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This article by Jorge Salcedo originally appeared in the March 18, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) will meet with the workers of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) who are traveling to Mexico City to demonstrate for 72 hours demanding the repeal of the ISSSTE Law and better salaries.

In a morning press conference, Sheinbaum stated that members of the teachers’ union have held meetings in the federal entities on repeated occasions with state education authorities and governors in order to make progress on their demands.

On this occasion, the president stated that the meeting with the CNTE teachers’ union during this 72-hour strike will be with SEP (Ministry of Public Education) officials and that they will address the demands that are “feasible to meet.” Sheinbaum also asked that the teachers’ demonstrations during these three days be peaceful.

The reactivation of the National Strike launched by the CNTE this Wednesday, March 18, will begin with a march from the Angel of Independence to the Zócalo in Mexico City, possibly passing by some embassies, according to a statement from Section 9.

Teachers are demanding the repeal of the ISSSTE Law in the country, as well as some points of the 2019 education reform, and are seeking a salary increase that they have been demanding since 2024.

“At this time, the only way to break the salary cap, as we did in 2024, achieve the standardization of benefits, and recover the solidarity and intergenerational retirement, is through actions of a national nature, strengthening the unity of the education workers,” the CNTE statement detailed.

Regarding the teachers’ threats to boycott the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in three cities in the country, the president said that there is ongoing dialogue with the teachers to address their demands.

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  Labor | News Briefs

  CNTE’s 72 Hour National Strike Begins, Vows World Cup Protests if Demands Not Met

  March 18, 2026March 18, 2026

  The union emphasized their demand is that “the negotiation table be resumed with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who has failed to keep her promise to repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law.”

• 

  Analysis | Culture

  Multiplying the Readers

  March 18, 2026March 18, 2026

  Government agencies and sectors of civil society can, and indeed should, contribute to building more and better opportunities that normalize the appeal of reading.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  Sheinbaum: Education Secretariat Will Meet with CNTE Teachers During 72 Hour Strike

  March 18, 2026

  President Sheinbaum said that education officials will address demands that are “feasible to meet.”

The post Sheinbaum: Education Secretariat Will Meet with CNTE Teachers During 72 Hour Strike appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Ana Miranda originally appeared in the March 18, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

In recent decades, the urban sprawl of the Valley of Mexico has grown uncontrollably, prioritizing asphalt over ecosystems. Every so often, projects emerge that attempt to reverse this trend, but they are insufficient.

In this context, a Japanese ultra-accelerated reforestation technique, known as the Miyawaki Method, has arrived in the region, seeking not only to “plant trees”, but to create self-sufficient ecosystems.

This technique, which transformed industrial landscapes in Japan during the 1970s, helping to create ultra-resistant green belts, has begun to take root in central Mexico with some initiatives involving academics, philanthropists, institutions and NGOs.

The Miyawaki Method is a Japanese ultra-accelerated reforestation technique that, instead of just “planting trees,” seeks to create self-sufficient ecosystems in record time to combat heat islands and soil degradation.

Also known as the science of the “Pocket Forest”, this system developed by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, is based on the concept of Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV).

Unlike traditional reforestation, which often uses monocultures or ornamental species, the method proposes the creation of multi-layered native forests , and is governed by the selection of plants that grow naturally in the area without human intervention, planting between 3 and 5 seedlings per square meter, because competition for sunlight stimulates accelerated vertical growth.

Deep soil preparation is also important, as between 80 and 100 centimeters of soil are removed to enrich it with organic substrates and microorganisms (mycorrhizae), thus improving root communication.

And here’s the most interesting part: after an initial period of watering and weeding of 2 to 3 years, the forest becomes completely self-sufficient, without the need for pruning or chemical fertilizers.

The Nezahualcóyotl Landmark

The most emblematic project launched in Mexico took place in May 2025 at the Technological University of Nezahualcóyotl (UTN). According to a statement from the institution, the municipality’s first “Miyawaki Pocket Forest” was developed in one of the areas with the greatest deficit of green spaces per capita in the country.

In an area of ​​500 square meters, 1,500 specimens of 25 native species, adapted to the high salinity of the region’s soil (a remnant of Lake Texcoco ), were planted. Some of the most representative species in this case were oak trees, Montezuma cypress, and various varieties of sage.

The project was driven by a strategic alliance between the SUGi Foundation, a global leader in microforests; the Foresta Foundation; the Chilean organization Symbiótica and UTN itself, through its Academic Division of Environmental Technology.

“In a region with few green areas like Nezahualcóyotl, these types of initiatives are not only environmental, but actions with a profound social impact that help generate oxygen, mitigate the urban impact and offer a real habitat for biodiversity,” said the Rector of the UTN, Armando Alejandro Elizais, during the inauguration of the forest.

Photo: Jay Watts

Cerro de la Estrella Restoration

In the Iztapalapa Mayor’s Office, the Miyawaki approach was integrated into government strategies of the Secretariat of the Environment (SEDEMA) of Mexico City, under the “Green Challenge” program, where high-density techniques were implemented on the Cerro de la Estrella through a project called “Huizachtépetl: roots for the future”, last July.

In addition to general forest restoration, the project integrates the Miyawaki pillars through fertility nests, which are microstructures of enriched soil to ensure survival in eroded lands, and phytosanitary sanitation, which consists of applying plant endotherapy to more than 30,000 trees in the area to control pests such as the bark beetle and thus prepare the land for new dense plantings.

The Benefits

Impact reports from the SUGi Foundation and studies by UNAM on the subject establish that so-called “Miyawaki forests” grow 10 times faster than a conventional plantation. Being 30 times denser, they capture a significantly greater amount of CO2 per square meter than conventional forests.

According to specialists, in critical urban areas such as Neza and Iztapalapa, a mature microforest can reduce the local ambient temperature by up to 15°C. In addition, by becoming 100 times more biodiverse, they attract more pollinators (bees, hummingbirds) and microfauna essential for urban balance.

The network of actors driving this trend in Mexico is a mix of academia, philanthropy, and technical activism, starting with institutions such as the Technological University of Nezahualcóyotl, the Tec de Monterrey (with its Tiny Forest project in Monterrey), and UDEM.

NGOs and foundations have also been involved, such as SUGi , an international organization that provides technical design and global funding, as well as Foresta AC, coordinated in Mexico by experts such as Andrea Guzmán Parra, in charge of logistical execution and species selection, and the local SEDEMA, through its head Julia Álvarez Icaza, along with the Directorate of Protected Natural Areas.

“The Miyawaki method allows the forest to become a living laboratory. Through technology and density, we can observe how plants communicate and compete, achieving in 20 years what would take nature 200,” said Mario Adrián Flores, Vice President of the Monterrey Region at Tec de Monterrey, regarding the Tiny Forest project.

From Santiago to “Neza”

Before arriving at UTN in Neza, this team had already successfully implemented dozens of “Pocket Forests” in Chilean cities such as Santiago, Concepción, and Valparaíso. This prior experience convinced organizations like SUGi that they were the right people to oversee the expansion in Mexico.

To adapt this technique to Mexican soil, the Chilean team contributed the “know-how” to treat extremely complex soils, such as the saltpeter of Neza, applying lessons learned in the arid and semi-arid zones of Chile.

But the history of this type of implementation is much older. Before taking root in Chile and Mexico, the technique transformed industrial landscapes in Japan during the 1970s, where Dr. Miyawaki collaborated with companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi to surround their plants with ultra-resistant green belts.

The leap to a global and urban scale is largely due to the vision of Shubhendu Sharma and his organization Afforestt in India. Sharma, a former industrial engineer, standardized the process so that it could be replicated on small plots of land, enabling cities like Bangalore and Mumbai to see dense ecosystems emerge in parking lots or private gardens of just 100 square meters.

In Europe, the movement reached a massive scale through institutions such as IVN Nature Education in the Netherlands, where more than 250 “Tiny Forests” have been established in school and neighborhood settings since 2015. Countries such as Belgium, France (with projects by the organization Boomforest in Paris) and the United Kingdom have replicated the model with remarkable results: seedling survival rates exceeding 90 percent, growth ten times faster than traditional forestry techniques and a 100 percent increase in local biodiversity.

These projects have shown that it is possible to convert old patches of asphalt into vital refuges for birds and pollinators in less than three years, achieving total ecological autonomy in record time.

Agave americana, one of Mexico’s native species prioritized in the project.

Not as Easy as it Seems

Despite its effectiveness, the method faces critical barriers in the Mexican context, such as the high initial cost, due to the need to acquire thousands of seedlings for a small area and the machinery for deep soil removal, which implies an initial investment up to 5 times greater than traditional reforestation.

The availability of native species is also fundamental, taking into account that many commercial nurseries in Mexico tend to prioritize exotic species, such as eucalyptus or pirul, which makes the production of native climax species to meet Miyawaki density still an issue to be resolved.

Water stress is another factor to consider, since the first 24 to 36 months require constant irrigation, and in areas with severe water scarcity, this demands rainwater harvesting systems or the use of water treated specifically for the project.

The future of reforestation in the Valley of Mexico appears to be shifting away from large linear parks and toward a focus on ecological urban acupuncture. The goal of the collectives and universities involved is to have at least 100 of these micro-forests distributed throughout the hottest areas of the Metropolitan Zone by 2030.

This strategy represents a paradigm shift: the city no longer grows against nature, but learns to integrate it into its most forgotten interstices, restoring to the soil its capacity to sustain life.

In conclusion, Akira Miyawaki himself has been emphatic when he states: “What is truly transformative is creating ‘real forests’ or forest ecosystems. The technology for building forests must evolve over time; we cannot be satisfied with what was done decades ago.”

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  CNTE’s 72 Hour National Strike Begins, Vows World Cup Protests if Demands Not Met

  March 18, 2026March 18, 2026

  The union emphasized their demand is that “the negotiation table be resumed with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who has failed to keep her promise to repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law.”

• 

  Analysis | Culture

  Multiplying the Readers

  March 18, 2026March 18, 2026

  Government agencies and sectors of civil society can, and indeed should, contribute to building more and better opportunities that normalize the appeal of reading.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  Sheinbaum: Education Secretariat Will Meet with CNTE Teachers During 72 Hour Strike

  March 18, 2026

  President Sheinbaum said that education officials will address demands that are “feasible to meet.”

The post The Miyawaki Method: A Japanese Technique Helping Restore Green Areas in the Valley of Mexico appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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By Isaac Saney  –  Mar 17, 2026

Amid an intensifying economic war waged by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio—marked by an unprecedented tightening of sanctions and a de facto fuel blockade—Havana has moved to expand opportunities for foreign investment. This shift, under discussion for months, is neither abrupt nor ideologically capricious. It is both a necessary response to acute material constraints and a strategically calibrated decision within the realities of a capitalist world economy.

Confronted by relentless and maniacal US aggression, Cuba is compelled to adapt in order to endure. Trump’s own rhetoric—that he “can do anything I want with” and would have “the honour of taking Cuba”—lays bare a colonial and white supremacist worldview that continues to shape Washington’s posture toward the Global South. Reports that the United States has demanded the removal of Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel further underscore the broader objective articulated in recent US strategic doctrine: to subordinate the Western Hemisphere to US dominance. In this context, Cuba’s economic adjustments must be understood not as capitulation, but as resistance under siege.

The pursuit of foreign investment is not new. In the aftermath of the Soviet bloc’s collapse and the devastating “Special Period” of the 1990s, Cuba turned to international capital as a matter of survival. At the time, Cuban officials described this opening as a “necessary and unavoidable evil,” reflecting a preference for nationally controlled development. As Fidel Castro explained in 1996, the country required capital, technology, and access to markets—without which stagnation would have been inevitable. The conditions of the time did not permit ideological rigidity; they demanded pragmatic flexibility.

Today, similar pressures are at play. Yet critics who predict that foreign investment will inevitably lead to wholesale privatization misunderstand both the intent and structure of Cuba’s reforms. The Cuban leadership has consistently and emphatically rejected privatization as a neoliberal cornerstone. It has resisted the emergence of a domestic capitalist class that could accumulate disproportionate power and undermine the social foundations of the Cuban Revolution.

Cuba’s economic concessions, therefore, are not inherently capitalist in essence, though they may contain elements that, under certain conditions, could facilitate capitalist restoration.

This distinction is not semantic—it is fundamental. Measures such as joint ventures with foreign firms or the distribution of land in usufruct represent adaptive strategies within a socialist framework, not a dismantling of it. There has been no mass privatization of public assets, no wholesale transfer of national wealth into private hands. Rather, what has emerged are hybrid or novel forms of socialist property—configurations designed to preserve national sovereignty while navigating global constraints.

Crucially, the commanding heights of the economy remain socialized, and political power remains anchored in the working population. The Cuban state continues to function not as an instrument of capital accumulation, but as a mechanism for redistributing social wealth and safeguarding collective welfare. Revenues generated through foreign investment are not siphoned off by an oligarchy but reinvested into the social system. While tensions and disagreements exist—as they do in any society—they unfold within a non-antagonistic framework in which citizens retain meaningful avenues to shape policy.

Cuba Opens Its Economy to Emigrants Amid US-Promoted Energy Crisis

This enduring commitment to social solidarity distinguishes Cuba sharply from capitalist states, where economic policy is typically subordinated to corporate profit. Despite the social strains produced by prolonged crisis, Cuba continues to embody an ethic grounded not in accumulation, but in human connection and mutual care—what might be called an ethic of being rather than having.

The resilience of this model ultimately rests on a decisive historical achievement: the conquest of state power by the Cuban working class. As Fidel Castro emphasized during the crises of the 1990s, reforms would proceed without relinquishing the foundational principle of a government “of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers”—in stark contrast to systems governed by bourgeois, transnational, or imperial interests.

When Cubans themselves are asked whether their project of national independence and socialist development can endure, their answers are sober and unsentimental. There are no guarantees, they acknowledge—only struggle. What is certain, however, is their determination to defend the gains of the Revolution against sustained external assault. For over six decades, Washington has pursued the same objective: the overthrow of the revolutionary government, the dismantling of socialism, and the restoration of US dominance.

Against this, Cuba continues to erect what Vladimir Lenin once described as the most durable barriers to counterrevolution: a deep, far-reaching transformation of society. The more profound the revolution the more difficult its reversal.

Perhaps the essence of this project is best captured not in policy documents, but in a simple declaration once displayed on a Havana billboard: “Each day in the world, 200 million children sleep in the streets. Not one is Cuban.” In that stark contrast lies both the achievement and the aspiration of the Cuban Revolution—an enduring commitment to human dignity in the face of extraordinary adversity.

(Isaac Saney’s Facebook page)

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

The Cuban government has presented an economic decentralization plan that, amid the current energy crisis, aims to integrate emigrants into national economic development.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga explained in an interview with journalist Jorge Legaño that the provisions aim to diversify the business sector and expand the participation of foreign capital in productive projects.

The official emphasized that the initiatives respond to concerns raised by the Cuban community abroad, which has offered proposals to revitalize the national economy. According to Pérez-Oliva Fraga, this opens the possibility for emigrants, under the category of “investors and businesspeople” defined in immigration law, to become owners or partners in private companies in Cuba.

The government also confirmed the implementation of Law 118 on Foreign Investment, which will allow Cubans residing abroad to partner with national entities on equal terms with other international investors. The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that these partnerships can be established in both the public and private sectors.

Another important provision is the inclusion of emigrants in the Cuban financial system. Under Decree-Law 362, they may establish non-bank financial institutions, investment banks, and other entities, provided they have a license from the Central Bank of Cuba.

The government also assured that companies and investors will be able to open and operate foreign currency bank accounts in Cuban banks, under the same conditions as Cuban residents. This measure aims to provide legal certainty and confidence to those who decide to invest on the island.

Trump’s Executive Order and the Options of Cuba

Furthermore, the granting of land in usufruct is planned as a mechanism to boost productive projects and strengthen the exchange of knowledge with international partners.

Finally, the authorities expressed a willingness to strengthen economic ties with the United States, although they acknowledged that current US legislation limits that possibility. According to the Cuban government, any progress will depend on a substantial change in US policy toward the island.

The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced the new economic restructuring during an appearance on the morning of March 13, confirming that dialogue is developing between Washington and Havana.

(Diario VEA)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JB/SH

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During a cabinet meeting, Colombian President Gustavo Petro alleged that Ecuador may be conducting bombing operations along their shared border, following the discovery of a bomb allegedly dropped from an aircraft. This allegation comes amid escalating diplomatic and trade tensions between the two nations.

Petro emphasized that these are not the actions of armed groups, but rather direct violations. The Colombian president explained that an investigation is currently underway to determine the exact origin of the bomb; however, he reiterated his suspicion that “we are being bombed by Ecuador, and it’s not armed groups.”

According to the president, there is a recording of the incident that will be made public soon, and it confirms that there have been multiple explosions.

For its part, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa and Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld denied attacking Colombian territory, claiming that military operations are carried out exclusively on Ecuadorian soil against alleged guerrilla camps, calling the Colombian president’s accusations false.

“What I can confirm is that Ecuador does indeed have operations targeting camps of irregular groups; they are not Ecuadorian, they are groups that cross our border from Colombia, but are located in Ecuadorian territory,” Sommerfeld stated.

Some photos have emerged in recent media reports of a bomb that was allegedly dropped on Colombia from Ecuador.

The relationship between Colombia and Ecuador is experiencing a diplomatic and commercial crisis that intensified at the beginning of 2026. This situation stems from the political tensions between the governments of Gustavo Petro and Daniel Noboa.

The breaking point was Ecuador’s decision to impose tariffs of up to 30% on Colombian products, citing trade imbalances and questioning cooperation on security and the fight against drug trafficking.

In response, Colombia adopted reciprocal measures, including similar tariffs on Ecuadorian goods and the suspension of electricity exports to Ecuador. Electricity is crucial to Ecuador’s energy system.

The United States Announces the Start of Military Operations in Ecuador

The dispute also extended to the oil sector, with tariff increases for transporting Colombian crude through Ecuadorian territory, affecting export logistics and raising costs for companies like Ecopetrol. The escalation continued with the tightening of trade measures. Ecuador raised tariffs to 50%, while Colombia maintained its position of reciprocity.

This has created a scenario of a “trade war” between two Andean partners with trade exceeding $2 billion annually. Although this trade volume is not decisive for either economy, it does impact specific sectors, especially in border areas where commerce is more dynamic.

(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JB/SH

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By Misión Verdad  –  Mar 16, 2026

The formation of the “Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition” (ACCC), also known as “Shield of the Americas,” was officially announced on March 7 in Doral, Florida (United States) by the Trump administration. It is a strategic link within a doctrine of hemispheric domination explicitly outlined in the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS 2025) and the 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS 2026).

A Politico analysis asserts that both documents redirect US military spending toward “world war” preparations, where absolute control of the Western Hemisphere is a prerequisite. As a progression, this coalition operates as a mechanism for geopolitical containment, securing resources, and deepening a transactional order that aligns the sovereignty of Latin American states with Washington’s interests.

Context of the initiative
The initiative emerges amid regional tension, just two months after the military attack carried out by the United States against Venezuela on January 3, an operation that Trump himself confirmed as part of an escalation against the Venezuelan government based on the excuse of the alleged Cartel of the Suns, an organization that was later considered a “patronage system” and not a real group.

This context of direct aggression is intertwined with a documented pattern of electoral interference in Latin America during the 2025-2026 cycle, where the White House has conditioned economic and diplomatic support in favor of friendly candidates, as happened in the Argentine legislative elections at the end of 2025, or in processes such as those in Bolivia and Chile.

The inaugural summit of the Shield of the Americas brought together leaders aligned with Washington—including Javier Milei (Argentina), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), Nayib Bukele (El Salvador), and José Raúl Mulino (Panama)—to formalize the coalition. However, the founding document, issued by presidential proclamation, goes beyond anti-drug rhetoric by explicitly establishing the objective to “keep external threats at bay, including malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere,” a phrase that replicates the Pentagon’s 2026 National Defense Strategy’s first Line of Effort.

The countries in the region that integrate into this architecture accept, de facto, a “functional sovereignty” in which self-determination is ceded in exchange for protection, financing or political legitimacy, while the States that resist are exposed to unilateral coercive measures.

The war on drugs as a bridge (and excuse) towards militarization
The anti-drug discourse has historically served as a legitimizing narrative for interventions that extend beyond the realm of organized crime. The designation of Latin American cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations”—a measure implemented by Trump in his first months in office—legally enables extraterritorial military operations, asset freezes, and transnational surveillance without judicial counterweights. This fusion of the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror” transforms sovereign territories into geostrategic spheres of action where the US military presence becomes normalized under the pretext of security.

Military cooperation stems from a strategic selectivity that rewards political loyalty with access to intelligence capabilities previously unavailable to the region. This leaves non-aligned nations technologically isolated and vulnerable to multiple factors, particularly to organized crime, incentivizing them to desperately seek integration into the system.

The contradiction in the discourse is evident in cases such as that of Ecuador, whose president Daniel Noboa has received military and intelligence support from Washington while his family company, Noboa Trading Co., has been linked by international journalistic investigations to the transport of cocaine to Europe in banana containers.

An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) documented how, between 2020 and 2021, at least three shipments containing nearly 700 kilograms of cocaine that were shipped in containers from this company, without affecting bilateral security cooperation. This double standard reinforces the argument that anti-drug rhetoric is applied selectively, based on geopolitical expediency rather than effectiveness in combating drug trafficking.

Furthermore, the Noboa government has failed to reduce crime rates and continues to lose popularity, so it proceeded to outlaw the main political opposition, which demonstrates that the Shield protects not democracy but loyalty to the Washington scheme.

 In 2025, Trump called for a vote for Nasry Asfura of the National Party, to which former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández belongs; Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2024 for drug trafficking by a New York court. The conservative candidate held a slight lead over his rival, Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party, amid serious allegations of fraud, to the point that the country’s Attorney General’s Office proposed investigating whether the presidential elections had been hacked.

Strategic resources, logistics corridors and hegemony
Behind the architecture of the Shield of the Americas lie concrete interests linked to the control of strategic resources and logistical corridors. The National Security Strategy 2025 explicitly identifies the need to “eliminate the Chinese presence in strategic sectors,” with an emphasis on ports, strategic minerals, and digital infrastructure. The “Lithium Triangle” (Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile) holds more than 50% of the world’s reserves of this mineral, which is critical for the energy transition, and all three countries are among the participants in the coalition led by Washington.

Control of maritime and land routes is another key focus. The 2026 National Defense Strategy prioritizes securing the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico—renamed the Gulf of America by Trump—and the Antarctic routes accessible from Ushuaia, where US delegations have made unannounced visits that have generated speculation about possible joint naval bases.

Based on the intentional fusion of two failed wars, the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror,” any social movement or government that opposes extractivism could be labeled as a “hybrid threat,” a designation that would legitimize the deployment of special forces under the umbrella of the NSS 2025.

Transactional logic is manifested in agreements where countries like Argentina or Ecuador receive intelligence support or financing in exchange for aligning their foreign policies with Washington, while simultaneously facing trade tariffs or immigration restrictions that demonstrate the asymmetry of the relationship.

The Trump Corollary: Imperialist Offensive and the Assault on Venezuela

This coercive-transactional model of order does not seek regional integration but rather functional fragmentation: allies subordinated in key geostrategic positions, neutral states pressured through selective sanctions, and adversaries subjected to military and economic encirclement. As economist Jeffrey Sachs warned regarding the escalation against Venezuela: “This is not about fighting cartels but a long-standing operation to regain hemispheric control.”

The price of the “shield” is the definitive annulment of national autonomy in favor of a hegemony that is projected as perpetual, but which requires constant militarization to sustain itself. Under this scheme, sovereignty ceases to be an inviolable principle and becomes a negotiable variable.

The Shield of the Americas operates as an instrument for projecting power in a hemisphere that Washington insists on considering its “backyard.” The question that remains open for the region is whether alternatives will be built based on horizontal cooperation and unrestricted respect for self-determination.

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JB/SH

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This Monday, March 16, Argentina’s justice revealed significant new evidence in the ongoing investigation into the $Libra cryptocurrency scandal, which directly involves President Javier Milei.

The newly introduced evidence points to an alleged $5 million agreement tied to the digital asset’s launch, implicating not only the President but also his sister, Karina Milei, who serves as the Secretary-General of the Presidency, and a lobbyist identified as Novelli.

This development intensifies investigations into the cryptocurrency’s collapse, which caused millions in losses after Milei’s social media endorsement.

Judicial sources confirmed the discovery of approximately 20 phone calls on Novelli’s phone, made both before and after President Milei’s public promotion of the cryptocurrency on his social media platforms in 2025. These calls also reportedly occurred during the crucial period when $Libra’s value dramatically collapsed and the Head of State subsequently deleted his endorsement post, suggesting direct communication during critical phases of the alleged scheme.

The ongoing investigation, which Argentina’s justice confirmed is examining a note mentioning the “presumed $5 million agreement linked to the $Libra launch”, is revealing a sophisticated alleged payment scheme related to the public dissemination of the digital asset.

This intricate arrangement purportedly involved three distinct payment installments, with the execution of these payments partially conditioned on the use of the presidential figure for $Libra’s promotion.

According to forensic computer analyses, Javier Milei, Karina Milei, and lobbyist Novelli allegedly agreed to a first payment of $1.5 million, payable either in $Libra cryptocurrency or cash. This initial sum was reportedly followed by a second payment of a similar amount, specifically conditioned on President Milei making a public post on his social media channels promoting the Libra cryptocurrency.

Maximiliano Ferraro, presidente de la comisión investigadora de $Libra en Diputados, señaló que “la realidad ha superado a la ficción y las mentiras que el Presidente intentó instalar son más que evidentes”. https://t.co/i8K8oYe2RS pic.twitter.com/gif8yebvPK

— MDZ Online (@mdzol) March 16, 2026

The text reads: “Maximiliano Ferraro, President of the $Libra in the Diputies Commission of inquiry, noted that “reality has surpassed fiction and the lies the president tried to install are more than evident.”

In addition to these two substantial payments, a third installment of $2 million was allegedly linked to the eventual signing of an advisory agreement. This final agreement could potentially have served as a mechanism to legitimize or otherwise justify the aforementioned payments, attempting to provide a veneer of legality to the transactions.

The alleged complexity of this payment structure suggests a concerted effort to conceal the true nature of the arrangement and the direct financial benefits derived from the presidential endorsement. The investigation also extends to Prosecutor Eduardo Tatiano, who is being scrutinized for allegedly having access to all case information but failing to take appropriate measures, such as interrogating the individuals involved, raising questions about potential official complicity or negligence in the handling of this high-profile case.

In a parallel but distinct development, a commission from the Chamber of Deputies is conducting its own independent investigation into the matter. However, this legislative body has reportedly been denied access to the judicial case file, which is currently lodged in the court of Magistrate Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi. This denial of access to critical documentation raises concerns about transparency and potential obstacles to a thorough and comprehensive investigation, especially given the involvement of high-ranking government officials.

The lack of full cooperation between judicial and legislative branches could impede efforts to uncover the full scope of the alleged illicit activities and ensure accountability.

Milei’s Recommendation
The $Libra scandal originated on February 14, 2025, when Argentina’s President Javier Milei publicly recommended the $Libra cryptocurrency via his social media platforms.

The digital asset had been created a mere three minutes prior to his endorsement, a fact that immediately raised red flags for market observers. Furthermore, $Libra exhibited highly concentrated control, with an astonishing 82% of its circulating supply held by just five digital wallets. This extreme concentration made the cryptocurrency’s value highly susceptible to manipulation by a select few.

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This text reads: “President Javier Milei promoted on his X account this Friday a cryptocurrency called $Libra. After the announcement, the cryptocurrency experienced an initial furor, but then plummeted within hours.”

Following Milei’s promotion, $Libra’s valuation experienced a meteoric rise, skyrocketing from 0.01 cents to an astounding $4.7. However, this inflated value proved unsustainable, collapsing dramatically just hours later after its principal holders withdrew nearly $100 million.

In the wake of the crash, President Milei deleted his social media post during the early hours of Saturday, arguing that he had been unaware of the project’s true nature. This swift action and subsequent denial of knowledge have drawn intense criticism and fueled suspicions of complicity.

In response to the massive financial losses incurred, over 200 investors in the United States filed a lawsuit, prompting U.S. justice authorities to open their own investigation. This parallel probe aims to determine the responsibilities arising from the cryptocurrency’s promotion, potentially extending legal scrutiny to anyone involved in endorsing what appears to be a classic “pump-and-dump” scheme.

The combined efforts of both Argentinean and U.S. judicial systems underscore the seriousness and international dimensions of this alleged fraud, with significant implications for Milei’s administration and the broader cryptocurrency market.

Javier Milei Appears in NY Complaint About $LIBRA Cryptocurrency Fraud

These new revelations deepen the grave concerns surrounding President Milei’s involvement in the $Libra cryptocurrency scandal, highlighting a disturbing pattern of alleged corruption and disregard for public trust, with the exploitation of political power for private financial gain. The reported $5 million payment agreement and the intricate scheme to leverage the presidential office for personal financial gain represent a severe betrayal of the Argentinean people.

This alleged manipulation of digital assets for speculative profit, at the expense of ordinary investors, epitomizes the unchecked avarice often associated with neoliberal economic policies that prioritize individual enrichment over collective well-being. Such actions not only undermine the integrity of state institutions but also expose the vulnerability of developing nations to financial schemes that exacerbate existing inequalities.

(Telesur) by Laura V. Mor

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By Dmitri Kovalevich  –  Mar 14, 2026

The Iranian people are currently fighting off an imperialist aggressor, not only for the sake of their own country but also for Ukrainians, who are themselves targets of similar Western aggression and predatory objectives.

Ukraine, like “Israel” before it, has been transformed into an outpost of Western imperialism. The two wars these two are waging—one against the Russian Federation, the other against Iran–are similar and interconnected in so many ways. The common goal of each war is to preserve and even enhance Western hegemony by waging warfare against countries that dare to rebel against the ‘rules-based international order’ of the Western powers.

Former advisor to the Ukrainian president’s office, Alexei Arestovich, says outright that the war on Iran is being used to demonstrate what happens to those who oppose the rotten Western alliance.

Eduard Basurin, former army spokesman of the Donetsk People’s Republic, is convinced that the treacherous war against Iran is directly linked to anti-Russian plans by the US empire. “By hook and by crook, as they say, the U.S. is pressing ahead with strategic plans to create a ‘firewall’ around Russia and drive us into economic isolation.”

Ukrainian political scientist and journalist Oleg Yasinsky, who lives in Chile, reminds that everyone in the world should be aware that the war against Iran is already a global war and is directed not only against Iran. “The question is whether all the other victims that will inevitably be subjected to what Iran is facing will take action or instead patiently await their turn,” he says.

Yasinsky is convinced that this war is not a demonstration of strength but, rather, of the extreme weakness of a system unable to retain its power and hold over the world except by forceful means.

The Ukrainian underground communist group Borotba writes that the goal of the US attack against Iran is to destroy all other forms of communal life on the planet except for those which are subordinate to the Western powers, be they liberal or conservative.“That is why the attack against Iran is an attack against all of us, it is an attack on all of humanity,” the group says.

The aggression by the US and “Israel” against sovereign Iran cannot fail to affect Ukraine itself, and in a very big way. That’s because any international conflict is traditionally perceived in ruling circles in Ukraine with undisguised jealousy, deemed to distract attention from the situation in Ukraine and from the antics of its comedian-and-actor-turned-president, Volodomyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian authorities regularly engage in public relations promotions using social media and ‘emotional diplomacy’ (hysteria), fearing, above all, a loss of attention from the foreign public.

From the beginning, Ukrainian authorities have hoped for a quick end to the war against Iran. But after ten days, it has become clear that this war will not be easy for the Trump regime in Washington. Zelensky and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry have reflexively supported the aggression by the US and “Israel”. It was therefore no coincidence that at the Munich Security Conference last month, Zelensky met with the heir to the long-departed Iranian monarch Shah Pahlavi, effectively endorsing the overthrow of the Iranian government.

In Iran, the government is well aware of Zelensky’s positioning and his role in serving Western interests. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated in Late January, “He has been stealing from American and European taxpayers for a long time, lining the pockets of his corrupt generals and countering what he calls illegal aggression [by Russia] in violation of the UN Charter. At the same time, he openly and shamelessly calls for illegal U.S. aggression against Iran, which also violates the same UN Charter. The world is fed up with confused clowns such as Mr. Zelensky.”

Pro-Ukrainian analysts at home and abroad are unanimous in lamenting that Ukraine is unlikely to receive anytime soon the additional air defense missiles that Zelensky has been desperately demanding every time he meets with Western leaders. Washington is no longer transferring such weapons directly to Kiev but is selling them to NATO countries and expecting them, in turn, to deliver the arms to Kiev.

There is particular discontent at the moment in Ukraine over the surge in oil prices brought on by the war in Iran. Rises in oil and gas prices, of course, always happen when there is military conflict in the Middle East. This indirectly increases Russia’s revenues from trade in oil and refined petroleum products. Zelensky tirelessly repeats that his main wartime goal is to exhaust economic capacity in Russia and thereby restrict its ability to wage war by striking against Russia’s oil refineries, pipelines, and ocean-going transport.

Political scientist Oleg Saakyan tells the journal Novoye Vremya (which is funded by liberals in Europe) that the operation against Iran offers Ukraine certain strategic opportunities. But he also says that in the here and now, it also presents a number of threats.

“The operational and tactical threats include shortages of certain types of weapons, which are already in short supply for us and being felt. Then there are temporary fluctuations in oil prices, from which Russia may benefit in the short term,” he says. In the future, he hopes for a coup in Iran which would deprive Russia of an ally and, hopefully (in his view), destabilize the economic and military situation in the southern regions of Russia.

Political analyst Taras Zagorodniy shares this hope. In an interview for Ukrainian television channel 24TV, he draws attention to the energy situation. According to him, the US is seeking to strengthen its control over Iranian oil flows, which would then place additional pressure on Russian exports. If Iranian oil enters global markets under US control, this will make it more difficult for Russia to maintain its market positions, the political scientist says.

But this can only happen if the Iranian government is overthrown and a new government subservient to the West replaces it. Such an outcome is not at all evident.

Zagorodniy also notes that military strikes against Tehran have not only hit this Russian ally but have also hit the loose configuration of cooperation between Iran, Moscow, and Beijing. A large part of Iran’s oil has traditionally been sold to China, which, in turn, is a vital economic partner for Russia.

Since the beginning of March, due to the Western aggression against Iran, the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel supplies, so vital to wage modern warfare, have skyrocketed in Ukraine. Prices for all goods have risen, pressuring a Ukrainian currency already on the verge of collapse.

In addition, major operators are preparing for fuel shortages and are therefore limiting sales, which now threatens the approaching spring sowing season in Ukraine. The war against Iran has also driven up fertilizer prices. All of this leads Ukrainian analysts to predict a 30% increase by autumn in the cost of growing and selling grain.

Maksym Buzhansky, a deputy from Zelensky’s party, cynically writes that the only alternative to rising gasoline prices is to “finish off Iran.”

Due to the eruption of war in the Middle East, previously planned negotiations in Abu Dhabi over the war in Ukraine will not take place. In any event, the countless rounds of talks over Ukraine with little change in position, except for the worse, were always little more than occasions to appease the Trump regime.

Former Ukrainian legislator Alexander Dubinsky, now serving prison time for treason, believes that negotiations over Ukraine could, in principle, be postponed until the end of the war on Iran, because the war’s outcome and duration will influence the disposition of the parties involved. He writes, “The time for negotiations is when the U.S. operation in Iran is finished, after which both Russia and the U.S. will only have options for escalation to resolve the Ukrainian issue. Perhaps this is exactly what Zelensky is waiting for, hoping to prolong his war and prolong his stay at the geopolitical table of Ukraine while holding a maximum of cards.”

On March 7, the online Ukraine news publication Strana asserted that the war in Iran will be decisive for a new, US imperial strategy, in which it maintains its global dominance by dismantling a world order based on ‘international law’ and replacing it with ‘might makes right’.

On Monday, March 2, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer effectively called upon Zelensky and the governing regime he heads to join the war against Iran. “We will bring in experts from Ukraine along with our own specialists to help our partners in the Persian Gulf shoot down Iranian drones,” Starmer said. In January 2025, the two governments signed a ‘100-year partnership agreement’ which emphasizes military cooperation.

Economist Alexei Kushch notes that Starmer’s request to send Ukrainian military personnel to help shoot down Iranian drones indicates that the situation in Iran is far from being the military triumph being portrayed by Western media.

Former spokesman for the neo-Nazi ‘Right Sector’ paramilitary group in Ukraine, the Israeli-Ukrainian politician Borislav Bereza, is convinced that this is not about the drone operators themselves, but about the UK’s desire to bring the Ukrainian issue to the fore. As reported on Telegram on March 2, Bereza says, “This is not only about the experience we can offer, also an attempt to keep the Ukraine in the spotlight, given that all attention is currently focused on Iran. Starmer is helping us so we don’t disappear from the global information space.”

Some Ukrainian analysts also suggest that the British are drawing Ukraine into the war in Iran in order to convince Washington to maintain its assistance to the governing regime led by Zelensky. In other words, the people of Kiev, Odesa, or elsewhere in Ukraine are asked to convince Trump that he needs Zelensky by continuing to shed their blood in a doomed war effort.

Oleg Soskin, an economics analyst and former advisor to several post-Soviet Ukrainian presidents, now living abroad, acknowledges that Iran has removed Ukraine from the international agenda, as reported by Politinavigator. “In essence, the information model has already changed. This is an irreversible change; in this new model, there is absolutely no place for Ukraine or Zelensky. Ukraine is no longer in the information field, and no one is interested in Zelensky anymore.”

Soskin emphasizes that after the military strikes against the French military base in Abu Dhabi and two strikes against British bases on Cyprus, Kiev’s European allies are shifting their focus away from Ukraine. “Frankly, I didn’t expect the conflict in Iran to become this large.”

But many Ukrainian leaders remain wedded to the idea that if they lead Ukraine to participate in the war against Iran, Ukraine will regain attention and a larger weapons supply. This is what Zelensky and his governing clique are hoping to gain by sending their military to fight in the Middle East, even though at the present time, the Ukrainian army is unable to hold its own lines against the Russian Federation. The army is in constant retreat due to acute shortages of manpower.

NATO Countries Have Supplied Weapons to Ukraine (Report)

These days, it is rare to find a representative of Zelensky’s regime who is not rote-repeating the Western accusations against Iran. The entire Ukrainian leadership is dreaming of a quick defeat of Iran because this would indirectly weaken Russia, China, and vulnerable countries of the Global South. But the Iranian government and people are standing their ground, with dignity. They are angering and frustrating all those in Ukraine who have long since sold out their country to the Western powers.

The Iranian people are currently fighting off an imperialist aggressor, not only for the sake of their own country but also for Ukrainians, who are themselves targets of similar Western aggression and predatory objectives.

(Al Mayadeen – English)

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

Acting president of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez explained that the failed transportation strike in Caracas on Monday was orchestrated by extremist sectors from abroad.

Speaking Monday night from Miraflores Palace during a meeting with the Ministry of Education to review the national education plan, Rodríguez lamented that foreign actors continue to influence internal sectors via telephone. “I deeply regret that extremist sectors of the country continue to be activated from abroad, using only a telephone,” she stated [01:17].

The acting president emphasized that the path to stability lies in existing legal and social frameworks. “There is the Amnesty Law and the Democratic Coexistence and Peace Program to seek coexistence from diversity, from antagonism, so that Venezuela can recover normality in its life, both nationally and internationally,” she said [01:26]. Rodríguez described these measures as essential to guaranteeing the future of the nation and its youth.

A message encouraging dialogue and peace
Rodríguez urged Venezuelans to treat those who wish to work with respect, and she noted that the right to freedom of movement must be protected. She noted that while there are spaces for disagreement, they must remain within the democratic framework. “My call is for Venezuela to work and for those who want to work to be allowed to do so,” she said. “Those who tried to impede the right to free movement did not act correctly [00:42].”

She reiterated that the government remains open to listening to all sectors, including their needs and expectations, through the Program for Democratic Coexistence and Peace [01:00]: “It is necessary to move forward; there are spaces for dialogue and encounter, for expressing disagreements, but the important thing is that this space exists within the democratic framework [02:35].”

Government ensures mobility
Earlier on Monday, Transportation Minister Aníbal Coronado reported that the attempt to paralyze the capital through a strike had failed. Coronado stated that the Venezuelan government took proactive measures to ensure the defense of citizens’ rights to mobility through peaceful means.

Transport Strike Fails to Paralyze Caracas as Government Deploys Alternative Units

“All Metrobus and SITSA transport units were deployed, along with jeep drivers, and Caracas police trucks, to minimize the impact of what they tried to cause today,” Coronado said in a video posted to the public. He confirmed that all passengers were successfully transported to their destinations and workplaces despite the attempted boycott.

Coronado emphasized that the majority of transport workers did not respond to the call for a work stoppage and that the ministry remains committed to protecting the daily lives of Caracas residents.

(Alba Ciudad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SL

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

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

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From Presstv via This RSS Feed.

By Pedro Monzón Barata – Mar 16, 2026

Pedro Monzón Barata argues that Trump’s latest executive order and threats against Cuba represent a deliberate escalation of long-term US pressure aimed at strangling the island’s economy and sovereignty. Cuba’s response is one of resistance, adaptation, and defense across energy, diplomacy, and national survival.

A new and more direct threat now falls upon Cuba, imposed by the brutal force of the empire. On March 5, 2026, while the world’s attention was fixed on the unfolding imperial aggression against Iran, President Donald Trump made a chilling and arrogant declaration: after Iran, Cuba is next. In a phone interview with Politico, he stated bluntly that “Cuba’s going to fall, too”. The following day, at a White House event, he reiterated that action against Cuba is “just a question of time” once the conflict with Iran is concluded. This is not mere rhetoric; it is the public announcement of a premeditated plan to erase our nation from the map.

His plans increasingly include a final military aggression, but the reinforcement of the energy blockade is a chosen weapon for this final assault. Washington seeks to shut down power plants, water pumps, hospitals, ambulances, and transportation, freezing the country’s economy. This tragedy, the work of the United States government, represents an act of historical cynicism without parallel in the 21st century, crossing the final threshold of unconventional warfare to inflict massive suffering upon a peaceful population.

The blackouts of 12, 16, and 20 hours that we endure are not a geopolitical accident or a management crisis, but rather large-scale State terrorism, a crime against humanity perfected with the coldness of an executioner who determines the exact point where to cut in order to provoke maximum agony. Trump’s executive order of January 29, 2026, which declares Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” is consistent with the military intervention in Venezuela and the kidnapping of Maduro. They are arms of the same pincer whose ultimate purpose is not to overthrow a government, but to erase from history the living example of the Cuban Revolution.

The imperial rhetoric of “sanctions,” “democracy promotion,” and the “fight against terrorism and drugs” is the rotting shell that conceals the genocidal face of U.S. foreign policy. What moral legitimacy can a nation claim that has elevated state violence to both doctrine and practice? From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Vietnam and Raqqa; from financing death squads in Central America and the Middle East to torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo (usurped Cuban territory) while protecting convicted terrorists on U.S. soil, such as Luis Posada Carriles, the mastermind behind the mid-air bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 innocent people, on October 6, 1976. Washington’s accusations are a pathological projection: it accuses Cuba of what constitutes its own essence. Its terror has a concrete face: children without oncology medications, respirators that fail, food that does not arrive due to lack of fuel. This immoral policy has been condemned for 32 consecutive years at the United Nations. It is the policy of the gangster who burns down the house when the victim refuses to kneel.

The persistence of the crime
This policy of terror did not emerge with Trump, nor with the 21st century. It has a precise origin, a founding document that reveals its genocidal intent.

On April 6, 1960, Undersecretary Lester D. Mallory drafted the foundational memorandum of this U.S. policy toward Cuba, declassified years later as irrefutable proof of genocidal intent: “The majority of Cubans support Castro… There is no effective political opposition… The only foreseeable way to deny him internal support is through disenchantment and dissatisfaction arising from economic hardship… All possible means must be employed quickly to weaken Cuba’s economic life, deny it money and supplies, provoke hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.” Trump’s 2026 executive order is the application of the Mallory principle with 21st-century tools.

This energy aggression did not begin now. From 2019, oil tankers were pursued, threatened and intercepted in international waters; shipowners fined and intimidated for fear of losing access to the U.S. economy. The executive order was the formalization of an energy war already underway. Now the total supply of energy is prohibited, the vital fluid of any modern society, with the same objective as always: to provoke desperation to overthrow the Revolution, but with increased lethal precision. The perverse calculation seeks multi-system collapse as a breeding ground for “humanitarian” intervention. They do not want peaceful transition, but a docile failed state to administer and from which to erase the ghost of insurgent dignity.

Total blackout and total asphyxiation
What the empire seeks is not a simple economic adjustment, but a humanitarian collapse. The world witnessed this on March 4th, when a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the country’s largest, left two-thirds of the nation without electricity, including Havana. This was no accident. It was the most brutal manifestation of the “energy war” declared by Washington. As the Cuban News Agency has denounced, Trump’s executive order replicates the genocidal formula of the 1960 Mallory Memorandum: to provoke hunger and desperation in the population to overthrow the Revolution.

The immediate cause of the blackout was the “weakness of the electrical system due to lack of fuel.” Since January 9th, no fuel-laden ships have arrived on the island, and the odious U.S. pressure through threats of tariffs on countries that send oil to Cuba has paralyzed imports . President Trump himself admitted this on March 5, stating: “We cut off all oil, all money, or we cut off everything coming in from Venezuela, which was the sole source. And they want to make a deal”. Meanwhile, the Trump administration, in an act of limitless cynicism, maintains a “de facto blockade” while allowing certain very small shipments only to private businesses, attempting to divide the nation and create a dependency that undermines sovereignty. It is the same script: finance a fifth column while asphyxiating the people.

State terrorism and its human consequences
The consequences of this criminal policy have names and faces. While Cubans stood in line to buy candles during the massive blackout, the world could see the face of the State terrorism we denounce. A father, Damián Salvador, expressed it with the rawness of someone with nothing left to lose: “Everything you have in the fridge spoils: meat, the baby’s milk, everything” .

The revolutionary government, far from surrendering, has implemented emergency measures to preserve essential services: a four-day work week for the state sector, fuel rationing, and the reduction of transportation and educational activities. These are the measures of a nation preparing for the worst without ceasing to function, prioritizing life. But the reality is that fuel scarcity is pushing sensitive sectors like health, transportation, and water supply to the limit, leading even the United Nations to warn of an imminent risk of “humanitarian collapse.”

Trump’s ominous ‘friendly takeover’ threat
While the Iranian people resist and confront the US-Israeli aggression that has already cost thousands of lives, including children killed in airstrikes , Trump has turned his gaze to our homeland with increasing belligerence. On March 9, he escalated his threats dramatically, suggesting the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba—or perhaps not so friendly. “It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn’t matter because they’re really, they’re down to, as I say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis,” Trump declared. This is the language of a colonial power, treating sovereign nations as territories to be acquired.

The empire’s strategy is clear: first Venezuela, then Iran, and now Cuba. Trump has boasted that the capture of President Maduro on January 3 and the destabilization of Venezuela were essential steps in cutting off Cuba’s lifeline. He has publicly acknowledged that the worsening situation on our island is the direct result of his “intervention.” And now, as the conflict in Iran grows more complicated than anticipated, he has signaled with characteristic arrogance that the far-right Secretary of State, Marco Rubio (the son of Cuban immigrants with a long history of animosity toward the Revolution) is waiting in the wings to take charge of the Cuban portfolio.

State terrorism as doctrine
This pattern of exploitation and aggression is not exceptional; it is the consistent doctrine of U.S. foreign policy. U.S. foreign policy is a catalogue of State terrorism: overthrowing democratic governments (Mossadegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala, Allende in Chile), support for bloody dictatorships (Pinochet, Videla, Somoza), the invasions of Panama and Grenada; wars based on open lies as in the case of Iraq; drone bombings in eternal wars; creation and financing of terrorist groups. And what is the blockade but massive economic terrorism? The difference between a terrorist with a bomb and a bureaucrat who denies insulin to a child is only a matter of method: both inflict pain to break wills. This is the true face of the empire: a pain-generating machine that presents itself as the only doctor capable of healing the wounds it inflicts.

Imperial propaganda as champion of democracy and human rights crumbles before the facts. The United States has no moral authority to judge. It is the principal violator of sovereignties, the world’s greatest exporter of violence, and a historic sponsor of state terrorism. While accusing Cuba of human rights violations, Washington granted asylum in Miami to terrorists Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch; kept Julian Assange confined and tortured for exposing its war crimes; and, in Guantánamo, continues to usurp Cuban territory and subject individuals to prison and torture without trial.

But setting aside the immorality of the accuser, we must ask a more fundamental question: are there objective reasons for Cuba to deserve punishment? The documented answer is a resounding no. Cuba respects and promotes human rights as an absolute priority. There is no proven case of torture or inhumane repression. It is a country of peace where social justice and solidarity are the very essence of the system: free universal health care and education, progressive labor legislation and social security, inclusive political participation, selfless international cooperation, and much more. While in the U.S. and Europe, peaceful demonstrations are brutally repressed, people are discriminated against, poverty and migration are criminalized, and prison systems hold millions, Cuba maintains enviable citizen security and prioritizes equity and solidarity as principles of the State.

The paradox of the ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’

This leads us to an apparent contradiction that, upon examination, reveals the true nature of the conflict.

How can an island of 10 million people, a supposed “failed state in decline,” pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the superpower? It is a crude fallacy, meant only to confuse. But if we dig beneath the surface, it reveals a real substance: they do not fear Cuba for our military or economic size, but for the power of our example. The demonstration that a small, poor, and blockaded people can build a more just society, resist for decades the aggression of the most powerful empire, and export solidarity instead of war. This proves that another world is possible, that dignity is neither bought nor sold, and that popular sovereignty prevails over imperial domination. That is why they must destroy Cuba: our very existence disproves their narrative that there is no alternative to savage capitalism.

Cuba resists and does not stop
And yet, despite this existential threat, Cuba does not merely endure; it advances.

Cuban resistance is not immobility but constant movement, permanent adaptation, and incessant creativity. We do not resist to remain static, but to continue existing and advancing. Cuba has erased the concept of collapse that the empire predicts, transforming obstacles into opportunities and scarcity into a stimulus for innovation.

Aware of our energy vulnerability, the Island has been conceiving actions to confront the fuel blockade. They are not improvisations, but the result of strategic analysis, contingency scenarios and accumulation of moral and material reserves, which cannot always be made public.

Along with resistance against the blockade, we work sovereignly to resolve our own problems and deficiencies. We are aware of management insufficiencies, errors committed and structures to perfect. But precisely because we seek solutions by our own means, without external tutelage, the blockade is doubly criminal: it asphyxiates us and reduces our capacity for correction with our own resources.

From ‘option zero’ to ‘war of all the people’
This capacity for self-correction and adaptation is not new. It was perfected in the crucible of the Special Period, and from that experience emerged concrete strategies.

Certainly, the response to aggression has been calculated, serene, and decisive. When the enemy turns off our lights, we turn on collective intelligence and draw on past experience. One legacy of the Special Period was the conception of “Option Zero”: a limit scenario, for which we are prepared, grounded in the decision to resist, selflessly, in defense of sovereignty. It entails draconian yet rational energy rationing; the absolute prioritization of fuel for life-sustaining services; urban and suburban agriculture for food self-sufficiency; a return to animal traction and bicycle transportation; and the conversion of industry to low-consumption technologies. Essential services are prioritized: hospitals, where electricity decides between life and death; general and special education centers; and fundamental industries for survival and development. The basic productive and social fabric are all protected.

The response: serenity, rationality, and energy sovereignty
But the empire and its lackeys, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are wrong again if they believe desperation will make us surrender. The serenity and conviction I speak of were demonstrated on March 6th, when, in less than 48 hours, 80% of homes in Havana and most of the country had their electrical service restored. That capacity for response is not improvisation: it is the maturity of a people who have overcome far worse crises.

In parallel, we accelerate the renewable energy revolution. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz made it clear: “Cuba continues to work to achieve energy sovereignty.” These are not empty words. While Washington blocks, we build. We are accelerating the installation of 49 new photovoltaic parks that are already contributing over 1000 MW to the system, doubling renewable generation from 3% to 10% in the last year. The goal is to reach between 15% and 20% of the energy matrix with clean sources by the end of the year. Furthermore, the government has approved tariff and tax exemptions for families and businesses to import and install solar panels. We turn the lack of fuel into the greatest opportunity to harness the sun we have in abundance. It is the victory of collective intelligence over brute force.

Cuba: 5 Detained for Vandalism Amid Protests Against the Energy Crisis Generated by US Blockade

Diplomacy and the principle of solidarity
This battle is not fought only within our borders. It extends to every diplomatic trench where the truth of Cuba is at stake.

On the diplomatic and legal front, we wage a global battle for truth. We dismantle accusations by exposing the aggressor’s illegal actions. We insist that the correct term is blockade, not embargo: more precisely, it is economic and political war. The difference is legally and morally crucial: an embargo is a measure between belligerents; a blockade is an act of war designed to isolate, asphyxiate, and starve a civilian population, with extraterritorial reach that even violates the sovereignty of third countries.

Our voice has overwhelming support at the UN General Assembly, year after year, with the organic solidarity of Our America expressed through ALBA-TCP communiqués and joint declarations by organizations, institutions, countries, and prominent personalities. The Global South experiences the aggression against Cuba as its own and sees in it the essence of its own struggle.

Cuban international solidarity is an unprecedented and defining trait. Unlike the empire, which promotes terrorism, Cuba offers medical aid, education, and technical assistance. Medical brigades have saved millions of lives; educators have made entire populations literate. It is pure cooperation, not military intervention or plunder. “Doctors, not bombs,” Fidel summarized. This truth grants Cuba moral standing in the eyes of the world and inspires reciprocity.

Even within the “monster” (as José Martí called it), solidarity movements and courageous voices emerge. Cubans abroad, foreign businessmen with investments on the Island, and friendly governments and citizens offer us their support. This transnational network proves that Cuba is not alone: our cause is just, and the empire has failed to monopolize the global narrative.

Cuba and multipolarity
This growing network of solidarity is not accidental. It coincides with a profound shift in the global order.

Many ask about the possible role of critical aid from the emerging powers shaping the multipolar world order. Cuba recognizes the sincere expressions of solidarity from our most powerful friends, but we approach the issue with strategic serenity, without naive romanticism or dependence. We appreciate help in critical moments, but our final victory must be the result of our own effort, our ingenuity, and our unity.

However, Cuba’s symbolic value transcends circumstances. We are not the pariah state that propaganda paints us as; we are a nation with substantial political and moral capital, living proof that it is possible to resist and defeat the most powerful hegemonism in history. We trust, without chauvinism, that the world as a whole, and key actors in the multipolar order, will not allow the U.S. to erase Cuba from the political map. Concrete solidarity is already making itself felt with growing force.

An invincible fortress in the geopolitical storm
Our struggle is not a local matter: it is the frontline trench of a global civilizational war between genocidal unilateralism and the aspiration for a just international order based on respect and cooperation. Every day we resist, every blackout we survive, every act of aggression we dismantle, strengthens the credibility of our alternative. Defending ourselves is defending every people’s right to live in sovereignty.

The ferocity of the empire does not stop at Cuba’s borders. The aggression against Venezuela, which led to the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife last January 3rd, had a secondary objective: to wrest from Cuba its main source of fuel. However, they have once again underestimated the militant solidarity of our peoples and the fortitude of our leaders. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has reiterated the willingness to dialogue with the United States, but always from a place of respect for sovereignty and without the slightest concession to interference. When Trump threatened that “Cuba is going to fall,” our president’s response was immediate and firm: Cuba will defend itself “to the last drop of blood.”

An invincible fortress
But if diplomacy fails, if the blockade tightens, if the empire resorts to its ultimate argument, Cuba is prepared to respond with its ultimate defense.

While waging economic, communications, and diplomatic battles, we maintain unwavering vigilance and preparation in national defense. The brutal intervention in Venezuela, where 32 brave Cuban military collaborators fell while fighting overwhelming forces, did not intimidate us: it filled us with pride and revealed to us the enemy’s ferocity and the need to be ready for the maximum scenario.

When imperialism threatens, our people do not tremble or hide: they report to fortifications, firing ranges, and military units. The “War of All the People” is not an abstract concept: it is a physical reality, drilled every Saturday in every municipality, neighborhood, and workplace. It is the materialization of Fidel’s principle that every Cuban is a soldier.

This unique defensive system is not based on stealth aircraft carriers or unattainable hypersonic weapons, but on political consciousness, training, and the bravery of millions. The Revolutionary Armed Forces, as the professional backbone, integrate organically with the popular Territorial Troop Militia, who dominate the terrain and know how to use weapons, tactics, and strategies. This is “deterrence by denial” taken to the extreme: making the cost of invasion so prohibitive in blood, time, resources, and prestige that it becomes unthinkable, even for Washington’s most aggressive hawks.

They would not find a conventional army to annihilate, but an entire nation transformed into a swarm of resistance—where every citizen is prepared and trained to confront the enemy. This is not about defeating an imposed government; they would have to defeat the people themselves, because the Cuban Revolution is the entire people.

Serenity, rationality and conviction
What sustains this readiness is not fear, but a particular state of mind that visitors to the Island often remark upon.

In Cuba, one perceives a particular atmosphere of serenity, rationality, profound conviction, willingness to sacrifice, and security in final success. It is not naive euphoria or denial of danger, but the maturity of a people who have traversed multiple crises, and know the enemy’s destructive capacity and our own strength.

This serenity is confidence and concentration, the calm that precedes and accompanies decisive action, the result of decades of political education, comprehensive education, and the institutionalization of revolutionary conduct. When Fidel was no longer physically among us, many predicted imminent collapse. But revolutionary perseverance is not a contingent phenomenon: it is the result of a conscious process that transformed the intuition, political attitude, and bravery of heroes, martyrs, and the Commander in Chief into a resilient, adaptive State doctrine deeply rooted in the masses. That is our capital.

The absurdity of the blockade
And yet, this entire apparatus of aggression, this six-decade war, is not only criminal—it is profoundly irrational.

Without a blockade, both peoples would benefit. U.S. businessmen would access a neighboring market of 10 million consumers; enjoy a universally recognized culture, beautiful beaches, prodigal nature and a sympathetic population. Cubans would access technology, investments and markets to enhance their development. Both peoples could establish friendly relations instead of confronting each other. It is irrational and painful to promote bloodshed in unnecessary confrontation. The blockade is absurd in every sense: economic, political, moral, cultural and legal.

Despite this absurdity, Cuba does not close the door to dialogue—but neither will it open the door to submission.

There are sectors where, despite profound differences, we can engage in dialogue and work together: environmental issues, the fight against drug trafficking, orderly migration management, and scientific cooperation. But there is a non-negotiable red line: we will not negotiate sovereignty. Not one micron. Nothing. We do not ask permission to exist, to choose our political system, or to maintain our independence. We are willing to dialogue as equals, but never under threat, coercion, or blackmail.

Trump’s miscalculation
The empire’s leader believes he can add Cuba to a list of conquests, speaking of us as “one of the small ones” for him. He boasts that his intervention has crippled us, that we are desperate to make a deal. He speaks of a “friendly takeover” as if our homeland were a piece of real estate to be acquired. He is profoundly mistaken.

What Trump fails to understand (what none of them understand) is that Cuba is not for sale. We are not desperate to make a deal; we are determined to resist. The “fumes” he believes we are running on are not the last gasps of a dying regime, but the fuel of a people whose dignity has been forged in decades of resistance. The darkness he seeks to impose on us only makes the light of our conviction shine brighter.

The victory of ideas
This leads us to the final, inevitable question:

Can the energy blockade, added to the six-decade blockade, finally subdue the Cuban Revolution? The answer is in the archives of imperial failures. They have tried everything: the invasion of Playa Girón (1961), where the Rebel Army and a newly created and still poorly trained militia inflicted their first great military defeat on U.S. imperialism in the Americas; the terrorist war of the 1960s and 1970s, with sabotage and biological attacks; the terrifying Cuban Missile Crisis (1962); the strangulation of the Special Period, which forged a resilience of steel; a permanent cultural and media war, and the seductive lure of ‘soft change.’ And now, the final assault on the energy system. But here we are: standing, fighting, creating.

Our strength is not measured in barrels of oil or megawatts, but in inexhaustible moral reserves. It is nourished by Martí’s ethic, which placed “the cult of the full dignity of man” as the first law of the Republic. It feeds on Fidel’s thought, which bequeathed the conviction that decisive battles are won with ideas, unity, and an indissoluble connection between leadership and people. It is strengthened by the living memory of every collective sacrifice overcome, from the literacy campaign to the pandemic.

The immediate path will be extremely difficult: physical darkness that hurts, scarcity that oppresses, and constant uncertainty. But it is precisely in this forced darkness where the light of our reason, our morality, and our historical certainty shines with inextinguishable force. The United States, in its pathological obsession to destroy our example, only exhibits its own brutality and moral misery, while revealing the strength of our principles.

We will do what we have always done, what we know how to do best: resist, create, and win. Because we know that a people united by a just cause, conscious of their rights, and prepared to sacrifice for their dignity and sovereignty, is a force against which all empires shatter. Our final victory will not be a headline in the Western press; it will be the eternal endurance of Cuba as a free, sovereign, socialist nation of solidarity—inspired by Martí and Fidel. It will be the triumph of the idea that another world is possible, necessary, and inevitable. As long as Cubans have the will to fight, the flame of the Revolution, like the sun we harness in our solar panels, will never be extinguished.

These are the options of Cuba.

Bibliography
• Lamrani, S. (2024). The Economic War Against Cuba: A Historical and Lega

Perspective. Monthly Review Press.

• Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba (MINREX). (2025). Declaraciones del MINREX sobre el bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero. MINREX. https://cubaminrex.cu/
• Gustafsson, J. E. C. (2021). Danish academic backs Cuba’s battle against the cruel US blockade. Misiones ubana. https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/articulo/danish-academic-backs-cubas-battle-against-cruel-us-blockade
• Anwar Yassine. (2022, noviembre 4). Intervención en reunión de la Asociación José Martí em Líbano. Cubaminrex. https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/articulo/jose-marti-association-lebanon-reaffirms-solidarity-cuba
• Taimur Rahman. (2024, agosto 28). Intervención en sesión de intercambiosobre Cuba en Lahore. Cubaminrex. https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/articulo/cuba-yes-blockade-no-also-pakistan
• Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba (MINREX). (2026). Informe anual sobre el bloqueo: Necesidad de poner fin al bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por los Estados Unidos de América contra Cuba. MINREX.
• Partido Comunista de Cuba. (2021). Conceptualización del Modelo Económico y Social Cubano de Desarrollo Socialista. Editora Política.
• Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI). (2025). Anuario Estadístico de Cuba 2024: Sector Energético. ONEI.
• Martí, J. (2019). Obras completas. Edición crítica. Centro de Estudios Martianos.
• Castro, F. (1975). Selección de discursos acerca del partido. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, Instituto Cubano del Libro.
• Díaz-Canel, M. (2024). Intervención en la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular: Políticas para el enfrentamiento al bloqueo energético. Ediciones del Consejo de Estado.

Pedro Monzón Barata, former Cuban Ambassador and Consul General in Sao Paolo; researcher at the Center for International Policy Research

(Al Mayadeen – English)

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

By Kit Klarenberg – Mar 15, 2026

The Zionist-American war on Iran was intended to be a lightning strike routing, **fought exclusively**from the air, lasting only a few days. Instead, Washington and its Israeli proxy have blundered into a major multi-front conflict, which could well threaten the Empire’s very existence. The initial US aerial bombardment’s centrepiece was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s February 28th murder. Initially hailed by Western media as “the assassination of the century,” the vile act has resulted in catastrophe for the perpetrators.

The Islamic Republic’s relentless battering of Zionist entity civilian centres and military and intelligence infrastructure, and US bases throughout West Asia, hasn’t been deterred one iota. **Vast crowds**took to the streets of Tehran in vengeful mourning. Their righteous anger has pullulated throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Ever since, incensed Shiites have violently clashed with security forces in multiple major Pakistani cities. Meanwhile, Bahrain teeters on the brink of all-out revolution. Now, Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain Supreme Leader’s son, has taken his place.

Iranians celebrate Mojtaba Khamenei’s ascension to Supreme Leader

Iranian citizens of every ethnic and religious extraction braved US-Israeli airstrikes to celebrate his ascension. Commonly perceived as a hardliner with strong ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, expectation the new Supreme Leader will adopt a considerably less conciliatory, patient approach than his father is widespread. Western sources forecast Mojtaba may decide the Islamic Republic “must move quickly to obtain nuclear weapons in order to forestall future US and Israeli attacks,” overturning Ali Khamenei’s longstanding fatwa against their development by Tehran.

US President Donald Trump **has declared**he is “not happy” with Mojtaba taking power, and Israeli apparatchiks are likewise perturbed by the development. Nonetheless, this was an inevitable upshot of assassinating the former Supreme Leader. There was also no reason to believe doing so would precipitate the Islamic Republic’s collapse, or lead to Tehran’s military submission. It begs the obvious question of why Washington and Tel Aviv electively helped install a ruler more committed than ever to expelling the Empire from West Asia.

Similarly, Hezbollah’s extraordinary broadsides of the Zionist entity since Khameinei’s assassination should dispel any notion – as perpetuated by Israeli political and military chiefs – the group**was obliterated** by Tel Aviv’s criminal October 2024 invasion of Lebanon. That incursion was prefaced by an operation in which thousands of pagers used by senior Hezbollah operatives**were detonated**simultaneously, having been wired with explosives by Mossad pre-purchase, killing and injuring many. A week-and-a-half later, the group’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was **lethally targeted**in a Zionist entity airstrike.

Evidently, the Resistance cannot be crushed via high-level assassinations. In fact, such actions actively strengthen its members. This inconvenient reality has been well-known to the CIA since at least 2009. In July that year, the Agency produced a top secret assessment laying out the pros and cons of liquidating “high value targets” (HVTs). It was prepared in advance of Barack Obama’s CIA chief Leon Panetta shifting US “counter-terror” operations from capturing and torturing high-level suspects, to outright executing them.

The assessment concluded HVT operations “can play a useful role when they are part of a broader counterinsurgency strategy,” and sought to “assist policymakers and military officers involved in authorizing or planning” such strikes. However, it listed many “potential negative effects” of “high value” assassinations. Israel’s past killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were specifically cited as examples of how the strategy can spectacularly backfire. We have witnessed the CIA’s unheeded cautions play out in real-time since February 28th.

Under Fire, Not Divided: Why Iran’s Ethnic Front Has Not Cracked

Foremost among prospective blowback from HVT operations is the risk high-level assassinations can increase an “insurgent” group’s support. This occurs when killing a target “[strengthens] an armed group’s bond with the population, radicalizing an insurgent group’s remaining leaders, creating a vacuum into which more radical groups can enter, and escalating or deescalating a conflict in ways that favor the insurgents.” Such actions can also “[erode] the ‘rules of the game’ between the government and insurgents,” thus exacerbating “the level of violence in a conflict”:

“HVT strikes…may increase support for the insurgents, particularly if these strikes enhance insurgent leaders’ lore, if noncombatants are killed in the attacks, if legitimate or semi-legitimate politicians aligned with the insurgents are targeted…An insurgent group’s unifying cause, deep ties to its constituency, or a broad support base can lessen the impact of leadership losses by ensuring a steady flow of replacement recruits.”

The CIA assessment noted several historical instances of supposed HVT successes. When high-level targets have “prominent public profiles”, assassinations can in specific instances shatter a target group. However, this was not the case with Hamas or Hezbollah. The pair “carry out state-like functions, such as providing healthcare services,” so higherups are well-known to citizens of Gaza and Lebanon. Yet, their “highly disciplined nature, social service network, and reserve of respected leaders” mean they can easily “reorganize” in the wake of assassinations.

A CIA table on past/ongoing Western assassination programs

The Zionist entity had by this point been engaged in “targeted-killings” against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Resistance groups since the mid-1990s. However, their “decentralized command structures, compartmented leadership, strong succession planning, and deep ties to their communities” made them “highly resilient to leadership losses.” Undeterred, Tel Aviv’s high-level assassinations continued apace. In the early 2000s, Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin and the group’s leader in Gaza Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi were murdered. However, the killings “strengthened solidarity” between Resistance factions, while “[bolstering] support for hardline militant leaders.”

The obvious lessons of this wanton bloodletting remained unlearned by the Zionist entity, once the Gaza Holocaust erupted. In June 2024, elite imperial journal Foreign Affairs published a report unequivocally headlined Hamas Is Winning. It boldly concluded “Israel’s failing strategy makes its enemy stronger.” The outlet also recorded how “according to the measures that matter,” Hamas was considerably bigger and more powerful than on October 7th 2023. Israel had thus stumbled into a deeply ruinous attritional war, with a “tenacious and deadly guerrilla force.”

Hamas’ surging popularity with Palestinians throughout the Gaza genocide was found to have significantly enhanced the group’s “ability to recruit…[and] attract new generations of fighters and operatives.” This granted Hamas the ability to launch “lethal operations” in areas previously “cleared” by the IOF “easily”. Foreign Affairs charged the Zionist entity, to its “great detriment”, failed to comprehend how “the carnage and devastation it has unleashed in Gaza has only made its enemy stronger.”

It is not merely Hamas that has been galvanised by the Gaza genocide. Israel’s “carnage and devastation” has greatly expanded the ranks and resolve of the entire Resistance, while its constituent members have won hearts and minds globally in ever-mounting numbers.Tel Aviv and its Anglo-American puppetmasters have no good choices left to make, in a criminal war of choice aged against an indefatigable adversary committed to total victory, the likes of which they have never faced before.

The calamitous outcomes of Zionist-American conflict with Iran were amply spelled out in a June 2025 report by the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies. Among its prescriptions, INSS cautioned against assassinating Ali Khamenei, as the Islamic Republic “would likely have little difficulty selecting a successor, who could prove to be more extreme or more capable,” while uniting the Iranian public and government more than ever. The consequences of disregarding this prophetic curse will reverberate throughout West Asia for centuries.

(Global Delinquents)

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

This editorial by Hugo Aboites originally appeared in the March 14, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project*.*

The faculty and staff of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) have a very generous collective bargaining agreement that supports their teaching and research activities. It includes freedom of research, sabbatical leave, other leaves of absence, a balance between teaching and research, and more. Furthermore, the UAM administration has committed to providing the SITUAM union, through the collective bargaining agreement, with information on the institution’s academic activities. This allows the union to intervene with more information to defend the academic workers and enables them to contribute to the direction and progress of this important work.

The outdated prejudice persists that a union in a university is only useful for negotiating salaries and benefits. Everything else, it is said, is academic and not relevant to the discussion. But if the union includes administrative and academic staff (more than a thousand), then it is clearly relevant. Furthermore, when academic matters are prominently featured in the bilaterally signed contract, then of course it is appropriate to discuss, and even expand upon, what has been agreed upon.

And in that sense, it’s good that the clauses dealing with academic matters are very precise, as this facilitates discussion. For example, clause 215 states that UAM administration is obligated to “inform the union annually of the research projects approved by the divisional councils, as well as their names” and, among other things, “the resources” allocated to them (Section XXV).

The teaching schedule must also be made public. (Section XXIV) Furthermore, the Rector’s Office must provide detailed information on agreements with public or private institutions and companies (Section XXVI). Clearly, the union does not decide on the approval of projects or teaching loads, but since it is informed, it can freely analyze and express its opinion regarding a given project. Nothing prevents an academic discussion on a topic or project, especially since UAM is legally obligated to ensure that “the training of professionals corresponds to the needs of society” and “to develop research activities… primarily addressing national problems…” (Organic Law, Art. 2).

Some examples clarify the type of problems that can arise at this point: UAM has entered into agreements with transnational companies to conduct research on a technology that, among other uses, improves the performance of tanks, aircraft, and combat helicopters for the U.S. armed forces. In cases like this, UAM provides facilities, researchers, and other resources from public funding to the institution free of charge. This is highly questionable for UAM. Another example: the design and manufacture of machinery for a company seeking to make its toilet bowl deodorant tablets more compact and longer-lasting.

Another example: the development of products and adhesives for application, for instance, on shoe soles. Yet another: offering a master’s degree program at a large company’s facilities to train its technical staff. And more: countless courses on dog training, bonsai care, theater, and so on, with fees reaching thousands of pesos. It’s so important to know and analyze what’s being done, but equally, or perhaps even more, important to examine what aspects of Mexico are not being addressed at UAM.

Many activities could be discussed by panels of academic experts convened by SITUAM to critically examine the implications of these projects. Furthermore, on the 51st anniversary of its founding (March 4th), SITUAM can join as a key player in this important endeavor to support a UAM that addresses the broad challenges facing the Mexican people and contributes to resolving them.

The fact that, with the new labour law (despite our initial suspicion), all workers of the institution, unionized or not, can decide whether to approve the progress in the negotiation carried out by SITUAM, has served to increase the discussion and participation of non-unionized workers in union issues.

This fosters greater union membership and strengthens both the union and democracy at UAM. With votes for or against what SITUAM obtained in the negotiations, we broaden the base of democratic decision-making in an institution where unilateral decisions abound. And that strengthens the union’s contribution to UAM.

A country of organizations and, hopefully, of democratic universities, ultimately has a better chance of facing the hostile climate that prevails today due to the decision of the United States and israeli governments to bet on war in the Middle East, and due to the threats against the Cuban people and nation.

• 

  Analysis | Labor

  SITUAM, A Renewed Actor in the University

  March 17, 2026

  The Metropolitan Autonomous University’s faculty and staff union has broadened the base of democratic decision-making in an institution where unilateral decisions abound.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 17

  March 17, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on electoral reform, healthcare routes, security & arms-trafficking, and Cuba solidarity.

• 

  Analysis

  Cuba: A Paradigm in Health, Despite the Blockade

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Cuba’s achievements are noteworthy despite an economic blockade from the US that has lasted more than 65 years, writes Martí Batres.

The post SITUAM, A Renewed Actor in the University appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

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

Electoral Plan B: fewer privileges and more power to the peoplePresident Claudia Sheinbaum’s Plan B is advancing in the Senate. The proposal seeks to reduce privileges of the electoral apparatus and strengthen democracy, make recall referendums more accessible, impose salary caps for INE and electoral court officials who will not be able to earn more than the President, and eliminate bonuses and perks and privileges.

The bill also proposes reducing council seats in municipalities, capping spending by local congresses, and making party finances transparent by prohibiting illicit or foreign funds. These measures are estimated to save 4 billion pesos (US$226.02 million), with the resources to be earmarked to infrastructure and wellbeing for the people.

Healthcare Routes: record pharmaceutical supply and strengthening of the public systemThrough the Healthcare Routes, 115 million units of medications were delivered in 2025 and 45 million thus far in 2026. A first-level pharmaceutical catalog has been consolidated, and specialized kits are being distributed, with supply levels in the 56 IMSS-Wellbeing oncology units between 91% and 97%, a record high. In addition, 10,785 specialists were hired at IMSS and 1,295 at ISSSTE hospitals and clinics.

Security and arms trafficking in the Mexico–U.S. relationshipPresident Claudia Sheinbaum explained that the main way the U.S. can help Mexico is by stopping arms trafficking into the country. The President mentioned a New York Times report indicating that the amount of arms entering from the U.S. may have doubled, though she clarified that the data needs verification. Sheinbaum emphasized that security coordination with the U.S. is maintained under a clear principle: respect for sovereignty and the country’s territorial integrity.

Solidarity with Cuba amid the crisisSheinbaum stated that supporting the Cuban people is an act of solidary and fraternity in the face of the crisis the island is facing. Those who wish to contribute can do so, and those who don’t are within their rights.

The President also criticized the pettiness and disinformation spread about these donations. In addition, she backed the flotilla departing on March 19 from Puerto Progreso, Yucatán to Cuba, and stated that the government will determine how it can support this solidarity initiative.

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• 

  Analysis | Labor

  SITUAM, A Renewed Actor in the University

  March 17, 2026

  The Metropolitan Autonomous University’s faculty and staff union has broadened the base of democratic decision-making in an institution where unilateral decisions abound.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 17

  March 17, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on electoral reform, healthcare routes, security & arms-trafficking, and Cuba solidarity.

• 

  Analysis

  Cuba: A Paradigm in Health, Despite the Blockade

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Cuba’s achievements are noteworthy despite an economic blockade from the US that has lasted more than 65 years, writes Martí Batres.

The post People’s Mañanera March 17 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This column by Martí Batres originally appeared in the March 16, 2026 edition of El Heraldo de México. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project*.*

There is no legal, political, or historical reason that justifies the siege the Cuban people are suffering. On the contrary, the Caribbean nation has been characterized by its spirit of solidarity, particularly on a matter very sensitive to human dignity: health.

It is remarkable that despite an economic blockade lasting over 65 years, the fall of its ally the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago, and the intensification of measures against it in recent times, Cuba has been able to promote a remarkable level of healthcare for its citizens, as well as consistent solidarity in this area with many nations around the world. At the same time, it has developed advanced biomedical research in many fields, such as monoclonal antibodies against autoimmune diseases, arthritis, vitiligo, cancer, and others, and has achieved an unprecedented rate of medical training per capita.

Among its many comparative achievements, we can note the following: Regarding the number of doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, Cuba has 9.5; Costa Rica 2.9; the United States 2.6; Mexico 2.5; and Latin America 2.7 on average; and in the world 1.8.

In terms of the number of nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, Cuba has 7.1; the US 12.3; Mexico 3.4; Chile 4.7; Latin America 7.1 and the world 4.

In relation to the number of hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants, Cuba has 4.3; the United States 2.8; Mexico 1 and Latin America 2.

Regarding life expectancy at birth, Cuba has 78.3 years; the US 77.5; Mexico 75.5 and Latin America 74.8.

Regarding child malnutrition, Cuba has a prevalence of 4.1%; the United States 0.5%; Mexico 12.6% and Latin America 11.5 percent.

In infant mortality, Cuba has 5.8 cases per 1,000 inhabitants; the US 5.4; Mexico 11.5 and Latin America 13.2.

In terms of low birth weight, Cuba has 7%; the United States 8%; Mexico 10%; Latin America 10% and the world average 15 percent.

In exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, Cuba has 40.6%; the US 25.8%; Mexico 21.1%; Canada 26.2%; Latin America 43% and the world average 47 percent.

In terms of diabetes prevalence, Cuba has 9.4%; the United States 13.7%; Mexico 16.4%; Latin America 10.1% and the world average is 11.1 percent.

In adult obesity, Cuba has 24%; the United States 40%; and Mexico 38%.

In new cases of Tuberculosis per 100,000 inhabitants, Cuba has 6%; Mexico 29%; Chile 14%; and the world average is 13.9 percent.

Before seeking to annihilate a small country of 10 million inhabitants, bellicose powers should learn a great deal from all that Cuba has managed to do in public health with very scarce resources and in spite of excessive obstacles.

Martí Batres is General Director of Mexico’s Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) and the former interim head of government of Mexico City.

• 

  Analysis | Labor

  SITUAM, A Renewed Actor in the University

  March 17, 2026

  The Metropolitan Autonomous University’s faculty and staff union has broadened the base of democratic decision-making in an institution where unilateral decisions abound.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 17

  March 17, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on electoral reform, healthcare routes, security & arms-trafficking, and Cuba solidarity.

• 

  Analysis

  Cuba: A Paradigm in Health, Despite the Blockade

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Cuba’s achievements are noteworthy despite an economic blockade from the US that has lasted more than 65 years, writes Martí Batres.

The post Cuba: A Paradigm in Health, Despite the Blockade appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This article by María del Pilar Martínez originally appeared in the March 16, 2026 edition of El Economista.

With less than ten days until the legal deadline, labour tensions at the General Motors (GM) plant are reaching a critical point. This Tuesday, union representatives from the National Independent Union of Automotive Industry Workers (SINTTIA) and company executives will resume negotiations to try to resolve the impasse in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) review. However, the rank-and-file workers have already begun formally forming their strike committee.

Despite the openness to dialogue, 300 workers formally joined the strike committee at an assembly. This body will be responsible for coordinating logistics, security details, and operational strategy should the red and black flags be raised on March 25.

For a plant that employs 7,000 workers, the mobilization of this committee of 300 delegates sends a clear message to the company: the willingness to reach an agreement does not imply a renunciation of their labour demands.

SINNTIA was among the first Mexican unions to secure the right to negotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement after the implementation of the 2019 labour reform.

This process is not just another contract review, as this union is one of the emblematic organizations of the new labour era in Mexico. It’s worth remembering that this union was among the first to secure the right to negotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement after the implementation of the 2019 labor reform, breaking with decades of traditional practices and legitimizing its representation through free, direct, and secret ballot.

The next few hours will be crucial. While the company seeks to maintain operational competitiveness, the union is pushing for salary increases and benefits that compensate for the current cost of living.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  General Motors & SINTTIA Union Resume Talks: Workers Form Strike Committee

  March 17, 2026

  For a plant of 7,000 workers, the mobilization of a strike committee of 300 sends a clear message to GM: a willingness to reach an agreement doesn’t imply a renunciation of their demands.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Ministry of Health says Vaccinations Working: 30% Fewer Active Measles Cases

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  The public’s response to the call to get vaccinated against the virus has begun to show results in the country, with a reduction in active cases and a downward trend.

• 

  Analysis

  The Inconsistencies of Ebrard

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Mexico’s Secretary of Economy touts a new trade policy of origin over price, yet the import of highly subsidized staple grains benefits US producers at the expense of Mexico’s domestic producers.

The post General Motors & SINTTIA Union Resume Talks: Workers Form Strike Committee appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This article by Arturo Sánchez and Alma E. Muñoz originally appeared in the March 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The public’s response to the call made by health authorities to get vaccinated against measles has begun to show results in the country, with a reduction in active cases and a downward trend, the federal government reported on Tuesday.

At the morning press conference at the National Palace, officials from the Ministry of Health detailed that 13.3 million vaccines have been administered in five weeks, which has helped to slow the transmission of the virus. However, they urged the public to “not let their guard down.”

Undersecretary of Health Eduardo Clark García Dobarganes emphasized that vaccination is the primary tool for containing the outbreak. “Thanks to this effort, we are already seeing a significant reduction in the rate of measles virus transmission,” he noted.

He indicated that the peak of infections occurred toward the end of February and that there are currently “almost 30 percent fewer” active cases compared to three or four weeks ago. However, he warned that the risk remains if measures are relaxed. “There can always be surprises if we let our guard down,” he stated.

He explained that the goal is to administer 25 million vaccines, averaging 2.5 million per week, and that they have already surpassed half of that target. He also acknowledged the participation of institutions such as the IMSS, ISSSTE, and IMSS-Bienestar, as well as state governments.

Despite the progress, he warned that in Durango, Sonora, Puebla and Quintana Roo a clear downward trend is not yet observed, so he called for reinforcing vaccination, especially among people aged 13 to 49 who do not have a complete vaccination schedule.

For his part, Health Secretary David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz reported that the outbreak in Jalisco, where 60 percent of the cases were concentrated, “is clearly on the decline.” He detailed that of more than 4,600 accumulated cases, there are currently 617 active cases and only 59 new infections.

He added that most cases in that state are concentrated in six municipalities and that vaccination has been key to containing the spread. “We are reaching very high vaccination levels to control the outbreak,” he stated.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  General Motors & SINTTIA Union Resume Talks: Workers Form Strike Committee

  March 17, 2026

  For a plant of 7,000 workers, the mobilization of a strike committee of 300 sends a clear message to GM: a willingness to reach an agreement doesn’t imply a renunciation of their demands.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Ministry of Health says Vaccinations Working: 30% Fewer Active Measles Cases

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  The public’s response to the call to get vaccinated against the virus has begun to show results in the country, with a reduction in active cases and a downward trend.

• 

  Analysis

  The Inconsistencies of Ebrard

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Mexico’s Secretary of Economy touts a new trade policy of origin over price, yet the import of highly subsidized staple grains benefits US producers at the expense of Mexico’s domestic producers.

The post Mexico’s Ministry of Health says Vaccinations Working: 30% Fewer Active Measles Cases appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

This column by Arturo Huerta González originally appeared in the March 17, 2026 issue of La Jornada de Oriente, the Puebla edition of Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper, La Jornada*.* The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project*.*

On March 11, 2026, the Secretary of Economy stated that “all trade from now on will be organized based on where the product was made, not necessarily its price. The model, from before the 1990s until now, was to buy from whoever produced it cheapest, regardless of who that was; that is changing.” In fact, this is what governments from the 1990s to the present have been doing. They have resorted to importing basic grains, whose price is low due to both higher productivity in the US and the cheap dollar that Mexico has been using to help lower inflation. This has been detrimental to domestic producers, as they are unable to compete with imports because they operate with higher costs. Consequently, they have seen increased financial problems, higher levels of debt and insolvency, which reduces their income, investment, and national production, thus increasing the share of basic grain imports in national consumption.

Imports of staple grains benefit US producers and workers at the expense of domestic producers , who become undercapitalized and over-indebted. This reduces their investment capacity, preventing them from increasing productivity to compete with imports. Consequently, the economy remains dependent on imports to meet consumption needs, creating a vicious cycle of reliance on capital inflows to maintain a cheap dollar and finance imports. This places the country in a highly vulnerable position regarding its borrowing capacity.

It is very costly for the country to lower inflation with cheap imports of basic grains, because it has to establish high interest rates and fiscal austerity to attract capital, so Mexico has stopped having an economic policy in favour of productive growth and employment and hence the context of stagnation of the national economy and the high levels of indebtedness , underemployment and poverty.

It’s necessary to remove basic grains from the USMCA, so that Mexico’s domestic production is prioritized, our food dependency is reduced and foreign trade deficit caused by such imports is diminished.

The growth of cheap imports of staple grains negatively impacts the income of farmers and their families, reducing their purchasing power, which in turn contracts demand, the domestic market, and national economic activity, including job creation. The low prices of imported staple grains, by displacing domestic producers, leave them unable to service their debt, thus rendering them ineligible for credit and affecting banking stability.

Therefore, the Secretary of Economy must be consistent and stop promoting cheap imports of basic grains, given the negative effects this is having. He must prioritize domestic production, even though it is more expensive, because by boosting production, productivity will increase, costs will decrease, and prices will fall.

To protect domestic producers and advance food self-sufficiency and improve the income of agricultural producers so they can cover their debts and increase investment, it is necessary to remove basic grains from the USMCA, so that domestic production is demanded and our food dependency is reduced, as well as to reduce the foreign trade deficit caused by such imports.

The Secretary of Economy also pointed out that “the federal government has modified more than 770 tariff classifications with the aim of protecting domestic producers from imports that, he said, were entering the country at ridiculously low prices.” Therefore, if the government does not remove basic grains from the USMCA , it must be consistent with its statements and establish tariffs on imports of these products to protect domestic producers. This would benefit domestic production, and producers would have the income to increase investment and move toward self-sufficiency in basic grains.

The war between the US and Israel against Iran not only leads to increased oil and gas prices, which will affect Mexico, but also raises the price of fertilizers and will cause food shortages worldwide. Hence the urgency for Mexico to move towards self-sufficiency in basic grains, gasoline, and gas , and not continue depending on imports, which will be more expensive.

The Mexican government , in addition to removing staple grains from the USMCA and/or imposing tariffs on their imports, must abandon high interest rates, budget cuts, and the exchange rate appreciation that makes imports cheaper, all of which discourage investment in the production of these goods. What is needed is affordable credit, subsidies for producers, supply centers, and collection and distribution facilities that eliminate intermediaries, as well as greater public investment in infrastructure to expand irrigated land and establish fair prices that allow for investment and production, thus advancing food self-sufficiency and reducing imports. As domestic production increases, so too would employment, leading to more endogenous growth, less pressure on the foreign trade balance, and less dependence on capital inflows. This would increase the income of producers and agricultural workers, stimulating the domestic market and reducing our dependence on food imports and capital inflows. The problem is that the Secretary of Economy is not acting in favor of domestic producers. It hasn’t even crossed his mind to remove staple grains from the USMCA, nor will he establish tariffs on imports of these goods, as he doesn’t want to confront the US government. Instead, he has submitted to its dictates, meaning that domestic producers of staple grains will continue to suffer the aforementioned problems. Furthermore, there is no indication that the demands of agricultural producers to improve their financial situation and their capacity for investment and production, thus enabling them to achieve food self-sufficiency in these products, will be met.

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  Labor | News Briefs

  General Motors & SINTTIA Union Resume Talks: Workers Form Strike Committee

  March 17, 2026

  For a plant of 7,000 workers, the mobilization of a strike committee of 300 sends a clear message to GM: a willingness to reach an agreement doesn’t imply a renunciation of their demands.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Ministry of Health says Vaccinations Working: 30% Fewer Active Measles Cases

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  The public’s response to the call to get vaccinated against the virus has begun to show results in the country, with a reduction in active cases and a downward trend.

• 

  Analysis

  The Inconsistencies of Ebrard

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Mexico’s Secretary of Economy touts a new trade policy of origin over price, yet the import of highly subsidized staple grains benefits US producers at the expense of Mexico’s domestic producers.

The post The Inconsistencies of Ebrard appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Gloria López originally appeared in the March 15, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

Faced with the high costs of trials, women in Mexico City and the State of Mexico are financing litigation for alimony, custody and vicarious violence with weekly contributions of 100 pesos to access a dignified defense.

The strategy is driven by the Rojo y Morado organization, made up of 30 lawyers who offer support during legal processes that can last up to a year and a half and cost between 12 and 15 thousand pesos, which opens an accessible way to face cases that were previously abandoned due to lack of money.

With weekly payments of 100 pesos, women can cover legal processes that were previously unattainable for them due to the high costs of private firms or the lack of interest from public defenders, who also have poor results and minimal pensions.

Rojo y Morado’s Founding & Purpose

Paola Carolina Rojo Aranda, founder of the Rojo y Morado organization, explained that the project arose from the need to assist women who cannot afford a lawyer due to the high cost of legal fees.

“The organization was born out of the need of many women who cannot afford a lawyer because it is very expensive and often use the services of public defenders, but these do not show the interest or respect that their cases deserve, and they end up obtaining very minimal pensions or with their cases destroyed,” she said.

Faced with the dilemma that victims must choose between feeding their children or paying for legal defense, the organization decided to implement the weekly payment system.

Payment System & Service Scope

“We charge them 100 pesos weekly, an amount they can easily afford. There are extreme cases where we don’t charge them at all or we reduce the fee from 100 pesos, but that’s the base amount, until they have access to a decent pension,” she explained.

Since its inception in 2023, the Rojo y Morado organization has served over 100 women in the Valley of Mexico region. While the first few years focused on establishing the organization’s structure and outreach, the founder noted that they now have archives filled with favorable court rulings.

“We’ve been doing this for three years; the first year I think we managed to handle around 20 cases, we lacked publicity. In the second year the situation was much better and now we receive many more cases,” she emphasized.

Success Rate & Operating Model

This work model has allowed the organization to achieve a 70 percent success rate in the trials they handle from beginning to end. Rojo y Morado’s operating model differs from a traditional law firm because it prioritizes the plaintiff’s financial stability before demanding full payment of fees.

Once the lawyers obtain a fair provisional pension in court, the weekly payment is adjusted to amounts that can rise from 500 to 1,000 pesos per month, allowing the woman to finish paying for the lawsuit regularly without depleting her capital.

The fee is adjusted to cover the remaining cost of the process, which can range from 12,000 to 15,000 pesos, ensuring that a lack of immediate resources is not a reason to abandon the case. The founder clarified that even if the fee is paid off sooner than expected, the organization remains committed to supporting the woman.

“If they finish paying for their legal proceedings within a year and a half, we won’t abandon them; we’ll see the case through to the end,” she assured. She also noted that the total cost of the legal proceedings is covered thanks to the support of a network of students, interns, and lawyers who contribute their time and effort to this social cause.

The cases that the lawyers handle most are claims for alimony, which ranks first in requests; followed by cases of vicarious violence and situations in which grandparents resort to the organization to request custody of grandchildren who have been abandoned by both parents.

In November 2025, El Sol de México reported that the process for filing child support claims in Mexico City became more complicated due to changes in the new National Code of Family Procedures, which caused the number of claims to decrease by 82 percent, compared to 2024, and by 29.5 percent compared to 2023.

Expansion & Organizational Structure

The organization’s structure currently has headquarters in the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl and is in the process of opening a second headquarters in the Coyoacán borough to meet the high demand in Mexico City.

The team is strategically divided to cover different territories and avoid work overload.

“In Mexico City, there are seven of us lawyers, and in the State of Mexico, more than 27 women are dedicated to handling cases. We all work in certain municipalities; we divide and map out our workload so that we don’t get overwhelmed,” the lawyer commented.

The organizational chart includes three specialists in gender and childhood perspective, followed by the litigating lawyers and a group of students and recent graduates who collaborate in the drafting of documents and in attending hearings.

Paola Rojo highlighted that they also handle divorce cases involving economic violence, particularly with women who dedicated themselves exclusively to the home, cases of parental rights, alimony debtors, among others.

“When the ex-husband does not want to pay alimony, this is an economic imbalance because, while they worked for many years and gained experience and stability, they stayed at home without gaining work experience, and have to resume their studies or look for work,” she explained.

One of the organization’s purposes is to advise teenagers seeking to claim their pension rights independently, with the intention of encouraging young people to become informed and resort to their own judgments when family circumstances require it.

Gloria López is a reporter in Mexico City who covers gender, politics, human rights, and sexual diversity.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  General Motors & SINTTIA Union Resume Talks: Workers Form Strike Committee

  March 17, 2026

  For a plant of 7,000 workers, the mobilization of a strike committee of 300 sends a clear message to GM: a willingness to reach an agreement doesn’t imply a renunciation of their demands.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico’s Ministry of Health says Vaccinations Working: 30% Fewer Active Measles Cases

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  The public’s response to the call to get vaccinated against the virus has begun to show results in the country, with a reduction in active cases and a downward trend.

• 

  Analysis

  The Inconsistencies of Ebrard

  March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

  Mexico’s Secretary of Economy touts a new trade policy of origin over price, yet the import of highly subsidized staple grains benefits US producers at the expense of Mexico’s domestic producers.

The post Women Financing Child Support & Violence Lawsuits in 100 Peso Installments appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Atzayacatl Cabrera originally appeared in the March 17, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

Regardless of whether a person owns a home, rents it, lives in a cooperative, or even lives in an informal settlement, the reforms to the Housing Law propose to provide protection and legal certainty to all people to prevent evictions, dispossession, or other threats.

Last Wednesday, an initiative from President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to reform the Housing Law arrived at the Chamber of Deputies, proposing to change the concept of “decent and dignified housing” to “adequate housing” as a human right enshrined in the Constitution.

The initiative details that to be considered adequate housing, it must have seven essential characteristics: security of tenure, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural appropriateness.

“What passes with this proposed reform is that these seven elements are part of an international source of human rights, which is General Comment No. 4 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” Daniela Sánchez Carro, coordinator of the “María Luisa Marín” Housing Law Clinic at the Ibero-American University, explained to El Sol de México.

“These seven minimum elements are established, which are the necessary conditions valid in any context and at any time to consider that a home is adequate,” she explained in an interview with this newspaper.

The proposed reform aims to include these seven characteristics in the Housing Law, and in the case of security of tenure it specifies that this is the “condition that guarantees that the occupants of the dwelling have legal protection against forced evictions, harassment or other threats, whatever the type of tenure.”

The Housing Bill states, “Everyone should have some degree of legal protection against eviction, harassment, or other threats, regardless of their housing tenure.”

Although the previous concept of “decent and dignified housing” was included in the Constitution and the Housing Law of 2006, this was not reflected in the massive construction of houses during the last decades.

According to the initiative’s explanatory statement, it does not matter whether a person owns, rents, lives in a cooperative, rents, lives in an informal settlement, or occupies land; and it states that all people should have “some degree of legal protection against eviction, harassment, or other threats.”

Sánchez Carro explains that legal security of tenure is a concept that has been part of the country’s housing regulations for many years; “we live with it through many forms of deed registration, notary sessions through incorporation programs, regularization programs. This, let’s say, strengthens the legal security of tenure, which implies that all homes and all people have this recognition from the State,” she points out.

The specialist explains that, based on General Comment No. 4 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, housing is considered an essential need for families and individuals; and all have the right to some form of protection from the State.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m an illegal occupant, I need and deserve a degree of legal security. And that’s what the observation mentions,” she explains.

After the Chamber of Deputies sent the initiative to the Housing Committee for its review, the presidential proposal is expected to be discussed in the coming days by the committee chaired by Maribel Martínez Ruiz of the Morena party. As of press time, no meeting has yet been scheduled for this discussion.

If the initiative is approved in committee, the reform would then be discussed in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies and sent to the Senate for discussion and possible approval.

A New Concept: Adequate Housing

In addition to this characteristic for “adequate housing,” the presidential initiative proposes six others. Carlos E. Ramírez Capó, President of the National Chamber of the Housing Development and Promotion Industry (CANADEVI), explains that the availability of services, materials, facilities, and infrastructure is of utmost importance.

“We are linking the human right to water to housing to ensure that any development, any new housing complex, has guaranteed access to water,” he says.

Ramírez Capó adds that affordability is seen, for its part, in programs such as the Housing for Well-being Program , whose six-year objective is to build 1.8 million homes at affordable prices, of around 600,000 pesos; and that habitability must consider that homes require safe structural conditions in the face of seismic risks, tropical storms, hurricanes, etc., which are problems that Mexico faces.

“Another very innovative feature is the theme of cultural education , which takes into account the characteristics and practices of each region. For example, in Yucatán, cultural education would mean having the necessary space to hang a hammock, which are very typical things in that region of the country,” he points out.

In a conversation with this newspaper, Luis Alberto Salinas Arreortua, a researcher at the Institute of Geography of the UNAM , questions whether, if the initiative to reform the Housing Law is approved, it would be necessary to consider creating mechanisms for oversight, review, or supervision to ensure that the construction of homes actually meets the seven characteristics of adequate housing.

This is because the previous concept of “decent and dignified housing”, although included in the Constitution and the Housing Law of 2006, was not reflected in the massive construction of houses during the last decades.

“Since the Constitution was enshrined stating that every Mexican has the right to decent and dignified housing, what has happened in recent decades of massive construction has not been reflected in any way, even though it was in the Constitution and the 2006 law, it was not put into practice,” the researcher criticized.

Necessary to Discuss Housing Tenure

Salinas Arreortua explained to El Sol de México that, in his opinion, Mexico needs to promote general regulations for access to housing through rental agreements or cooperative societies.

The UNAM researcher mentions that in our country, the idea that owning a home is essentially the only way to access housing is deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness. However, he emphasizes that there are many other ways in which people can live in a house.

“As long as this situation persists, and access to homeownership continues to be favoured, I believe we will continue to have a society that is completely indebted, where the costs of mortgage loans are increasingly absorbing workers’ incomes, and where, to cope with this, they must make many changes in their daily lives,” he says.

Sánchez Carro agrees with this point and explains to El Sol de México that “historically we have this culture of not feeling completely fulfilled as people if we do not own a property.”

But for the coordinator of the Housing Rights Legal Clinic, there are many ideas in other countries around the world that can broaden the discussion in Mexico about how people can live in a home.

As an example, he points out that in Austria or Germany, 80-90 percent of homes are rented; and that most people living in Europe are renters.

“We need to broaden our perspective and provide greater incentives, for example, to housing cooperatives , to create conditions for more social housing loans, to build more social housing, and to support renting. In the United Kingdom, for example, there are subsidies for those who rent housing to students,” he concludes.

Atzayacatl Cabrera is a poet and journalist who navigates between verse and hard data, and a reporter for the Presidency who also covers the Legislature.

• 

  News Briefs

  Housing Law Reform Boosts Legal Protection Against Forced Evictions in Mexico

  March 17, 2026

  Enshrining security of tenure specifies that this is the “condition that guarantees that the occupants of the dwelling have legal protection against forced evictions, harassment or other threats, whatever the type of tenure.”

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  CNTE Teachers Will Hold National Strike March 18th to 20th; Sit-in at Mexico City’s Zócalo

  March 16, 2026

  The CNTE urged unions and workers to join actions to demand repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law, & for the defense of a social security system that “provides all with health services and decent pensions.”

• 

  News Briefs

  Zacatecas Normalistas Join Solidarity with Cuba

  March 16, 2026March 16, 2026

  The national association of alumni of the Emiliano Zapata Rural Teachers’ College in Loreto, Zacatecas—founded in 1958—joined La Jornada’s call to stand in solidarity with the government and people of Cuba.

The post Housing Law Reform Boosts Legal Protection Against Forced Evictions in Mexico appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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On February 20, Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN) approved a Law of Amnesty for Democratic Coexistence, which has become a key instrument to overcome political differences and move toward reconciliation among Venezuelans.

Jorge Arreaza, president of the AN’s special commission, stated in remarks to the media that the regulation seeks to heal wounds through forgiveness and mutual listening. Since its enactment, the Amnesty Law has granted 7,727 full releases in Venezuela: 253 for individuals who were deprived of liberty and 7,474 to citizens under precautionary measures. A total of 12,557 applications have been received to date.

The legislation, promoted by acting president Delcy Rodríguez, establishes that those approved for amnesty will have any criminal record elimianted provided that the acts fall within the defined time periods.

However, Arreaza emphasized that the law strictly excludes anyone who has committed war crimes, human rights violations, homicide, drug trafficking, or treason (in the form of statements that encouraged or requested foreign invasion). He also warned that if a beneficiary of the amnesty commits a serious offense against Venezuela again, they will be immediately brought to justice.

The lawmaker highlighted that the legal text, composed of 16 articles, was the result of a consensus process that incorporated proposals from families of victims of political violence from 1999 to 2026, legal experts, political parties, and representatives of the judiciary. Arreaza described this step as a gesture of goodwill by the Legislative Branch, recognizing the leadership of acting president Rodríguez and the government in preserving peace.

The legislation covers 13 specific political events eligible for amnesty. These include events related to the April 11–12, 2002 coup d’état, as well as attacks on public and private facilities that occurred during that period.

A central aspect of the law is the social and public reintegration of beneficiaries. The regulation guarantees that those granted amnesty can fully resume their lives in society and in the public sphere, promoting democratic coexistence.

This law represents a significant legislative effort to address reconciliation and democratic coexistence in Venezuela by establishing a legal framework to resolve situations arising from past and present political conflicts.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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Pressure from Donald Trump to form an international military coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz ran into a diplomatic wall in Europe. On Monday, March 16, during the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares categorically ruled out his country’s participation in the operation.

Spain is leading a group of countries whose leaders are advocating for de-escalation. Spain already maintains tense relations with Washington after refusing to increase military spending and banning the use of the Rota and Morón bases for attacks against Iran. These bases are located within Spain and host both Spanish and US military assets.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares emphasized that the solution to rising fuel prices is not military but diplomatic and called for an end to war and bombings in the Middle East in order to return to the negotiating table.

Germany firmly joined this position. Its defense minister, Boris Pistorius, questioned the usefulness of sending European frigates to an area where the US Navy is already operating, stating: “This is not our war; we did not start it.” Countries such as Japan, Australia, and Greece joined the chorus of refusals, while Kaja Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission, reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz is outside of NATO’s operational scope.

Despite the lukewarm international response—and his own threats of trade retaliation against Spain—Trump downplayed the lack of support aboard Air Force One, saying it would be “interesting to see which country would not help with such a small task,” while leaving open the possibility of unilateral US action if the coalition fails to materialize.

The Trump regime’s strategy to break Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz has proven unsuccessful thus far. Despite repeated calls for support, none of these countries has made a concrete commitment. A visibly frustrated US president even went so far as to condition future support for NATO, invoking US aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure allies into securing the route through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

How European Countries Are Aiding the US and Israel in the War on Iran

On the ground, the situation is critical. The conflict that began in late February has left more than 1,000 oil tankers stranded and has led to attacks on at least 10 commercial vessels. While the Trump regime claims Tehran’s defenses are weakened, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has continued to respond defiantly, urging the US Navy to enter the Persian Gulf.

For his part, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that control of the strait is total and that any safe passage for foreign ships must be negotiated directly with Iran’s armed forces.

International responses have left Washington visibly isolated. China has limited itself to calling for diplomatic de-escalation, while analysts note that Beijing sees no reason to intervene, as Iran is only blocking crude destined for direct allies of the United States and the Zionist colony of Israel.

Germany was also unequivocal in stating that regional security can only be achieved through dialogue and not through active confrontation. Japan and Australia cooled the proposal, citing a lack of formal requests and internal legal constraints.

This lack of international backing leaves the global economy exposed to a prolonged energy crisis, while Trump warns of a bleak future for allies who, in his view, have left the US administration alone in this maritime surveillance mission—deepening diplomatic rifts amid a price surge that shows no sign of easing for global consumers.

Oil prices could surpass $150/barrel amid escalating crisisAmid these circumstances, oil prices could soon exceed $150 per barrel, according to Kirill Dmitriev, as reported by Sputnik.

“I already predicted it last June, just as I did oil prices above $100. Now it is heading toward $150 or more in the next two or three weeks, as disruptions are affecting not only logistics but also production itself,” Dmitriev warned on social media.

He made these remarks in response to a report by The Wall Street Journal which stated that executives from US oil companies warned authorities that the energy crisis triggered by the unprovoked attacks against Iran by the United States and the Zionist colony would continue to worsen.

In this context, the United States authorized the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on tankers starting March 12.

Additionally, the United States and the International Energy Agency announced the release of strategic oil reserves. However, their real impact on prices is considered marginal, as it represents only a very small fraction of global energy demand.

US-Israeli War on Iran Is Not About Nuclear Weapons. It’s About Imperialism.

(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/CB/SL

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On Monday, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yván Gil repudiated the recent statements made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

The UN High Commissioner recently presented an updated report on Venezuela calling for the repeal of laws allegedly used to repress political dissent.

Minister Gil stated that the UN High Commissioner’s office maintains a biased position regarding Venezuelan and ignores key elements of the national situation.

“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights insists on a partial narrative about our country, repeating unfounded accusations and deliberately omitting the impact of unilateral coercive measures on the rights of the Venezuelan people,” Gil wrote in a public statement.

In his statement, the foreign minister criticized Volker Türk for being unable to “detach himself from the agenda of extremism in Venezuela. On the contrary, and despite serious human rights violations across the world, he opts for his immoral bias against Venezuela.”

Moreover, Minister Gil warned that such positions make joint work between the Venezuela and the UN difficult.

“In this way, it becomes difficult to sustain serious technical cooperation when your office ends up acting as an echo chamber for falsehoods,” said Minister Gil, adding that Venezuela’s priority is “peace and coexistence.”

UNHRC may be Contributing to US Aggression Towards Venezuela

(Últimas Noticias)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SL

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Last week, Venezuela received three new groups of migrants under the Return to the Homeland Plan, maintaining the consistent pace of repatriation operations seen throughout early 2026. These arrivals at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, La Guaira, come as the Venezuelan government continues to provide a state-led response to the mass deportations carried out by US imperialism.

Recent flight data and statistics
So far in 2026, 24 repatriation flights have arrived from the US, returning a total of 4,096 Venezuelan deportees. Last week alone, 548 Venezuelans were repatriated across three separate operations. When added to the cumulative figures from 2025, a total of 23,067 migrants have returned to the country through this program under the 2025 agreement between Venezuela and the US regime.

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These individuals often return after experiencing the systemic failures of the US immigration system, where many are held in carceral facilities for months before being returned on chartered flights. This week’s operations involved two different US-based carriers, GlobalX and Eastern Airlines. Details are provided below:

• Flight 122: Arrived on Friday, March 13, from the US, carrying 144 deported migrants. The group consisted of 14 minors, 19 women, and 111 men. The operation was conducted on a GlobalX Airlines aircraft.
• Flight 121: Arrived Wednesday, March 11, from Phoenix, Arizona, with 270 deported migrants. The group included eight minors, 38 women, and 224 men. The operation was conducted on an Eastern Airlines aircraft.
• Flight 120: Arrived Monday, March 9, from Miami, Florida, with 134 deported migrants. The group included 13 minors, 30 women, and 91 men. The operation was conducted on a GlobalX Airlines aircraft.

Economic blockade and the sovereign right to return
The migration patterns affecting Venezuela are fundamentally a byproduct of the illegal US blockade and the multi-layered hybrid war directed at the country’s stability. Washington’s strategy of economic strangulation was designed to induce social collapse, effectively weaponizing migration as a tool for international stigmatization. While US policy initially incentivized these departures to frame Venezuela as a “failed state,” it has now pivoted toward summary deportations and the criminalization of the Venezuelan diaspora.

Venezuela Increases ‘Economic War’ Bonus by 25% Ahead of May Day

In sharp contrast to the carceral treatment received abroad, the Return to the Homeland Plan serves as a sovereign shield against xenophobia and exploitation. Every returning citizen is met with a comprehensive social care protocol that includes immediate medical screening, psychological counseling, and legal assistance. Since its inception in 2018, the program has been a cornerstone of Venezuela’s policy to protect its people from the fallout of imperialist aggression, offering a dignified path for returnees to reintegrate into the social and economic fabric of their homeland.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SF

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The transportation strike called by a small sector of private urban bus lines in Caracas, Venezuela, failed to disrupt the capital’s public transport on Monday, March 16. Venezuelan Transportation Minister Aníbal Coronado confirmed that the ministry, alongside other national agencies, deployed a fleet of vehicles across the capital to ensure passenger commuting.

During a meeting with the Superior Transportation Authority of Caracas, Coronado emphasized that the few lines participating in the work stoppage “failed.” He condemned the actions as an attempt to “boycott” and “sabotage” residents’ daily lives.

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To mitigate the impact, the ministry deployed Metrobuses, SITSSA (Integrated Surface Transport System) units, jeeps, traffic officer vehicles, and police trucks. Coronado urged transport workers who intended to participate in the boycott to return to the negotiation table. “We want to talk, but above all, [we want] to protect the average citizen,” he stated. “We want peace.”

The private operators behind the strike cited the government’s lack of response to a proposed fare increase—from 60 bolívares (approximately $0.13) to 120 bolívares (approximately $0.26)—as their primary issue. Additionally, transport leader Nelson Vivas demanded the release of new bus units allegedly held by authorities for nearly two years.

Commuters condemn the action
Despite the call for a strike and light rain across the city, Caracas residents sought alternatives early Monday morning. Commuters used the Caracas Metro and government-provided ground transportation to reach their destinations, according to Diario Vea.

Mayerling Hernández, a resident running errands, noted that although service was slower than usual, she arrived at her destination without problems. “I don’t think that so-called strike has actually happened as they announced, because I’ve seen buses going back and forth,” she said, adding that many people opted for the Metro.

Train Derails at Caracas Station, Eight Injured

Other commuters expressed frustration with the private operators. Oscar Ramos, who works in La Trinidad, criticized the “transport lords” for the delay in his commute. “That sector should have exhausted all avenues of dialogue,” he argued, noting that the strike mostly harmed the community. Alfredo Jiménez, a resident of Las Adjuntas, echoed these sentiments, stating that while the economic reality is difficult, a strike is not the solution.

Luis Valenzuela, a computer science student traveling from Los Teques, Miranda, mentioned that although public transportation felt slow, he was still able to complete his community service hours.

(Diario Vea) by Yuleidys Hernández Toledo with Orinoco Tribune content and editing

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SF

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