Latin America & the US: Adelita Grijalva Sworn In; Miami - Gateway to the Caribbean; Identity of US Boat Strike Victims; Political Murals; Dominican Republic Suffers National Power Outage & Regional Implications

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio in conversation with journalist Julia Tilton from The Daily Yonder, the US's only national news organization for rural people and places.  

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Latin America and United States series with me, Jon Bonfiglio, currently in Miami, Florida. You might be able to hear some music in the background, which we've added in real life for authenticity, and Julia Tilton is in Maine. Julia, I can't hear music in your background. What's going on? Why is there not Northeast folk music happening on the edge of where it is that you are?

Julia Tilton: 0:24

That is because I am sitting in my car, which as it turns out is a pretty soundproof box.

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:31

Ah, the great recording studio that is a vehicle, but I'm disappointed none nonetheless. You'll have to work on those externals for next time. For those of you who aren't regular listeners, Julia is a US-based journalist for the Daily Yonder, the US's only national newspaper for rural places. Hello and welcome back. Julia, so we've covered it a few times, so maybe this is worth leading with. Latina Senator for Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, has finally been sworn in after 50 days in the wilderness. Can you just break that down for us, please?

Julia Tilton: 1:07

Yes. So yesterday, Wednesday, November 12th, Adelita Grijalva was sworn in, as you said, after a record 50-day delay. This had never happened before, that someone had been elected to Congress and then had to wait 50 days to be sworn in to represent their congressional district. Of course, during that time, Arizona's congressional district that Grijalva represents was going without representation. I think that's important to call out. I heard her on NPR a couple days ago being interviewed right before she was sworn in, and she said that she had gone back and forth to Washington, D.C. four times, but was unable to be sworn in. This is, of course, amidst the government shutdown. Also a record-breaking government shutdown that came to an end on Wednesday night. So, Grihava was sworn in, and the first vote that she took was to reopen the government. She actually voted against reopening the government, which is a whole political thing here in the U.S. right now, as we are on the verge of seeing healthcare premiums skyrocket in 2026. There is speculation, which we had talked about before on this podcast as to why this delay for Grihalva, it all comes back to the Jeffrey Epstein files. So to force a House vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, which has been now in the political discourse, it feels like for months on end. The Democrats need a certain number of signatures to make that House vote happen. They didn't have enough signatures prior to Grihalva being elected in a special election in September. I believe it's 218th signature needed to force that House vote. It was the first action that she took was to sign that petition, and a house vote could come in early December to release the Epstein files. Important to note for U.S. politics here and just who has control over Congress. Of course, the Republicans control both the House and the Senate, but with Grijalva's election to the House, it narrows the Republicans' majority to 219 votes to 214 votes, meaning that Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, can now only lose two votes if all members are voting. It does add a little bit uh more power perhaps to the Democratic camp, and before her time serving in Congress, she was a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors in Arizona, and she won the special election, of course, to fill the seat that was held by her late father, Raul Grijalva, who died last March.

Jon Bonfiglio: 3:59

Yeah, you you mentioned that this 50-day absence of being sworn in had never happened before, which in any other kind of period of history I think saying something like it's never happened before would sort of have some weight. But given that we live in times in which almost every day things are happening which have never happened before, still, nevertheless, 50 days is something of a breakwater, I think. I'm currently in as I mentioned at the top of the slot. Have you got any experience of Miami, Julia? Have you been here? What's your sense of the place?

Julia Tilton: 4:38

I have not been to Miami myself, but my sense is that it is sort of a gateway here in the United States to Latin America. It's always interesting to me spending time in Latin America, of course, south of the of the US border. When I talk about the US and and you know different cities and things like that, folks you know around my that that that want to visit the US, typically the first city that they mention is Miami, which I think is worth noting. And of course, um, as I'm sure we can get into right now, Jon, it's really a gateway to everything that happens in the Caribbean, which if you've listened to this podcast recently, more and more important in the sort of geopolitical scheme of things.

Jon Bonfiglio: 5:22

It is definitely. But but I'm not gonna let you get away without me noticing that that's now two black marks against your name on this recording. No live folk music in the background, and now you admit that you've never been to Miami. So it's something definitely needs to be rectified soon, I think. It is an unusual place, undoubtedly. It's kind of Latin America, but it's also not Latin America. It's definitely doesn't feel like the USA. One of the things that's really interesting here is of course the Latino communities in in South Florida, in Miami, generally speaking, I mean they're they're they're from everywhere, but the politically active groups are Venezuelan exiles, Cuban exiles, Haitian exiles, and so those tend to swing because of course what happens in their countries and the sort of the generally speaking, the authoritarian leftist regimes that they have removed themselves from, they tend to be part of the broader uh Republican base, Republican voting bloc. Now, one of the things which is interesting on the ground here in Miami at the moment is that there is almost no presence of ICE whatsoever, because of course that would be counterproductive to target these particular Latino communities which are uh which are aligned. You mentioned Miami is something of a gateway. I mean, one of the reasons for that I think is just the straightforward geography of Florida, the fact that it sticks out into the Caribbean, also when people remove themselves, often they remove themselves on boats, especially from from Cuba, the short distance across the water, they ended up here, and of course, in terms of what people know and are used to, this is about as close in terms of weather and climate to what they what they have and what they're used to back home. Um notwithstanding one of the unusual uh tones or senses of Miami is how it's inescapable that we you we're in here, uh sort of historic community of exiles, that so many people here are away from what they consider home, some in the context of Cuba and the uh Cuban Revolution of 1959 now, going on for 70 odd years. And peculiar because even though there is a sort of a groundswell, a very tangible, palpable sense of Latino community, Cuban community, Haitian community, and so on here, undoubtedly almost everybody here is still fixated on this sort of dream of returning to their country, to the homeland that is rightfully theirs but has been stolen from them. And that generates a particular tone. It's that fact, I think, as well as Florida's sort of laissez-faire political sensibility, which has also meant that this part of the world, and specifically Miami, is also the source of ongoing destabilization in the Caribbean region. Almost any half-baked plot is concocted over coffee here. It's also the financial source for opposition movements and, of course, of course, of course, it's the bridge for the weaponization of the Caribbean too. Julia, now that we're on the topic of the Caribbean, I know that you've been looking into the identities of some of the victims of the U.S. boat strikes in the in the southern Caribbean. What have you managed to scratch out? What do what do we know about who these people are or were?

Julia Tilton: 8:53

Yes, that's right. So information about the identities of those who have been killed thus far by U.S. strikes in the Caribbean is extremely hard to come by. I think that's worth noting here before I go into it. Um it's also certainly not an accident, um, but it's that that information is difficult to come by. It's not being revealed by the U.S. nor the Venezuelan governments, um, and it's, like I said, difficult for journalists to track down, in part because folks are scared to talk to the media for fear of repercussions from either government. Um but what we do know based on what has come out so far and and has been verified is that those who are being killed, contrary to statements made by President Trump, um, are very much the middlemen in drug smuggling networks, if they're even involved in drug smuggling at all. Um and just to recap sort of the strikes that we're talking about, um since September, U.S. forces have destroyed, these are numbers as of today. So this could change um you know by the hour as often happens when John and I record, and then another strike happens, and um, you know, these numbers will be will be uh will need to be updated. But at this point in time, um, on November 13th, U.S. forces have destroyed at least 21 vessels in 20 separate strikes in international waters. At least 80 people have died. Um, and of course, the Trump administration is offering very limited details about these strikes, which they say are part of an anti-drug offensive. Um the Associated Press did uh an investigation in Venezuela, in some of the fishing villages where these boats have departed from. They were able to identify and corroborate the identities of nine men who were killed by these strikes over the past couple of months. They found that the men who were killed were crewing the boats for the first or second time. So they were not necessarily experienced in this kind of big misventure. They were making or were offered at least 500 US dollars per trip. Um, and many of them were laborers. There was a fisherman and a motorcycle taxi driver who was sort of down on his luck and turned to this venture in order to make ends meet. Um, and then two were low were low-level career criminals, um, and one was a well-known local crime boss. Um, interesting about the identities that have been verified thus far. Uh, one of the big claims that the Trump administration has made about individuals that they're targeting is that they're part of the Train de Aragua gang. Um, but thus far, journalists, including those from the Associated Press, have been unable to verify any connections with that group. Um, of course, nine have been identified, eighty have been killed. It it remains to be seen. Um, but just an interesting trend to note here is sort of the realities on the ground and and the communication that is coming from the White House and the Pentagon here in the United States.

Jon Bonfiglio: 12:03

Yeah, I mean, um, I don't think it's breaking news to say that the Trump administration's hold on the truth is uh is loose, and of course, the truth almost always, despite what we journalists pretend, is generally a more complex affair than we can squeeze into a squeeze into a byline. Um Julia, there's also been a story from Laredo uh or Laredo, if we pronounce it, in the American vernacular, uh, about the uh the removal of a uh of a mural. Uh do you have a sort of a brief on what that story is?

Julia Tilton: 12:41

Yes, so this is something else that has happened recently. Um, this is at the end of October. A mural outside of a U.S. federal courthouse building is being removed after it was first installed in 2020. Um it's a street mural, so it stretches across a whole street block and it reads in big yellow letters, Defund the Wall, fund our future. The wall, of course, being in reference to the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico that Trump has campaigned on multiple times at this point. Um it was originally approved by the city council in 2020, and it was painted by the No Border Wall Coalition during the pandemic. And uh because it's on public streets, it's again in front of a federal courthouse building, it's maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, a state agency. Um, and so it's being removed because Texas Governor Greg Abbott instructed the department to remove all street murals with political ideologies from the state streets. Uh and so that uh is what's happening now. Um certainly those uh in the community are vocally opposing the move, um, but ultimately it's not up to the city, it's up to the state because the state manages the roads.

Jon Bonfiglio: 14:01

Yeah, and um it's something that caught my eye because I think the the history of murals, I mean murals historically, almost all over the world, are important political tools. But it seems to me that, of course, in particular in Latin America, but in communities which uh have strong uh strong Latin America based Latin American-based uh presence in the USA, uh murals are not just historic affairs, they're being increasingly used as uh as points of opposition. Um uh really visible, tangible point of opposition. Um Juliet, last story I'd like to bring up if uh if I may, is how the Dominican public earlier on this week experienced a national power outage. Uh worth saying contextually that this is not unique to the DR. In the last two years, Cuba has experienced multiple national grid failures. Ecuador, also Venezuela, I'm thinking it's expected because of its uh specific lack of investment with its economic uh crisis, but also Chile has uh experienced the same and partial we've had partial blackouts in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil too. This is definitely something of our times and very specifically to do with um the region's sort of ailing underinvested power grid, but I also think touches on the fact that the COP is uh taking place at the moment, and of course, uh one of the big topics of our times is is energy autonomy. I know you've been keeping a close eye on the on the COP. What's your perspective on the events in the DR, Dominican Republic specifically, but also how that relates to a broader energy issue given your journalistic portfolio?

Julia Tilton: 15:47

Yeah, absolutely. So just to recap what happened in the Dominican Republic, um, this was on Tuesday, November 11th, um, and as you said, a system-wide blackout. So it's being attributed right now to a failure in the grid transmission system. Um the exact cause hasn't yet been made clear, and my sense is that it might be some time before we know for sure we can pinpoint exactly what happened. Um, but generation units at two different power plants shut down. Um, when this happens, it often triggers a cascade of failing throughout the system, which is what happened on Tuesday. Um and so it it, as you said, builds on a trend that we've seen throughout the Caribbean. Um, and I think also worth noting that this has happened multiple times in Puerto Rico as well. Um I did uh some reporting earlier this year on Puerto Rico's efforts to, um ongoing efforts really to rebuild after Hurricane Maria and the prolonged period of power outage there and some interesting energy solutions with solar and and microgrids. Um but but absolutely as as um you brought up, John, really the the product of aging infrastructure. Um we're dealing with aging infrastructure in the United States as well. That's not necessarily a new phenomenon, but but certainly in in island nations in the Caribbean and elsewhere can can really um have sort of devastating consequences because the entire system can fail. Um it's of course somewhat ironic that this is happening during COP, as we talked about before, um, that you know, as climate change intensifies extreme weather in places like the Caribbean, um, you know, having a stronger grid, uh more resilient grid, is is only going to be more important because if one storm can knock out a grid or or weaken infrastructure, um and you know what used to be a once in a 20-year storm is now once in a you know every year storm or or every couple of year storms, um, that's something that that we need to be paying attention to. I have been following coverage of COP, uh obviously have some mixed feelings about it. Um, and I'm just not convinced that we're going to see any sort of real um solutions or or progress being presented that that can um tactically fix uh some of the problems that we're seeing in the Caribbean. But I'm of course curious um for your take as well.

Jon Bonfiglio: 18:17

Yeah, my general sense of the cop by this I I I'm definitely jaded by the very mention of the word cop by this stage of the game. And even though I think there's been a brave um interestingly, sorry as a digression, but I've just had two geese fly across in front of me in Florida. I didn't know that there were wild geese in Florida, but there you go. But uh returning to the topic in in hand, uh maybe that's another sign of climate change, who knows? Probably, almost certainly. Um but yeah, even though there's been a sort of a brave attempt, I think, by Brazilian President Luna da Silva um and a number of other leaders, to be fair, to reframe the COP, um, the the sort of the shape of the COP and the possibilities of the COP, I think the very fact that we are so late in the day. What are we in thirty-odd COPS now? Without anything significant being achieved, and also clearly the fact that the USA, among others, are deliberately choosing to not participate in the COP just makes it seem like a sort of a fringe circuit show uh for the for the crazies that want to make the world a better place but really have no particular traction. And of course that's sad and tragic and devastating and um lunatic behaviour. But it it is what it is and it is it is where we are undoubtedly. The one thing I'd add to your comments on uh which I think is uh interesting about these these national grids is that part of the problem is that they are national grids, that they're grids. That there was a movement in the 70s and eighties and then the early nineties of sort of the belief that actually the way you made these systems more efficient was by making them overarching conjoined systems. But what we know now is that then that means that one issue somewhere in one particular place then leads to the whole breakdown of the grid. So actually the the the sort of the new designs around these grids is for them to be much more broken up and fragmented around sort of local uh local substation so that if something goes wrong it affects a particular area but not the entire nation as we've repeatedly seen happen in Latin America in the last uh in the last couple of years. Julia, as ever, massively grateful for your time, insights, uh perspective and so on. Uh uh I think we definitely have to uh meet in uh record live from Miami, but also Puerto Rico. I think that would be a really interesting context to be able to um to stop in and listen to people because of this sort of the unusual place that Puerto Rico holds in terms of there's a that that uh uh that uh surprising Venn diagram where Puerto Rico exists both as part of the USA uh and also as part of the Caribbean and also as part of Latin America as well. Uh so thank you uh so much and uh look forward to talking again next week.

Julia Tilton: 21:14

Yes, and as Bad Bunny's home, I just have to add in here at the end, I I would love to take you up on that offer. Enjoy Miami, and we will talk soon.

Jon Bonfiglio: 21:24

Yes, and one final point, and now you brought up a bad bunny thing, is that uh Zoran Mandami in uh New York uh in his pushback against the uh FIFA excesses and uh and the World Cup, which uh been reporting on in a different uh context, uh has also uh built on the bad bunny uh focus of tickets for locals, and he said that matches in New York, uh New Jersey should have a certain amount of tickets reserved for local inhabitants. So another little sort of sub subplot to add into what's taking place in in New York uh at the at at the moment. Um Thanks again, Juliet, talk soon.

Julia Tilton: 22:03

Thanks, Dan.