Latin America & the US: Update on ICE Immigration Raids; Arrest of Alleged Drug Kingpin Snowboarder Ryan Wedding in Mexico City; Venezuela/US Latest

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.  

For links to references articles, copy and past the links below:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/01/29/ice-ecuador-consulate-trump-immigration-crackdown/88400942007/

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:01

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent with me, Jon Bonfiglio, and of course joining us as always today for this regular series of the US and its relationship with Latin America is journalist Julia Tilton of the Daily Yonder, the US's only national newspaper for rural people and places. Hello, Julia.

Julia Tilton: 0:21

Hi Jon, how are you?

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:22

I'm good, thank you. Um, Julia, we recently did a live recording to you in uh connection to you in Maine as immigrations and customs enforcement, ICE, of course, began operations there a week ago, and of course, events in Minnesota have been dominating the news cycle. Um, if it's okay, could you just give us an update on the situation on the ground as regards migrant detentions, federal operations, and of course, community resistance?

Julia Tilton: 0:49

Yeah, so this has uh been a developing story this week since we last recorded on Monday. Um we've seen a lot happening as the outrage continues um to dominate much of the news cycle here in the US and sort of on the ground in communities like mine. I'm in Portland, Maine, um, and then obviously um throughout Minnesota and other places where um uh immigration and customs enforcement has been targeting um community members. Um, much of this outrage um is following, just to recap, the killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti, which happened last weekend, um not even a week ago. Um, and that followed, of course, the killing of another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, um, earlier this month. Both of those um were at the hands of um federal agents, either Customs uh ICE or um Border Patrol. Both happened in Minneapolis. Um we also uh saw this week um in sort of response to the killing of Alex Prettii some moves by the Trump administration. And I think I mentioned on Monday, you know, the the question about whether this would be a turning point as demonstrations um are sort of erupting across the United States. We have seen some action from the Trump administration. So um earlier this week, he announced that he would remove Gregory Bovino, who um was the federal agent who had been in charge of the operation in uh Minnesota, which is of course associated with um an immigration crackdown and increased raids. Trump replaced um that individual, Bovino, with his border czar, whose name is Tom Homan. Um, and I think we should note that Tom Homan was the brain behind the family separation policy, which defined much of Trump's approach to immigration in his first term. Um, and of course, that family separation policy garnered a lot of backlash for it's pretty serious infringements on uh human rights, separating young children, um, even you know, toddlers uh from their families during detainment um during the first Trump administration. Um in reading the coverage this week, there was an op-ed in USA Today that argued that contrary to much of what we're seeing in national media coverage, so you know, legacy um newsrooms that are covering immigration, not just in Minneapolis, but across the country, um, that are, you know, using words like Trump is softening on immigration, or there's, you know, a drawdown of a federal presence in some of these places that have been um targeted. And this op-ed in USA Today uh essentially argues that um, you know, that that isn't really the case. Um and I think it makes several well-evidenced points about the situation in reality on the ground um in Minneapolis. Um and so one line from that op-ed uh that stuck out to me um had to do with Trump's replacement of Bovino with Holman, saying, quote, swapping one villain for another doesn't help anything, end quote. So just because there has been a change of the guards doesn't necessarily mean that this um crackdown is by any means over. Um that's the situation in uh Minneapolis uh and and in Minnesota more broadly. Here in Maine, where I am, um, our Republican senator Susan Collins announced yesterday that immigration and customs enforcement would cease its ramped-up operations uh in the state after uh reports are saying that Collins spoke with DHS Secretary, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Gnome. Um I should note that this comes after more than 200 protesters gathered outside of Collins' office in Portland yesterday. Um, Portland is a small city, so 200 protesters standing outside in uh below freezing temperatures is something to note, um, demanding that Collins vote against continuing to fund the Department of Homeland Security as the U.S. Congress looks to avoid another government shutdown. Um, and I won't get into the sort of fights that are playing out in Congress, um, but that was something that happened yesterday, January 29th. Um, and so even after this announcement was made by Collins, um, the community here is proceeding with caution because it's likely that, you know, ICE operations are going to continue, even if federal presence uh were to decrease. At the beginning of uh its operation in Maine just last week, um, DHS noted that it had 1,400 targets and has since said that it has made 206 arrests. That's as of yesterday. So potentially more since then, um, as these agents continue to be operating here in Maine. So, I mean, there's still very legitimate fear uh about the what what the next stage of immigration enforcement will look like. Um, particularly, and this is something that we've discussed before in in sort of our updates from the ground, but as several individuals who were not violent criminals, um, as the administration is suggesting, um, but instead, you know, individuals that had legal status were swept up uh by this sort of dragnet approach that ICE has taken here in Maine and then in other places as well. Um, just a last update here um relevant to today, uh Friday, January 30th, is that there are more than 300 protests planned as part of a national shutdown demonstration to protest ICE presence in communities across the country. Um, and as part of those protests, which include one here in Portland later this afternoon, um folks are expected to gather and uh cry for ICE to leave communities after staged walkouts of schools and local businesses and places of work. Um, I know there are also some that are coordinating school skip days, um, and many local businesses, again, including here in Portland, um, are closed down today. And this seems to be taking inspiration from the large demonstration that we saw in Minneapolis last week that used similar tactics and drew a lot of media attention.

Jon Bonfiglio: 7:26

Um, I thought it was interesting that today the um another, however many Epstein um files were released. It struck me, not that any of this is funny, of course, but that it would be hugely ironic and telling if actually uh some Epstein files were released in order to distract from the ICE abuses and killings. As though each time you have to release a sort of a higher grade of of material, incriminating material in order to distract from more egregious abuses that have taken place. Um Julia, uh this figure of um that's been in the news this week, Ryan Wedding, had you come across him at all before.

Julia Tilton: 8:06

No, and actually I wanted to ask you about this, John, because as I was going through um headlines this week, I saw one that struck me as a bit unusual. Um, this comes from the Wall Street Journal uh yesterday, January 29th, and it reads A secret FBI bust nabbed an alleged drug lord and rocked ties with Mexico, which was referring to Ryan Wedding, who is a former uh Olympian athlete. Um, but now he's being called a drug kingpin. So I I'm kind of curious what's going on here.

Jon Bonfiglio: 8:40

So this this unusual figure has been, I guess, on my radar for for a while now. Uh a very memorable name, Unusual Ryan Ryan Wedding, as you say, former Olympic uh snowboarder for Canada who competed in the 2002 Winter Games. It's a very easy sort of story to sell in the media. And yeah, he's a I mean, for a while now, it's been allegations of him being a drug kingpin. Um, and there's an important point which we're going to come back to in a minute, Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. And on Monday, so he was picked up over the weekend, and on Monday he pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts for drugs offences, witness tampering, and murder conspiracy in the USA. And I think this is one of those stories that's just worth unpicking a little bit. So just a few things to say. Um, the first is that there are a number of discrepancies in the arrest narrative. Cash Patel, director of the FBI and alleged overuser of federal plane privileges, um, said that he was arrested in Mexico City. The cut uh Ryan Wedding was arrested in Mexico City as part of a massive operation involving the cooperation of the Mexican government, which has generated its own issue because, of course, US authorities have no jurisdiction in Mexico. So that statement caused pretty severe embarrassment for Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum and forced her to rebut the narrative, saying pretty implausibly that Ryan Wedding had turned himself in at the US Embassy. And she used as evidence a photo of Wedding standing alone outside the embassy one night as evidence. Um the only problem is that the photo has since been discredited as having used AI in its uh generation. It's a particular issue for Sheinbaum because it comes on the back of video taken of US military um using the Toluca airport to the west of Mexico City, um, which she said was a sovereign decision, nothing to do with US pressure, and then of Sheinbaum being forced to admit that a cargo of oil headed to Cuba had been cancelled. Again, she said, not on the orders of the US, but again she said a sovereign decision. I suspect is going to be a phrase which comes back to haunt her, added to the deportation of Mexican cartel operatives, which we spoke about last week. Also a inverted commas sovereign decision. Um one of the things that's interesting about her, I think, is that she's looking strained at her morning press conferences now, like I've not seen before. She's definitely not a good liar. Her face does a particular kind of sort of contorted wrinkly thing whenever she's um whenever she's telling her her fib. Uh, on a separate note, just today, actually, Sheinbaum also warned that Donald Trump's move to slap new tariffs on countries which are still sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is, of course, already suffering from extreme fuel shortages and power cuts. But back to the main topic: the arrest of Ryan Wedding. So there's one other thing to say about the this um this arrest, which relates to, like I said, at the top of um just this piece, his links to the Sinaloa cartel. When we spoke about the deportation of cartel operatives last week, we broke down that those were from the Jalisco New Generation cartel. And that was almost certainly an internal agreement, a tax, I think we called it, in which these operatives were sent to the US as a sort of a please don't come a as as a as a as an offering for the US to sort of look elsewhere. Well, Ryan Wedding, although it looks on the face of it as though it's the same, is actually completely different. The Sinaloa cartel are in opposition to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and they're being attacked and fractured, and that's part of the agreement in which the Mexican government gives priority to the Jalisco group in an attempt to bring violence down in the country. And also because fentanyl is not exclusively but primarily managed by the Sinaloa cartel, not the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. So weddings detention is sort of part of this ongoing targeting of that group. Of course, the US doesn't really much care about the differences between these two processes, and I very much doubt whether Cash Cartel uh distinguishes in any way at all. But it is important to note that these processes are really different. One, Ryan Wedding and the Sinaloa Cartel is an attempt to bring down one transnational criminal organization, whereas the other, deportation of Jalisco New Generation Cartel operatives, has at its core an effort to have that group maintain unitary control. I would expect that Ryan Wedding will want to give testimony in the US, wide-ranging testimony, but will be barred from doing so in an expansive way by whoever the US judge is that looks over the case in an attempt to sort of limit potential fallout related to all of the above, much as happened with a El Chapo Guzman and his um uh and his conviction or his judicial proceedings. So there you have it, Julia. Uh um clear as mud, but it is different. The two processes are definitely different. Uh, there's a lot also that's been happening in Venezuela in the last few days as it transitions to being exactly the same Maduro administration, no changes there, only now with the US as a commercial extractivist partner. What's the what's the latest? What's taking place there this week?

Julia Tilton: 13:31

Yeah, so there's two pieces of news this week on that front. Um, the first is that there's an announcement yesterday that commercial flights will resume between the United States and Venezuela. Um, U.S. carrier American Airlines jumped to announce that it will restart nonstop flights between the countries. Um, an American's chief commercial officer released the following statement yesterday saying, quote, we have a more than 30-year history connecting Venezuelanos to the U.S. and we are ready to renew that incredible relationship. End quote. This opening comes after Trump reversed a Department of Transportation ban that he himself had put in place during his first administration back in 2019. Interesting as ever to see how the tides are turning. Um, and then in Venezuela this week, the second piece of news is that we're seeing some other moves that will clear a path for US relations and oil companies. Um, this week, Venezuelan lawmakers passed a pretty sweeping reform to the country's main oil policy. Uh, this happened yesterday, uh, January 29th. And it comes in response to a proposal by interim president Delcy Rodriguez. It includes measures like allowing private producers to operate projects under new oil contracts or just in joint ventures, uh, even if these private producers are the minority stakeholders. The law also will lower taxes and make asset transfers and outsourcing possible for private producers, um, like, for example, US oil companies. Um, this is striking to me because I know in recent weeks we've talked a little bit about how Dulcy Rodriguez at times has been less cooperative uh than the Trump administration would maybe have hoped that she would be post-Maduro. Uh I'm curious whether these two actions this week, whether they prove that she's now sort of squarely positioning herself to oblige Trump and play by his rules.

Jon Bonfiglio: 15:39

Well, I mean, she's playing both games, and that's um she has a domestic audience that she needs to keep on side, at least to some extent, even though everybody knows what's going on, that she has a US uh Trump audience as well, which uh uh two very different discourses, but it's it's um there's no doubt which way it's going, which is obviously that there is no choice, uh fundamentally, and the thing is it is what it is. Uh Julia, as ever, just want to say a big thank you uh for your for your time um and uh look forward to continuing these conversations as news happens, moments develop ongoing.