Introduction: This article explores the troubling resurgence of Cold War-era tactics under the Trump administration, particularly as they relate to left-wing political movements and the impacts of a potential Operation Condor 2.0 in Latin America. The following analysis provides a critical examination of U.S. foreign policy and its implications domestically and abroad.
Note to readers: This piece serves as a companion to Curro’s recent post titled “‘Islamist Extremism’ Has Been Defeated; a New (Old) Foe Is Needed: ‘Left-Wing Political Terrorism.’ While Curro’s article primarily addresses the relationship between the U.S. war on terror and its renewed targeting of left-wing ideologies, this post focuses on the potential consequences of a tech-driven Operation Condor for Latin America, and its linkage to the Trump administration’s escalating actions against narco-terrorists.
In mid-November 2024, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies published an article outlining eight significant reasons why Marco Rubio would be a catastrophic choice for Secretary of State. The article, which we shared here, accurately observed that although Rubio is considered “the least controversial of Trump’s candidates [within the Washington establishment], he is most assured to ensure continuity with the negative aspects of U.S. foreign policy.”
Events have confirmed this assessment. Since taking office, the Trump 2.0 administration hasn’t managed to withdraw from the Ukraine project as promised; instead, it has instigated a disastrous military conflict in West Asia on behalf of Israel, threatening to destabilize the global economy. The administration has classified drug traffickers as terrorists, initiated attacks against Venezuela, abducted its president, launched missile strikes on suspected smuggling vessels, and imposed a comprehensive blockade on Cuba.
While Rubio isn’t solely accountable for all these actions—having played a more minor role in Ukraine and the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran—he has been instrumental in shaping U.S. policy towards the Western Hemisphere, especially Latin America.
Medea Benjamin and CODE PINK, which she leads, now find themselves on what journalist Ken Klippenstein describes as a “virtual government blacklist.” This list includes prominent U.S. left-wing figures and organizations accused of colluding with the Cuban government to undermine democracy.
They share this informal blacklist with 41 other individuals and groups, including:
- Amazon Labor Union
- Antifa
- Bass, Karen, the current Mayor of Los Angeles.
- Black Lives Matter
- Cohen, Ben, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s.
- Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), known for organizing delegations to Cuba.
- Goodman, Amy, host of Democracy Now!
- Mamdani, Zohran, current Mayor of New York.
- National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
- Omar, Ilhan: A Democratic Congresswoman and mother of campus activist Isra Hirsi.
- Smalls, Christian: Founder of the Amazon Labor Union who participated in the 2026 Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba.
- Viva Palestina US: The U.S. branch of an international network that reportedly previously supported Hamas.
All these names are included in the U.S. State Department’s recent report, “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Capitalism,” which fervently attempts to portray Cuba as “the leading sponsor of radical leftism in the United States” and a “unique threat to American homeland security.” This narrative persists despite the crippling economic effects caused by the U.S. blockade on the island.
Remarkably, over three pages are dedicated to DSA, whose members include notable politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. The report accuses the group of exemplifying Cuba’s successful ideological influence over leftist sentiments in the U.S., stating, “Havana no longer needs to rely solely on intelligence penetration or asset cultivation to exert influence over the United States.”
Despite differing opinions about DSA, it’s hardly a fringe organization, as Kipperstein points out:
It includes prominent members like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and has seen the election of numerous officials into power, including figures like Senator Bernie Sanders, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
Leading up to the report’s release, Rubio hosted a ministerial summit addressing the so-called threat posed by “far-left terrorism,” attended by representatives from 66 national governments, predominantly from Europe and Latin America, and notable figures from Israel’s Netanyahu administration.
Notably absent were Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, all governed by left-leaning administrations (though Colombia’s situation is changing). Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declined the invitation, stating that the summit did not align with Mexico’s security priorities.
Nevertheless, the U.S. embassy in Mexico, led by former CIA officer Ron Johnson, is among over 20 diplomatic missions tasked with gathering intelligence on alleged “extreme left” groups, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
This summit, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration, follows two previous events centered on the same theme, emphasizing a clear intention to expand the list of both external and domestic adversaries, with the political left being an accessible target.
The ironies are striking. The Trump administration declares war on various left-wing movements at a time when such ideologies are marginal. Ironically, it simultaneously takes equity stakes in a growing number of private firms, a tactic one might typically associate with a leftist government.
Trump: “We see our American identity under a renewed attack… There is now a resurgence in communist menace in our land including from newcomers to our country… We’re not letting it happen.”
Trump has had the government take equity stakes in multiple private companies. pic.twitter.com/UoEUfRKhol
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) July 4, 2026
Michael Parenti offered alternative commentary on the situation…
https://t.co/4a413VBhcD pic.twitter.com/60Pmisek0C
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) July 23, 2026
More individuals are beginning to express concern over this trend…
This is absurd. I am as anti-communist as they come, but the real danger today is not that the U.S. is becoming a communist country – it’s that it is heading toward fascism. https://t.co/nEZUaMfDK4
— Lars Christensen (@MaMoMVPY) July 23, 2026
The importance of the summit on left-wing “terrorism” was underscored by the presence of senior Trump officials, such as Stephen Miller, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
Kicking off the summit, Rubio proclaimed that under “President Trump, the United States is, for the first time, building the infrastructure, partnerships, and strategies to defeat the scourge of far-left terrorism.” He reminisced about the historical violence perpetrated by left-oriented groups:
“Each of our friends here from the nations of the Western Hemisphere remembers the decades of kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, and executions; the violent terror of the Tupamaros, the Montoneros, the FARC, the ELN…the inhuman savagery of Peru’s Shining Path, the Maoist fanatics who massacred peasant villages in Peru, hacking pregnant women and newborn babies to death with machetes. Do you remember the tens of thousands of Marxist guerrillas trained to kill in Castro’s terrorist camps?… That is radical leftism. It may adopt various slogans and ideologies depending on the place and time; they may call themselves anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, communist, anarchist, or Marxist. But its fundamental nature is always the same.”
The parallels to McCarthyism of the 1950s are both evident and unsettling. As Ken Klipperstein highlights, the Cuba report “explicitly mentions the ‘blacklists, McCarthy-era investigations and prosecutions’ of the 1950s” as achievements that assisted in defeating communism in the U.S.:
The Cuba report follows last week’s Rubio-led international summit on “political terrorism.” As I reported, this introduced the term “Far-Left Terrorism” (abbreviated “FLT”), a term that lacks clear definition.
A White House press release summarized the summit by stating that “far-left extremism will be treated with the same seriousness and ferocity that the world has long reserved for jihadist terrorism.”
During the summit, Rubio pledged that new terrorist designations for leftist organizations would be announced “soon.”
Jeremy Lewin, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance, linked last week’s political terrorism summit to the current Cuba report, asserting that “for seven decades, the Cuban regime has been the ideological underpinning of third worldism and the subversive organizing structures of new radical left political terrorists that @SecRubio highlighted last week.”
A Supersized Reboot of Operation Condor
It almost feels surreal to witness the Trump administration reviving McCarthyism. When Stephen Miller accuses Democrats of attempting to seize private industries while the Trump administration itself owns shares in numerous companies, it resembles a parody straight out of Mel Brooks.
Yet, this situation is undeniably real, just as the long-standing war on Islamist terrorism and Trump’s newly declared war on narco-terrorism have had dire consequences. Arguments supporting these declarations may lack substantial evidence, but they have led to the deaths of millions and the devastation of entire economies.
The Trump administration’s push for a global coalition to combat left-wing extremism evokes one of the darkest chapters in 20th-century Latin American history: Operation Condor.
Initiated in a 1975 meeting in Santiago, Chile, between military intelligence leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, Operation Condor represented a collaborative campaign of state-sponsored terror carried out by U.S.-backed military dictatorships in Latin America during the 1970s and early ’80s.
During this period, tens of thousands of suspected political dissenters were kidnapped, tortured, and executed. Many vanished without a trace. The objective of Operation Condor was to eliminate safe havens for left-wing activists and dissidents across the Southern Cone.
Francesca Lessa details in a recent article that Operation Condor was built on three foundational pillars:
Firstly, all intelligence concerning perceived subversive activities was centralized in a database located in Santiago. Secondly, an encrypted communications channel enabled state agents to communicate securely. Lastly, a coordination office oversaw joint operational activities.
Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay also set up the Teseo unit to target exiles from these countries living in Europe. While Operation Condor officially concluded by late 1978, bilateral operations continued, primarily involving Argentina collaborating with Brazil, Paraguay, and Chile until early 1981.
The Rubio State Department is now attempting to create something akin to this, but on a grander scale involving numerous countries across multiple continents. The advancements in information and communication technologies today make it significantly easier for governments to share data and monitor individual movements. Therefore, Operation Condor 2.0 could prove even more perilous than the original.
Nonetheless, the U.S. focus is likely to remain on Latin America. Whereas the original Operation Condor concentrated on the Southern Cone, this reboot aims to encompass the entire region, from Tierra de Fuego in the south to Guatemala in the north. As evidenced in the past year, the shift toward conservative governance across the region—bolstered by Trump’s overt electoral interference—indicates that most countries in Latin America are aligning with U.S. interests.
Warnings about a potential Operation Condor reboot have circulated since Trump announced his “Shield of the Americas” initiative in March. Recent actions from the Daniel Noboa government in Ecuador—such as welcoming U.S. troops and agencies like the FBI while outlawing the principal opposition party—suggest this direction is indeed being pursued.
Ecuador 🇪🇨 flag on the shoulder, USA 🇺🇸 flag on the helmet… that brings “joint operations” to a new level. https://t.co/qaCTRCCXo3 pic.twitter.com/r53f0AwwCX
— Adam Isacson (@adam_wola) July 23, 2026
The prosecutor investigating U.S. boat strikes and torture allegations in Ecuador was assassinated.
We uncovered NASA images and videos from the U.S. Coast Guard that corroborate the victims’ testimonies. Subsequently, the prosecutor handling the case was shot and killed in broad daylight. https://t.co/BAnc5SiRfu pic.twitter.com/xdSn1CI6PA
— Camila Lourdes Galarza (@sovietwithsazon) July 23, 2026
It becomes increasingly clear why the U.S. feels compelled to wage war against leftist movements in Latin America. The support for U.S. puppet governments in the region—many newly elected—appears to be evaporating rapidly.
This trend is already manifesting in Argentina, where President Milei’s approval ratings mirror those of Trump. A similar trend is emerging in Chile, where the disapproval ratings for President José Antonio Kast have already crossed 50% just four months into his term.
Such rapid declines in popularity are unsurprising given that these administrations primarily facilitate the extraction of their nations’ resources by the U.S. and its allied governments. Recently, Milei’s administration in Argentina announced the removal of barriers on foreign ownership of arable land.
As the Trump administration’s classification of drug-trafficking cartels as terrorist organizations provides a foundation for military intervention in countries within the U.S.’s sphere of influence—as already seen in Venezuela—designating left-wing political movements as terrorist organizations offers U.S.-aligned governments in the region justification to take whatever measures necessary to maintain power.
Opposition to U.S. neo-colonial exploitation is likely to emerge from leftist movements, both domestic and international. Additionally, Washington needs a rationale to justify a military operation against Cuba; the pretense of a war on narco-terrorism simply won’t suffice in this instance.
What the U.S. desires for Cuba mirrors its actions in Venezuela: exhausting the country’s resources and paving the way for increased Israeli influence and control.
It’s time to be blunt about Delcy Rodriguez – she has turned Venezuela into a vassal of Washington. https://t.co/O5W5UY4LuP
— Dimitri Lascaris (@dimitrilascaris) July 22, 2026
Not a single word from the Russians, the Chinese, the European Union, or the entire global community about this scandalous episode.
My impression is that we are regressing by decades, perhaps even centuries, in just a few years.
No one knows where this money is going, while the… pic.twitter.com/k1kV2LUbEh— Patricia Marins (@pati_marins64) July 22, 2026
In her Twitter thread, Marins illustrates the absurdity among U.S. and Israeli officials who believe they can instigate similar uprisings in Iran:
And in this context, some foolish individuals in Israel and the Pentagon anticipated a revolt in Iran.
Who would be irrational enough to rise against their own nation when a foreign power brazenly threatens the integrity of their nation’s resources?
The current situation, marked by global silence, is astonishing.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has also issued warnings regarding the risks posed by the Trump and Netanyahu administrations in reviving Operation Condor:
A new, more menacing form of McCarthyism has returned to the United States. This far-right alignment, reminiscent of both Hitler-era fascism and the sinister Operation Condor, promotes aggressive action against an imagined global “radical left.”
Are they seeking pretexts to justify new atrocities and greater acts of aggression? The imperial right, along with its followers, is increasingly radical and is culpable for crimes such as the genocide in Gaza, extrajudicial killings, the hunting, torture, and murder of migrants, and the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran, in addition to the genocidal blockade against the Cuban people.
This is perhaps the most alarming aspect of Operation Condor 2.0: it unfolds amid an atmosphere of continuous violence—not only in Gaza but in Southern Lebanon and (in many respects) Cuba, where the infant mortality rate has more than doubled in the past eight years, primarily due to U.S. sanctions.
Desperate to maintain its imperial dominance, the U.S.—with Israel at its side—is prepared to employ extreme measures. The veils of discretion have been lifted; Condor 1.0 was covert, with U.S. authorities attempting to distance themselves from it. In contrast, this 21st-century reboot will be conducted openly.
Conclusion: The revival of Operation Condor strategies under the current U.S. administration poses grave threats not only to Latin America but to the foundational principles of democracy and human rights worldwide. As political movements are unjustly demonized and categorized as terrorists, the implications for global stability and moral integrity are unsettling. The international community must remain vigilant to these developments and their consequences.
