternoon, where a hurricane warning is now in effect. Tropical storm conditions are expected over the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula and the Isle of Youth today,” the center said.

“Michael is expected to produce heavy rainfall and flash flooding over portions of western Cuba and the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico during the next couple of days.”

The storm was expected to brush the westernmost province of Pinar Del Rio, where most of Cuba’s famed cigar tobacco is grown, before continuing north to the United States.

According to an alert published by the Cuban Civil Defense, meteorologists warned affected residents that they could experience hurricane-force winds. Officials also alerted residents living on the coast of the possibility of flooding caused by the storm.

Source: https://www.fox4now.com/homepage-showcase/florida-declares-state-of-emergency-in-26-counties-as-tropical-storm-michael-approaches

The post Hurricane Michael will be dangerous when it hits US coast Wednesday first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Ships sailing in the Caribbean have been told to steer clear of an underwater volcano after it started showing increased seismic activity.

The volcano, called Kick ’em Jenny, is located 8km (5 miles) off Grenada.

The government of Grenada has imposed a 5km exclusion zone around Kick ’em Jenny after the alert was raised to orange, which means an eruption could take place within 24 hours.

Seismologists said there was no imminent danger to the region.

Prof Richard Robertson, of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (SRC) in Trinidad, said there was no indication that the increased seismic activity would generate a tsunami.

• Volcano insight: Fifty years of eruptions revealed
• Rise and fall of marine volcano

He explained that while an eruption was likely, it would probably not produce enough material to dislodge large amounts of water.

But he warned marine operators to stay outside the exclusion zone, as an increase in gases could reduce the buoyancy of ships.

The volcano is on the shipping route from St Vincent to Grenada.

Kick ’em Jenny, which rises 1.3km above the seafloor on a steep slope of the Lesser Antilles ridge, is one of the most active volcanoes in the eastern Caribbean.

It has erupted at least a dozen times since its first recorded eruption in 1939 but has not caused any reported deaths.

In 1939, a 270m-high ash cloud shot up from the sea’s surface when Kick ’em Jenny erupted.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43400346

The post Caribbean volcano Kick ’em Jenny: Ships warned off area first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.