Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-09-01 Tuesday

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Headlines for September 01, 2026; The Biggest Oil Deal or Theft at Gunpoint? U.S. Claims Majority Control of Venezuela’s Oil Reserves; U.S. Deports Thousands to Countries They Don’t Know Under Secretive “Third Country” Deal; Amid Severe Water Crisis & Drought, Puerto Rico Marks 10 Years of “La Junta” Oversight

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We have a great relationship with Venezuela. It's, you know, it's a team in a sense. And we're taking out millions and millions of barrels of oil, going to Houston, going to Louisiana, going to lots of different places in the United States and all over the world. President Trump announces the U.S. is taking control of Venezuela's oil. reserves nine months after the U.S. military abducted Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro. Then to Puerto Rico's escalating water crisis amidst a historic drought, Puerto Rico's rationing water.

This isn't a question of today or the day before yesterday that you come and help by bringing us a small water tank. This is something that you could have been working on and repaired with anticipation years ago, government after government, you know. And the Trump administration secretly deporting migrants to countries they have no ties to, like the Central African Republic. I was so scared of my hands and with my belly like this. So they handcuffed you and shackled you. Yes. Have you ever heard of Central African Republic before? No.

We'll speak to CNN international correspondent Isabel Young, who interviewed the United States. who interviewed deported migrants in the Central African Republic. Hold that and more coming in. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump's reportedly weighing more strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from rebuilding its capacity to attack ships. This comes, as the United Arab Emirates said,

it intercepted an Iranian drone over its waters Monday after the United States and Iran exchange fire over the weekend for the first time in a month. It comes as newly released emails show U.S. immigration officials worked with Iran to deport more than 100 Iranians on three flights between September 2025 and January 26, despite rising tensions between the countries. Meanwhile, Iranians are facing dire economic conditions with runaway food inflation and collapsing currencies. for example, vegetable oil in Iran last month costs 383% more than a year ago.

The price of eggs rose by almost 300% chicken by 177% red meat by 148%. Speaking to the Guardian, a biomedical engineer said, quote, for part of the population, the issue is no longer buying a house or a car. The issue is cutting out meat, reducing food quality, postponing medical treatment, and scraping by until the end of the month. This is Ali Grube, a local businessman. I'm a businessman myself. Things are difficult under these circumstances. Business has become harder, and it will become even harder if another war breaks out. At the end of the day, it's a battlefield. Excuse me. It's not a friendly gathering or a party. Everyone gets caught up in it, including me as a businessman. The Washington Post is reporting several conservative veterans with big online followings have been given secret.

Pentagon jobs where they promote Defense Secretary Pete Higgs set's agenda and attack the Trump administration critics. Those involved include Rob Manis, a retired Air Force colonel, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel. They both have active official government email addresses and are assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman and Air Force veterans, set on social media, quote, how many more people that are blue check marks on X that are putting out information on behalf of the federal government and Donald Trump and the Republican Party are actually special government employees, unquote?

Daniel Driscoll, the Army's civilian chief, submitted his resignation to President Trump Monday, according to administration officials. He's repeatedly clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth over the removal of seasoned commanders from the Army's seasoned. senior ranks and refusal to promote women and people of color. The Army's also been without a chief of staff since Hegsetth fired General Randy George back in April without explanation. Hegset has also removed at least three senior officers once considered contenders for the job. In Gaza, Israeli attacks killed at least four people, including three children today.

According to Hamas's media office, Israel tried carrying out an operation Gaza city involving more than 10 war planes, which wounded several people. In a separate incident, a girl, Israel-Al-Hisi, was killed along with two other people when Israeli forces attacked Yerobalat in central Gaza. Since last October, so-called ceasefire, more than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. This is UN spokesperson, Stefan Juraj. Turning to the occupied Palestinian territory, we continue to remain very concerned about the impact on civilians because of the continued Israeli airstrikes and other military attacks over the weekend in Gaza. We're particularly concerned about reports that a young boy was among the fatalities and also one of the strikes damaged items at the Alaksa hospital compound in Daryl Bala.

Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, of course, must always be protected. They should not be attacked or used. used for military purposes. Reuters reports experts and officials from Nepal and China met three months before last week's deadly floods to assess the risk of such disasters. The participants in May's meeting reportedly called for joint efforts to strengthen the response to floods and other glacier and weather-related hazards along the border with Tibet, where a massive wall of water, mud, and debris crashed through a Himalayan River Valley killing hundreds, the death toll has now surpassed a thousand as search and rescue teams race to find

thousands of missing people. A school principal in Nauakot helped evacuate 900 students just 13 minutes before the catastrophic flash flood completely washed away the school building. Regendra Dawadi said a staff member burst into the classroom and shouted a fast-approaching flood was headed their way. This is school principal, Duwadi. Other people saying that, other colleagues also saying, sir, the floor is coming up to Vedravati or something. So we immediately saying that they stop the class, ring the bell, and we sent the Dau-keeper whistle there, then go up here. It's an emotional attachment with this school because I learned that same school. I get my own education from the school, and I'm giving the education to the people from the last 23 years.

In Arizona, a second person has been confirmed dead at Gras. Canyon National Park after devastating flash floods swept through the canyon Saturday. Climate experts say record-breaking El Nino conditions in a marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean has led to more moisture in the atmosphere driving heavier rainstorms and fueling the deadly flash flood. To see all our coverage of the climate catastrophe and climate change, go to DemocracyNow.org. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Trump in his construction of a new White House bowlroom. In a five to four ruling, the Supreme Court lifted lower court orders that would have temporarily stopped work on Trump's 90,000 square foot ballroom. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's three liberal justices in dissenting.

The Supreme Court also ruled the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed a lawsuit to block the project and not have grounds to sue. In Texas, the third key eyewitness in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo, Elizzo, the 52-year-old Mexican father, who was killed by an ice agent in Houston, July 7th, has been released from an ICE jail after nearly two months. Victor Salgado, Araujo's younger brother. Victor Salgado's release comes as Harris County District Attorney, Shantir, said he plans to bring the case to a grand jury in the next few weeks. In related news, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was wrongfully deported to Mexico, was granted permission to return to the United States. Brian, Jose Morales-Garcia, was deported in April after a police stop.

The Texas Tribune reports he was born in Colorado but grew up in Mexico was living and working in Texas when ICE apprehended him. He said he repeatedly told federal agents he was a U.S. citizen that he could provide copies of his birth certificate and social security number, but the agents didn't believe him. Garcia arrived back in Texas Sunday following a lawsuit challenging his removal. In more news from Texas of federal judges extended in order that temporarily pause the expansion of the border wall and construction of border enforcement infrastructure in Big Bend National Park. Cruise were filmed bulldozing pristine desert wilderness last month after DHS waive requirements

that federal contractors comply with a broad slate of environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC, found the global tech company Cisco violated the civil rights of Middle Eastern Muslim and other company workers. According to complaints, workers filed in December 2024 an internal Cisco communications platform became a venue for racist and Islamophobic messages in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel. The complaints say the abuse intensified after over 1,700 employees put their names to a public letter questioning the company's relationship with the Israeli government. Post allegedly cheered the deaths of

Palestinian civilians, described Palestinians as animals, and singled out specific Cisco workers who had advocated for Palestinian rights. In Ukraine, at least 12 people have been killed and 21 wounded in a wave of Russian air attacks on Kiev in the surrounding region. This is a mother in Kiev. I'm already thinking maybe we should just take sleeping bags and sleep in the metro at the station near the lyceum. I don't know. Last year, it was difficult at school, and now I honestly don't even know what to do. I just don't know. In Massachusetts, primary elections are being held today. Progressive incumbent Democratic Senator Ed Markey's facing a primary challenge from the more conservative Democratic Congress member, Seth Moulton. And Wendell Berry, the award-winning

poet, novelist activists and farmers, died at the age of 92 at his home in Port Royal Kentucky. In his poem, stories, novels, and essays, he celebrated rural communities in his native Kentucky and warned against the excesses of modern industrialized society. In 2011, he risked arrest by taking part in a four-day sit-in at the office of then Kentucky Governor Steve Bashir to protest mountain top removal strip mining. He spoke to the journalist Jeff Biggers about why he was committing civil disobedience. Over these years, There's been one protest after another, one march on Frankfurt after another, one visit to a legislator after another.

And last year we visited the governor. And all this has been without any perceptible political effect, no acknowledgement even that the problems exist. And so we're doing this simply as the next logical step. We'd exhaust it all other possibilities. And those are some of the headlines. This is DemocracyNow, DemocracyNow.comorg, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now as Juan Gonzalez in Chicago.

Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers. across the country and around the world. Nine months after the U.S. military abducted Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro and the First Lady in a raid on Caracas. President Trump has announced a deal for the U.S. to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's proven oil reserves. In addition, the Pentagon will take partial ownership of a private firm at the center of the

deal, North American Blue Energy Partners. Trump praised the deal Monday. We have a great relationship with Venezuela. It's a team, in a sense. And we're taking out millions and millions of barrels of oil, going to Houston, going to Louisiana, going to lots of different places in the United States, and all over the world.

And we're doing, we're making a fortune, and they're making a fortune. They're starting to make real money. And we have Exxon going in. We have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in, and everybody's bidding. So, you know, we do a lot of things. Here's a deal that nobody's ever heard of a deal like that.

It may be the greatest deal ever made. Who knows? But it's millions and millions. Already we've paid for the war. The cost of the war has been paid for many, many times before. Where have you heard that before? You didn't hear that with Afghanistan. You didn't hear that with Vietnam.

And by people that ran it a lot differently than I run it. On Saturday, Venezuela's interim president, Delci Rodriguez, defended the oil deal, insisting it's beneficial for Venezuela. In return, Venezuela receives production, employment, investment, and infrastructure, higher revenues for the state, and productive linkages for the national industry. The benefits are countless. This by national project signed for 25 years envisions the development of 17 strategic fields with a production, target of more than 1.5 million barrels per day. This is solely under the binational agreement between Venezuela and the United States. Maryland, Senator Chris Van Hollen, criticized the deal, saying, quote, this is proof Trump put our service members at risk

to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies. Putting our soldiers' lives on the line for private profit is a gross dereliction of his constitutional duty, Senator Van Hollen said. The new oil deal comes two months after the New York Times revealed U.S. Secretary of State Marker Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, effectively controlling Venezuela's finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government. The Times likened Rubio's role to that of Paul Bremer, who was installed by George W. Bush to run Iraq after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. We're joined now by Frances Rodriguez, Venezuelan economist, senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research,

professor of public and international affairs at the University of Denver. His recent book is titled The Collapse of Venezuela, Scorched Earth Politics and Economic Decline, 2012 to 2020. He's former head of Venezuela's Congressional Budget Office. Welcome to Democracy Now, Francisco Rodriguez. Can you respond to this deal that President Trump is hailing? Well, good morning. Thank you for having me here. You know, for context, I think perhaps the most important detail announced by the White House yesterday is that these are going to be 100-year concessions. Venezuela never in its history has given 100-year concessions.

The longest-ever previous concessions were given in 1907 by the government of Cypriano Castro, and they lasted 50 years. The Venezuela's democratic movement during the 20th century actually made it a point that country would give no more concessions. So we've really kind of dialed back the clock in history. Venezuela is now promising that 20 or it's committing. And, you know, it's interesting because President Delsi Rodriguez said that it was only 25 years and now the White House comes out and says, no, it's not 25 years. It's 100 years. Venezuela is going to be giving, according to the deal, 20% of the output of this joint venture company, which

is now around 200,000 barrels, but it's supposed to rise to 1.5 million barrels is going to be giving it at cost to the United States. This is a deal that when you look, the more that you look at the details, it's clearly a deal that is unfavorable to Venezuela. It's a deal, you know, it's no surprise that the Venezuelan government has not published the details of this deal. The Venezuelan Constitution says that the National Assembly should approve all national public interest contracts, this hasn't gone before the National Assembly, and apparently the government is going to just ignore that provision, because if there were a public debate about this deal previous to its approval, then there would be many voices against it. But from everything that we learn,

this does not seem like a beneficial deal to Venezuela. The argument in favor of it is that they're saying that $100 billion of investment are going to be put forward. But up until now, we don't have any concrete announcement of major oil companies going in. We just have an announcement that the U.S. is cutting a deal with a Venezuelan businessman who was already in the Venezuelan oil sector and who has actually been severely questioned for his past dealings with the Venezuelan government. And Francisco Rodriguez, you mentioned this. We actually have the details yet. We have Trump's interpretation.

We have Delci Rodriguez's interpretation, but the actual agreement. room for debate on what exactly is in it. And of the National Assembly having, is this agreement legal by the current Venezuelan Constitution? I believe that it's not. I believe that Article 150th of the Venezuelan Constitution is very clear. It says that any national public interest contracts that are signed with foreign states or with foreign entities, must be approved by the National Assembly. And this is, I mean, even Hugo Chavez

took the widely criticized and fairly criticized agreements to provide oil to China. He took them before the National Assembly. They were discussed and they were approved there. The concessions that were done by the government of Rafael Caldera in the late 1990s, which were also very much criticized by Chavez,

went through a debate in the National Assembly. The 1976 National Assembly, nationalization law went through the fade into then-Venezuela and Congress. So this is the first time in nearly a century that Venezuela is giving away these contracts without any public debate. And yesterday, the White House published a fact sheet. That's really what we know of it. But there's still a lot of details that go into these contracts that really make the difference. So if the U.S. promises that it's going to put in $100 billion of investment. And, you know, it's contradictory because the deal is supposed to bring $100,000 investment, but present process that is not going to

pay the penny to taxpayers. I can't interrupt you there for a second. Who are the actual investors? You talk about who in the U.S. is investing? This is the government directly. And also, who is the Venezuelan businessman? Yeah. So there's a Venezuelan firm.

There is a Venezuelan firm called North American Blue Energy Partners. And this is a firm that is owned. by Alejandro Betancourt. Alejandro Betancourt is a Venezuelan businessman who has been severely questioned and there are many reports of this. Washington Post published on it, Wall Street Journal, about investigations

and about how he's been referred to in several indictments for money laundering. This is the former CEO of a company called Derbwick and Associates that was hired for no-bid contracts by the government of Hugo Chavez, to build electricity plants, at least one of them which never got built. And Venezuela is experiencing massive electricity shortages now, partly as a result of the fact that these contracts to build energy plants

were never delivered on, and those plants are now not producing any reasonable levels of energy. So the whole history around this is extremely shady. And again, the U.S. says that it's not going to put in any money, but then where are those $100 billion going to come out of? And what happens if that new investment does not materialize, what will have happened is that Venezuela will have committed to hand over a significant part of its oil production to the United States at no cost. And it's clear that this is not a deal that any Venezuelan government would have entered into unless this country had been subject to an invasion and unless its authorities have been held at gunpoint.

So I think we've replaced gunboat diplomacy now for gunpoint diplomacy. As Trump said, we're going to be taking that oil out. He said we have Exxon going in, Chevron going in, we have our big oil companies going in. And, you know, there were those who say it was the greatest deal ever made. I wanted to quote, former Human Rights Watch executive director, Ken Roth, who said on social media, quote, Trump says he will take control of Venezuela's huge oil reserves. The terms are unclear, but senior Venezuelan officials all fearing of rest are hardly in a position to negotiate vigorously, making the whole thing seem like one big military theft, Ken Roth said. We want to thank you, Francisco Rodriguez, Venezuela, economist, senior research felt, Center for Economic and Policy Research Professor at University of Denver, his recent book, The Collapse of Venezuela.

We will be doing a post-show interview with Francisco Rodriguez in Spanish. You can go to DemocracyNow.org for that coming up. The Trump administration secretly deporting migrants to countries they have no ties to, like the Central African Republic. We'll speak with an international correspondent who just went to the CAR and spoke with those deported migrants. Stay with us. In musician Chaira Arby, performing Nightingale of the North in Democracy Now Studios. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. we turn now to look at how the Trump administration secretly deporting immigrants from around the world to countries they have no ties to. CBS News reports that in the span of 10 days, the Trump administration recently deported more than 100 immigrants from the U.S. to countries across Africa. CNN's international correspondent, Isabel Young, recently traveled to the Central African Republic, C-A-R, to find out what happened to a group of migrants who had been sent there. These were migrants from Afghanistan, from Tajikistan, from Georgia, from Iran. In a moment, Isabel Young will join us, but first here is an excerpt from her CNN report.

Here's what we know about how these migrants wound up here. At 8.58 p.m. on June 11, 18 migrants from all over the world were brought to Alexandria Airport, Louisiana. They say they were handcuffed and shackled. Several claim they were severely beaten. Two of the migrants say they refused to board the ICE deportation flight and were forced into a full-body restraint. Public records show I spent tens of thousands of dollars last year on restraints like the one seen here in a demo video, specifically for use on such flights. Other migrants we spoke to testified to witnessing this. A US official called the allegation a flat-out lie and denied anyone was beaten.

The maker of one such restraint said it's a last resort tool intended to promote safety and prevent escalation. This family member informed me that he was actually removed. And I paused for about 10 to 15 seconds not understanding what is going on because I didn't receive any sort of information. I had no knowledge, no notice. This is the plane that was used.

A return flight likely cost around $1.2 million, according to flight trackers, human rights first, local journalists, and publicly available figures from ICE. The charter company did not reply to us. Nearly 20 hours after takeoff and a refueling stop, it touched down in Bangi, Central African Republic. Since we're unable to enter the building they're being held in, we managed to arrange for them to meet us nearby.

For some, this is the first time they've been outside since their arrival several weeks ago. Maybe I can just start with where are you from originally? I'm from Georgia. You're from Georgia? Yes. Egypt. Egypt.

Afghanistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. Iraq. Jordan. So all different countries. How are you all doing here? Doing here?

Like hell? Yeah. No internet, no electric. Too much of mosquito. Everybody have malaria. Not safety. One time I'm going to trouble. outside and get some shopping.

They're arrested us. We're going to say it's a lot of money. One of the most confounding questions is why migrants were sent here. The U.S. State Department warns people do not travel here for risk of kidnapping and terrorism and advises those who must to leave behind a DNA sample so they can be identified by their family. That was an excerpt of a report. from CNN's Isabel Young. In the report, she also examined the money behind these third country deals.

Most of the migrants we spoke with had won protection orders from U.S. judges. This stops the government from sending them back to their home countries, where they're likely to face persecution, torture, or death. Until recently, it was incredibly rare for someone with protection orders like these to be deported, including to a third country. But that's all changed. Very little is known about what terms the CAR government agreed to with the US. What we do know is that on May 18th, just one month before the first deportation flight,

State Department diplomats traveled here to meet with the president. For the past decade, the US has given just a few million dollars a year to the UN Migration Agency IOM's operations in CAR. But this year, that figure shot up to $85 million. The U.S. committed an additional $50 million to the CAR humanitarian fund. This is at a time when the Trump administration has been slashing billions of dollars in foreign assistance. We asked the IOM about the money they're receiving. They didn't respond to our specific questions, but told us the IOM has a longstanding presence in the CAR,

and they're receiving funding from a range of donors. CNN's international correspondent, Isabel Young, joining us now for, from London, and we're joined by Yael Shacker. She's director for the Americas in Europe at Refugees International and helps run the third country deportation Watch database, joining us from Washington, D.C. Isabel Young, let's begin with you. Really a significant report you did from the Central African Republic. And, you know, this is really interesting. I also went to the Central African Republic, but during the George W. Bush, government when the U.S. deported the Haitian president Jean-Bertrán Aristide and his wife to

C.A.R. They could be sure that in this autocratic regime, he would be held there. And I followed a delegation that went to take him back to the Western Hemisphere. Now it's the Trump administration and talk about what the Trump administration is doing with CAR and who these deportees are. Yeah, I mean, it is remarkable. And as you said, Amy, I mean, it's not a country where a lot of people travel to. In fact, the U.S. State Department themselves warned people not to travel there under any circumstances for any reason, because there is a real legitimate risk of, you know, kidnapping, of terrorism. This is a country that is under an ongoing civil war right now. But, you know, this is one of the countries and the most recent country that the Trump administration has signed these so-called third country. deportation deals with. You know, very little is known about these deals. They are tended to be shrouded in secrecy. Not a lot of it is made public. What we do know is that a significant amount of money, in fact, $85 million, was sent to the IOM, the UN Migration Agency's operations in the Central African Republic this year, on top of an additional $50 million to the CAR's

humanitarian fund. And what we know, I mean, we were looking into this because we saw that there was the very first flight that was sent to the Central African Republic full of 18 migrants back in June. And so we had been following and tracking this flight and we had been in touch with some of the migrants. These migrants are from all over the world. Some of them come from Afghanistan, from Iran, from Iraq, from Jordan. And over the months and weeks, we were speaking to these migrants. And, you know, they are in shock. They are living in a country which they have absolutely no ties to. Many of them have never set foot in Africa before, let alone the Central African Republic.

Many of them did not know where they were going to until they stepped foot on the flight. In fact, one of the migrants told me that she was looking on the screen in front of her on the seat, and she saw the words Bangi, Central African Republic and was desperately trying to figure out where that was and where it was that she was going to.

And so now that they are there, many of them are living in fear. Many of them are stuck inside these apartment buildings, unable to go out. They are living in limbo because the Central African Republic has given them three-month visas in which they can say, so very temporary. So they don't know what their situation is. And many of these migrants, in fact, the majority of them that we spoke to, have been given these court protection orders by US judges, which means that they cannot be deported back to their home countries. So for example, I spoke to a young Iranian pro-democracy activist

who was very active in Iran several years ago. She said that she was threatened by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and fled to the US. And after months and months of traveling and trekking through the Darien Gap and a lot of hardship, she arrived in the US at the end of 2024. It was granted this withdrawal of removal, which means that she could not be sent back to Iran

for fear of persecution. But obviously, the Trump administration has found a loophole around that and has instead sent her to, the Central African Republic, where she's living an extremely uncertain life right now. And Isabel, you mentioned that they have basically a three-month visa to be in the Central African Republic. Where are they expected to go after that? And did you have any communications with the U.S. Embassy in that country about their situation? Well, it's a good question. I mean, I don't think

anyone knows where they're supposed to go after that. We did not really get much of a response. from the Central African Republic government. We don't know if they were aware that they would have to, beyond just accepting these migrants for a temporary stay, whether they would actually have to try and come up with some form of solution. It seems that the IOM hasn't really been able to provide a solution for these migrants. It seems that the UNHCR hasn't really been able to provide a solution for them. As I said, many of them have won court protection orders,

so they're absolutely terrified to go back to their home countries because they could face persecution, torture or death. and there is a legitimate reason for many of them to fear exactly that. You know, when we reached out to the, for first, we went to the US Embassy whilst we're in the country, they were not very forthcoming with us and they told us to, they gave us a bit of a run around. We did eventually hear back from the US State Department, who, you know, said that all these people had gone through due process and had been deported under legitimate grounds.

And that, you know, they do make deals with, countries who are willing to help the U.S. with their immigration priorities. And in fact, they do even use foreign assistance where necessary to establish these deals, which we took as a sort of tacit admission that, you know, this money, this $85 million and the $50 million that I mentioned could be tied to these deportations. Briefly, do you think that this effort by the Trump administration is meant to signal to other immigrants or migrants in the U.S. that they better head back to their own countries, or this will happen to them as well?

Well, yeah, I mean, it doesn't seem like the Trump administration is slowing down with their deportation efforts. And in fact, even just this weekend, there was another flight that was sent to the Central African Republic with what we understand to be over 40 migrants on board, many of them from Iran, some of them from Afghanistan. In fact, one of them, their family members had fought with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. And so it does seem like, you know, perhaps this is a warning, but perhaps, you know, this is also the Trump administration willing to do whatever it takes to try and meet their deportation goals. And the woman you spoke to from Iran, particularly interesting, given the latest breaking news, Isabel, newly released emails show U.S. immigration officials worked with Tehran to deport more than 100 Iranians on three flights between September 21st.

2025 and January 2026. Now, she was deported later, the woman you have done pieces on, and her fear that if after three months she has to leave and if she's sent to Iran, she could be killed. Yeah, I mean, you've got to remember it wasn't so long ago. In fact, earlier this year that, you know, Trump himself was encouraging protesters in Iran to go out on protest and to keep fighting and that the help was on the way. You know, this particular individual that we spoke to in the Central African Republic, you know, she's in her early 30s. She told us that she was thrilled when the US and Israel went to war with Iran and that she celebrated the death of the Ayatollah and hoped that she could return to Iran safely. But that obviously hasn't been the case. And, you know, now she is stuck in a situation.

She is absolutely terrified that she could be repatriated or even refouled back to Iran. She said she fears execution. We spoke to her uncle and her family members who said that, you know, she could be killed. And it's a very legitimate fear if she was to return to Iran. So she's really stuck in this very difficult situation. I mean, obviously holding an Iranian passport doesn't really buy you a free pass to many countries right now. And she's also scared that the circumstances could change. I mean, she says that she's living in fear. She's not really able to leave her apartment without, you know, help or without someone there with her. She says that the local police have been extorting her, extorting for people, including her, for cash every time she goes to the shops. This is something that the local authorities deny. And that she doesn't feel safe there as a woman, as an Iranian, but she really does not know where she can go or what her options are right now. I want to bring Yael Shacker into the conversation director, one of the directors at Refugees International and Third Country Deportation Watch. co-lead. If you can talk about this database and what these bilateral agreements are, secret deals the U.S. has with other countries across Africa beyond the Central African Republic.

Yeah, thanks for having me. The U.S. has signed over 30 of these bilateral agreements, not made many of the terms transparent at all, used all the sort of carrots and sticks in the diplomatic toolbox to, you know, from tariffs to visa bans, to economic investment, to security and military aid, to humanitarian aid, to kind of get countries to agree to take third country nationals. And by the terms of the agreement, which are really boilerplate, you know, these countries say they'll accept these third country nationals. Usually, as as well as saying, they think that they're taking them temporarily. They agree there's some boilerplate language in these agreements, that everybody will abide by their international obligations,

not to send people back to harm, to abide by the UN Refugee Convention, to abide by the Convention Against Torture. But what we've seen is that the Trump administration, as Isabel was mentioning, is targeting for removal to these third countries. People who have been found to be refugees in the United States and gotten these withholding of removal grants saying that they would likely be persecuted or tortured if returned to their home countries. So the Trump administration is targeting them and people seeking asylum in the United States to send to these third countries who then think that they are only responsible for holding them for a little while and can repatriate them. So what you're seeing with these deals is the Trump administration really targeting these very

vulnerable populations for removal to countries that think that they can repatriate them. And by doing this is really attacking and undermined. the entire architecture of refugee protection, the international architecture set up with these treaties, the Convention Against Torture, for example. Some agreements are with countries who are detaining people indefinitely, like in Eswatini, and Ecuadorial. Some of the agreements are with corrupt, extremely corrupt leaders. Equatorial Guinea, one of the most corrupt governments in Africa, direct money being given by the Trump administration to basically hold these third country nationals. And again, many of them are being repatriated to the countries that they fled.

And so what we're seeing is, for me, I really think this should be seen. And our website really shows this, that these agreements are sort of trying to institutionalize this attack on refugee protection, not only in the United States by depriving people of their day and court, of the right to seek asylum, of staying in the United States after they've been granted refugee protection, coercing them, as was mentioned, into sort of leaving on their own because of the threat of being sent to these third countries, but also actually undermining international protection globally because many of these countries who have also signed on to these treaties are just violating them to, keeping people arbitrarily detained and then repatriating to the very

countries, to persecution in the very countries which they fled. We have 20 seconds. Can you talk about how many countries have these agreements, with the United States in Africa, in Latin America, and how many tens of thousands of immigrants have been sent to countries that are not their own? So we know of 35 agreements. There may be more we don't know of yet. And over 22,000 people have been sent. And a lot of people have already had their cases canceled and have the threat hanging over them of being sent to these third countries. Yael Shacher, I want to thank you for being with us, Director for the Americas in Europe

at Refugees International co-lead of the third country deportation watch database. We'll link to it all. And thank you so much in London to Isabel Young, CNN International correspondent. We'll link to your report how Trump is secretly deporting migrants to Africa. Coming up, we look at Puerto Rico's escalating water crisis. Amidst a historic drought, Puerto Rico is rationing water. Back in 20 seconds. Contraulte

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of voice silenciada I'm Contra Toto Against Against everything by the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Ilae performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman with Wang Gonzalez. In Puerto Rico, the month of July, was the driest on record in more than 120 years, accompanied by record-breaking heat. Reservoirs are so low, the governors declared a state of emergency for more than two dozen cities in towns. Agricultural areas, as well as cities are impacted. The aqueduct and sewer authority implemented a water rationing schedule. in early August where 180,000 households and businesses in San Juan and surrounding areas receive public water only every other 48 hours, complicating daily life from more than a half a million Puerto Ricans who are U.S. citizens. But the current water crisis in Puerto Rico's not isolated event when Carlos Davila filed this

report from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico's water crisis is worsening, and this summer's record drought isn't the only reason why. In early August, the water and sewage authority began rationing water services for residents of San Juan and surrounding areas due to the drought. But even before the drought was declared in July, communities in Loisa and San Juan were having water problems, and people depend on water trucks to meet their needs. This is Melody Aravalo, who runs a local restaurant in Loisa. Well, the problems began three months ago.

A day like today has been difficult because we had water needs since yesterday. And because of the chaos that's been happening around the country, our cistern was not filled yesterday. Today we had very little water and we had to dispatch the clients we already had here. In some places like Residencial Luis Joreen Torres, were trying to. Rico's largest public housing project. The government has installed water cisterns to mitigate the crisis. This is Antonio Puruco Latimer, community leader, and former Puerto Rican basketball player. Our country should not be living this way. Public housing projects should not be having these types

of cisterns in different areas to solve a situation. Because supposedly we live in a country, we shouldn't have to be dealing with these kinds of water problems that have been created over time. Not even a drop. Every time I open it, I grab it and say, oh my goodness, not even a little sound comes through. Ada Luzpeña lives in a third-floor apartment at Joreen Torres, but the water rarely reaches her on the third floor floor. And she needs to buy water bottles so she can cook, which strains her limited budget. They've left us without water, yet we still get the bill, charge us for what we actually use when the water is on. Many Puerto Ricans understand that the ongoing water shortages and water rationing could have been prevented. According to estimates of Puerto Rico's water and sewage authority,

about 60% of water gets lost through pipes and other broken infrastructure. Hydrologist Amira O'Day says the water rationing could have been prevented. The amount of water that we lose through all broken pipes equals to three lakes. So while people are suffering scarcity, the government is talking about just mitigating the crisis right now. But they are still not talking about solving the crisis from the root, fixing the broken infrastructure. We also spoke to community leader, Erwin Gonzalez, in San Juan. This isn't a question of today or the day before yesterday that you come and help. by bringing us a small water tank.

This is something that you could have been working on and repaired with anticipation years ago, government after government, you know. It has been 12 years of the same administration, and we haven't seen anything, anything, absolutely anything, where Puerto Rico is progressing. Sometimes they create the problem and the chaos so they can bring a solution.

All these people from chaos, they make money. Water in Puerto Rico, so chaos, who's making money? The people with the trucks, who got a transport water, the people who are sitting the blue big cistern. Supermarkets, they got to sell water. So they make money. So from chaos, a lot of people make money, but the ones who suffer the poor people. Hydrologist Amira Odeh says the government of Puerto Rico has to come up with a robust plan

to address future droughts, a reality that is expected to only get worse. with climate change. Our government has ignored climate and environmental experts for decades. And this is just the result of what is happening. This drought and this rationing is not a surprise. The Caribbean is expected to have worse droughts. So we're going to have more extreme temperatures. More heat means more evaporation of the water that we have in our lives.

Also, these droughts could last longer, bring even less rain. So we need to fix the infrastructure problem now to prepare for future crisis and literally help save lives. It seems calm here in Lake La Plata, a reservoir that supplies rural towns and other cities around the metropolitan area with water. But Domingo Nevares, who features at this, This lake says the water levels are dropping noticeably every day. As you can see, the reservoir levels have dropped dramatically. Where those trees are and the white border, where the cabins are, the water used to reach all the way there, and I've seen it steadily decreasing.

Now I've noticed it dropping again in recent days because this area is damp, very damp. If water levels in reservoirs like La Plata continue to drop, Puerto Rico's water crisis could get far worse, engulfing even more of the island. Thanks so much to Juan Carlos Davila, with help from Camilla Rodriguez and Regalio Mazzan for that report. We are joined now from Puerto Rico by Juan Carlos Davila, filmmaker, journalist, finalist for the eighth annual library of Congress Levine Ken Burns Prize for film. Congratulations for that one, Carlos. Before we move on to the 10th anniversary, are you concerned that the problems and the water shortage will be used as an argument for privatization?

Yeah. Thanks. Amy, yeah, definitely. I think that it has been a strategy that has been put forth before by the Puerto Rican government and those in the Puerto Rican government that respond to. to private interests and to corporations, that they use the crisis in a form to justify privatization. They use climate change, and they use a very intentional form of not maintaining

the infrastructure of the country in order for it to fail and, again, justify the privatization. We have seen this with the privatization of the electrical or, system where the government alongside the local corporate media started putting out a narrative that the system the electrical system was not working properly because

the government basically could not handle it and what they did is that they started to put forward that the solution was their privatization and Luma started administrating the electrical power authority of Puerto Rico since 2021, and nothing has improved. We continue having a constant blackouts. We continue having power interruptions. So a privatization of the water system is not going to solve a problem either if we look at the presidents. Also on Monday, Puerto Ricans mark 10 years since President Obama pointed the first members of the Fiscal Oversight Management Board to oversee the restructuring of debt

of the island's finances. The Board of Overseers was created by the 2016 Promesa law passed by the U.S. Congress. For many Puerto Ricans, the anti-democratic structure of the board imposed by the U.S. president in Congress highlights the quasi-colonial status of Puerto Rico, a territory where residents have no voting representation in Congress and can't vote for president. Puerto Ricans protested the continued existence of the board in San Juan Monday. From the beginning, we told the people this law wouldn't bring anything good or positive, exactly the opposite, that they would charge an illegal debt at the cost of our suffering, that they would abandon the people to pay the debt. Sadly, 10 years later, here we are,

the essential services, water, power, education, public health, safety, every day they are worse. For more on what 10 years of the fiscal control board is meant for Puerto Rico, we're joined by Luis Valentin, an investigative reporter with the award-winning center for investigative journalism in Puerto Rico, joining us also from San Juan. Louise, talk about the significance of this decade anniversary and what's happened. I would say that it's been 10 years ever since the passage of Promesa, and even if La Junta, as we call it, has restructured some of the Puerto Rico's debt and has implemented a fiscal discipline,

the reality is that we still have no fully balanced budgets, and Puerto Rico has not regained access to credit markets as Promesa states. So what has happened is that when it was supposed to be temporary, La Junta was supposed to be a temporary entity in Puerto Rico, it has become deeply embedded in the government and in the day-to-day operations of the government. At Center of Periliso Investigative, we released a report last year that found that La Junta has identified at least 50 different actions that the government must undertake before they leave the island or they cease to exist. And this is a very expensive interpretation of what Promesa says. States. It calls for four consecutive balance budgets under modified accrual and the return to credit markets at affordable rates. But the board has decided to interpret this into a long list of actions, some of which could take a long time. So in the end, what we found is that

even if La Junta says that they are trying to finish their mandate here in Puerto Rico and leave, their actions speak otherwise. And, Luis, I wanted to ask you, we were talking with Juan Carlos Davila earlier about the water situation. Could you talk about what the oversight board has been doing in terms of the Puerto Rico aqueduct and sewer authority? Because most people don't realize that Praza, which is what it's known as, was actually privatized years ago in the 90s.

And that was such a failure by the French water. company that took it over, that it was then brought back on the government control and that it went bankrupt with all the other agencies of the government in the debt crisis. What is the position of Promesa board right now in terms of the water authority? So, yes, the water crisis predates promises, right? Like, it's been years in the making of underinvestment by the Puerto Rico government in terms of infrastructure and maintenance. But the reality is that Praza is under the board's oversight. They require them to submit budgets, a fiscal plan that they can require implementation plans on the infrastructure work being conducted by Praza. So in the end, this water

crisis taking place right now in Puerto Rico. Also, La Junta bears some responsibility on it. It has restructured part of the Praza's debt, but it was not done so in a full restructuring mode. It did not reduce the debt. And that pretty much crowds out resources that could be used for infrastructure work. On the question on the privatization side of it, we have to remember what La Junta did with Prepa, the island's power utility. They move for a full privatization. With respect to Praza, they have not done so yet. But you could argue that within the fiscal plan, they have introduced suggestions of privatization of services within Praza. We're going to have to leave it there, but we're going to do part two of our discussion,

also in Spanish and posted at DemocracyNow.org. Louise Valentin, investigative reporter at the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. This is Democracy Now. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.