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In Five Years, Mexican Parasites Doubled Fortunes (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article by Clara Zepeda originally appeared in the February 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The fortunes of Mexico’s billionaires doubled in just five years, not through individual merit, but due to an unjust economic model that depends on the labour of millions of people and the resources of the entire country, yet distributes its benefits among very few, Oxfam Mexico warned. Thus, inequality in the country is not an accident or a natural phenomenon, but rather the result of political decisions, the organization stated.

Oxfam Mexico, which is part of a global movement to end inequality with a presence in more than 80 countries, emphasized that billionaires get rich at the expense of the time, precariousness and uncertainty of millions of people.

Between 1996 and 2025, the wealth of Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico and Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, increased more than eight times and that of billionaires multiplied 4.2 times, while the Mexican economy did not even double in size.

Faced with an economy that exploits and steals the time of working people, subsidizes accumulated wealth, and concentrates opportunities, it is necessary to strengthen the role of the State as guarantor of rights and promoter of equality.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the wealth concentrated in the hands of billionaires grew by 101 percent in real terms. During that same period, Carlos Slim increased his fortune by 66 percent, while the biggest gainer among billionaires was Germán Larrea, who multiplied his fortune 2.4 times during that time,” the organization noted.

This model has been mediocre for most, but extraordinarily profitable for billionaires, who also recover more quickly from crises than the rest of society, Oxfam Mexico showed.

This extreme concentration of wealth in the country coexists with 18.8 million people without access to nutritious and quality food; 38.5 million with social deprivations or incomes below the welfare line; and 21 million women who dedicate at least one full day to unpaid care work.

“Economic inequality undermines economic activity and limits poverty reduction, erodes democracy and social cohesion, and weakens the collective capacity to address the climate crisis. When wealth is concentrated, so is the power to decide what, how, and under what conditions the economy operates,” Oxfam Mexico stated.

In the Hands of a Few

In the study: Oligarchy or Democracy. Nine Proposals Against the Extreme Accumulation of Power in Mexico, the organization pointed out that this country is one of the most unequal in the world, and this is due to the economic model that for years has favored the profitability of capital at the expense of public welfare.

“Mexican ultra-wealthy individuals have never been so numerous or as wealthy as they are today. There are 22 billionaires with a combined fortune of 219 billion dollars, equivalent to 3.9 trillion pesos or the size of the economies of Jalisco and Guanajuato combined,” Oxfam noted.

This concentration of wealth is partly due to the fact that the Mexican economy has been characterized by a significantly higher rate of return on capital for billionaires than the overall growth of the nation’s economy. Oxfam argued that when decisions are concentrated in the hands of a few, democracy loses its meaning and transforms into an oligarchy.

This economic power inevitably translates into political power. The ultra-wealthy gain access to decision-making spaces, influence public policy, and inherit their power within dynasties lacking democratic legitimacy; and in this sense, they have also shaped the sectors in which investment is made.

“Faced with an economy that exploits and steals the time of working people, subsidizes accumulated wealth, and concentrates opportunities, it is necessary to strengthen the role of the State as guarantor of rights and promoter of equality. The key decision to achieve economic justice in the short term is the democratic mobilization of investment, for which the State needs sufficient financial, human, and institutional resources for a renewed economic policy,” he argued.

Among the nine proposals made by the organization are: mobilizing investment flows in a fair and democratic manner; making visible and correcting the fiscal irresponsibility of billionaires; and developing social infrastructure for the redistribution of care responsibilities.

The post In Five Years, Mexican Parasites Doubled Fortunes appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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People’s Mañanera February 23 (mexicosolidarity.com)
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Every day, President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a morning presidential press conference and Mexico Solidarity Media posts English language summaries, translated by Mexico Solidarity’s Pedro Gellert Frank. Previous press conference summaries are available here.

Blow to Crime, with Intelligence and Sovereignty

The Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) reported that the location of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” resulted from intelligence operations in Tapalpa, Jalisco. A Sadena statement recalled El Mencho’s criminal history since the 1990s and his status as a priority target, with outstanding rewards offered in Mexico and the United States. Rubén Oseguera, “El Tuli,” was also identified as a key operator responsible for coordinating attacks, roadblocks, and arson, as well as inciting aggression against security forces.

Normalcy, Sovereignty, and Coordination

President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that the country woke up without highway blockades by organized crime, thanks to coordination between federal forces and state governments. She emphasized that the operation was planned and executed exclusively by Mexican federal forces, with U.S. collaboration limited to intelligence sharing. Operational responsibility, Sheinbaum affirmed, rested fully with national institutions.

Over 80% of Weapons Come from Abroad

Minister of National Defense Ricardo Trevilla Trejo reported that more than 80% of the 23,000 weapons seized during the current administration are of U.S. origin, a similar proportion to the arms confiscated in the operation against “El Mencho.” Trevilla Trejo noted that the target’s location was achieved through Military Intelligence, with informational support from the United States.

The Minister stressed that the National Security Strategy is based on four pillars: addressing root causes of crime, strengthening the National Guard, intelligence, and coordination.

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Imperialism: Bankers, Drug Wars & Genocide (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article was originally published by James Petras in May, 2011. James Petras was the author of US Imperialism: The Changing Dynamics of Global Power*,* U.S. Hegemony Under Siege: Class, Politics and Development in Latin America*,* The United States and Chile: Imperialism and the Overthrow of the Allende Government and many other volumes critical for understanding US imperialism and the world as well as a contributor to Mexico’s La Jornada newspaper. James died on January 17, in Seattle, Washington.

Backed by advisers, agents and arms, the White House has been the principal promotor of a ‘war’ that has totally decimated Mexico’s society and economy.

If Washington has been the driving force for the regime’s war, Wall Street banks have been the main instruments ensuring the profits of the drug cartels. Every major US bank has been deeply involved in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars in drug profits, for the better part of the past decade.

Mexico’s descent into this inferno has been engineered by the leading US financial and political institutions, each supporting ‘one side or the other’ in the bloody total war which spares no one, no place and no moment in time. While the Pentagon arms the Mexican government and the US Drug Enforcement Agency enforces the “military solution”, the biggest US banks receive, launder and transfer hundreds of billions of dollars to the drug lords’ accounts, who then buy modern arms, pay private armies of assassins and corrupt untold numbers of political and law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.

Mexico’s Descent in the Inferno

Everyday scores, if not hundreds, of corpses appear in streets and or are found in unmarked graves; dozens are murdered in their homes, cars, public transport, offices and even hospitals; known and unknown victims in the hundreds are kidnapped and disappear; school children, parents, teachers, doctors and businesspeople are seized in broad daylight and held for ransom or murdered in retaliation. Thousands of migrant workers are kidnapped, robbed, ransomed, murdered and evidence is emerging that some are sold into the illegal ‘organ trade’. The police are barricaded in their commissaries; the military, if and when it arrives, takes out its frustration on entire cities, shooting more civilians than cartel soldiers. Everyday life revolves around surviving the daily death toll; threats are everywhere, the armed gangs and military patrols fire and kill with virtual impunity. People live in fear and anger.

Cuahtemoc Cardenas, 1988

The Free Trade Agreement: The Sparks that lit the Inferno

In the late 1980’s, Mexico was in crisis, but the people chose a legal way out: they elected a President, Cuahtemoc Cardenas, on the basis of his national program to promote the economic revitalization of agriculture and industry. The Mexican elite, led by Carlos Salinas of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) chose otherwise and subverted the election: The electorate was denied its victory; the peaceful mass protests were ignored. Salinas and subsequent Mexican presidents vigorously pursued a free trade agreement (NAFTA) with the US and Canada, which rapidly drove millions of Mexican farmers, ranchers and small business people into bankruptcy. Devastation led to the flight of millions of immigrant workers. Rural movements of debtors flourished and ebbed, were co-opted or repressed. The misery of the legal economy contrasted with the burgeoning wealth of the traffickers of drugs and people, which generated a growing demand for well-paid armed auxiliaries as soldiers for the cartels. The regional drug syndicates emerged out of the local affluence.

In the new millennium, popular movements and a new electoral hope arose: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). By 2006 a vast peaceful electoral movement promised substantial social and economic reforms to ‘integrate millions of disaffected youth’. In the parallel economy, the drug cartels were expanding and benefiting from the misery of millions of workers and peasants marginalized by the Mexican elite, who had plundered the public treasury, speculated in real estate, robbed the oil industry and created enormous privatized monopolies in the communication and banking sectors.

In 2006, millions of Mexican voters were once again denied their electoral victory: The last best hope for a peaceful transformation was dashed. Backed by the US Administration, Felipe Calderon stole the election and proceeded to launch the War on Drug Traffickers strategy dictated by Washington.

The War Strategy Escalates the Drug War: The Banking Crises Deepens the Ties with Drug Traffickers

The massive escalation of homicides and violence in Mexico began with the declaration of a war on the drug cartels by the fraudulently elected President Calderon, a policy pushed initially by the Bush Administration and subsequently strongly backed by the Obama & Clinton regime. Over 40,000 Mexican soldiers filled the streets, towns and barrios violently assaulting citizens – especially young people. The cartels retaliated by escalating their armed assaults on police. The war spread to all the major cities and along the major highways and rural roads; murders multiplied and Mexico descended further into a Dantesque inferno. Meanwhile, the Obama regime “reaffirmed” its support for a militarist solution on both sides of the border: Over 500,000 Mexican immigrants were seized and expelled from the US; heavily armed border patrols multiplied. Cross border gun sales grew exponentially. The US market for Mexican manufactured goods and agricultural products shrank, further widening the pool for cartel recruits while the supply of high powered weapons increased. White House gun and drug policies strengthened both sides in this maniacal murderous cycle: The US government armed the Calderon regime and the American gun manufacturers sold guns to the cartels through both legal and underground arms sales. Steady or increasing demand for drugs in the US and the grotesque profits derived from trafficking and sales— remained the primary driving force behind the tidal wave of violence and societal disintegration in Mexico.

Drug profits, in the most basic sense, are secured through the ability of the cartels to launder and transfer billions of dollars through the US banking system. The scale and scope of the US banking-drug cartel alliance surpasses any other economic activity of the US private banking system.

Drug profits, in the most basic sense, are secured through the ability of the cartels to launder and transfer billions of dollars through the US banking system. The scale and scope of the US banking-drug cartel alliance surpasses any other economic activity of the US private banking system. According to US Justice Department records, one bank alone, Wachovia Bank (now owned by Wells Fargo), laundered $378.3 billion dollars between May 1, 2004 and May 31, 2007 (The Guardian, May 11, 2011). Every major bank in the US has served as an active financial partner of the murderous drug cartels, including Bank of America, Citibank, and JP Morgan, as well as overseas banks operating out of New York, Miami and Los Angeles, as well as London.

While the White House pays the Mexican state and army to kill Mexicans suspected of drug trafficking, the US Justice Department belatedly slaps a relatively small fine on the major US financial accomplice to the murderous drug trade, Wachovia Bank, spares its bank officials from any jail time and allows major cases to lapse into dismissal.

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico’s murderous drug gangs, The Guardian*, April 3, 2011*

The major agency of the US Treasury involved in investigating money laundering, the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, deliberately ignored the blatant collaboration of US banks with drug terrorists, concentrating almost their entire staff and resources on enforcing sanctions against Iran. For seven years, Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey used his power as head of the Department for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence to pursue Israel’s phony war on terrorism against Iran, rather than shut down Wachovia’s money-laundering operations with the Mexican drug terrorists. In this period of time an estimated 40,000 Mexican civilian have been killed by the cartels and the army.

Without US arms and financial services supporting both the illegitimate Mexican regimes and the drug cartels there could be no drug war, no mass killings and no state terror. The simple acts of stopping the flood of cheap subsidized US agriculture products into Mexico and de-criminalizing the use and purchase of cocaine in the US would dry up the pool of cartel soldiers’ from the bankrupted Mexican peasantry and the cut back the profits and demand for illegal drugs in the US market.

The Drug Traffickers, the Banks and the White House

If the major US banks are the financial engines which allow the billion dollar drug empires to operate, the White House, the US Congress and the law enforcement agencies are the basic protectors of these banks. Despite the deep and pervasive involvement of the major banks in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit funds, the court settlements pursued by US prosecutors have led to no jail time for the bankers. One court’s settlement amounted to a fine of $50 million dollars, less than 0.5% of one of the banks (the Wachovia/Wells Fargo bank) $12.3 billion profits for 2009 (The Guardian, May 11, 2011).

Despite the death of tens of thousands of Mexican civilians, US executive branch directed the DEA, the federal prosecutors and judges to impose such a laughable “punishment” on Wachovia for its illegal services to the drug cartels. The most prominent economic officials of the Bush and Obama regimes, including Summers, Paulson, Geithner, Greenspan, Bernacke et al, are all long term associates, advisers and members of the leading financial houses and banks implicated in laundering the billions of drug profits.

Laundering drug money is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for Wall Street; the banks charge hefty commissions on the transfer of drug profits, which they then lend to borrowing institutions at interest rates far above what, if any. they pay to drug trafficker depositors. Awash in sanitized drug profits, these US titans of the finance world can easily buy their own elected officials to perpetuate the system.

Even more important and less obvious is the role of drug money in the recent financial meltdown, especially during its most critical first few weeks.

According to the head of United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, “In many instances, drug money (was) currently the only liquid investment capital”. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system’s main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor: interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities: “(there were) signs that some banks were rescued in that way.” (Reuters, January 25, 2009. US edition). Capital flows from the drug billionaires were key to floating Wachovia and other leading banks. In a word: the drug billionaires saved the capitalist financial system from collapse!

Conclusion

By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it has become clear that capital accumulation, at least in North America, is intimately linked to generalized violence and drug trafficking. Because capital accumulation is dependent on financial capital, and the latter is dependent on the industry profits from the multi-hundred-billion dollar drug trade, the entire ensemble is embedded in the “total war” over drug profits. In times of deep crises the very survival of the US financial system, and through it, the world banking system is linked to the liquidity of the drug industry.

At the most superficial level the destruction of Mexican and Central American societies, encompassing over 100 million people, is a result of a conflict between drug cartels and the political regimes of the region. At a deeper level there is a multiplier or ripple effect related to their collaboration: the cartels draw on the support of the US banks to realize their profits; they spend hundreds of millions on the US arms industry and others to secure their supplies, transport and markets; they employ tens of thousands of recruits for their vast private armies and civilian networks and they purchase the compliance of political and military officials on both sides of the borders.

Laundering drug money is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for Wall Street; the banks charge hefty commissions on the transfer of drug profits, which they then lend to borrowing institutions at interest rates far above what, if any. they pay to drug trafficker depositors. Awash in sanitized drug profits, these US titans of the finance world can easily buy their own elected officials to perpetuate the system.

For its part, the Mexican government acts as a conduit for US Pentagon/Federal police, Homeland Security, drug enforcement and political apparatuses prosecuting the “war”, which has put Mexican lives, property and security at risk. The White House stands at the strategic center of operations, the Mexican regime serves as the front-line executioners.

On one side of the war on drugs are the major Wall Street banks; on the other side, the White House and its imperial military strategists and in the middle are 90 million Mexicans and 40,000 murder victims and counting.

Relying on political fraud to impose economic deregulation in the 1990’s (neo-liberalism), the US policies led directly to the social disintegration, criminalization and militarization of the current decade. The sophisticated narco-finance economy has now become the most advanced stage of neo-liberalism. When the respectable become criminals, the criminals become respectable.

The issue of genocide in Mexico has been determined by the empire and its knowing bankers and cynical rulers.

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The Propaganda Assault: A Tale of Two Venezuela(n)s (orinocotribune.com)
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By Yader Lanuza  –  Feb 21, 2026

After the Trump administration illegally kidnapped the legitimate president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3rd, 2026, we saw two distinct and divergent responses from Venezuelans. On the one hand, the Venezuelan diaspora, especially in the United States, celebrated President Maduro’s kidnapping and bombing of their birth country. They congregated in small gatherings the weekend of the abduction, including in Miami. These celebrations, alongside videos online, were widely disseminated in corporate and social media for a US-based (and broader Western) audience, all broadcasting the same message: Venezuelans support President Maduro’s abduction. On the other hand, inside Venezuela, for weeks after the illegal abduction, citizens engaged in (almost) daily and massive demonstrations to condemn the attack that killed and wounded over 100 people. These protests have not been shared by US corporate media and have been suppressed in US-aligned social media; thus, a US audience is not privy to the substantial support for Chavismo and President Maduro. 

The US propaganda assault plays a large part in generating these two opposing reactions regarding President Maduro’s abduction among Venezuelans, outside (celebration), especially among the US-based diaspora, compared to inside (condemnation) Venezuela. The US propaganda assault refers to the US’s (or its aligned entities’) deployment of its vast ideological apparatus (White House communications, corporate media, academia, social media, NGOs and international organizations) to impose narratives about Venezuela, especially its economic and political conditions, that undermine the Bolivarian Revolution to justify US intervention. The US propaganda assault shapes how Venezuelans make sense of their experiences in and – for those who left – out of Venezuela, generating more support for the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro among those living abroad compared to those living inside Venezuela, where the propaganda assault faces reality and a stronger counteroffensive, undermining its effectiveness. 

The Venezuelan diaspora
In general, Venezuelans in the United States are more likely to support the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro because of their adherence and susceptibility to US-deployed narratives about the Bolivarian Revolution, often linked to their socioeconomic background in Venezuela.

Venezuelans in the United States, as a group, “have higher rates of educational attainment than either native- or overall foreign-born populations” and they are, on average, more educated than their compatriots in Venezuela. Because education is a common marker of socioeconomic status, the Venezuelan diaspora tends to be more socioeconomically advantaged than compatriots who stayed in Venezuela. Moreover, some members of Venezuela’s upper-class and elites migrated to the US after Chavez came to power in 1999, as they are the most vociferous opponents to his political project, a socialism of the 21st century. Thus, middle- and upper-class (and elite) segments of Venezuelan society are overrepresented in the Venezuelan diaspora in the United States. These individuals led comfortable lives in Venezuela until US economic attacks induced economic deterioration and emigration; they carry all of the disappointment, anger, hurt, and resentment associated with economic difficulties – or reduced advantage among the upper-class and elites – and subsequent displacement.

Venezuelans with middle and upper-classes backgrounds – and especially elites – tend to adhere most closely to a US-centric neoliberal and imperial worldview, a prevalent perspective among more advantaged individuals all over Latin America. Two dimensions of this worldview are imperative. First, the state should be subordinated to capital. Secondly, the US’ unruly “rules-based order” – with its related economic, political, and cultural dimensions – should have hegemony over the world, especially the Western Hemisphere. According to this worldview, US neoliberal imperial hegemony is morally superior to other arrangements; thus, US intervention in foreign nation-states to maintain its hegemony is justified. More advantaged, usually light-skinned sectors of Latin America, including in Venezuela, see themselves as part of a US-aligned cosmopolitan milieu, whose perspective they enforce, often violently, in their countries of birth. 

US propaganda for a receptive Venezuelan diaspora
The New York Times, the most powerful and effective mouthpiece of the US empire’s propaganda, recently acknowledged that US economic and financial attacks “crushed the Venezuelan economy and led to a humanitarian crisis.” As the US destroyed the Venezuelan economy and created a humanitarian crisis, it deployed (and continues to deploy) a propaganda assault that minimizes or outright obscures the role that US attacks have played in the economic devastation and political troubles in Venezuela. The propaganda assault shifts blame away from the US government onto Chavismo’s leadership, suggesting that the economic duress in Venezuela was primarily – or even exclusively – a result of “mismanagement and corruption” endemic to socialism, in general, and Chavismo, in particular, led by its “narcotrafficker” leader, Nicolas Maduro. For instance, the claim that Maduro is a narcotrafficker who heads the non-existent Cartel de los Soles was taken as fact in the most recent Rubio hearings about Venezuela, even though the US government itself has jettisoned this accusation from the “legal” proceedings against President Maduo, a tacit admission that it is false. The fact that corporate media knew about the military attacks ahead of time and refused to publish or sound the alarm is perhaps the best evidence that they are a complicit player in the assault against Venezuela.  

The neoliberal imperial worldview is a crucial part of the propaganda assault against the Bolivarian Revolution, as it dictates the parameters, including premises and assumptions, that structure debates about Venezuela, including the legitimate role of the US in its affairs. For instance, at the referenced Rubio hearings, questioning from most senators relied on the premise that the US has the right to intervene in Venezuela’s internal affairs and kidnap its sitting president, a blatant violation of international law. Stunningly, though not surprisingly, some congressmen reprimanded Rubio for not going further and targeting other high-profile Chavista leaders and installing opposition figure Machado as president, demands only conceivable under a neoliberal imperial worldview. The parameters of the debate that the US propaganda assault delimits is found in most debates about Venezuela, regardless of its interlocutors. 

Moreover, when the Bolivarian Revolution defends itself against US attacks, including limiting US influence through opposition proxies, it is labeled “authoritarian.” For example, the US propaganda assault paints US-funded guarimberos as “political prisoners.” These criminals destroyed public and private property, including schools and killed Venezuelans and targeted Chavistas, including by burning them alive in an attempt to dislodge the Bolivarian Revolution from power. When the Chavista government jailed these “political prisoners,” the US propaganda assault accused the Bolivarian Revolution of authoritarianism, noting that these actions are proof that President Maduro (and Chavez before him) is a dictator. The US propaganda assault does not acknowledge the heinous crimes these guarimberos committed. Due to Chavismo’s alleged authoritarianism, a neoliberal imperial worldview demands that the United States has a duty to intervene in order to “liberate” the allegedly “oppressed” people to clear the way for foreign capital with its subservient “democracy,” a “common sense” solution to its hardships. 

The more privileged segment of the Venezuelan society diaspora, who strongly adhere to a neoliberal imperial worldview, is exposed to nothing but anti-Chavismo narratives in the United States. Notably, the US propaganda assault politicizes some members of the diaspora to such a degree that the “MAGAzolano” emerges as a political actor: Venezuelans who ardently support Trump, even though Trump is attacking their country, killing their compatriots with illegal military incursions, and making life unbearable for Venezuelan immigrants through oppressive immigration enforcement and the deportation regime in the US. Although the MAGAzolano is often found among more privileged Venezuelans – who tend to be light-skinned descendants of European immigrants who consider themselves White – they are not limited to this group.

Economic difficulties and subsequent emigration, refracted through a US propaganda assault, including a neoliberal imperial world view, feeds and deepens these middle-class, upper-class, and elite Venezuelans’ disappointment, anger, hurt, and resentment about their situation, thereby hardening their views against Chavismo, including blaming of Maduro for their personal difficulties. Consequently, these Venezuelan in the diaspora to celebrate the military attack that led to Maduro’s illegal abduction.

Chavismo finds most support among working-class Venezuelans. For this reason, working class Venezuelans are the primary target of the US propaganda assault. For instance, when Chavistas appear in corporate media, Chavismo is presented as a failed boogeyman. One corporate media report, which featured a Chavismo-supporting family who lost a son to the US military attack, describes the socialist Bolivarian Revolution as “faded,” and “handicapped by corruption cronyism, and incompetence and” – wait for it, at the end of the list – “US-led sanctions.” Notably, the story articulates the lofty aims of the Bolivarian revolution that Chavez started but only to highlight its failures. 

Due to the absence of forceful and consistent counternarratives in corporate-owned legacy and social media against US propaganda, arguments against Chavismo – largely unopposed – gain ground. Consequently, support for Chavismo weakens among this segment of the population in the US. Moreover, the propaganda assault is coupled with incentives to sing an anti-Maduro tune in the US, especially in co-ethnic communities like Miami, a hotbed of anti-socialist sentiment. In these locales, employment and other opportunities may vanish if one articulates support for the Bolivarian revolution. 

Furthermore, legalization incentives decrease articulating support for President Maduro, as a pathway to legalization might be more likely if one argues political persecution by the Chavista government. Thus, the US propaganda assault and material incentives undermine support for Chavismo, even among its followers. At the very least, every anti-Chavismo story in the press – in the absence of counternarratives – sows doubt, leading these working-class individuals who support the Bolivarian Revolution in the diaspora to ask: Is it true? 

The limits of the US propaganda assault inside Venezuela
Condemnation for President Maduro’s illegal kidnapping is stronger and more visible inside Venezuela, largely because Chavismo is the strongest political movement inside the country, because these Venezuelans had to deal with bombs landing on their heads, and because the US propaganda assault encounters reality and a stronger narrative counteroffensive. 

Chavismo is the strongest social movement in Venezuela. Since Chavez came to power, Chavismo has won most of the over 30 elections Venezuela has held at different levels of governance. They control all of the levers of power and enjoy the most mobilized base compared to other political movements, including the fractured political right. Notably Chavismo has empowered communes, which strengthen support for Chavismo on the ground. For instance, in November 2025, a national election took place so that communes could vote to prioritize projects whose support is provided by the federal government. The PSUV (Socialist Party) is the largest and most organized political organization in the country. Central to the US propaganda assault is to refuse to acknowledge, attempt to obscure, or outright deny this fact. While US propaganda buries this fact from a US-based (and Western) audience, including the Venezuelan diaspora, it cannot disguise it from Venezuelans inside the country, who sees – with their own eyes – Chavismo mobilized on the streets, thereby undermining the US propaganda assault’s effectiveness.

Notably, the military attack against Venezuela generated a “rally-behind-the-flag” effect. The aggression against Venezuela affected all of its citizens, regardless of political ideology, leading Chavistas and non-Chavistas alike to condemn the intervention. For instance, bombs landed on La Boyera, a historically stronghold for the opposition, destroying homes and harming individuals. The attack also destroyed a medical warehouse that stored supplies for dialysis patients in La Guaira and damaged a research center in Miranda state. [In a show of solidarity, the Brazilian government donated medical supplies to help these patients.] Venezuelans of all political stripes are dealing with the psychological and emotional toll of Trump’s attack.

Among Venezuelans inside Venezuela, there is no confusion as to who bombed them and who defended them, heightening patriotism in defense of their sovereignty. Because Chavismo is in charge of the government, it emerged as the unequivocal defender of Venezuela sovereignty, generating sympathy (or quelling animosity), if not support, among some detractors. Maria Corina Machado’s gifting of her Nobel “peace” medal to Trump as a sign of gratitude for bombing Venezuela highlighted a contrast between those who support (extreme right-wing opposition) and those who reject (Chavismo) the US military attacks, defining the latter as the protector of the Venezuelan people. Importantly, the rally-behind-the-flag effect reveals why propaganda assault was launched first, as it undermines and diffuses patriotic cohesion by concealing the US as the unequivocal aggressor. It is not surprising that some non-Chavistas have joined the demonstrations condemning the illegal attack. Having experienced the attack first-hand, they are not eager to stand in a town square and celebrate bombs raining down on them and the killing of their compatriots and neighbors. 

Inside Venezuela, Chavismo supporters offer a counter narrative to the US propaganda assault. Social media, state-sponsored media, and the pulpit of the presidency – among other avenues – is deployed to help people understand the US assault and what the Bolivarian Revolution is doing about it. For example, these outlets point out that the US attacked to steal their natural resources, not for democracy or any other excuse. Importantly, they debunk a range of narratives that attempt to divide and, therefore, weaken Chavismo (see below). They highlight how the extreme right-wing opposition has called for US military intervention and how they have celebrated the bombing of their compatriots; in doing so, they highlight how un-patriotic these right-wing sectors are and how little they care for the Venezuelan population. Importantly, they highlight the importance of socialist principles to understand and resist this attack, and how a deepening of socialism is the only answer to US pressure. 

The US Propaganda Campaign to Smear Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez

The US propaganda assault doubles down
After the military aggression, the US propaganda assault against the Bolivarian Revolution has jumped into hyperdrive to generate division and weaken Chavismo in an effort to dislodge the socialist project from controlling the Venezuelan government. The US propaganda assault continues to try to break Chavismo, targeting Delcy Rodriguez, the Vice President who is now in charge in President Maduro’s absence, Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the National Assembly (and Delcy’s brother), and, most importantly, Diosdado Cabello, the interior Minister. These narratives include: 

“Chavistas did not fight back against the US attack; they are weak.” “The ‘capture’ was exacting, clean, and without resistance.” “The abduction is legal.” “Traitors collaborated with the US; Chavismo is ready to collapse from within.” “Delcy and her brother betrayed Maduro; Chavismo is fractured.” “Delcy is an opportunist ready to give up her Chavista roots for power.” “Delcy has expensive taste; she is a hypocrite and not committed to the Bolivarian revolution.” “Diosdado Cabello is the real motor behind Chavismo; Delcy must be weary of him.” “Diosdado Cabello betrayed Maduro.” “Diosdado is a narcoterrorist.” “Chavista leadership has abandoned the Bolivarian revolution.” “Trump runs the United States.” “Delcy is subservient to Trump and the CIA.” “Chavista leaders have millions in offshore banks; they are not real socialists.” 

One of these narratives – “Delcy is a narcotrafficker.” – is a rehashing of US accusations against Maduro. The Bolivarian Revolution’s resistance to these nefarious narratives is also working overtime, undermining the attacks’ effectiveness, providing almost instantaneous rebuttals. Many of these US propaganda narratives have been thoroughly debunked. But new ones emerge, and old ones recycled, almost on a daily basis. As Vijay Prashad notes: “Every single Western corporate newspaper has run a story on how the Venezuelan leadership made a deal with the US to hand over Maduro.” The evidence? Boogeyman “anonymous sources,” who almost always turn out to be US intelligence campaigns that feed corporate media the narrative the US wants to impose. The corporate media, for their part, does little to investigate and corroborate the anonymous sources’ claim; they just print them without proof or verification, acting as a propaganda arm of the US government. Note that as the Chavismo leadership negotiates with the US, the latter is engaged in a ferocious propaganda assault to undermine the Bolivarian government.

Finally, Venezuelans abroad try to silence support for Maduro by arguing that those who did not experience the economic hardships that they experienced do not have a right to speak. As a rebuttal, those inside the country argue that Venezuelans who left during the most difficult times as a result of the US financial attacks did not experience the subsequent economic upward swing that Chavismo engineered, despite US-imposed crippling sanctions. Venezuela has experienced continued economic growth from 2020-2025, which is one of the primary reasons the United States used the military to encircle and attack it; The Bolivarian Revolution was outmaneuvering US economic sanctions. Those who stayed in Venezuela experienced, firsthand, economic recovery, however slow, a reality that cannot be denied to those who experienced it.  

A note on the imperial left: The reach of the US propaganda assault
US propaganda assault deploys narratives to undermine the Bolivarian Revolution which face few counternarratives in the United States, including among self-professed “progressives,” “leftists,” or “democratic socialists.” One of the most despicable arguments that emerges out of this group, which I refer to as the “imperial left,” is the ever self-serving “both-sideism” claim. It states that both of the following claims are true: Maduro – and Chavismo more generally – is “corrupt” and “authoritarian” and “mismanaged” the economy and the US carried out an illegal attack and abduction against Venezuela and its leader. These imperial leftists reject both Chavismo and the United States’ actions, thereby projecting a seemingly “neutral,” “objective,” and “unbiased” perspective. 

Although “both-sideism” appears as a “neutral,” “unbiased,” and “objective” stance, it is actually in alignment with US aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution. This narrative creates a moral equivalence between the victim (Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution) and its aggressor (the United States) that render them both objectionable, which undermines support for Chavismo and, consequently, demobilizes anti-imperial resistance inside the US and strengthens Venezuelan diaspora support for the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro. Notably, for this “equivalence” to work, imperial leftists accept narratives deployed by the US government, including that Chavismo’s mismanagement, corruption, and authoritarianism is primarily responsible for Venezuela’s economic duress, ignoring actual evidence. In doing so, “both-sideism” legitimizes US government claims and, consequently, its purported reasoning for intervention. For the imperial left, self-defense under imperial aggression is dictatorship; concessions forced under imperial attacks exemplify lack of revolutionary commitment, and neutralization of US proxies reveal authoritarianism. If not a perfect socialist utopia, the imperial left is more than happy to join right-wing forces against revolutionary governments working towards socialism, including in Latin America. All they accomplish is undermining solidarity and resistance against imperial aggression.

Will the real Venezuelan please stand up!
By highlighting Venezuelans abroad who celebrated the January 3rd military attack against their birth country, the US propaganda assault seeks to impose the narrative that all Venezuelans support the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro. To do so, it obscures Venezuelans inside and outside the country who disagree. Even outside of Venezuela, however, opposition to the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro is alive and well – and ignored by US corporate media. For instance, in a demonstration in Paris, France a Venezuelan migrant raised her voice and spoke thus:

I lived in Venezuela until 2017 and had to leave – not because I wanted to, but because of the economic sanctions the US imposes against my country for the fact that Venezuela dared to nationalize its resources, including oil. But corporate media will not tell you this; its propaganda – along with the far-right extremist elements of the Venezuelan opposition – want you to believe that Venezuela is a failure. But this is not true. Venezuela is a country that, despite imperialist sanctions, endures. When are we going to believe Yanquí propaganda? It’s time to stop legitimizing narratives that justify invasions. History is on our side. 

Although ignored, voices like these ring out all over the world, despite having a difficult time finding a public platform for dissemination. Inside Venezuela, these voices are loud and find themselves in every nook and cranny of the national territory, which make them hard to ignore or obscure. 

US violence against Venezuelans is intentionally obscured by the US propaganda assault, but it inevitably becomes apparent, often in the midst of dire circumstances, especially in the United States. At the end of one of Maduro’s kidnapping celebrations, for instance, ICE agents showed up and detained some Venezuelans. One of those individuals captured articulates the reality that the propaganda assault conceals. He says: “We were only celebrating Maduro’s capture. And they brought us here [to an ICE detention center]. It is unjust. Now that I am in this condition, I don’t know who the bad guy is. I thought Maduro was the dictator, but it is Donald Trump who has jailed us.” 

Chavismo is alive and continues fighting
The analyst Diego Sequera describes the successful US military aggression that led to the kidnapping of President Maduro as a “sugar-high victory,” suggesting it is momentary and fleeting. Right now, the Trump administration and the extreme right-wing opposition is overcome with glee, expecting the abduction to signal the beginning of the end of Chavismo. However, events subsequent to the abduction call for a different interpretation. Chavismo endures. In the aftermath of the attacks, Venezuelan institutions held their ground, with Chavismo controlling all levers of power. Organizational capacity is strong. For instance, buildings destroyed by the attack were rapidly renovated, highlighting how the Bolivarian Revolution’s primary goals are to serve all Venezuelans. Moreover, due to the limited sanction relief, economic growth under the leadership of Delcy Rodriguez may generate more sympathy for Chavismo among skeptics and deepen commitment for the Bolivarian Revolution among its supporters. As it stands, approval for Rodriguez is high. 

The US propaganda assault will continue to try splinter Venezuelan society, including sowing divisions between those who live inside and outside the country. This propaganda assault obscures the fact the military attack was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty, not just aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution, a point the Bolivarian Revolution makes over and over again. Chavismo is absorbing the attack as a singular moment of vulnerability; it is re-grouping, re-organizing, and now re-energized, as it has done time and time again after each illegal, immoral, unjust US attack over its history. The fact that the Bolivarian Revolution did not crumble after the kidnapping of its president, as many other societies have done after a US strike, reveals the Bolivarian Revolution’s strength. The time ahead is full of uncertainty, sometimes necessitating temporary changes and strategic deceleration and/or concessions  – as Chavez once said in a previous moment of political vulnerability – “por ahora” (for now). But the process continues. As the movement’s chant reminds us, “Chavez Vive! La Lucha Sigue!” For Chavistas, the Bolivarian Revolution está en marcha (marches on). There is never a final defeat or a final victory. Just temporary battles won or lost on the path towards a different world. Chavismo is now a structural feature of Venezuelan society, part of its DNA. Whatever happens in the days, something is assured: Chavismo is here to stay – working, building, organizing to unite Venezuelans, which the US propaganda assault has divided, and building, slowly, towards its next leap forward. 

 

YL/OT

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From Below, Punching Up: The People’s Tribunal for Justice in Palestine and the Demilitarization of Mexico Reaches Its Verdict (mexicosolidarity.com)
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When states fail to hold themselves and each other accountable for the injustices they commit, they forfeit their moral authority to judge. Under such circumstances, it becomes not just the job but the obligation of the people—el pueblo—to bring their governments to justice.

This is the core belief that inspired the People’s Tribunal for Justice in Palestine and the Demilitarization of Mexico. This herculean effort, organized by the Inter-University and Popular Assembly for Palestine (AIPP), was convened on February 8 in the Plaza Palestina in Mexico City and brought to a close this Saturday, February 22, in the Casa de Los Pueblos y Samir Flores.

Photo: Seth Garben

By the end, the tribunal did not deliver any binding form of justice to Palestine—no stolen land was restored, no right of return was enforced—nor were its organizers able to wave a magic wand to disarm Mexico or cut its ties with Israel. This was not unexpected, as the AIPP is not an official state body and does not have that kind of pull. Nonetheless, the tribunal made good on its guiding principle of taking up the mantle of judgment long neglected by official institutions. It did this not by, as the bromide goes, “speaking truth to power,” for the culpable world leaders and their lackeys were invariably absent.

Rather, it spoke truth to those still in the process of claiming and asserting their own power before and against the perpetrators of injustice. For it is they, and we, who will ultimately have to act upon the tribunal’s verdict in ways that will bring about those material ends. And it is actions like this tribunal that serve to justify and reinforce our commitment to that future reality.

Rather, it spoke truth to those still in the process of claiming and asserting their own power before and against the perpetrators of injustice. For it is they, and we, who will ultimately have to act upon the tribunal’s verdict in ways that will bring about those material ends. And it is actions like this tribunal that serve to justify and reinforce our commitment to that future reality.

An Invaluable Process, a Predictable Outcome

That, and to call spades spades (or in Spanish, “al pan, pan, y al vino, vino”). So, who were the culpable, derelict governments in the dock? Israel, the United States, the European Union, and, last but not least, Mexico. The charges were a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including: (1) the direct and indirect perpetration and facilitation of the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza; (2) the perpetuation of an “economy of genocide”—to use Francesca Albanese’s term—through financialization, arms shipments and contracts, and the maintaining of business ties with the Zionist entity; (3) the targeted killing of Palestinian journalists by Israel; (4) the militarization of Mexico, a project in which Israel is heavily involved; and (5) Israel’s unlawful interception of the Sumud Flotilla, and the subsequent sequestration, abuse, and torture of its crew, specifically the Mexican contingent.

Shadi Abed, left, with young members of his family giving testimony. Photo: Seth Garben

During the initial hearings, which drew a crowd of nearly 100 attendees, a diverse plenary of over two dozen community organizers, human rights lawyers and defenders, trade unionists, artist-activists, educators, students, trans rights activists, journalists, and Indigenous group leaders accepted the grave responsibility of judgment. For it was in this cross-section of “oppressed peoples, the working class, indigenous peoples, rebellious youth, and disobedient dissidents” that the “legitimacy of the tribunal” lay, as tribunal organizer Titze Malambé put it. These judges presided over the reading of hundreds of pages of charges and evidence—thoroughly researched, meticulously cited, painstakingly communicated, and sickening to take in in one sitting. They also heard the moving testimonies of several witnesses, including Palestinian refugee Shadi Abed, who managed to secure refugee status for his 18 family members in Mexico, and Sumud Flotilla crew member Sol González Eguía, who, along with the others, was subjected to inhumane treatment and abuse at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

To dispatch any doubt, permit me to indulge in a not-so-spoiling spoiler: The judges ruled unanimously and unsparingly to condemn the defendants on all counts. This was no surprise, as nary a partisan for Israel or the Zionist project could be found among the judges or the audience—and good riddance.

Given the abundantly patent and well-documented nature of the injustices, the predictability of the judges’ ruling, the political and moral persuasion of the audience, and, realistically, the organizers’ inability to mete out punishment commensurate with the crimes, one might question the utility of the tribunal at all. Indeed, this was the sentiment alluded to by judge and artist Argelia Guerrero when she said, “I find it grave to have to issue such an obvious statement as affirming that starving a people to death is a crime.”

It is obvious, even somewhat absurd, and for that reason I won’t rehash the evidence (which is vast, public, and easily accessible). At the same time, stating the obvious in no uncertain terms is indispensable, as was arriving at a guilty verdict. However, that was not the most empowering aspect of the tribunal.

Rather, its real strength lies in the very act of its organization and execution, which, as judge and human rights defender Karen Castillo notes, “is a small step towards building other forms… of justice, memory, and solidarity, but from the communities, from the activists, from the students.” In other words, the tribunal is an exercise in justice, as organizer Isabel Vega says—but not a purely performative one. It is the kind of exercise that keeps el pueblo in shape—intellectually, politically, spiritually—for more confrontational forms of struggle, much in the same way that James C. Scott’s “anarchist calisthenics” keep the practitioner prepared to disobey authority when called upon by conscience.

“The purpose of a [tribunal] is what it does”

It’s a tradition with a long history that spans the 20th and 21st centuries. This was certainly not the first people’s tribunal to judge the crimes committed by Israel, the United States, and other world actors against the Palestinian people. Numerous others have taken place around the world, including the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (modeled after Bertrand Russell’s Vietnam War tribunal), the Permanent People’s Tribunal (which has been especially active in Latin America), and truth commissions that have taken corrupt government figures and war criminals to task. Nor was it the first of its kind in Mexico, its predecessors having been hosted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for decades.

On the contrary—and not to its discredit—the AIPP tribunal, as Malambé stated in their opening remarks, “is inscribed in the long genealogy of people’s tribunals that for decades have been erected throughout Abya Yala to confront the policies of death and injustices that the capitalist, colonial, imperialist system has perpetrated against our peoples.” It has served, and continues to serve, as one of the many forms of resistance to the repressive, exogenous institutions imposed by Western, colonial, and capitalist invaders over the last 500 years. It does so, as human rights attorney and former president of the National Lawyers Guild Azadeh Shahshahani affirms, by “keeping the lived human experience at the forefront of any conversation on violations of human rights, particularly when state actors try to dispute the seriousness of the allegations.”

Photo: Seth Garben

For the organizers of this tribunal, the intention was also born from a long-standing and deep-seated distrust and disenchantment with the country’s bankrupt and corrupt bourgeois institutions. Vega traces the conception of the tribunal to a suggestion planted by another AIPP member at a bi-weekly meeting as a way to bypass feckless courts and government bodies and appeal directly to the working class. After many months of deliberation and planning, the result was “another tool to propose to the organized sectors… of the independent left” in Mexico to pressure the government, and in particular President Claudia Sheinbaum, to cut all ties with the Zionist entity—something that the most heinous of atrocities and the kidnapping of their own citizens at sea have yet to persuade them to do.

In other words, the tribunal is an exercise in justice, as organizer Isabel Vega says—but not a purely performative one. It is the kind of exercise that keeps el pueblo in shape—intellectually, politically, spiritually—for more confrontational forms of struggle, much in the same way that James C. Scott’s “anarchist calisthenics” keep the practitioner prepared to disobey authority when called upon by conscience.

Inevitably, the action resonated not just within the Mexican community but with the country’s Palestinian diaspora, whose voices take pride of place in judging all acts of solidarity with Palestine. Several of the roughly 13,000-strong diaspora living in Mexico were in attendance, and they expressed their support for the tribunal and gratitude to its organizers.

“Any activity anywhere in the world that is done in support of Palestine supports the cause and helps to highlight the genocide and the plight of Palestinians that has been happening for years throughout Palestine and today in Gaza and the West Bank,” says Khalil, a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon who has been living in Mexico for six years. He expressed hope that “in Mexico and around the world these activities and marches continue, that people don’t stop talking about Palestine so that everyone knows the full history of the genocide that Israel is waging against Palestinians.”

Abed echoed these remarks between bites of his family’s delicious falafel (which they were selling at the tribunal), sharing that, “I feel very proud that there are so many people talking about Palestine, because we want to raise awareness. We want the whole world to hear about the Palestinian case.”

One cannot extrapolate from these two votes of confidence to rubber-stamp the tribunal with the approval of the entire Palestinian community. But what can be said is that, even after two-and-a-half years since the most recent phase of genocide, and almost 80 since the incorporation of the Zionist entity, el pueblo Mexicano has not, and will not, go quiet on the issue.

Drawing Comparisons, Connecting Dots

If anything, events from the last decade or so in the country underscore just how close to home the genocide in Palestine hits in Mexico. Evoking the technocratic dystopia currently being touted by the Gaza Board of Peace and its death merchants, judge and representative from the Nahua people of Milpa Alta Alejandra Retana drew attention to her community’s similar “struggle against the imposition of the Cablebús project, L6, which [the government] seeks to approve without respecting the agrarian and indigenous rights of the community.” The wages of their resistance have been in the form of racist vilification, on- and off-line, and even being singled out by la Presidenta for allegedly “opposing any progress of the [fourth transformation].”

Judge and Otomi community representative Ansel Margarito at the Casa de Los Pueblos y Samir Flores. Photo: Seth Garben

Retana proceeded to condemn Mexico for continuing to fund Israel’s death machine by purchasing from them weapons and technologies that end up being used against resistors on its very own soil. Lest we were to forget, Ansel Margarito, judge and member of the Otomi community—which has been waging a 30-year battle against state repression and displacement—reminded us that it was Israeli spyware Pegasus that was used in the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa, and which, as Margarito affirms, is today used to persecute the Zapatistas.

Between the all-too-frequent assassinations of journalists, the social cleansing of “trans women, street vendors, resistors, and homeless people” as judge and trans activist Victoria Reyes noted, and the imposition and prioritization of megaprojects (like the Tren Maya and AIFA airport) that run roughshod over Indigenous people, their land, and their rights, it requires no great powers of perception to see that many of the horrors already visited upon the Palestinian people are here in Mexico, and in spades.

It was to the tribunal’s great credit to make explicit these connections to more local social failures, not to draw attention away from the genocide in Palestine, but to heighten a collective sense of solidarity between the peoples—essential for the current fight and those to come. For, as Margarito so poignantly put it, “only through organized resistance will we achieve justice, because the government system is designed to repress us.”

Transcending the Symbolic

On the topic of organized resistance and what the future of the collective struggle might look like, the tribunal, and its judges, were comparatively more reticent. Some were sure to announce the plans for the imminent embarkation of the next flotilla installment this spring, and call attention to other protests scheduled for the short-term in the city.

Castillo urged the public to resist complacency with rhetorical gestures, emphasizing, “it will be a collective responsibility for this tribunal to transcend beyond a symbolic exercise.” How best to fulfill this responsibility? Castillo admits it will require self- and organizational-reflection: “both from those of us who participated, those who organized it, but also from society and social movements in general, by attending, disseminating, documenting, and also asking ourselves… ‘what is justice and what justice we want?'”

Some fun with a piñata effigy of Benyamin Netanyahu. Photo: Seth Garben

Perhaps to facilitate that kind of introspection, but also to motivate others to take concrete action, the AIPP plans to compile the cases and evidence in a single document and send it to participating and sympathetic organizations and individuals “who want to sign it and subscribe to it, thereby supporting the citizens’ initiative to break relations with Israel,” says Malambé.

It was to the tribunal’s great credit to make explicit these connections to more local social failures, not to draw attention away from the genocide in Palestine, but to heighten a collective sense of solidarity between the peoples—essential for the current fight and those to come

Vega seeks to cast the net a bit wider, and “produce a book, a free, digital reference book, with all the material we compiled in the investigation for the accusations, and with the judges’ verdicts, and other material that we’ve been discussing, so that it can serve as a record of this process.” Such records have been used by more official bodies in the past to carry out their own truth and reconciliation campaigns. We can only hope that, when it is published, it falls into hands that can also form iron fists.

After all the verdicts had been read and pending announcements made, the tribunal’s organizers closed out the sobering afternoon with some much-earned levity—by beating the ever-loving s**t out of a piñata of Benjamin Netanyahu. With little hesitation, Khalil took the first swing, only he opted to deliver the blow with a more intimate kick to the groin.

The ritual took on a kind of ecstatic metonymy for the Tribunal as a whole—what it represented, and what it promises: the joining together of two distant cultures and peoples by the bonds of solidarity and the shared experience of suffering but also struggle. And the physical attacks against the most prominent embodiment of Zionist terror and colonialist warmongering’s effigy? Time will tell if they will remain mere shadowplay or take a more physical form.

Seth Garben is a writer, poet, musician, filmmaker, playwright, and activist/organizer based in the US and Mexico City. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a core team lead with immigrant rights group Danbury Unites for Immigrants. He composes and performs music in Mexico City and internationally as Goldy Head.

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Mexico City Shuts Down Illegal Construction of Airbnbs at Historic Edificio Isabel (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article by Dana Estrada originally appeared in the February 21, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

Following protests by residents of number 121 Avenida Revolución, in Tacubaya, known as “Edificio Isabel ,” the Mexico City Institute of Administrative Verification (INVEA) placed two suspension of activities seals on the property for carrying out illegal construction on homes that are listed by the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBAL).

According to residents of the property, after the demonstration held on February 14, Invea personnel went to the property owned by the Mier y Pesado Foundation to check if the works carried out in more than five homes had the required permits, since the building has artistic and heritage value.

The building, which houses at least 60 apartments, is listed with the National Institute of Fine Arts. Photo: Omar Flores, El Sol de México

However, neither the foundation nor those responsible for the works had any required permit, which in this case must be provided directly by the INBAL, the Miguel Hidalgo mayor’s office, and other government authorities.

“We knew that they didn’t have permits to make these modifications, because the most important thing is that the building is part of Mexico City’s heritage and is included in the Tacubaya urban development plan,” the Isabel Building Neighborhood Collective explained to this newspaper.

The Mier y Pesado Foundation was established in 1917 through the will of the Duchess of Mier, Doña Isabel Pesado de la Llave, who was born in Mexico but lived most of her life in Paris.

Thus, Invea placed two seals suspending activities, which means that the foundation responsible for the property has 10 business days to present the permits required for these works, or the Institute will proceed with its closure.

Residents of at least 60 homes in the building protested on February 14th to denounce the silent eviction of tenants who had lived in the building for decades, despite paying their rents on time to the Mier y Pesado Foundation, the owner of the property.

Currently, there are seven apartments that were vacated between August and December of last year and subsequently underwent construction work to reduce the size of each unit and create more. According to neighbors, each apartment is being divided in two, and several of the apartments are already occupied by new tenants who found them through apps like Homie and Airbnb.

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In Washington’s Shadow (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article by Carlos Fazio originally appeared in the February 21, 2026 edition of Rebelión.

Under the leadership of President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico once again emerged, standing alone, upholding the formal defense of the principles of non-intervention and the free self-determination of peoples, and displaying its immense and unparalleled solidarity. But this is, admittedly, a defense of institutional principles and solidarity, with its inherent flaws and fractures. Following Donald Trump’s January 29th executive order that mandated the imposition of additional punitive tariffs on “any country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides oil to Cuba,” Sheinbaum’s government immediately halted crude oil shipments to the island.

Thus, Mexico yielded to Washington’s blackmail and extortion, contributing de facto to the devastating US energy blockade against Cuba, significantly eroding what had historically been a unique feature of Mexican diplomacy with respect to the largest of the Antilles: the defense of sovereignty as an operational principle, a tradition that had survived regime changes, ideological shifts and pressures from Washington of all kinds.

In the last two years, while crude oil shipments from Venezuela and Russia declined, Mexico had increased its share as Cuba’s main supplier. According to Petro Intelligence, in 2023 and 2024 Mexico shipped 10 million barrels per day to the island. Data cited by the Financial Times, based on information from Kpler, indicates that in 2025 Mexico shipped an average of 12,284 barrels per day, 44 percent of Cuba’s total oil imports, compared to 9,528 barrels per day from Venezuela. Meanwhile, according to information reported by the state-owned company Pemex to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mexico shipped 17,200 barrels of crude oil and 2,000 barrels of petroleum products to Cuba per day.

Beyond Ideologies

The bond between Cuba and Mexico is very long-standing. In 1902, Mexico was the first country to recognize Cuba’s independence. A few years earlier, it had been a land of exile for José Martí, and later for legendary figures such as the Cuban communist leader Julio Antonio Mella, assassinated in Mexico in 1929. It would also be a haven for Juan Marinello and Raúl Roa. Furthermore, three months after General Lázaro Cárdenas decreed the nationalization of the oil industry on March 18, 1938, a massive rally was held in Havana, attended by thousands of people who paid 10 cents to support the expropriation. Mexico was also a land of asylum for Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, and Ernesto ” Che” Guevara.

On December 2, 1961, five years after the Granma yacht set sail from Veracruz for the Cuban coast with its cargo of guerrillas, when Fidel Castro declared the Marxist-Leninist character of the revolution and strengthened ties with the Soviet Union, the initial closeness of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governments gave way to a cautious distance. These were the days of the Cold War, and after ministerial meetings in Punta del Este in 1962 and 1964, when the Organization of American States determined, first, that all member countries should participate in a “quarantine” against the island and, later, that they should break diplomatic, consular, and economic relations with Fidel Castro’s government, Mexico refused, based on the principle of non-intervention.

This is a far from neutral shift, leading Mexico’s current government to abandon a historical position that granted it a distinct, recognizable, and respected place on the Latin American political and diplomatic map.

This consistent gesture made Mexico the only Latin American country to maintain official ties with revolutionary Cuba, even though it had to agree to active collaboration with U.S. intelligence services to monitor those traveling to the island. Cuba represented a testament to Mexico’s relative autonomy from the United States and in its relationship with the world. Therein lay the essence of a diplomatic tradition rooted in the principles of non-intervention and self-determination of peoples, principles previously invoked in the face of foreign interference during the Spanish Civil War, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, and the coup against Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala.

The victory of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in 2000 brought a shift in policy toward Cuba. Under the leadership of Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda Gutman, President Vicente Fox introduced what he called an “intelligent transfer of sovereignty” with respect to the United States (and Canada), and Mexico began to present itself as an unreserved defender of two of Washington’s main interventionist principles: “human rights” and “democracy” abroad. It was asserted that foreign policy based on “abstract principles” was a thing of the past, and now it was time to defend national interests and the liberal order. This culminated in Fox’s iconic “eat and leave” to Fidel Castro in March 2002, during the UN International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey. The PAN’s discursive shift generated tensions with Fidel Castro’s government, but diplomatic relations were never severed.

Mexico & The Donroe Doctrine

In the context of the tightening of the United States blockade, Mexico succumbed to Washington’s extraterritorial policy, setting a precedent that could extend to other economic sectors of the meager trade with Cuba.

With her nuances and contradictions, much like Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, Sheinbaum governs with a gun to her head. And under relentless and unsubtle pressure from Trump himself and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, she opted to suspend oil shipments and present the decision as a pragmatic reconfiguration of support for the island: exchanging crude for humanitarian aid. In reality, this is a far from neutral shift, leading the current government to abandon a historical position that granted it a distinct, recognizable, and respected place on the Latin American political and diplomatic map.

At the helm of a country with over 3,000 kilometers of border with an empire that has embarked on a new phase of hemispheric expansion, Sheinbaum must confront a new reality that harks back to 1942, the year in which geopolitical theorist Nicholas Spykman formulated the concept of the United States’ “living space” while World War II was still raging: the “American Mediterranean,” as he defined it, encompasses the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It comprises Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and the chain of islands stretching from Trinidad to the tip of Florida (including Cuba). Spykman asserted at the time that this subregion should remain under the exclusive and undisputed tutelage of Washington, which “implies for Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela a situation of absolute dependence, of merely nominal freedom.”

Possible Solidarity

On the defensive, Sheinbaum has continued to argue that it is Pemex’s sovereign “decision” “when and how” to send hydrocarbons to Cuba; that Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente is in “talks” with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, to resume supplies, since without fuel there is a risk of a far-reaching “humanitarian crisis” on the island, a situation that must be avoided “through respect for international law and dialogue between the parties.” She has even offered to mediate between Washington and Havana.

Sheinbaum’s phrasing, however, reveals that she has understood that “peace through strength” and the so-called Trump corollary of his northern neighbor are not empty slogans, but part of a deterrence equation that leaves no room for idealism. The Pentagon’s National Security Strategy 2025 and National Defense Strategy 2026 do not separate national security from economic vitality; they are one and the same. The economy is, in the words of both documents, “the ultimate anchor” of military power. The “making the economy scream” tactic of the Nixon-Kissinger era against Salvador Allende’s socialist government in Chile has been revived. The same policy of collective punishment that Trump and Bessent, de facto his secretary of economic warfare, are now applying against Cuba.

Under these circumstances, Sheinbaum has opted for humanitarian aid to Cuba. On February 8, two Navy logistics support ships set sail from Veracruz to Havana with 814 tons of food supplies (meat products, tuna in water, sardines, beans, rice, vegetable oil, and liquid and powdered milk) and personal hygiene items. She has also announced further shipments.

This tactical shift certainly contrasts with the deafening silence of other progressive countries in the region—Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay—whose leaders have remained silent on the matter. However, it could become a strategic error if Mexican foreign policy prioritizes containment and transforms into mere risk management. As José Romero has said, Mexico is no longer the exception. It avoids conflict with Washington, but at the cost of relinquishing its own voice beyond the power asymmetries that have always existed.

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Families Say 8 Mexicans Murdered by US Airstrikes in the Pacific (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article originally appeared in the February 22, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Eight Mexicans, seven of them from the town of Cruz de Huanacaxtle, municipality of Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, and another from the community of Corrales, in Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, were among the fatalities of two of the attacks on boats perpetrated by the United States on February 16, locals from the first town said yesterday, although federal authorities have not confirmed that information.

Family members stated this Saturday that they were notified of the incident by personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an agency that was consulted on the matter by La Jornada; but as of press time, it had neither confirmed nor denied the information.

The seven deceased from Cruz de Huanacaxtle were identified by locals, who demonstrated yesterday, as Édgar Hermelindo, Diego, Pedro Adrián, Luis Carlos, Carlos, Abel and José Francisco; all “very young” and widely known, they said.

Locals said the young boatmen were carrying gasoline “and supplying you-know-who.” One of them promised this was his “last trip, and it really was,” they lamented.

On February 16, the United States Southern Command reported that “Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out three lethal strikes against three vessels operated by designated terrorist organizations,” but without offering evidence for its claims.

The US Southern Command stated that “11 drug traffickers died during these actions, four on the first boat in the eastern Pacific, four on the second boat in the eastern Pacific and three on the third boat in the Caribbean”; the coordinates were not specified.

According to the relatives, the Mexicans would have lost their lives in the first two boats.

They recounted that a mass was held this week in the church of this place in honor of the deceased and then a farewell ceremony aboard boats in which relatives and friends traveled, with photos of them.

A large number of Americans reside in Cruz de Huanacaxtle. On February 19, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it had sanctioned a timeshare fraud ring led by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which operates in the Bahía de Banderas area.

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Acting President Delcy Rodríguez Calls for Wide Participation in March 8 Communal Popular Consultation (orinocotribune.com)
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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez called on communities, communal councils, and communes this Saturday to actively participate in the Communal National Consultation scheduled for March 8. Communes “are currently promoting the projects that will be voted on this March 8. So, Venezuela is in campaign mode, so communities should go out and learn about their projects and decide which one they will vote for on March 8.”

During a tour of the Socialist Commune North Zone of the Altagracia parish in Caracas, where a government-organized farmers market was being held, the acting president stated that the consultation process, in addition to the social protection deployments, is the way to guarantee the future of the country’s children, overcoming cycles of hatred and extremism.

“We can’t let March 8 pass us by; we have the major national consultation for the projects selected in the communities, in the communal councils, and the communal circuits. On weekends, there’s a deployment of social protection. There’s social protection. There are food programs, and they’re also promoting the projects; we are in the middle of the campaign. There is a campaign underway in Venezuela,” Rodríguez said.

She highlighted the program for democratic coexistence and peace. “It’s part of the economic dialogue. We have the program for democratic coexistence and peace. What is the purpose of this program? … Those who have called for the destruction of Venezuela through fascism should know that this option is not for our country. The option for our country is for Venezuelans to unite, defend our homeland, and guarantee the future of our children,” she added.

National production
The acting president highlighted the country’s progress toward a diversified, post-oil economy based on the link between community capacity, entrepreneurship, and agro-industry.

She reported that open-air markets distributed 21,000 tons of food nationwide. These actions are part of a national initiative designed to offer products at affordable prices and directly serve the population.

“This weekend alone, 21,000 tons of food are being distributed through social food programs where the Venezuelan people have access to very affordable prices, addressing vulnerabilities created by the criminal blockade against Venezuela. So this is the path we are promoting.”

She emphasized that collaboration between public and private forces is key to boosting productive sectors, highlighting the interest of international investors in the country and the flourishing of marketing networks that integrate everything from community warehouses to formal sectors.

She emphasized that open-air markets have also served to showcase the flourishing of the communal economy and its marketing networks. “Here in the farmers markets, we are also witnessing the flourishing of the communal economy and how, through marketing networks like community stores, but also through ANSA’s formal grocery stores, we are placing products from the communal economy and the entrepreneurial economy. We see how they are linked, how they are perfectly integrated with Venezuelan agribusiness, where private entrepreneurs are in perfect alignment with the country’s policies alongside public companies, contributing to this great productive effort.”

In this regard, she urged the resumption of black bean production in the country. “We have to resume black bean production, which is part of our pabellón criollo, our national dish.”

Together with the mayor of Caracas, Carmen Meléndez, and the Minister for Food, Carlos Leal Tellería, this activity was developed with the purpose of guaranteeing food security by connecting producers with consumers.

The initiative benefited 4,406 families, representing 17,624 people across eight communities. Additionally, 80.4 tons of food will be distributed, including 44 tons of animal protein and the remainder consisting of groceries, vegetables, and fruit.

On Sunday, the acting president highlighted Saturday’s visit to the commune.

“This is the path we are promoting through the communal economy: productive linkages, comprehensive social protection, and national unity. Through popular organization and participation, we are moving forward with hope and collective commitment for a prosperous future for Venezuela,” Rodríguez wrote.

The acting president also referred to the work being done to distribute food throughout the country, where 21,000 tons were distributed this weekend alone, of which more than 80 tons were supplied this Saturday at the Sovereign Field Fair in the Altagracia parish in Caracas.

Labor issues
Later on Saturday, Acting President Rodríguez reviewed the progress of the Labor Constituent Assembly with members of the cabinet, in order to guarantee the rights and benefits of the country’s workers two months before May 1.

Regarding the Myth About Venezuela Selling Oil to ‘Israel’

The acting president shared images of the meeting and the attendees. Among those present at the meeting were Labor Minister Eduardo Piñate, PDVSA President Héctor Obregón, and the Vice President for Economy and Finance, Calixto Ortega Sánchez.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/JB

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The Dalai Lama – Epstein Connection (orinocotribune.com)
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By Alan MacLeod – Feb 20, 2026

The latest tranche of Epstein files has put a rather unlikely figure in the spotlight: the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan religious leader’s name is mentioned hundreds of times in the newly-released documents, with suggestions and allegations that the two maintained some kind of personal relationship. A search for “Dalai Lama” elicits 156 results on the Department of Justice’s website, with other similar queries, such as “Dali Lama” (Epstein had notoriously poor spelling) also prompting dozens of relevant results. A prominent Epstein guest recalls meeting the Buddhist teacher at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, scene of many of his most serious sex crimes. The Dalai Lama’s office has vehemently denied any connection to the disgraced pedophile and suspected Israeli intelligence operative.

Partying at Epstein’s house?
A serial networker, Epstein’s emails show that he worked hard to connect with the Dalai Lama, sending requests out to his web of contacts for an invitation. Joichi Ito, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, helped him in his endeavors, noting that his close contact, Tenzin Priyadarshi was a Tibetan monk, MIT’s Buddhist chaplain, and had a direct line to the Dalai Lama. As he wrote:

“Yes. First step would be to meet Tenzin. His student who runs the Dalai Lama center and is now a Director’s Fellow at the Lab and going to start the ‘ethics initiative’ at the Media Lab. We’re working on some cool things like a meeting about cognitive machines and man. I think you’ll probably like him. He can get us the Dalai Lama.”

Epstein would go on to meet with Priyadarshi and donate $50,000 to the Prajnopaya Institute, a Buddhist Center he founded. In 2019, Ito resigned in disgrace over his association with Epstein.

Epstein was excited by the prospect of reeling the lama into his personal network. “I’m working on the dalai lama for dinner” he emailed Soon Yi-Previn, wife of Woody Allen. “Any date for the lunch with Woody and dalai L?” celebrity scientist Lawrence Krauss asked Epstein two weeks later.

Another message from a redacted sender also hints at a closer relationship than previously known: “Sorry for that didn’t check my email since yesterday morning. You know that I don’t have an Internet in my phone, why didn’t you call me or text me on my phone if you need me? About the event I told you almost a month ago on the island that Dalai Lama is coming and I want to go there to see him. But I can skip this event if you need my help today.”

It is not clear whether the reference to the “island” is Little St. James, the infamous Caribbean retreat where the billionaire trafficked and raped girls and women.

From the emails alone, it is unclear whether Epstein and the Dalai Lama ever met in person. However, Michael Wolff, journalist and Epstein associate, stated multiple times that he personally saw him at Epstein’s Manhattan residence.

Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Epstein’s gigantic apartment was “filled with people you might want to meet, from Bill Gates, to Peter Thiel, to Larry Summers, Ehud Barak, Steve Bannon, Noam Chomsky, the Dalai Lama.” Host Joanna Coles interrupted Wolff, asking, “You met the Dalai Lama?” “Yeah, the list goes on, the list is extraordinary,” he replied. A shocked Coles asked him once again to clarify: “Did you actually meet the Dalai Lama at Jeffrey Epstein’s?” to which Wolff responded, “Yeah, indeed.”

The Central Tibetan Administration has categorically denied both Wolff’s claims and any deep connections between Epstein and the Dalai Lama. After analyzing the documents themselves, they concluded that they were marked by an “absence of any direct participation, confirmation, or acknowledgement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or by anyone acting on his behalf, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.”

“All references to His Holiness the Dalai Lama are strictly third-party mentions, often informal, speculative, or contextual, and do not establish any interaction, relationship, or communication between His Holiness and Jeffrey Epstein,” they concluded, adding that reports stating otherwise are often the work of “Chinese state-backed media outlets” with “vested interests” against the Tibetan independence movement.

Langley’s favorite religious leader
Nevertheless, the presence of the Dalai Lama in the Epstein files evoke memories of a 2023 incident involving a young boy. At a public event in India, the then-87-year-old leader invited a child on stage, ordering him to kiss him on the cheek. Holding the boy in place, he motions to his lips, saying “I think here also.” Cupping the boy’s chin, he kisses him on the mouth, as the audience applauds. Still holding the child, he then orders him to “suck his tongue.” The visibly shaken boy pulls back in disgust.

Weeks afterward, video from the incident went viral. The Dalai Lama was condemned by Indian children’s groups, and widely accused of pedophilia. Facing a media storm, his office put out a short statement apologizing to the boy, his family, and “his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.” “His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident,” the note explained.

While the Dalai Lama has strenuously denied the Epstein and child abuse allegations, he has been completely open about his connections to the CIA and U.S. intelligence, groups with whom Epstein is alleged to have had close relations. For decades, the Dalai Lama was on the CIA payroll, personally receiving $180,000 per year from the agency, as part of a wider US strategy to support the Tibetan separatist movement against Communist China.

After a failed 1959 uprising, he left Tibet for India, never to return. The CIA continued to support Tibetan guerillas, however, arming, training and funding hundreds of fighters at Camp Hale in Colorado, in an attempt to destabilize the government. But after the Nixon administration’s détente with China in the early 1970s, Tibetan independence was placed on the back burner, and the CIA money for the program, including the Dalai Lama’s personal stipend, dried up. “Once the American policy toward China changed, they [the CIA] stopped their help. Otherwise, our struggle could have gone on,” the Dalai Lama said of the decision.

The CIA continues to fund Tibetan movements through front organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Every year, the NED spends millions bankrolling programs targeting Tibet, supporting media, NGOs, and other Tibetan groups who oppose the Chinese government. There are currently at least 16 active Tibetan NED projects, although the organization does not disclose who are the recipients of their largesse, for fear it would reduce their credibility. Nevertheless, NGOs such as the Tibet Justice Center and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy are known to be financed by Washington. As are Students for a Free Tibet and media such as the China Digital Times and China Change.

The purpose of these operations, one declassified State Department document notes, is “to keep the political concept of an autonomous Tibet alive within Tibet and among foreign nations, principally India, and to build a capability for resistance against possible political developments inside Communist China.”

The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile

Bad karma
The release of the Epstein files has made waves across the world, as celebrities, scientists, politicians, and royals have been implicated in a vast network of trafficking and sexual abuse. In the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) was arrested, while the house of ex-cabinet member, Lord Mandelson, was raided by the police. Meanwhile, in Norway, former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with aggravated corruption relating to his dealings with the disgraced New York financier.

In the United States, however, not a single individual has faced legal consequences for their actions. Moreover, the Department of Justice announced that the January 30 release of 3 million pages of documents would be its last, as it had met its legal obligations. This, despite only 2% of the total Epstein files it holds having been published (and many heavily redacted, at that).

Why Epstein wished to meet the Dalai Lama so much is unclear. The billionaire appeared to enjoy “collecting” well-known figures. The Dalai Lama himself is remaining tight-lipped. And with Epstein dead and no more files scheduled to be released, it is likely that we may never hear the final word on this mystery.

(MintPress News)

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Regarding the Myth About Venezuela Selling Oil to ‘Israel’ (orinocotribune.com)
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By Misión Verdad  –  Feb 20, 2026

In recent weeks, a narrative has gained traction in certain media spaces: the supposed resumption of direct oil trade by Venezuela to “Israel.” The narrative seeks to plant an image of ideological incoherence shattered by economic interests. However, a detailed analysis of the current dynamics of the oil market, marked by a complex web of licenses, intermediaries, and logistical bottlenecks in the United States, reveals a much more nuanced reality.

The supposed presence of Venezuelan crude in destinations like “Israel” is not the result of a sovereign decision by the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), but rather an indirect consequence of the reconfiguration of the global energy market orchestrated by Washington.

Logistical bottleneck and rearrangement in the Gulf of Mexico
The reintegration of Venezuelan oil into the US market has caused an unexpected congestion in the refining infrastructure of the Gulf of Mexico. According to secondary OPEC sources, Venezuelan production stood at 830,000 barrels per day in January—a figure not seen since May 2024 and representing a drop from the 917,000 barrels per day in December—began to shift toward US refineries that had not processed Venezuelan heavy crude for years due to sanctions imposed by Trump himself between 2017 and 2019.

Valero Energy Corporation has emerged as the most aggressive player in this scenario. The company, which owns the second-largest US refining network capable of processing Venezuelan heavy crude, plans to import 6.5 million barrels in March, equivalent to approximately 210,000 barrels per day. This figure would represent the largest volume processed by the company since the beginning of the US oil sanctions against Venezuela, and could position Valero above Chevron as the leading refiner of Venezuelan crude in US territory.

During the company’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings call, Valero’s vice president of Crude Supply and Trading, Randy Hawkins, confirmed that the company was in negotiations with authorized Venezuelan crude sellers, anticipating that this would constitute a “pretty large part” of its heavy crude purchases during February and March. The company has taken advantage of reported discounts close to $9 per barrel compared to Brent, boosting refining margins that were already showing a significant recovery: in the fourth quarter of 2025, Valero reported operating income of $1.6 billion, compared to $348 million the previous year.

However, this sudden influx of heavy crude has saturated the region’s logistical capacities. The Gulf Coast refineries, designed to process a diversity of crudes, now face an imbalance between the available supply and their internal storage and transportation capacities. Canadian heavy crude, which traditionally competed with Venezuelan crude for space in these facilities, began trading at discounts of $11-11.50 below Brent on the Gulf Coast, approximately $4 cheaper than the average for the fourth quarter of 2025.

This logistical pressure has forced trading companies to diversify their export destinations, not by PDVSA’s decision, but due to the physical impossibility of absorbing additional volumes in the US market.

Vitol and Trafigura, the two main trading companies that obtained special licenses from the US Treasury to market Venezuelan crude, after the meeting with Trump at the White House, have begun offering shipments to refiners in China and India for deliveries in March. Trafigura CEO Richard Holtum told Trump during a meeting at the White House that the company was working “to bring that Venezuelan oil to the United States,” adding that the first ship “should load next week.”

Other giants like Phillips 66 and Citgo have also applied for authorizations to buy crude oil directly from Venezuela, trying to secure raw materials for their refining complexes.

Diversification of clients versus disinformation
The mechanism imposed by Washington for the marketing of Venezuelan crude oil has transferred operational control from PDVSA to private intermediaries under US supervision. Vitol and Trafigura not only facilitate logistics but also determine the final destinations of the shipments.

This structure has generated a complex network of resales that disconnects the Venezuelan State from the final commercial decisions. US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright confirmed during his visit to Caracas on February 11 that “China has already purchased part of the crude oil that has been sold by the US government,” without specifying volumes or commercial conditions. This statement shows that Venezuelan crude is being redirected to Asian markets as a result of the authorized commercial strategy for the trading houses.

In this context, Bloomberg’s report on February 10 about a supposed shipment of Venezuelan crude oil to Israel should be analyzed with caution. The information, attributed to anonymous “people with knowledge of the agreement”, suggested that approximately 200,000 barrels of the cargo transported by the ship Poliegos (IMO 9746621)—initially destined for the port of Sarroch in Sardinia, Italy—had been redirected to the Haifa refinery operated by the Bazan group.

The Venezuelan government, through the Minister of Communication Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela, called the report “false” and “manufactured disinformation.” The official denial is framed within the severance of diplomatic relations with Israel, made in 2009 under the presidency of Commander Hugo Chávez, and is part of the history of Venezuelan solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Sources consulted by Telesur emphasized that there are no official shipping records or government confirmations to support the Bloomberg story.

The ambiguity of the case lies in the inherent opacity of maritime oil trade. “Israel” does not publicly disclose its crude suppliers, and tankers frequently disappear from digital tracking systems near Israeli ports, as acknowledged by Bloomberg itself. The Bazan group declined to comment on the alleged shipment, while the Israeli Ministry of Energy maintained its policy of not revealing supply sources, according to Latin Times.

What is evident is that, if the shipment to “Israel” really took place, the decision did not emanate from PDVSA or the Venezuelan state, but from the commercial chain controlled by Vitol—majority shareholder of the Sarroch refinery—and subject to the authorization of the US Department of the Treasury. General License 48, issued on February 10 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), explicitly prohibits transactions with Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Cuban, and Chinese entities, but does not impose restrictions on shipments to “Israel,” allowing trading houses the freedom to determine destinations within the Western bloc.

Chavista Pragmatism Amid Siege and Multifactorial War

Perspectives and changes in the dynamics of the global oil market
The reconfiguration of Venezuelan oil trade “under US supervision” raises fundamental questions about Venezuela’s energy sovereignty and commercial autonomy. Wright has declared that US control over Venezuelan oil exports will be maintained for an “indefinite” period, conditioning the access of Venezuelan authorities to oil revenues on the submission of “budget requests” subject to Washington’s approval.

To date, the revenues generated by this scheme show a significant gap compared to the initial projections. While President Trump announced in January a landmark deal for $2 billion corresponding to 30-50 million barrels, US officials confirmed only $500 million deposited in accounts controlled by the US Treasury in Qatar, with an additional $300 million expected in February. Trump has publicly declared that the United States “will keep a part” of this income, without specifying percentages or distribution mechanisms.

PDVSA, for its part, has adopted a defensive stance toward the new commercial architecture. Some sources indicate that the state-owned company refuses to sell directly to companies that do not possess individual licenses from the US Treasury, maintaining a cautious position amid regulatory uncertainty. This, however, is marginal in a context where marketing decisions have effectively been outsourced to Vitol and Trafigura.

The underlying US geopolitical strategy aims to contain Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere. Some analysts, such as Igor Collazos, interpret OFAC’s License 48 as a “territory marking” operation by Washington, designed to consolidate areas of influence in a “final phase of the game to confine China outside the Western Hemisphere.” During his visit to the Orinoco Oil Belt, Wright said that the cooperation between US companies and Venezuelan resources has no limits, in a statement that underscores the strategic nature of the oil relationship.

For global markets, the partial reintegration of Venezuelan crude represents both an opportunity and a source of uncertainty. India has emerged as a potential beneficiary of the redirection of flows, with state companies like Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum joining the private Reliance Industries to acquire 2 million barrels of Merey crude in the coming weeks. This realignment could put pressure on the markets for Russian heavy crude and West Asian crude, traditional suppliers to the Indian refining industry.

Venezuelan production, which reached one million barrels per day in February according to Wright’s statements, still faces severe structural limitations. Despite legislative reforms that reduce taxes and royalties for private investors, the oil infrastructure requires massive investments that US corporations, according to ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, consider premature as long as the country remains “uninvestable” from a political risk perspective.

In this scenario, the narrative about direct exports from Venezuela to Israel serves as disinformation for an agenda of political destabilization agenda rather than a trade reality. The absence of Venezuelan control over the final destinations of crude oil, the deliberate opacity of maritime trade, and the mandatory intermediation through trading houses authorized by Washington shape a market where destination decisions obey calculations of corporate margins and US geopolitical strategies, not sovereign foreign policies of countries.

The Venezuelan government’s denunciation of Bloomberg’s report as a “fabricated news” should be understood not only as a factual assertion but also as a reaffirmation of diplomatic principles that the new externally imposed trade structure puts at risk.

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/DZ

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US Feminist Organization Code Pink Delegation Arrives in Venezuela in Solidarity Against Imperialism (orinocotribune.com)
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A delegation from the US feminist movement Code Pink, led by Medea Benjamin, arrived in Venezuela as part of the Internationalist Mission for Peace.

They were received on Saturday, February 21, by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, symbolizing unity against external aggression. The aim of the activists is to break the media and political siege imposed by Washington against Venezuela.

Venezuela is not a US colony and their oil belongs to them!

Despite lies and attacks from the US government, we are feeling nothing but love and resilience from Venezuelans. 💗 pic.twitter.com/AKJTiFgPMW

— CODEPINK (@codepink) February 21, 2026

Foreign Minister Yván Gil thanked the delegation, emphasizing that international support is essential at this crucial moment for the country.

He valued the courage of the activists who defy the interventionist policy of their own government and “carry the flags of brotherhood and respect for sovereignty.”

For the Venezuelan government, this visit is part of the network of global solidarity that accompanies the defense of the ideals and self-determination of the Venezuelan people.

Code Pink is historically characterized by its frontal opposition to wars, economic blockades, and unilateral sanctions. In this visit, the organization reaffirmed that the people of Venezuela deserve to live in peace, without the asphyxiating coercive measures that seek to undermine their will.

Through peaceful protest actions and diplomacy of the peoples, the delegation wants to make visible the human consequences of the imperialist siege in the daily lives of Venezuelans.

Cilia Flores’ Women for Peace Movement Demands Release of President Maduro

The arrival of Medea Benjamin and her team occurs in a context of high tension following the US bombing of Venezuela on January 3 and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

The feminist movement emphasized that its presence is an act of ethical resistance to tell the world that “Venezuela is not alone.” The activists will meet with social movements to learn firsthand about the reality of popular resistance to the US blockade.

This internationalist mission adds to the global clamor for an end to foreign interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. Code Pink insists that peace and social justice are possible only if international law is respected and colonial plans of regime change are abandoned.

(Telesur English)

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Venezuela’s National Assembly Has Received 1,557 Amnesty Applications (orinocotribune.com)
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The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Deputy Jorge Rodríguez, reported this Saturday that 1,557 amnesty applications have been received since the Amnesty Law was approved and enacted last Thursday. “These are being processed immediately, and right at this moment hundreds of people deprived of their liberty are being released under the Amnesty Law,” he said.

“Until yesterday we received 405 requests from prisoners. As of today, we have received 1,152 new requests, bringing the total to 1,557, which are being addressed immediately, and at this moment hundreds of releases are already taking place,” he reported.

The announcement was made on Saturday, February 21, during Rodríguez’s participation in the consultation process for the Red Cross Law that took place on Andrés Bello Avenue in Caracas.

Rodríguez also reported that the Amnesty Law Monitoring Commission is addressing the requests of 11,000 people who were under alternative measures, such as house arrest.

“We have, and it is contemplated in the law, 11,000 people who received alternative measures to imprisonment from the Venezuelan justice system; that is, they were deprived of their liberty, but they are under a reporting regime or are under house arrest, and the law stipulates that these alternative measures are part of the law so that people can enjoy freedom,” he explained. “Therefore, we are addressing the request of more than 11,000 people who were under an alternative regime to deprivation of liberty, and those 11,000 people willalsondeed be covered by the Monitoring Committee.”

He reiterated the need for dialogue to construct peace. “It is the contribution to a peace that we hope will be lasting,” he said. “A peace where we all respect each other. A peace where we can discuss differences in all areas without resorting to hatred, polarization, or any kind of abuse.”

In this regard, he highlighted that far-right operatorss are beginning to pervert the scope of the law, “lying, insulting, using money to hire influencers. We will not let that go unpunished. We already know them, we already know their practices, and this law is precisely to put an end to those practices, to put an end to those malicious intentions of those who led the country to one of the greatest tragedies it has ever suffered,” he said in reference to the January 3 US military bombing of Venezuela.

Rodríguez urged people not to fall for provocations and insisted that the best path to peace is dialogue, “and this amnesty law is a great first step toward achieving that peace.”

Responding to a journalist’s question about the victims of far-right violence, the National Assembly president highlighted Article 12 of the Amnesty Law, which addresses the recognition and support for the victims. “I believe that this law not only recognizes the victims listed in its articles, but also establishes a step to prevent repetitions of the mistakes of the past,” he remarked. “The events are identified in the law. And those events represent a journey through the recent history of Venezuela over the last 20 years. I believe that it sends a powerful message to everyone: that we can live, work, and grow politically within the framework established by the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

“There is no political process or government in the history of this country that has attended to the victims of political violence more than the Bolivarian government, of Commander Hugo Chávez, of President Nicolás Maduro, and of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez,” he added.

In this regard, he referred to how people were murdered and disappeared during the governments of the Fourth Republic. “Who took care of the victims then?” he asked. “Who attended to the spouses of the disappeared? Who attended to the children of those murdered in the basements of the military intelligence directorate? Who helped the victims of the massacres of February 27-28, and March 1-2, 1989? It was precisely the Bolivarian Revolution and the government of Commander Chávez that finally brought attention to the victims of the Caracazo of February 27, where more than 4,000 people were murdered and thrown into mass graves.”

Venezuela’s Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence (Full Translation)

Deputy Rodríguez reiterated his call to extremist sectors to cease their efforts in calling for sanctions and aggression against Venezuela. “On the contrary,” he said, “the message of the Amnesty Law is reconciliation.”

“Enough with calling for sanctions and aggression against the country, enough with the idea that if you lose an election, then you go out into the streets to burn, to murder, to destroy. Enough with the insults, enough with the bullying, enough with financing campaigns to morally assassinate people and then to physically attack them,” he emphasized.

(Ultimas Noticias) by Carlos Eduardo Sánchez

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC

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Death Toll From US Extrajudicial Killings Reaches 142, Venezuela Condemns Renewal of US Sanctions Framework (orinocotribune.com)
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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) reported a new lethal strike in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, bringing the total number of deaths from its “kinetic strikes” on small boats to 142. The announcement comes as international legal experts and human rights organizations condemn this US policy, characterizing it as extrajudicial killings.

In a statement on Friday, February 20, SOUTHCOM reported that its Operation Southern Spear conducted a “successful kinetic strike” against a small boat suspected of drug trafficking. The operation resulted in three assassinations. There were no survivors of the incident, which took place in international waters.

On Feb. 20, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known… pic.twitter.com/PzWQFfNgHm

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) February 21, 2026

Escalation of extrajudicial killings
While the US military calls these actions necessary counter-narcotics measures, US and international legal experts label the policy as a campaign of extrajudicial killings. Critics point out that the use of lethal force against suspects who do not pose an imminent violent threat violates international law, human rights, and the right to due process.

US organizations such as the ACLU have noted that SOUTHCOM is acting as “judge, jury, and executioner” on the high seas. Legal experts have highlighted that even under the premise of criminal activity, the summary execution of individuals on civilian boats lacks any legal basis in either US or international maritime law.

Statistical analysis of the extrajudicial murders
According to data tracked by Orinoco Tribune, the death toll from these operations has reached a grim milestone. Since the strikes began in September last year, a total of 142 people have been killed in 42 separate strikes.

The statistical breakdown of the fatalities reveals the geographical scope of the violence:

• Eastern Pacific: 88 deaths recorded in 29 strikes.
• Caribbean Sea: 54 deaths recorded in 13 strikes.

The deadliest day was February 16, 2026, when three separate US strikes across both regions resulted in 11 deaths in a single day. The data further shows a trend of “zero-survivor” outcomes, as search-and-rescue operations for those missing at sea are frequently terminated shortly after the strikes occur, with individuals later presumed dead.

Venezuela condemns renewal of US sanction framework
On Saturday, February 21, the Venezuelan government issued a statement expressing its categorical condemnation of the renewal of the US “national emergency” regarding Venezuela. This measure, which labels Venezuela “an unusual and extraordinary threat to US national security,” was extended by the US government on February 18, 2026.

The renewal continues Executive Order 13692, originally signed on March 8, 2015, by then-President Barack Obama. The Venezuelan government noted that this measure lacks any objective basis or real justification, and violates international law. It serves as the legal base for the battery of sanctions designed by US imperialism to bring about “regime change” in Venezuela. Most of those illegal sanctions are still in force and have failed to achieve its main goal.

Cilia Flores’ Women for Peace Movement Demands Release of President Maduro

The unofficial translation of the Venezuelan statement follows:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the renewal of the so-called “national emergency” with respect to our country, extended on February 18, 2026 by the government of the United States, in continuation of Executive Order 13692, signed on March 8, 2015 by then President Barack Hussein Obama.

From its inception, this instrument was conceived without objective basis or real justification, based on arguments divorced from truth and international law, and labeling Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” Eleven years later, reality confirms what the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has consistently maintained: our country poses no threat whatsoever to the people or government of the United States, nor to any nation in the world.

The persistence of this measure, born under political premises that do not correspond to reality, only contributes to maintaining narratives of confrontation that do not reflect the true historical, cultural and human ties that should prevail between the Venezuelan and US peoples.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela urges the government of the United States to assume a constructive and respectful role in conducting its international relations, abandon unilateral approaches, and move towards a stage of mutual respect, frank dialogue based on sovereignty, non-interference, and the shared benefit of our nations.

Caracas, February 21, 2026

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SC

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Apple Buys Israeli ‘Pre-Speech’ Tech Firm Implicated in Gaza Genocide (orinocotribune.com)
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By ¡Do Not Panic!  –  Feb 15, 2026

The world’s second-largest tech company just acquired a military-linked Israeli startup that uses “facial skin micromovements” to anticipate what users will say before they speak.

Tech giant Apple has quietly paid nearly $2 billion for a “pre-speech” tech company whose employees helped Israel commit genocide in Gaza.

In the second-biggest deal in its history, Apple paid this money for a company that doesn’t have a product, doesn’t have any revenues and whose website is a single page containing 15 words.

The company, Q.ai, is developing sensors which map the imperceptible movements of a human face to determine the words someone is thinking before they’re spoken. They call it “silent speech,” or “pre-speech” — and it appears to be exactly as sinister as it sounds.

Q.ai was founded by Aviad Maizels, Avi Barliya and Yonatan Wexler, all of whom honed their skills by testing technologies of apartheid on Palestinians. Maizels is a former commander of Unit 81, the IDF division which builds Israel’s offensive cyber weapons. Barliya, according to his LinkedIn, was an intelligence officer in the Israeli air force, while Wexler is a former Unit 8200 agent.

Apple’s genocide intakeIn a blog post announcing the deal, Tom Hulme, an executive at Google Ventures, one of the company’s early investors, revealed that 30% of Q.ai’s more than 100 staff were called up to participate in the genocide of Gaza.

This admission means dozens of people implicated in genocidal acts who served under the political command of Yoav Gallant, an ICC indicted war criminal, are now Apple employees.

It should be a huge scandal. The biggest company in the US, one of the world’s most recognizable names, has folded into its staff dozens of people who served in a military during the period it committed genocide, according to all of the world’s most acclaimed rights experts.

But every single mainstream article which covered news of the deal, from Reuters to FT, ignored this fact. Mainstream coverage also ignored a number of other extremely cogent elements to the story, including the nature of the deal and the technology itself.

Best-Selling Apps Made by Israeli Spies Revealed

**Apple has paid two billion dollars for something that barely appears to exist.**Q.ai’swebsite consists of just 15 words. To find out exactly what the company does you have to look beyond the press releases to the patents Q.ai and its founders have filed.

And these patents read like plot lines from the bleakest dystopian futures.

Sensing silent speechOne filing details technology capable of “determining an emotional state of an individual based on facial skin micromovements.” The same filing says the technology could be used “to identify a user based on heart-rate and breathing-rate.” Another filing says Q.ai’s software “synthesizes speech in response to words articulated silently by the test subject.”

Q.ai’s technology centers around “silent speech.”

This is the idea that before we vocalize words and move our mouths to emit sounds, our brain has already sent signals to muscles in our throat and face determining what we’re going to say. Q.ai claims to have invented infrared sensors that can pick up these pre-speech micro-movements.

One filing talks about a “sensing device configured to fit an ear of a user, with an optical sensing head which senses light reflected from the face and outputs a signal in response. Processing circuitry processes the signal to generate a speech output.”

Tech bloggers have suggested Apple has bought the company to enable non-verbal control of an iPhone and other devices via its airpod earphones or smart glasses. An annotated diagram included with the patent shows a person wearing glasses and an earpiece integrated with the technology.

Indeed, Apple is no stranger to adopting the technologies of Israeli apartheid, and in fact the company is extremely familiar with Maizels himself.

In 2013, Apple bought Maizels’s first company, PrimeSense, a developer of 3D sensing technology. PrimeSense technology went on to become the foundation for Apple’s Face ID system on its newer iPhone and iPad models.

Nonetheless, two billion dollars for a non-existent technology and a three-year old company, is unprecedented. What isn’t unprecedented, however, is a US tech giant overpaying for an Israeli company.

Overpriced Israeli tech
Last year, Google bought Israeli cybersecurity Wiz for $32 billion, which, at 64 times Wiz’s annual sales, was widely seen as an inflated price and far in excess of the sales-to-valuation ratio for similar companies.

At this price, however, Israel received a huge $5 billion tax windfall. At the time, Zionists crowed it would help the country buy more warplanes and missiles to commit genocide.

The deal for Q.ai, while a lot smaller, will still generate significant tax income for Israel’s struggling economy.

And Israel is critical to Apple.

The company has a large R&D campus in the country, its second-biggest outside the US, into which large numbers of Unit 8200 and Unit 81 graduates are funneled. Apple CEO Tim Cook is a devoted Zionist, has visited Israel on numerous occasions, and in 2018 received an award from Zionist lobby group the ADL for his efforts to censor anti-Israel speech. Apple has made good on that promise over the last two years, sacking staff for expressing pro-Palestine, anti-genocide views. Cook has never spoken about Gaza.

The price for a ghost company with a few patents, then, looks as much about politics as it does about technology.

That’s not to say Q.ai’s technology won’tbe commercialized for consumer applications. It probably will be. And if the tech is realized, the implications for privacy and data collection are frightening.

As are the security state and military applications.

A pre-crime futureA few days after the Q.ai deal, the head of neurotechnology at Israel’s directorate of defense research and development, the country’s equivalent to the US’s DARPA program, gave her first-ever interview to Israeli media. In the interview she referenced Q.ai and said the Israeli military is working on similar technology. The US has a DARPA project known as Silent Talk which is also working to develop pre-speech sensing and non-verbal control technologies.

Once the technology is developed, and pre-speech established as a legitimate biological human function, how far behind will pre-crime be?

Given the frenzied efforts we’ve seen to shut down and criminalize criticism of Israel under the guise of antisemitism, one can easily imagine a future of pre-speech sensing technology being rolled out to identify would-be critics of Israel. Or the US. Or Europe. Or imperialism in general.

One can imagine it now: “Based on our silent speech detector we have determined you were going to say something hateful or antisemitic or un-American and are therefore under arrest.”

The most dystopian technologies continue to flow out of Israel. And they continue to flow because Israel is empowered by the US and Europe to maintain a system of apartheid built upon invasive and authoritarian technologies of control.

It is therefore no surprise that the creators of Q.ai are veterans of Israel’s genocidal military security state, or that the largest company in the US sees these technologies as essential to its AI future.

(The Grayzone)

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‘Not Genociders’: Macron Defends French Citizens Fighting for Israel in Gaza (orinocotribune.com)
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The president’s remarks come after judges charged two French-Israeli women with ‘complicity in genocide’ for blocking Gaza aid convoys

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with Radio J on 15 February that French nationals fighting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza are “children of France” and cannot be labeled as “genociders.”

“We cannot accept, we must never accept that any of our children, that any French person, be accused of being genocidal,” Macron said, adding, “That is impossible, and it represents a reversal of values to which we must not yield.”

Macron also argued that “some people who sometimes played an active role in the anti-racist struggle … have used, distorted what is happening internationally to try to dehumanize, essentialize fellow Jewish citizens.”

His remarks followed warrants issued on 3 February requiring two French-born women living in Israel, Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Touitou, to appear before an investigating magistrate for “complicity in genocide.” 

The two women played central roles in organizations that actively blocked humanitarian aid convoys bound for Gaza – Israel Is Forever, led by Nili Kupfer-Naouri, and Tsav 9, to which Rachel Touitou is linked.

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Tells Israeli Counterpart: ‘You Are a War Criminal and a Genocidaire’

In June 2024, the US Department of State designated Tsav 9 a “violent extremist Israeli group that has been blocking, harassing and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza” during the height of the genocide and the man-made famine that gripped the strip as a result of the siege. 

UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, meanwhile, responded on social media saying, “We do not label someone a criminal or a genocidaire based on their nationality: it is up to the courts to decide.”

The case unfolds as part of a wider international legal effort aimed at Israeli military personnel and officials over alleged crimes in Gaza, a campaign driven in significant part by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF).

“Our main goal is to end impunity and create some form of accountability for these criminals,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah, chairman of HRF, in an interview with The Cradle about the foundation’s work.

Jahjah said the foundation focuses on specific categories of defendants, saying, “There are two kinds of cases we are fighting. You have the cases against dual nationals who have been participating in the genocide in Gaza.”

“Our primary strategy is to focus on dual nationals because, unlike traveling soldiers, we have the time to build in-depth cases against them.”

Newly released data obtained via a Freedom of Information request shows that tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers held at least one additional nationality as of March 2025, with the largest cohorts coming from the US, France, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, and the UK in descending order, followed by at least 15 other countries.

(The Cradle)

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Cilia Flores’ Women for Peace Movement Demands Release of President Maduro (orinocotribune.com)
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The “Cilia Flores for Peace” movement vowed not to rest until they see their leaders back on sovereign territory.

Women leaders filled Caracas’ Simon Bolivar Theater demanding the release of the legit President Nicolas Maduro and the First Combatant Cilia Flores, detained in U.S. custody since January 3.

The Simon Bolivar Theater in Caracas was the setting this Friday, February 20, for a massive gathering organized by the “Cilia Flores Women for Peace” movement.

The initiative, spearheaded by congresswoman and journalist Cire Santos Amaral, brought together various social organizations with the main objective of strongly demanding the release of the constitutional President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, the First Combatant Cilia Flores. Both have been kidnapped since January 3 by U.S. forces and remain in U.S. custody.

Text reads:

“Through songs, slogans, and a powerful display of female empowerment, the Cilia Flores Women’s Movement for Peace gathered in Caracas, in conjunction with its International Solidarity Brigades, to continue denouncing the kidnapping of First Lady Cilia Flores and President Nicolás Maduro, and to demand their release.“

Simón Bolívar Statue Unveiled in Moscow

Vice Admiral Carmen Melendez, Mayor of Caracas, led the speeches of a large group of women leaders who support this initiative.

With noticeable emotion, Melendez described the event as a reunion of “combatant, warrior, and fighting women”, emphasizing unity as an unshakeable pillar for Venezuela.

During her speech, the Mayor recalled the “fateful January 3rd,” the date that marks the beginning of the kidnapping, and detailed how Caracas “vibrated and resounded” with the sounds of attacks, missiles, and bombs launched by U.S. forces. Since that day, the venezuelan people have maintained a constant mobilization in the streets, demanding the return of them.

The event also served to highlight the work of the Acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, and her efforts to preserve their lives and the peace of the nation.

A call was also made to continue working under the Venezuelan “Seven Transformations” plan and the “Admirable Challenge 2026,” goals set by President Maduro before his kidnapping.

Melendez also emphasized that diplomatic dialogue was always the president’s guiding principle, contrasting his commitment to peace with the brutality of the imperialist military attack.

Various organizations, including the Josefa Joaquina Sanchez Women’s Movement, joined the event to reaffirm that the female vanguard is fundamental in this stage of the struggle.

With the presence of relatives of the First Combatant, the event strengthened the bonds of solidarity and hope for the prompt release of the Venezuelan President and Cilia Flores.

The speakers insisted that daily work and popular organization are the most powerful tools to defeat the siege and restore democratic normality.

The event concluded with a call of justice and dignity, recalling that the bombs did not discriminate based on ideology when they fell on Venezuelan soil.

(Telesur)

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Coffee and Cooperation: A Communal Economic Circuit in Times of Blockade (Part 1) (orinocotribune.com)
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In the mountainous coffee-growing region of Morán municipality, in Lara state, generations of campesino families have built their lives growing coffee. Steep slopes, misty mornings, and hard physical labor are part of daily life in this territory, where coffee is not only a crop but a way of organizing time, work, and community. In recent years, this long history of cooperation has taken a new form through the Vida Café Communal Economic Circuit, an initiative that brings together seven coffee-growing communes in a joint effort to sustain production, life, and collective organization under adverse conditions.

Communal economic circuits are initiatives promoted by the Bolivarian government to organize production, processing, commercialization, and reinvestment at the territorial level, seeking to operate outside the logic of the capitalist market. Vida Café is one such circuit: a relatively recent but robust project that brings together freely-associated producers organized within their communes, while also addressing broader community needs such as infrastructure, communications, and access to healthcare and services. Coffee remains its productive backbone, but the circuit’s horizon is wider: the reproduction of life and dignity in the territory.

This testimonial work explores the origins, functioning, and meaning of Vida Café through the voices of the people who built it. In this first installment, communards reflect on the history of the territory and its long-standing practices of cooperation. Future installments will delve into the organizational efforts behind the Communal Economic Circuit, which was forged during some of the most difficult years of the US blockade. What emerges is not only a story about growing coffee, but, more importantly, about commune-building, collective resistance, and the ongoing effort to build economic sovereignty.

MR Online

Rooting a territory****Norkys Ramos: Before our grandparents and great-grandparents moved into this territory, Indigenous peoples lived in these mountains: we must never forget that. Later, and particularly in the 20th century, the area was settled again. People arrived little by little to these mountains. Once they came, they stayed for good.

They built their lives here. They planted coffee, but they also grew other crops and raised cattle. It wasn’t only coffee at first. Over time, coffee became the main crop, because this land is very good for it, because it makes sense economically, and also because government plans encouraged coffee production here many decades ago.

We are blessed with a generous land and a climate that produces one of the best coffees in the country. That’s why people stayed here, and that’s why coffee ended up shaping Villanueva.

Enrique Guédez: I was born in 1960. Everything I know about coffee, I learned from my grandparents, who were coffee growers. At that time, the coffee was the criollo variety. We didn’t call it organic; it simply was. We used no agrochemicals and no formulas, and we had no dependence on companies that impose their practices of dispossession by pushing products that burn the land and create dependency. The coffee was cultivated with what the land itself offered and with knowledge forged through practice, not imposed from outside.

In the cup, that coffee was unmatched for the depth of its flavor. Many decades later, I strive to preserve the knowledge and practices of my ancestors.

People settled in this territory mostly to grow coffee. They arrived, they cleared land, they opened paths, and they built their houses little by little. This wasn’t fast. It took decades. But those people stayed. They didn’t come to try something and leave; they rooted themselves here. That’s how it was with my family.

Coffee organizes life. We all know when it’s time to plant, when it’s time to prune, when we have to prepare for the harvest. The year is divided according to the coffee cycle. Families and the community plan around that.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez: Communal Economy Guarantees Prices 20% Lower, Breaking Economic Blockade

Johnny Valera: My elders were coffee growers, and I grew up here on this mountainside, among the coffee bushes. Every morning I walked a long way to school, in the damp cold and through the thick mist that settles on the trees at night. But I didn’t learn my trade in school. I learned it from my elders, working every day from a very young age—being on the land, watching how the cafetos [coffee bushes] grow, how to keep pests away using natural methods, and learning what conditions help them produce better harvests.

Between my family and me, we have ten hectares of coffee.

That land feeds us, but not by itself. It feeds us because we work very hard and because we never work alone. Here, if a neighbor needs help, I help them. If someone needs work, I try to give it to them. That’s how people survive up here.

But this territory is more than just work. The guerrilleros—those from the armed struggles of the 1960s and 1970s—passed through here. People don’t talk about it much, but they did. They moved through these mountains and left behind stories and lessons, too, that are still with us today. We carry them as we continue to defend our sovereignty and the Bolivarian Revolution, as part of a much longer history: from the struggle for independence, to the anti-oligarchical campesino wars led by General Ezequiel Zamora in the nineteenth century; from the guerrilla struggles to the popular uprising of 1998 [Caracazo].

Coffee, the land, our hard work, and a bit of that history—that’s how we got here! Ah, and working together. You cannot grow coffee alone!

Guédez: In the 1960s, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock arrived in Morán with programs aimed at modernizing production. They brought technical guidance and standardized ways of working. We were trained in new coffee varieties, new cultivation methods, and new production practices. Back then, we understood all of that as progress.

We replaced the criollo variety coffee, which was very robust. We introduced chemicals. We began depending on inputs that came from abroad. With time, the soil changed. The acidity increased. The land suffered. People started getting sick. That process marked us deeply.

And in some ways, it was progress. But we also didn’t understand everything we were changing.

MR Online

Previous forms of cooperation****Ramos: Before the Economic Circuit existed, in the 1960s and 1970s and extending into the 1980s, there was PACCA [Productores Asociados de Café, Compañía Anónima]. PACCA offered plans and programs to coffee producers, and for a time, it played an important role. But little by little it declined, because it was not able to deliver what it promised.

It was in that context that COPALAR [Cooperativa de Productores Agrícolas de Lara, promoted with the support of Centro Gumilla, a Jesuit organization] entered the scene. COPALAR was founded in the early 1990s, at a moment when coffee growers were increasingly exposed to market pressures. Intermediaries paid very little, transport was difficult, and access to credit was almost impossible for small producers on their own.

COPALAR emerged from that need. It was an effort by producers themselves to organize in order to defend their work and their production.

Guédez: COPALAR was an attempt to give direct structure to cooperation, unlike earlier experiences that were not truly cooperative and were mediated by private interests. The idea was to move away from schemes where producers had little say, and toward an organization where decisions were made collectively.

The objective was not only to help one another during the harvest—which we already knew how to do—but to organize commercialization, access to credit, and inputs in a genuinely cooperative way.

For many of us, it was the first time we tried to confront the market as a group rather than as isolated producers. In Morán, COPALAR was a key player at the time, and it was very important in our ongoing struggle to overcome the scourge of the intermediaries.

Valera: Individually, we were very vulnerable. We worked all year, and then we had to accept whatever price they offered us. There was no room to negotiate. COPALAR was a way of trying to change that situation.

It was about selling together, buying together, and not being alone when dealing with buyers and intermediaries.

Kennedy Linares: COPALAR also brought new challenges. Cooperation in work is one thing; organization brings other responsibilities. There were decisions to make, accounts to keep, and disagreements to resolve. Not everyone saw things the same way. That was part of the learning.

Guédez: Through COPALAR, coffee growers were able to access collective credit, organize commercialization, and improve some productive processes. It allowed us to take steps that were impossible individually.

But there were also limits. The infrastructure was weak [e.g., roads]. Credit conditions were difficult. External pressures were strong. And we didn’t yet have the level of institutional support that would come later, with the Communal Economic Circuit.

Ramos: COPALAR eventually collapsed, but even so, it left something very important behind. It showed that collective economic organization was possible. When COPALAR stopped working as it had at the beginning, the experience didn’t disappear. The learning stayed in the territory, and people understood better than ever what was needed to sustain cooperation over time.

Valera: COPALAR wasn’t the end of the road. It was part of the process. We learned by doing, and sometimes by making mistakes. But we didn’t go back to working as isolated individuals. Once you’ve organized collectively, you won’t forget how to do it.

Guédez: In that sense, COPALAR prefigured what would come later. It showed the need for a stronger organization, better infrastructure, and a different relationship—one of cooperation—with the state. Those lessons would become fundamental with the creation of the Communal Economic Circuit.

MR Online

Working together****Guédez: Even with the introduction of new coffee-growing methods, our own coffee culture has never stopped being the center of life. The harvest still brings people together. If someone can’t finish harvesting, others step in to help. If a neighbor is struggling, someone else will lend a hand. That’s how things still work today. That’s how our culture was built.

Mauro Jiménez: Coffee organizes the year. It tells you when to prepare the land, when to prune, when to harvest. Life moves with that rhythm. And because of that, you’re never working only for yourself. You’re always working alongside others.

If you don’t understand that, coffee will defeat you.

Linares: That’s how we learned to work here. By helping. By exchanging workdays. By being present when someone needed support.

No one wrote that down. It was learned by doing.

This has fed into commune-building in the territory. While coffee-growing is taken to be a family enterprise, it really builds a social fabric of collaboration. Without that fabric of collaboration, you cannot have a working commune, and even less an economic circuit joining seven communes.

Valera: Everyone has their own parcela [plot of land], but nobody is isolated. If a neighbor needs work, you give them work. If someone has a problem, you look for a way to solve it together.

That’s how people raised their families here. That’s how people survived.

Of course, I’m talking about small producers, which is most of us. There are also a few larger-scale fincas [estates] that work under a very different logic. They are not based on cooperation, but on hired labor and extraction. It’s a more exploitative model, and it has little to do with how most of us live and work here.

Guédez: Coffee makes you think beyond your own parcela. We all have to care for the water sources, for the roads, we all depend on others for the harvest, for transport, for knowledge. Over time, that creates bonds.

Those bonds are what allowed life to continue here, even when conditions became more difficult because of the US blockade. Those bonds are also very important for making the commune work.

Ramos: Those ways of working together existed long before there was talk of communes. People already knew how to cooperate before. What came later was the challenge of giving that cooperation a form, a structure, and a political meaning.

But the base was already there.

Vicente Paul Colmenares: Culture isn’t something separate from work. It’s how people relate to one another, how they respect the land, how they care for life. Our traditions, our songs, and our décimas [popular poetry] come from working together.

Shaking the World: Reports from Revolutionary Venezuela is a biweekly column by Cira Pascual Marquina for MR Online, offering frontline analysis of imperialism, popular power, and revolutionary struggle in Venezuela.

This article forms part of a longstanding body of work by Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina documenting commune-building in Venezuela. Click here to read earlier installments in the series.

(Monthly Review) by Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert

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Chavista Pragmatism Amid Siege and Multifactorial War (orinocotribune.com)
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By Francisco Ameliach  –  Feb 17, 2026

Absolute or neoliberal pragmatism
Absolute or neoliberal pragmatism constitutes the approach of pragmatism as a driver of depoliticization and de-ideologization, one of the most relevant global sociopolitical phenomena of recent decades.

When politics shifts toward absolute pragmatism, it stops being a struggle of values and becomes an administration of resources. This results in the end of grand narratives. According to the logic of authors like Daniel Bell (The End of Ideology), it is assumed that the great historical disputes have ended and that only the optimization of the current predominant global system remains.

Hugo Chávez opposed the thesis of absolute pragmatism and “the end of ideologies.” In The Blue Book, he states the following: “We are indeed living in an era where ideologies seem to be extinguishing. ‘The end of ideologies,’ as many scholars of the time have called it… It is precisely in this de-ideologized framework, and aiming to find valid resources for our people to move forward through the intricate and complex map of the future, that we have dared to invoke an indigenous ideological model rooted in the depths of our origin and in the historical subconscious of the national being.”

Contemporary authors like Slavoj Žižek argue that absolute pragmatism is, in itself, the “invisible ideology.” By saying “I am not ideological, I am not political, I am practical,” one uncritically accepts the status quo (generally neoliberalism) as if it were a natural law and not a political choice.

The danger of absolute pragmatism is that it can turn politics into a mere “maintenance of the imperialist system,” losing the ability to imagine different futures or profound structural changes.

When absolute pragmatism clashes with revolutionary mystique, a rupture occurs that affects both the identity of the movement and its bond with the electorate. For a movement based on heroic struggle, such as the Bolivarian Revolution, historical and ideological memory is its main asset; it is what legitimizes its existence.

The loyalty of grassroots voters in epic movements is not rational-economic; it is mostly emotional and moral. Absolute pragmatism breaks this formula, leading to demobilization. Therefore, the heroic struggle requires active militancy. When the “mystique” disappears, the will to defend the project in times of crisis also disappears.

Chavista pragmatism
Without abandoning his strong ideological stance, Hugo Chávez proposed pragmatism as a method or tactic of active resistance to achieve ideological principles and historical objectives. For this reason, he criticized dogmatism, especially when he felt that theory distanced Chavistas from reality or from the efficiency necessary to govern.

Chávez used to criticize those who pretended to govern by following books to the letter, without correctly interpreting the various contexts that shape the existing reality. On one occasion, he said, “We should not get boxed in by dogmas. Dogmatism is the worst enemy of revolutionary creation.”

Regarding unity over “ideological purity,” Chávez was a great strategist of unity. He criticized ultra-left groups that fragmented due to “purisms.”

“Unity, unity, unity,” he famously said. “We must be able to work with those who do not think exactly like us in pursuit of a higher objective.”

The influence of Hugo Chávez’s anti-dogmatic thinking on the Anti-Blockade Law and the reform of the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons, both laws proposed by the current Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, is a direct line used by Nicolás Maduro’s government to legitimize a necessary shift to confront the economic blockade imposed by the United States. The law is not a betrayal of the Bolivarian Revolution, but an application of Chavista pragmatism under conditions of siege and multifactorial war.

Venezuela’s Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence (Full Translation)

When a government implements social, economic, or political reforms to avoid a war, it is applying a cost-benefit calculation. The pragmatism here lies in recognizing that the cost of reform is less than the total cost of an invasion, civil war, infrastructure destruction, and the possible loss of political power. We concede on the secondary: a law, an economic policy, to save the main thing: the existence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

I have no doubt that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez is doing the right thing according to the logic of Chavista pragmatism. If Chávez were alive amid a threat of occupation or total collapse, he would not cling to a law that suffocated the people, but would rather “break the ties” to save the republic.

The Chavista pragmatism applied by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez allows the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to survive while maintaining its historical-ideological identity. It is precisely its historical-ideological identity that serves as the main deterrent against external and internal threats.

(franciscoameliach.com)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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ICC Complaint Filed Against FIFA and UEFA for Complicity With Israeli Regime (orinocotribune.com)
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Various international organizations have filed a formal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the presidents of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Aleksander Čeferin, for their alleged responsibility in legitimizing the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The international organizations, including Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and Irish Sport for Palestine, alleged that the two presidents are complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity, as stipulated in the Rome Statute. The complaint, filed on February 16, considers the inclusion of Israeli clubs based in illegal settlements in official leagues and international competitions held under the auspices of FIFA and UEFA as violations of international law.

Complaint filed with ICC accusing FIFA and UEFA presidents of aiding war crimes and apartheid in Palestinian territoryhttps://t.co/ODRziXVAXA

— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) February 18, 2026

According to the organizations’ statement, the financial and structural support provided by FIFA and UEFA to these clubs constitutes a “normalization” of life in the settlements, “contributing to the transfer of civilian population into occupied territories contrary to the Rome Statute art 8(2)(b)(viii). The practice also aids and abets apartheid (a crime against humanity pursuant to Rome Statute art 7(1)(j))—Palestinians are not allowed to enter the matches as spectators, play for, or become managers of, the illegal settlement clubs.”

The statement underscores that “settlements are a part of the Israeli government’s colonial project and UEFA and FIFA’s policies under the political leadership of their presidents assist with the conduct of these criminal activities.”

The complaint emphasizes that both Infantino and Čeferin “have acted in full knowledge that these practices constitute the commission of human rights violations, apartheid, and war crimes.” The plaintiffs have asserted that the leaderships of the football associations have systematically ignored reports from experts at the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, prioritizing political agreements with the governments of Israel and the United States to shield the Israel Football Association from any accountability.

The lawyers of the case emphasize that this legal action represents an excellent opportunity for the ICC to set a much-needed precedent. As FIFA and UEFA “are powerful private regulatory monopolies performing quasi-public functions with revenues that exceed the GDP of many countries in the world,” their decisions have a political and social impact that cannot go unpunished under international law.

Lancet Study Finds Israel Killed About Four Percent of Gaza’s Population by January 2025

The complaint against FIFA and UEFA is not an isolated incident, but rather part of the historical struggle of the Palestinian people for the recognition of their sovereignty in all areas, including sports. For decades, the Palestinian Football Association has complained to the FIFA Congress about the constant obstacles imposed by the Zionist occupation, which include the restriction of movement for Palestinian athletes, the destruction of sports infrastructure, and the arbitrary detention of players. FIFA has never applied proportional sanctions against Israel.

The legal complaint at The Hague brings to the fore the role of sports corporations as cogs in the colonial domination system. By allowing teams from illegal settlements to play under the Israeli flag, FIFA and UEFA not only violate their own statutes on political and ethical neutrality but also become facilitators of the erasure of Palestinian identity.

This case also highlights the double standards of institutionalized sports. After the onset of the war in Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA immediately suspended Russian clubs and national teams from all international competitions. Meanwhile, they have systematically refused to take similar measures against the Israeli regime. This disparity in criteria highlights how the upper echelons of global football operate under Western geopolitical interests, ignoring genocide and colonization in West Asia.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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Venezuela’s Interior Minister Reports Consular Visit to President Maduro and First Lady in US Prison (orinocotribune.com)
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The Venezuelan minister of the Interior, Citizen Security, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, reported that President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, currently illegally imprisoned in the US, received their first consular visit.

Cabello reported that the visit was authorized under protocols of international law, allowing a representative of the Venezuelan State to establish direct contact with the presidential couple.

Minister Cabello explained that these efforts are part of the daily tasks that the Venezuelan government is carrying out in order to ensure the well-being and return of the president and first lady.

The Decapitation That Failed: Venezuela After the Abduction of President Maduro

He specified that, in the absence of operational Venezuelan diplomatic missions in the United States, consular access is the fundamental mechanism to verify the situation of the presidential couple and receive any expression of will from them.

He added that this procedure is an inalienable right stipulated in international conventions.

Cabello reaffirmed that the Venezuelan State remains active in accessing all legal channels to protect the integrity of Maduro and Flores, ensuring that the communication established through the designated consular official would allow for the formal communication of the needs and status of the presidential couple.

(Últimas Noticias)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article by Mario Campo originally appeared in the February 18, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo.

The late Chilean-Mexican economist Emilio Ocampo Arenal used to warn his students that Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) were “to be wary of.” How right he was. When I heard this warning, which suggested an awareness of the fine print, this scheme was gaining prominence during Felipe Calderón’s presidency. Shortly thereafter, the President would send a bill to Congress to promote the proliferation of this model. Years later, the cesspool would be uncovered and the corruption exposed. Honoring the warning of the old sea dog who was my teacher, the promise of “efficiency” of PPPs not only went unfulfilled, but mutated into something that destroyed both public and private wealth.

At their best, PPPs can fill capital gaps. Under the guise of “operational efficiency,” which is more of a leap of faith than an irrefutable fact, the private sector promises to facilitate the introduction of technology and innovation to improve public services and free up limited state resources. Another touted advantage is the timely and on-budget delivery of projects. They can also reduce uncertainty through multi-year timeframes. Furthermore, proponents argue that the risk of design, construction, and operation is transferred to the private sector. It is in this last point that the most sordid aspects of these contracts lie.

At their worst, PPPs offer risk-free and disproportionate returns for rentiers and influence peddlers. As the World Bank warns, “…there is no unlimited risk: private companies will be cautious about accepting risks beyond their control… If they assume these risks, it will be reflected in the price of the service. Private companies will also want to know that the rules of the game must be respected by the government, such as tariff increases.” In plain terms, the devil is in the contractual design. To entice investors initially and then guarantee the project’s long-term operation, the government can indelibly sign off on coverage for unforeseen revenue shortfalls. By mitigating or completely eliminating risk for the private sector, which may lose all incentive to innovate and improve, some PPPs privatize the profits and socialize the losses from the outset.

At the heart of the abuse is a cobra effect. In economic theory, a perverse incentive occurs when a mechanism designed to produce a specific outcome alters the behavior of rational agents in such a way that they end up producing a contrary or undesirable result, often worsening the original problem. The eponymous, instructive case occurred when the British colonial government in Delhi, India, attempted to curb a plague of venomous cobras by offering a monetary reward for each dead cobra skin turned in by citizens. People, responding to rational (but not moral) impulses to maximize income, began raising cobras in their homes to kill them and collect the reward. Faced with the snake outbreak, the government canceled the program, and the breeders, in response, released the worthless cobras into the streets. By the end of the day, Delhi had more cobras than before the extermination campaign had begun.

The most emblematic case of perverse incentives in Mexico is the contract for Federal Social Rehabilitation Center No. 12 in Guanajuato, replicated in eight federal prisons awarded as public-private partnerships (PPPs) between 2010 and 2011. Originally operated by ICA and later sold to investment funds, the contract stipulates that the federal government must pay the private operator a monthly fee based on the maximum installed capacity of 2,520 inmates, regardless of the actual number of prisoners. Although the prison operated at times at 60-70 percent occupancy, the contract eliminated the incentive for “efficiency” by guaranteeing payments based on full occupancy. Due to the one-way risk under the contract, public spending became a fixed income (without any return) for the operator. An additional perverse incentive is that, having already paid the full fee, the operator has the constant temptation to ration food: every peso saved increases net profit, regardless of the health and rights of the inmates.

Another embarrassing case is that of the Bicentennial Viaduct and the Mexiquense Outer Circuit. Awarded to OHL (now Aleática) by Enrique Peña Nieto, the project became a cash cow for the Atlacomulco Group. Unlike a typical concession where the company collects tolls for 20 years and then withdraws, a clause guaranteed a real annual return of 10 percent. Essentially, if OHL invested 10 billion pesos, the contract promised a return of that amount plus a 10 percent annual profit. Under this arrangement, if in Year 1 traffic fell short of projections, as it did, and the company didn’t earn enough to cover the guaranteed profit (which also happened), the state’s debt to the contractor grew by an amount equivalent to the difference. In practice, to make up the shortfall, the company raised tolls at will and extended the concession period to more than 60 years, securing a lucrative deal.

Criticism of PPPs isn’t directed at private enterprise per se, but at the greed of those who, through influence and trickery, rake in windfall profits. It’s corruption, stupid. Plundering the state isn’t synonymous with entrepreneurial talent, but with corruption and white-collar crime. In the case of many exploitative contracts of the past, the state ended up paying an inflated price for a broth with tofu meatballs, far removed from the promised meat.

Following a political shift, the Infrastructure Investment Plan for Well-being includes mixed investment schemes. A primary difference compared to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) is the allocation of resources, given that 70 percent will finance energy projects and railways. Another is that the government defines and retains majority share ownership. Yet another is the standardization of unit costs to minimize hidden overpricing.

As a key difference, in the old model, the private sector designed, financed, built, and operated the infrastructure, while the government simply paid a guaranteed monthly rent for 20 or 30 years of the concession. In effect, the hospital, the highway, or the prison were privatized. In contrast, in the new model, the state maintains control of critical infrastructure, and the private sector contributes capital and technology in exchange for an operating profit. By eliminating sovereign guarantees of profitability, the private investor assumes market risk, which was previously mitigated in public-private partnerships (PPPs). In principle, under the new scheme, perverse incentives are eliminated or at least reduced.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The sour notes could be lurking in a lack of competitive appetite for the projects, doubts about their commercial appeal, or the legal conditions that the financing provider might impose. In general, although the shift towards PPPs is real, the implementation risk is significant. But if the government can ensure that, instead of raising snakes at home, investors openly monitor the snakes, hunt them down with their weapons, and lose money if the unwanted species proliferates, then the perverse incentives could be tamed. In that sense, the new mixed investment scheme shows promise.

  • The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    Analysis

    The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

    Publicly subsidized, private profitable. The anthem of the upper-tier.

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    February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

    The Mexico City government had threatened a “total dismantling of the camp,” but backed off, leaving more than 200 migrants unsure about their future.

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Uncertainty At Vallejo Migrant Camp (mexicosolidarity.com)
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This article by Alexia Villaseñor and Jared Laureles originally appeared in the February 21, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Although there was a presence of patrols and heavy machinery, the Coordination for Attention to Human Mobility (CAMH) of Mexico City suspended the dismantling operation that it was going to carry out, from five in the morning yesterday, in the irregular camp located in the Vallejo neighborhood, where more than 200 migrants live, because there was “a lot of tension during the early morning.”

Overwhelmed and fearful, the foreigners—mostly Venezuelans—stayed awake all night awaiting eviction. For this reason, they organized themselves into groups, stood guard, and posted copies of the injunction a judge had granted to prevent their removal.

Among those who participated were mothers who expressed concern for their children, as they wanted to prevent them from witnessing a conflict that could cause them psychological harm. Some even opted to take them to the homes of Mexican neighbors for their safety.

In a brief message to the media at the scene, the head of this institution, Temístocles Villanueva, reported that the planned actions were suspended: “There was a lot of tension during the early morning and we decided to postpone the action we were going to carry out today,” he indicated without specifying details.

In a less incisive tone than last Thursday, when he stated that he would carry out a “total dismantling of the camp,” Villanueva mentioned that the intention was “to inform about the relevance of leaving this place, since it does not represent a safe space in terms of civil protection, human security and sanitary conditions.”

Harassment & Uncertainty

At the same time, dozens of migrants criticized the ultimatum, arguing that it didn’t give families enough time to explore options, especially since more than 60 children attend school. “We can’t find a place to stay overnight; we have children, and the only school that has supported us is La Prensa Pemex Elementary School,” said Daniela, a Venezuelan migrant.

At the encampment—the only one of three in the capital still standing—in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, the migrants said they packed their documents in bags, along with a few clothes and personal belongings. Others stored appliances elsewhere to prevent them from being destroyed in the demolition.

Several migrants reported an increased police presence at the camp since the beginning of the month, which they considered harassment. They also reported that two of their companions were taken into custody a few days ago for alleged drug trafficking, but were released due to a lack of evidence.

After hours of anguish, the people living in this space expressed mixed feelings, between happiness at the suspension of the operation, but also uncertainty at not having a clear answer about what will happen to the camp in the future.

Meanwhile, residents and parents from nearby schools requested that the students be relocated. “We are not against migrants; we are requesting a dignified relocation, as the law stipulates,” stated Verónica Cortés, principal of one of the schools. They specified that they have spoken with CAMH authorities, but “they haven’t resolved anything.”

  • The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    Analysis

    The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

    Publicly subsidized, private profitable. The anthem of the upper-tier.

  • Uncertainty At Vallejo Migrant Camp

    News Briefs

    Uncertainty At Vallejo Migrant Camp

    February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

    The Mexico City government had threatened a “total dismantling of the camp,” but backed off, leaving more than 200 migrants unsure about their future.

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Clicks February 21 (mexicosolidarity.com)
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Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Mexico City’s Trolleybus Workers Could Bring the City to a Grinding Halt Labor Notes. Their union is one of Mexico’s oldest democratic unions. The 2,700 workers are fighting for raises, job security language, and more hires and training in order to expand and maintain Mexico City’s electric transport infrastructure.

Alejandro Calvillo, La Copa de la Diabeti-Cola Sin Embargo. La Copa Mundial comenzará a recorrer el territorio con la marca de Coca-Cola al frente para generar la idea de que fútbol es Coca-Cola.

Labeling with a taste of Coca Cola Poplab. “I am a consumer of their products, a daily consumer; I can tell you that the President drinks Coca Cola every day”. These were Enrique Peña Nieto’s words in 2016, just two months before the Secretary of Health declared a national emergency over the widespread occurrence of obesity and diabetes

Etiquetado con sabor a Coca Cola Poplab. “Yo soy un consumidor de sus productos, un consumidor cotidiano; les puedo decir que el presidente de la República toma Coca Cola todos los días”. Estas fueron las palabras de Enrique Peña Nieto, dos meses antes de que la Secretaría de Salud emitiera, en 2016, una declaratoria de emergencia nacional por obesidad y diabetes.

Emir Olivares Alonso, Mexico City: Collection Center in the Zócalo Has Gathered 6 Tons of Food for Cuba Resumen Latinoamericano English. The collection demonstrated the solidarity of Mexicans with the island, which has been besieged by the recent oil embargo decreed by the US president.

Darío Brooks, Por qué los mexicanos trabajan tantas horas (y por qué es difícil que cambie con la reducción de la jornada) BBC News Mundo. Si no existe una contabilidad precisa de horas de trabajo, como recomienda la OCDE, quedará a discreción de los empleadores la repartición de las cargas de trabajo.

Amy Stillman, Visa’s Takeover of Prosa Rejected by Mexico’s Antitrust Watchdog Bloomberg. The CNA said in a statement Friday that the solutions proposed by Visa and Prosa “were not suitable or sufficient to avoid the risk to markets and consumers detected by the commission.”

Viri Ríos, Qué significa ser soberano Milenio. Hay dos ámbitos en los que los intereses de México y Estados Unidos discrepan de manera fundamental.

Gaby Cepeda, Art in the Age of Claudia Sheinbaum North South Notes. A bit of Dubious characterizations of the Gen-Z protests but the essay maps some of the substantive anxiety around Mexico’s cultural industries and the state’s retreat from support.

Fernando Gálvez de Aguinaga, Derecho a la vivienda y al patrimonio cultural La Jornada. No podemos permitir que groseras, especulativas y destructivas empresas inmobiliarias y descastadas fundaciones que han perdido rumbo y su misión original, avancen en la destrucción de la ciudad Déco y su patrimonio cultural.

  • The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    Analysis

    The Perverse Incentives of Public-Private Partnerships

    February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

    Publicly subsidized, private profitable. The anthem of the upper-tier.

  • Uncertainty At Vallejo Migrant Camp

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    Uncertainty At Vallejo Migrant Camp

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    The Mexico City government had threatened a “total dismantling of the camp,” but backed off, leaving more than 200 migrants unsure about their future.

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Venezuela’s Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence (Full Translation) (orinocotribune.com)
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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—On February 19, 2026, Venezuela’s National Assembly passed the Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence. The law grants a “general and full” amnesty for offenses committed between January 1, 1999, and the date the law came into effect, provided they are linked to the violent events expressly listed in the text and are not related to crimes connected to assassinations, human rights abuses, drug trafficking, or corruption.

Its long-term scope—over 24 years—makes this law one of the most extensive adopted in Venezuelan history. It was approved unanimously by all political factors on Thursday, February 19, 2026.

Orinoco Tribune prepared the unofficial translation provided below:

Caracas, Thursday, February 19, 2026
No. 6,990 (Pag. 1) Extraordinary (Pag. 2)

AMNESTY LAW FOR DEMOCRATIC COEXISTENCE

Object
Article 1. The purpose of this Law is to grant a general and full amnesty for crimes or offenses committed within the framework of the events and time frame indicated in this Law, to promote social peace and democratic coexistence.

Purposes
Article 2. The purpose of this Law is:

1. To contribute to the promotion of peace, democratic coexistence, rectification, and national reconciliation.
2. To create conditions that promote the harmonious development of national life, public tranquility, democratic participation, and political pluralism.
3. To promote the use of democratic and constitutional mechanisms to resolve differences arising within society and thus prevent the events covered by the amnesty or similar events from happening again.
4. To promote the reintegration into public activity of the people who benefit from this Law.

Beginning
Article 3. This Law is governed by the principles and values ​​of life, liberty, justice, peace, consensus, plurality, solidarity, democracy, social responsibility, and, in general, the preeminence of human rights, ethics, and political pluralism.

Public order and general interest
Article 4. The provisions of this Law are of public order and general interest.

Principle of Interpretation
Article 5. In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of this Law, the decision that most favors respect, protection, and guarantee of human rights shall be adopted, including that established in Article 24 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Temporal scope
Article 6. The amnesty provided for in Article 1 includes all actions or admissions that constitute crimes or offenses committed and occurring between January 1, 2002, and the entry into effect of this Law, within the framework of the amnestied events.

Personal sphere
Article 7. The amnesty covered by this Law includes any person who is or may be prosecuted or convicted for crimes or offenses committed and occurring between January 1, 2002, and the entry into force of this Law, whether or not they are in court or enter into court after this Law enters into effect.

Exceptionally, when a person is not subject to the law and remains outside the national territory, they may be represented before the competent court by a duly authorized attorney to carry out the necessary legal proceedings without any other formality. After the amnesty application has been submitted, the person may not be deprived of liberty for the acts stipulated in this Law, nor subjected to judicial proceedings before the competent court for the purpose of granting the amnesty.

The amnesty will only cover persons who have ceased to carry out the acts constituting the crime or offense subject to amnesty or cease to carry them out at the entry into effect of this Law.

Facts subject to amnesty
Article 8. A general amnesty is granted for crimes or offenses committed and occurring within the established time frame, related to:

1. The coup d’état of April 11 and 12, 2002, including the assaults and attacks against governorships, mayoral offices, and public and military facilities.
2. Those related to the strike, business, and oil sabotage from December 2002 to February 2003.
3. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that took place on the occasion of the calling of and subsequent holding of the presidential recall referendum of 2004.
4. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that took place in May 2007.
5. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that occurred between July and September of 2009.
6. Those related to the demonstrations and violent acts for political reasons on the occasion of the campaigning for and holding of the elections of  2013 and the announcement of their results.
7. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that occurred between February and June of 2014.
8. Those related to the actions of the National Assembly installed in 2015 and the actions taken against public institutions and authorities.
9. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that occurred between March and August of 2017.
10. Those related to the demonstrations and violent acts for political reasons that occurred during 2019, excluding the acts that may constitute crimes of military rebellion.
11. Those related to the demonstrations and the internal processes for the selection of presidential candidates that took place in 2023.
12. Those related to the demonstrations and violent events for political reasons that took place amid the presidential elections held in 2024.
13. Those related to the demonstrations and violent acts for political reasons that took place amid the regional and mayoral elections held in 2025.

Excluded crimes
Article 9. The following actions and admissions constituting the following crimes shall be excluded from the application of the amnesty provided for in this Law:

1. Serious violations of human rights, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, as provided for in Article 29 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
2. Intentional homicide and very serious injuries.
3. Crimes related to illicit drug trafficking.
4. Crimes covered by the Law Against Corruption.

Also excluded from the amnesty provided for in this Law will be persons who have promoted or participated, directly or through an intermediary, in soliciting, invoking, favoring, facilitating, financing, or participating in armed or forceful actions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its institutions, or Venezuelan officials by foreign States, corporations, or persons.

Extinction by operation of law
Article 10. With the amnesty regulated in this Law, the criminal, civil, administrative, and disciplinary liabilities of those benefiting from the amnesty are automatically extinguished at any stage and level of the proceedings or the sentence, including extradition requests, related to the acts covered by the amnesty in this Law. Consequently, no measure of personal coercion, alternatives to imprisonment, or any other measure that restricts their rights may be applied.

The scope of this amnesty will extend to all perpetrators and accomplices of the crimes or offenses referred to in this Law.

Judicial proceedings
Article 11. The competent court, at the request of a party, shall order the application of amnesty in each case and shall decree the dismissal of all pending proceedings or the termination of all precautionary measures, to be annulled by replacement sentences within a period not exceeding fifteen (15) consecutive days. It shall also issue all measures and orders necessary to ensure compliance with this Law, including the cessation of personal coercion measures, alternatives to deprivation of liberty, and any other measure that had been agreed upon.

The trial court shall hear and decide on requests submitted in proceedings that are in the preparatory, intermediate, or trial phases. The request may be submitted by the Public Prosecutor, the accused, the defense attorney, or the indicted person.

The appeals court will be responsible for hearing and deciding on requests submitted in proceedings during the execution phase. The request may be filed by any of the parties referred to in Article 463 of the Organic Criminal Procedure Code.

Resources
Article 12. Against the decision issued by the competent court resolving the facts covered by this Law, the victim duly accredited in the proceedings, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the defendant or accused may exercise the legal remedies, including appeal, with devolutive effect only. The appeal shall be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Criminal Procedure Code.

Investigations and procedures
Article 13. The police and investigative police bodies, as well as the auxiliary bodies of justice, shall cease the administrative investigations and proceedings relating to the facts subject to this amnesty, except for the exceptions provided for in Article 9 of this Law.

Destruction of records or background information
Article 14. The administrative, police, or military bodies and entities in which records or background information of the persons to whom the amnesty subject to this Law is granted are kept, must eliminate from their files the records and background information related to them, ex officio or at the request of the Public Ministry, the victim, or their lawyer.

If the beneficiary has been requested for their arrest or capture abroad, the competent authorities must be notified immediately so that they can cancel said request.

Monitoring the implementation of this Law
Article 15. The National Assembly shall appoint a Special Commission to monitor the implementation of the amnesty provided for in this Law, in collaboration with the bodies of the justice system. To this end, it may contract the services of national experts to provide specialized advice in accordance with the established objectives and purposes.

In duly evaluated cases, this Commission may recommend to the State bodies the adoption of new measures and initiatives to achieve the purposes set forth in Article 2.

Peace and democratic coexistence
Article 16. The granting of amnesty contemplated in this Law contributes to the reparation of the victim or their relatives, who may benefit from this Law. Those involved in crimes committed after its entry into effect will be prosecuted in accordance with the applicable legislation.

FINAL PROVISION
SOLE ARTICLE. This Law shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Given, signed, and sealed at the Federal Legislative Palace, seat of the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in Caracas, on the eighteenth day of February, two thousand and twenty-six. 215th year of Independence, 166th year of the Federation, and 27th year of the Bolivarian Revolution.

[Image with the signatures of the National Assembly officials]

Promulgation of the LAW OF AMNESTY FOR DEMOCRATIC COEXISTENCE, in accordance with the provisions of Article 213 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Given in Caracas, on the nineteenth day of February of two thousand and twenty-six. 215th Year of Independence, 166th Year of the Federation, and 27th Year of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Let it be done,
(L.S.)
DELCY ELOINA RODRÍGUEZ GÓMEZ
Acting President of the Republic
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

National Assembly of Venezuela Unanimously Approves Amnesty Law

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SF

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