Conversations with NY Times and SCMP

I’ve been meaning to add some posts here for a long time, but it always seems to slip off the agenda. I’ll try to play a bit of catch up, mostly regarding some conversations with the media and events and an essay relating to the “other American anniversary” that fell in July: the bicentenary of the 1826 Congress of Panama.

But first, twenty years after graduating from Mizzou’s journalism school, I’ve finally made it into the New York Times! Well, I’m quoted there, anyhow. (My attempts to land an op-ed haven’t worked out yet.) Check out the thought-provoking article, “Is Venezuela a Colony Now? A Sovereign State? Modern Empires Rule in Ambiguity.”

I had some excellent conversations with writer Linda Kinstler for her piece in the Magazine about the nature of Venezuelan sovereignty since the January 2026 seizure of Nicolás Maduro. The United States has treated the country as a sort of vassal, with Marco Rubio acting as a sort of governor-general in absentia, and the United States managing state revenues and expenses. What the United States has not done is to occupy Venezuela. Although the U.S. physical presence has increased since the earthquakes, the model is to try to “run” Venezuela from offshore.

Secondly, I wanted to share an article in the South China Morning Post, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, with a reflection on the evolution of US-Latin American relations. What do the United States’ relations with its nearest neighbors tell us about the country and its rise to global power? The article, “America’s first sphere of influence becomes the test of its power at 250,” by Teresa Elena Frontado and Igor Patrick is worth a read.

More soon…