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The decision was made “to prevent a further military escalation in the city’s residential neighborhoods,” the military institution stated in an official release.

The Ministry informed that the ceasefire took covered the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and Bani Zeid, areas where the fighting has been concentrated.

The release specified that SDF fighters will have until 09:00 hours (local time) to leave these areas, taking only their “light weapons.”

The Syrian Defense Ministry underscored that the measure aims to allow civilians displaced by the fighting to “return and resume a normal life in a climate of security and stability.”

The move was taken in an attempt to reduce violence and improve living conditions in the conflict-affected areas.

jdt/iff/otf/fm

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According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the European leader’s agenda includes a meeting with her Japanese counterpart, the also conservative Sanae Takaichi, during which they will discuss various international and regional issues.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry hopes that this visit will further strengthen bilateral relations, in anticipation of the 160th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2026.

Meloni last visited Japan in early 2024, when she held a summit with then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

jdt/jav/otf/msm

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The Meteo France agency maintains an orange alert, the second highest level, for a third of the country, with a gust of 213 kilometers per hour recorded in Manche, Normandy, while in the capital, a gust of 147 kilometers per hour was recorded at the Eiffel Tower.

Departmental and national authorities urged people to avoid risks and stay indoors in the hardest-hit areas, with train lines and classes suspended and hundreds of firefighters mobilized.

According to the electricity provider Enedis, some 50,000 homes had power cut last night, 20,000 of them in the northern region of Brittany.

jdt/jav/otf/wmr

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The decision will be made in Brussels, and if positive, would allow the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to sign it next Monday.

The 27 countries of the European bloc are scheduled to vote for or against the agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

If there is a majority in favor, it could be signed next week.

Some countries have already announced their opposition. This is the case of Ireland, which made its position public in recent hours through a statement from its Deputy Prime Minister, Simon Harris.

VThis stance adds to the rejection already expressed by France, Hungary, and Poland, but approval will be adopted by a majority vote.

This treaty would create the world’s largest free trade area, but the European agricultural sector fears the impact of a massive influx of South American agricultural products, particularly meat, rice, and soybeans.

From Mercosur, and even from EU countries, the agreement is deemed necessary given the aggressive and restrictive trade and tariff policies of the United States.

jdt/jav/otf/ool

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Triple jumper Leyanis Perez, pitcher Livan Moinelo, and the Cuban youth baseball 5 team will be awarded in the event to be held at Vedado hall of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba.

This is the second time Cuba has dominated the three categories; the previous one was in 1989, when high jumper Javier Sotomayor, runner Ana Fidelia Quirot, and the Cuban women’s volleyball team topped those categories.

Cuban Prince of the Heights, Sotomayor, will be among those honored this Friday, as the Cuban athlete with the most wins in the Latin American competition, after having received five awards.

The careers of two stars of Cuban and international sport: wrestler Mijain Lopez, five-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, and multi-medalist in para-athletics Omara Durand, will also be awarded. Both of whom triumphed in 2024.

Viewers both inside and outside of Cuba could enjoy the event on Cubavision and Cubavision Internacional television.

jdt/iff/otf/yma/lp

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Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has announced that the death toll from the US empire’s military attack against Venezuela on Saturday has risen to 100 people, including civilians and military personnel.

Cabello explained during a special broadcast of his program Con el Mazo Dando this Wednesday, January 7, that although it was not scheduled to start his program this week, “the current circumstances force it,” following the illegal attack perpetrated by the US targeting four states in the country that concluded with the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The interior minister paid tribute to the victims who gave their lives in defense of the homeland and called for the safety of the presidential couple.

“In these situations of attack, the first casualty is the truth because manipulations and campaigns to misinform and make people believe things that are not happening and never happened come into play,” he said, in reference to the media trends claiming alleged treason, negotiations, or a coup as the supposed cause for the abduction of President Maduro.

Evidence clearly shows a violent and bloody US military campaign against Venezuela and the forced kidnapping of its president. Analysts note that trends on mainstream social media suggesting internal collaboration between Venezuela and the US empire are imperialist fabrications to divide the Chavista movement and international support for the Bolivarian Revolution.

“Venezuela was the victim of a barbaric attack,” he continued. ‘Nobody is going to cover it up because there is no way to hide this, and today the world is discovering the truth in full.”

Cabello highlighted the courage, fortitude, and bravery that the presidential couple displayed until and beyond the moment they were kidnapped. He recalled that upon learning that they intended to take only President Maduro, his wife, Cilia Flores, demanded to be taken with him, emphasizing her gesture of profound love and bravery.

Minister Cabello also reiterated his full support “for our comrade Delcy Rodríguez, appointed acting president in the face of the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro.”

“I’m not just talking from my own point of view, the whole country… political and business sectors, the Bolivarian National Armed Force, and the entire country,” said the Chavista leader, asking the people to accompany and deepen the revolution in this difficult stage.

“She didn’t ask for this,” he added, referring to Acting President Rodríguez, “but she is working to boost the prosperity of the homeland and to bring back brother Nicolás Maduro and comrade Cilia Flores.”

Cabello commended the people of the nation for maintaining their composure, calm, and awareness. “The people stood firm, peaceful, with great awareness and strength,” the political leader noted.

Behind the DOJ’s Politicized Indictment of Maduro: A CIA-Created ‘Network’ and Coerced Star Witness

President Maduro’s liberation
Later on Wednesday, Acting President Rodríguez led the formation of a high-level committee to seek the release of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. The announcement was made by Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, who heads the committee, which includes close family members and high-ranking government officials.

The team includes Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, the president’s son, as well as Yosser Daniel and Yoswal Gavidia Flores, the first lady’s sons.

The structure of this commission is completed with key figures from the cabinet: Yván Gil, minister of foreign affairs; Alfred Nazaret Ñáñez, sectoral vice president of communication and culture; Reinaldo Muñoz, attorney general; Camilla Fabri de Saab, vice minister of international communication at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Congressman Juan Escalona; and Larry Devoe, human rights expert and legal advisor.

Jorge Rodríguez reported that the delegation will invest all its resources in the pursuit of justice and emphasized that the ultimate goal is the consolidation of peace in the country and the return of its leaders to the nation. “They will be with us again,” he affirmed.

(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/AU

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

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has reaffirmed that Venezuela’s energy relations will continue to be diversified, despite the latest colonial attacks attempting to appropriate the sovereign nation’s resources.

In a national television broadcast this Wednesday, January 7, she once again condemned the intentions of the US empire to steal the oil wealth and natural resources that the Venezuelan nation possesses, which she identified as the real reason behind US military attacks against Venezuela last Saturday.

“We have had a very clear position here, that Venezuela is open to energy relations where all parties benefit, where economic cooperation is very well defined in commercial contracts,” she stated firmly at the start of the 2026–2031 legislative constitutional term, during a ceremony at the Simón Bolívar Hall of Miraflores Palace in Caracas, accompanied by the ministerial team and the leadership of the National Assembly, including members of the opposition.

Rodríguez’s statements come in a context where US spokespeople, supported by their international media machine, are attempting to impose the narrative that they allegedly control Venezuela and its oil industry, and where Donald Trump and his administration continue to publicly admit to the world their desire to steal Venezuela’s oil wealth and other natural resources, while threatening to kill the Chavista leadership.

The acting president emphasized that Venezuela is going through a complex political moment after the US colonial violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, an event she described as “a stain on our relations that had never existed in our history.”

“The relationship between the two countries is neither extraordinary nor regular,” she explained. “However, 71% of Venezuelan exports are concentrated in eight countries, and of that 71%, 27% are destined for the US.”

“Those who have excluded themselves from relations with Venezuela are the ones who have lent themselves to attacking our country,” Rodríguez continued. “It hasn’t been Venezuela. That’s why I’ve said that Venezuela is not at war. Venezuela is a peaceful country that was attacked by a nuclear power,” she added, while reiterating that the nation’s hands remain extended for economic, commercial, and energy cooperation with all nations that respect its sovereignty.

During the ceremony, the acting president directed several calls to opposition deputies present to understand the extraordinary times Venezuela is living through, in order to unite to achieve peace, harmony, and economic growth. She also expressed the willingness of the government to work in that direction, clarifying that recent unprecedented events are the result of actions taken by the far-right opposition.

Legislative agenda
During the ceremony, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, announced a comprehensive reform of the Venezuelan legal system, which includes the creation of eight major specialized codes to simplify the country’s legal framework.

Analysts suggest these codes may represent a partial, pragmatic translation into reality of the constitutional reform proposed by Chavista legislators last year, now adjusted under current extraordinary circumstances.

“I believe it is time to bring order to the current Venezuelan legislative tree,” Rodríguez stated, proposing that existing laws be consolidated into modern instruments.

The legislative agenda for the new period will focus on six central axes: peace, economic growth, people’s power, new economic modalities (entrepreneurship), the defense of life, and the security of Venezuelans. These are summarized in the following proposed instruments:

• Popular Penal Code, and renewed Civil Code.
• Venezuelan Social Code, to group guarantees and protection programs.
• Economic and Productive Trade Code, adapted to the “new reality of the economy.”
• Electoral Code, to unify all laws on the matter.
• Code of Direct Democracy.
• Environmental Ecological Code.
• Comprehensive Protection Code, for vulnerable people.

Jorge Arreaza at Massive Chavista Demonstration: US Attacks ‘Deepen the Bolivarian Revolution’

Legislative proposals
The agreed legislative agenda prioritizes a shift toward a non-rentier economy, strengthening the capabilities of strategic sectors. The key legislative proposals presented by Jorge Rodríguez include:

• Reform to the Mining Law: Aimed at attracting investments that allow the development of gold, bauxite, diamond, and rare earth reserves, strictly for the benefit of the people.
• Export and Import Committee (COMEX) Law: With the objective of diversifying non-oil exports and limiting imports to what is strictly necessary.
• Law on Socioeconomic Rights: An advance in the system of agreed prices to combat speculation and protect workers’ income.
• Update to the Industrial Property Law: To encourage invention and national technological development, recognizing the fundamental role of the working class in the resistance against the blockade.
• Artificial Intelligence and Natural Medicine: As a reminder that “science is not for making nuclear bombs and destroying entire peoples.”
• Digital Rights and Cybersecurity: As social media platforms are a “deadly weapon against humanity, and must be a space where we can preserve the sovereignty, security, and lives of Venezuelans.”
• Energy and Electricity: Given the attacks Venezuela has suffered due to the “energy voracity of the North.” He stated there will be upgrades and improvements to the generation, transmission, and distribution of the National Electric System. “This is one of the sectors where the blockade has done the most damage, and we have made progress in the recovery of the Electric System,” he explained, “but the Venezuela we aspire to requires growth and demand from its electrical system.”
• Telecommunications: To update Telecommunications Law to current technological standards.
• Law of Peace and Coexistence: “Just as a parliament serving foreign powers cannot be permitted,” he explained, “neither can extremist and fascist social, political, or economic expressions, because they have led to very dangerous situations for the life of this Republic.” He added that the rise of extremism has led to certain groups that, on their knees, “offer up our country, our riches, and compromise our national sovereignty.”

Jorge Rodríguez recalled that the January 3rd attack was instigated, requested, supported, and backed by Venezuelan extremism and fascism. “This cannot be allowed,” he reiterated.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/AU

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Mexico’s Frente Nacional en Defensa de la Soberanía, which appears to be affiliated with Mexico’s ruling Morena party, arising out of the Cuenta del Comité Antifascista 4T Patria Grande, released a statement at 11PM on Thursday, January 8th responding to comments US President Donald Trump made in an interview suggesting the US would soon be attacking Mexico. The interview with Sean Hannity was broadcast on Fox News that same evening.

Position Statement from the National Front in Defense of Sovereignty

From the National Front in Defense of Sovereignty, we strongly condemn the recent statements by President Donald J. Trump and the United States administration, which pose a direct threat to the territorial integrity, independence, and free rights of Mexico as a sovereign nation.

These events occurred five days after the U.S. military intervention against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and Deputy Cilia Flores, with a death toll of 100.

It is absolutely unacceptable for a foreign government to condition the peace, security, and lives of our people on unilateral decisions, and even less so to suggest the possibility of entering our country militarily or coercively under the pretext of combating criminal groups, when it has been demonstrated that the weapons and financing that sustain drug trafficking come, on the contrary, from the United States

Mexico’s sovereignty is non-negotiable, not for sale, and will not be discussed under pressure, ultimatums, or external intimidation.

Any proposal that implies the armed presence of the United States on Mexican territory represents a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the Doctrine of Non-Intervention, and the free self-determination of peoples, as well as the fundamental principles of respect among nations.

It is time to close ranks as the Mexican people. We cannot allow foreign interests to interfere in our decisions or undermine our political and territorial sovereignty.

Anyone who adopts positions that endorse the intrusion of foreign forces on our soil must be denounced as a traitor to the nation.

We demand immediately that all our elected representatives in the Legislative and Executive branches, and in social and political organizations, speak out firmly in defense of sovereignty and unconditionally support policies that protect our integrity as a nation.

We urgently call upon the people of Mexico to mobilize, defend our self-determination, and support our President of the Republic, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who has reaffirmed that Mexico will reject any attempt at foreign military intervention on its territory.

Today we say loud and clear: Cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no.

Mexico’s sovereignty is loved and defended united and without concessions!

“Anyone who incites violence is wrong.
Anyone who encourages hatred is wrong.
Anyone who believes that force replaces justice is wrong.
Anyone who calls for foreign intervention is wrong.
Anyone who thinks that by allying with foreign powers they will gain strength is mistaken.
Anyone who believes that women are weak is wrong.”
– President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

“Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.”
– Benito Juárez

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s National Front in Defense of Sovereignty Responds to Trump’s Attack Threats

  January 9, 2026

  The Front denounced the possibility of the US entering Mexico militarily or coercively and identified weapons and financing that sustained drug trafficking as originating from the US.

• 

  News Briefs

  Trump Says US Will Start Attacking Mexico

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  The US President made the comments in a Fox News interview which aired only 5 days after the US attacked Venezuela & kidnapped its President, Nicolas Maduro.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 8

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on national security strategy, well-being markets, national anti-extortion strategy & energy sovereignty.

The post Mexico’s National Front in Defense of Sovereignty Responds to Trump’s Attack Threats appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that land strikes against drug cartels were on the way.

“We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very, very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country, but the cartels are running [it] and they’re killing 250, 300,000 people in our country every single year,” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday night.

• 

  News Briefs

  Trump Says US Will Start Attacking Mexico

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  The US President made the comments in a Fox News interview which aired only 5 days after the US attacked Venezuela & kidnapped its President, Nicolas Maduro.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 8

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on national security strategy, well-being markets, national anti-extortion strategy & energy sovereignty.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico & Venezuela: The Other Ties

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  Gestures of genuine solidarity also involve getting to know a little more about those about whom we speak and opine ad nauseam.

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By Stan Smith – Jan 6, 2026

The US “regime change” operation against Venezuela has been defeated. The Bolivarian Revolution remains firmly in power. Now, Washington’s campaign against the Chavistas attempts to paint Interim President Delcy Rodriguez as compromising on the heritage of Presidents Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez. The Wall Street Journal ran an article Venezuelan Regime’s New Strategy: Appease Trump to Survive, referring to Delcy Rodriguez’ official statement January 4 (below).

The Washington Poston January 6 could state “the Trump administration appears to have quietly settled on Delcy Rodríguez, Nicolás Maduro’s right hand, as the figure it prefers to lead Venezuela after Maduro’s fall. This was not an improvised choice. Reportedly, it is the result of prolonged negotiations in which she presented herself as the natural successor to Maduro.” In fact, Venezuela operated according to its constitution, approved in a national referendum, where the vice president takes office if the President cannot fulfill his duties. The vice president is Delcy Rodriguez. Her becoming president follows Venezuela’s highest law. Trump had nothing to do with it.

Trump’s remarks on January 3 that Rodríguez had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and appeared “quite courteous,” saying “we’re going to do whatever you need,” aimed to sell the story of her acquiescing to Washington. But Rodríguez swiftly contradicted that story hours later, appearing on state television to declare that “there is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

January 5, the Wall Street Journal escalated the campaign to smear now acting President Delcy in an article that came out two days after she assumed presidential powers.  It claimed the CIA viewed Delcy as the best-positioned short-term successor to President Maduro. The intention is to make us think the CIA has a special connection with her. In fact, by this time, she was already interim president, and Washington saw it could do nothing about it but sell the story she is there by US choice.

This US fake news campaign seeks to sow division in the Chavista movement and among defenders of Venezuela by instigating rumors that the kidnapping of Maduro involved a “mole,” and that Delcy Rodriguez had a deal with the CIA and Trump.

In addition, much is made of part of her January 4 statement out of its context: “We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.” Some interpret this as compromising if not a step towards capitulation. In fact, she emphasized Venezuela does not want war, but a “respectful international relationship between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and the countries of the region, based on sovereign equality and non-interference…That has always been the position of President Nicolás Maduro and it is the position of all of Venezuela at this time.” This is also exactly what Cuba has always asked of the United States.

Her whole statement: Message from Venezuela to the World and to the United States

Venezuela reaffirms its commitment to peace and peaceful coexistence. Our country aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international cooperation. We believe that global peace is built by first guaranteeing peace within each nation.

We consider it a priority to move toward a balanced and respectful international relationship between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and the countries of the region, based on sovereign equality and non-interference. These principles guide our diplomacy with the rest of the world.

We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.

Delcy Rodríguez Responds to Trump’s Threats: No External Agent Governs Venezuela

President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been the position of President Nicolás Maduro and it is the position of all of Venezuela at this time. That is the Venezuela I believe in, to which I have dedicated my life. My dream is for Venezuela to be a great power where all good Venezuelans can come together.

Venezuela has a right to peace, development, sovereignty, and a future.

Delcy Rodríguez, Acting President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Unfortunately, many who should know better fell for the US rulers’ propaganda campaign. A Consortium News piece declared, Did Venezuela VP Hand Over Maduro in Deal With the US? Rather than exposing US psyops, which earned it its high reputation, here it gives it legitimacy. Another, Tariq Ali, once a respected Trotskyist anti-war activist, claimed on X that “the US is backing Delcy who has promised them whatever they want.” And reposts long discredited Eva Golinger, “Internal Coup? Was Maduro Betrayed by his VP?” And, “Sure seems like Delcy Rodriguez was the CIA source on the inside who set Maduro up and handed him over to the United States.” None of these smears are based on any evidence.

On January 4, President Trump declared, “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” Delcy Rodriguez has responded, “The Venezuelan people are a people who do not surrender, and we do not give up…President Nicolas Maduro’s instructions have been given. Let’s go out and defend our homeland…We are ready to defend Venezuela…We will never again be slaves.”

Manolo de los Santos’ excellent article explains who Delcy Rodriguez is. “The Rodríguez family’s revolutionary credentials are etched in struggle. Their father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a leader of the Socialist League, a Marxist-Leninist organization, was tortured and murdered by the Punto Fijo regime in 1976. Both Delcy and her brother Jorge (the President of the National Assembly) emerged from this tradition of clandestine and mass struggle for socialism. President Maduro himself was a cadre of the same organization. To suggest betrayal among them or capitulation born of cowardice or opportunism ignores four decades of shared political formation, persecution, and leadership under relentless imperialist aggression and the class character of their revolutionary leadership.”

Now, not only do we have the US government repudiating the world and international law by invading a country and seizing its president for admitted concocted reasons. We must face the fact that the US psyops system continues to be so effective that it is able to dupe leading long-time opponents of the US empire, like Tariq Ali, into being mouthpieces for its own “regime change” propaganda.

(Chicago ALBA Solidarity)

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By Max Blumenthal · Jan 5, 2026

The US Department of Justice indictment of Venezuela’s kidnapped leader, Nicolas Maduro, is a political rant that relies heavily on coerced testimony from an unreliable witness. Despite DOJ edits, it could expose more Americans to the CIA’s own history of drug trafficking.

The January 3 US military raid on Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores was followed by the Department of Justice’s release of its superseding indictment of the two abductees as well as their son, Nicolasito Maduro, and two close political allies: former Minister of Justice Ramon Chacin and ex-Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello. The DOJ has also thrown Tren De Aragua (TDA) cartel leader Hector “Niño” Guerrero into the mix of defendants, situating him at the heart of its narrative.

The indictment amounts to a 25 page rant accusing Maduro and Flores of a conspiracy to traffic “thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States,” relying heavily on testimony from coerced witnesses about alleged shipments that largely took place outside US jurisdiction. It accuses Maduro of “having partnered with narco-terrorists” like TDA, ignoring a recent US intelligence assessment that concluded he had no control over the Venezuelan gang. Finally, the prosecutors stacked the indictment by charging Maduro with “possession of machine guns,” a laughable offense which could easily be applied to hundreds of thousands of gun-loving Americans under an antiquated 1934 law.

DOJ prosecutors carefully avoid precise data on Venezuelan cocaine exports to the US. At one point, they describe “tons” of cocaine; at another, they refer to the shipment of “thousands of tons,” an astronomical figure that could hypothetically generate hundreds of billions in revenue. At no point did they mention fentanyl, the drug responsible for the overdose deaths of close to 50,000 Americans in 2024. In fact, the DEA National Drug Threat Assessment issued under Trump’s watch this year scarcely mentioned Venezuela.

By resorting to vague, deliberately expansive language larded with subjective terms like “corrupt” and “terrorism,” the DOJ has constructed a political narrative against Maduro in place of a concrete legal case. While repeatedly referring to Maduro as the “de facto… illegitimate ruler of the country,” the DOJ fails to demonstrate that he is de jure illegitimate under Venezuelan law, and will therefore be unable to bypass established international legal precedent granting immunity to heads of state.

Further, the indictment relies on transparently unreliable, coerced witnesses like Hugo “Pollo” Carvajal, a former Venezuelan general who has cut a secret plea deal to reduce his sentence for drug trafficking by supplying dirt on Maduro. Carvajal was said to be a key figure in the so-called “Cartel of the Suns” drug network which the DOJ claims was run by Maduro. If and when he appears to testify against the abducted Venezuelan leader, the American public could learn that the “cartel” was founded not by the deposed Venezuelan president or one of his allies, but by the CIA to traffic drugs into US cities.

As sloppy and politicized as the DOJ’s indictment might be, it has enabled Trump to frame his lawless “Donroe Doctrine” as an aggressive policy of legal enforcement, emboldening the US president to levy further threats to abduct or bump off heads of state who stand in the way of his resource rampage. This appears to be the real purpose of the imperial courtroom spectacle to come.

Weaponizing the “narco-terror” hoax
The bulk of the case against Maduro rests on the accusation that the defendants “engaged in… drug trafficking, including in partnership with narco-terrorist groups.” According to the DOJ, Maduro conspired with TDA, as well as the Mexican Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels to traffic drugs between 2003 and 2011. However, these cartels were not designated by the Trump administration as Foreign Terrorist Organizations until February 2025, a move obviously designed to justify Maduro’s kidnapping and juice up his indictment.

In its bid to convict Maduro, the DOJ will undoubtedly struggle to overcome the conclusion reached in an April 7, 2025 memo by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that the Venezuelan leader did not control TDA, which he effectively dismantled through a massive 2023 military-police raid on the Tocorón prison that served as the gang’s base of operations. A report in the State Department-funded outlet InSight Crime also complicates the DOJ’s case, finding that “the few crimes attributed to alleged Tren de Aragua members in the United States appear to have no connection with the larger group or its leadership in Venezuela.”

In fact, many of the supposed crimes for which Maduro is charged took place outside the borders and jurisdiction of the United States. The DOJ alleges, for instance, that in September 2013, “Venezuelan officials dispatched approximately 1.3 tons of cocaine on a commercial flight from the Maiquetia Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.”

In 2018, five British citizens were convicted in a French court for orchestrating the drug shipment with help from gang members from Colombia and Italy – but not Venezuela. At the time of the incident, Maduro’s government acknowledged corrupt lower level Venezuelan officials had allowed the drugs to pass through airport security. Caracas ultimately arrested 25 people, including members of the military and an Air France manager – a salient fact omitted from the DOJ indictment.

The evidence of Maduro’s involvement in the scandal, according to the DOJ, was that the drug shipment took place “mere months after [Maduro] succeeded to the Venezuelan presidency.” No other proof is offered to demonstrate his culpability.

The indictment goes on to allege Maduro “facilitated the movement of private planes under diplomatic cover” to avoid law enforcement scrutiny as they landed in Mexico. Citing coerced testimony from a Venezuelan government defector, it accuses Diosdado Cabello of coordinating a shipment of 5.5 tons of cocaine on a DC-9 jet to Mexico. None of these claims should hold water in a US court.

As public defender and legal analyst Eliza Orlins explained, “Flights that occur wholly within Venezuela do not cross U.S. airspace, do not implicate U.S. customs territory, and do not, standing alone, violate U.S. law. The indictment attempts to bootstrap these domestic movements into U.S. criminal jurisdiction by asserting that the cocaine involved was ultimately destined for the United States. Intent does almost all the work here.”

Because most of the specific incidents cited in the indictment occurred within Mexico under Presidents Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Pena Nieto, the DOJ inadvertently implicates these three pro-US administrations, who shaped their drug policies in coordination with Washington. In fact, the top cop during the first two of these governments, former Federal Intelligence Agency chief Genaro García Luna, was convicted in a US federal court in 2023 for presiding over a multi-million dollar conspiracy with the Sinaloa cartel. Former US ambassador to Mexico Robert Jacobson acknowledged that the US knew all about Garcia Luna’s cartel ties, but insisted, “we had to work with him.”

The Honduran double standard
The DOJ also implicates the pro-US government of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, referring to Honduras as a “transshipment” point “in which cocaine traffickers operating in those countries paid a portion of their own profits to politicians who protected and aided them.” Hernandez was convicted in a US federal court in 2023 of trafficking over 400 tons of drugs to the US, but received a pardon this December from President Donald Trump following a lobbying campaign by top Trump donors seeking to maintain the deregulated crypto haven of Próspera off the coast of Honduras.

During his January 3 press conference announcing the abduction of Maduro and his wife, Trump aggressively defended his decision to pardon Hernandez, claiming he’d been “persecuted very unfairly.” Yet the same DOJ prosecutor who authored the original 2020 indictment of Maduro, Trump loyalist Emil Bove, was responsible for the indictment of Hernandez. In contrast to the case against Maduro, the Hernandez indictment contained concrete evidence of his collaboration with major transnational cartels, including video and photographic exhibits, as Anya Parampil and Alexander Rubinstein detailed for The Grayzone.

Hernandez pleaded his case to Trump in a 2025 letter claiming he’d been subjected to a “rigged trial” and convicted “based on the uncorroborated statements of convicted drug traffickers.”

His questionable claim could also apply to the DOJ’s prosecution of Maduro, as many of the most dramatic allegations contained in his indictment are sourced to a convicted drug trafficker who struck a secret deal with US prosecutors to reduce his own sentence in exchange for testimony against Maduro: former Venezuelan Gen. Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal.

Coerced “star witness” strikes secret deal with US prosecutors
The head of military intelligence under the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from 2004 to 2011, Carvajal is cited seven times in the January 3 DOJ indictment as a witness to alleged criminal acts by Maduro and his inner circle. Carvajal was first arrested in 2014 in Aruba on drug running charges, but was returned to Venezuela to the chagrin of US authorities. In 2017, as he faced a pair of indictments in the US, the general suddenly turned on Maduro, who he denounced as a dictator. Carvajal went on to openly endorse the regime change project of US-controlled “interim president” Juan Guaido in 2019, fashioning himself as a courageous defector while proffering his supposed knowledge of the Venezuelan deep state to Washington.

That same year, as Carvajal sought asylum in Spain, the US formally demanded that Madrid hand him over. Now facing the prospect of extradition, he delivered a series of tell-all interviews to legacy outlets like the New York Times, doing his best to legitimize virtually every charge the Trump administration sought to weaponize against Maduro.

Then-Senator Marco Rubio could barely contain his excitement about the prospect of squeezing the Chavista insider for testimony in a future case against Maduro. Carvajal “will soon be coming to the US to provide important information about the #MaduroRegime,” Rubio tweeted on April 12, 2019. “Bad day for the #MaduroCrimeFamily.”

Hugo Carvajal former military intelligence director of #Venezuela is safe & in custody in #Spain.

He will soon be coming to the U.S. to provide important information about #MaduroRegime.

Bad day for the #MaduroCrimeFamily

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 12, 2019

It was not until 2023 that Carvajal was finally extradited and placed on trial in the Southern District court of New York. After he pleaded guilty to “narco-terrorism” this June, the Miami Herald reported that he had struck a plea deal which would grant him “a considerable sentence reduction if he provides ‘substantial assistance’ to US investigations.”

Carvajal’s still-secret plea deal gives away the game he’d played since he first emerged as a defector. His allegations against Maduro had been delivered under duress, all designed to satisfy his would-be jailers in the US. He has since indulged one of Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories by alleging in a June 2025 letter to the US president that Maduro manipulated Venezuela’s Smartmatic voting systems to rig the 2020 US presidential election in favor of Biden.

Carvajal’s shameless pandering to Trump and secret plea deal should obliterate his credibility as a witness against Maduro.

In its January 3 indictment of Maduro, the DOJ claimed Carvajal and Diosdado Cabello “worked with other members of the Venezuelan regime” to “coordinate the shipment” of 5.5 tons of cocaine from Simon Bolivar International Airport to Campeche, Mexico in a private jet in 2006. This incident remains the source of intense intrigue, as the ownership of the DC-9 jet by two shadowy American companies points in the direction of US intelligence.

While details of potential covert US government involvement in the 2006 drug shipment remain murky, it is an established fact that the CIA founded and operated the “Cartel of the Suns” which the DOJ now accuses Maduro, Cabello and other top Venezuelan officials of controlling.

President Maduro Before New York Court: ‘I am President of Venezuela, and I Consider Myself a Prisoner of War’

Cartel of the Suns: created by the CIA, weaponized by the DOJ
In the original indictment of Maduro, the DOJ explicitly accused Maduro of leading a narco-trafficking cartel called “Cartel of the Suns,” referencing it over 30 times.

The revised DOJ indictment of Maduro unsealed on January 3 states, “Starting in or about 1999, Venezuela became a safe haven for drug traffickers willing to pay for protection and support corrupt Venezuelan civilian and military officials, who operated outside the reach of Colombian law enforcement and armed forces bolstered by United States anti-narcotics assistance.”

It continues: “The profits of that illegal activity flow to corrupt rank-and-file civilian, military, and intelligence officials, who operate in a patronage system run by those at the top-referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns.”

The informal network of corrupt military officials was in fact established by the CIA under pro-US Venezuelan governments during the 1980’s and ’90’s. Americans were introduced to this inconvenient truth not by some dissident muckraker, but by the New York Times, and by Mike Wallace in a 60 Minutes exposé broadcast in 1993.

Three years earlier, US Customs officials in Miami had intercepted a shipment of 1000 pounds of pure cocaine from Venezuela. But they were soon told by higher-ups in the US government the shipments had been approved by Langley. According to the Times, the CIA sought to allow the cocaine to “enter the United States without being seized, so as to allay all suspicion. The idea was to gather as much intelligence as possible on members of the drug gangs.”

“I really take great exception to the fact that 1000 kilos came in, funded by US taxpayer money,” then-DEA attache to Venezuela Annabelle Grimm remarked to 60 Minutes. “I found that particularly appalling.”

To organize the shipments from Venezuela, the CIA recruited generals from the Venezuelan National Guard who were trained by the US. Because officers in the National Guard wore patches on their uniforms bearing the symbol of a sun, the informal drug network was branded as “The Cartel of the Suns.”

In the years after the CIA-run cartel was exposed in US media, it disappeared from public view entirely, only to be revived when the US government began hounding Gen. Carvajal, who may soon appear as its key witness against Maduro. While corruption is still present in the Venezuelan military, there is little evidence of anything resembling a Cartel of the Suns in its ranks.

As Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, told CNN, “Cartel de los Soles, per se, doesn’t exist. It’s a journalistic expression created to refer to the involvement of Venezuelan authorities in drug trafficking.”

A former senior US official echoed Gunson, describing Cartel of the Suns as “a made-up name used to describe an ad hoc group of Venezuelan officials involved in the trafficking of drugs through Venezuela. It doesn’t have the hierarchy or command-and-control structure of a traditional cartel.”

The official told CNN that the DEA or Defense Intelligence Agency had supplied Trump with a “purely political” assessment of the cartel to support his assault on Venezuela.

Discovery granted to the defense in the trial of Maduro and Flores risks severely embarrassing the US government by extracting further evidence of CIA drug running. This may be why the DOJ softened its language about the Cartel of the Suns, referring to it in the January 3 indictment as a mere “patronage network” rather than as a cohesive criminal syndicate, and mentioning it only twice.

During his first appearance in court earlier that day, the kidnapped Venezuelan leader was only able to speak for a brief moment. “I am innocent. I am a decent man. I am President…” Maduro pleaded before being cut off by his lawyer.

(The Grayzone)

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

A statement from the organization condemns “the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and the bombing, deaths, and destruction on the territory of the South American country, perpetrated by invading US military forces, under the orders of (President) Donald Trump.”

The UCT denounces “these terrorist acts that violate the UN Charter and international law,” and “the policy that designates Latin America and the Caribbean as the ‘backyard’ of US imperialism, to recolonize other countries and overexploit them for the benefit of Western capitalists.”

The text demands respect for international law and the UN Charter, calls on the UN and other international organizations to condemn US terrorist actions against the Venezuelan people, and demands the immediate return of President Maduro and his wife to the country.

The UCT declaration encourages “Dominican organizations and citizens to express their repudiation of the terrorist acts carried out by US imperialism, which seeks to recolonize Latin America and the Caribbean to steal natural resources such as oil and gold.”

jdt/apb

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Also sponsored by the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), this fifth edition of the contest is open to university students from any province in the country, from any faculty of study, and recent graduates up to two years after graduation, according to the announcement published on the organizing entity’s social media.

This year, interested parties can submit an article, review, research paper (thesis), or essay on topics related to art and literature in general, with a length of one to 35 pages, depending on the chosen genre.

The publishing house and the ICL specify that submissions must be typed and sent in digital format, identified with the author’s personal information, to the email address arteyliteratura@icl.cult.c, before February 5 of this year.

The winners will be recognized during the 34th Havana International Book Fair, scheduled to take place from February 12 to 22, with a single prize per category, along with a special award for texts that refer to works published by the Arte y Literatura publishing house.

The general rules of the contest are available on the social media accounts of the organizing entities.

jdt/arc/vnl

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In a public statement, the Platform condemned the US bombing of several areas of the Venezuelan capital and other states, as well as the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, events that resulted in the deaths of approximately one hundred people. Somos Patria expressed its solidarity with the families of the victims and with the Venezuelan people and denounced the violation of the sovereignty of the Bolivarian nation.

The group pointed out that the aggression contradicts the decision of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which declared the region a territory of peace, and warned that its consequences are “difficult to assess” for hemispheric stability.

The statement also warned of threats made against the political integrity of the Western Hemisphere, especially against Mexico, Colombia, and Denmark, within the framework of a doctrine it described as “obsolete” and brought into the 21st century by President Donald Trump.

The platform also questioned the pronouncements of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and his supporters backing the US action, arguing that they violate principles enshrined in the Ecuadorian Constitution, ratified in popular referendums in 2008 and 2025.

“Our nation is dignified and sovereign, even despite its poor governance. War and colonialism have not been, nor will they ever be, our banners,” the statement emphasized.

jdt/arc/avr

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   PCT Secretary General Manuel Zalazar declared that the stance taken by Abinader and the PRM places his country “with its back turned to the history of the Dominican people” and to the traditional relations of solidarity between the two countries.

  During an interview, the political leader said that the current Dominican government should show gratitude toward the Venezuelan people and remember the historical role Venezuela played in key moments of the nation’s history.

  He also emphasized that the Bolivarian nation contributed significantly to weakening the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and recalled the 1959 expedition in which Venezuelan patriots participated in the fight against the Trujillo regime.

   The Secretary General of the Cmmunist Party of Cuba (PCT) emphasized the cooperation provided by Venezuela during the government of the late President Hugo Chávez, who granted extensive energy facilities to the Dominican Republic, even offering to exchange oil for Dominican agricultural products.

In this regard, the party leader described the stance of President Abinader and the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) as “reprehensible,” accusing them of supporting former US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy toward Venezuela.

In this context Zalazar announced that Dominican leftist organizations and democratic sectors are preparing a constitutional challenge before the National Congress, alleging violations of the Dominican Constitution related to national sovereignty.

jdt/ro/abp

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“Imperialist bombs will only deepen the Bolivarian Revolution,” Jorge Arreaza proclaimed at a huge Chavista mobilization in Caracas.

From the mass-mobilization led by Venezuela’s communes, Jorge Arreaza condmned US criminal aggression in Venezuela and called for unity and confidence in the country’s revolutionary Bolivarian leadership in the face of the illegal kidnapping of the presidential couple.

On Wednesday, crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, representing the communes and communal counciles across Venezuela, took to the streets of Caracas to demand the release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who remain illegally detained in a maximum-security prison in New York after being kidnapped during the aggression carried out by the United States on January 3.

During the rally, Jorge Arreaza, rector of the National University of the Communes, declared that “socialism in Venezuela is the commune.” He recalled the maxim of former President Hugo Chávez: “The commune is the territory where we are going to build socialism. In other words, without the commune there is no socialism.” The mobilization, Arreaza emphasized, sought to defend these revolutionary principles.

At a crucial moment for the nation in the face of imperialist aggression, Arreaza urged communal members to maintain “confidence in the political high command of the Bolivarian Revolution.” He warned emphatically: “Do not be led astray by intrigues, do not be led astray by rumors,” calling for firm support for Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, and Minister for Communes and Social Movements Ángel Prado.

He expressed firm conviction that “through the golden doors of Miraflores Palace, sooner rather than later, we will see President Nicolás Maduro enter hand in hand with his wife Cilia Flores de Maduro, and they will return, and we will embrace them, and you will embrace them in the streets.”

The former foreign minister consistently highlighted President Maduro’s work in empowering the people over recent years, stating that the president has devoted significant efforts to “handing power over to the people in their territories.” He cited the reorganization of communal spokespersons with the support of the National Electoral Council (CNE), a process that has been intensively underway since 2022.

Arreaza underscored the popular consultations promoted by Maduro, recalling the president’s words: “It is not through the ministries, it is not through the institutions; it is the people who will tell us what their needs are and where we should invest those resources.”

Addressing the complex political and social context, Arreaza acknowledged the persistent threats from the United States. In this context, Arreaza invoked Antonio Gramsci’s thesis of the “whip of the counterrevolution,” which—according to the teachings of Commander Chávez and President Maduro—“does nothing but accelerate the Revolution.” He argued that “the imperialist bombs of the counterrevolution will only deepen the Bolivarian Revolution, communal democracy, and the communal state” in the country.

Finally, Arreaza issued an urgent call for coordinated and united action throughout the country. He urged that the spirit of the current mobilization be replicated in every commune and Communal Council, thereby strengthening grassroots popular organization. The fundamental objective, he noted, is to consolidate the resistance of the Venezuelan people and decisively advance the deepening of the revolutionary process in the face of the complex external and internal challenges confronting the nation.

US Militarization of Latin America is Expanding at Breakneck Speed

(TeleSUR)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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Acting President Delcy Rodríguez convened a meeting of the Great Patriotic Pole Simón Bolívar following the US military aggression in order to set guidelines for defending the country’s sovereignty and governability.

The Great Patriotic Pole Simón Bolívar is an electoral alliance and popular front of Venezuelan political parties created in 2012. The meeting aimed to define strategies for rescuing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, after they were illegally abducted on January 3 during the military aggression carried out by US forces.

The meeting, held in the José Félix Ribas Hall of the Teresa Carreño Theater, sought to establish clear objectives for the defense of peace and national sovereignty. During the session, Acting President Rodríguez set out three fundamental directives: the rescue of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores from the occupying forces of the United States; the guarantee of peace throughout the national territory; and the preservation of political governability in the face of current challenges.

The event featured the participation of key government figures, including the President of the National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez and the Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello Rondón. Governors, deputies, sectoral vice presidents, and various representatives of the Great Patriotic Pole Simón Bolívar were also in attendance.

Rodríguez highlighted the role of social movements and the bravery of Venezuelan women, drawing inspiration from the patriots Apacuana and Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi. She emphasized that Cilia Flores stands as a contemporary example by accompanying the head of state through the abduction.

The acting president called for monolithic unity to ensure the continuity of the Bolivarian Revolution. She emphasized the importance of continuing in the implementation of the Homeland Plan and the 7 Transformations (7Ts), guaranteeing national production through the engines of the Bolivarian Economic Agenda as pillars of the country’s stability.

To conclude the meeting, the political forces that make up Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution took out a solemn oath of patriotic commitment. They reaffirmed their unwavering dedication to fulfilling the assigned tasks: the rescue of the head of state and his wife, the preservation of national peace, and the absolute defense of the Republic’s governability and sovereignty.

Delcy Rodríguez Sworn in as Venezuela’s Acting President Following US Military Aggression

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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A US airstrike has destroyed dialysis supplies in Venezuela’s La Guaira on January 3, putting thousands of kidney patients at risk.

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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.

National Security: The strategy is working and delivering historic results

President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that between September 2024 and December 2025, intentional homicides decreased by 40% nationwide, equivalent to 34 fewer homicides per day—the lowest level since 2016.

Violence on the decline: Territorial reduction and high-impact crimes

Although in 2025 seven states accounted for 50.5% of intentional homicides, there have been historic reductions in the states with the highest levels of violence: Guanajuato (-62%), Guerrero (-65%), State of Mexico (-54%), Baja California (-42%), Nuevo León (-72%), and Tabasco (-75%).

The daily average number of high-impact crimes decreased by 47% compared to 2018, with significant drops in femicides, extortions, kidnappings, violent robberies, and firearm-related crimes.

Addressing root causes: Security with social justice

The Strategy to Attend to Root Causes of Crime has intervened in 61 municipalities across 12 states since November 2024, with door-to-door outreach, peace fairs, community assemblies, recovery of public spaces, and peace committees. Of particular importance was the participation of Tijuana, Chiapas, Ciudad Juárez, Colima, and the State of Mexico.

Within this framework, the “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace” gun exchange program secured more than 7,900 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition, reducing risks and strengthening community security.

Well-being: Well-being Markets and Peace Days

The Well-being Market benefited 244,000 families in Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán. The Peace Days have involved 7,005 actions nationwide, with more than 2.1 million participants, nearly one million of them young people.

Extortion on the decline: 75% of calls did not materialize in incidents

From October 2024 to December 2025, key arrests were made, with 40,735 suspects detained, 21,357 weapons secured, 318 tons of drugs seized, and 1,887 labs dismantled. At the same time, the National Anti-Extortion Strategy strengthened prevention through the 089 hotline, achieving the arrest of 721 suspects in 24 states.

Interoceanic Train: Investigation, security, and compensations

The Mexican Government reiterated that the accident investigation follows international protocols, with guaranteed chain of custody. It urged the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to expedite comprehensive compensation for the victims, in accordance with the Victims’ Law.

Energy and sovereignty: Pemex and CFE strengthened

Pemex improved its rating in 2025 and produced 80% of the fuels consumed in the country, with support from the Treasury for debt management and payments to suppliers.

Sovereignty and cooperation: Decisions based on principles

President Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico maintains international cooperation on security without subordination, always based on the principles of sovereignty, legality, and defense of the country’s territorial integrity. In that context, she clarified that the rescheduling of the Senate session on military exercises with the US responds solely to its legislative agenda and is not related to the events in Venezuela.

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  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 8

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on national security strategy, well-being markets, national anti-extortion strategy & energy sovereignty.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico & Venezuela: The Other Ties

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  Gestures of genuine solidarity also involve getting to know a little more about those about whom we speak and opine ad nauseam.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexican Food Dependency Deepens: Domestic Grains & Oilseeds Only Cover 44% of Consumption

  January 8, 2026

  National agriculture is overwhelmed by heavily subsidized US imports & squeezed by food monopolies, while beneficial state programs only extend to the poorest of producers.

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This article by Jaime Ortega originally appeared in the January 8, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The bond between nations is not limited to formal exchanges between institutions. Rather, it takes on cultural, literary, political, and even culinary forms. The relationship between Mexico and Venezuela is no exception, and its history beyond the borders of individual states is only now beginning to be explored.

Not long ago, in his book Ningún revolucionario es extranjero (No Revolutionary Is a Foreigner), the researcher Sebastián Rivera Mira evoked the figure of Salvador de la Plaza, a Venezuelan militant who passed through Mexico on several occasions and who, at one time, founded, along with others, the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party, of anti-imperialist and Marxist inspiration, which designed and coordinated actions of opposition to the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez.

The presence of other activists associated with the PRV was felt in efforts such as the Anti-Imperialist League of the Americas, whose publication adopted the Venezuelan name El Libertador, but also in the Hands Off Nicaragua initiative at the beginning of Sandino’s struggle.

Special mention should be made of the participation of Carlos Augusto León, a Venezuelan poet who actively participated in the Society of Friends of the USSR, which in the mid-1930s advocated for the Mexican Revolution to re-establish relations with the USSR and promoted various campaigns of solidarity, both symbolic and material, in the face of the global conflict. Augusto León’s poetic work was published, among others, by the Morelos publishing house of the SAURSS under the title Los pasos vivientes (The Living Steps). Also during those years, he was an active member of the Mexican section of the International Red Aid, notably participating in rallies honoring Julio Antonio Mella. Years later, with a dedication to the people of Guatemala and with quotes from Mao as an epigraph, his Verso ante el mural de La gloriosa victoria was published in La Voz de México (organ of the Communist Party of Mexico), and in 1957, Mexico would be the place of publication of his Yo canto a Lenin.

Along similar lines, another little-known exile with a brief stay was Miguel Otero Silva, an important leftist writer whose Canción de Otero Silva a García Lorca was published in El Machete (the legendary newspaper of Mexican communism). His prolific and relatively forgotten work (at least outside of Venezuela) includes a lecture entitled “Mexico and the Mexican Revolution: A Venezuelan Writer in the Soviet Union (1966),” a speech dedicated to Mariano Picón Salas (a friend of Alfonso Reyes and Venezuelan ambassador to Mexico), in which he outlines the course and importance of the Mexican Revolution, its popular leaders, and its main reforms, highlighting Cárdenas’s policies regarding oil.

Another figure about whom little is known regarding his time in Mexico is the important historian Germán Carrera Damas. An intellectual with a prolific body of work, he came from an educated family with significant ties to Venezuelan communism. His membership card for the Mexican Communist Party (PCM), dating from his time as a student at the National School of Economics, is preserved at the Center for Studies of the Workers & Socialist Movement (CEMOS). His master’s thesis in history was titled “Contribution to the Study of Interventionist Thought in 19th-Century Mexico.” Mexico was also the site of publication of his “The Renewal of Historical Studies: The Case of Venezuela.” After his stay in Mexico, Carrera Damas is considered to have sparked a true revolution in the discipline in his country.

Germán Carrera Damas’ early participation in the Communist movement has been replaced with something… else.

While the Cuban Revolution absorbed much of the ties that revolutionary or Marxist militants had previously maintained with Mexico, progressive figures found in our country a space to develop or disseminate their ideas. Thus, in the 1970s and 1980s, under the auspices of Alonso Aguilar Monteverde and the publishing house Nuestro Tiempo, several Venezuelan intellectuals visited Mexico (especially the Development Theory Seminar at the Institute of Economic Research) or had their work published there. This academic group actively participated in symposia on the theory of imperialism and underdevelopment. Figures such as Faustino Maza Zavala, Héctor Malave Mata, Armando Córdova, and José Agustín Silva Michelena were particularly productive. Books such as Venezuela, Growth Without Development and Venezuela, Domination and Dissent were published by Nuestro Tiempo in Mexico City. In the prologue to some of these books, Alonso Aguilar stated: “The study of the Venezuelan process reveals an understandable preoccupation with oil.”

Furthermore, Silva Michelena’s brother, the philosopher and poet Ludovico Silva, achieved publishing success when his books Theory and Practice of Ideology and especially Marx’s Literary Style were published by Mexican publishing houses. Silva is perhaps today the Latin American Marxist most frequently cited by the closed and provincial intellectual circles of the “global north.”

These glimpses barely hint at some of the paths of persistent, though often fragmented, connections. The life of communities shows that gestures of genuine solidarity also involve getting to know a little more about those about whom we speak and opine ad nauseam.

Jaime Ortega is the Director of Memoria, the Magazine of Militant Criticism, a researcher at UAM, and the author of La raíz nacional-popular: las izquierdas más allá de la transición.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 8

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on national security strategy, well-being markets, national anti-extortion strategy & energy sovereignty.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico & Venezuela: The Other Ties

  January 8, 2026January 8, 2026

  Gestures of genuine solidarity also involve getting to know a little more about those about whom we speak and opine ad nauseam.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexican Food Dependency Deepens: Domestic Grains & Oilseeds Only Cover 44% of Consumption

  January 8, 2026

  National agriculture is overwhelmed by heavily subsidized US imports & squeezed by food monopolies, while beneficial state programs only extend to the poorest of producers.

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By Oliver Vargas  –  Jan 7, 2026

After years of economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and open attempts at regime change, the United States has crossed a new line in its confrontation with Venezuela: the abduction of the country’s head of state. When combined with increasingly explicit statements from Washington about the need to “manage” Venezuela’s political future and its oil industry, this escalation exposes the underlying logic of U.S. policy: gloves-off resource imperialism.

For more than a decade, the U.S. approach toward the country has relied on economic strangulation and funding for internal destabilization attempts. Oil exports were blocked, access to international finance was restricted, and state assets abroad were frozen. Hundreds of millions of dollars were funneled to the right-wing opposition. All these measures used the rhetorical pretext of “democracy promotion” to cover Washington’s true interests.

However, this naked imperialism under Trump should not be seen as a new phase of U.S. foreign policy, but as a logical conclusion of Washington’s long-standing policy of resource imperialism. What has changed today is not intent, but openness. Trump has openly stated the U.S.’s true intentions and disregard for international law.

20 years of U.S. intervention in VenezuelaTo understand why Venezuela and its oil reserves have faced such a ferocious onslaught, it is necessary to revisit the legacy of former President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and the transformation he initiated in the energy sector after taking office in 1999.

At the center of Chavez’s project was the recovery of state control over Venezuela’s oil industry. Energy revenues were redirected toward domestic development rather than external extraction. This heralded a golden era for the country: Between 1999 and 2012, Venezuela’s GDP more than doubled in nominal terms, while GDP per capita increased by over 50 percent during the high-growth years of the 2000s. From 2004 to 2008 alone, the economy expanded at an average annual rate of around 8 percent – one of the fastest growth rates in the region at the time.

This growth underpinned major social advances. Overall poverty declined from 42 percent in 1999 to about 26 percent by 2011, while extreme poverty fell from over 20 percent to below 7 percent. Inequality also declined sharply, with Venezuela registering one of the lowest Gini coefficients (a widely used measure of inequality, typically income or wealth distribution ) in Latin America by the end of the decade.

These were not merely domestic achievements. They challenged a dominant narrative that state-led development and resource nationalization were incompatible with growth. Venezuela demonstrated that reclaiming control over strategic resources could finance poverty reduction, expand public services and strengthen national sovereignty.

A crude oil tanker sails along the shore of Lake Maracaibo, in Zulia state, Venezuela, January 6, 2026. Photo: CFP.

Energy diplomacy and the threat of a good exampleWhat most alarmed Washington was not only Venezuela’s internal policies, but their regional and international implications. Chavez actively used energy diplomacy to build alliances and reduce dependency on U.S.-controlled markets.

Through Petrocaribe, launched in 2005, Venezuela supplied oil to Caribbean and Central American countries on preferential terms, allowing deferred payments and long-term financing at low interest rates. For many small island economies, Petrocaribe provided critical energy security and fiscal breathing room. In return, it fostered political cooperation and regional solidarity, weakening U.S. leverage in what Washington had long considered its strategic backyard.

Black Alliance for Peace: Asia-Pacific News Update #3

From pressure to escalationThe response was systematic. As Venezuela deepened state control over its energy sector and pursued an independent foreign policy, sanctions expanded year after year. Financial isolation, trade restrictions and secondary sanctions were imposed with the explicit goal of forcing regime change.

These measures failed to trigger social unrest deep enough to topple the government, nor did they produce the internal fractures – particularly within the armed forces – that Washington had anticipated. Instead, they inflicted massive economic damage on the population while the Venezuelan state endured. Rather than reassessing the strategy, Washington intensified it. Today, we see the final escalation of this years-long process only after every other measure had failed.

Gloves-off imperialismWhat is unfolding in Venezuela is not a break with past policy, but the natural escalation of a strategy pursued over many years. Sanctions, financial isolation and political pressure were always intended to weaken the Venezuelan state and force concessions. Military action now represents the next step. The key difference is that under Trump, Washington has abandoned the moralizing language of democracy promotion.

This bluntness brings clarity. By discarding appeals to international norms, Washington has made its intentions explicit: access to resources, backed by coercive power and colonial expansion. For those on the receiving end, this removes ambiguity. Sovereignty is no longer contested rhetorically, but physically.

The current confrontation is therefore not simply about governance. It is about whether a state that once used its natural resources to reduce poverty and build regional alliances will be permitted to retain sovereign control over its development path. If military pressure succeeds, it will reinforce a dangerous precedent: That prolonged unilateral sanctions, followed by violent force, can yield results.

However, if Venezuela withstands this pressure, the implications will extend well beyond its borders. It would demonstrate that sanctions and military threats do not automatically translate into compliance and that sovereignty, while under strain, is not yet obsolete.

Escalation and continuityThe consequences extend beyond Venezuela, but also precede the current moment. Sanctions and war have been disrupting oil markets for years – first through restrictions on Venezuelan exports, then through sanctions on Russia and Iran before that. The U.S. launched invasions in Iraq and Libya to seize oil, just as it hopes to do now in Venezuela.

The attack on Caracas, therefore, is absolutely an expression of resource imperialism, but it has also been Washington’s long-standing state policy. What defines the current moment is the honesty and transparency regarding their intentions. The virtue-signaling facade has gone, and the international community must prepare accordingly.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow@thouse_opinions on X, formerly Twitter, to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

(CGTN)

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This article by María del Pilar Martínez originally appeared in the December 29, 2025 edition of El Economista.

As of the end of November 2025, the Mexican grain and oilseed market continues to undermine food self-sufficiency by producing only 44.1% of what it consumes; thus, Mexico consolidates itself as the second largest importer of grains and oilseeds worldwide, in addition to being the main global buyer of white and yellow corn .

This is according to the analysis by the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA), which adds that although the total harvested area grew by 11.1%, national production only increased by 2.0%, “reflecting a drop in productivity mainly associated with climatic factors.”

This situation is exacerbated by a 3% increase in import volume and a nearly 78% drop in exports, reducing the self-sufficiency index from the previously recorded 46.8%. “In terms of profitability, Mexican producers face additional pressure because domestic production rose 3.6% while imported grain fell 0.5%,” the document states.

Product performance reveals deep crises, as in the case of corn, where production fell 3.9% annualized despite an increase in the harvested area, increasing external dependence with imports that reach 24.5 million tons.

Wheat production has suffered a historic 34% collapse due to drought, leaving self-sufficiency at just 23%. Meanwhile, sorghum self-sufficiency has fallen to 81.5% due to a surge in external purchases driven by low international prices.

In contrast, beans stand out as a positive outlier with an 18.8% increase in production, allowing self-sufficiency to recover to 86%. Rice , although its production improved, maintains a critical self-sufficiency of only 20.3%, affected by an 18% drop in national prices that is impacting the sector’s profitability.

The Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA) warns that the agricultural sector remains the Achilles’ heel of food security due to public policies that focus on small producers, who represent 84% of the units but generate only 26% of the volume. This strategy excludes 16% of producers who supply 74% of the market and who currently face high costs, lack of financing, and absence of insurance. “Without a comprehensive policy that increases the productivity of all sectors, Mexico will continue to deepen its external dependence.”

• 

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  Mexican Food Dependency Deepens: Domestic Grains & Oilseeds Only Cover 44% of Consumption

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  This article by Jessica Xantomila originally appeared in the January 7, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The National Union of Workers of Nacional Monte de Piedad and the company met again yesterday at the Federal Conciliation Center, but without progress in ending the strike that broke out on October…

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The post Mexican Food Dependency Deepens: Domestic Grains & Oilseeds Only Cover 44% of Consumption appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Through his account on the social network X, the Cuban Foreign Minister pointed out that recent statements by the Secretaries of State and War of the United States reveal that such a drug trafficking group never existed, Thus dismantling one of the main narratives used to attack the South American country.

“They confirm what we have always denounced: there was never the Cartel de los Soles, which was a false pretext to justify the aggression against Venezuela, with the aim of seizing Venezuelan resources, controlling that territory neocolonially and overthrowing the Chavista and Bolivarian revolution”, wrote Rodriguez.

The head of Cuban diplomacy further questioned: “Will those who affirmed the existence of this alleged drug trafficking group ask for forgiveness for supporting such a lie? Will they denounce the outrage, usurpation and piracy that the US government intends to impose on the Venezuelan people?”.

In his message, Rodríguez demanded the end of “double standards” in international politics and demanded that international law be respected and defended.

abo/ro/mks

The post Cuba denounces pretexts fabricated by the US to attack Venezuela first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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An OCHA report states that the constant hostilities since December 5, in the city of Bule and surrounding areas, have resulted in the deaths of at least 25 civilians, injuries to 40 people, and more than 87,000 displaced persons who remain without humanitarian assistance due to the insecurity.

“These families are facing severe shortages of food, medical care, and clean water,” the report stated, adding that some 17 people have died due to harsh living conditions, lack of medical care, and hunger.

The UN agency stated, “Due to the unstable security situation, no humanitarian group could have operated in the affected areas for more than a month.” This suspension of aid further exacerbates the vulnerability of those already forced to flee their homes, many of them repeatedly.”

OCHA recalled that all conflict parties have the obligation to protect civilians and ensure the safety of humanitarian personnel and resources, which is constantly violated in eastern Congo.

abo/iff/mem/kmg

The post DRC: OCHA is concerned about civilian deaths and lack of assistance first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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In statements to Prensa Latina, Arun Kumar, a member of the CPI(M) Political Bureau, reiterated his party’s condemnation of the United States’ aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

He pointed out that this illegal action is consistent with the National Security Strategy 2025 recently announced by the US administration, which considers all of Latin America its backyard.

Kumar emphasized that, furthermore, the US asserts that anyone attempting to establish trade relations with countries outside this periphery, without US approval, will be considered an aggressor.

He added that those nations that maintain such relations will be targeted by attacks ordered by Washington.

“And this is why we believe that Venezuela, rich in oil and other natural resources, is the target.”

Kumar described US imperialism as brazen, ambitious, and aggressive, openly declaring its desire to occupy Venezuela for its oil.

“Trump wants to impose his hegemony over the entire world, and that is why we must oppose imperialism and protect the right of nations to sovereignty so that they can govern themselves according to the will of their own people,” he emphasized.

He asserted that this is the reason motivating the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to organize protests against US imperialist aggression against Venezuela.

abo/arm/mem/lrd

The post US attacks Venezuela, disrespecting Latin America as a zone of peace first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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