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By Carmen Navas, Maisa Bascuas and Pilar Troya – Mar 27, 2026

To break a nation, imperialism understands it must break the will of those who sustain the social fabric. In hybrid warfare, the woman is not a passive victim but a combatant cadre who reorganizes the collective will in every commune and every territory.

This March 8th, a day in which the world honors the working woman, we pay tribute to the anti-imperialist women of our continent. With their body-territories, their intellect, and their example, they are writing the most dignified pages of the contemporary history of Nuestra América.

We are moving through a stage marked by Trump’s aggression—a deepening of hybrid warfare—and a neocolonial war deployed through financial impunity and voracious extractivism. The advance of the far-right in the region is no coincidence; it seeks to impose a model of plunder where the weight of debt strangles the peoples’ sovereignty. In the face of resistance to direct invasion and the silent war of Unilateral Coercive Measures (UCMs) against Cuba and Venezuela, popular feminism emerges not only as a protest but as the backbone of survival and dignity.

Women at the Monument for the Heroines of Resistance and Independence, Caracas. 2025 (Prensa MinMujer).

  1. The 3 Lessons of Trump’s Aggression and the Neocolonial War in Latin America

The recent history of Nuestra América, marked by the shadow of the Monroe Doctrine and its update under the “Trump Corollary”—which persists as State logic in Washington—leaves us with three fundamental lessons regarding the nature of the current war against sovereignty.

1. The Woman’s Body as the First Territory of Defense
The attack of this past January 3rd against Venezuela was not just a military incursion; it was an affront to the dignity of a people that has decided to be free. On that day, 12 women gave their lives in combat. Nine of them were soldiers, members of the Presidential Honor Guard.

Imperialism understands that to break a nation, it must break the will of those who sustain the social fabric. In hybrid warfare, the woman is not a passive victim but a combatant cadre who reorganizes the collective will in every commune and every territory.

This lesson is intertwined with the “sowing” of Berta Cáceres in Honduras. A decade ago, the extractivist elite believed that by assassinating Berta, they would extinguish the voice of the Lenca people. They did not understand that her body, like those of the Venezuelan female militia (a component of the Bolivarian National Armed Force) and communards, represents resistance against dams and transnational capital.

The illegal detention of social activist Cilia Flores is yet another attempt to kidnap this symbol of dignity and political resistance. Illegally detained in the United States, Cilia Flores is a renowned social and political activist. She was the lawyer for the officers who rose up during the military insurrections of 1992, including Commander Hugo Chávez. On this day, women of the world call for her release and return to Venezuela.

2. The Resistance Economy is Feminine
In Cuba, the “silent war” of UCMs has taken the form of an unprecedented energy siege. By preventing the arrival of fuel, Washington seeks to transform daily life into a hell of scarcity. However, on the island, resistance has the face of a woman. It is they who, through popular organization and community bonds, invent daily solutions to sustain life in the face of the blockade.

This resistance economy does not seek profit, but rather the reproduction of life. While the international financial system uses debt to discipline nations, Cuban and Venezuelan women oppose it with an economy of collective care. In Venezuela, 80% of the leaders in communes and communal councils are women. They decide, plan, and execute the projects that keep the social structure afloat under the blockade. The lesson is clear: socialism in Nuestra América survives because women have transformed the private sphere into a space for political management and economic resistance against imperialist aggression.

3. Solidarity and Peace as People’s Diplomacy
The recent action by Claudia Sheinbaum’s government in Mexico, sending ships with 1,200 tons of aid to Cuba, breaks the logic of financial submission. “Sorority” is not just an interpersonal concept, but an international political category.

We also see this in the mobilization of popular organizations that, defying external pressures, coordinate the delivery of aid and mutual support between besieged nations. March 21st, saw the arrival of the Nuestra América Convoy, organized by various movements and popular organizations. This grassroots solidarity is what allows Cuba to resist and Venezuela to deepen its communal model.

When Mexico defies Washington’s pressure to give aid to the island, and when women organize themselves into feminist brigades like the “Cilia Flores Internationalist Brigade for Peace,” they are practicing a form of feminism that prioritizes the lives of families and communities above the dictates of transnational capital. Solidarity is the tenderness—and the strategy—of the people.

Gabriela Barraza (Argentina), Viviremos y venceremos [We Will Live and We Will Overcome], 2021. Available at thetricontinenal.org.

  1. The 3 Tasks Popular Feminisms Call Us to Undertake

1. Institutionalize the Communal Management of People’s Power
In Venezuela, nearly 80% of leadership roles in communal councils are held by women. They are the street spokeswomen, the ones who plan projects and execute the sovereign budget. Faced with the advance of the far-right, the response is greater people’s power. The urgent task is to strengthen the National Popular Consultation and the commune model. It is there where popular feminism manages resources and responds to the imperialist offensive.

We must ensure that the territory’s resources are managed by those who inhabit and defend them, blocking the path for the impunity of militias (in Brazil, parapolice and paramilitary armed groups) and illegal power structures like those that tried to silence Marielle Franco in Brazil.

http://87.106.166.27/the-commune-and-popular-sovereignty-in-times-of-imperialist-siege/

2. Dismantle the Impunity of Neocolonial Extractivism
We cannot move toward the future without closing the wounds of impunity. The stories of Berta Cáceres in Honduras and Marielle Franco in Brazil are beacons, but also reminders of the ferocity of capital.

• Justice for Berta: Ten years after her assassination, the task is to dismantle the extractivist model that murders those who defend the commons. Punishment for the intellectual authors of Berta’s murder is an outstanding debt for the entire region in the fight against transnationals.
• Justice for Marielle: The recent conviction of the Brazão brothers in Brazil is a victory against paramilitary militias and parastatal power. The task is to eradicate the structures of political violence that damage the social fabric and attempt to silence Black women, faveladas, and dissidents who occupy spaces of power.

Berta and Marielle taught us that defending indigenous, peasant, and Afro-descendant territories and defending life in the cities is the same struggle. Their names are beacons that feed and sustain our daily resistance against patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and capitalism.

3. Push for Popular Agrarian Reform and Food Sovereignty
As our peasant sisters of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) teach us, an urgent task for grassroots feminism is the defense of the land. Popular agrarian reform is the right of women to decide over production and seeds in the face of extractivist agribusiness. For women, land is the space for the reproduction of culture and life. Without food sovereignty, national sovereignty is incomplete. We must strengthen the ties between peasant women and urban workers to guarantee that food is a right and not a commodity of debt.

  1. Message from Berta Cáceres

For the women of Nuestra América, the struggle is for life itself. Berta Cáceres, guardian of the rivers and the dignity of the peoples, left us a mandate that shakes the conscience of the entire continent:

Awaken, humanity! There is no more time. Our consciences will be shaken by the fact that we are contemplating self-destruction based on capitalism, racism, and patriarchy. In our worldviews, we are beings born of the earth, water, and corn. Of the rivers, we are ancestral custodians… Let us give our lives, if necessary, for the defense of humanity and the planet!

This cry from Berta is our compass. Faced with neocolonial aggression, our response is unity, the guardianship of our land, and unbreakable rebellion.

Long live the women who fight! Long live a free and sovereign Nuestra América! We shall overcome!

Carmen Navas is a Venezuelan political scientist, researcher at the Nuestra América Desk at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Maisa Bascuas is an Argentine political scientist, professor and researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, and Co-Coordinator of the Department of Feminisms of the Global South at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
Pilar Troya is an Ecuadorian researcher and feminist activist. She has worked on public policies for equality and the women’s movement, and serves as Co-Coordinator of the Department of Feminisms of the Global South at Tricontinental Institute for Social Research.

(tricontinental)


From Orinoco Tribune via This RSS Feed.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—During the fourth week of March 2026, Venezuela received two additional groups of citizens under the Return to the Homeland (Vuelta a la Patria) program. These latest arrivals at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, La Guaira state, reinforce the Venezuelan state’s commitment to providing a dignified and sovereign alternative to the mass deportations orchestrated by the US regime.

The repatriation process is governed by the 2025 agreement between Caracas and Washington, serving as a vital channel for nationals fleeing the systemic failures, labor exploitation, and racist persecution that characterize the US immigration system.

On Wednesday, Deputy Mervin Maldonado, the newly appointed head of the Return to the Homeland program, was present to personally receive the migrants repatriated on the final flight of the week. On Tuesday, the National Assembly authorized Maldonado’s appointment to this executive position, replacing Camilla Fabri.

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A post shared by Mervin Maldonado (@mervinmaldonado)

Detailed flight data and statistics
Last week, a total of 302 Venezuelans were repatriated on two separate flights. With these arrivals, the program has processed 29 flights since the beginning of 2026, bringing the year’s total to 4,809 repatriated citizens.

When combined with the 23,067 citizens who returned under the current agreement in 2025, the program continues to function as a critical humanitarian bridge against imperialist hostility. The specific data for last week’s flights are as follows:

• Flight 126: Arrived on Monday, March 23, from Miami, Florida, with 131 repatriated citizens. The group included six minors, 10 women, and 115 men. The flight was operated by an airline without commercial identification.
• Flight 127: Arrived Wednesday, March 25, from Phoenix, Arizona, carrying 171 individuals. The group consisted of seven minors, 35 women, and 129 men. The flight was operated by the US-based Eastern Airlines.

Sovereign defense against imperialist-driven displacement since 2018
The Return to the Homeland program has remained a pillar of the Bolivarian Revolution’s social policy since its establishment in 2018. Over the past eight years, this state-led initiative has provided a shield for over one million citizens seeking to escape the xenophobia and carceral detention prevalent in the US and its regional subordinates.

The current migration patterns are not a coincidence but a direct result of the illegal US blockade and the multifaceted hybrid war designed to destabilize Venezuela. While the US regime initially incentivized migration to promote a “failed state” narrative, it has since pivoted to the aggressive criminalization of the very diaspora it helped produce.

Venezuelan Diplomats Set to Arrive In Washington This Week; New Head of Return to the Homeland Program

In response to this aggression, the Venezuelan government implements a comprehensive social care protocol for every returning citizen. This includes immediate medical screening, psychological support, and socioeconomic integration measures to ensure migrants can contribute to the country’s productive life. This sovereign shield remains an essential defense, reaffirming the right of all Venezuelans to build their futures in their own land, free from the shadow of imperialist intervention.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SF


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

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From his recording studio in the Playa municipality in Habana, Cuba, surrounded by pianos, consoles, and the vestiges of a career dedicated to socially conscious song, Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez analyzed the complex scenario Cuba is experiencing under the current United States siege.

The author of Ojalá and Pequeña serenata diurna was emphatic in a dialogue with the Mexican new outlet La Jornada when defining the willingness of Cubans to protect their independence: “A large part of our people would be willing to defend our sovereignty with weapons, if necessary.”

For Rodríguez, defending the island is not an abstract concept but a reality that has shaped his own life. The singer-songwriter recalled how his musical career began during his military service and his internationalist missions.

In response to recent threats from the US regime to “take over Cuba,” Rodríguez reaffirmed his ties to Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), an institution he considers his training ground.

“Imperial aggression might seem like one of our natural conditions,” he noted, explaining that the people’s response to the siege is not a momentary outburst, but the result of an “intense and sometimes contradictory life” that has forged the national character.

A history of distrust toward the ‘turbulent North’
When asked whether the civilian population would defend the island in the event of an invasion, the troubadour appealed to historical memory to justify Cuban distrust of Washington.

He mentioned events ranging from 19th-century attempts to purchase the island to the imposition of the Platt Amendment. “There is a long history of reasons for Cubans to distrust ‘the turbulent and brutal North,’ as our apostle, José Martí, described it,” he stated.

According to Rodríguez, the strength to resist the blockade and external pressures comes directly from the “forging of the nation” and a deep sense of belonging and patriotism.

Resistance, criticism, and evolution
Despite his firm defense of sovereignty, Rodríguez does not shy away from self-criticism. He defines himself as a man of “questions rather than answers” and advocates for human improvement far removed from fanaticism.

He acknowledges that the energy and economic blockade seeks to stifle the hope of young people by attempting to convince them that “there is no future in their country.”

“I have always seen Cuba resist,” he stated, while supporting the need for internal reforms and an “evolution” that benefits the people—as long as these transformations do not jeopardize the status of a sovereign nation, which he considers “fundamental.”

Nuestra América Convoy Ships Arrive in Cuba After Days Without Communication (+US Extrajudicial Killings)

The role of culture in the ‘Shield’ era
In contrast to regional initiatives such as the so-called “Shield of the Americas,” which Rodríguez describes as a sign of “imperial desperation” and a return to neocolonialism, the musician defends the role of education and culture as tools for freedom.

For Rodríguez, the battle for history is still ongoing: “If Cuba falls, history will be reinvented by its enemies.”

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/


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

29
 
 

This article by Nancy Escutia originally appeared in the March 30, 2026 edition of El Economista.

The title of Human Resources could disappear in companies, as an initiative to reform the Federal Labour Law (LFT) and prohibit terms such as HR or Human Capital in departments of private organizations has been presented in the Senate of the Republic.

The proposal promoted by Senator Alejandro González Yáñez, from the Workers Party (PT) caucus, seeks to add a final paragraph to Article 3 of the LFT to prohibit the naming, implementation or use of expressions such as Human Resources, Human Capital or any other analogous one.

According to the legislator, these terms objectify people and reduce them to a commodity or productive asset; therefore, he proposes that these titles be eliminated and replaced with designations that recognize the dignity, rights, and human character of working people.

“By presenting labour management as a technical or administrative matter, tensions inherent in the relationship between capital and labour are rendered invisible. Decisions that profoundly affect people’s lives, such as layoffs, restructurings, or changes in working conditions, are presented as simple resource management processes.”

He mentions that “language is never neutral” and that in the workplace, concepts should not dehumanize or subordinate people’s dignity. “This change responds to a basic principle: working to live, not living to work , understanding work as a means to happiness, personal and collective fulfillment,” he stated.

Senator Alejandro González Yáñez emphasizes in the bill that prohibiting the use of terms such as Human Resources and Human Capital does not deny the importance of these areas in organizations; however, he reiterates that this encourages viewing people as “resources”, similar to the use of words such as “capital”, “technology” and “raw materials”.

“We are witnessing how language reflects a logic in which the primary value of people lies in their ability to generate profit.” He adds that work is not only an economic activity, but also a source of identity, community, and personal fulfillment that includes individuals with aspirations, emotions, values, and rights.

The explanatory statement of the initiative indicates that when people are seen as resources, it is understood that they are elements that can be used, managed, optimized and in some cases even replaced, which dehumanizes them.

Why is the Concept of Human Resources Used?

The term HR emerged in the 1920s to refer to all personnel management processes at work, according to the research Evolution of the concept of Human Resources, from the point of view of psychology and administration, published in the journal Suma de Negocios of Konrad Lorenz University.

The study indicated that these areas were necessary within the strategic vision of companies, since the results in terms of performance, objectives and goals depended on them, in line with the increase in the quality of work and the balance and attention to the needs of the workers.

In this way, the Human Resources areas took over recruitment activities, including recruitment, onboarding, training, career development, compensation, performance evaluation, and labour-management relations, as well as research on culture, climate, turnover, job satisfaction, and resistance to change. They also promoted the design and implementation of procedures and job descriptions.

However, the initiative in the Senate states that Human Resources has now focused on policies that seek to maximize labour efficiency without paying attention to the overall well-being of people, as well as on the evaluation of their performance and productivity, which has increased work pressure and depersonalization.

“By presenting labour management as a technical or administrative matter, tensions inherent in the relationship between capital and labour are rendered invisible. Decisions that profoundly affect people’s lives, such as layoffs, restructurings, or changes in working conditions, are presented as simple resource management processes,” the proposal states.

New Titles to Replace Human Resources

With the prohibition of the use of HR in companies, the proposed reform to the Federal Labour Law proposes the use of expressions such as “people management”, “employee experience” or “labour relations”, terms that have already begun to be used in some organizations.

In this regard, Human Resources developer Sara Climent Blasco shares that changing the name of HR areas reflects “a more modern and people-centered vision,” therefore, she suggests some alternatives to consider: “People and culture,” “People operations,” “People experience,” “Talent management,” or “Culture and talent.”

Pointing out that words are not neutral, Alejandro González Yáñez adds that promoting language within the Federal Labour Law (LFT) that recognizes the dignity and complexity of the human experience will help in building fairer and more respectful work cultures.

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The post Workers Party Senator Proposes Ban on Terms Human Resources and Human Capital in Businesses appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

30
 
 

This article by Mireya Cuéllar originally appeared in the March 30, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

San Quintín, Baja California. Unpaved streets, no streetlights or public transportation; houses without electricity, water, or drainage, with septic tanks or latrines… dirt “parks,” without trees, without swings. It’s the arid poverty of the desert. The landscape bears no relation to the fact that agricultural workers live here with the highest wages in the country, simply because the border minimum wage is 420 pesos.

Nor does it have it with the mechanization of its large agricultural fields, with the shade mesh structures, the drip irrigation systems fed by 90 desalination plants, the succulent berries that are harvested, the more than 10 billion pesos annually that the production that is raised here is worth.

It doesn’t even resemble the rest of the Baja California landscape. Poverty in the state, according to the latest census, affects 13.4 percent of the population; in San Quintín, it reaches 34.9 percent, almost three times higher.

In the state, 10 percent of the population (on average) does not have access to nutritious food; in San Quintín, the indicator rises to 20 percent; 19 percent of the streets in the state do not even have a surface covering; here it is 89 percent… and so on.

San Quintín is bordered to the north by the municipality of Ensenada and to the south by Mulegé, Baja California Sur. Its residents are settled along the 90 kilometers that run from Camalú to El Rosario, on either side of the Transpeninsular Highway. Narrow and with only two lanes, it is the only road. There are no paved streets, bypasses, ring roads, or overpasses here. When it rains, the water floods the eastern part of town, overflowing the highway and eventually reaching the bay.

“What I can say is that there isn’t a single neighborhood with all the services: drainage, drinking water, electricity, street lighting, paving,” says the mayor, Miriam Cano.

10.9% of Inhabitants Cannot Read

The federal government conducted a survey in 30,000 homes to design the Justice Plan for San Quintín. It found that 10.9 percent of residents are illiterate, 12.1 percent are illiterate, 16.5 percent cannot use a cell phone or a computer, and 73.8 percent are unfamiliar with basic computer skills. In fact, many poverty indicators for the municipality are similar to, and even higher than, those of many other municipalities in Chiapas.

Only 20 percent of the population—counted for the development of the Justice Plan—has daily access to water; 40.6 percent, every two or three days; 36 percent, once a week; and 4.7 percent, every 15 days. Each month, the Ensenada State Public Services Commission, on which they still depend, publishes the water rationing schedule for the following 30 days on its website.

That’s for those who have water, because many neighborhoods don’t lack the infrastructure to receive it, because there isn’t any water there either. What little there is is hoarded by the well owners, who sell it to those who don’t have any. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced during her last visit that a desalination plant will be built to provide water to those who don’t have it. To build it, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is replacing the wiring on the towers that reach the southern part of the state; the current wiring can’t handle the increased load.

The power grid doesn’t have the capacity to carry more energy, neither for the population nor for a desalination plant. The energy supply is only sufficient to operate the desalination plants on the farms, which are necessary to sustain production.

In San Quintín, everything seems to be yet to be done. Established as a municipality in 2020, they elected their first mayor, Miriam Cano, last year. Previously, it was part of the municipality of Ensenada, with the municipal seat nearly 200 kilometers away. Also needed are doctors, medicine, the offices of the Tax Administration Service (SAT), and federal, state, and municipal agencies.

One of the things included in the Justice Plan is an “integrated center,” where there will be—in theory—offices of (federal) agencies so that people don’t have to go to Ensenada for a birth certificate or to register with the Tax Administration Service (SAT). Many Indigenous farmworkers don’t register with the SAT—essential for contributing to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS)—because they would lose more than a day of work and have to spend money on transportation to avoid the three-and-a-half-hour (sometimes four, due to traffic) bus ride between San Quintín and Ensenada.

The lack of infrastructure is not the responsibility of the owners of the agricultural fields, says Alberto Leree, founder of the Baja California Agricultural Council, which represents large producers. He recalled that in 2015, when farmworkers abandoned the fields and mobilized demanding better living conditions, the then Undersecretary of the Interior (under Enrique Peña Nieto) Luis Miranda told Governor Francisco “Kiko” Vega—at a meeting where the businessman was also present—that the conflict could be resolved with 4 billion pesos, with the federal government contributing half and the state the other half.

“Kiko Vega didn’t accept,” he said, adding that he didn’t have the money, he recalled. The movement was forged in the neighborhoods—not in the workplaces—where families spent more than 130 pesos (a day’s wage at the time) to buy water and fill a drum that lasted them less than a week. Initially, it was the lack of water that organized them. Later, they rebelled not only against their living conditions but also against their working conditions.

Photo: Édgar Lima/La Jornada Baja California

“The PAN party opposed its becoming a district.”

“There’s a racist element in the way the National Action Party (PAN) treated San Quintín,” says a local politician. He recalled that the PAN systematically refused to grant it municipal status, and when someone pressed one of the governors—the PAN governed from 1989 to 2019—his response was: “Why would we want a mayor from Oaxaca?” in Baja California.

Miriam Cano, the councilwoman nominated by Morena, says that a few months ago a federal official gave her a dirty look when she warned him.

“But today the main problem for day labourers is that it’s useless to earn 8,000 pesos a week breaking their backs if they get home and there’s no electricity, no water, no drainage, no streets, no streetlights, and nothing but aspirin at the Social Security clinic… they spend a lot on healthcare, on using their cell phones; on transportation, 50 pesos per child to get to school; a drum of salt water… up to 1,800 pesos for a water truck: of course their money disappears. The price of water is outrageous.”

Here, people are raising their university-aged children by candlelight. “You only have to look at the high school students’ hands—she taught them—. They pick squash, green beans, peas, strawberries… they come from the countryside and have achieved an education, but their neighborhoods still lack water, electricity… also due to a lack of legal certainty regarding land ownership, because someone sold them a plot of communal land cheaply, without proper documentation.”

“The ranches have solved their water problems with wells and desalination plants. Imagine the anger the farmworkers feel when they see there is water for the crops, but not for their homes, to wash dishes, bathe or cook.”

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The post Working Amidst Poverty; Life in San Quintín appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

31
 
 

By Luis Fuenmayor Toro  –  Mar 27, 2026

*“There are no right or left; that is a classification of the past,” I heard many years ago—and have since heard repeated many times—by well-prepared individuals with deep arguments. “That was the French Revolution, but with the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was over,” I heard in the 1990s, just over 30 years ago, making it a recent development in historical terms. To put it in perspective, the Earth is 4.54 billion years old and Homo sapiens sapiens is roughly 300,000 years old. However, today, everyone across the globe still speaks of the left, the right, and all their nuances. It seems these concepts have not remained buried as the wise men of that era predicted.

*I also witnessed Francis Fukuyama’s so-called “End of History.” Regardless of the fact that life and practice proved it entirely false, it maintained a following, usually within the conservative political and ideological fields. Right-wing and far-right figures, witnessing the victory of US capitalism over “real socialism,” mistook the conclusion of one battle for the end of the entire war.

*A similar phenomenon occurs with the concepts of imperialism and anti-imperialism. For some, these terms are totally “outdated” and “backward,” raised only by failed politicians—the Chavistas, in our case—who supposedly fail to understand that these concepts have “disappeared.” One wonders if they were buried by the same people who attempted to bury the left and the right. In January, was it not US imperialism that invaded and bombed us, destroyed our facilities, murdered Venezuelans, kidnapped the president and Cilia Flores, and today appropriates our wealth simply because it can? For some, it was a nameless “I-don’t-know-what” from the North that invaded us—the same entity that bombs Iran, Yemen, and Africa, threatens Cuba, and seeks to appropriate Greenland and Canada. Yet, they claim it does not exist.

*It is one thing to say that Venezuela is in the Western Hemisphere, on the very continent of the United States, and that it has not had to face them irresponsibly, as did the governments of Chávez and Maduro, instead of favoring trade relations and of all kinds with them, for geographical and geopolitical issues and the interests also of Venezuela, and another thing is to accept as good the total submission to the US “I-don’t-know-what.” They are not our protectors, nor the defenders of our freedom, nor of our democracy. They act according to their selfish interests.

*Today, our relations with the United States are based on the reality of those who have been defeated in a military confrontation. By defeating Venezuela, the US military also dealt a blow to our civic-military-police unity, the militias, the collectives, and the PSUV. This is not a matter for debate; it is visible before our eyes. The government leadership remaining in command chose the diplomatic route to face this situation, aiming to avoid further destruction and greater suffering for the Venezuelan nation. With the exceptions of Colombia and Brazil, we stood alone. No one—not even those who promised a “Vietnam in Latin America”—is currently at war. By the way, I remind you that the brave people of Vietnam shared borders with China and Russia, while our borders are quite different.

*The path chosen in the current environment is one of diplomatic resistance based on agreements and talks. However, these are not negotiations among equals. We were forced to negotiate, and the terms are dictated by them: our supposed “new ally,” “best friend,” and, for some, our “protector.” We need only look at Puerto Rico to see how a nation fares under the condition of a US protectorate.

Venezuela’s Presidential Couple Appear in New York Court; Judge Questions Legitimacy of Legal Fee Freeze

*This resistance necessitates national unity—something the “Mariacorinista” extremists reject because they are entirely aligned with the gringo “I-don-not-know-what.” This is not surprising, as we knew they would behave this way. Nor is it surprising to see deputies in the National Assembly who claim to have broken with the Maria Corina extremism but continue to avoid unity to serve their own narrow group interests.

*The terrible thing is that inside the PSUV and the deputies of the official sector in the National Assembly, there are extremists who act as if on January 3 they had not been bombed and defeated us. They ignore what happened and make it more difficult to travel the tortuous road that the nation led by Delcy Rodríguez follows. Do they have another route in mind? Well, tell it, to see if it is possible or only the continuity of the failures that led us where we are. We must leave aside desires, pretensions, and itching. We have always called for wisdom. Today, we call to wisdom those within Chavismo who disagree with the policy of accompanying the nation in the search for the rescue of lost sovereignty.

(Costa del Sol FM)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/


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32
 
 

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. Previous press conference summaries are available here.

Culture, Heritage, and Identity: Historic Investment and the Preservation of National Memory

Arts education, heritage, and identity are being strengthened through the renovation of 1,405 National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) and 220 National Institute of Anthropology and History) INAH spaces in 39 schools, with an investment of 1.5 billion pesos (US$82.87 million), with the aim of improving infrastructure and expanding enrollment. In addition, 380 million pesos (US$20.99 million) are being earmarked to restore museums and archaeological sites—an investment unprecedented in 30 years.

Dignified foreign policy: solidarity with Cuba and historical sovereignty

President Claudia Sheinbaum recalled that since 1962, Mexico has maintained a relationship of friendship, collaboration, and coordination with Cuba, being the only country to oppose the blockade of the island, arguing that such measures harm the people.

Sheinbaum reiterated that humanitarian aid will continue as part of this historical tradition and reaffirmed the Mexican government ‘s commitment to providing support, including evaluating fuel supplies within the framework of bilateral agreements and a policy of solidarity.

Defense of Mexicans abroad: firm action against abuses and international justice

Mexico will not limit itself to a diplomatic protest note and will take action to ensure justice and consular protection for its citizens abroad. At the Consulate in Los Angeles, participation as amicus curiae in the lawsuit filed by relatives of Mexicans who died in ICE custody will be announced. In addition, letters will be sent to U.S. legislators regarding deficient medical care, a letter from the Presidency of the Mexican Senate to its U.S. counterpart will be proposed, and a hearing will be held before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Energy sovereignty and fuels: domestic production and fair prices for the people

The Dos Bocas oil refinery is establishing itself as an energy pillar, ensuring stability in the national fuel supply and strengthening the country’s energy sovereignty in the face of global crises. At the same time, it was agreed to maintain diesel at 28.28 pesos (US1.56) per liter to protect family budgets, curb unjustified price hikes, and prevent abuses amid rising international oil prices.


  • People’s Mañanera March 30

    Mañanera

    People’s Mañanera March 30

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on investments in Fine Arts & Anthropology & History institutions, Cuba, lawsuit by Mexicans who died in ICE custody, and fuel price controls.

  • Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    Analysis

    Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    Such consulates perform an extremely important task, especially when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

  • A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    Analysis

    A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    March 30, 2026

    Mexico’s General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims.

The post People’s Mañanera March 30 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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This column by Magdalena Rosales Cruz originally appeared in the March 30, 2026 edition of El Sol del Bajío. Magdalena Rosales Cruz is a Federal Deputy for Distrito 12 Celaya, Guanajuato and a member of Morena.

The mobility of the Mexican population in the United States has undoubtedly been linked to different factors, including: their proximity, the asymmetry of their development and economic growth, all as a result of the historical particularities of both nations.

We must remember that, since the establishment of the 13 English colonies, their objective was their constant expansion, which is why it extends southwards; there is no better example than having invaded Mexico, to appropriate more than half of its territory.

In this process, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, the population of our country became trapped in another culture, from there arises the Chicano community: Mexican-American born in the U.S., with purely Mexican roots.

In the 1960s, the term Chicano became popular as a political movement of resistance against racism, discrimination, and cultural assimilation. Today, it is used to refer to a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, or a person born in the United States of Mexican descent, and their descendants who proudly identify as Chicano. Therefore, Chicanos are now found throughout the United States.

There are approximately 40 million Mexicans or descendants of Mexicans living in the United States, making our northern neighbor the second country in the world with the largest number of Mexicans.

To meet the needs of the Mexican and Mexican-American population, the current government has developed a network of 53 consulates, in addition to mobile consulates, with the aim of bringing documentation and protection services closer to areas far from the consular headquarters, which also operate on weekends.

Mobile consulates perform an extremely important task, especially in these times, when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

The demand for documents from all citizens has exponentially increased the need for services provided by consulates: issuance of Mexican passports for adults and minors in the face of threats of family separation, birth certificates, voter ID cards, assistance in obtaining welfare cards to send economic resources to Mexico, and guidance on obtaining dual nationality and for the repatriation of loved ones who have died in the United States.

In addition, they also provide guidance for consular protection through teams of lawyers, which is offered at both mobile and permanent consulates.

Also noteworthy is the collaboration of the Chicano community and organized migrants for the mobile consulates.

In most cases, these organizations are responsible for providing the best facilities, with functional spaces for the hundreds of people who come for guidance and procedures. These facilities must have internet access and adequate lighting, and provide food and play areas for the children who will spend almost the entire day at the mobile consulate.

Educational communities in Mexico and other Latin American and Caribbean countries, with experience in previous raids, offer guidance to protect minors from the likely separation from their families, actions that are part of the various cruel policies of the US government.

We must acknowledge the collective work of the Mexican community in the United States, in collaboration with the Mexican government. We must also admire our Chicanos and migrants who do so much to maintain our Mexican pride.

  • People’s Mañanera March 30

    Mañanera

    People’s Mañanera March 30

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on investments in Fine Arts & Anthropology & History institutions, Cuba, lawsuit by Mexicans who died in ICE custody, and fuel price controls.

  • Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    Analysis

    Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    Such consulates perform an extremely important task, especially when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

  • A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    Analysis

    A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    March 30, 2026

    Mexico’s General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims.

The post Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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This column by Ernestina Godoy Ramos originally appeared in the March 30, 2026 edition of El Universal.

Femicide is a serious violation of human rights, with a profound impact on society; behind each case, there is a story, a family, a legitimate demand for justice that cannot be ignored.

Therefore, at the initiative of the President of Mexico, in coordination with the Secretariat of Women and the Attorney General’s Office, the General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide is being promoted, whose proposal seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for the victims.

The severity of femicide and its occurrence throughout the country requires a standardized approach to understanding, investigating, and punishing it. This law establishes a standardized criminal offense with precise gender-based criteria, recognizing fundamental elements such as prior violence, signs of sexual violence, power imbalances, and contexts of discrimination.

The proposal also establishes firm penalties, including prison sentences of 40 to 70 years, as well as aggravating circumstances that allow for increased sentences in cases of greater vulnerability, such as when the victims are girls, adolescents, pregnant women, or members of historically discriminated communities. Furthermore, it includes provisions for the protection of orphans, the loss of rights for the perpetrator such as parental rights, guardianship, or benefits related to assets belonging to the victims, comprehensive care, legal support, and guaranteed reparations for damages.

One of the most relevant changes in the law is that, in the event of the violent loss of a woman’s life, the State must respond from the first moment with the presumption of femicide. This requires exhaustive investigation models that apply the highest level of care, incorporating a gender perspective, specialized protocols, and reinforced due diligence so that each case is handled efficiently and with sensitivity towards the victims.

Also, the institutional structure is strengthened by proposing that prosecutors’ offices have specialized units with certified personnel.

While standardizing criteria for addressing the crime is essential, public policies that prevent this crime are also required. Therefore, the law includes a prevention proposal with coordination mechanisms between institutions and tools that allow for a better understanding of the phenomenon in order to act preventively: femicide risk screenings, standardized protocols that allow for institutional intervention before the crime occurs, as well as protection mechanisms for women at risk.

Because the State owes truth, justice, and reparation to those who have lost a daughter, a mother, a sister.

For those at risk, the State must provide security and protection. These actions involve recognizing the problem and acting accordingly.

Protecting women, girls and those who have been made invisible: is an obligation that we must assume with conviction.

Ernestina Godoy Ramos is the Attorney General of Mexico.

  • People’s Mañanera March 30

    Mañanera

    People’s Mañanera March 30

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on investments in Fine Arts & Anthropology & History institutions, Cuba, lawsuit by Mexicans who died in ICE custody, and fuel price controls.

  • Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    Analysis

    Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    Such consulates perform an extremely important task, especially when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

  • A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    Analysis

    A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    March 30, 2026

    Mexico’s General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims.

The post A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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35
 
 

This column by Alejandro Calvillo originally appeared in the March 28, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo.

High consumption or use of “X product” is directly linked to increased anxiety levels. It causes high dopamine releases and momentary pleasure, followed by abrupt crashes that generate irritability, fatigue, and stress symptoms—such as tachycardia and cortisol release—creating an addictive cycle that affects mood and mental health .

What is this “X product”? What is it that we consume in this civilization from a very early age that gives us pleasure, generates addiction, affects our mood and our mental health, to such a degree that we can say that it has led us to become the society of anxiety or, rather, the society of dopamine-addiction-anxiety?

You’re probably thinking of something that might be that “X product.” First of all, it’s important to understand that it’s not just one product: it’s a vast array of products designed to generate that rush of pleasure, create addiction, and thereby capture and mold lifelong consumers from a very young age. Life, in its most intimate dimension, is dominated by corporate logic: that consumers who already use the product consume more, and that those who don’t yet use it start doing so. And the best way to achieve this is through addiction. A world of dealers who target from a very young age. And it’s not just about addiction to products we eat, drink, or inhale; it’s about ideologically shaping the citizen-consumer, creating a carefully crafted perception that is experienced as reality, all in service of power, whether economic or political.

You’ve probably heard recently that a 20-year-old woman won a multimillion-dollar judgment in Los Angeles, California, against Facebook and Instagram after it was acknowledged that the platforms had damaged her mental health and that they are designed to create addiction in their users. The extent of the addictive impact of these platforms can be appreciated when we consider that they reach a large portion of humanity. Facebook has approximately three billion users, while Instagram has around two to three billion active users.

Let’s take social media as our first “X product.” It’s a product consumed from a young age that generates a dopamine rush, a feeling of pleasure, followed by a drop in irritability, fatigue, and anxiety. And the corporation knows this very well. In legal proceedings against this company, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), an internal study known as Project Mercury was obtained, which focused on evaluating the impact of these platforms on mental health. In this study—commissioned by Meta and kept secret—a social experiment was conducted in which a group of people had their accounts deactivated for a week. After a week of being disconnected from social media, these people shared that they had experienced a decrease in their levels of anxiety, loneliness, depression, and the tendency to compare themselves to others.

The evidence of the damage to the mental health and lives of millions of people—at least two generations—may already be, to some degree, irreversible. The question is whether we will have the capacity to regulate these platforms, the use of AI, its algorithms, and its theft and capture of data, tastes, phobias, strengths, and weaknesses, for commercial and ideological exploitation.

In October 2021, I published the article “Facebook and its criminal algorithm”, where I reported on the appearance of Frances Haugen, the “Deep Throat of Facebook”, before the United States Congress testifying in relation to the actions of that company and Instagram to increase profits by spreading hate messages, promoting conspiracy theories and the psychological deterioration of adolescents.

This former Meta employee had leaked a series of internal documents from the corporation to The Wall Street Journal, revealing her sociopathic behavior. She was tasked with developing an algorithm to block racist messages against the Muslim population and various minorities, including the LGBT+ community. The project was abruptly shut down, and a Facebook executive justified the decision by saying that “prioritizing the safety of marginalized groups would be too political.” It’s not just that violent messages aren’t blocked: the algorithm tends to reward them and give them greater exposure. The documents demonstrated that the algorithms favored confrontational, conspiratorial, and violent discourses that kept users browsing longer and, therefore, exposed them to more advertising. More advertising means more profit for the corporation.

Frances Haugen started working at Facebook for one reason: because she lost her best friend to the corporation. Her best friend became interested in conspiracy theories, and the algorithm overwhelmed him with them; there was no way to continue interacting with him if you didn’t agree with his beliefs. Haugen pointed out how Meta was destroying democracy; she witnessed how Facebook was used to coordinate the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Trump lost the election to Biden. Among the documents Haugen extracted from Meta were complaints from European political parties against these platforms, accusing them of creating confrontational political environments by amplifying the most violent messages. As these platforms become the primary media outlets, they not only have an addictive impact due to their format, but also an impact on governance, democracy, and values ​​through their content.

On the other hand, Haugen showed how these platforms exploit people’s vulnerabilities. For example, their algorithms immediately identify young women who are dissatisfied with their physical appearance, bombarding them with advertisements for cosmetics, trendy clothes, and junk therapies and advice that ultimately exacerbate those vulnerabilities. The same happens with those who suffer from other vulnerabilities, those with chronic illnesses, those who struggle with alcoholism, or those addicted to tobacco, vaping, junk food, soda, energy drinks, and so on.

In this collaboration, we discuss one of those “X products” that generate addiction and subsequently irritability and anxiety: we’re talking about the use of digital platforms. The phrase can be applied to many products, but originally, it referred to a product used daily from a very young age: sugar. This addictive product is consumed in high quantities from a very early age through sugary drinks. The consumption of these sugary drinks in Mexico—one of the highest in the world—causes 230,000 new cases of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases each year. We will discuss this product further in the context of the Copa Cola in future collaborations.

However, let’s end with some good news: the ruling in Los Angeles, California, against Meta, which recognizes the harm caused by these corporations and mandates that they begin to pay for it. This is the only way to ensure that their practices and product design are regulated, so that algorithms are designed for the well-being of the population, not for the benefit of a few at the expense of others, at the expense of dialogue and democracy.

Alejandro Calvillo is director ofEl Poder del Consumidor*, a non-profit civil association that works to defend the rights of the Mexican consumer*,as well as a sociologist with degrees in philosophy from the University of Barcelona and environment and sustainable development from El Colegio de México.

  • People’s Mañanera March 30

    Mañanera

    People’s Mañanera March 30

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on investments in Fine Arts & Anthropology & History institutions, Cuba, lawsuit by Mexicans who died in ICE custody, and fuel price controls.

  • Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    Analysis

    Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    Such consulates perform an extremely important task, especially when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

  • A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    Analysis

    A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    March 30, 2026

    Mexico’s General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims.

The post Mental Health at Risk appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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36
 
 

By Youssef Fares – Mar 25, 2026

People in Gaza are following the war as though they are living it themselves, drawing constant comparisons between the brutality unfolding across different fronts and their own experience. Last week’s barrage of rockets from South Lebanon has reignited a dwindling hope.

“One of the missiles launched from Lebanon landed on the outskirts of Jabalia camp, in areas where the occupation army is positioned along what is known as the Yellow Line,” Abu Mahmoud Al-Atawneh told Al-Akhbar. “The feeling was overwhelming. It was Hezbollah, whose blood and tears are mixed with ours, sending us a message of hope: that the resistance will neither die nor be defeated, no matter how brutal and criminal the occupation becomes.”

“I’m certain this campaign will be defeated, and that it will end with the retreat of US-Israeli tyranny,” Ghassan Abdel Wahed told Al-Akhbar. “Gaza is only 365 square kilometers, smaller than a village on the outskirts of Tehran, yet the occupation army, despite two years of destruction and mass killing, has failed to decisively settle the battle with a decisive victory.”

Umm Mohammed al-Zard, for her part, sees the war through the lens of displacement. Speaking to Al-Akhbar, she said she feels she is reliving, alongside “our people” in south Lebanon, the same ordeal Gaza has endured.

“My heart aches for our people in south Lebanon,” she said. “They are generously paying the price for their dignity and their refusal of injustice. We experienced displacement in Gaza, and it is a torment worse than death. May God ease their suffering and reward them. They are our people.”

The resistance is, however, facing immense political pressure from Gulf countries. According to sources close to Hamas, Qatari authorities asked Hamas-affiliated activists living in Qatar to issue statements condemning the Iranian attack on Qatari oil facilities. When most refused, the authorities expelled several prominent activists and detained political analyst Saeed Ziad, a frequent Al-Jazeera guest throughout the two years of war on Gaza.

Israel Kills 3 Journalists in South Lebanon

The same sources said that most of the movement’s “shadow leaders” left Qatar over the past week, leaving behind only a small number from the inner circle around Khaled Meshaal. Meshaal himself, according to one source, issued “a statement in the movement’s name condemning what were described as Iranian attacks on Gulf states.”

Reflecting the depth of internal polarization within the movement, that statement was followed by a message from the Hamas leadership congratulating the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. Yet despite the efforts of Gulf media networks to manufacture hostility toward what they called “the sinking Iranian ship,” they have failed to alter the underlying mood in Gaza.

The military media of the Qassam Brigades reposted a video featuring a line by the late Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed to the Israeli occupation: “You will not merely suffer a shortage of tanks; you will have no tanks left,” invoking the Taybeh ambush, in which the resistance destroyed five Merkava tanks.

(al-akhbar)


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37
 
 

This article by Jared Laureles and Jessica Xantomila originally appeared in the March 28, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The Independent Union of Goodyear Mexico Workers (SITGM) and the tire manufacturing company reached an agreement, obtaining a 5.8 percent salary increase for the benefit of more than a thousand workers at the plant located in San Luis Potosí.

This averts the strike, which was anticipated last week, after this proposal for the 2026 salary review was put to a vote.

The original demand was for a 15 percent increase. Therefore, although the increase is the “highest in the tire sector” and was approved by a majority vote, the union warned that “dissatisfaction persists” among the workforce, as the recovery of their purchasing power remains pending.

The union, affiliated with the Mexican Workers’ Union League (LSOM), indicated that various benefits are impacted, such as the 44-day Christmas bonus, the vacation bonus that ranges from 25 to 31 days (depending on seniority), the 13 percent savings fund, the social security fund, as well as the payment of the corresponding Social Security contribution.

He added that consideration should also be given to food vouchers, equivalent to 12 percent of the salary, payment for mandatory rest days worked, as well as the possible double payment for the days corresponding to the Holy Week period, if work is performed.

At Goodyear San Luis Potosí – which produces 15,000 tires daily – the 40-hour work week applies, so when a mandatory rest day must be worked, due to production needs, that day will be paid triple.

The LSOM-Goodyear section highlighted that the review was carried out by a commission made up of 10 representatives who were elected in the various areas of the factory, through the secret and direct vote of their colleagues.

More than 50 candidates registered in the process, and in order to carry out a serious negotiation it was necessary to call a strike against the company, due to its refusal to present a minimally acceptable proposal for the workforce, since initially the employer’s representation proposed a one percent increase and, until before filing the strike notice, it barely reached 4.7 percent.

“It is clear that the legacy of almost a decade of low wages, imposed by the company in collusion with the CTM, is an anomaly that must be corrected. In particular, the significant difference between the highest categories of production personnel and maintenance personnel,” SITGM pointed out.

  • People’s Mañanera March 30

    Mañanera

    People’s Mañanera March 30

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on investments in Fine Arts & Anthropology & History institutions, Cuba, lawsuit by Mexicans who died in ICE custody, and fuel price controls.

  • Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    Analysis

    Mexico’s Mobile Consulates in the US

    March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

    Such consulates perform an extremely important task, especially when the policies of the US administration under Donald Trump are becoming increasingly aggressive.

  • A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    Analysis

    A Law to Protect the Dignity & Life of Women

    March 30, 2026

    Mexico’s General Law to Prevent, Investigate, Sanction and Repair the Damage for the Crime of Femicide seeks to strengthen the capacity of the State to protect, act promptly, investigate, as well as guarantee truth, justice and reparation for victims.

The post SITGM & Goodyear Reach Agreement on Wage Increase appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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38
 
 

By Amanda Gelender  –  Mar 28, 2026

All Jews must kill Zionism within Judaism

I have come to have tremendous disdain for my people, the evil we have wrought, and the demons we have become. Our craven hypocrisy, our holocaust handwringing, our selfish dissociation, our bottomless both-sidesing, our catatonic inaction, our feeble sign-waving, our condescending condemnations, our wallowing victim complex, our self-indulgent betrayals, our brazen self-centeredness, our exploitative careerism, our blood and soil racism, our liberal cowardice, our mountains of empty platitudes amongst mountains of Palestinian corpses that we annihilated in cold blood. Israel has likely killed hundreds of thousands of people in two and half years of non-stop bombardment, executions, and engineered starvation in Gaza. The depths of our sadism seemingly knows no bounds.

One of the last times that Judaism’s breath and beating heart – that prophet Moses delivered – existed and showed itself died in Auschwitz, when Jewish Zionists were already busy building what would become the Jewish death colony, “Israel.”

Whether or not an echo of Moses’ Judaism can still exist or is recuperable is yet to be determined but I can confidently state: I don’t care, that’s not why I am here**,**I do not have the willingness or desire to even entertain possibilities of Judaism’s continuity until the Zionist entity is ashes and Palestine is free.

This is not a navel-gazing fight for the ‘soul of Judaism,’ Palestine is not our ‘Jewish moral reckoning.’ There isn’t a morsel of Jewish morality in sight. Palestine is an anti-colonial and decolonial liberation struggle in which we Jews are the fascistic overlords, the vicious propagandists and funders, the militarized soldier-settlers demolishing and stealing homes, igniting West Bank pogroms, and executing children en masse. Jewish Zionists will say this evokes “antisemitic tropes” – we don’t care, your words fall entirely flat as Jews in ‘Israel’ celebrate Purim by cheering on bombings like the murder of 165 schoolgirls and staff killed by US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran. The truth of Jewish terrorism is already seared into Palestinian land, jaggedly branded and carved into Palestinian skin with Swastikas of David. Jews now dwell in and animate the age of totalitarian Judaism; I don’t want to hear about “antisemitism” or “Jewish victimhood” ever again.

Zionists insist that hating ‘Israel’ is tantamount to hating Jews, then in the same breath demand that people do not conflate Israel with Jews. When I remark to Jews that we all are responsible for ending Zionism and the ongoing Palestinian genocide, I usually hear, “Not all Jews / Say Zionists, not Jews / There are actually more Christian Zionists than Jewish ones.” Well I am speaking to Jews right now, a people who support fascist Zionism in lockstep across every institution in our community.

Enough with the incessant deflection of responsibility. Jews consider ourselves a proud collective people, an unbroken lineage from generation to generation (L’dor, vador) – up until the cracked mirror of modern Judaism reflects back nothing but terrorism, slaughter, blood, sadism, rape, and organ theft. Virtually every Jewish group supports the existence of Israel in some shape or form and we dare to point the finger at others instead of cleaning up our own filthy house?

Organized Jewish formations across our entire community keep the colony humming through diehard and consistent commitment, propaganda, money, and resources, considering strengthening and defending ‘Israel’ to not only be a mitzvah, but part of their duty towards the Jewish people and an extension of their Jewish identity. Mind you, Jewish people are currently operating a string of torture and rape dungeons in Palestine and pummeling Lebanon and Iran with airstrikes. Israeli torturers recently abducted and burned cigarettes into the thighs of a 1-year old Palestinian child. This is the “Jewish state,” this is how far gone we are.

Zionism is not fringe within Judaism: It is ubiquitous. It is incumbent upon Jewish people of conscience to make the distinction between Zionism and Judaism materially true by destroying Zionism in our own communities, not denying our widespread complicity and policing others merely observing the fascistic reality of modern Judaism.

At great cost to themselves and their peoples, Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have stated these truths plainly for generations; writer Nada Chehade vividly describes the reality of Jewish settler-colonialism everyday. None of what I’m stating is new, it is only rare for a Jew to hear it from a Jew. Jewish people are condescendingly and racistly dismissive of Palestinians as narratives of their own decolonial struggle and insist instead upon perpetual Jewish innocence: As a people, we are woefully out of touch with both humanity and reality.

Art by Marc Rudin/Jihad Mansour featured on the back cover of the PFLP Bulletin (1981)

The fact that virtually all Jews and Jewish spaces are Zionist and support the existence of Israel is an indictment of us as a morally bankrupt people. Zero Jews could support Palestine and it would only further condemn us, certainly not those under the boot of our fascist reign, constantly developing resurgent ways to persist and resist our sadistic butchering. Jewish thoughts and feelings about Palestine do not matter, or rather they should not matter: Jewish feelings are currently given far too much weight, as the world grinds to a halt for white Jewish feelings in particular. Jewish University staff and students are currently receiving massive payouts for so-called “antisemitism” claims after the blessed Al Aqsa Flood operation ($21 million class settlement payout at Columbia). Compare this to how the hammer comes down on Arabs and Muslims experiencing actual systemic targeting, attacks, and abuse. Palestine is a generational freedom struggle, not a weepy Jewish grief circle.

Palestine doesn’t need Jewish co-signing to get free; Jews need to get serious, get out of Palestine, and rid Judaism of fascistic Zionism.

Of our own volition, Jewish people crowned Zionism a central pillar of modern Judaism and fashioned Israel into our new God. A hyper-militarized golden calf for an increasingly faithless people seeking a seat in the World of the Above (white supremacy, settlerhood, nation-building, power within Euro-Amerikan empire). We seamlessly integrated Israel and Zionism into every facet of Jewish life globally: Zionism has no borders. Israel has not become fascistic vis-à-vis Netanyahu and the Likud party, rather Israel is innately fascistic because of its settler-colonial structure – same applies to Trump and the Amerikan crusading settler-colony, Israel’s blueprint, as Dr. Mohamed Abdou articulates in Islam and Anarchism. Amerika and Israel are both irreformable and irredeemable, built out of the world established in 1492, entities erected by genocidal settlers atop mass Indigenous graves.

Almost half of the global Jewish population (~46%) are Israeli settler-squatters: They overwhelmingly support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza (82%) and the current US-Israel war on Iran (93%). Most of the rest of us live as privileged white settlers in colonies like so-called Amerika (41% of Jews). Those of us living in settler-colonies outside of Israel also neglect our responsibilities as settlers toward Indigenous Land Back and Black self-determination movements where we are; On Turtle Island, Black and Indigenous genocides have persisted for 533 years and counting.

When I state that virtually all Jews and Jewish formations are Zionist, I am including most of the very small number of Jews and Jewish organizations who self-identify as “anti-zionist” or “pro-Palestine.” Scratch the surface and you’ll find quickly that most are liberal Zionists, as Lara Kilani and the team at Good Shepherd Collective frequently note. All Jews who claim “non-zionism” are Zionist in their politics because they always disparage the resistance and conflate colonizer with colonized (ex. “We condemn both violence by Hamas and violence by Israel” or “A co-existent future on the land for both Palestinians and Israelis/Jews”).

Genuine Jewish anti-zionists unwaveringly support the total eradication of Israel (and the greater Satan: Amerika); full Land Back without a speck of Zionist or Euro-Amerikan imperial/settler-colonial control. This includes removing Jews from Palestine (while ensuring they don’t do harm where they go or further displace Indigenous peoples elsewhere), and open reverent support for Palestine’s armed resistance. Gaza’s mujahideen are at the heart of the struggle, currently spearheaded by Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades, who executed the miraculous Al Aqsa Flood on October 7th, 2023; an operation that genuine Jewish anti-zionists unequivocally recognize as one of most prolific anti-colonial operations in history.

It is exceedingly rare to find these political commitments amongst Jews and still weak when found, as we have accomplished virtually nothing material or meaningful to stop our people from committing the most heinous and disgusting acts imaginable over the last century in occupied Palestine. Jewish people are currently raping Palestinians to death with hot metal rods in concentration camp prisons and Jewish so-called “allies” living cozy lives in the imperial core still have the audacity to moan on about “antisemitism” and “don’t blame all Jews for the actions of Israel.” This Zionist nightmare is our moral responsibility as Jews to reckon with and war against within our own ranks:

Yes, all Jews.

“Deadly Star” by Mahmoud Khalili (1984)

While self-identification with the term ‘Zionist’ has fallen out of favor as of late, support for the existence of Israel among Jewish people is still rock solid. As people of the world increasingly turn against Israel, having seen Zionism for the evil it is, Jewish people have not budged on our fascistic commitments. Do you see heated confrontations over Jewish genocide breaking out at synagogues across the world? Do you see riots of internal strife inside Jewish community and religious spaces that sell stolen Palestinian land and host IOF terrorists to speak and fundraise? No, of course not. Jews know it’s expected to support Israel at all shuls. This is considered normal Jewish life: Our “birthright” in a world that “perpetually hates us for no other reason than that we’re Jewish.” Our delusions of Jewish innocence, our grandiose self-importance, our entitled death grip on the colony goes virtually uncontested within the Jewish community.

Jewish Zionists see Palestine and align with Jews because they’re Jews; Jewish anti-zionists see Palestine and align with Palestinians because they are of the sacred Below being crushed by the Above, the salt of the earth fighting for dignity and liberation on their own land, on their own terms. The land indeed fights with them. We don’t waver or flinch on our positions because it is fellow Jewish people who are the fascists running children over alive with tanks: Anti-Zionist commitments are ethical, not identitarian.

Jewish people may differ on the Netanyahu government policies, who should lead the Zionist entity, West Bank settlements, and the like, but once you assert support for Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades and October 7th, advocate for removing Jews from Palestine, and promote the dissolution of Israel in its entirety, you are considered by Jews to be a traitor to the Jewish community. Jews with moral clarity lack the courage, the spine, the organization, the faith, the embodied principles, and the will to force Zionism out of Judaism. To Jews who also hate Israel and what it has wrought: Be proud when they call you a traitor to their death project. Let us be “traitors” unflinchingly.

Judaism Is a Religion, Not a People; Palestine Is Not a Religion, It Is a People

All of Israel is an illegitimate settlement and all Israelis are settlers and soldiers on stolen land, not “civilians.” Jewish Zionists – both liberal and conservative – cling to notions of Jewish settler futurity in a free Palestine, arrogantly writing themselves into Palestine’s decolonized future, believing that Jewish settlers should get to remain on the land and keep at least some portion of their stolen spoils. Jewish anti-zionists should not tolerate a whiff of this entitlement amongst our own people; Palestinians should not be expected to live alongside their genocidaires.

Two and a half years in, Amerikan-made bombs are still crashing from the sky as proudly Jewish pilots pound out life in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, as proudly Jewish congregants around the world hoist and fly the Israeli flag, organize to get anti-zionists fired, suspendeddeported, and criminalized, facilitate settlement and trips to the entity, distribute resources to the Zionist military, and pray for G-d’s protection over our precious Jewish colony that has created the largest generation of child amputees in modern history. That has displaced more than one million people in Lebanon as the violent ethnic cleansing campaign for “Greater Israel” ruthlessly expands. Synagogues are no longer holy, there is no G-d where Zionism dwells. Let’s at least be honest about what we as a Jewish people have become.

Jews in Euro-Amerika send their kids to synagogues, summer camps, and Jewish schools – all Zionist – ultimately teaching them bald-faced lies about Israel (“a land without a people for a people without a land” “we made the desert bloom”), celebrating “Israel’s birthday” (The Nakba) and preparing our Jewish children to one day become Zionist settlers and soldiers themselves or to defend the Jewish state from wherever they are, as part of their Jewish identity and duty.

It is the fault of their Jewish parents, teachers, and adults in the community who put Jewish children into these Zionist Jewish institutional pipelines that brainwash and shape young Jews into becoming propagandized, anti-Arab, Islamophobic, nationalist, entitled zealots.

They will be, as you are now, woefully out of touch with the moral pulse of humanity, which increasingly understands how profoundly evil Zionism and Israel are. Jews will be the last to see, the last to understand, and it’s already way too late.

Just more reason, for those who still need it, as to why people should not look to us Jews for analysis on Palestine. We do not say anything original anyway, it’s all diluted, disembodied, and defanged, through the looking glass of the Jewish propagandists who shaped us. Treat yourself to perspectives that are not constrained and pressed through the esophagus of power.

Art by Mohammed Afefa. Depicts the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” in Berlin Germany with 19-year-old martyr Sha’ban al-Dalo who was connected to an IV drip when Israel burned him and his mother alive on October 13, 2024 after Israeli warplanes bombed their tent at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital complex in Gaza

Clearly, Jewish people only assert our Jewish collectivity when we view ourselves as heroes or victims, or with the comfortable distance of history; not when we need to take responsibility and reckon with our role as fascists in the present cataclysmic moment. Through Zionism, we bear witness to what happens when those romanticized and utopic concepts of Jewish collectivity are abusively warped toward an exceptionalism and Jewish supremacist tribalism for Euro-Amerikan imperial aims.

I also reject the framing of “Israel makes Jews unsafe/increases antisemitism” because: (1) we’re the oppressors in the context of Israel, not the victims; (2) this framing abdicates Jewish responsibility because ‘Israel’ is not an amorphous self-animating thing that merely hovers over us, it is a colony that we as Jews actively build and sustaindaily through concerted generational effort; (3) that’s not “antisemitism” it’s a reaction to Jewish-led genocide which all our institutions support; (4) you’re conceding to the propaganda that there is a “rise in antisemitism” when Jews currently do not face systemic oppression for being Jewish and the “antisemitic incidents” data is tracked such that every anti-zionist protest sign is clocked as a separate “antisemitic incident” by the ADL so; (5) enough with the Jewish victimhood, “Jewish safety” and “antisemitism” talk, it’s just a distraction from Jewish-perpetrated genocide of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims.

Many will say the argument I put forth unfairly puts a target on Jewish peoples’ backs: You’re still missing the point. We support genocidal Zionism across the entirety of our faith, we put the “target” on ourselves and can take it off ourselves by relinquishing genocidal Zionism and asserting principled anti-zionism. But more fundamentally we aren’t the victims targeted by Zionism, we are the perpetrators of it: The real targets are those materially placed on Palestinians by Israelis carrying out “double tap strikes” and “Where’s Daddy?” bombings for maximal carnage of Palestinian families by Jewish soldiers.

If Jews cared about justice and embodied the spirit of our own ancestors who fought fascism, we would see Jews tearing down and burning their congregation’s Israeli flags, ejecting racist genocidal Rabbis from the Bima and synagogues, demanding that temples cut all ties to the death colony, instigating revolution within the faith to cut out the Zionist cancer. We would have been selfless and given our lives to Palestinians and the resistance in the entity, we would have engaged in treason against modern Judaism and committed open sedition against any long forsaken notion of a “collective people,” that ceased to exist over the past 100 years, let alone since the blessed Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, 2023. If Jews had a speck of morality, we would be seeing a raging split and battle inside Judaism. None of this righteousness exists. And the genocide rages on.

Enough of our platforming and sponsored posts, our self-righteous interviews on being doxxed or fired for Palestine while Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims suffer a much worse fate for speaking truth. Enough of our vapid liberal influencer class, our careerism, our wasteful pointless electoralism, and our self-congratulatory book deals that come at the expense of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims’ flesh, skin and organs being harvested and vaporized with no identification or trail underneath concrete rubble. We as Jews are not special, and frankly “Jewish support” is often damaging in its liberal, orientalist defanging of the Palestinian struggle, regardless of one’s intentions.

God Damn Israel, a Jewish settler colony that slaughters in the hundreds of thousands under the explicit banner of protecting universal “Jewish safety.”

God Damn this sick pedophilic and raping state to which we as Jews all have colonial “birthright” under the “law of return,” a state that all our Jewish institutions uniformly support. Deflecting or underplaying this stark reality amongst our own people – daring to slander others as “antisemitic” who call it out – is a dishonest, cowardly abdication of our responsibility. Any semblance of Jewish morality is long-since dead, we killed it in Gaza.

Art by Mohammed Afefa

As journalist Laith Marouf often remarks, ‘the loudest Jewish voice today is genocide.’ He rightly advocates for Jews to battle against Zionism within our own communities, and to sacrifice beyond polemics, in a material way like Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have since the inception of Zionism. They have lost generations and entire family lineages as they throw sand in the gears of Zionism’s unending death machine. Laith Marouf notes how there is no meaningful resistance from anti-zionist Jews fighting Jewish Zionism like there was, for instance, amongst anti-fascist Germans fighting Nazism. He asks for our consideration, “Where is the Jewish John Brown?” “Where is the Jewish Oskar Schindler?” and remarks upon how in the over a century of the Zionist project, not one Jewish person has died for the cause of Palestinian liberation. So why should Laith or any other Palestinian be expected to not conflate Judaism and Zionism, when we as Jews don’t care enough to fight and sacrifice for the separation ourselves? They shouldn’t. Palestinians owe us nothing, we owe Palestine an infinite unpayable debt that continues to rack up every single moment of every single day.

Tweets from Laith Marouf of Free Palestine TV

To be ethically Jewish at this moment in history means taking up the responsibility to actively and militantly fight Zionism. Yes, all Jews. The clock reads genocide every moment of every day. This Jewish supremacist entity relies on Jewish consent and participation to keep it functioning. If Jews withdrew our participation, let alone actively warred against it, it would crash.

We operate this Euro-Amerikan imperial military outpost, we drape it in Judaism to whitewash and protect it from scrutiny, we keep it humming for our own selfish, settler gain. Amongst a more just Jewish populace, there would be Jews protesting and confronting their Jewish spaces at every service, holiday, and gathering, there would be Jews in occupied Palestine using their military skills to support the resistance, tribunals against Jews who participated in this generational genocide, large-scale efforts to de-nazify and de-zionize our people so we won’t commit further harm.

None of this energy currently exists within Judaism. Not even one synagogue went from Zionist to anti-zionist over the last two and a half blood-soaked years. The opposite happened, in fact, many Jews doubled and tripled down on (Zionist) Judaism and support for Israel after the stunning anti-colonial Al Aqsa Flood operation.

I still know of zero genuinely anti-zionist rabbis or synagogues (at least in Euro-Amerika) that back the Palestinian armed resistance and advocate for the full dissolution of US/Israel and decolonization of the land. This is an unbelievable indictment of us.

Not even a live-streamed genocide of infants burned alive every single day by Jewish bombs and bullets has been enough to budge Jewish institutions and leaders an inch away from Zionism in any serious or material way.

While modern Judaism remains Godless – just look at flattened Gaza – Islam reveals itself as a deep well of the Below from which Palestine and its allies in the region and across the Ummah draw on for spiritual strength to resist Zionist colonization and Euro-Amerikan empire.

Art by Mohammed Afefa

A reckoning is coming for those responsible – including many Jews – not because of our Jewishness, but because of our unwavering, lockstep investment in Israel and Nazi-Zionism that as a community we still refuse to loosen our grip on. What is there to say? It’s a holocaust of our making. When consequences inevitably return to Jewish institutions and individuals because we proliferated this violence and refuse to release our commitment to supporting genocide, it is not “antisemitism” – it is the chickens coming roost. People will rightfully be hunting down the people and formations who facilitated these crimes for the rest of their lives, as Nazis are still sought out into old age, no matter how seemingly small their role in facilitating the slaughter. And this genocide is not only generational but ongoing; it is settler-colonial in nature and therefore not comparable to the Nazi holocaust.

The answer is for every Jewish person, synagogue, and organization to drop the colony immediately, fully, and publicly, hold our people accountable, and move resources toward Palestinian liberation on Palestine’s own terms. Yes, all Jews.

And if we don’t fulfill our responsibilities and do it ourselves, others will inevitably take it into their own hands because this affront to humanity simply will not stand.

You cannot un-roll the bulldozer from across her body. You cannot un-whip the cable lashes from across his back. You cannot bring back to life the precious martyrs in Palestine; that ship has already sailed, Judaism’s crimes will ring out for eternity. The slaughter continues everyday despite you looking away, despite you rationalizing why it’s “‘not our fault.” It is our fault, and the bloodshed won’t stop until it is forced to.

Long live Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades, men of honor and steel, who rise from the subterranean below with homemade weapons and unshakeable faith to strike fear and fatal blows into the hearts of the Zionist enemy. Where Jews snuffed out life, Al Qassam breathed oxygen back into the body. This is the most shameful generation of Jews to ever exist. Not one of us can say we didn’t know. We are spiritually hollow, morally eviscerated. Don’t just selfishly say “Israel doesn’t represent all Jews” – fight for that distinction to be materially true by eradicating Zionism within Judaism. That is the only choice.

When it comes to the evils of Zionism, Jews would rather lie to ourselves and self-deceive than take a modicum of responsibility beyond feeble self-interested sloganeering. How long will Palestine and the region have to pay for our delusional denial, our unceasing rapturous violence, our refusal to take accountability for the ways we have destroyed so much life on this precious precarious planet?

Jews must destroy the Israeli state and the Zionist ideology in its entirety, its every node and tentacle, including Israel’s host colony: Amerika. I care more about Palestine than Judaism. If Judaism has to die for Palestine to live, kill it.

(Substack)


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Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press on Mexico and Mexican politics.

Patricia Boero, New Mexican Film Law Aims at Creative Sovereignty The Film Verdict. A new Mexican film law addresses the challenges posed by new technologies and increases democratic access to audiovisual production.

Luis Hernández Navarro, Bajo bloqueo de EU, 80% del pueblo cubano durante 67 años: Díaz-Canel La Jornada. “México es la tierra hermana que siempre ha estado al lado de Cuba, en las buenas y en las malas. La que siempre nos ha acompañado, la que nunca ha claudicado.”

Ricardo Wilson II, Langston Hughes: Novelist, Poet, Activist and… Translator Literary Hub. Ricardo Wilson II on the Writer’s Experience in Mexico and His Struggle to Bring Mexican and Cuban Writers to American Audiences.

México: reforma legal reabre esperanzas de las familias de localizar a desaparecidos Telesur. Las recientes reformas legales en materia de desaparición han permitido la localización de 31.946 personas vivas en lo que va del sexenio.

Sailboats of Nuestra América Convoy Arrive in Havana Telesur. Sailboats from Mexico reached Cuba safely after days of uncertain weather, marking a moment of solidarity and maritime achievement.

Alex Vasquez y Amy Stillman, Desalojos en Ciudad de México abren paso a rentas más costosas Bloomberg. Los desalojos de edificios completos generan indignación, ya que el alza de precios está expulsando a los residentes de sus propios barrios. Las tensiones siguen en aumento a medida que se acerca el Mundial.

Alex Vasquez and Amy Stillman, Mexico City Evictions Make Way for Pricier Housing Bloomberg. Evictions of whole buildings are one cause of anger as locals are priced out of more neighborhoods. Tensions are only rising as the World Cup approaches.

Kate Linthicum, Homeless and stateless: Deportees from U.S. are trapped in Mexico Los Angeles Times. Immigration officials gave her a choice for her deportation: “You can go to Congo or Mexico.”

Stephen Eisenhammer, Mexico says 40,000 of country’s 130,000 disappeared people may be alive Reuters. After a year-long review of the national registry of missing persons, officials said 40,308 entries – 31% of the total – showed ​some activity across other government records such as tax filings or birth certificates, suggesting those people could be ​alive and locatable.

China ‘reclama’ a México que perderá 9 mil mdd por sus aranceles: ‘Vemos barrera al comercio e inversión’ El Financiero. China estimó pérdidas por 9 mil 400 millones de dólares en los sectores mecánico y eléctrico del país asiático por los aranceles impuestos por México.

The post Clicks appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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By Ben Norton  –  Mar 25, 2026

The Global South voted for a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”. Europe abstained. The US, Israel, and Argentina voted against it.

The United Nations General Assembly held a vote on a resolution denouncing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”.

The countries of the political West refused to formally condemn the mass enslavement and trafficking of Africans.

The vast majority of UN member states, which are in the Global South, supported the resolution, with 123 votes in favor.

All of Europe abstained, except for Serbia. There were 52 abstentions in total.

Just three countries voted against the resolution: the United States, Israel, and Argentina’s right-wing regime of Javier Milei.

UN GA vote condemn slavery 2026

Paraguay’s conservative, pro-US government abstained. The right-wing, Trump-allied regimes in Bolivia and Ecuador did not vote. (Venezuela lost its right to vote, because it is unable to pay UN membership fees, due to the illegal US sanctions against it.)

Even Ireland and Spain — which in the past have broken with the pro-Israel European Union and supported Palestine — abstained in the vote.

The resolution stated:

The trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans [was] the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital.

The capitalist nations of the West developed their economies through the enslavement and extreme exploitation of Africans.

The UN News agency wrote:

For more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa, put in shackles and shipped to the New World to toil in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations under scorching heat and the crack of the whip.

Denied their basic humanity and even their own names, they were forced to endure generations of exploitation with repercussions that reverberate today including persistent anti-Black racism and discrimination.

The resolution was sponsored by Ghana, whose President John Mahama said Africa wanted “reparative justice”.

United States, María Corina Machado, and the War Lobby Against Venezuela

West opposes reparations for Africans, arguing slavery was supposedly not a crime when it was committedWhat especially angered the West about the UN General Assembly resolution was its call for reparations for the African descendants of the victims of slavery.

Western governments argued that they do not owe reparations, because international law did not exist during the mass enslavement and trafficking of Africans, therefore it was supposedly not a crime.

The US representative, Dan Negrea, claimed that the resolution was “highly problematic in countless respects”, the UN News agency reported.

The US government stressed that it “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred”.

The representative of the European Union made the same argument on the floor of the UN.

The EU criticized the resolution for implying “suggestions of a retroactive application of international rules which was non-existent at the time and claims for reparations, which is incompatible with established principles of international law”.

“References to claims for reparations also lack a sound legal basis”, the EU argued, stressing that the “principle of non-retroactivity, a fundamental cornerstone of the international legal order, must be strictly upheld”.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said the same, in a statement explaining its decision to abstain.

The British representative argued that there is “no duty to provide reparation for historical acts that were not, at the time those acts were committed, violations of international law”.

The UK insisted “that the prohibitions on slavery, the slave trade, and what are now considered crimes against humanity had not yet been established in international law at the time of the transatlantic slave trade”.

(Geopolitical Economy Report)


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The Zionist entity killed veteran Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, Al-Mayadeen journalist Fatima Ftouni, and her brother, photojournalist Mohammad Ftouni, during a double-tap drone strike on a press vehicle in southern Lebanon on Saturday, March 28.

The Israeli attack wiped out the entire media team traveling together to deliver coverage of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon’s south. Media officials confirmed that the team was inside a clearly marked “PRESS” vehicle when it was bombed.

Images show the car was moving along a forested road in the town of Jezzine with very little traffic due to the forced displacement of residents, confirming a deliberate targeted strike.

The area was then targeted again with a second strike after people attempted to provide aid. The Israeli military broadcast video of the attack, claiming that Shoeib was a “terrorist in the intelligence unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.”

The Israeli vile enemy has released footage of the airstrike that targeted the car of Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib and Al-Mayadeen correspondent Fatima Ftouni in Jezzine along with her brother camera-man Mohamad Ftouni.

How utterly audacious and deeply criminal it is to not… https://t.co/D25mZgGflU pic.twitter.com/vXPhkvxKFl

— Marwa Osman || مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) March 28, 2026

“Once again, the Israeli aggression violates the most basic rules of international law, international humanitarian law, and the laws of war, by targeting journalists, who are ultimately civilians performing a professional duty,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on Saturday.

“This is a blatant crime that violates all the norms and treaties under which journalists enjoy international protection in wars,” he added.

Al-Manar TV mourned Shoeib, highlighting that he reported on events in southern Lebanon from before the 2000 liberation, through the July 2006 war, and the ongoing conflict. He also covered events in Syria and Iraq as part of his field reporting career.

“The knight of resistance media has dismounted after a long struggle, and Al-Manar’s lens and platform have once again bled the most precious blood … Al-Manar mourns him as a true media front, a support and companion to generations of resistance fighters, and a teacher and role model for generations of journalists,” the statement from the Lebanese broadcaster reads.

Shoeib was widely described as a “one-man army,” known for his bold frontline reporting and frequent direct confrontations with Israeli soldiers along the border, where he delivered real-time coverage of developments on the ground.

VIDEO | Footage shows late Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib confronting Israeli soldiers on 19 September 2022 in the occupied Shebaa Farms, south Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/iCqOqmqWNn

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 28, 2026

Al-Mayadeen mourned the killing of Ftouni by emphasizing that she “had been in the field covering the ongoing Israeli aggression on Lebanon, doing the work she was known and loved for, bringing the reality of her people’s resistance to audiences around the world.”

“We pledge to her soul that we will remain committed to the message of resistance, freedom, and sovereignty,” Rony Alfa, the director of Al-Mayadeen’s office in Lebanon, said, adding that Fatima was “a heroine of Al-Mayadeen, the world, and Arab and international media.”

Western Silence Allows Israel To Get Away With Killing Journalists

Earlier in March, Ftouni lost seven members of her family in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Toul, but continued reporting from high-risk areas regardless.

Before her assassination, Ftouni raised concerns about her family’s safety in Toul to Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who made light of her concerns.

VIDEO | When the late Al-Mayadeen journalist Fatima Ftouni expressed her concern to Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam about her family living in the southern Lebanese village of Toul, Salam mockingly replied that she looked healthy and that there was a doctor in the room. pic.twitter.com/gS15gA8LN5

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 28, 2026

Earlier this year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed Israel as the leading cause of death for journalists worldwide for the third consecutive year. In Lebanon alone, the Israeli army has killed at least 22 journalists, often claiming they were “terrorists,” an unsubstantiated allegation that is widely echoed across western media outlets.

(The Cradle)


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This article by Emir Olivares Alonso originally appeared in the March 29, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. To date, the federal government has delivered nearly 30,000 land titles to women who own and work the land, reported Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

The goal for his six-year term in this “reclaiming” of women ejido members and communal landowners is to achieve 150,000 property titles for them.

This afternoon, the president led the delivery of agrarian certificates to women in the rural and conservation land area of ​​the Tlalpan borough, south of Mexico City.

From Las Maravillas Topilejo Park, she emphasized: “One of the rights that seemed most difficult (to guarantee) is the right to property. It seemed as if women didn’t have the right to own a home; and in terms of agrarian rights, it seemed as if women didn’t have the right to be ejido members or communal landowners.”

In response, the head of the federal government retorted: “Who said that? Where is it written? It’s not written anywhere. Imagine, even work was already being done that way. Women were asking each other: ‘Can I be an ejido member? Can I be a communal landholder?’ Of course we can be ejido members and communal landholders, have agrarian rights. And that is what we are reclaiming with you today.”

Accompanied by the head of government of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, the mayor of Tlalpan, Gabriela Osorio, and officials from the federal administrations (such as the secretaries of Women, Citlalli Hernández; of Agrarian and Territorial Development, Edna Vega; and of the Environment, Alicia Bárcena) and local administrations, the president stated that this delivery also vindicates the Indigenous peoples, conservation land and the women who work in the countryside.

Accompanied by the head of government of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, the mayor of Tlalpan, Gabriela Osorio, and officials from the federal administrations (such as the secretaries of Women, Citlalli Hernández; of Agrarian and Territorial Development, Edna Vega; and of the Environment, Alicia Bárcena) and local administrations, the president stated that this delivery also vindicates the indigenous peoples, the conservation land and the women who work in the countryside.

“And we are advocating for the rights of women in particular, the agrarian rights of Mexican women,” she emphasized.

From this borough where she lived for 30 years and served as mayor, Sheinbaum Pardo maintained that despite the pressure of urban sprawl in the megalopolis, the conservation land of the nation’s capital refuses to disappear. This is thanks to the ejidos (communal lands) and agrarian and indigenous communities of the city.

“The pressure from urban sprawl is tremendous, but here the forest is cared for, and corn, vegetables, and flowers are still being planted,” she pointed out to dozens of people who gathered in the space, although the expected number was not reached, so before the start of the event, government personnel had to collect dozens of chairs —practically half— that had been set up waiting for the President.

One of the farmers who benefited from this certificate delivery, María Enriqueta Carrón Yescas, recalled her own story: “For me this moment has a very special meaning, I am an ejido member thanks to my father, who bequeathed to me not only the land, but also the love and commitment to the countryside.”

“I started this journey more than 20 years ago, a journey that hasn’t been easy. When I began, most of the ejido members were men, and it wasn’t well-received for a woman to enter their ejido. Making my way in required effort, consistency, and a lot of determination. Little by little, with work and perseverance, I built my place.”

Today she chairs the oversight committee of the Cuautepec ejido, in the Gustavo A. Madero district of the nation’s capital, and said she represents dozens of ejido and community women who have fought to be heard and recognized.

For her part, Brugada recalled that land redistribution was one of the achievements of the Mexican Revolution, based on General Emiliano Zapata’s ideal that “the land belongs to those who work it.” This principle was enshrined in Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution and implemented during the administration of General Lázaro Cárdenas through agrarian reform.

However, the mayor noted, land ownership has primarily fallen to men, relegating women to a secondary role. She stated that in the mid-20th century, only 5 percent of land was registered in women’s names, and by the end of that century, that number had fallen to a mere 20 to 25 percent.

In Mexico City, she added, 35 percent of conservation land is currently owned by women.

“It’s commendable, but there’s still much more to be done. That’s the great contradiction of our history: women produce, care for, and sustain the land, yet they weren’t recognized as its owners. For centuries, the land bore a woman’s name, but a man’s signature. And yet, women didn’t leave. For centuries, they have been sowers of life, guardians of the territory, the water, the forest, and the cornfields.”

The head of government pointed out that under the government of the country’s first female president and the second of the 4T, the right of that sector to own their land is being vindicated today.

“Today is the time for women. And the peasant women who have remained silently caring for the land are now being named, and today they own the land. It is time to recognize that without peasant women there is no countryside, no community, and no life. Today we say it with conviction and justice: without women there is no land, without women there is no country; the land also belongs to women.”

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The South African party Al Jama-ah promoted a special session in the national parliament to demand the release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores, from US prison. On Saturday, March 27, the party presented the resolution as a matter of solidarity from South African legislators towards Venezuela and as an expression of condemnation of the Monroe Doctrine and the Donald Trump administration’s warmongering.

The resolution demanding the release of the Venezuelan presidential couple received support from representatives of most parties in the South African parliament. Among them were members of the International Relations Commission of the parliament, led by the African National Congress (ANC), and the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Alvin Botes. Centrist parties such as the Patriotic Alliance and Action SA also supported the initiative.

At the regular session the day before, Al Jama-ah took advantage of its only annual opportunity to propose its own resolutions, introducing the demand condemning US interventionism. Although the resolution was initially rejected, the intervention of the party’s leader, Ganief Hendricks, led to a special plenary session held virtually and behind closed doors on Saturday.

At that session, only two parties voted against the resolution: the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party, and the right-wing Freedom Front Plus.

The official position of the South African government aligns with the approved resolution. In his speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Botes called the forced transfer of the presidential couple to the US a “kidnapping” and a “military intervention,” carried out by elite US units in a military invasion that left more than a hundred dead, an event the Trump administration is trying to pass off as a “police operation.” Botes called for the end of persecution against President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores and demanded their immediate release.

The parliamentary session took place following the call by Al Jama-ah MP Imraan Ismail Moosa, who urged his colleagues to support the international campaign #BringThemBack. In his presentation, the MP argued that the kidnapping and illegal transfer of the Venezuelan leader to the United States poses serious implications in terms of international law, sovereignty, and human rights.

Protests in Venezuela and US Demand Freedom for Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores

President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped by the US on January 3 through a military invasion of Venezuela. They were subsequently taken to New York and imprisoned. There, they face fabricated charges in a politically biased trial.

Moosa warned that this type of action “further challenges established principles such as the immunity of heads of state, setting a controversial precedent for the application of US domestic law extraterritorially.”

Al Jama-ah also criticized the US for violating Venezuelan sovereignty, highlighting the consequences of similar interventions against other countries. The party emphasized that the international community must condemn these actions and reinforce respect for international law. The party was one of the first to join the international campaign #BringThemBack, aimed at visibilizing the case of President Maduro and First Lady Flores and demanding their immediate release from illegal imprisonment.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SF


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The sailboats Friendship and Tiger Moth entered the port of Havana on Saturday, March 28, the last two members of the international solidarity convoy to Cuba, Nuestra América, to do so. Their arrival came after days of uncertainty and a coordinated search by specialized agencies from Mexico and Cuba, as unfavorable weather conditions and adverse winds caused significant delays and a total loss of communication.

The two vessels, which departed from Mexico’s Isla Mujeres on March 20, entered Havana Bay through its entrance channel at 4:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, assisted by harbor pilots. On board each boat were 10 activists representing various nationalities, in addition to their crews. The mission is carrying vital humanitarian aid, including medical donations for the Cuban healthcare system.

Personal de la Secretaría de Marina-Armada de México localizó y atendió a los nueve tripulantes de los veleros Friendship y Tiger Moth, reportados como no localizados desde el 23 de marzo tras zarpar de Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, con destino a Cuba para entregar ayuda… pic.twitter.com/3HJHgWAjCn

— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) March 28, 2026

The arrival concludes seven days of sailing. The two sailboats had been reported missing on March 23, triggering an intense search operation by the Mexican and Cuban navies, with constant oversight from Presidents Claudia Sheinbaum and Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Analysts and solidarity activists raised concerns over the loss of communication with the vessels, given that the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has been carrying out extrajudicial killings in the region since September 2025. These operations have resulted in the deaths of at least 158 people without any form of legal accountability. The most recent of these extrajudicial killings was reported on March 25.

Since the two small boats have no motors and are powered solely by wind, calculating an exact arrival date in the Cuban capital proved difficult. Hoowever, a source from the Nuestra América convoy organizers noted during search operations that the craft were being handled by experienced sailors.

On Saturday morning, the Mexican Navy (SEMAR) reported that a Persuader aircraft had located Friendship and Tiger Moth 80 nautical miles (148 km) northwest of Havana. Following the contact, a SEMAR ship provided support to the boats, and personnel performed medical checks on all occupants, confirming that they were in good health.

Activists from Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba Detained in US & Panama

US extrajudicial killings on high seas
With the 46th lethal “kinetic strike” by SOUTHCOM on March 25, which claimed four lives, the cumulative death toll of the US Operation Southern Spear has reached at least 158 victims.

This latest maritime bombing reaffirms a pattern of extreme lethality: out of 46 recorded strikes on small boats, only three survivors have been officially recovered since the inception of the campaign in early September 2025.

While US SOUTHCOM frames these actions as “applying total systemic friction,” legal analysts and activists continue to condemn the lack of transparency, the absence of due process, and the potential targeting of civilian fishing vessels.

These extrajudicial killings are being considered as a naval extension of the same US military aggression that resulted in the January 3 bombing of Caracas and other Venezuelan states and the subsequent kidnapping of the Venezuelan presidential couple.

(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC


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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)— Venezuela has recovered its diplomatic headquarters in the United States, as reported on Saturday March 28. The Venezuelan flag is now flying over the ambassador’s residence, which—along with other diplomatic facilities—”will be rehabilitated to serve all Venezuelans.”

Following the failed 2019 US-led regime-change operation with Juan Guaidó as the face, the embassy and eight consulates of Venezuela in the US were illegally removed from the control of Venezuelan authorities and transferred to US-authorized far-right operators.

At that time, for weeks, the Venezuelan Embassy Defenders collective, a group of US solidarity activists, fought to block the US arbitrariness, an effort that resulted in a small group of them being charged by the US judiciary.

Junto al Jefe de Misión @plasenciafelixr, recuperamos las sedes diplomáticas de Venezuela 🇻🇪 en EE.UU., que por instrucciones de la Pdta. (E) @delcyrodriguezv serán rehabilitadas para ponerlas al servicio de todos los venezolanos.

Un paso firme en el fortalecimiento de nuestras… pic.twitter.com/QEwWYDcoGM

— Oliver Blanco (@OliverBlanco) March 28, 2026

Diplomatic facilities in the US
Venezuela possesses three key diplomatic facilities in Washington, DC: the embassy, the ambassador’s residence, and the headquarters of the military attachés. Additionally, there were eight consulates in Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and the consular section of the embassy in Washington, DC. It has not yet been announced when or how many of them will be reopened.

The newly appointed Venezuelan deputy foreign minister for North America and Europe, Oliver Blanco—who is associated with the opposition—announced on social media the return of the Venezuelan flag to the diplomatic facility by posting photos of the event.

A new group of Venezuelan diplomats arrived in Washington, as announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday. In a video, Blanco appeared alongside the newly appointed Venezuelan chargé d’affaires in Washington, Félix Plasencia, to discuss the resumption of diplomatic relations with the US.

Objectives of the diplomatic rapprochement
One of Venezuela’s primary goals for resuming diplomatic relations, as emphasized by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, is to establish a consular presence in the US to facilitate assistance for President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores, who were kidnapped by the US regime on January 3, following an extensive bombing of Venezuela that killed more than 100 people.

“We are working to foster relationships based on respect and cooperation for the prosperity of our countries,” Blanco stated in the video. He also reported on a work agenda with US Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau, Senior Bureau Official for Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak, and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs Caleb Orr to finalize the diplomatic rapprochement.

Félix Plasencia emphasized that the acting president sent Blanco to lead the delegation in reestablishing a diplomatic presence in the United States. “Here we are, a group of officials, to address the issues that concern all Venezuelans,” he said.

Venezuelan Diplomats Set to Arrive In Washington This Week; New Head of Return to the Homeland Program

Since the violent US imperialist attack on January 3, Venezuela—which remains under Chavista control—has been forced into what many analysts label a strategic retreat. The government is taking decisions that were previously unthinkable in an effort to avoid further US military attacks and total foreign control, while trying to gain time to reorganize politically and militarily.

The resumption of diplomatic and consular relations also represents a significant step for thousands of Venezuelans currently residing in the United States who are in urgent need of passport renewals, travel documents, and civil registry procedures. Like President Maduro, these citizens could also benefit from consular assistance, particularly given the current unprecedented persecution against Venezuelan migrants promoted by the US regime.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SC


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This article by Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles originally appeared in the March 28, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. Movements and platforms of families of missing persons, which bring together more than 200 groups, reiterated their call to hold a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum, after expressing their concern about an update to the figures of the National Registry “that prioritizes administrative management over the reality of families on the ground.”

According to information presented yesterday by the federal government, of the 132,534 cases reported in the country, 46,742 have insufficient data for the search and 43,128 appear without a record of activity or administrative procedure after their disappearance.

In response, in a statement released today, the Movement for Our Disappeared in Mexico (MNDM), the Contingent against the Disappearances of LGBTTTIQ+ people, the National Search Union and Network, and the RIAPD demanded broad access to information.

“Transparency and full access to information for families must be guaranteed, particularly regarding the methodology and monitoring of the RNPDNO and the National Database of Investigation Files, as well as all processes related to the search, investigation and identification,” they stated.

Furthermore, a comprehensive search must be conducted. “The State must guarantee that every person is searched for with due diligence, regardless of their administrative or criminal status.”

They lamented that despite the rhetoric of closeness with the authorities, “we observe with concern that they continue to make decisions without broad and participatory consultation with families and platforms, even though last year we promoted a dialogue with the Ministry of the Interior to establish a broad agenda for the search, investigation, identification and restitution of our loved ones.”

In this regard, they also noted that they have been requesting a meeting with President Sheinbaum since October 2024. “We are still waiting for a response,” they emphasized.

The platforms and family movements insisted that it is worrying that the methodology used to review the national registry has not been detailed.

“Using purely bureaucratic criteria to assess the crisis risks minimizing the true extent of the crime. A database based primarily on criminal complaints ignores the reality of prosecutors’ offices in Mexico, as well as the underreporting resulting from distrust of institutions and the lack of safe conditions for reporting. The number of case files (3,869) does not equate to the number of missing persons, and therefore should not be used to minimize the magnitude of disappearances in Mexico,” they stated.

Regarding the 46,742 records marked as “without information”, they pointed out that it is the responsibility of the authorities to ensure that each report has complete and necessary information for the search.

“Classifying these cases under this category is a failure of the State to fulfill its responsibility to monitor cases with the participation of families. The lack of data in a registry is a reflection of institutional inaction, not a justification for ceasing the search,” they pointed out.

In the document, they also emphasized that shortcomings persist in the implementation of the General Law since 2017, “which are now compounded by the outstanding issues arising from the recent reform. State policy on disappearances cannot be built on opacity.”

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The constitutional president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores sent a message addressed to the people of Venezuela and the world, thanking them for their expressions of solidarity, support, and love. “We are well, strong, serene, and in constant prayer,” the presidential couple stated in the message published on President Maduro’s social media on Saturday, March 28. They also urged the Venezuelan people to keep strengthening peace, national unity, coexistence, and dialogue.

The message comes 48 hours after the Venezuelan presidential couple appeared in the second hearing of the illegal trial conducted against them by the United States, the country where they have been kept imprisoned since January 3, the day they were kidnapped by US troops who bombed areas of Caracas, Miranda, La Guaira, and Aragua, a criminal military invasion in which the US soldiers killed 120 people.

“We have received your communications, messages, emails, letters, and your prayers,” expressed the presidential couple in a text published on President Maduro’s Instagram account. “Every word of love, every gesture of affection, every expression of support fills our souls and strengthens us spiritually. We are well, strong, serene, and in constant prayer.”

They expressed their admiration for the Venezuelan people’s ability to stay united in difficult times, as well as their ability “to express love, awareness, and solidarity, within Venezuela and beyond our borders. The love that you send us becomes moral strength, inner fortitude, and a commitment to the highest values of life.”

“Today more than ever we call upon you to continue strengthening the peace of the country, national unity, reconciliation, forgiveness, and union among everyone,” they added in their words addressed to the Venezuelan people. “May no one stray from the path of dialogue, coexistence, and respect, for that is the path of the Homeland, that is the path of goodness.”

President Maduro, who has always shown his faith and belief in God, quoted a passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

In this context, he added, “May you ask with faith, seek with hope, call with love, for the ways of God open for the peoples who persevere in truth, in peace, and in light.”

“Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your messages, for your letters, for your prayers, and for your immense love. Our gratitude, our prayer, and our spiritual embrace are with you, today, tomorrow, and always,” concluded the message.

Protests in Venezuela and US Demand Freedom for Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores

The second hearing of President Maduro and Cilia Flores took place on Thursday, March 26, at the Federal Court for the Southern District of Manhattan. It started 40 minutes late and ended without a date for the next session.

The judge maintained the illegal imprisonment of Maduro and Flores and did not order lifting the blockade on the defense that the US Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed by withholding the funds to pay the President Maduro’s lawyer. During the session, Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that he could reconsider his position if he determined that the US government acted in bad faith by withholding those funds.

At the hearing, Flores’s attorney, Mark Donnelly, stated that she suffers from a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse. The judge authorized the request for her to undergo a specialized medical examination, including an electrocardiogram.

The first occasion on which the presidential couple attended a hearing at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Court of the Palace of Justice, presided over by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, was on January 5, when President Maduro declared himself a prisoner of war and reaffirmed that he is the constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. “I am innocent. I am a prisoner of war. I am a decent man. I adhere to the Geneva Convention. I remain the president of my country,” he declared on that occasion.

On March 19, President Maduro’s defense attorney, Barry J. Pollack, filed a motion in the Southern District Court of New York to dismiss all charges against President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. The central argument was that Washington is actively violating the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution and the right to due process, guaranteed to any accused on US soil, by preventing Venezuela from funding the defense of its head of state.

From the early hours of Thursday, March 26, people gathered in Plaza Bolívar in Caracas to demand the release of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. Similar marches took place throughout Venezuela, as well as outside the courthouse in New York and in other parts of the world.

(Diario VEA)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/DZ


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By Cira Pascual Marquina  –  Mar 27, 2026

I write these lines at a particularly difficult moment for Venezuelan sovereignty. The imperialist attack of January 3 and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and Congresswoman Cilia Flores marked a new escalation in an aggression that now spans more than twenty-six years against the Bolivarian Revolution. This is not an isolated episode. It is a new chapter in a broad and multifaceted strategy aimed at taking away the Venezuelan people and government’s power of decision and, ultimately, reversing the political path inaugurated in 1999.

In this context, the leadership of the revolution has been forced to make difficult decisions. There has been no shortage of tedious and often legalistic debates about the reform of the Hydrocarbons Law. However, that reform had in fact already been under discussion prior to the attack. By contrast, what doesconstitute a tactical concession affecting our national sovereignty is how the United States now oversees and controls our oil sales.

No one who has historically defended energy sovereignty can ignore the weight of this blow. Nevertheless, the immediate alternative to this concession was not maintaining sovereignty—an idea often invoked by “leftists” in the global North as they hastily declare the end of our revolution—but rather an all-out bloody war under extremely unfavorable conditions, accompanied by a naval blockade. Under imperialist siege, even revolutionary processes may be forced to maneuver to preserve life and ensure their continuity.

It was a hard blow. But it was also the result of a prolonged economic war whose objective has been precisely to close off all avenues for the country’s material reproduction.

Lenin knew these situations well. In the most difficult years of the Soviet Revolution, he defended the New Economic Policy as a necessary tactical retreat to preserve what was fundamental. Revolutionary politics, he insisted, requires distinguishing between what can be defended at a given moment and what constitutes the strategic core of a historical process.

Today, that distinction becomes crucial once again. National sovereignty is not reducible to control over a strategic resource, however important it may be. In Venezuela, there exists another equally important dimension: organized popular sovereignty.

This is the terrain of the commune.

When Karl Marx analyzed the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871, he wrote a phrase that retains all its force: “The Commune was the direct antithesis of the Empire.” What was revolutionary about that experience was not a change in government, but the emergence of a new political form: a structure in which the working people began to govern themselves.

The commune thus represented more than a local institution or a mechanism to address specific territorial problems. It was a political form capable of embodying collective emancipation.

This idea takes on particular relevance in the contemporary world, and it is precisely for this reason that Chávez conceived the commune as a superior organizational form aimed at undermining the foundations of the bourgeois state, overcoming the metabolism of capital, and transforming the social relations of production.

Capitalism, whose tendency toward concentration and expansion Marx had already anticipated, now takes the form Lenin conceptualized as imperialism: a global system of domination and dispossession in the service of big capital, sustained by financial, military, and—increasingly—communicational power.

In this context, the communal question takes on strategic significance.

As Chris Gilbert argues in his essay “Socialist Communes and Anti-Imperialism: A Marxist Perspective,” for communes to have real anti-imperialist potential, they cannot be conceived as spaces of local autonomy disconnected from the national political process. When this happens, the communal project risks being neutralized or reduced to a marginal experience.

The Marxist—and Chavista—perspective points in another direction. The commune is not a local refuge from the system, but a fundamental component of a broader strategy of power and social transformation.

As Gilbert further explains, when Hugo Chávez proposed communes as the “basic cells” of Venezuelan socialism, he did so within an explicitly anti-imperialist horizon. The goal was not to build isolated communities, but to reorganize the country as a whole and open the path toward a social metabolism different from that of capital.

Chávez made this clear in 2009. “An isolated commune is counterrevolutionary,” he said.

Communes must be articulated into communal cities, federations, and ultimately into a confederation capable of progressively displacing the old state. This was not a localist project. It was a national one.

Today, this wager takes on even greater significance!

Under conditions of imperialist siege, a society’s ability to reproduce life with dignity depends to a large extent on the organization of the working class. Communal production, collective management of services, and collective decision-making become concrete mechanisms both of resistance and of building new social relations that point toward emancipation.

The recent National Popular Consultation, held on March 8, International Working Women’s Day, expresses precisely this dynamic.

Thousands of communes across the country debated and prioritized projects aimed at addressing concrete needs: water systems, productive initiatives, community infrastructure, educational, sports, and cultural spaces. The consultations might appear to be simple administrative measures within the state apparatus, but their significance runs much deeper.

Every time a community collectively decides how to organize its material life, it exercises a concrete form of sovereignty. And we are not speaking here of an abstract sovereignty proclaimed in speeches, but a sovereignty that is practiced.

This popular sovereignty acquires strategic value when a country faces unilateral coercive measures and military aggression. The objective of such attacks is not only to pressure a government: it is to disorganize social life and fracture the collective fabric that allows a society to reproduce itself with dignity.

In the face of this strategy, communal organization operates as a form of social resilience.

Communities that produce food, organize economic circuits, manage services, or collectively prioritize their resources, build a capacity for resistance that no blockade can fully destroy.

This is why the commune is not only a democratic experiment. It is also a form of national defense.

In this sense, it is politically significant that, just two months after the January 3 attack, the national government—with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez at the helm—chose to center these popular consultations. At a moment when imperialism presses for the dismantling of popular power, the decision has been the opposite: to maintain communal democracy as the backbone of the revolutionary process. This reflects a strategic understanding: in the midst of siege, the principal strength of the Bolivarian Revolution does not lie solely in state institutions, but in the territorial organization of the working class. In times of imperialist aggression, strengthening popular power is not a political luxury—it is a historical necessity.

As Gilbert reminds us, Marx argued that communal relations constitute the fundamental antithesis of a system based on commodity exchange. Whereas capitalism transforms social relations into relations between things—relations that are mediated by money, the markets and capital—communal production implies collective control over productive activity.

That collective control is, ultimately, a form of sovereignty.

In Venezuela, sovereignty is being built in thousands of communes—some more robust and consolidated, others still incipient—where politics ceases to be a distant affair and becomes a daily practice.

Of course, commune-building is full of contradictions. The construction of the communal state coexists with inherited bureaucratic structures, enormous economic difficulties, and the tensions inherent to any process of historical transformation.

Yet even amid these tensions, the commune remains the strategic horizon. In a world where power is increasingly concentrated in corporations and financial centers, the idea that communities can directly govern key aspects of their collective life carries a profoundly subversive potential.

Defending Venezuela against imperialism does not mean only denouncing external aggression. It also means defending and deepening the forms of popular organization that can sustain daily life with dignity.

If, at times, national sovereignty must maneuver or concede ground in specific areas in order to withstand the siege, there is one sphere in Venezuela where there can be no retreat: that of popular sovereignty in the territory.

It is there that the deepest root of our historical process is found.

Oil may be subject to tactical negotiations. Geopolitical correlations may shift. Economic conditions may force difficult decisions. But as long as there exists an organized pueblo capable of governing its territories, the possibility of building a different society remains alive.

In Venezuela, that possibility has a name: the commune.

Industrial Integration and the Impact of the US Blockade: Vida Café Economic Circuit (Part 3)

And in times of imperialist siege, defending the commune as a national project means defending the deepest form of sovereignty: the sovereignty of an organized people that produces and shares collectively. But this defense cannot be reduced to resistance. The commune is also a strategic wager for popular offensive action: rebellious yet disciplined, creative yet organized—capable of transforming the defense of life into the conscious construction of a new society.

But such an offensive requires acting without naivety or false hopes. As Ramón Grosfoguel recently argued, the moment demands combining tactical flexibility with strategic firmness; constantly assessing the balance of forces with realism; working to recover lost ground; and preparing for future attacks. If the history of imperialism teaches us anything, it is that its ultimate objective is not merely to pressure or discipline processes of change, but to defeat and bury them.

In the Venezuelan case, defeating the Bolivarian Revolution would mean doing so in all its dimensions, including erasing or blurring the historical horizon embodied in communal construction, with its transformative potential. For this reason, defending the commune cannot be limited to the local management of daily life or territorial resistance to siege. It must be conceived as part of a national project of collective emancipation, capable of sustaining, deepening, and projecting organized popular power toward a socialist future.

Ultimately, what is at stake is not only the survival of the government—though that must be secured—but the historical possibility of the working class governing itself.

That is where popular sovereignty resides.

And that possibility—as Marx reminded us—has a concrete political form: the commune.

(Monthly Review)


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With a mobilization and a forum on political thought, the people of the Tuy Valleys, Miranda state, Venezuela, commemorated the 32nd anniversary of Commander Hugo Chávez’s release from the Yare I judicial internment center, popularly known as the Prison of Dignity, in the Puente Carrera sector of San Francisco de Yare in the Simón Bolívar municipality. The event was held on Friday, March 27, defined by the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) as a day of “loyalty and historical memory.”

The PSUV vice president of mobilization, Nahum Fernández, led the event, alongside the governor of Miranda, Elio Serrano Carpio, and National Assembly Deputies Rodolfo Sanz and Miguel Benavides.

Fernández, who is also the chief of government of Caracas, emphasized that March 27, 1994, marked the beginning of a political project that has settled the “historical debt” with the country’s most vulnerable sectors. “We remember this milestone because it connects us with the social protection model that we have defended for more than two decades,” he stated.

During his speech, Fernández condemned the aggressions that the nation has suffered in recent years, such as the attack on the currency, the induced shortages, and the promotion of US unilateral coercive measures by the far right. “They tried to undermine the will of the people, but the lesson of resistance has been impressive,” he noted.

Fernández reaffirmed the popular bases’ commitment to President Nicolás Maduro’s leadership, describing the union between the people and the government as a “historic marriage” that guarantees the continuity of the Bolivarian Revolution in the face of internal and external attacks.

He urged PSUV members to maintain unity, underscoring that the figure of Chávez transcends as a political guide to overcome current economic and geopolitical challenges.

The governor of Miranda, Elio Serrano, stated that Chávez’s release in 1994 marked the beginning of a process of social transformation that continues to this day. “This date not only represented the physical freedom of a man but also the emergence of hope for an entire nation,” he said.

He added that Commander Hugo Chávez’s legacy is manifested today in a people who are aware of their history. “We see a clear result: a citizenry that defends its right to happiness, sovereignty, and independence,” he emphasized.

The governor described Chávez’s release from the Yare prison as a “fundamental milestone” in Venezuela’s contemporary history, asserting that this event should remain in the collective memory as the driving force behind the social transformations that the country is experiencing. He also reaffirmed the commitment of the state administration and the people of Miranda to the strengthening of the Bolivarian model.

‘His Heart Beat as One With the People’: Venezuelans Commemorate 13 Years Without Chávez

In his speech, National Assembly Deputy Rodolfo Sanz condemned the January 3 US military invasion and the judicial processes against President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, a case that lacks a legal basis and responds to political interests. He also praised Acting President Delcy Rodríguez for defending national stability.

Sanz asserted that Chávez marked the beginning of a political project that refounded the Republic under the ideals of Simón Bolívar. He highlighted that, unlike other historical global processes, the Bolivarian Revolution was able to produce a constitution peacefully, a constitution that became the fundamental pillar of the State. “Chávez built a new Republic that embodies Bolivarian thought,” he stated.

Likewise, Sanz expressed his firm support for President Nicolás Maduro and Deputy Cilia Flores, condemning the international siege and the “lethal military operations” carried out by the US against Venezuela.

He urged the people of Miranda to remain “steadfast in defending the revolutionary leadership,” emphasizing the strategic role of preserving the nation’s political stability and social well-being amid economic sanctions and blockades.

For his part, Mayor of Simón Bolívar municipality Saúl Yánez described the penitentiary as a “place of moral reference” where the foundations of the current republic were laid.

(Últimas Noticias) by Airamy Carreño Espejo

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SF


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By Nick Turse  –  Mar 23, 2026

With “Operation Total Extermination” and Trump’s threats against Cuba, expect more U.S. military strikes in the region.

As the Trump administration continues to bombard Iran, a top Pentagon official revealed that U.S. wars in the Western Hemisphere are also expanding, unveiling an effort dubbed “Operation Total Extermination.”

Attacks on Latin American drug cartels are “just the beginning” Joseph Humire, the acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, told members of the House Armed Services Committee last week.

Humire indicated that many more strikes in Latin America are on the horizon. The comments came a day after President Donald Trump again teased American annexation of Cuba. “I do believe I’ll be the honor of — having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said last week. “Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”

Humire announced that the Department of War supported “bilateral kinetic actions against cartel targets along the Colombia-Ecuador border” — Pentagon-speak for March 3 strikes on unnamed “Designated Terrorist Organizations” previously reported by The Intercept. “The joint effort, named ‘Operation Total Extermination,’ is the start of a military offensive by Ecuador against transnational criminal organizations with the support of the U.S.,” he said.

The U.S.–Ecuadorian campaign has already strayed into Colombia after a farm was bombed or hit by “ricochet effect” on March 3, leaving an unexploded 500-pound bomb lying in Colombia’s border region. In response to a request for comment, U.S. Southern Command referred The Intercept to a statement on X by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defense confirming the bomb landed in Colombia.

Humire referred to the attacks as “joint land strikes” and said that America was providing Ecuador with “capabilities that they otherwise would not have.” The U.S. has since conducted at least one more strike with Ecuador. “Yes — as @POTUS has said — we are bombing Narco Terrorists on land as well,” self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X on March 6, announcing the new strike. Days later, in a war powers report announcing the introduction of U.S. armed forces into “hostilities” in that country, the White House informed Congress of “military action taken on March 6, 2026, against the facilities of narco-terrorists affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.”

The attacks in Ecuador are also part of, and an expansion of, Operation Southern Spear: the U.S. military’s illegal campaign of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The U.S. has conducted 46 attacks since September 2025, destroying 48 vessels and killing almost 160 civilians. The latest strike, on March 19 in the Pacific, killed two more people and left one survivor. The Trump administration claims its victims are members of at least one of 24 or more cartels and criminal gangs with whom it claims to be at war but refuses to name.

“Rushing to war on one man’s whims is the exact opposite of what the Constitution demands.”

“This Administration is barely paying lip service to the constitutional or international law governing the use of force. But we have these rules for a reason,” said Rebecca Ingber, a former State Department lawyer and now a law professor at Cardozo Law School in New York. “Rushing to war on one man’s whims is the exact opposite of what the Constitution demands.”

Gen. Francis Donovan, the SOUTHCOM commander, told lawmakers last week that “boat strikes are not the answer,” but teased an even larger campaign. “What we’re moving for right now might be an extension of Southern Spear, but really a counter-cartel campaign process that puts total systemic friction across this network,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I believe these kinetic [boat] strikes are just one small part of that.”

Humire could not say how many land strikes were being conducted across almost 20 Latin American and Caribbean nations. “I don’t have an exact number,” he replied to a question. But when asked by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, if the War Department would “be moving to a lot more terrestrial strikes,” Humire replied, “Yes, ranking member.”

The Office of the Secretary of War did not respond to a request to clarify how great that increase might be.

Humire said the U.S.–Ecuadorian campaign was “setting the pace for regional, deterrence-focused operations against cartel infrastructure throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.” The word “deterrence” has become a popular Pentagon euphemism for the use of lethal strikes, in contrast to previous efforts to U.S. government efforts to marshal economic, diplomatic, and military means to convince adversaries to abandon a specific course of action. “Deterrence has a signaling effect on narco-terrorists, and raises the risks with their movements,” Humire claimed.

Joseph Humire, Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs, Office of the Secretary of Defense, speaking at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Joseph Humire, the acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, speaking at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2026.  Photo: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images

In January, the U.S. attacked Venezuela and abducted the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. It now rules the country through a puppet regime. Federal prosecutors have reportedly drafted a criminal indictment against Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, threatening her with corruption and money laundering charges if she does not continue to do the bidding of the Trump administration. Trump also recently teased the possibility of making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state.

The Trump administration is reportedly undertaking a regime-change operation in Cuba, attempting to push out President Miguel Díaz-Canel as a requirement for negotiations between the U.S. and that island nation. U.S. officials are said to favor Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of 94-year-old Raúl Castro, the former Cuban president and brother to Fidel, the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. Díaz-Canel referenced U.S. plans to “seize the country” on X late Tuesday and said the U.S. would be met with “impregnable resistance.”

“I am holding Cuba,” Trump said recently, noting his costly regime-change war in the Middle East takes precedence at the moment. “We’re going to do Iran before Cuba.” Trump imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, plunging the country into a humanitarian crisis. The island’s national electrical grid has already collapsed three times this month, with one blackout lasting more than 29 hours. U.N. human rights experts have condemned Trump’s fuel blockade on Cuba as “a serious violation of international law and a grave threat to a democratic and equitable international order.”

Trump, who has repeatedly spoken of “taking” Cuba, is the latest in a long line of U.S. presidents who have attempted to overthrow the Cuban government. During the Cold War, the CIA launched the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The agency also tried to assassinate Fidel Castro at least eight times. The U.S. also conducted a covertcampaign of bombing Cuban sugar mills and burning cane fields, among other acts of sabotage.

In the wake of the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Pentagon prepared top-secret plans to pave the way for an attack on the island. In the spring of 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a top-secret memorandum titled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba.” It described numerous false-flag operations that could be employed to justify a U.S. invasion, including a plot to “sink a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated)” and even staging a modern “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and blaming the incident on Cuba. Other U.S. plans for covert action on the island specifically prioritized attacking Cuba’s electrical grid.

Asked if the Joint Chiefs of Staff were involved in analogous actions today, spokesperson Maj. Annabel Monroe referred The Intercept to Southern Command, who then referred The Intercept to the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Díaz-Canel: US Anger is Result of Failure to Control Cuba

Humire said that the War Department was “currently focused on partner-led deterrence operations,” but would not rule out unilateral U.S. strikes across Latin America. He said that, in addition to Ecuador, the U.S. had forged agreements with 17 partner-nations in the Western Hemisphere, as part of the so-called Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. This international body, formally announced by Trump at his Shield of the Americas summit earlier this month, will focus on “bi-lateral and multi-lateral operations against cartels and terrorist organizations.”

Humire was asked if any of the 18 nations were concerned about issues of sovereignty regarding the U.S. potentially conducting attacks in their countries. “Members of the coalition specifically signed a joint security declaration mentioning that they want this support and most of them all are looking for this,” he replied. But the barebones statement they signed is astonishingly vague and offers little of substance on the subject.

Humire indicated that the U.S. had leveraged gunboat diplomacy in Venezuela to strong-arm Cuba and assist in “gaining compliance from Nicaragua,” as well as “shifting the Caribbean in a favorable direction toward U.S. interests.”

Recent official leaks about the potential U.S. indictment of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia on drug charges — the official reason for Maduro’s kidnapping, and the means reportedly used to keep his successor, Rodriguez, in line — suggest the U.S. may employ that tactic as leverage or an eventual pretext for military action. (Petro has denied ties to drug traffickers.)

“It sounds as if Petro is potentially on the chopping block,” a former defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his current employment, told The Intercept. The source said leaks about the potential indictment of Petro, coupled with the U.S.–Ecuadorian attack, which has stirred up tensions along the South American nations’ border, increasingly look like a coordinated campaign to foment “discord” if not conflict. Asked in January about attacking Colombia, Trump responded: “It sounds good to me.”

The U.S. attacks on the Colombia–Ecuador border come as America has recently established a “permanent FBI presence in Ecuador,” joining agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. Just before the U.S. began attacks on the Ecuador–Colombia border, Donovan traveled to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to meet with President Daniel Noboa and senior Ecuadorian defense officials.

Last August, Lt. Col. Phillip Vaughn — the commander of an Expeditionary Task Group overseeing Air Force Special Operations in the Caribbean and South America — coordinated meetings to increase “interoperability between U.S. and Ecuadorian forces” to “counter illicit actors operating along Ecuador’s northern border” with Colombia including “operational planning scenarios, execution of close air support procedures,” and “multiple topics on Joint Terminal Attack Controller support,” which relates to targeting and airstrikes.

America’s Western hemisphere blitz is part of what Trump and others have called the “Donroe Doctrine”: a bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. While President James Monroe’s policy sought to prevent Europe from colonizing and meddling in the Western Hemisphere, Trump has wielded his variant as a license for America to do exactly that.

The National Security Strategy, released late last year, decrees the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine a “potent restoration of American power and priorities,” rooted in the “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere.” Humire defined “America’s immediate security perimeter” as “Alaska to Greenland in the Arctic to the Gulf of America and the Panama Canal and surrounding countries.” Trump has also threatened to annex Greenland (and possibly Iceland), turn Canada into a U.S. state, and conduct military strikes in Mexico. Humire also detailed efforts to strong-arm Panama to cut ties with China to ensure access to the Panamanian-owned canal that he nonetheless called a U.S. “national asset.”

In addition to his wars in the Western hemisphere, Trump has also launched attacks on IranIraqNigeriaSomaliaSyria, and Yemen during his second term — most of them sites of U.S. conflicts during the war on terror.

Smith, the House Armed Services Committee ranking member, told Humire that Trump’s wars in the Americas also appeared to be morphing into a new “forever conflict” with no clear goal or “end point.” Asked what “level of achievement” would be necessary to “stop kinetic action,” Humire responded with a wall of words about border security, terrorism, and cartels. When Smith interrupted to clarify if the boat strikes would continue unabated, Humire confusingly replied: “No, correct.”

(The Intercept)


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