Opinion: President Trump and his deportation crusade. Nicolas Maduro and his disastrous dictatorship. Haiti’s gang confederation and its evil violence. As another year of migrant crisis in the Americas draws to a close – who was the cruelest leader of all? On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett t looks at the leaders most responsible for migrant misery and refugee wretchedness in the New World in 2025. Inspired by the monstrous Biblical figure King Herod, it’s time for his second annual Herod of the Hemisphere awards. You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: President Trump's pardon of former Honduran president and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández follows a time-honored exile doctrine: that Latin American conservatives are never guilty. On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett says Hernández is the mirror image of reviled Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro – but the key difference is: Maduro is left-wing, a socialist. As his pardon of 1,500 MAGA Jan. 6 rioters proved, Trump believes that conservatives’ felonies can and should be erased. So, corrupt and authoritarian right-wing leaders get a pass. You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: Haiti's remarkable qualification for the 2026 soccer World Cup won't rescue it from the country's gangs — but it reminds us that Haiti undoubtedly is worth saving from that monstrous evil.Qualifying for next summer’s World Cup – it’s first in over half a century – won’t rescue Haiti from the clutches of the gangs ruling and terrorizing a growing portion of the county.But on the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett says that, as the U.S. and the U.N. press onward with a new solution to gang governance, it ought to remind the international community that it needs to get serious about sending police or even military backup into Haiti.You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister should be applauded for steering away from Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro — but questioned for steering into President Donald Trump's potential legal whirlpool.On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett says PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar appears to have made the right choice in turning her back on Maduro and letting U.S. warships dock in Trinidad as they target alleged narco-boats from Venezuela.But will she end up sucked into the serious legal issues that Trump — and she, if only by association — may face for subjecting alleged civilian criminals to military execution?You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: María Corina Machado deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for leading Venezuela’s nonviolent democracy movement — but what does it mean if that effort’s success relies on a U.S. military incursion?Machado’s win took place hours after President Donald Trump announced his Gaza peace deal – a combination that shows the power of the peaceful path. On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett says there is a “dissonance between the concord we hope is emerging in the rubble of Gaza and the conflict we know is brewing in the waters off Venezuela.”He argues that any military incursion into Venezuela could send the region the message that, in the end, nonviolent democracy efforts matter less than the promise of yanqui military salvation.You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: The hysteria over Bad Bunny's Super Bowl gig that we’re hearing from English-only militants shows a disregard for America's historical reality — but so does a Spanish-only mindset that many immigrants here still embrace.On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett argues that that the controversy over giving the coveted half-time show to an artist who sings only in Spanish is not because America Firsters think not enough Americans speak Spanish — it’s because they are terrified that more than enough do.But he says he is just as tired of watching Spanish-only immigrants act like there’s nothing wrong with not speaking a word of English in the U.S.You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: If President Trump can use his questionable new war doctrine to blow alleged Venezuelan narco-boats out of international waters, then Caribbean and Latin American nations could also put their military firepower to work. So, American gun traffickers and drug consumers, beware – you’re now missile targets, too.On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett argues that Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean nations could now label U.S. traffickers – who bring weapons that help drive crime in their territories – as enemy combatants engaged in warfare.And what if Colombia decided U.S. drug users are fair game for summary execution – since the rising demand for cocaine from their “incorrigible snorting” helps drive Colombia’s brutal cartel violence?

Opinion: The U.S. military strike on a suspected Venezuelan narco-boat raises a troubling question: is Trump looking to use drugs as his version of weapons of mass destruction?On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett worries that small victories like the recent military strike on an alleged Venezuelan boat could create bigger, Iraq-style temptations for Trump – with drugs as the reason he eventually seizes on to take an ill-fated regime-change leap.“I’m talking about the outright U.S. invasion of Venezuela that so many Venezuelan exiles in Florida dream Trump will order to topple the country’s brutal dictatorship. Let’s call it the Venvasion,” he said, explaining why, unlike the 1989 invasion to topple Manuel Noriega in Panama, here it would likely take us into a “dystopian tar pit.”You can watch the full video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

Opinion: President Donald Trump is threatening to unleash the U.S. military on drug cartels in Mexico and Venezuela — but sending troops to take down traffickers usually ends badly.On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, Tim Padgett looks at the longstanding U.S. urge to have the military fight Latin America’s drug cartels - and how Trump’s similar ‘shock and awe’ approach to D.C. is also misguided. Failed exploits by the Mexican military have only worsened the problems there and abroad, while any militarized U.S. counternarcotics operation in Venezuela could lead to war — since the military itself is its leading drug cartel.You can watch the full video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.

OPINION: Donald Trump admires Argentine President Javier Milei — so why is Trump pushing tariffs and economic policies so divorced from the ‘Milei Miracle’? WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett continues to grimace at Milei’s vulgar and reactionary demagoguery, but admits that “his economic orthodoxy crusade has brought welcome order to Argentina’s fiscal chaos” and shows Trump that populist bullies can triumph without tariffs. On the latest episode of Americas Decoded, his online commentary series, Padgett asks, “Why is our president pursuing an economic strategy so divorced from what’s made his Argentine amigo so successful?”