There's too much going on to focus on any one thing, so I'm just going to have to dump it all into one essay.

Today is election day in Colombia, and for the first time in that nation's 200 year history there is a real chance to have a leftist president.

Colombians head to the polls today in a presidential election that may give the conservative South American country its first ever leftwing leader and first black vice-president.

Frontrunner Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla fighter and senator, faces several rivals, but his main challenger is Federico Gutiérrez, the former mayor of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – who leads a rightwing coalition with close ties to the incumbent government of President Iván Duque.
Gustavo Petro during a presidential debate in Bogotá.
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Petro’s campaign has been boosted by support from a generation of young voters politicised during an unprecedented wave of protest last year.

“In Colombia we’re tired of the same thing,” said Rosa Botero, a student, at Petro’s final campaign rally in the city’s historic Plaza Bolívar last week. “Petro could change Colombia.”

There is a near certainty that this will go to a second-round.

Later this year will be Brazil's election, and Lula has maintained an overwhelming lead.

Meanwhile, next door in Venezuela the U.S. promised loosening of sanctions is being slow-walked.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday renewed a license to oil producer Chevron Corp (CVX.N) to operate in U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela through the end of November under the same restricted terms granted to the company since 2020.

Chevron this yearhas doubled down on efforts to negotiate expanded privileges in its license, mainly to receive billions of dollars of pending debt by trading cargoes of Venezuelan oil. It also has sought unsuccessfully to gain some control of its joint ventures with Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA.

The possibility of Venezuelan crude returning to the United States, once its largest single market, also had been discussed by U.S. officials at a high-level meeting in Caracas in March.

However, obstacles to resuming political talks between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized by Washington as Venezuela's rightful leader, ultimately limited expectations over the Chevron license reach this time.

It looks like the U.S. is the very last nation that still pretends Guaido is a "rightful leader".
Interestingly, this "socialist" Venezuela is introducing neoliberalism, with predictable results.

A new neoliberal reality has emerged in the Chavist nation through the use of the US dollar, state controls being lifted and a new relationship with Washington
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A recent study by consultant Think Anova has looked at the distribution of income in this new Venezuela bubble. “The income of 30% of the poorest section of the population fell or stagnated between 2020 and 2021, despite the fact that average income increased by 65% over the same period. In relative terms, only the richest 10% of the population improved their position in distribution. This ratifies that the results obtained unequivocally worsen income distribution in Venezuela.”

In between the two extremes, the middle class has tightened its belt, sometimes to the point of disappearing or being reduced to poverty. Ida Febres is a 31-year-old social communicator who says she is better off today than she was a few years ago because she no longer wonders where the next meal is coming from, but what she earns leaves noting for savings. “I earn more now because I work too much,” she says.

Let's not overlook the Summit of the Americas, which will exclude nearly half of the Americas.
Venezuela is getting some minor help from an unlikely source - Iran.

Speaking of Iran, the U.S. created a huge new problem.
You see the boycotting of both Russian and Venezuelan oil has pushed up the price of Iranian oil so much that their revenue has gone up 60%.
So what does the U.S. do? We have Greece illegally seize their oil.

The crude oil cargo of an Iranian-flagged tanker that was stopped in Greek waters last month has been seized and is being transferred to another vessel following a request from the U.S., a Greek official said Thursday.

The official said following a “judicial intervention by U.S. authorities concerning the ship’s cargo” the process is currently underway, at U.S. government expense, for the oil “to be handed over” off the port of Karystos on the Aegean Sea island of Evia.
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The vessel had been temporarily seized by Greek authorities on April 15 when it anchored off Karystos. At the time, it was flying a Russian flag, had recently changed its name from Pegas to Lana and was carrying a crew of 19 Russians. Greece’s coast guard said it was seized due to suspicions it had breached EU sanctions imposed against Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

With a Russian crew no less.
So what does Iran do? It seizes two Greek tankers.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers Friday in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf, officials said. The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens’ assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker this week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington’s crushing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
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The Guard issued a statement announcing the seizures, accusing the tankers of unspecified violations. Nour News, a website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned a short time earlier that Tehran planned to take “punitive action” over Greece assisting the U.S. in seizing oil days earlier from the Iranian-flagged tanker Lana.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry said it made a strong demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Athens over the “violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” in the Persian Gulf. “These acts effectively amount to acts of piracy,” a ministry statement said.

Meanwhile, Israel has decided that bombing Iranian forces in Syria wasn't enough. Now they are assassinating Iranian officers in Iran.

However, the biggest story of them all is the global food crisis.

“It is important to note that the lowest grain inventory levels the world has ever seen are now occurring while access to fertilizers is highly constrained, and drought in wheat growing regions around the world is the most extreme it’s been in over 20 years,” Menker said. “Similar inventory concerns also apply to corn and other grains. Government estimates are not adding up.”

Nations like India are beginning to ban food exports.

The last time food prices were even close to this level we had the Arab Spring.

One last note, this food crisis didn't start with Russia.

Today, a new generation is facing mounting food insecurity sparked by the third food price crisis in 15 years. But this crisis has not to this point been caused by a lack of food. The issue is getting it to the people who need it, at a price that’s affordable.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, world food prices have hit all-time highs—and they were already mounting before the first tank rolled across the border, buoyed by rising oil prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic. Over 800 million people already faced chronic undernourishment in 2020. FAO modeling suggests that the war will increase the number of undernourished people by a further 13 million.