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The Djiboutian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in a statement, considered this measure a flagrant violation of international law and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“The statement emphasized that this attempt to annex Palestinian territories is unacceptable and perpetuates the expansion of settlements, which is already considered illegal,” it stressed.

It affirmed that any unilateral measure aimed at altering the legal status of the occupied Palestinian territories is null and void and undermines international efforts to establish a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.

The Foreign Ministry reiterated, once again, Djibouti’s firm stance in support of the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people, among which it emphasized their inalienable right to an independent state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Finally, it urged the international community to assume its responsibilities to end these violations, guarantee respect for international law, and protect the rights of the Palestinian people.

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Lesotho’s Foreign Minister Lejone Mpotjoane told the news agency that water is a vital resource for southern Africa.

Mpotjoane underscored that water remains not only one of his country’s most important strategic resources, but also that of the region. “This is one of the most important issues for Lesotho as a water source for the Southern African region.”

Cote d’Avoire’s Minister of Environment and Ecological Transition, Abou Bamba, highlighted his country’s investments in sanitation and water, the latter playing a crucial role in its overall development process.

Bamba extoled his country’s steady progress toward universal access to drinking water, while reiterating the need for accompanying improved sanitation systems.

Mpotjoane and Bamba stressed that strengthening African-led solutions and deepening regional cooperation will be essential to guaranteeing those services, describing water security as fundamental to sustainable development and public health across the continent.

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This article by Jorge Salcedo originally appeared in the February 16, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

The Federal Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO) is preparing a series of guidelines to regulate the sale of tickets for mass events in Mexico so that attendees know the exact prices and characteristics of the seats and places that are acquired through digital platforms.

In a morning press conference, the head of PROFECO, Ivan Escalante, reported that the regulations being worked on require ticketing companies to clearly inform, at least 24 hours in advance of the first sale, details such as the place, date, times, artists, as well as the map of the venue with the sections and the number of seats available.

The regulations also stipulate that the total price per section must be transparent and cannot be increased at the time of purchase. In case of cancellation, companies must inform customers of the refund process.

Companies must notify organizers of any changes to the event conditions 24 hours in advance. Furthermore, the pre-selection of additional services is prohibited; these services must be strictly optional and not a requirement for ticket purchase, as is the case with VIP packages.

The head of PROFECO announced these guidelines as a follow-up to the sale of tickets by the South Korean group, BTS , where PROFECO maintains a Procedure for Infringement of the Law (PIL) against Ticketmaster for irregularities in the sale of tickets, due to the prices and high demand of these that also circulated in digital resale companies.

In this regard, Escalante said that Ticketmaster was notified on February 11 and has until February 17 to present its arguments, after which the authority will determine the administrative resolution and the amount of the fine.

Digital reseller companies were also contacted to ensure they adjusted their services to comply with current Mexican regulations.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  Mexico’s Cineteca Nacional Workers Hired Through Outsourcing Demand Dignified Treatment

  February 16, 2026February 16, 2026

  Colectiva Cineteca represents workers between 30 & 40 years of age, some of whom have worked there for more than 18 years.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Consumer Protection Agency Setting New Guidelines for Ticket Sales

  February 16, 2026February 16, 2026

  The head of PROFECO announced the guidelines following fines against the monopoly Ticketmaster over issues related to Kpop group BTS ticket sales.

• 

  News Briefs

  Cuban Ambassador Expresses Gratitude for Mexican Solidarity

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  The Mexico City collection center – located almost at the corner of Corregidora and Plaza de la Constitución – will remain open until February 22.

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“Of course, we do not accept these accusations, we do not agree with them. We consider them biased and unfounded, and we categorically reject them,” the Kremlin spokesman told the press.

Last Saturday, authorities from Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, and France released a joint statement claiming that Navalny had allegedly been poisoned with epibatidine, a toxin extracted from the skin of Ecuadorian poison dart frogs.

According to the European nations, the conclusions were based on analyses of Navalny’s blood samples.

Against this backdrop, representatives from these countries accused Russia of an alleged violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In response, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, dismissed these statements as “a hoax intended to divert attention from the West’s urgent problems.”

“When Europe should be presenting the results of the investigation into the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, they decide to bring up the Navalny case again,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman specified.

Alexei Navalny died on February 16, 2024, in a prison in northwestern Russia.

Since then, the Kremlin has called the claims by several Western leaders regarding the alleged involvement of Russian government officials in the opposition leader’s death “outrageous” and “unacceptable.”

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According to a statement released via social media, the vessel attempted to defy the quarantine imposed by President Trump and was “tracked from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we closed the distance and stopped it.”

The US agency used the announcement to send a strong message: “International waters are not sanctuaries. By land, air, or sea, we will find them and bring them to justice,” it asserted.

This operation is part of the naval blockade that the United States has maintained on Venezuela since mid-December 2015, with the aim of preventing the export or export of oil considered sanctioned by Washington.

The military deployment, which includes naval, air, and special forces assets, has carried out dozens of maritime interdictions and kinetic attacks against suspected vessels since the operation began.

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The Deputy Minister denounced in Havana the hostility of the US government that the Caribbean nation has faced for more than six decades and also criticized the media’s treatment of Washington’s policies against the Cuban people.

“Fernandez de Cossio stated that US media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist describe the situation in Cuba without impartiality, showing enthusiasm for the country’s difficulties and omitting critical judgments about the aggressor,” according to reports in Granma and Juventud Rebelde, among other digital and print media.

“Fernandez de Cossio stated that US media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist describe the situation in Cuba without impartiality, showing enthusiasm for the country’s difficulties and omitting critical judgments about the aggressor,” according to Granma and Juventud Rebelde, among other digital and print media.

Furthermore, they add, “he stated that the current situation is a consequence of a prolonged policy of hostility, characterized by disproportionate, ruthless, and asymmetrical actions aimed at weakening the Cuban economy and society.”

“Cuba has the accumulated experience in self-defense against 67 years of imperialist aggression, as well as a system of social justice that allows for the adoption of equitable measures to protect the population,” he noted.

According to the texts, for the official, “the Cuban socialist model facilitates the priority allocation of resources, encourages solidarity, and mobilizes the national will to face current challenges.”

On the other hand, they assert that he highlighted on his Facebook profile “the letter disseminated by The People’s Forum, signed by artists and personalities such as Jane Fonda, Ed Harris, Indya Moore, Silvio Rodriguez, Roger Waters, and Tatiana Maslany, who demanded an end to the policy of strangulation against Cuba.”

According to the document, the oil blockade imposed by the US administration threatens to close hospitals and schools, while solidarity organizations are sending generators and solar panels to ensure electricity supply to health centers, according to news reports.

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The post Media highlights condemnation of US blockade against Cuba first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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The CGT leadership is meeting this Monday to decide on the labor action to be taken, and the FSU, made up of the Metallurgical Workers’ Union, the State Workers’ Association, the Oil Workers’ Union, and the two Argentine Workers’ Confederations, has already announced a strike with a march on the day of the session in the lower house.

These trade unions will insist on more demonstrations despite the brutal repression of Wednesday’s mobilization.

The Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill that the ruling party amended to advance, but a subsequent reading alerted unions that, despite the changes, workers would lose many rights.

Before this scenario, there is little room for the dialogue strategy that the CGT has been pursuing with the Executive Power.

Within the CGT, voices are increasingly calling for action after the meager changes achieved in the labor reform.

This shift was hinted at by Cristian Jeronimo, one of the leaders, Ambito Financiero stated.

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The post Argentine unions plan more actions against labor reform first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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In statements to Prensa Latina, Briseño Davila described this strategy as a direct legacy of the so-called “Big Stick” policy, associated with the Monroe Doctrine, as well as “Manifest Destiny,” which, he explained, have shaped Washington’s foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean.

The prominent Nicaraguan doctor stated, “It is the same doctrinal matrix that today exacerbates the genocidal blockade against Cuba.

It is the continuation of a reactionary imperial policy, of a cannibalistic capitalism that does not tolerate examples of sovereignty and dignity.”

He considered that Cuba’s greatest “threat” lies in its historical example of sovereignty, self-determination, and social development.

He highlighted the internationalist work of the Cuban medical brigades, particularly the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Physicians Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics, which, he noted, has assisted in more than 60 countries.

Referring to recent US policy, Briseño Davila mentioned President Donald Trump, who declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and tightened the economic, commercial, and financial siege with further sanctions.

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The post Friend of Cuba affirms US destroys ideas with a big stick’s violence first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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Upon receiving Cuban Ambassador to this nation, Santiago Perez, Ryzhenkov reaffirmed his country’s unwavering policy of friendship and solidarity with the Caribbean nation in complex times.

Perez told Prensa Latina that the Belarusian foreign minister expressed, during the meeting, the willingness of President Alexander Lukashenko and his administration to provide humanitarian aid to alleviate the energy crisis Cuba is facing.

The Cuban ambassador also commented that both nations are working to strengthen economic and trade ties in several sectors, issues to be discussed at the next Cuba-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission meeting, scheduled for March.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry previously condemned the oil blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States on January 29.

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The post Belarusian FM praises Cuba’s courage against US blockade first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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At the opening ceremony of Vision 2031: An International Conference on Development and Democracy in the southern Indian state on Sunday, Aymee Diaz, coordinator for the Global South at the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), described as utter nonsense the move by the administration of US President Donald Trump to tighten the economic, commercial, and financial siege that Washington has imposed on the island for more than 65 years in pursuit of regime change.

Aymee affirmed that quantifying the emotional damage, anguish, suffering, and deprivation that the US siege inflicts on Cuban families is impossible.

“More than 80 percent of Cubans on the island were born after the start of the US blockade,” emphasized the official, who is on a working visit to India.

The PCC representative specified that the US government has an urgent need to divert attention from its serious internal problems and, in its eagerness to regain control of our region, has intensified its aggressive policy against Cuba to unprecedented levels.

She pointed out that imposing more than 240 measures during his first term, and reinstating Cuba in Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list on the first day of his second term, was not enough for President Trump.

The coordinator added that on January 29, Trump, in his crusade against Cuba, signed an executive order declaring the Caribbean nation an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States and, therefore, declaring a national emergency.

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The post US oil blockade violates Cuban people’s rights first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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The territory’s Ministry of Health stated that it continues to follow with great concern and dismay the partial and restricted operation of the Rafah land crossing, as the humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave worsens.

More than 20,000 patients are waiting to leave for treatment, including critical cases of cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, and serious injuries, it emphasized.

In this regard, it warned that many of them require advanced surgical procedures that are unavailable in Gaza as a result of the destruction caused to the health system by the Israeli aggression.

Although the crossing was reopened on February 2, the number of people authorized to travel so far is very limited and does not reflect the magnitude of the health crisis, it stressed.

We received “distressing and harrowing accounts from patients and the wounded who traveled abroad for treatment” because they were subjected to restrictive and unjustified procedures and complications, he said.

Limiting the number of travelers and slowing down medical evacuation procedures poses a direct threat to the lives of thousands of patients and contributes to a serious deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, he stressed.

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This capital city, which boasts the longest Carnival in the world, is hosting the second phase of the official competition for its most cherished popular festival at the Summer Theater.

At this open-air venue in Parque Rodo, murgas (street theater groups), comparsas (carnival troupes), revues, comedians, and parodists are performing.

Society criticism and current events are prominent, especially among the murgas, including messages of support for Cuba and rejection of the United States’ blockade against the island, particularly the cutoff of oil supplies.

One of the Carnival’s emblematic murgas expressed this sentiment on stage:

“The Diablos Verdes group wants to express its solidarity with the Cuban people in the face of the intensification of the economic blockade by the Donald Trump administration.”

“To prevent food, supplies, and medicine from entering a country is to condemn an ​​entire people. That is why we, the Devils, say: No to imperialism.”

It was a declaration made during their performance that was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

The carnival delves deep into the heart of this city with the parade of comparsas (carnival troupes) along Flores Street and the stages erected in the neighborhoods, often by the residents themselves.

These nights, a document is being read at the Network of Popular Stages that states: “Cuba is suffering an energy blockade that is no longer a political debate; it is a direct attack on the most basic rights.”

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The Palestinian Presidency warned in a statement about the danger of the new plan by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, noting that it violates international law and represents a threat to regional security and stability.

The statement considered the measure a dangerous Israeli escalation against Palestine and constitutes “the termination of the agreements signed” between the two parties.

Furthermore, it stated that it contradicts several UN Security Council resolutions on the matter, particularly Resolution 2334, which considers all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, illegal.

The president of the Palestinian National Council, Rouhi Fattouh, expressed a similar sentiment.

The leader considered the regulation and registration of lands in the West Bank to be an arbitrary measure, a large-scale plundering of Palestinian lands, “a de facto annexation and a direct invasion.”

Fattouh emphasized that this policy neither creates nor eliminates any rights; on the contrary, it openly contradicts international norms, particularly the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, “which prohibits the occupying power from making permanent changes to the occupied territory or confiscating the property of the population.”

He reiterated that the West Bank is an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied during the 1967 war.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stated that the Israeli decision is null and void.

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The US military seizes the 2nd oil tanker in the Indian Ocean linked to Venezuela.

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The first vice president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Pedro Infante, wrote on social media that there is an attempt to “distort and manipulate the truth” regarding the batch of medicines received last Friday at the Simón Bolívar International Airport. It consisted of six tons of medicines allegedly donated by the United States.

Infante’s remark came in response to a comment made by far-right Deputy Henrique Capriles, who described the shipment of US medicine as “good news amid so many difficulties.”

Decades killing Venezuelans and now these gringo monsters believe we are going to forget that with a couple of air containers with medicines. 😡🤬😡 https://t.co/h647q9JrH5

— Orinoco Tribune (@OrinocoTribune) February 13, 2026

Deputy Infante stated that “Venezuela is grateful for the international support from several countries.” The legislator then listed some of the countries that have been donating medical supplies to the country in recent weeks after the atrocious Jan. 3 military attacks committed by the US.

“Brazil donated supplies to guarantee dialysis for Venezuelan patients for 5 months,” said Congressman Infante, who also expressed gratitude to the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the donation of $3 million for hospital medical equipment.

“Yesterday (Feb. 13) we received a donation of $945,000 in outpatient medicine from the US; this is within the framework of Venezuela’s purchase of hospital medical equipment and medicine from this country for $140 million with funds released under the bilateral cooperation agenda,” wrote Deputy Infante, who emphasized the phrase “with funds released” in bold.

Venezuelan communication minister, Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela, and the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, liked Infante’s post, among other high-ranked Venezuelan officials.

Orinoco Tribune’s editor, when consulted on the issue, noted that US imperialism has been starving and killing tens of thousands of Venezuelans via its illegal sanctions and blockade, and added that now they want to present themselves as good Samaritans by talking about an alleged donation, paid for with Venezuelan oil that they have stolen.

US Kills Three in Strike on Vessel in Caribbean

On Jan. 3, alongside the killing of approximately 120 people and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the US also bombed facilities in La Guaira state housing dialysis material worth months of Venezuelan dialysis needs.

Venezuelans have been reported as dying due to the disruption created by the lack of the medicines needed for dialysis before the arrival of the Brazilian donations.

(Ultimas Noticias ) by Eligio Rojas with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/JB

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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US nonprofit organization based in New York City, has discontinued its annual Global Impunity Index, a decision that current and former staff members say was motivated by a desire to avoid highlighting Israel’s leading role in unpunished killings of journalists amid its genocidal war against the people of Gaza.

According to whistleblowers speaking to The Electronic Intifada, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg canceled the index last August in a calculated move to prevent Israel from topping the list.

The Impunity Index, published since 2008, ranks countries by the rate of unsolved murders of journalists relative to population over a 10-year rolling period, serving as a key measure of accountability widely cited by the UN Human Rights Office and UNESCO.

The whistleblowers argue that Israel, already ranked second in the 2024 index (behind Haiti), would have surged to number one in the 2025 edition covering 2024, the first full year of Israel’s war on Gaza.

CPJ’s own data shows Israel to be responsible for the deliberate killing of dozens of journalists in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran in recent years.

The Government Media Office in Gaza reports that Israel has killed more than 260 journalists and media workers since October 2023, making its onslaught deadlier for journalists than most major historical conflicts combined.

“Since the Impunity Index usually covers a timeframe of 10 years, Israel would have been ranked near the top, if not number one, for many years to come,” the whistleblowers stated.

They allege Ginsberg “couldn’t afford the heat” from CPJ’s board, pro-Israel donors, including those linked to Rupert Murdoch-owned publications and Israeli-linked firms, and pressure from Israel and its allies.

In an August email to staff obtained by The Electronic Intifada, Ginsberg proposed dropping the index, citing unspecified “flaws” in its methodology.

She noted that it only counts confirmed intentional murders, excluding many Palestinian journalists killed in what CPJ deems dangerous circumstances rather than targeted killings, despite evidence of Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists.

Instead of reforming the index to better capture such cases, Ginsberg suggested a “lighter lift” statement focusing on a few emblematic cases, which would avoid “intense focus” on dozens of cases requiring rights of reply.

CPJ’s eventual December statement highlighted five cases across various countries, giving equal weight to vastly different contexts and generating minimal media attention compared to the index’s usual impact.

The whistleblowers described widespread “deep disappointment, anger and resentment” among staff.

In response to inquiries, CPJ denied donor influence, stating the decision stemmed from a need to “radically change” its approach to impunity and prioritize accountability efforts, though it provided no specifics on new initiatives beyond existing advocacy.

‘Israeli’ Drone Kills Lebanese Journalist Ali Noureddine in Sour

CPJ’s website confirms the index is paused for review, with a 2025 statement noting the “unrelenting nature of impunity” and the need to adapt amid a “new landscape” for journalists, including over 125 killings in 2024 alone, most by Israel in Gaza.

The controversy follows a pattern of concerns over institutional handling of issues regarding Israel’s war on Gaza, including Omar Shakir’s recent resignation from Human Rights Watch after the suppression of a report on Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

Whistleblowers say the move undermines transparent, data-driven accountability for crimes against journalists, particularly in light of Israel’s unprecedented toll on media workers.

(PressTV)

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This article by Arturo Sánchez originally appeared in the February 15, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, expressed his emotion yesterday for the Mexican solidarity with the island and thanked the citizens for their response to the campaign to collect medicines and food organized by the Militant Solidarity Collective Va por Cuba and the José Martí Association of Cubans Residing in Mexico.

“I am deeply moved by the response to the call to help the Cuban people, who do not deserve the injustice and cruelty that the United States inflicts upon Cuba. Thank you is all I can say, for the generosity and humanity of the Mexican and patriotic Cuban people,” the diplomat declared.

“I am deeply moved by the response to the call to help the Cuban people, who do not deserve the injustice and cruelty that the United States inflicts upon Cuba. Thank you is all I can say, for the generosity and humanity of the Mexican and patriotic Cuban people,” the diplomat declared.

From early morning, the flow of people was constant. Young people, families, retirees, workers, office workers, and teachers arrived with bags, boxes, and packages to join the slogan that Cuba is not alone.

The collection center – located almost at the corner of Corregidora and Plaza de la Constitución – will remain open until February 22, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and accepts non-perishable food items, as well as essential medical supplies.

Francisco Rosas López, from the organizing group, described the response as “formidable.” He noted that although they had expected good participation, the volume of donations exceeded their initial projections. As he spoke, vans provided by the city government departed for a storage warehouse loaded with boxes and sacks.

Rosas emphasized that this is a “people-to-people” campaign that will later be supplemented by shipments from the federal government. She added that similar collection centers are being prepared in Puebla, Celaya, and other locations throughout the country, with the goal of expanding the solidarity network in the coming weeks.

Among the donors, anger toward Washington’s policies was a constant theme. Retirees María Paz Arroyo and Patricia Galicia arrived together with 60 kilos of rice, 60 kilos of beans, 20 packages of milk, and two boxes of sardines. “It bothers me that Trump is doing such awful things. We are Latin American countries, and we have to help each other,” said Arroyo.

Galicia, for its part, emphasized that its support is also a form of gratitude towards the Cuban doctors who have worked in remote communities in Mexico.

Additionally, graduate students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) will open an extra collection center to support the island. Donations will be accepted on February 17 and 18 at the Graduate Studies Unit in University City, and on February 19 and 20 at Las Islas in University City, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Without fanfare, but with consistency, the day in the capital’s Zócalo showed an uninterrupted flow of support and a shared conviction: that Cuba, insisted the organizers and donors, is not alone.

• 

  News Briefs

  Cuban Ambassador Expresses Gratitude for Mexican Solidarity

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  The Mexico City collection center – located almost at the corner of Corregidora and Plaza de la Constitución – will remain open until February 22.

• 

  Analysis | Interviews

  A Mexican Conspiracy Against the US?

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  An interview with Morena’s Secretary for Mexicans Living Abroad, Alejandro Robles, on Peter Schweizer’s dangerous and deluded new conspiracy theory.

• 

  News Briefs

  Clicks

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press on Mexico and Mexican politics. Kurt Hackbarth, Trump Is Using Mexico’s Oil to Put the Squeeze on Cuba Jacobin. The alternative, however, is to let Cuba starve: the process of Gaza-ification brought into this hemisphere. If this were to succeed, and Mexico were…

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The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formally protested to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) over Commissioner Rosa María Payá Acevedo’s recent visit to the country, which was conducted without prior notification to Mexican authorities.

In a statement released on Thursday, February 12, the Ministry stressed that IACHR members are required, under established diplomatic practice, to inform the host government of any official or private visits and the activities they intend to carry out.

The Ministry’s protest follows a report from the newspaper La Jornada on February 11, which revealed that Payá, a U.S. citizen of Cuban origin and an outspoken anti-revolutionary activist, had visited Mexico and participated in a January 22 forum at the University of Liberty. The event was sponsored by the right-wing Ricardo Salinas Pliego Center and featured other Mexican right-wing politicians, where Payá reportedly criticized the Cuban government.

The Foreign Affairs Secretariat emphasized in a statement that “in accordance with Article 12 of the IACHR Statute, the members of that body enjoy the immunities recognized by international law for diplomatic agents, therefore, there is an established practice whereby they must inform the Secretariat about the official or private visits that they undertake to our country, as well as about the activities they intend to carry out.”

Furthermore, the Ministry pointed to Article 4 of the IACHR Statute, which states that a commissioner’s post is “incompatible with activities that could affect their independence or impartiality,” implicitly questioning the nature of Payá’s public appearances in Mexico.

The Ministry confirmed that Juan Ramón de la Fuente’s office received no such notification from Payá Acevedo for her trip.

Mexico’s President Responds to Trump’s Threats Against Sending Oil to Cuba

Foreign Affairs Secretariat refutes IACHR’s criticisms of Sheinbaum
The undersecretary for North America at the Foreign Affairs Secretariat, Roberto Velasco, responded to the criticisms from US Republican Congressman Carlos A. Giménez against Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum regarding the Payá case.

“Claudia Sheinbaum was democratically elected by Mexico,” Velasco stated. “Our foreign policy is sovereign and based on historical principles. As I personally expressed, we do not seek confrontation, but we do want respect for our decisions and non-intervention. We remain open to constructive dialogue.”

On february 12, Giménez posted a message on X criticizing Sheinbaum, who the day before had questioned Payá’s presence at a forum against Cuban government. Without tagging the Mexican head of state, the Republican parliamentarian accused: “It is clear that Claudia Sheinbaum is nothing more than a puppet of the dictatorship in Cuba, controlled by Castro agents who are plundering Mexico. Sheinbaum’s slanders against opposition leader Rosa María Payá expose her worrisome collaboration with the regime.”

After Jornada published the news regarding Payá’s secret visit, President Sheinbaum was questioned about it on Wednesday, during her morning press conference, to which she replied: “If they come on behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, they should not advocate for one cause or another, but only review the cases according to complaints.” She added that after learning about the situation, she requested a report from the Foreign Affairs Secretariat on the matter.

Payá Acevedo was promoted to the IACHR by US President Donald Trump, with the support of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also of Cuban origin. She was elected as a commissioner of the organization on June 27, 2025, and began her duties on January 1 of this year.

(La Jornada)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/DZ

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Trump and his evil cabal of fascists have openly proclaimed their intention to dominate — or replace — Latin American governments, to rip off their resources, and to channel massive profits into the overflowing money coffers of US billionaire investors and CEOs.

Mexico is the biggest prize, but it’s not enough to threaten economic strangulation through tariffs or even military invasion under the thin claim that “cartels run Mexico,” — not that “lovely” but weak woman, Claudia Sheinbaum. Trump’s strategy also includes a psychological battle for the hearts and minds of the US public to win support for a takeover of Mexico.

That’s where writers and “researchers” come in. Recently, Peter Schweizer published what purports to be an exposé of Mexico’s conspiracy to subvert the US government.

Schweizer names names. “Among those dispatched to the US is Alejandro Robles… the executive secretary of the party’s National Committee of Mexicans Abroad… he was making trips, ‘meeting with militants, supporters, and Morena committees,’ according to his party’s account… Robles was sent to stoke resistance to Trump, meeting with migrants, both illegal and legal. ‘Our mission is to organize the militancy abroad’ [emphasis added by Schweizer], declared Robles.”

Schweizer also reports that Mexican Congressman “Cheto” Polanco, who lives in Los Angeles, “posted a video of Hispanic cops being harassed for doing their job and being disloyal to their ethnic heritage.”

Far from harassing “Hispanic cops,” Mexican Americans were defending themselves from the indiscriminate brutality of the ICE agents. In the MAGA blame-the-victim narrative, that makes them saboteurs threatening US sovereignty. Red alert! Mexicans are invading and boring from within!

Is Mexico plotting to overthrow the US government? Laughable, but Schweizer twists the facts to make the case. It’s business as usual: the pot calling the kettle black.

Alejandro Robles Gómez’s home base is the municipality of Coyoacán in Mexico City, but he lived in Canada and retains a residence there. His activist roots go back to the student strikes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, in 1999/2000, when students resisted a massive tuition hike. He has served as a Congressional representative and in several other political positions. He is now the Secretary for Mexicans Living Abroad for the Morena party. He always advocates for human rights, migrant rights and uplifting the poor.

Trump broadcast that The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon by Peter Schweizer is one of his new favorite books. What’s to like?

It fits like a glove into Trump’s narrative and is music to MAGA ears.

As a right-wing writer, Schweizer’s role is to promote Trump’s white supremacist agenda of ridding the US of non-white immigrants and conquering Latin America. This book should be listed under “fiction”! He wrote it to provide “evidence” that migrants are part of a criminal conspiracy to attack the US. Schweizer, like many in Trump’s circle, profits from our pain. It’s dishonest, disgusting — and dangerous.

You are specifically mentioned in the book. What does he say about you?

Among other accusations, he quotes from remarks I made at the People’s Forum in New York City in 2025. He didn’t like it when I said many Mexicans have been “Americanized.” He doesn’t consider any of us to be “real Americans.”

I also criticized the Mexican government, which in the past failed to acknowledge its citizens living abroad. Many Mexicans in the US had no country to belong to — no welcome or rights in the US and ignored by Mexico.

But since the Morena government took office in 2018, that attitude has switched. We now publicly call migrants heroes and thank them for their enormous contributions to both the US and Mexican economies through their labor and remittances. Morena is the only party to have a Secretary for Mexicans Living Abroad. My job is to reconnect Mexicans to Mexico and to let them know we don’t forget their needs. But Schweizer portrays my trips across the border to meet with migrants as subversive, as if I am recruiting them to work against the US.

His accusation that I turn migrants into “militants” — people with revolutionary intentions — is based on a Spanish word I used, “militancia.” He doesn’t understand Spanish! In Spanish, a party “militant” simply means someone active in a party.

Does Morena try to push its own agenda by operating in the US?

We leave it to Claudia to handle US/Mexico relations.

But when it comes to exposing the political operations of Mexicans living in the US, it’s dishonest that Schweizer doesn’t mention Mexico’s right-wing party, the PAN.

Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, former governor of the state of Tamaulipas, lives in the bordering US state of Texas. He was named PAN’s representative in the US.

You’d think the Trump administration would be concerned that Cabeza de Vaca has been accused of having ties to cartels, but no. Why? Because PAN’s agenda for Mexico is that it wants US intervention! It’s the only way the PAN party could ever return to the presidency. PAN is so unpopular that even its 2024 presidential candidate, Xochitl Galvez, has not signed up for membership in their recent party recruitment drive!

Sweizer alleges that the 53 Mexican consulates in the US conspire to undermine the US government. Is this credible?

Absolutely false! He says it’s suspicious that Mexico has so many consulates when the UK has eight and China has five, but Mexico’s population in the US of 40 million — 1 million born in Mexico — requires a lot more consulates than those other countries.

Working in a consulate is a career job, like a civil service job in the US. Consulate staff must take courses and pass an exam; only the head of the consulate, appointed by the Mexican government, is a political appointee.

Their duties include helping to process passports, advising Mexicans of their rights and running Mexican elections in the US.

Today, about two-thirds of consul staff began their jobs before Morena won in 2018. You know these longtime staff aren’t organizing Mexicans, because I hear constant complaints that they are not sensitive to the needs of Mexicans in their regions.

And while the new hires since the 4T began have a different way of working, focusing on serving and defending migrants, they are not there to act like the CIA does in Mexico!

In Minneapolis, ICE agents forced their way into the Ecuadorian consulate. Will they attack the Mexican consulates?

The Geneva Convention of 1949 established the rules of international humanitarian law, and it’s entirely illegal to forcibly enter a consulate, an inviolable institution under the Consular Relations Convention. The ICE agents are ignorant of the law. They are bounty hunters — it’s said they get $1,000 per head, so they figured they could bag some game at the consulate.

Ironic that it was the Ecuadoran consulate because Ecuador itself broke the law when it entered the Mexican consulate and arrested a former official who had been given asylum there. What goes around comes around! But given that Ecuador is a good friend of the US, why was it targeted? Well, it wasn’t targeted! The ICE agents don’t know foreign affairs. Ecuador, Argentina, Honduras and Chile have presidents friendly to Trump — but that doesn’t matter to ICE agents. All brown people are Mexicans!

Does being named in the book put your own life in danger if you try to enter the US?

Yes. We all fear the immigration interview when we enter the US. I could be in front of a racist agent, complete with these prejudices, and if they googled me and found the Schweizer accusations against me, they could deny me entrance or maybe confiscate my visa. Not being able to travel to the US will definitely make it harder for me to do my job.

The US has many Morena chapters, and Schweizer mentions this too. They also will be more at risk of an ICE raid if they have a meeting.

Pressure on Mexico is building. What does Trump want from Mexico?

President Sheinbaum has a boot on her neck. She’s a great diplomat, but the pressure is increasing. We wish that oil shipments to Cuba would continue, but we understand the dilemma in light of Trump’s determination to get rid of the Cuban regime.

I believe we must avoid the danger to the future of the 4T: we must continue with domestic reforms and implement “Plan Mexico.” In the long run, the reforms are necessary to strengthen Mexico to withstand US threats.

Right now, Trump wants complete control of Latin America as a reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine. He’d love to appoint the president of Mexico, as he’s doing in Venezuela, or have hard-right presidents like Noboa in Ecuador, Milei in Argentina, Bukele in El Salvador and now Kast in Chile — he’s meddled in all those elections to make it happen. If any country is conspiring to oust presidents, to foment unrest or to murder people they don’t like, it’s not Mexico. We need to turn the camera back on Schweizer and Trump.

How can those of us in the US support Mexico at this moment?

Resist!

Meizhu Lui’s experiences as the daughter of Chinese immigrants and as a single mom led her to focus on addressing inequalities based on race, gender, and immigration status. A hospital kitchen worker, she was elected president of her AFSCME local. She coordinated the national Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative, and co-authored The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. Liberation Road, a socialist organization, has been her political home.

• 

  Analysis | Interviews

  A Mexican Conspiracy Against the US?

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  An interview with Morena’s Secretary for Mexicans Living Abroad, Alejandro Robles, on Peter Schweizer’s dangerous and deluded new conspiracy theory.

• 

  News Briefs

  Clicks

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press on Mexico and Mexican politics. Kurt Hackbarth, Trump Is Using Mexico’s Oil to Put the Squeeze on Cuba Jacobin. The alternative, however, is to let Cuba starve: the process of Gaza-ification brought into this hemisphere. If this were to succeed, and Mexico were…

• 

  Analysis

  When Governing Becomes Managing

  February 14, 2026February 15, 2026

  Silence can be tactically useful, but it doesn’t resolve underlying tensions. It only postpones them. And when those in power postpone strategic decisions for too long, they end up trapped in their own caution.

The post A Mexican Conspiracy Against the US? appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

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

Kurt Hackbarth, Trump Is Using Mexico’s Oil to Put the Squeeze on Cuba Jacobin. The alternative, however, is to let Cuba starve: the process of Gaza-ification brought into this hemisphere. If this were to succeed, and Mexico were to cede on an issue so symbolically important to its self-conception of sovereignty, the Trump administration would truly smell blood.

Fernando Camacho y Andrea Becerril, Morena abre centros de acopio de ayuda humanitaria para Cuba La Jornada. Respecto a la propuesta del senador Emmanuel Reyes de donar un mes de su dieta, el líder de la bancada del guinda comentó que el próximo martes en la reunión previa a la sesión, van a discutir ese punto y su propuesta será que se establezca una cantidad mínima y que de ahí hacia arriba, cada legislador done lo que considere “de acuerdo con sus convicciones, sus valores, el concepto que tenga solidaridad, de apoyo al prójimo en situaciones tan difíciles como la que enfrenta el pueblo cubano”.

Pablo Meriguet, Mexico sends shipment of humanitarian aid to Cuba People’s Dispatch. Mexico, for its part, announced that it was engaged in negotiations with the US over oil shipments.

Nancy Flores, Semarnat retira denuncia penal contra Grupo México por Río Sonora Contralínea. Fuentes consultadas explicaron que la autoridad ambiental puede reactivar en cualquier momento la acción penal contra el Grupo México, si éste incumple alguno de los acuerdos.

Mexican Airlines Keep Flights to Cuba Telesur. Mexican airlines confirm continued flights to Cuba by carrying round-trip fuel, despite a month-long aviation fuel shortage affecting the island.

Bárbara Zamora Los Acuerdos de San Andrés: 30 años de una deuda histórica La Jornada. Treinta años después de la firma de los Acuerdos de San Andrés, el Estado mexicano sigue en deuda con los pueblos originarios.

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, Cartel’s Seized Ammunition Is Traced to U.S. Army Plant, Mexico Says NY Times. About 137,000 .50-caliber rounds have been seized since 2012, and of those, 47 percent came from a plant in Kansas City, Mo., Mexico’s defense secretary said.

EZLN y colectivos expresan su respaldo a Cuba ante amenaza arancelaria de Trump Resumen Latinoamericano. Aluden que el proyecto denominado “Nueva Gaza”, presentado en la reunión de los millonarios y poderosos en Davos, “es en realidad una declaración de principios: destruir y despoblar diferentes regiones del mundo, para ser reconstruidas y reordenadas por y para el capital.”

Mexico Approves Gradual Transition to 40-Hour Workweek Telesur. The Mexican Senate unanimously approved a constitutional reform on Wednesday, February 11, reducing the workweek from 48 to 40 hours, to be implemented gradually by cutting two hours per year until 2030.

SEP acepta excesos contra Marx, pero niega que quiso borrar la Guerra Sucia de libros Sin Embargo. En un comunicado, la SEP reiteró que la Nueva Escuela Mexicana continuará y señaló que se investigará el uso de policías para tratar de desalojar a Marx Arriaga.

• 

  News Briefs

  Clicks

  February 15, 2026February 15, 2026

  Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press on Mexico and Mexican politics. Kurt Hackbarth, Trump Is Using Mexico’s Oil to Put the Squeeze on Cuba Jacobin. The alternative, however, is to let Cuba starve: the process of Gaza-ification brought into this hemisphere. If this were to succeed, and Mexico were…

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera February 11

  February 11, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on social housing, measles vaccination, USMCA and Trump, and flights to Cuba.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  Unions Warn 40 Hour Workweek Reform Could be “Paper-Only”

  February 11, 2026

  Multiple unions raised concerns over the maintenance of a six day workweek, overtime pay reduction and an increase in tax burdens for workers.

The post Clicks appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The United States military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long aggression against Iran if US President Donald Trump orders it, two US officials told Reuters, signaling the potential for a far more serious attack on Iran.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the planning, said preparations go beyond limited, one-off strikes and could evolve into a prolonged campaign depending on developments. The disclosure comes amid renewed diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program.

Diplomacy underway but US military buildup expands
US and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an attempt to revive negotiations, even as Washington expanded its military presence in the region.

According to US officials, the Pentagon has deployed an additional aircraft carrier to West Asia, alongside thousands of troops, fighter aircraft, guided-missile destroyers, and other assets. Speaking to US troops at a base in North Carolina on Friday, Trump acknowledged alleged difficulties in reaching an agreement with Tehran.

“It has been difficult to make a deal,” Trump said, adding, “Sometimes you have to have fear.”

“That’s the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of,” he stated.

When asked about preparations for a potentially sustained military operation, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, “President Trump has all options on the table with regard to Iran.”

“He listens to a variety of perspectives on any given issue, but makes the final decision based on what is best for our country and national security,” she said.

Last year, the United States deployed two aircraft carriers to the region and launched an aggression on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran responded at the time with a calculated retaliatory strike on a US base in Qatar.

US expects potential back-and-forth
Officials told Reuters that the current planning is more complex. In the event of a prolonged aggression, US forces could target Iranian state and security facilities in addition to nuclear infrastructure, according to one official who declined to provide further details.

Meanwhile, experts continue to warn that any large-scale confrontation with Iran would carry significant regional risks and put US troops in the region at risk. Tehran possesses an extensive missile arsenal and has repeatedly signaled that it would respond to attacks on its territory, whether the aggression is limited or sustained.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that in the event of strikes on Iranian soil, it could retaliate against US military bases throughout West Asia. The United States operates military facilities in Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkiye, as well as anti-missile batteries in occupied Palestine.

One US official told Reuters that Washington fully expects Iranian retaliation in the event of a strike, potentially leading to back-and-forth attacks over an extended period and increasing the likelihood of a broader regional conflict.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened an aggression against Iran. On Thursday, he warned that failure to reach a diplomatic solution would “be very traumatic, very traumatic.”

The US Keeps Openly Admitting It Deliberately Caused The Iran Protests

Netanyahu pushes for aggression
The remarks of US officials follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, where he said discussions with Trump focused “first and foremost about Iran”.

Netanyahu had previously expressed “general skepticism,” according to a statement issued by his office, stressing that any agreement between the US and Iran must include elements that are critically important to “Israel”, including Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile program, and its ties to regional allies. These issues remain central to ongoing Israeli-Iran tensions, particularly as US officials signal interest in expanding the scope of talks beyond the nuclear file.

(Al-Mayadeen English)

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Russia’s ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, denounced the United States’ use of unfair practices to expel Russian and international businesses from Venezuela, as well as acts of piracy to steal its oil. The Russian diplomat said onnTuesday, February 10, that these actions are rooted in economic and financial limitations and extraterritorial sanctions that the US applies in open violation of international law.

Melik-Bagdasarov asserted that the objective of Washington’s actions is to clear the Venezuelan market of “undesirable” foreign companies through unfair competition, making room for corporations that control the US foreign policy. He noted that US officials openly acknowledge this policy in their public statements. The ambassador’s accusation follows the US piracy of the Aquila II tanker in the Indian Ocean and at least seven other vessels since December 2025, actions considered by legal experts as acts of piracy and a naval blockade on Venezuela.

🇷🇺🇻🇪 Comentario del Embajador de Rusia en Venezuela, Sergey Mélik-Bagdasárov, a los medios de comunicación en el acto solemne de la ofrenda floral, dedicado al Día de Diplomático#DíaDelDiplomático #RusiaVenezuela pic.twitter.com/2yK06O7OsZ

— EmbajadaRusaVEN (@EmbajadaRusaVen) February 11, 2026

The Russian diplomat stated that “certain projects are forced to adapt to the pressure of sanctions,” with adjustments to deadlines and work formats after the horrific US military attack against Venezuela on January 3. During the early hours that day, the US carried out a brutal bombing campaign across several states and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores. The attacks resulted in the deaths of approximately 120 people, including 32 Cuban and 47 Venezuelan soldiers.

Melik-Bagdasarov asserted that despite the US pressure, Russian companies will not renounce their obligations and will maintain their operations in Venezuela. Since the attack, the inability of US imperialism to achieve regime change has forced Washington to negotiate with Chavismo and ease some sanctions through OFAC licenses. However, Venezuela, in turn, has been compelled to negotiate with the US for the release of blocked national funds, the sale of crude oil, and the restoration of diplomatic relations with the US.

Russia in Venezuela after January 3
According to analysts, the positive image of Russia and China following the January 3 attack has been damaged in Venezuela. Despite multiple statements, their lack of decisive support in halting the US aggression proved that their strategy was largely ineffective. Furthermore, during a January 26 interview with the Russia24 channel, Ambassador Melik-Bagdasarov made controversial statements regarding “betrayals” within the Venezuelan military—a move some analysts consider an effort to deflect responsibility for deficiencies in Russian-made Venezuelan air defenses during the US bombing.

“First of all, what do we understand by treason, and when did the treason occur? If by treason we mean criminal negligence, then yes,” the ambassador explained in the interview. “Many of the local security forces did not do what they could have done. If we consider as treason everything that happened long before these events, then of course there was treason. We know all their names, people who fled Venezuela,” he added, which analysts consider a reference to far-right politicians and former high-level Venezuelan officials who had betrayed Chavismo years ago.

US Kills Three in Strike on Vessel in Caribbean

While there are valid questions regarding internal betrayals associated with the bombing, many analysts agree that such statements from a foreign diplomat felt unpleasant to many Venezuelans, as they appeared as attempts to absolve Moscow of its own responsibilities. This narrative was reinforced on January 30 by the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, who told Prensa Latina that “some high-ranking officials have, in fact, betrayed President Nicolás Maduro.” Nebenzia added that the US would not be able to “repeat that stunt” in Cuba.

These events have eroded to a certain extent the longstanding positive image that Russia enjoyed among the Chavista majority. While analysts do not believe Venezuela would renege on its commitments to Russia or China, they indicate a growing desire among Venezuelans for these powers to assume—beyond statements—their responsibility as world leaders to halt the disastrous course that the US is pursuing, pushing the world towards a collapse.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SC

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The US military carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing three people, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) reported.

Last week the military carried out a strike that killed two people in the Pacific Ocean, conducted under the direction of SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.

According to SOUTCHOM’s X statement, “On Feb. 13, 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.”

US Southern Command Resumes Extrajudicial Killings as Piracy Spreads to Indian Ocean

The deaths bring the total number of people killed in strikes on suspected drug boats under Operation Southern Spear to at least 122. No evidence has been provided to prove that these vessels were used for narcotics-related operations.

US authorities reported that no US military personnel were injured.

On Feb. 13, 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/y50Pbtexfi

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) February 14, 2026

No evidence has been provided to prove that these vessels were used for narcotics-related operations.

(Al Mayadeen – English)

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

The Home Office’s decision to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist group last year was unlawful, a three-judge panel at the High Court has ruled.

In a hearing on Friday, Dame Victoria Sharp, one of the judges, said there had been “very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly”.

The court, she said, considered the proscription of the group “disproportionate”.

Despite the ruling, the group will remain proscribed until a further court order because it has “yet to hear argument on whether there should be a stay of any order setting aside the proscription order pending the possibility of appeal,” the judges said.

The judgment is a major blow for former home secretary Yvette Cooper as well as the Israeli arms companies who lobbied for a crackdown on the group.

It will be a relief for over 2,700 protesters who have been arrested for showing support for the group since the controversial ban.

The ruling comes a week after a jury decided not to convict six Palestine Action members accused of some of the most serious criminal charges leveled against the group.

Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action who challenged the proscription order, said on Friday: “This is a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history.”

Ammori won on two of the four grounds that she brought in her challenge. The court found that the proscription decision violated rights enshrined in UK law, namely freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association with others.

It also upheld her claims that Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group was not consistent with the Home Office’s own policy.

The government will appeal the decision. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the court had acknowledged that Palestine Action had carried out acts of terrorism and that it was “not an ordinary protest or civil disobedience group”.

“For those reasons, I am disappointed by the court’s decision and disagree with the notion that banning this terrorist organisation is disproportionate,” Mahmood said.

The decision to authorise a judicial review had been made in part to expedite the unprecedented number of terrorism-related cases moving through the courts.

**‘A lot of uncertainty’**Around 40 protesters stood outside the court on Friday ahead of the ruling, holding Palestine Action placards, poised for arrest with several Metropolitan Police vans parked nearby.

But police officers at the scene told Declassified that they hadn’t been given orders to make arrests.

In a subsequent statement, the force clarified that it is now focused on gathering evidence of those showing support for the group for potential future enforcement, rather than making arrests.

Roars and celebration erupted outside the court soon after the ruling was read out, but questions remain about exactly what will happen next.

One protester holding a placard told Declassified: “I’m relieved but there is still a lot of uncertainty in my mind about where this is headed.”

The court has directed parties to provide written submissions by 20 February on next steps in light of the judgement.

Filton Acquittals Demolish Starmer and Cooper Lies About Palestine Action 117

**‘Honourable history’**The ban on Palestine Action was announced in June 2025 shortly after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed red paint into the turbines of two military aircraft used for refuelling and transport.

Cooper told parliament that month: “The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this Government will not tolerate those who put that security at risk”.

An order was pushed through parliament in July which added Palestine Action to the list of banned groups under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Home Office included two Russian neo-Nazi organisations, the Maniac Murder Cult and Russian Imperial Movement, within the same order.

It marked the first time in British history that the government used terrorism legislation to ban a civil disobedience organisation. Only 26 out of 650 MPs voted against the ban.

Raza Husain KC, representing Ammori, told the High Court in November that “civil disobedience on conscientious grounds has a long and honourable history in this country”, arguing that Palestine Action followed in the footsteps of direct action protest groups stretching back centuries.

“It is the mark of a civilised society that protests of this type can be accommodated”, Husain added. “Our client Ms. Ammori has been inspired by a long tradition of direct action in this country from the suffragettes to anti-apartheid activists to Iraq war protesters”.

IranThe Home Office sought to justify the ban on Palestine Action by briefing the press that the group might be funded by Iran.

On 23 June, the day of Cooper’s statement to parliament, the Times published a report saying “Iran could be funding Palestine Action, Home Office officials claimed”.

It added: “Officials are understood to be investigating its source of donations amid concerns that the Iranian regime, via proxies, is funding the group’s activities given that their objectives are aligned”.

Shortly afterwards, the Daily Mail asked: “Does Palestine Action’s cash trail lead all the way to Iran?”, with GB News, the Spectator, and the Telegraph also picking up on the story.

This point was contested by the UK’s independent expert on terrorism, Jonathan Hall KC, who told Channel 4 News earlier this week that those press briefings were “wrong”.

Hall was “not aware” of any evidence behind those claims, he added.

British intelligence reports first exposed by Declassified in July indicated that the ban was in fact largely driven by Palestine Action’s impact on the Israeli arms industry in Britain.

(Declassified UK) by John McEvoy, Dania Akkad and Martin Williams

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By Larry Holmes  –  Feb 13, 2026

The general strike in Minneapolis on Jan. 23 that shut the city down and catapulted forward the general strike movement that has been stirring below for some time may turn out to be the biggest step forward that the working class has taken in our lifetime. It is a sign that the virtual frozen iceberg that has slowed the development of the working class for too long is thawing.

After the Minneapolis strike, thousands of people across the country, especially students, joined a call for a national general strike, but that was only a preview of what’s coming.

Groups including labor unions, migrant solidarity forces and antiwar activists are calling for a general strike on May Day 2026. In the recent past, there have been calls for general strikes on May Day, but until now, they’ve been symbolic or not taken seriously. Some activists have been talking about and planning for a general strike for many months. They see Minneapolis as proof that they are on the right track.

Boston, Jan. 30, 2026. Photo: Stevan Kirschbaum/WW.

Some major unions have targeted May Day 2028 for a major labor general strike, when a number of big labor contracts expire. It seems that workers are not willing to wait two years.

The Minneapolis general strike, which was also called an economic blackout, was in response to the violent and murderous occupation of the city by thousands of storm troopers under the direct control of the White House. It is significant that the last general strike in this country — 20 years ago May Day 2006 involving millions of migrant workers across the country called “A day without immigrants” — was also in response to repression against migrant workers.

Police state repression provoked the working-class strike in Minneapolis. But the underlying causes of the strike go beyond state repression and have been long in the making. The deeper context for what happened in Minneapolis is the unprecedented crisis of U.S. imperialism and the capitalist system. It is this crisis that is behind the emergence of Donald Trump and everything that he and the billionaires who back him have been doing or trying to do here and around the world in order to save U.S. imperialism.

The working class is now in the process of rediscovering the weapon of the general strike out of a realization that marches, protests and bourgeois elections are not enough and relying on a bourgeois opposition to Trump to stop the attacks are ineffective. Workers are starting to understand that fighting and smashing the danger of fascism is a class struggle and ultimately a struggle to end the capitalist system.

Accordingly, the working class needs far more powerful weapons in their arsenal, like the general strike. Big Bill Haywood, the leader of the Industrial Workers of the World at the peak of its strength and influence in the working class, predicted that “the general strike is the measure by which the capitalistic system will be overthrown.” The bourgeois opposition to Trump will try to stop the general strike movement, or co-opt it, tame it and extinguish its militancy, its class character and its radical and revolutionary potential. They will try to bring it back under the control of the capitalist ruling class.

However, the growing anger below will not make this easy for them to do, and revolutionary forces should understand this, unite and by doing so, make it that much harder for the ruling class to subordinate the working class to its class interest.

All over the country, there’s been militant mass opposition to the war against migrant workers, people of color and all of those who have risen to their defense. Minneapolis has opened up a new phase of the resistance, but it is just a beginning. Minneapolis has pushed the Trump regime back and widened the cracks in Trump’s ruling-class support. But this new phase has not stopped repression and war. Indeed, the war at home and abroad is going to intensify.

A decaying, dying systemBecause of a dying capitalist system and an imploding and desperate U.S. imperialist empire that is still powerful and dangerous, the world is descending deeper and deeper into a catastrophic crisis under the threat of the U.S. launching more economic and military wars. The next eruption is not coming later; it is in progress right now.

Will an imperialist war be launched against Iran? How far will the imperialists go to try to overthrow the Cuban revolution? Will Trump invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and try to cancel the midterm bourgeois elections? At a minimum, he’s already trying to disrupt them. Will the capitalist economic crisis collapse the economy? Will the imperialist war drive spiral into a civilization-threatening global war?

Already, the majority of the working class cannot afford the basic necessities of survival. The magnitude of the economic crisis that is looming will be far bigger than 2008 and push the conditions of the working class beyond the breaking point. The reason for pointing this out is not to spread fear and demoralization. To the contrary, it is to illustrate the necessity of the working-class and revolutionary forces to prepare for a wider and bigger class struggle, including a struggle for power.

The general strike is not new; it has been part of the development of the working class for almost 200 years. In the past, throughout the world, especially where the working class movements were strong, revolutionaries have analyzed and debated every aspect of the general strike and every experience with it. Every question raised by the general strike — from what it is, the conditions for it, what its aims are, how it should be organized and how the working class prepares for it — has been studied.

The rich history of the general strike is important. At this moment, the fundamental goals of a new general strike movement in the U.S. must be viewed in the context of the present situation of the working class, its level of political and class consciousness, organization and experience. This can’t be done by proceeding as if there are no important differences in the situation of the working class in other places and other periods compared to today.

ICE Killing in Minneapolis Sparks Mass Outrage

Today in the U.S., from the perspective of a united class struggle against the capitalist class, the working class is only finally awakening. After a long period of being weak organizationally and also tied to the political apparatus of the bourgeoisie, the working class’s priority is acquiring — based on conditions and experience – its identity as a class unto itself and the capacity to act as such transcending all geographical or circumstantial boundaries.

This basic goal is not separate from all other goals, but it is nonetheless a critical goal at this moment, because the ruling class has historically waged an effective war against class consciousness.

Especially now, because of the unprecedented and generalized nature of the crisis, the capitalist class is absolutely dependent on dividing the working class, turning workers against each other, primarily on the basis of white supremacy. The ruling class cannot rule without this weapon. Nothing is more important for the development of the working class right now than overcoming this divide-and-conquer weapon of the enemy class.

The Trump regime and the ruling class want to derail and crush the development of the class struggle by diverting it into a civil war against workers of color based on maintenance of white supremacy.

A class warWe are in a sense back to the basics of class consciousness, class solidarity and united class action 101. This is the only way that the true character of the struggle can be understood and acted upon. This is a struggle between classes. The realization of this in the living struggle is precisely what the ruling class fears more than anything else. A general strike movement has to be more than about a particular strike but rather a deep political and social process of education, learning from experience and moving to the next battle. Minneapolis has opened the door to this realization.

Minneapolis has given us the template for a workers’ general strike that fits present conditions. The strike was not called by or organized by labor unions, although many unions supported it, and union and unorganized workers found creative ways to leave work and participate in the strike. The success of the strike was due to workers and students regardless of union affiliation or circumstances. Most businesses of all sizes were either convinced or pressured to close.

In a way, the Minneapolis general strike succeeded, without knowing it, on the basis of the advice that the great revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg offered to the working-class movement 120 years ago in her pamphlet “The Mass Strike.”

Luxemburg wrote, “The plan of undertaking mass strikes as a serious political class action with organised workers only is absolutely hopeless.” She continued, “If the mass strike, or rather, mass strikes, and the mass struggle are to be successful they must become a real people’s movement, that is, the widest sections of the proletariat must be drawn into the fight.”

It is essential that a political and mass strategy that involves organized and unorganized workers be strengthened to push the leadership of the labor movement into supporting general strikes. Much, much more must be considered, organized and implemented towards this end.

Preparation for general strikeThere is a critical role for young militants, many of whom were drawn into the struggle for almost three years in solidarity with Palestine, to play in the general strike movement. Many of these activists have already been establishing a widening network of community organization with no dependence or control by the capitalist government or its apparatuses.

This grassroots, working-class, community organizing includes defense of migrant workers, anti-police violence, tenant organizing, mutual aid, anti-imperialism and solidarity with revolutionary resistance to the U.S. throughout the Global South. This could be part of a critical mass infrastructure of preparing for a general strike. That preparation would of necessity include mass, popular education upholding the reasons for classwide solidarity and mass action.

Italian dockworkers stop armed shipments to Zionist Israel, Aug. 4, 2025. Photo: Unione Sindacale di Base.

On numerous occasions since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian liberation movement has called for worldwide solidarity general strikes. On Feb. 6 and 7 of this year, dockworkers in a number of countries shut down docks to stop the shipping of weapons to Israel. But this is only the beginning of realizing the potential for more massive, global workers’ strikes against occupation and imperialist war.

Here. at the center of world imperialism, the most politically advanced forces — and our numbers are growing — must view making a general strike movement, or any other expression of the class struggle at home, intrinsically connected to the struggle of workers of the world, and in particular the liberation movements in the Global South. And this needs to be more than symbolic, but rather politically strategic, because it’s more than solidarity; it is the only way our class can prevail worldwide.

There can be no denying, and no tolerance for the denial, that more than ever the class struggle is global. This fact is more than a theoretical principle or a future aspiration. This is a practical and immediate reality. The class struggle everywhere is interconnected, interactive and interdependent. To proceed in our work as though it is otherwise weakens our class and helps the class enemy.

All of these things and more can be accomplished, but only if going forward there is forged a level of unity among like-minded revolutionaries that corresponds to the world crisis and the urgent needs that this has crystallized for the world class struggle.

Larry Holmes is Workers World Party’s First Secretary.

(Workers World News)

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