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This editorial by Pedro Mellado Rodríguez originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo. The views expressed in this article are the authors’* own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project.*

A sophism, explains the Royal Spanish Academy, is a false reason or argument that appears to be true, such as the one used by those who warn, from the media and the opposition, that the electoral reform promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo—to reduce the number of proportional representation seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as to reduce subsidies to political parties and lower the cost of the country’s electoral apparatus—could lead us to live in a one-party regime like the one the PRI imposed on Mexicans for seven decades. They warn that Morena has become an authoritarian party that intends to perpetuate itself in power.

However, there are substantial differences between the authoritarian, deceitful, corrupt, and thieving regime of the PRI, in alliance with the PAN, which stole elections and trampled on the popular will, and the regime of the Fourth Transformation, which came to power with the real, clear, concrete, and overwhelming support of the majority of voters. The problem for the opposition, the recalcitrant right wing, and the mainstream media—resentful, manipulative, and mendacious—is that the opposition has collapsed to such an extent that even if the PAN, PRI, and Movimiento Ciudadano combined all their forces, they could not defeat Morena.

And the only reason is because the majority of Mexicans reject those hypocritical parties, who tear their clothes judging the Fourth Transformation as a government that will turn Mexico into a dictatorship, when finally, after more than 70 years of PRI trickery and after two failed PAN six-year terms, they ended up playing political games under the same banner and defending the same abject causes.

And the numbers don’t lie. With or without proportional representation seats, the opposition in Mexico is floundering, and the overrepresentation they accuse Morena of is what has allowed them to survive, at least until now.

PRI President Luis Echeverría Álvarez adopted the posture of a left winger and supporter of Third World liberation, but was using it as a strategy to diffuse criticism from Mexico’s left, while he was subjugating Mexico’s interests to those of the United States of America, as an operative with the CIA.

Crushing The Lie

In the 1970s, the PRI was the sole party, an appendage of the government for more than 70 years, while the electoral bodies were administered by the Ministry of the Interior through the Federal Electoral Commission, and the manipulation of the vote at the whim of the president in office was perversely natural, which allowed the Institutional Revolutionary Party to win presidential elections with excessive percentages, such as the 89.81 percent that brought Adolfo López Mateos to power in 1958; the 87.69 percent that gave Gustavo Díaz Ordaz the victory in 1964; the 88.81 percent with which Luis Echeverría Álvarez came to power in 1970 and the 91.90 percent that José López Portillo y Pacheco boasted in his victory in 1976.

The PRI’s electoral decline began to be reflected in the 1982 presidential elections when the lackluster technocrat Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado barely reached 68.43 percent of the votes, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari struggled to prevail, through a fraudulent result in 1988, against the candidate of the National Democratic Front, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, with 50.56 percent of the votes.

The decline of the PRI and its ally and accomplice party, the PAN, was reflected in a significant drop in their voting percentages: in 1994 the obscure technocrat Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León garnered 48.69 percent of the votes to reach the Presidency; in 2000 the PAN member Vicente Fox Quesada, as the alleged beneficiary of a questionable negotiation with the United States government, barely had 42.52 percent of the votes; in 2006 the PAN member Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, considered a spurious President by a large segment of the population, barely had 35.89 percent of the votes, in elections that are presumed to have been stolen from the PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In 2012, the PRI based its presidential campaign on the excessive use of illicit resources, vote buying, and unequal media support in favor of Enrique Peña Nieto, who garnered 38.21 percent of the votes.

The key fact is that in 2018, despite all the odds being stacked against him, the Morena candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won the presidency with 53.19 percent of the vote, a percentage no presidential candidate had achieved in the previous thirty years. This demonstrated overwhelming popular support, effectively thwarting any attempt at manipulation or fraud by the electoral authorities. In the 2024 elections, the Morena candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, won with 59.75 percent of the vote.

The difference is very simple: both Claudia and Andrés Manuel came to power with a very broad, real, genuine popular support, far removed from the manipulated and inflated numbers of the PRI and the elections resulting from the backroom deals and trickery of the PAN candidates.

1988 President candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, who had his victory stolen in a blatant fraud.

The Journey

It should be recalled that on July 8, 2017, in statements published by the newspaper Reforma, Manuel Bartlett Díaz, who in 1988 was Secretary of the Interior and simultaneously president of the Federal Electoral Commission, asserted that Carlos Salinas de Gortari did not win that year’s presidential election against the candidate of the National Democratic Front, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano. Bartlett Díaz specified that it was not through cyber fraud, but rather through the manipulation of figures and, subsequently, the destruction of ballots following an agreement with the National Action Party (PAN). He maintained that the best proof that Salinas de Gortari did not win is the desperate manner in which he surrendered to the PAN, so that the Chamber of Deputies, acting as the Electoral College, would recognize him as President-elect, and then, months later, the ballots—which were proof of the fraud—were burned.

In her morning press conference on January 24, 2025, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated that the victory of the PAN member Vicente Fox Quesada in 2000, when José Woldenberg was president of the Federal Electoral Institute, was the result of an agreement between the United States government and the PRI President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León.

President Sheinbaum Pardo stated that when the United States government granted Mexico a $40 billion loan to address the crisis triggered by the December crisis (the 1994 economic crisis), a negotiation personally handled by President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, the Mexican President was required to commit to facilitating a democratic transition. This required the PRI to relinquish power and hand over the presidency to the opposition in 2000. The losing candidate, this time from the PRD, was once again Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano.

In the 2006 election fraud, the president of the Federal Electoral Institute was Luis Carlos Ugalde, who attained that position with the backing of Elba Esther Gordillo, leader of the National Union of Education Workers. Gordillo supported the victory of Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, the PAN candidate, and later played a significant role as an ally of his administration. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the PRD candidate, lost the election.

Leonardo Valdés Zurita was president of the Federal Electoral Institute during the 2012 elections that gave PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto a controversial victory over López Obrador. In 2018, López Obrador won the presidency in an election where his margin of victory was so overwhelming that it made any maneuver by the president of what is now called the National Electoral Institute, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, impossible.

The evident bias of Valdés Zurita and Córdova Vianello has been demonstrated in their unconditional support for the promotion of a new political party called Somos México, driven by the “Pink Tide” headed by businessman Claudio X. González, which also includes the remnants of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, allied in the 2024 elections with the PRI and the PAN.

The Hardline Vote

Clear evidence of Morena’s electoral strength and the real, majority popular vote that supports it is that between 2018 and 2023 it won the Mexico City mayoral race and 21 governorships: Morelos, Veracruz, Puebla, Chiapas, Tabasco, Zacatecas, Tlaxcala, Nayarit, Campeche, Baja California Sur, Colima, Michoacán, Baja California, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, and the State of Mexico. All of this despite the evident hostility of the national president of the National Electoral Institute, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, and his loyal Executive Secretary, Edmundo Jacobo Molina.

In the 2018 presidential elections, Morena’s candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, only lost in one of the country’s 32 states: Guanajuato. And in the 2024 elections, Morena’s presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, was only defeated in one of the country’s 32 states: Aguascalientes.

In the race for federal congressional seats by relative majority on Sunday, June 2, 2024, Morena and its allies secured 256 victories, representing 85.33 percent of the vote, while the PRI, PAN, and PRD together garnered 42 victories, or 14 percent. The “Let’s Continue Making History” coalition won 60 of the 64 Senate seats by relative majority, two per state, across 30 states, achieving a 93.75 percent success rate.

Of course, the claim that Morena is the PRI of the 1970s is baseless, since the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine majority popular support; they are real, as is the profound collapse of the opposition. In democracies, the majority rules. The electoral reform that President Sheinbaum Pardo is proposing is entirely legitimate, as it has the support of the majority of Mexicans who back her government in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Pedro Mellado Rodríguez is a journalist who, for five decades, has been a keen and critical observer of public life in Mexico.

• 

  Analysis

  Communism Without Rifles

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The Communist Party of Mexico’s mere existence helps prevent the political landscape from being reduced to a false dilemma between a managed progressivism & an increasingly aggressive right wing.

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  Analysis

  Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The opposition’s claim that Morena is the PRI of the 70s lacks foundation; the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine popular support.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico SA

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Canada has begun to make moves (such as rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China), but Mexico is clinging to the USMCA: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

The post Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

By John Perry and Roger D. Harris  –  Jan 21, 2026

Since the US invasion of Venezuela on January 3rd and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaragua’s opposition figures – who enthusiastically identified with their confederates in Venezuela – have hoped that regime-change efforts in Caracas would encourage Washington to destroy Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

Republican senator Rick Scott thinks now is the time to “fix” Nicaragua as well Cuba. Commentator James Bosworth, a cheerleader for US imperialism, asks, “Why hasn’t Trump gone after Ortega in Nicaragua?”

Such speculation is unsurprising. Both Trump administrations have endorsed the designation of Nicaragua, as well as Venezuela and Cuba, as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” Trump’s former adviser John Bolton described the three countries in 2018 as a “troika of tyranny,” while his current Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls them “enemies of humanity.”

A few days after the attack on Caracas, Trump said Cuba was “ready to fall” and should “make a deal … before it’s too late.” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded: “No one dictates what we do.” Along with Cuba, the governments of Mexico and Colombia were warned that they might be “next” in Trump’s sights, as he maintains his huge military deployment in the Caribbean and continues his so-called war on “narcoterror.” 

Clearly, Venezuela and Cuba are under the greatest US pressure. Neither Trump nor Rubio has included Nicaragua in their follow-up threats, but the country is not being ignored. 

The court indictment against Maduro accuses him of leading a regional drug-trafficking network that ran through Central America. Although Nicaragua is not specifically named, opposition media were quick to claim that the Sandinista government was being denounced. Trump himself, commenting on Honduras’s November 30 election in Truth Social, seemed to suggest this when he asked: “Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?”

In reality, unlike its neighbors, Nicaragua is largely free of drug-related violence. Its army operates what it calls a “retaining wall” (muro de contención) against drugs transiting the country, and regularly publicizes drug seizures. Despite this, the State Department classifies Nicaragua as a “transit country” for narcotics and the US Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew its officials in 2025, claiming poor cooperation from authorities. 

On January 14, the security minister in neighboring El Salvador (a Trump ally ) accused Nicaragua of allowing a drug shipment worth over $9 million to cross the waters between the countries by boat. Nicaragua strongly denied the allegation, pointing out that it is among the safest countries in the region and cooperates with El Salvador in dealing with narcoterrorism, including extraditing members of Salvadoran drug-trafficking gangs arrested in Nicaragua. 

Nicaragua continues to be unjustly singled out for criticism on issues beyond drugs. In July 2025, Nicaragua’s reputation as a safe country was implicitly recognized even by the US Department of Homeland Security, which acknowledged that it has become “a worldwide tourist destination.” Numerous articles, including in the New York Times and Travel and Tour World, encouraged people to visit. 

But, as Nicaragua-based commentator Becca Renk points out, this has drawn “punitive measures” from US authorities, including sanctions on tour operators (allegedly for facilitating migration to the US), advisories warning against Nicaragua’s supposed dangers, and more. “Despite a flurry of positive reports in the travel press, U.S. officials say Americans should avoid Nicaragua because it’s an authoritarian regime,” the New York Times said in June 2025, contradicting its earlier recommendation to visit the country. 

Perhaps the most bizarre allegation is that Nicaragua’s celebrated religious traditions are threatened by its government. In December, reports appeared claiming that bibles could no longer be brought into the country based on a notice supposedly photographed in a Costa Rican bus terminal. The story was widely repeated, with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom reporting that not only are bibles banned, but so is praying in public. The stories fitted the State Department’s broader narrative of religious repression. 

But the reports were completely false. Nicaraguan churches confirmed there is no such ban, the bus company’s advice to travelers does not mention bibles, and farcical attempts by a pair of Youtubers to prove that the ban exists proved fruitless.

Nevertheless, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, based in the UK, which posted the original claim about the ban, ignores requests to remove it.

More seriously, December also brought a heavily biased report from the US Trade Representative. The report accused Nicaragua of “labor rights violations,” based largely on evidence from Nicaraguan opposition groups, many funded by US sources such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The Trade Representative argued that Nicaragua should be expelled from the regional trade treaty and that punitive, 100 per cent tariffs should be imposed on its exports to the US.

Had these sanctions been applied, they would have drastically affected Nicaragua’s exports and employment in many key areas of the economy. Fortunately, after lobbying by US businesses heavily invested in Nicaragua, they were watered down considerably. 

However, similar damage could result from federal legislation. Representatives Chris Smith and María Elvira Salazar have introduced the Restoring Sovereignty and Human Rights in Nicaragua Act of 2026. If passed, it would trigger “targeted sanctions” on Nicaraguan businesses, block new US investment and further restrict access to international finance. 

Other proposed legislation, introduced by Senator Rick Scott, would link sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. All four countries (in the case of Bolivia, in the recent past) have been examples of alternative models of government that prioritize the interests of the poor, not those of international capital.

CELAC Emergency Meeting: Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua Strongly Condemn US Neo-Colonial Military Attack Against Venezuela (+UN Security Council)

Nicaragua’s trade is closely linked to that of its neighbors. Honduras, under Xiomara Castro, has been a close ally. But this month she handed over the presidency to neoliberal Nasry Asfura, who “won” the country’s recent election following Trump’s blatant interference. Nicaragua will then be left as the only progressive government between Mexico and Colombia. Nevertheless, it can probably count on some reluctance in Central America to ostracize a country located on key trade routes and which has a crucial role in regional electricity distribution. Indeed, Asfura has already disappointed anti-Sandinistas by promising good bilateral relations.

Some commentators, such as Politico’s Nahal Toosi note that Nicaragua “is oddly missing from Trump’s list” of targets now that Washington is further asserting hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere. 

Justifying intervention on the basis of fighting “narcoterror,” however, is even more difficult in Nicaragua’s case than it was for Venezuela. Claims that President Daniel Ortega is linked to Nicolás Maduro’s fictitious Cartel de los Soles are unsupported by Washington officials. Politico cited one anonymous US official who said that “Nicaragua is cooperating with us to stop drug trafficking and fight criminal elements in their territory.”

Nicaragua is a low-income country which, unlike Venezuela, lacks oil or other strategic resources coveted by the US. Its 1979 revolution, the subsequent US-backed “Contra” war and more than four decades of military and economic pressure from the US, including a coup attempt in 2018, have prepared Nicaragua. Resistance to any overt military attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government would be massive. Older Nicaraguans recall 16 years of neoliberal rule after the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, when public services were decimated. 

Since returning to office in 2007, the Sandinista government has massively invested in hospitals, schools and housing; the country is free of the high crime levels that bedevil its neighbors. Unlike Cuba and Venezuela, its economy has not so far been heavily damaged by US coercive measures. 

Furthermore, Nicaragua’s opposition groups are deeply divided, enjoy little popular support, and offer vague promises of “democracy” that amount to a return to neoliberalism. They have little currency among Trump’s Florida base, fixated on regime change in Venezuela and Cuba. As Juan Gonzalez, a former Latin America aide to President Biden, told Politico: “The lesson from Nicaragua is: Don’t matter too much, don’t embarrass Washington and don’t become a domestic political issue.” 

Trump and his advisers may also have learned a lesson from kidnapping Venezuela’s head of state: it failed to remove the government and instead strengthened its popular support. Pro-US Venezuelan politicians like Maria Corina Machado, who promised Washington that they would have public backing, were deceitful. If they had been put in charge, the country would likely have descended into chaos. This was true for Venezuela, but it would also be true for Cuba and Nicaragua. 

Nicaragua’s respite, however, is unlikely to be long-lasting. Venezuela, because of its strength and leading role, has been the primary target. Striking Venezuela kills two birds with one stone. Every blow against it also directly hits Cuba, which is far more dependent on Venezuela than is Nicaragua. But if both Venezuela and Cuba are significantly weakened by the imperial siege, Nicaragua will be ever more isolated and ripe for attack. In short, it is not so much that Nicaragua has escaped the attention of US imperialism, but that its time has not yet come.

JP/RDH/OT

From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

By Larry C Johnson – Jan 22, 2026

Just because the Western press does not report on China’s impressive response to the US abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro and his wife does not mean it did not happen. I find the following article posted on RT (i.e., Russia Today)shocking:

China strongly condemned the kidnapping and violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Without large-scale gestures in the style of Trump or Macron, the country has taken steps because it has come to the conclusion that the U.S. is making control of Venezuelan oil a tool to curb China’s presence in South America and hinder its rapid, irreversible development. . . .

Just hours after the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro became known, Xi Jinping convened an urgent meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, which lasted exactly 120 minutes. There were no communiqués or diplomatic threats, but only the silence before the storm, because this meeting activated what Chinese strategists call an “integrated asymmetric response” to respond to aggression against the partners in the Western Hemisphere, with Venezuela being the landing head for Latin America in the “backyard of the US.”

The first phase of the Chinese reaction set at 9:15 a.m. on the 4th. January, when the People’s Bank of China discreetly announced the temporary suspension of all transactions in US dollars with companies that have ties to the US defense sector. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics awoke with the news that all their transactions with China had been frozen without notice.

At 11:43 a.m. the same day, the State Grid Corporation of China, which controls the world’s largest power grid, announced the technical review of all of its contracts with U.S. suppliers of electrical equipment, implying that China is disconnecting from American technology.

At 2:17 p.m., China National Petroleum Corporation, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, announced the strategic reorganization of its global supply routes. That means the energy weapon has been re-activated, which in turn means the lifting of oil supply contracts with US refineries worth 47 billion dollars a year. This oil, previously delivered to the east coast of the US, has now been diverted to India, Brazil, South Africa and other partners in the Global South. This caused oil prices to skyrocket by 23 percent in a single trading session. . . .

In another train, the China Ocean Shipping Company, which controls about 40 percent of global maritime transport capabilities, conducted a so-called optimization of operational routes, meaning Chinese cargo ships have begun to avoid the use of American ports: Long Beach, Los Angeles, New York and Miami, which relies on Chinese maritime logistics for their supply chains, suddenly lost 35 percent of their normal container traffic – a disaster for Walmart, Amazon, Target, and others. These companies, which rely on Chinese ships for the import of products manufactured in China into American ports, saw their supply chains partially collapse within a few hours.

China’s Special Envoy Reaffirms Unbreakable Brotherhood With Venezuela Against US Naval Blockade and Piracy

I am assuming the report is accurate. If true, this shows that China is very well prepared to play hardball with the US while retaining a calm facade. There is one more paragraph I want to share:

The coronation came on 5. January, when Beijing activated the financial weapon: The Chinese cross-border interbank payment system (CIPS) announced that it would expand its operational capacity to include any global transaction that the Washington-controlled SWIFT system wants to circumvent. That means China has provided a fully functional alternative to the Western financial system for the world. . . . The reaction was immediate and massive: in the first 48 hours after commissioning, transactions worth 89 billion dollars were settled. Central banks from 34 countries opened operational accounts in the Chinese system, which means an accelerated de-dollarization of one of the most important sources of funding in the US.

CIPS is a potentially very powerful new tool in the BRICS financial infrastructure that is developing before our eyes. The fact that SWIFT is relying on ancient technology — i.e., ancient in the sense that it is non-digital and is nothing more that an out-dated closed email system that was relevant in the 1990s but is now being eclipsed by the digital age.

The US attempt to use tariffs as a political bludgeon to coerce countries to change their politics is enabling the more rapid development of financial infrastructure that the US cannot control. Trump and his dinosaur advisors are still laboring under the delusional that the US and the dollar reserve system are irreplaceable. There are several facts that most in the US fail to grasp: 1)more countries are dumping dollars and buying precious metals while doing trade in their respective currencies, 2) the US is over leveraged as its debt spirals out of control and no quick solution to re-industrialize the US.

(Substack)

From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

This editorial by Carlos Fernández-Vega originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

This is not a semantic issue, nor can it be argued that the constant threat of one power annexing another country is merely a difference of “viewpoints” or a “clash of rhetoric,” because it is, in reality, a blatant act of theft and a violation of international law. And if the unhinged head of the White House cartel has demonstrated anything, it is his constant aggression against the community of nations (except, of course, Israel, with the genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu at its helm), and it seems no one dares to put a stop to it.

So far, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s statement at the World Economic Forum has been the only denunciation of Trump’s imperialistic actions, especially his penchant for illegally appropriating third-party nations, including Canada itself, in the name, he claims, of US “national security.” And that leader’s warning is clear: “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” and historically, Third World countries always appear on the “menu” to be consumed.

Well, the above is relevant because yesterday President Sheinbaum was asked about the aforementioned statements by Mark Carney—who is openly anti-annexationist—and the irrational reaction of the orange-clad demented politician (“Canada exists thanks to the United States”), and her comment on the matter was clearly not the most appropriate: “I wouldn’t call it a ‘clash of discourses,’ but rather simply different points of view regarding what is happening internationally. I haven’t spoken recently with the (Canadian) Prime Minister; we have reached out and we are going to try to have a conversation; and, of course, with President Trump, regarding all the negotiations related to the USMCA.”

Everything suggests that the Mexican government has been slow to act and has become trapped in a single mechanism.

The need to be cautious and handle the delicate bilateral relationship with the madman in the White House with the precision of a surgeon is understandable, but there are facts that cannot be ignored, such as in the case of Trump and his constant threat to make Canada the 51st state (the 52nd would be Greenland), nor is the insistent “warning” to invade Mexican territory acceptable, in his eager expansionist attitude, under the pretext, as he says, of “fighting the drug cartels”.

So, for a disturbed individual like Trump to try to annex another country and incorporate it into his own territory is not precisely a “difference of viewpoints” and even less a “clash of discourses,” but rather demands the response, however rhetorical, of an aggressed nation against the aggressor and the public denunciation of the systematic violation of international law.

True: the trilateral relationship under the USMCA is hanging by a thread, not for lack of will on the part of Mexico and Canada, but due to the increasingly extortionate tactics of the man who works at Mar-a-Lago and, occasionally, in the Oval Office. Canada has begun to make moves (its rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China is evidence of this), but Mexico is clinging to the treaty: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

Just yesterday, the Mexican president announced the expansion of trade mechanisms with Europe, Latin America, and Asia, although she said, “We believe the USMCA will be preserved; there may be some changes, but ultimately it will be maintained because it is mutually beneficial. Obviously, we have and seek relationships with other regions of the world.” However, everything suggests that the Mexican government has been slow to act, because it should have opened these channels long ago. But it has become trapped in a single mechanism.

In fact, yesterday President Sheinbaum insisted that “we are going to work to ensure that (the USMCA) does not fall apart, and we believe it is beneficial for all three countries to maintain the trade agreement. Next week, Secretary Ebrard (who warns that “the United States is undergoing a major strategic shift, reorganizing itself based on conservative economic nationalism”) will go to Washington to continue working on trade issues.” She also revealed that “a working group is currently monitoring the Security Understanding, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although there is also a group from the Ministry of Citizen Security and the Attorney General’s Office.”

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico SA

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Canada has begun to make moves (such as rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China), but Mexico is clinging to the USMCA: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

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  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 22

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on tough talkin’, economic update, Puebla violence, Puebla flooding reconstruction and electoral reform.

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  News Briefs

  Progressive International’s Emergency Nuestra América Summit Arrives at Critical Juncture for Latin American Unity

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Beset by disunity, cynical calculation, tepid reformism and an ascendant ultra-right, Latin America and the Caribbean must unite against a US imperialism which aims to snuff out any emancipatory possibilities and subjugate the continent once and for all.

The post Mexico SA appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The Venezuelan military high command has implemented a strategic restructuring within its ranks, in order to strengthen preparations for foreign intervention, border security, and internal order. The strategic operational commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), General Domingo Hernández Lárez, has formally announced on social media the renewal of military commands in the Comprehensive Defense Regions (REDI) and Comprehensive Defense Zones (ZODI) throughout Venezuela.

Through the institutional process announced this Wednesday, January 21, the military appointed 28 new commanders who will assume responsibility for safeguarding national sovereignty in critical regions of Venezuela, just two weeks after the US empire’s military attack against the country. According to Hernández Lárez, these appointments respond to the need to boost the institution’s operational capacity.

The new military commanders will be responsible for planning and executing territorial defense missions under the principles of civil-military unity. Furthermore, the restructuring aims to optimize the logistical and tactical response to the threats facing Venezuela in the current global context.

Renewal in strategic regions
The commander-in-chief confirmed that the commanders of the units with the highest geographical command will lead efforts in border and coastal areas. Specifically, Major General Pablo Lizano Colmenter will assume command of REDI Los Andes, while Major General Erasmo Ramos Iriza will command the Eastern REDI. These appointments are crucial for combating drug trafficking and smuggling in the border regions.

Various federal entities through the ZODIs will also have their command structures updated, as reported by Últimas Noticias. The officers designated for these tasks include:

• ZODI Miranda: Division General Rufo Parra Hernández (replacing Division General Carlos Eduardo Aigster Villamizar)
• ZODI Delta Amacuro: Division General Miguel Chacín Socorro (replacing Division General Richard Rondón Liendo)
• ZODI Yaracuy: Division General José Freitas Gómez (replacing General Luis Reyes Rivero)
• ZODI Monagas: Division General José Caldera Vivas (replacing Major General Romerl Enrique Romero Domínguez)
• ZODI Barinas: Division General Gustavo Belizario Sánchez (replacing Major General Pablo Ernesto Lizano Colmenter)
• ZODI Táchira: Division General Carlos Augusto Bastidas (replacing Division General Michell Leonardo Valladares Molina)
• ZODI Aragua: Division General Francisco Sánchez Carballo (replacing Major General Ángel Daniel Balestrini Jaramillo)
• ZODI Falcón: Division General José Herrera Duarte (replacing Division General Francisco Luis Moreno)

The high command also paid special attention to the protection of jurisdictional waters, appointing Vice Admiral Juan Solórzano Araujo to head the Eastern Maritime and Insular Operational Defense Zone, and Vice Admiral Uldren Gedde Díaz to head the Western Maritime and Insular Operational Defense Zone. With these appointments, the Bolivarian Navy reinforces its surveillance of the exclusive economic zone and the Caribbean and Atlantic trade routes.

Air bases and operational coordination
Resolutions 63275 and 63276 reflect significant changes at the country’s two most important air bases. At the General Francisco de Miranda Air Base in La Carlota, Brigadier General Fidel Humberto Olivo Pacheco Ramírez was appointed to replace Major General José Freitas Gómez. At the El Libertador Air Base (BAEL), Division General Marco Antonio Vásquez Pérez has replaced Division General Jesús Alberto Fernández Peñaloza.

The FANB has made these changes to guarantee internal peace through a more agile and coordinated deployment. Hernández Lárez emphasized that each of these officers possesses the necessary experience to meet the standards of the Organic Law of the Armed Force.

Laboratory for US weapons
On Thursday January 22, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino explained that Venezuela has become a “laboratory” for weapons testing by the US regime. During the handover ceremony of the Venezuelan military academies, Padrino emphasized that on January 3, the nation was the victim of a systematic bombing directed by US imperialism and assisted by high-level artificial intelligence.

“The president of the US admitted that they had used weapons that they had never used on battlefields,” Padrino reported, “weapons that no one else in the world had. They used that technology against the people on January 3, 2026,” and that this aggression resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

Padrino highlighted the importance of the “Ayacucho Plan” to adapt study programs to these new realities. He reiterated that the new appointments, made under the instructions of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, ensure the continuity of operational exercise throughout the national territory.

Venezuela: Acting President Announces Changes in Healthcare and CIIP

Padrino declared that President Nicolás Maduro is currently a “prisoner of war” and demanded his return, describing him as an honest leader and a victim of baseless charges. “Our resilient and revolutionary spirit has fought yet another battle,” Padrino reaffirmed. “The sovereign and independence principles remain intact.”

Table with changes

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| | Command Level | Region / Zone | New Commander | Outgoing Commander | | REDI | Los Andes | Major General Pablo Lizano Colmenter | Major General José Gregorio Martínez Campos | | REDI | Eastern | Major General Erasmo Ramos Iriza | Major General Juan Ernesto Sulbarán Quintero | | ZODI | Miranda | Division General Rufo Parra Hernández | Division General Carlos Eduardo Aigster Villamizar | | ZODI | Delta Amacuro | Division General Miguel Chacín Socorro | Division General Richard Rondón Liendo | | ZODI | Yaracuy | Division General José Freitas Gómez | General Luis Reyes Rivero | | ZODI | Monagas | Division General José Caldera Vivas | Major General Romerl Enrique Romero Domínguez | | ZODI | Barinas | Division General Gustavo Belizario Sánchez | Major General Pablo Ernesto Lizano Colmenter | | ZODI | Táchira | Division General Carlos Augusto Bastidas | Division General Michell Leonardo Valladares Molina | | ZODI | Aragua | Division General Francisco Sánchez Carballo | Major General Ángel Daniel Balestrini Jaramillo | | ZODI | Falcón | Division General José Herrera Duarte | Division General Francisco Luis Moreno | | ZODI | Maritime (Eastern) | Vice Admiral Juan Solórzano Araujo | Admiral Leonardo Alberto Castellano Molina | | ZODI | Maritime (Western) | Vice Admiral Uldren Gedde Díaz | Vice Admiral Ángel Humberto Sisco Mota | | Air Base | La Carlota | Brigadier General Fidel Humberto Olivo Pacheco Ramírez | Division General José Freitas Gómez | | Air Base | El Libertador | Division General Marco Antonio Vásquez Pérez | Division General Jesús Alberto Fernández Peñaloza |

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/AU

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Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has formally announced the electoral schedule for this year’s communal project consultations, and that that the first popular consultation of 2026 will be held on March 8. This date carries significant symbolic weight, as it coincides with International Women’s Day, highlighting the leading role of women community leaders in local governance.

This Wednesday, January 21, during the first session of the Federal Council of Government in Plaza Bicentenario, Caracas, the acting president explained the specifics of this democratic process. The election will take place in all 5,336 communal districts across the country, where citizens will go to the polls to directly select the projects that will receive immediate funding to improve services and infrastructure in their own communities. The session brought together the 24 governors and 335 mayors elected in last year’s elections.

In addition to setting the date, Rodríguez reported that this first national consultation of the year will align with the executive’s strategic guidelines. Specifically, the submitted projects must respond to the First and Second Transformations (7T) promoted by President Nicolás Maduro: Economic Modernization and Full Independence. She explained that they are doing so in order to empower the people to manage resources that directly contribute to productive sovereignty and the strengthening of the economic model from the ground up.

The acting president emphasized the importance of efficiency in the execution of these resources. She insisted that citizen participation does not end with voting, but extends to the social oversight of every project. To make this happen, the Federal Council of Government will act as a facilitating body so that municipalities receive the necessary technical support throughout the modernization process.

Economy
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez also made important economic announcements that will shape the national agenda in the coming months; among them, a 37% increase in national revenues has been projected for fiscal year 2026.

She noted that the distribution of income for the different levels of government will remain the same as in 2025: 53% for communes, 29% for governorships, 15% for mayoralties, and three percent for “institutional strengthening.”

She added that the additional resources will be managed through the two newly created sovereign funds: the Social Protection Fund, intended to improve workers’ income and strengthen social programs, and the Infrastructure and Services Fund, aimed at investments in water, electricity, and road infrastructure.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez Leads Cabinet Meeting to Drive Economic Development in Venezuela

Institutional unity
During the meeting on Wednesday, Rodríguez strongly urged governors and mayors to put partisan interests after the common good. She called on all regional authorities to work together for Venezuela and for social peace.

“We want the people to see us as a power in action and in exercise to protect the highest values ​​of our republic,” she emphasized during her address, noting that political and economic stability depends on the responsiveness of the nation’s institutions to the needs of the Venezuelan people. Therefore, coordination among the different levels of government is essential for the success of the March 8 popular consultation. “Local leaders must guarantee logistical support at each polling station to ensure massive voter turnout,” she requested.

The government hopes this process will strengthen the social fabric and participatory democracy. Planning this consultation represents a decisive step toward transferring direct powers to organized communities. At the close of the event, regional authorities reiterated their commitment to territorial development, assuring that the voice of the communal circuits will guide public investment throughout the first quarter of 2026.

(RedRadioVE) by Jhulimar Fraga with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/AU

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Cuba reaffirmed its support and solidarity for Venezuela and its people and government, as well as its decision to continue strengthening the historic bonds of brotherhood and cooperation that unites both nations.

This was stated by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in a telephone conversation held on Thursday, January 22.

Labeling Kidnapping a ‘Capture,’ Media Legitimizes Violation of International Law

During the conversation, the Cuban president also reiterated Cuba’s strong condemnation of the United States’ military aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of constitutional President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores.

Le manifesté nuestro respaldo y solidaridad con la Patria de Bolívar y Chávez, su pueblo y el gobierno bolivariano; asi como la decisión de continuar fortaleciendo las históricas relaciones de hermandad y cooperación.

2/2

— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 22, 2026

In the early hours of January 3, US troops, under orders from Donald Trump, illegally entered Venezuelan territory and carried out bombings in various locations in Caracas and the states of Miranda, La Guaira, and Aragua, killing at least 108 people, including civilians and military personnel. The aggression culminated in the kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

(Diario VEA)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/DZ

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Unchecked and unilateral US  military actions signal a return to “predatory colonialism” that threatens the foundations of international law and risks plunging global affairs back into a “law of the jungle,” says a UN rapporteur.

From Presstv via This RSS Feed.

President Trump has disinvited Canada after Carney’s Davos warning, as his newly launched “Board of Peace” faces global pushback over its $1bn entry fee, sidelining of the UN, and controversial membership.

From Presstv via This RSS Feed.

By Gregory Shupak  –  Jan 20, 2026

Corporate media have deployed a lexicon of legitimation in their coverage of the deadly US invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife and fellow politician Cilia Flores. Major news outlets have routinely described these events using words like “capture” (New York Times, 1/3/26) or “arrest” (BBC, 1/3/26), which presents them as a matter of enforcing the law against fugitives or criminals, and carries the built-in but false assumption that the US had the right or even duty to conduct its operation in the first place.

By using words like “arrest” (BBC, 1/3/26) and “capture,” media evoke a framing where the “good guys” and “bad guys” are preordained.

The ludicrous premise is that any time an arrest warrant is issued somewhere in the United States, the US has the right to do anything, anywhere in the world, in pursuit of the subject—including bombing another country, invading it, killing its citizens, and spiriting away its president and first lady. Cornell Law School professor Maggie Gardner (Transnational Litigation Blog, 1/5/26) rebuked the idea that the US merely enforced the law in Venezuela, pointing out (emphasis in original):

Under customary international law, a sovereign can only exercise enforcement jurisdiction in the territory of another sovereign if it has that sovereign’s consent. This hard line limiting enforcement powers to a sovereign’s own territory is clear and well-established.

Venezuela, of course, didn’t consent to being bombed, or to having Maduro and Flores taken from the country at gunpoint. Accordingly, what happened in Caracas is best understood not as the US enforcing the law, but as the US breaking international law. It’s misleading, therefore, to use language like “capture” and “arrest,” which evoke the US upholding the law, to describe blowtorch-wielding, heavily armed US forces taking Maduro and Flores prisoner in the middle of the night (BBC, 1/4/26).

‘Abducted, so to speak’

The New York Times (1/3/26) described supporters of Maduro’s rendition as “celebrat[ing] the capture” or “celebrating Mr. Maduro’s arrest.”

I used the news aggregator Factiva to examine New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post coverage from January 3 through January 5, the day of the US’s attack on Venezuela and the first two days after these developments. The papers published a combined 223 pieces that featured Maduro’s name, and 166 of these (74%) used the term “capture” or a form of it, such as “captured” or “capturing.” Sixty of these pieces, or 27%, included the word “arrest” or variations on the term, like “arrested” or “arresting.”

“Abduction” or “kidnapping”—synonyms that mean to take someone away unlawfully and by force—are far more suitable words for what the US did to Maduro and Flores. Only two pieces in the Post and one in the Journal used any form of “abduct” (such as “abduction”) in any of the articles that refer to Maduro—1% of the combined total articles. In each case, the term appears in quotation marks. The Times ran no pieces in which the word appeared.

The Post (1/3/26) shared a perplexing perspective from Geoffrey Corn—head of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University, and a former top legal adviser to the US Army—who said that the US Supreme Court has been clear since the late 19th century that “you can’t claim that you were abducted and therefore the court should not be allowed to assert authority over you.” The article went on:

“Maduro is not going to be able to avoid being brought to trial because he was abducted, so to speak, even if he can establish it violated international law,” Corn said, adding that in his view, the administration’s overnight military operation lacked any “plausible legal basis.”

“The reach of US law in hostile countries…depends on the power and location of the country targeted,” the Washington Post (1/5/26) opined; that’s “how the world works.”

So, despite Corn’s view that the US attack was illegal, he couldn’t bring himself to present Maduro’s abduction as literal rather than figurative.

That article, as well another in the Post (1/3/26) and one in the Wall Street Journal (1/5/26), quoted Democratic Senator Mark R. Warner:

If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership? What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting a similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president?

Even as Warner is skeptical about the US’s actions in Venezuela, he still uses the language of “capture” for Maduro, while using “abduct” for a hypothetical scenario in which the official enemy Putin carries out a parallel crime. None of the articles that included Warner’s quote  commented on this linguistic inconsistency.

The word “abduct” was never used in the voice of a reporter from any of these papers to describe what the US had done.

CBC co-anchor Andrew Chang (1/5/26) grapples seriously with the best word to describe the US action against Maduro.

‘It’s not a bad term’
Venezuelan officials, including Maduro himself (New York Times, 1/5/26), say that he was “kidnapped” by the US. They’re not the only ones. On Democracy Now! (1/3/26), Venezuelan journalist Andreína Chávez and US-based Venezuelan historian Miguel Tinker Salas both used that word to characterize what the US did to Maduro and Flores.

Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC (1/5/26), regarded the idea that Maduro was “kidnapped” as at least meriting serious discussion. Co-anchor Andrew Chang asked:

Did the US military just kidnap Nicholas Maduro?… “Kidnap” is a loaded word because it implies illegality. Maybe a more neutral way of describing Maduro’s capture is as an “abduction,” but the US government calls it an “arrest.”…

This isn’t some nerdy question about semantics. It’s a question about law, and whether the US has the legal right to extract world leaders from their homes, and maybe even whether other countries might have that right, too.

Notably, when Trump was told that Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said it was a “kidnapping,” he didn’t push back, saying, “It’s not a bad term.”

However, the only times “kidnap” appeared in the Times, Journal or Post in relation to Maduro and Flores—in 10 pieces, or 4% of the coverage—came when that term was attributed to representatives of the Venezuelan state. Suggesting to readers that a government that has been demonized in US media for decades is the only source that regards Maduro and Flores as having been “kidnapped” is tantamount to suggesting that no credible sources take that position.

The three papers combined to run zero articles treating as an objective fact the view that America “abducted” or “kidnapped” a sitting head of state in defiance of international law, while they regularly used “captured” and “arrested” outside of quotation marks, as if those word choices are merely flat descriptions of reality.

ICE also ‘arrests’

“The arrests of the refugees…include children,” the New York Times (1/13/26) reported.

These linguistic choices matter. “Capture” and “arrest” paint Trump, Delta Force and the CIA as righteous heroes protecting their country—as well as Venezuela and the rest of the world—from the villainous Maduros. “Abduct” and “kidnap” morally invert the good guy and bad guy roles, and would portray US actors as the wrongdoers.

This particular form of word play is part of a pattern for corporate media under this Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) round-ups of migrants in the United States have featured what can most accurately be described as abductions or kidnappings of people—off the streets, at courts, in workplaces and elsewhere—by armed, masked and unaccountable agents, into unmarked vehicles. It’s little surprise, then, that immigration lawyers, members of Congress, and law professors (LA Times, 10/21/25), among others, routinely use the word “abduct” to describe these events.

And describing ICE’s practices as “kidnappings” isn’t some fringe view. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) uses the word (Independent, 12/5/25), as does Rolling Stone editor Tim Dickinson (7/2/25), and the academic and author Natasha Lennard of the New School for Social Research in New York (Intercept, 7/1/25). ICE’s victims (Mother Jones, 7/18/27; NPR, 7/27/25) and their families (Guardian, 4/15/25, 6/10/25, 6/26/25) frequently describe their ordeal in such terms.

Yet corporate media eschew such language for the same sanitized “arrest” or “capture” language they employed for Maduro and Flores. When I used Factiva to pair “ICE” with the words “abduct” or “kidnap,” just two articles turned up that included the perspective that ICE “abducts” people (New York Times, 7/13/25; Washington Post, 12/3/25), both attributed to critical sources. Five (2%) included a version of the word “kidnap,” all in quotation marks.

Fight The Guardian’s Lies About Venezuela

Three of these quotes were from the much-maligned Venezuelan government (New York Times, 3/18/25, 11/25/25; Washington Post, 5/4/25), one came from a man whose father and daughter-in-law had been detained by ICE (Washington Post, 3/21/25), and another from a member of the Chicago Board of Education (New York Times, 10/22/25).

The language is freighted in the same way, whether it is migrants under attack from US jackboots, or those same forces unleashed against socialist politicians in Global South countries seeking to escape imperial domination.

(FAIR)

From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

By Macdonald Stainsby  –  Jan 20, 2026

Often times, the perfidy of the very vulnerable leaders of small island nations gets no mention in larger affairs of the planet at all. When their corruption is visible— such as how they are the only nations on the planet who regularly vote with the US at the UN for the continued starvation of Cuba, or when they allow imperialist military bases larger than their indigenous populations to occupy their lands— we often attribute these weak showings to them having “no choice” and essentially being property that still gets a national flag.

But you can’t quite go to that level of self-flagellation in Trinidad and Tobago. The twin island nation, while settled by slaves and indentured slaves primarily, T&T has become a republic and broken from the UK monarchy. They essentially have done even more to achieve independence than the giant white country I am from, Canada.

In 2010 just after Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada had hosted the Winter Olympics I visited Trinidad and Tobago for my first time. There had been a lot of working going on here in “Canada” to try to resist those Olympics on the basis of environmental policies around climate change, around land destruction in preparing for the Olympics, and in overriding indigenous sovereignty to allow for the full scale of the largest single celebration of sport on Earth.

Later that same year, in March, when I would venture to Trinidad and Tobago for the first time, I went there as I was doing anti tar sands work in general; In the T&T areas right near Caroni, Guapo, Vance River and most importantly, la Brea there’s the tar pits which also contain bitumen, which is much like tar sands from Canada, having a chance to go and see how these outcrops splash straight into the ocean I realized that, yes, indeed, these kinds of tar sands are the same type that get mined in northern Alberta and are slated for mass development in the Orinoco basin of Venezuela, as well as other places around the world, such as Russia, Madagascar and so on. Later research would suggest that the American giant Marathon sought this insanity on the southwestern coast of Trinidad.

The policies of environmental protection in Trinidad and Tobago are very, very seriously lacking; My first time near any of the processing plants in the south saw what appeared to be small rivers of oil, blackened crude long since displacing water and fish. One could easily submit similar disasters on the Islands, north to south, including the giant cancer causing flare over Sando.

But what I really learned there was just how corrupt things work on all directions for all parties in Trini politics, it seems everybody is always trying to find ways to be disingenuous with the others while accusing the same across the aisle. What I learned very quickly at the time was that the PNM was about to collapse and that a new politician now heading up the UNC coalition was going to be soon the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Her name was Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and that 2010 campaign focused almost entirely on how Preston Manning was a corrupt man, who took bribes, payoffs and operated a nepotism party that shamed Trinis and stole their wealth. Kamla propsed to be the diffference maker then, and that person continues to be very important to this day in 2026.

In 2010, what I was able to learn was that the UNC was considered sort of left of center, not in any realistic way, but in the same way that the United States Democrats are, and the sort of right of center PNM is historically known to be more corrupt and nepotistic. However, that same right wing corrupt PNM is also the party that originated with the Eric Williams independence movement (even if they banned their own books), where they broke free of the Commonwealth and became a republic.

It is also the party that, when in power, is most interested in having actual equal relations with other countries, and has a foreign policy, if not a domestic policy that is based in sovereignty, respect and international peace that would become extraordinarily important at the beginning of this year, 2026.

During the fall of 2025 the United States built up what would be the largest military deployment in the Caribbean since the invasion of Panama to capture Manuel Noriega— along with burn or otherwise kill thousands of the working class people who lived near military bases in a small, dense country.

In 2025, seeing these gigantic armadas built up right on this coast of Venezuela and over 100 innocent fishermen from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador and others including fishers from Trinidad and Tobago, mind you, being executed by drone strikes from the US with fake, unproven claims of drug dealing, these moves were designed to throw the Venezuelan Government off its kilter. So Kamla, ever loving the Empire, gave them full permission to use their territory to attack the brothers and sisters of T&T.

Kamla has coddled up to the same people who murdered Cubans to invade and overthrow the New Jewel Movement in Grenada, and now without a USSR anywhere in sight, she has helped make it so there’s absolutely no such thing as a guardrail, absolutely no such thing as a way to be held back in the prevailing years since my multiple visits to Trinidad and Tobago, starting in 2010 but going until 2013.

I did come to learn a bit more about the region itself, as well. I also first visited Bolivarian Venezuela at that time.

The Petrocaribe project started under PDVSA During the Chavez era, and continuing into the Maduro era from Venezuela, would ‘sell’ humongous amounts of oil to other Caribbean countries at below market rates with no interest for decades after the fact, as a straight up solidarity to have the resources to help develop themselves out of the enforced poverty that the Western white countries had built them up under for decades, if not centuries.

Petrocaribe had done tremendous amounts in helping build schools, clinics and helping advance human rights and basic housing policies and so on, in country after country throughout the Caribbean. During that same time, the Caribbean became a region and zone of peace. Every Caribbean African country signed upon a dotted line that the Caribbean would allow no military use. Would allow itself not to be transitioned for military purposes, would not allow itself to be occupied for military purposes. And under no circumstances would war of any type be permitted through the Caribbean.

All of those Caribbean countries have maintained that policy, with the exception of the aforementioned opportunistic Kamla Persad-Bissessar, what she has done has not just been to piss all over the standard of living of Trinidad and Tobago and to work with the white supremacist killer’s army from the north to attack the country that is loaded with Afro Venezuelans, as well as all sorts of the poorest people who have finally spoken their truth to power in front of the world.

She allowed her country to be used by the global slavecatchers, docking their aircraft carriers in Port of Spain and Chag.

But what we have now is Kamla Persad-Bissessar trying to help assassinate the country that created Petrocaribe, so that she and other elites from Trinidad and Tobago can reconquer the rest of the African Caribbean countries.

African Caribbean nations, historically, had to beg Trinidad and Tobago for resources as Trinidad and Tobago is the only country that was within reach and was not Venezuela, that had the resources and the oil and the gas to be able to help small, tiny, little islands like St Kitts and St Lucia and so on; By helping the Yanks destroy the legacy of Petrocaribe, by giving a military assistance and allowing the US military to fly their F16 from Piarco Airport into attack mode on Venezuela.

Trinidad and Tobago not only committed acts of war against Venezuela. They committed acts of economic sabotage against the rest of the Caribbean, which will now see lots of small children unable to go to school, unable to have their eyes treated, unable to see doctors and more.

And let’s go further, Trinidad and Tobago has also helped Venezuela have the oil that they send to Cuba cut off, and every single African in the Caribbean must note that Cuba has systematically been the reason that there has been a decent standard of living, from Grenada through to Puerto Rico through to Jamaica, etc. Doctors worked to provide help to Caribbean peoples, and received oil for these efforts.

There is no doubt that Cuba has been the hero of the region for more than 50 years, and they, too are now under attack.

Thank you to Kamala Persad Bissessar. She has not just violated the zone of peace. She has not just pissed all over Trinidad and Tobago’s record and word. She has not just destroyed the UNC’s idea of being democratic. She has done far, far, far worse than anything any PNM person could ever have possibly done, and I couldn’t care less for any of these corrupt parties:

Kamla Persad-Bissessar has helped re institute white supremacy across hundreds of millions of people, and the millions who descended from Africa right at the forefront.

She has helped the Yankees lower the standard of living in Cuba, which will lower the amount of aid relief received by other Caribbean peoples.

She has helped weaken the concept of international law, which small countries like the Caribbean need more than ever.

She had weakened the concept of human rights by not standing up to the US as they murder her own citizens in boats off the shore.

All of these horrible betrayals of the people’s trust will be justified as well:

“If we didn’t do that, they would come at us harder.”

Cabello Warns Trinidad Against Allowing US Attacks on Venezuela: ‘We Will Respond’

No one has ever, ever, ever defeated a bully by giving them everything they want. Trinidad and Tobago must arrest Kamla, ship her off to the Hague for great war crimes against not just Trinidad, but the entire Caribbean and Venezuela. The new government needs to issue apologies to every other Caribbean nation for breaking the peace and dividing their unity.

And apologize to the Venezuelan people themselves, and T&T needs to have a fresh set of elections to dump the UNC, where President Maduro of Venezuela can greet the new, democratically elected prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, one who is not corrupt helping the Americans take prisoners of war, but will walk in cooperation with Venezuela to provide the oil and gas necessary to the entire region, so any and all can develop independently of any empire.

(Macdonald Stainsby)

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By José R. Cabañas Rodríguez – Jan 20, 2026

The State of the Union address, which takes place every year in the plenary session of the US House of Representatives, is a political exercise that has been used for decades to present the executive branch’s main proposals and concerns to the legislative branch. As political polarization has increased in that country, the staging has evolved into an exhibitionist platform, where, in addition to slogans, personalities are projected who appear the next day in the headlines of the main (mis)information media.

February 5, 2019, was the night Donald Trump took center stage for the second time. In 2018, he had devoted most of his presentation to economic and domestic policy issues, but twelve months later, he mentioned by name a group of countries he considered enemies and threats, namely China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea.

Two weeks earlier, his administration had “recognized” Juan Guaidó as “president” of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after concluding that the Venezuelan government had manipulated the results of the last elections.

National (in)security advisor John Bolton, the recycled Elliot Abrams, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who had taken full advantage of the Democratic threat of possible impeachment against Trump to negotiate protection for the president in the Intelligence Committee in exchange for more leeway in actions toward Latin America and the Caribbean.

In that space, Rubio developed very special personal relationships with Guaidó and his entourage. That is why he was primarily responsible for Guaidó’s “ambassador” in Washington, Carlos Vecchio, sitting in a privileged seat in the legislative chamber that night in 2019. Again and again, the self-employed diplomat looked at Trump in bewilderment, waiting for his moment in a speech in which he was never mentioned. He felt that this would be a unique opportunity to enter Washington society, so he sought some visual feedback from Rubio, who was sitting at the end of the room reserved for senators.

The Floridian, for his part, was so focused on his moment to take the stage that he did not applaud his president even once.

This and other events that occurred during those days fueled journalists and observers to repeat the idea that while Trump was in favor of a confrontation with the Bolivarian government, he did not fully “buy” Guaidó’s recipe, did not trust his potential leadership abilities, nor did he believe that he could be an essential factor in changing the state of affairs within Venezuela.

While Trump devoted most of his time to political survival, evading the tax authorities, and defending himself in various court cases, the aforementioned senator, using the banner of “anti-Chavism,” pressured bureaucrats and lulled gullible politicians into ensuring that the “Venezuelan government in exile” was strengthened through the granting of significant funds from federal budgets or through the theft of Venezuelan sovereign assets abroad.

Several investigations by US media and agencies have explained over the years since then how the whole exercise surrounding the formation and operation of the so-called Lima Group, the fuel for the guarimbas and violence within Venezuela, was in fact a business move to increase the personal capital of several of the puppets being manipulated from Washington, as well as that of their drivers. Some received a check for participating in the scam, others were more careful and were favored by “legal contributions” to their political campaigns in the US.

Those who moved around the sale of large Venezuelan properties, as was the case with the CITGO company, deserve a separate chapter. Rarely in history has an action by privateers and pirates such as this been better dressed up in the colors of business.

What has been succinctly described so far may be one of the reasons why, in his second term, Trump has been more careful about participating directly in the actions to be taken against Venezuela and in the peculiars of the tangible results of the operation.

Many have been surprised that on this occasion the US government has not taken the trouble to present to the world an alternative (credible or not) to the Bolivarian government, has spared itself the diatribe about a supposed regime change, and has placed a huge tombstone on those who in the last stage have self-appointed themselves in various capacities within an “alternative” Venezuelan executive.

This does not appear to be a matter of grand strategic reasoning, as everything indicates that the reasons for such a stance revolve around the old business axiom of costs versus benefits. Trump must have asked himself, why invest in a move where I get no direct benefit?

Kidnapping the head of state and his wife, threatening the rest of the country’s leaders, and reversing the situation to the moment before the sanctions he imposed in 2019 seemed like decisions that would allow him to pounce more decisively on Venezuela’s oil resources, propose the return of major corporations to the scene (charging them entry fees), and personally distribute the first contracts for the sale of Venezuelan crude oil on the US market.

Kremlin Demands Explanations from Trump over ‘Secret Weapon’ Used in Attack on Venezuela

This time, Marco, Juanes, and Carlos were left out of the pie. But within the group, some would be more exposed than others.

The former senator, now secretary of state and chief archivist, who shortly before the actions of January 3 had moved to a military base for security reasons, has tried to take some of the credit for the “success” of the actions against Venezuela, and thanks to his repeated threats against Cuba, he has earned the Trumpist merit of being suggested as a possible “future president” on the island. And the incredible thing is that the individual smiled at such a proposal.

This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump has stated in one way or another that he does not support Rubio in his aspirations to become a candidate for the presidency of the United States.

But the consequences of the events summarized here have another interpretation further south in the United States.

The former Florida senator has built almost his entire political career on the votes of those who believed that he supported a “Cuban cause” or a “Venezuelan cause.” The fact is that now, as secretary and advisor, he is part of a team that has taken an extreme position against immigrants, regardless of their origin and status. Moreover, in the case of Venezuela, the US executive branch is currently arguing that the conditions are in place for ALL migrants from that nation to return to their places of origin.

Rubio, designer of the Guaidó plan in 2019 and promoter of the Edmundo González-María Corina Machado duo in 2025, has now become co-author of a recipe in which the “opposition” has no place. The question then would be: how does this proposal work in the case of Cuba?

Will Marco be able to return to Miami-Dade to lead rallies of the so-called Cuban “opposition”? What distinction will he make between the “legitimate” candidates with Batista roots and those newcomers who declare themselves more Trumpist than Melania in order to find employment? How will he be able to argue that the little money left over from the former USAID should be used to finance organizations and figures that are considered part of “Cuba’s future”?

Images are multiplying of Venezuelan immigrants who come out to celebrate the coup against Maduro in the United States and are detained to be deported. There are also reports of Cubans with various immigration statuses who have nothing to celebrate, but who are also detained and threatened with possible deportation.

The Trump team’s new experiment with the Venezuelan reality is in its very early stages, and logically, the progress or regression of its proposals will depend greatly on Bolivarian resistance. At the end of 2026, the so-called midterm elections will take place, which could put the Republican president in a position to act in a minority in one or both houses of Congress.

These changes, and others, could cause Trump (as happened at the end of 2018) to use the domestic broom to cleanse his government of everything he considers disposable. Which of the current champions will be on the list?

(Resumen Latinoamericano – English)

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has hit back at US President Donald Trump's assertion at the World Economic Forum in Davos that "Canada lives because of the United States."

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It will provide up-to-date information on income and employment. Furthermore, it will help debunk misinformation and counter the cognitive warfare against the economy.

The President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, announced the launch of an official digital platform that will provide detailed information on the revenue the Venezuelan state receives from the sale of oil and minerals, as well as the specific use of these resources.

The initiative, promoted by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, seeks to establish a direct accountability system, without administrative intermediaries, free from bureaucratic practices, corruption, or negligence. The central objective is for citizens to be able to clearly verify how much money enters the country and how each amount is spent.

During a meeting of the Parliament’s Advisory Commission, Jorge Rodríguez explained that the purpose of the project is to offer updated and verifiable information “so that everyone knows everything that has come in and how every cent has been used.” He added that these digital tools will also serve to debunk false information and counter the “cognitive warfare” against the Venezuelan economy.

For her part, Delcy Rodríguez reported that the country recently received revenue from oil sales. She indicated that, of an initial amount of $500 million, $300 million has already been deposited into the state coffers, which will be allocated to strengthen workers’ incomes and protect their purchasing power, as part of the Executive’s social policy.

Venezuela: Acting President Rodríguez Secures US $300 Million in Oil Revenue to Shield Workers From Inflation (+Exchange Rate)

The Acting President also affirmed that the exploitation of natural resources throughout the national territory is aimed at guaranteeing the well-being and quality of life of the population.

In the legislative arena, Jorge Rodríguez announced that one of the 29 bills included on the National Assembly’s agenda will be the partial reform of the Hydrocarbons Law, proposed by Delcy Rodríguez during her annual address to the nation, in which she outlined the country’s new energy guidelines. It is currently in the initial stages of discussion.

The Speaker of Parliament emphasized that Productive Participation Contracts (CPPs), implemented under Venezuela’s Anti-Blockade Law, have been crucial in increasing oil production amidst international sanctions, and therefore their formal incorporation into the new legislation is being evaluated. These contracts allow partnerships between PDVSA and private or foreign companies, with investment recovery mechanisms and state oversight.

Rodríguez explained that, while in the past it was easier to attract capital to exploit already developed oil fields, the current challenge is to attract investment for so-called “green fields,” which require greater resources. To achieve this, he noted, it is essential to offer conditions that guarantee profitability and protection for investors, while maintaining national sovereignty over the resources.

The Speaker of the Assembly insisted that oil wealth must translate into concrete social benefits, such as schools, hospitals, housing, road infrastructure, and technological development. “Oil underground is useless,” he stated.

Finally, he noted that every legislative process includes an initial discussion on the principles and scope of the law, followed by a public consultation phase, and subsequently, a second discussion article by article. In that regard, he reiterated that the most innovative aspects of the bill will be linked to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and new forms of trade cooperation aimed at strengthening the country’s energy production.

(TeleSUR)

From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

Traitors, agents of foreign powers, and hitmen with superior electronics and sophisticated weapons interfere with communications, murder dozens of our compatriots, kidnap the elected president, defame him, and prepare for the transition by dividing up the country behind closed doors. The spoils are not bad at all: the largest fossil fuel reserves on the planet, stolen without asking the opinion of their owner, the sovereign [Venezuelan] people.

A human avalanche interrupts the looting and reinstates the legitimate authorities. They brandish their secret weapon before the cameras: a little blue book called the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We are, of course, talking about April, 2002. That Fundamental Law is still in force. Let us consult it.

The question arises of whether a foreign leader, who does not even speak our language, can dictate policy to Venezuela and its authorities. In this regard, the Constitution states: “Article 1. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is irrevocably free and independent and founds its moral patrimony and values of liberty, equality, justice, and international peace on the doctrine of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator. Independence, liberty, sovereignty, immunity, territorial integrity, and national self-determination are inalienable rights of the Nation. Article 5. Sovereignty resides inalienably in the people, who exercise it directly in the manner provided for in this Constitution and in the law, and indirectly, through suffrage, through the organs that exercise public power. State organs emanate from popular sovereignty and are subject to it.”

The Constitution clarifies who owns the mineral wealth that a certain foreign leader considers we have “stolen” and which he will “take charge of” until he sees fit: “Article 12. Mining and hydrocarbon deposits, whatever their nature, existing in the national territory, under the territorial sea bed, in the exclusive economic zone, and on the continental shelf, belong to the Republic, are public property, and are therefore inalienable and imprescriptible. The sea coasts are public property.”

Let us ask ourselves whether the murder, without prior declaration of war, of nearly a hundred defenseless fishermen and another hundred of our brothers and sisters is sufficient grounds for the people or authorities to collaborate with the invaders in the destruction of the Republic. In this regard, our Constitution states: “Article 25. Any act carried out in the exercise of public power that violates or undermines the rights guaranteed by this Constitution and the law is null and void, and the public officials who order or execute it incur criminal, civil, and administrative liability, as the case may be, without the excuse of receiving orders from superiors.”

The foreign leader who ordered this series of mass murders declares that Venezuelan oil “belongs to him” and that he will “take charge of it,” as if the kidnapping of an official made him the owner of assets that belong only to the Republic, that is, to the Venezuelan people. In this regard, our Constitution states: “Article 156. The National Public Power has jurisdiction over: 16. The regime and administration of mines and hydrocarbons, the regime of uncultivated lands, and the conservation, promotion, and use of the country’s forests, soils, waters, and other natural resources. The National Executive may not grant mining concessions for an indefinite period (…)“. And for further clarification: ”Article 302. The State reserves, through the respective organic law and for reasons of national convenience, oil activity and other industries, exploitations, services, and assets of public interest and strategic nature. (…)”.

If foreign leaders and capitalists plunder such assets for their own personal gain, the social, economic, educational, welfare, and cultural rights of all Venezuelans recognized by the Constitution will be rendered inapplicable due to a lack of resources.

Does the bombing, massacre, and invasion of our territory grant the criminal the authority to impose measures contrary to our laws and the Constitution? In this regard, the Fundamental Law states: “Article 138. Any usurped authority is ineffective and its acts are null and void.”

Should we tolerate such usurpation? Our inviolable Fundamental Law answers us: “Article 130. Venezuelans have the duty to honor and defend their homeland, its symbols, and cultural values, and to safeguard and protect the sovereignty, nationality, territorial integrity, self-determination, and interests of the Nation. (…) Article 333. This Constitution shall not lose its validity if it ceases to be observed by an act of force or because it is repealed by any means other than those provided for therein. In such an event, every citizen, whether vested with authority or not, shall have the duty to assist in restoring its effective validity.”

We have been victims of an aggressive war. Until a peace treaty is signed, no diplomatic relations will be established, nor can any agreements of any kind be made with the aggressor.

[…]

The only legal effect of the reprehensible and repudiated invasion, apart from the destruction of lives and property, is the illegitimate kidnapping of the Head of State, the massacre of more than two hundred compatriots, and the civil and criminal liability resulting from such crimes. Crime does not engender rights, only punishment.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Translated and slightly abridged by Venezuelanalysis.

Source: Rebelión

The post Invasion and Constitution appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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At the second Cabinet Council of 2026, Venezuela’s government reaffirmed its push to move forward with two new sovereign oil funds aimed at supporting social programs, infrastructure, and public services.

This Wednesday, Cabinet Council No. 758 was held at Miraflores Palace. The council was chaired by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez. The meeting brought together the ministerial cabinet and vice presidents to address priority issues for the country’s economic development and to ensure peace for the Venezuelan people.

This was the second Cabinet Council held in 2026 following the events of January 3—the previous one took place on January 5—and sought to establish new strategies to confront current challenges and integrate newly appointed authorities.

During the meeting, Rodríguez reiterated the government’s commitment to the two new sovereign oil funds recently announced. The first, the Fund for Development and Social Protection, aims to improve workers’ incomes and benefit productive and commercial sectors.

The second, the Infrastructure and Services Fund, is designed to underpin economic and social development through investment in basic services.

Rodríguez also referred to gas exports: “We said it, we announced that we would export the first molecule of gas, and we are fulfilling that promise. We are delivering for President Maduro and for our people.”

“That is the path,” she added. “We have achieved it through our own sacrifice. Because the gas being exported was produced by PDVSA through its own efforts, just as it reached production levels of 1.2 million barrels per day—levels not seen since 2015.

She also addressed gasoline production: “As I informed the country yesterday, all the gasoline consumed in 2025 was produced domestically by PDVSA [Venezuela’s publicly owned petroleum company]. And that must continue to be the path. That is the best example.”

“It is not about PDVSA using foreign currency to import gasoline. That is not what we want. What we want is for those foreign-currency earnings to go toward Venezuela’s social and economic development, through the creation of the sovereign funds I announced for the country,” she said.

As the acting president explained on January 15, when she announced the sovereign funds during the presentation of the 2025 Annual Report to the National Assembly, the measure seeks to ensure that hydrocarbon revenues are transformed directly into benefits for the population, establishing a financing mechanism that prioritizes the country’s most urgent needs amid economic pressure.

On that occasion, she ordered the creation of a technological platform to oversee the use of these resources and ensure transparency in their distribution.

According to Rodríguez, this step is essential to consolidate economic sovereignty and shield the country from external aggression.

Venezuela: Acting President Rodríguez Secures US $300 Million in Oil Revenue to Shield Workers From Inflation (+Exchange Rate)

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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The Russian presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, stated this Wednesday that Moscow expects to hear explanations from US President Donald Trump regarding the weapons that according to Trump, “no one else has” and that were allegedly used during the attack against Venezuela on January 3.

“We will have to listen to the explanations of what the president of the United States means,” Peskov said and noted that the relevant Kremlin services are already working to gather information and analyze Trump’s statements.

The US president claimed in an interview with a local outlet that Washington possesses “weapons that nobody knows about,” referring to an alleged “sonic cannon” used during the attack on Caracas and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump boasted about the military operation: “Two weeks ago, you saw weapons nobody had ever heard of. They couldn’t fire a single shot at us.” According to his account, Venezuela’s defense systems were left “completely disorganized” and failed to respond to the offensive.

The US attack, carried out under the pretext of fighting “narco-terrorism,” targeted Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, leaving at least 100 people dead, including 32 Cuban military personnel who were guarding the Venezuelan head of state. Their bodies were repatriated and honored in Havana, where President Miguel Díaz-Canel remembered them as “giants, even in their final battle.”

Caracas described the operation as a “grave military aggression” and stated that Washington’s real objective is to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources—particularly oil and minerals—by forcibly undermining the nation’s sovereignty.

Trump, for his part, attempted to justify the action as a “surgical” strike, although he did not notify the US Congress, prompting domestic criticism over violations of constitutional procedures.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that Venezuela must be ensured the right to decide its own destiny without external interference. China also called for the immediate release of President Maduro and Cilia Flores.

By demanding explanations, the Kremlin made it clear that Trump’s display of military power represents a threat to Venezuela and to international stability by introducing “never-before-seen” weapons.

Analysts note that Trump’s boasting in Davos seeks to project an image of strength but has triggered global backlash due to violations of international law and the dangerous precedent set by the capture of a sitting president.

Trump Boasts Disproportionate Use of Force During Assault on Venezuela, ‘Unprecedented Weapons’ Use

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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Every day, President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a morning presidential press conference and Mexico Solidarity Media posts English language summaries, translated by Mexico Solidarity’s Pedro Gellert Frank. Previous press conference summaries are available here.

Mexico Engages in a Firm Dialogue on the International Stage

President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that she will seek a dialogue with Mark Carney and Donald Trump to advance the trade agreement. She announced that Minister of Foreign Relations Marcelo Ebrard will travel to Washington next week and that an inter-ministerial team is already working to follow up on the security understanding with its North American counterparts.

Economy Closes 2025 with Stronger Performance

Sheinbaum showed the front page of El Financiero, highlighting that the economy closed 2025 with better results and with 2.3% growth anticipated in December, driven by services. “Good news,” she emphasized.

Addressing Root Causes Reduces Violence in Puebla

Advances in Addressing the Root Causes of Crime in Puebla were reported. These include thousands of peace roundtable sessions, over a thousand agreements, community actions such as reforestation, and the Yes to Disarming, Yes to Peace program. During the same period, a 41% reduction in intentional homicides in the state was reported.

Sheinbaum Promotes Reconstruction in Puebla

The President announced an investment of 2.50 billion pesos (US$140 million) for reconstruction in Puebla following the October 2025 torrential rainfall and flooding, as part of a federal plan exceeding 13 billion pesos (US$740 million). Actions include infrastructure work projects, river recovery, and a house-by-house census to relocate 2,267 families in at-risk areas.

Electoral Reform to Return Power to the People

The Ministry of the Interior thanked those who participated in the Electoral Reform forums, emphasizing that the goal is to strengthen democracy and popular participation. New election mechanisms are being analyzed so that minority representations emerge from society itself and not from party elites, along with a review of the number of congressional deputies. The bill is expected to be presented in February.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 22

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on tough talkin’, economic update, Puebla violence, Puebla flooding reconstruction and electoral reform.

• 

  News Briefs

  Progressive International’s Emergency Nuestra América Summit Arrives at Critical Juncture for Latin American Unity

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Beset by disunity, cynical calculation, tepid reformism and an ascendant ultra-right, Latin America and the Caribbean must unite against a US imperialism which aims to snuff out any emancipatory possibilities and subjugate the continent once and for all.

• 

  Analysis | Uncategorized

  No Happy Ending for 2025

  January 22, 2026

  If public investment continues to decline, the economy & employment will be highly vulnerable, and the foundations for sustained growth will not be laid. At best, we will remain a vast assembly plant; at worst, a country without decent employment opportunities.

The post People’s Mañanera January 22 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The Progressive International’s upcoming January 24th and 25th summit in Bogotá, Colombia hopes to bring the organizational power that created the Hague Group to bear on the continental crisis of Latin America unity.

Only 12 years ago in Havana, CELAC’s second summit resulted in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, that (however incomplete given the continuing blockade of Cuba, hybrid warfare against Nicaragua and Venezuela and the subjugation of Haiti by US imperialism) marked a high point in concerted political action.

David Adler

From the first air-strike by the US military of a small fishing boat in the Caribbean in September of last year to the US interference in elections in Honduras and Argentina, and with US imperialism’s National Security Strategy identifying the Western Hemisphere as its territory, Latin American political coordination has been missing in action. Latin American leadership, social organizations and movements were left scrambling to coordinate a response after the outrageous kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and First Combatant Celia Flores of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which the Progressive International cites as the impetus for this emergeny summit, “alongside heightened threats throughout the region.” In many cases, the response from Latin American reformist governments was dismal, praying for a respect for international law (and the United Nations) that even Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently admitted two days at Davos was an advantageous fiction for partners of US imperialism, and a bloody, hypocritical reality for its victims. While there have been bright organizing spots, such as Mexico’s united front against US imperialism, Nuestra América will hopefully initiate coordination at a higher-level to solidifiy the movement for solidarity against US imperialism that will bring together states, unions, social movements and organizations.

Mexico Solidarity Media‘s Seth Garben will be covering the emergency summit, as well as José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth from Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast.

Announcing the summit, David Adler, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International and conference chair, said: “The United States is rapidly escalating its assault on the Americas — and the principle of self-determination at large. Under the banner of the Monroe Doctrine, Donald Trump and his cronies are leading a campaign of imperial aggression that stretches from Caracas to Havana, Mexico City to Bogotá.”

“The time has come to defend Nuestra América. In Bogotá, we will honor the legacies of leaders like Simón Bolívar, Benito Juárez, and José Martí by articulating a common plan of action to defend the unity of the Americas and the liberty of its peoples from the tyranny of foreign domination.”

Opening the convening alongside Progressive International Co-General Coordinator David Adler will be Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, who will proceed to present the government’s policies to counter drug trafficking and agrarian development.. Over two days of closed deliberations and public events, participants will move through three core phases: a collective reading of the current crisis, a strategic discussion on hemispheric cooperation, and a tactical exploration of concrete pathways for action. The process is expected to culminate in a shared Declaration as the beginning of an ongoing political project.

Delegates include Daniel Rojas, Minister of Education of Colombia; Andrés Arauz, former presidential candidate of Ecuador; Christian Duarte, Secretary of Finance of Honduras; Bill de Blasio, former Mayor of New York City; Thiago Ávila of Brazil’s Global Sumud Flotilla; Colombian Senator María José Pizarro; Clémence Guetté, Vice President of the French National Assembly; Spanish Deputy Gerardo Pisarello; Uruguayan Senator Bettiana Díaz; Cuban Ambassador Carlos de Céspedes; Walter Baier, President of the European Left Party; Mexican Deputy Andrea Navarro; Jorge Taiana, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina; Martha Carvajalino, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia; Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International and Executive Secretary of The Hague Group, among many others.

Beyond internal deliberations, the summit will open to the public with an evening assembly at Teatro Colón in Bogotá, inviting wider audiences into a shared political horizon for the hemisphere—one grounded in dignity, solidarity, and the right of peoples to determine their own futures.

Nuestra América is conceived not as a one-off event, but as an evolving process: a space to rebuild the bonds between peoples and institutions across borders, and to forge a collective response to threats that no country can confront alone.

As the pressures facing the Americas intensify, Bogotá becomes the meeting point for a simple proposition: that the future of the hemisphere must be decided by its peoples—and defended together.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 22

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on tough talkin’, economic update, Puebla violence, Puebla flooding reconstruction and electoral reform.

• 

  News Briefs

  Progressive International’s Emergency Nuestra América Summit Arrives at Critical Juncture for Latin American Unity

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Beset by disunity, cynical calculation, tepid reformism and an ascendant ultra-right, Latin America and the Caribbean must unite against a US imperialism which aims to snuff out any emancipatory possibilities and subjugate the continent once and for all.

• 

  Analysis | Uncategorized

  No Happy Ending for 2025

  January 22, 2026

  If public investment continues to decline, the economy & employment will be highly vulnerable, and the foundations for sustained growth will not be laid. At best, we will remain a vast assembly plant; at worst, a country without decent employment opportunities.

The post Progressive International’s Emergency Nuestra América Summit Arrives at Critical Juncture for Latin American Unity appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Saul Escobar Toledo originally appeared in the January 21, 2026 edition of El Sur Acapulco.

According to data released by INEGI in recent days, the Mexican economy did not finish the year well. Let’s
first consider the indicators for gross fixed investment, as these largely explain the problems we faced last
year. Through October, this sector showed a year-on-year decline of 5.8 percent. According to other reports
(Siller), this marked fourteen consecutive months of contraction. For the entire year, the decrease is expected
to reach 7.1 percent. It should be noted that investment in machinery and equipment fell by 10.3 percent
between October 2024 and the same month in 2025. Most worryingly, public investment decreased by 20.2
percent, particularly in the construction industry, with a drop of almost 31 percent. Meanwhile, private
investment fell by a total of 4.9 percent: it increased by 0.8 percent in the construction industry, although
purchases of machinery and equipment shrank by 10.2 percent.

The behavior of these indicators was reflected in employment. In the manufacturing industry, the reduction in
personnel was 2.73 percent through November. The impact was strongest in the manufacture of transportation
equipment (-7.44 percent) and the manufacture of machinery and equipment (-6.05 percent).

Not all export manufacturing sectors experienced a decrease in total employment. The manufacture of
computer equipment, communications equipment, and electronic components saw an increase of 2.75 percent.
This is because exports of computer equipment to the United States have boosted the growth of Mexico’s total
exports. Thanks to the low tariffs on these products, Mexico is replacing imports from other Asian countries, mainly China. It is estimated that the value (in dollars) of these products experienced an annual growth of 84.39 percent, paying a tariff of 0.27 percent as of September, while exports of passenger cars accumulated a drop of 7.26 percent, paying a tariff of 14.97 percent as of September.

Two unfortunate events coincided last year: Trump’s tariff policy and the Mexican government’s adjustment of public spending, which resulted in a reduction in both public and total investment.

However, manufacturing establishments in the maquiladora industry (IMEX program) also reduced their workforce by 3.3 percent between November 2024 and the same month in 2025.

Thus, according to data from the third quarter of 2025, the number of salaried and wage-earning workers had decreased by more than 225,000, while the number of informal sector workers employed in unregistered micro-businesses—such as street vendors, domestic service providers, and various producers and artisans—increased by more than 800,000 (not including paid domestic work, those working in companies and government without social security, and agricultural workers).

Undoubtedly, the United States’ confusing, aggressive, and unpredictable trade policy has affected Mexican exports to that country and, consequently, investments in machinery and equipment, severely impacting formal employment. The boom anticipated years ago with the aforementioned “nearshoring” has been declining, although not for all products. Mexico’s attempt to replace China as the main exporter of manufactured goods to the United States has met with only partial success. Despite becoming their most important supplier, some products
have seen declines while others have experienced increased production, but overall, the effects for Mexico have not translated into significant growth.

The drops in investment in machinery, equipment, and the construction industry, and their impact on manufacturing employment, were decisive for the economy as a whole. Last year, GDP growth is estimated at 0.6 percent or less, far from the 1.5-2.3 percent forecast by the Ministry of Finance. The manufacturing sector, for its part, had contracted by 0.8 percent through November.

These figures show that two unfortunate events coincided last year: Trump’s tariff policy, which particularly affected exports of transportation equipment; and the Mexican government’s adjustment of public spending, which resulted in a reduction in both public and total investment. Consequently, the economy stagnated, and salaried employment declined, with a resulting increase in informal work. This coincidence, therefore, has an internal component that affects the entire productive apparatus. If the recessionary trend in public investment continues, Mexico will remain stagnant, even if manufactured exports grow, which is also uncertain until the effects of the USMCA negotiations dissipate, and perhaps even afterward, if Trump maintains his erratic policies.

However, in addition to these two short-term factors that emerged last year, there are long-term, structural causes that have affected the economy and employment. The export-oriented manufacturing industry continues to lose ground because it is increasingly reliant on imported inputs. In other words, many components of the final product are not produced domestically.

According to data provided by El Economista, in the third quarter of 2025, the industrial sector’s GDP represented 30.8 percent of total output, while manufacturing accounted for 20.4 percent. In 2018, these figures were 32.6 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively. Looking at data from 2000, the decline is even more pronounced, as in that year the industrial sector represented 37.9 percent and manufacturing 23.2 percent. This indicates a long-term trend of deindustrialization despite the boom in manufactured exports.

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) asserts that by 2025, Mexico had consolidated its position as a regional leader in exports. “We are,” it states, “the leading exporter of the top 20 high-tech products, such as light gasoline-powered vehicles and digital processing units (computers), with a value exceeding $600 billion.” This amount surpasses, for example, that of Brazil, whose total exports amounted to nearly $350 billion.

However, the added value of our exports is very low, meaning that Mexico produces these goods, to a large extent, using parts and components imported from the United States. This also affects domestic consumption: although wages are rising (especially minimum wages and, to a lesser extent, contractual wages), formal employment is growing very little, while informal and vulnerable jobs are increasing.

Thus, when cyclical factors are added to this structural trend, the result is economic stagnation (and the risk of a recession), in addition to a reduction in formal employment in absolute numbers.

The Mexican economy not only requires certainty in its relations with the United States; it also urgently needs greater public investment and an industrial policy that encourages manufacturing sectors that supply inputs and equipment to industries serving the export market and domestic consumption. Increased public spending on the infrastructure necessary for economic expansion is also essential, including building more ports, highways, railways, and energy sources (especially clean ones). Likewise, more substantial support for research, technological
development, and higher education is needed. And, of course, the infrastructure that directly serves the population—hospitals, schools, and urban services—must be maintained. If public investment continues to decline, the economy and employment will be highly vulnerable to external shocks, and the foundations for sustained growth will not be laid. At best, we will remain a vast assembly plant; at worst, a country without decent employment opportunities for Mexicans.

• 

  Analysis | Uncategorized

  No Happy Ending for 2025

  January 22, 2026

  If public investment continues to decline, the economy & employment will be highly vulnerable, and the foundations for sustained growth will not be laid. At best, we will remain a vast assembly plant; at worst, a country without decent employment opportunities.

• 

  Analysis

  Why Chicanas & Chicanos Must Defend Venezuela

  January 22, 2026

  Simultaneous attacks on Venezuela and our communities via the criminal actions of ICE and the Border Patrol expose the twin pillars of the Trump/MAGA project.

• 

  News Briefs

  Saúl Morán Oropeza, Unwavering Communist, Defender of the Poor & the People of Guerrero’s Red Mountain

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Saúl didn’t remain at the level of words or ideologies, but transformed his convictions into daily action, traveling through communities and fighting to ensure that the voice of his people was heard.

The post No Happy Ending for 2025 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The Trump administration’s assault on US Latino communities has expanded into military aggression against Venezuela and the criminal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

In his press conference after the attack, Trump continued to use racist distortions and lies to justify military-type attacks on our Chicano/a communities, using terror to assert control — domestically and internationally. His “Donroe Doctrine” signals the broader aim to dominate the Americas and reminds us Chicanos/as that US imperialism and racial repression are inextricably linked to our historical experiences with colonialism and imperialism. In 1848, the US waged a war of conquest against Mexico and stole more than half its territories to secure the region’s vast deposits of coal, oil and other precious minerals and to establish Pacific Coast ports. Given our roots in Mexico, we know what suffering US military aggression means.

Trump also implied that invading Venezuela is “for their own good.” Sound familiar? Let’s remember what happened to the Mexican and Native American people in the annexed territory — the oppressive laws, poor schools, denial of political representation, repression of language and culture, vigilante and police brutality, seizure of property and more. Today, as we face these ongoing inequalities, our lives have much in common with marginalized and colonized people throughout the world.

US imperialism and racial repression are inextricably linked to Chicanos’ historical experiences with colonialism and imperialism.

Let’s be clear. The illegal invasion has nothing to do with drug trafficking and everything to do with controlling Venezuela’s oil reserves. We must unite with the world in opposing this outrageous attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty; we applaud Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for her courageous and outspoken stance in opposing this imperialist assault.

Like the people of Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, also threatened by Trump, we Chicanos/as have a proud history of resistance, a legacy of a long and creative movement for democracy, equality and self-determination. Today, we proudly express our solidarity by demanding the immediate end of attacks on Venezuela, release of its president and his wife and full reparations for the death and destruction caused by US intervention.

The simultaneous attacks on Venezuela and our communities via the criminal actions of ICE and the Border Patrol expose the twin pillars of the Trump/MAGA project — imperial aggression and domestic oppression. Their strategy aims to destroy what remains of US democracy, enabling their billionaire backers to exploit both the US and Latin America.

Now more than ever, we say, “Ya Basta!” and “ICE out of our communities!” and “Hands off Venezuela!”

¡Sí Se Puede!

• 

  Analysis

  Why Chicanas & Chicanos Must Defend Venezuela

  January 22, 2026

  Simultaneous attacks on Venezuela and our communities via the criminal actions of ICE and the Border Patrol expose the twin pillars of the Trump/MAGA project.

• 

  News Briefs

  Saúl Morán Oropeza, Unwavering Communist, Defender of the Poor & the People of Guerrero’s Red Mountain

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Saúl didn’t remain at the level of words or ideologies, but transformed his convictions into daily action, traveling through communities and fighting to ensure that the voice of his people was heard.

• 

  Culture | News Briefs

  Greater Palestine Raises its Voice & Brings Visibility to the Gaza Genocide

  January 22, 2026

  The film, by Rafael Rangel and Mahmoud M. Zaqout and in close collaboration with 12 Palestinian photographers, exposes the human cruelty of imperialism against the Palestinian nation.

The post Why Chicanas & Chicanos Must Defend Venezuela appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This article originally appeared in the January 20, 2026 edition of Tlachinollan.

Saúl Morán Oropeza was born on January 24, 1971, on the slopes of Júba Xugwá hill, in the community of Encino Roble, municipality of Malinaltepec, Guerrero. Son of the teacher Telésforo Morán Morán and Mrs. Guadalupe Oropeza Flores. He took his first steps amidst the mist at the foot of Lucerna hill.

Inequality and poverty hit like a whip. He had to plant corn, beans, and squash to feed himself. He worked hard to study elementary, middle, and high school. He went on to earn a degree in economics from the Faculty of Economics at the then University-People of Guerrero (Autonomous University of Guerrero-UAGro) in Chilpancingo de los Bravo.

From a young age, he learned to walk uphill. He understood that life in the mountains demands discipline, courage, dignity, and solidarity. Young Saúl felt injustice firsthand: poverty, discrimination, marginalization, and hunger marked his surroundings. This reality forged his firm, noble, and combative character. Over the years, he became a tireless social activist, always walking alongside his people, defending the most vulnerable, and demanding transparency, justice, and unity. His commitment wasn’t confined to an office; it was one of constant action, bridging the gap between communities and institutions, translating the deepest needs of farmers, producers, and citizens into solid petitions, ensuring their demands were heard and respected.

In social struggle and academic, political, and ideological training, he was a militant in the Union of Revolutionary Youth of Mexico, the Popular Revolutionary Front, and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Mexico at the national level. He didn’t remain at the level of words or ideologies: he transformed his convictions into daily action, traveling through communities, organizing assemblies, and fighting to ensure that the voice of his people was heard. His commitment was to the land and to resistance, confronting the lack of services and the historical marginalization of the region. He was part of the Guerrero Council for 500 Years of Indigenous, Black, and Popular Resistance, and participated in the activities promoted by the EZLN; the CETEG-CNTE; the FACMLN; the FCISP (now FASU-ENADI); the National Dialogue; and other national and local unity processes of articulation and united fronts, such as the APPO. He was always on the side of the CRAC-PC. In Spain, he participated in the International Meeting of Antifascist and Anti-imperialist Youth and promoted Proletarian Internationalism.

As part of the Central and State Committee of the FPR, he participated in the National Struggle Days that, from Guerrero, were promoted in the form of Caravans that were carried out walking from the City of Chilpancingo to Mexico City to demand works and social benefits necessary for the marginalized communities of the state of Guerrero and other entities of the Republic and that at one time, he interacted in territory together with the Assemblies of the Peoples in Defense of the Land of San Salvador Atenco.

In 2000, together with the FPR, he lobbied the Japanese Embassy, ​​finally securing funding in 2005 for a space for the producers of the Montaña region. This achievement was the result of marches, pressure, and resistance against evictions and neglect by the state and federal governments. His struggle was non-negotiable: he was always on the side of the most vulnerable.

In the public sphere, from 1997 to 1999 he served as Municipal Treasurer of Malinaltepec, demonstrating that the people’s resources must be managed with honesty, transparency and integrity, always with a vision of regional and solidarity-based transcendence.

He also actively participated in the defense of the territory against extractive projects. On October 8, 2012, he took part in the La Ciénega uprising, playing a fundamental role in the formation of the Regional Council of Agrarian Authorities in Defense of the Territory (CRAADET), opposing mining and the imposition of the Biosphere Reserve. She participated in the march from La Ciénega to the Intercultural University of the State of Guerrero to clarify and overturn the decree creating the biosphere reserve in La Ciénega, an act of dignity and resistance.

Saúl Morán, defender of the peoples of the Guerrero Mountains, is laid to rest.

Following Hurricanes Manuel and Ingrid in 2013, Saúl helped form the Council of Affected Mountain Communities, registering affected families and demanding the reconstruction of homes and the distribution of corn. He spearheaded the “Let It Rain Corn for the Mountain” program, developed by the communities themselves. When state and national authorities failed to respond, he was at the forefront of marches and blockades, defending the right to food and housing.

Saúl always stood in solidarity with the fight for justice, as in the defense of Arnulfo Cerón Soriano, participating with unwavering resolve in marches and rallies. He was also present at the first demonstrations in Tlapa demanding the safe return of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, his voice always resonating with an echo of dignity and hope.

On August 30, 2020, he was imprisoned in the community of Alacatlatzala due to the agrarian conflict that has persisted for over 52 years. He nearly lost his life, but, true to his principles, he was willing to give his life to defend his territory. He also opposed the imposition of the National Guard in the region, convinced that the armed forces do not protect the people, but rather oppress, inflict violence, and sow fear. Therefore, he always championed community organization, dialogue, and negotiation as the true path to resolving conflicts.

In the institutional sphere, he worked as a technician at IEEJAG-INEA and in the SEGALMEX program, leaving his mark, always with a social and community vision.

His efforts were pivotal for the community’s development. In 2001, he secured the installation of a potable water pipeline and the construction of a water tank. In 2004, he oversaw the expansion of electricity service to the Dos Palos neighborhood in La Ciénega. From 2012 to 2013, he served as the alternate commissioner of La Ciénega. From 2012 to 2015, he was the second-in-command of the San Marcos church committee.

In 2017–2018, he was a member of the La Ciénega Bullring Board committee. For four consecutive years, he hosted the traditional Christmas posada, a tradition that concluded in 2021.

From 2019 to 2020, he served as the constitutional municipal commissioner of La Ciénega, overseeing the completion of the new municipal police station. Before completing his term, he joined the committee of the IMSS-BIENESTAR Health Center.

Saúl was not only a social activist and administrator, but also a singer-songwriter and composer, using music as a tool for cultural resistance. Among his most notable works are: El Zopilotero, Le canto a Malinaltepec, Nimetso Ninguana, ¿Qué será de mi pueblo?, À’gò Kuitsìn, Hombre pequeño, Leso, Abuelos, La Ciénega, Tátà Bègò, and Toro Rabón.

Saúl Morán Oropeza passed away on January 12, 2026. His legacy will endure as that of an upright man, a committed social activist, and a historical figure in the struggle for justice, dignity, and unity for the people of the Guerrero mountains. Throughout his life, he never fought for personal gain, but rather dedicated his time, effort, and dreams to improving his region, always with the collective well-being in mind, envisioning a more just future filled with opportunities for his people.

“I went walking and what I became…” Silvio Rodríguez

Ink to my commander

The ink I write to my commander
is born from the river in my chest,
it brings your name to the present
like a cry that knows no silence.

May these words spread
like pollen and flow with the force of the river,
engraving your name on the skin of this land,
dignity, struggle, and resistance, germinating.

The strumming of your guitar,
a thousand nuances of your voice
travel through the winds of the red mountain.

There you are,
in the last second,
showing that dignity
is not negotiable,
it is defended with an intact soul,
until the last breath.

My motto, and my flag.
A grave and sharp note,
like life itself.

Until victory, always, my commander, rest in peace!

Biyú Natsé 2026

• 

  News Briefs

  Saúl Morán Oropeza, Unwavering Communist, Defender of the Poor & the People of Guerrero’s Red Mountain

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Saúl didn’t remain at the level of words or ideologies, but transformed his convictions into daily action, traveling through communities and fighting to ensure that the voice of his people was heard.

• 

  Culture | News Briefs

  Greater Palestine Raises its Voice & Brings Visibility to the Gaza Genocide

  January 22, 2026

  The film, by Rafael Rangel and Mahmoud M. Zaqout and in close collaboration with 12 Palestinian photographers, exposes the human cruelty of imperialism against the Palestinian nation.

• 

  Analysis

  Old Wine, New Bottles?

  January 21, 2026January 21, 2026

  While the share of wages in national income has increased in Mexico, trade liberalization, displacement of domestic production by imports, high interest rates & waning public spending hamper growth & maintain continuity with the much-maligned neoliberal period.

The post Saúl Morán Oropeza, Unwavering Communist, Defender of the Poor & the People of Guerrero’s Red Mountain appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This article by Ana Mónica Rodríguez originally appeared in the January 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Greater Palestine is screening at Cineteca Nacional de México in Mexico City, 20h45 on January 30. (Av. México Coyoacán #389, Col. Xoco, Benito Juárez, 03330, Ciudad de México) Special guests include Palestinian Ambassador to Mexico Nadya Rasheed and Palestinian solidarity activist and philosopher Silvana Rabinovitch.

Rafael Rangel’s “experiential cinema” will once again raise its voice and bring visibility to the genocide in Gaza with the conviction “not to stop talking about Palestine for a single minute.”

The film Greater Palestine” which the director describes as a documentary-essay, will premiere on January 30th at the National Film Archive and will run indefinitely. This film exposes the human cruelty inflicted upon this nation, ruthlessly devastated by Israel.

“The director of photography Mahmoud M. Zaqout and I began filming a trilogy about Palestine in 2023 with Gaza: The Strip of Extermination, followed by Greater Palestine in 2025. It will be three years or more dedicated to narrating the atrocities suffered by our Palestinian brothers,” Rangel explained about the feature film that had three special screenings last October at the Clavijero Cultural Center in Morelia, Michoacán.

Rangel told La Jornada that he and Mahmoud are preparing the third documentary in this series about Gaza. “We’ve been working on it for about four months, and the title will be Trilogy of a Genocide: Memoirs. It’s regrettable that the conflict and the tragedy have continued, but as long as they do, we will keep addressing the issue because no Western media outlet is covering it from the Palestinian perspective.”

Regarding the documentary Greater Palestine, he said: “I define it as experiential because it shows how people are living; there are no expert voices, but rather those of ordinary people who are experiencing the genocide firsthand.”

In Greater Palestine, which consists of a prologue, seven chapters and an epilogue, the events that occurred after the announcement of the ceasefire on January 19, 2025, are presented, with a recounting that concludes on March 23 of the same year, when the Mexican director closed the large amount of original material that he recovered and gathered with the work and collaboration of 12 Palestinian photographers, who could not leave Gaza.

“With the exception of Abdel Majid, from Jordan, Mar Jardiel, from Barcelona, ​​and Jimena Rangel, from Mexico, the rest of the team is made up of around 25 Palestinians who have demonstrated remarkable strength, determination and commitment, making it possible to make these documentaries under conditions that drastically exceed human limits.”

Written and produced by Rangel, with cinematography by Mahmoud, the documentary was made despite the challenges of distance and the inability to enter the territory. “Gaza remained closed, as did Rafah and the Egyptian-Palestinian border; even on the northern side, access was also impossible; so we began to assemble, edit, and reformulate the documentary’s content according to how events were unfolding, especially given that the Palestinians remained trapped and were not allowed to leave.”

Despair grew and “it became a journey to hell, something totally dark, when Israel resumed the bombing and genocide; in addition to preventing the access of humanitarian aid. Then, the narrative took a dramatic and tragic turn from what Mahmound and I thought, from what this documentary would be,” Rangel said.

Since we were prevented from leaving and entering the enclave, “we managed to make the documentary through daily work and by linking up in the early morning all the participants, from three or four countries, all with different languages, joining this audiovisual project.”

He added: “80 percent of the material is original and the other 20 percent comes from people who contributed images captured with their cell phones; they are not professional photographers, but people from Palestine who allowed us to use them and, without hesitation, they were also paid what they considered to be the price” of those images.

The filmmaker acknowledged that it was humanly impossible for the production to be in all the areas where the genocide is taking place and gathered all that material “to stick to reality as much as possible and get closer to the facts that are happening” without respite in the Gaza Strip.

If the terrible story begins in January 2025 with the supposed ceasefire, Rangel closed the content of the material “when the murder of the rescuers happened; the video with which the documentary ended is original from one of the volunteers, 23 years old, which has great value not only testimonial, but thanks to him the argument of the Israeli militia was denied and broken.”

At the end, below the credits, I included a final scene about a topic I didn’t have time to cover. It was the humanitarian aid trap set by Israel and the United States, which was used to murder those who were going to receive it. It’s a short clip, with a powerful image.

It was symbolic to include this stark image of a truck returning full of Palestinians, empty-handed and carrying the corpses of innocent, unarmed, starving men who went for humanitarian aid and returned with nothing.”

It’s worth mentioning that during the three special screenings of the documentary at the Clavijero Cultural Center in Morelia, the photographic exhibition Greater Palestine and 25 Windows to Hell by Khames Alrefi: Genocide in Images was mounted concurrently and is still open at the same venue. Regarding this collection, Rangel commented that it will be acquired by the Michoacán State Government’s Ministry of Culture, and the entire proceeds will be sent to its author, Khames Alrefi, in Gaza.

Rafael Rangel’s Greater Palestine, with a special video by Rifaat Radwan, also includes the collaboration of Marwan Makhoul and the poem New Gaza. It also features additional photography by Said Al-Najjar, Hamzah Al-shami, Ahmed Al-Danaf, Yousef Al-Mashharawi, Hassouna Al-Jerjawi, Ahmed Al-Salmi, Feryal Abdo, Hassan Eslieh, Abdullah Al-Sayyed, Khames Alrefi, and Ameer Barhoom.

The edition is by Mar Jardiel, the coordination in Mexico is by Jimena Rangel and in Egypt by Mahmoud Elkholy, with translation by Elíah Salem.

• 

  News Briefs

  Saúl Morán Oropeza, Unwavering Communist, Defender of the Poor & the People of Guerrero’s Red Mountain

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Saúl didn’t remain at the level of words or ideologies, but transformed his convictions into daily action, traveling through communities and fighting to ensure that the voice of his people was heard.

• 

  Culture | News Briefs

  Greater Palestine Raises its Voice & Brings Visibility to the Gaza Genocide

  January 22, 2026

  The film, by Rafael Rangel and Mahmoud M. Zaqout and in close collaboration with 12 Palestinian photographers, exposes the human cruelty of imperialism against the Palestinian nation.

• 

  Analysis

  Old Wine, New Bottles?

  January 21, 2026January 21, 2026

  While the share of wages in national income has increased in Mexico, trade liberalization, displacement of domestic production by imports, high interest rates & waning public spending hamper growth & maintain continuity with the much-maligned neoliberal period.

The post Greater Palestine Raises its Voice & Brings Visibility to the Gaza Genocide appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

Washington is now turning its attention to Cuba, as the next target after the forcible removal of Venezuela’s leader, a report says.

From Presstv via This RSS Feed.

The president of the US empire, Donald Trump, has admitted and boasted once again about the use of “unprecedented weapons” during the US military invasion of Venezuela on January 3, when he ordered the bombing of the South American nation and the kidnapping of the sovereign President Nicolás Maduro and the First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum this Wednesday, January 21, in Davos, Switzerland, Trump referred to the criminal act that murdered more than 100 people, stating that “unprecedented weapons were used two weeks ago” in Venezuela.

During his speech, referring to the US military aggression against Venezuela, he remarked that the attack with those weapons supposedly took the Bolivarian military by surprise. “Everything was chaos; they couldn’t respond.” According to him, soldiers defending Venezuela supposedly commented that “‘they were right in front of us, we pulled the trigger, and nothing happened.'”

Trump on Venezuela:

Two weeks ago, they saw weapons nobody had ever heard of. They weren’t able to fire a single shot at us.

They said, ‘What happened?’ Everything was discombobulated.

They said, ‘We’ve got them in our sights, press the trigger,’ and nothing happened. pic.twitter.com/GL832yu1pq

— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 21, 2026

In his recount, always with his characteristic arrogance, he claimed that of the anti-aircraft missiles that Venezuela has, “only one rose 30 feet, everything fell apart, ‘they were saying: What the hell is going on?'”

He further claimed, in another mocking tone toward two major powers allied with Venezuela, “those defense systems are manufactured by Russia and China, so they’re going to have to go and review their plans.”

Trump’s comments came in the context of reaffirming his plans to seize Greenland. According to him, he will not do so by force; rather, he is supposedly “placing immediate negotiations” to acquire this island, an autonomous territory colonized by Denmark.

“Our country and the world face greater risks than ever before, due to missiles, to armaments that I cannot even speak of,” Trump continued.

Trump’s sonic weapon
On Tuesday, January 20, Trump hinted in an interview that a “sonic weapon” was used in the military aggression carried out by US troops against Venezuela.

“There was a sonic weapon that took out many of the Cuban bodyguards. Is that something US nationals should be afraid of?” the NewsNation reporter asked Trump in an interview, to which the president replied: “Nobody else has it. We have weapons that nobody knows about, and I say it’s probably a good thing not to talk about them; but we have some incredible weapons. That was an incredible attack. Don’t forget that house was in the middle of a fortress, a military base,” he said, in reference to the house, not bunker or fortress, where President Maduro was kidnapped.

On January 10, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had commented on a post by US television host Mike Netter, who recounted the alleged story of a Venezuelan soldier. Referring to the US military operation against Venezuela on Saturday, January 3, the soldier described how, during combat, US troops “launched something… I don’t know how to describe it… it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly, I felt like my head was going to explode from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, motionless.”

The US attacks against Venezuela claimed the lives of more than 100 people, including Venezuelan civilians and military personnel, and 32 Cuban soldiers.

On January 13, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello condemned the explosions caused by the US forces as so brutal that some victims could only be identified by their DNA.

“When we don’t talk about the number of dead or killed, it’s because the explosions were so powerful that, well, there are people whose whereabouts we don’t know,” he explained. “The blast was so extensive that it’s impossible to locate them.” This was reported on January 13 at a press conference, where he noted that the death toll from the bombings launched by the US empire against Venezuela on January 3 “exceeds 100 people killed.”

Minister Cabello announced that the country’s scientific police, the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences, with the support of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research, are conducting DNA studies on “little pieces” of “human remains” left by the bombings launched by the US against Venezuela.

Soldiers Recall Venezuela’s Heroic Resistance Against US Invasion and Trump’s Cowardly Attack

It is important to note that international humanitarian law governs the choice of methods and means of warfare, and prohibits or restricting the use of certain weapons, as the International Committee of the Red Cross points out.

The American Association of Jurists, along with other organizations from various countries, filed a lawsuit on Monday, January 12, before the International Criminal Court against the President of the US, Donald Trump, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and other officials of that government, for “alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and special consideration on the possible qualification of the taking of hostages for coercive purposes,” committed by the US empire against Venezuela.

(Diario VEA) by Yuleidys Hernández Toledo with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/AU

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