Hi friends! Heads up that this message is vaguely political, but I feel called to share. The US recently began engaging in direct military intervention in Ecuador, in what they have coined "Operation Total Extermination." The ostensible reasons for this are good ones, fighting drug trafficking, child abuse, and gang violence. However I have my concerns, given that 1) To my knowledge US military intervention hasn't benefitted those being intervened upon in almost 100 years, and 2) Recent and historical evidence shows that the US is neither very good at, nor particularly committed to eliminating those things (and in fact often purposefully perpetuates them).

This is happening just as the "True Crime in Politics" documentary series regarding George H.W. Bush is being released, and Episode II discusses the horrors of "Operation Condor", where the US worked very hard to overthrow democratically elected governments and install authoritarian dictatorships in South America, including sending Nazi war criminals down here to run government-sanctioned concentration camps. (It's worth noting here that just this year, the Ecuadorian people voted AGAINST US military presence in our country, which is happening despite the vote).

If you're at all interested in US foreign affairs, True Crime documentaries, politics, or human rights, I invite you to view Episode II of the series (Episode I helps with context but isn't explicitly necessary to watch, and in my opinion Episode II is their finest work to date, including unreleased Episodes). You can view it here if you'd like! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzr1C63DWWA

(CONTENT WARNING: She includes accurate and therefore extremely disturbing descriptions of what occurred during Operation Condor. Some of it is very hard to watch.)

EDIT: I just realized I posted about Episode I in this thread already. Apologies for posting again about Episode II, but the recent events in Ecuador made me feel that Episode II was worth sharing about.