Latin American Publications!

Cuba has suspended airline refueling due to US-imposed sanctions and pressure that have disrupted the island’s oil supplies.

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Russia pledges to provide “all possible assistance” to Cuba as the United States intensifies its illegal blockade of oil supplies to the Caribbean country.

From Presstv via This RSS Feed.

Por Oliver Vargas – 7 de marzo de 2026

Mientras las fuerzas estadounidenses e israelíes continúan su guerra contra Irán, en un intento por reestructurar la región por la fuerza, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump sigue impulsando una agenda colonial similar en Latinoamérica. Su resort Doral en Miami se prepara para la Cumbre del Escudo de las Américas, a la que solo están invitados los gobiernos conservadores de la región y cuyo propósito declarado es “expulsar a China” de Latinoamérica, en un intento por obligar a la región a reducir el comercio y la cooperación con Pekín, que hoy es el principal socio comercial de muchos países latinoamericanos. Fracasará.

Incapaz de competir con China en mercados abiertos, Estados Unidos recurre a tácticas coercitivas para mantener su dominio sobre una región únicamente mediante la fuerza bruta. Olvidan que las fuerzas materiales que impulsan la cooperación entre China y América Latina son mucho más poderosas que cualquier comunicado de una cumbre, y ninguna amenaza, por muchas que sean, puede revertir el curso de la historia.

Esta iniciativa llega poco después de la operación militar estadounidense para secuestrar al presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro en enero, un acto que violó principios fundamentales del derecho internacional y envió un mensaje escalofriante a todo el hemisferio: renuncien a su soberanía o enfrenten las consecuencias.

La naturaleza coercitiva de la campaña de Washington en Latinoamérica, más allá de Venezuela, ya es plenamente evidente. En las últimas semanas, la administración Trump impuso restricciones de visado a tres funcionarios del gobierno chileno, incluido el ministro de Transportes y Telecomunicaciones, debido a la consideración por parte de Santiago de un cable submarino de 500 millones de dólares que conectará Chile con China. Brandon Judd, embajador de Estados Unidos en Santiago, fue más allá, advirtiendo que Chile podría perder por completo sus privilegios de exención de visado si no supervisa las inversiones chinas a satisfacción de Washington.

Consideremos la audacia de esta posición: una nación soberana está siendo castigada por tener relaciones normales con un tercer país, por el mero hecho de considerar un proyecto de infraestructura beneficioso.

Este patrón de interferencia se extiende mucho más allá de Chile. En Panamá, la Corte Suprema fue presionada por el Departamento de Estado de EE. UU. para que dictaminara que la concesión de CK Hutchison, con sede en la Región Administrativa Especial de Hong Kong, para operar puertos en ambos extremos del Canal de Panamá era inconstitucional. Desde entonces, el gobierno ha ordenado la ocupación de ambas terminales y ha entregado la gestión provisional a operadores europeos, mientras que CK Hutchison, que había invertido 1.800 millones de dólares durante casi tres décadas, ha iniciado un arbitraje internacional.

El ataque a la prosperidad común.
Lo que hace que esta campaña sea particularmente absurda es que le pide a América Latina que se suicide económicamente. Desde el año 2000, el comercio entre China y América Latina se ha multiplicado por 35. Esta enorme expansión del volumen comercial se ha producido casi al mismo ritmo en toda la región, independientemente de las inclinaciones ideológicas de cada gobierno.

The “Volga” cargo ship owned by COSCO Shipping berthed at the Phase II container terminal of Nansha Port, marking the official opening of COSCO Shipping’s new West South America Route 3 (WSA3), the first direct route from Guangzhou Port to Chancay Port, Peru, April 29, 2025. /CFP.

The benefits of this partnership are there for all to see in almost every country. Peru’s Chancay megaport, built with Chinese investment, has reduced shipping times to Asia by nearly two weeks and cut logistics costs by at least 20%, creating a new Pacific gateway for South American exports of manufactured goods, agricultural products and minerals. In Brazil, Chinese companies have invested billions in renewable energy, electric vehicles (EV) manufacturing and port modernization. Ironically, BYD has built a huge EV factory in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on the exact site that Ford abandoned during US industrial retrenchment.

Washington, by contrast, offers Latin America sticks without carrots. They do not offer alternative infrastructure investment, more favorable trade terms, or new development partnerships. They don’t offer this because they do not have the ability to do so. The only card they have to play is to simply demand that Latin American countries sever ties with their most important economic partner and threaten those who refuse with war and sanctions.

It’s important to understand this aggression as a symptom of its decline. As the US loses its ability to compete economically, it is trying to turn the clock back to the era of Western colonialism. At the Munich Security Conference in February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech that laid bare the ideological foundations of the administration’s foreign policy. He lamented the decline of “great Western empires” in the face of “godless communists.” It was a call for the return of 19th-century imperialism and for the end of sovereignty, self-determination and decolonization. All colonizers have left is to look back on their past glory.

China’s vision for its relationship with Latin America and the Global South could not be more different. At the same Munich conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, emphasizing that all countries should be “equal in terms of rights, opportunities and rules.” The UN may not be perfect, but it still represents the sacred principles of peace, sovereignty and self-determination. Surrendering these principles is the path to chaos, war and colonialism.

Chile Caught Between US and China Over Submarine Cable Project

Sin vuelta atrás.
El intento de la administración Trump de hacer retroceder la historia en América Latina fracasará, por la sencilla razón de que va en contra de los intereses materiales de los pueblos de la región. La cooperación entre China y América Latina está creciendo porque es mutuamente beneficiosa. América Latina ha ganado mercados para sus materias primas, ha asegurado inversiones en infraestructuras urgentemente necesarias y ha accedido a tecnología asequible. Es este tipo de prosperidad común la que sobrevivirá a cualquier presidente o conflicto político.

Las naciones de América Latina han soportado siglos de intervención extranjera, desde el colonialismo hasta los golpes de Estado de la Guerra Fría y los programas de ajuste estructural que devastaron sus economías. Lo que Estados Unidos ofrece ahora bajo la “Doctrina Donroe” es más de lo mismo: dependencia, inestabilidad y subdesarrollo disfrazados con el lenguaje de la seguridad. Lo que China ofrece es algo genuinamente nuevo: comercio sin condiciones, inversión sin interferencias y respeto al derecho soberano de cada nación a elegir su propio camino de desarrollo.

La historia no retrocede. El “Escudo de las Américas” resultará ser solo una nota al pie en la historia irreversible de la cooperación Sur-Sur y la solidaridad del Sur Global.

( CGTN )

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

On January 3, 2026, the United States carried out a military aggression against Venezuela that included the bombing of the capital, Caracas, and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, National Assembly member Cilia Flores. Despite the significance of this event, it should not be seen in isolation from broader regional history. It is necessary to begin with a wider analysis of the current historical period in Latin America, more than two decades after the rise of leftist and progressive forces in many countries of the southern continent, with Venezuela at the forefront. Where do these forces stand today? Do they still represent a living link in the global struggle against capitalism and imperialism? How has the Bolivarian Revolution navigated its difficult path to achieve successive gains? Where does it stand now in light of recent developments, and where is it heading? How can the peoples of South America resist U.S. imperialism today amid this ongoing and dangerous escalation? These questions become even more pressing in light of major transformations underway in the world system: the rise of new Eurasian powers, the intensification of hybrid wars, sanctions, and blockades, the escalating imperialist and Zionist war against Palestine, Arab resistance movements, and Iran, and the continued militarization of the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere.

Marxist theorist and militant Chris Gilbert has been involved in the Bolivarian Revolution for two decades. In this interview, conducted on February 22, 2026, he offers an analytical reading that situates the recent escalation within the broader history of confrontation between Venezuela and U.S. hegemony, and examines its implications for the country and the region. Gilbert also discusses the Venezuelan communes as one of the most significant expressions of popular power and a practical attempt to build a socialist alternative, along with the possibilities and questions this experience opens up for other societies, including Arab and Islamic societies. Gilbert is a professor at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela in Caracas and a contributing editor at Monthly Review. He is the author of numerous articles and books, most notably Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project(2023), and has also conducted extensive field research on the transition to socialism and the communes in Venezuela.

This interview first appeared in Arabic, in Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi Journal no. 565 (March 2026), published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut.

Ibrahem Younes: On January 3 of this year, the United States carried out a heinous nighttime attack on Venezuela that included the bombing of Caracas and the surrounding area and the kidnapping of its president. We will discuss this attack and the response to it more fully later in the interview. However, let’s begin with a wider historical perspective on Latin America and specifically its epoch of progressive victories that is sometimes called the Pink Tide. That term denotes the wave of leftist governments in many Latin American countries that reordered state priorities toward social justice and national sovereignty—by expanding social protection, reclaiming certain public resources, and building mechanisms of regional integration. What is your understanding of the Pink Tide? How, in practical terms, does it function as a link in the chain of struggle against capitalism and imperialism? What do the recent attacks mean for this epoch of change?

Chris Gilbert: The mass media does in quotidian fashion what postmodern theory did in its books: destroy historical understanding. It does so partly by focusing on allegedly singular and special “events”—that is, semi-messianic occurrences that supposedly mark a sharp “before and after,” a complete rupture from what came before. In that spirit, what occurred on January 3 in Venezuela is systematically presented in the mass media as “an event” without much historical context. This results in a great deal of confusion, including on the part of the left. So, your directing the discussion first to the recent history of Latin America and asking about the context of the Pink Tide is relevant and even essential.

From the present, and in light of the attacks, I think it is important to look at the historical parameters of struggle in Latin America in the period following the fall of the Soviet Union. The 1990s were a period in which the United States enjoyed new levels of hegemony in the region. As evidence of their weakness, many of the counter-hegemonic movements in the 1990s in our continent explicitly turned away from the question of state power and focused instead on “social issues.” Hence there emerged a new focus of struggle: the “social movement,” which dominated much of the 1990s. It was called “movimentismo,” and expressed itself collectively in such spaces as the World Social Forum.

In Venezuela, at the dawn of the new century, Hugo Chávez took the struggle a step further in a groundbreaking way, demonstrating that it was possible, in Latin America, for popular left forces to take state power through mass mobilization and elections. This, in some sense, marked the birth of the wave of so-called Pink Tide governments, which could be described as the social forces of the 1990s entering or reentering power in countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay by democratic and electoral means. In power, the Pink Tide governments exercised sovereignty over resources, expanded social programs, and sometimes took steps toward socialism. At the same time, the new progressive governments carried forward many of the participative forms that had developed from their origins in 1990s social movements, with an emphasis on popular power and grassroots democracy in their practices of governance.

The United States, since it is the epicenter of global reaction and the enemy of all peoples seeking self-determination, naturally began to move against such efforts. It used various methods. Sometimes it fostered old-style coups d’etat based on police and military forces. These could be unsuccessful (Venezuela 2002, 2019) or successful (Honduras 2009, Bolivia 2019). However, it also employed a relatively new parliamentary-lawfare kind of coup d’etat (Brazil, Paraguay, Peru). Additionally, it did not hesitate to apply unilateral coercive measures, or so-called sanctions. Even so, throughout this period U.S. strategy generally moved within the parameters of recognizing Latin American states as having some degree of (albeit limited) sovereignty. This meant that, with the exception of Colombia and Haiti, the United States mostly eschewed direct military intervention. Therefore, after the invasion of Panama in 1989 and excluding the United States’ kidnapping of Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, the coups that it carried out were done without overt U.S. military intervention and were, at least on the surface, about putting in power endogenous forces more favorable to U.S. interests. This overall imperialist modus operandi as a form of regional control reflected the United States’ condition as the more or less unquestioned hegemon of the western hemisphere. Conversely, because of the relative absence of direct military intervention (except in Colombia, where the United States continued to fund a state-led war against the Colombian people, and in Haiti, where it was masked as “humanitarian” or “security” assistance), the idea of armed anti-imperialist struggle was also more or less out of the picture.

Now, in the past year or so, this overall situation, which was the historical condition of the Pink Tide’s emergence, has changed significantly. With the United States clearly losing global hegemony, and perceiving threats even to its regional hegemony, it now pursues more risky and direct interventions. These include: the overt blackmail of Argentinian voters last October to influence the legislative elections; the multi-level intervention in the 2025 Honduran presidential elections; the new and unprecedented tightening of the cruel blockade on Cuba (itself essentially an act of war); the repeated threats of military intervention in Mexico and Colombia; and the January 3 bombing of Caracas followed by the kidnapping of President Maduro. With these actions that amount to an explicit and often military trampling of national sovereignty, it is almost inevitable that the Latin American countries will also have to prepare for military struggle—armed struggle of some kind—against U.S. imperialism in a new way to defend themselves against this more erratic, direct, and dangerous form of imperialist intervention.

All this is to say that as the epoch of uncontested U.S. hegemony comes to a close, its project of hemispheric domination has become more explicitly aggressive. In the medium or long term, countries and peoples of the region will have to re-learn and re-invent forms of armed struggle against U.S. imperialism to both defend themselves from the United States and also to take advantage of its decadence. Here there are important opportunities to learn from the glorious tradition of West Asian resistance to imperialism and Zionism, such as the struggles now being carried out by Hamas, Hizbollah, and Ansar Allah, as well as by the Islamic Republic of Iran. I think that the need to prepare more fully for armed struggle against imperialism in Latin America will remain even if the fascist-MAGA forces that now rule in the United States were to be removed from power through impeachment or in the next election. My reason for saying that is that the current shift in imperialist strategy responds to the needs of a decadent imperialist system. That means that the Democratic Party would henceforth apply similarly direct and aggressive forms of intervention.

IY: Venezuela, of course, appears to be a unique case in the Latin American continent. How would you describe the Bolivarian experience in Venezuela—from Chávez to Maduro—and in your view, has it, over more than two decades, managed to overcome some of the problems of building socialism that other countries faced?

CG: In the heyday of the Pink Tide described above, with relatively fewer direct U.S. military interventions and the at least nominal respect for Latin American nations’ sovereignty that defined the epoch, Venezuela indeed became a vanguard of progressive forces. However, Venezuela’s condition of being in the vanguard of change during this period never meant that it did not need the support of other countries and peoples in the region. In a general sense, any meaningful construction of an alternative in Latin America will have a regional character. The more diversified economies of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico; the power, discipline, and communal vision of the continent’s Indigenous movements; and the scientific, educational, and cultural development of Cuba and the Caribbean more generally are all important components of the Latin American revolution. All of these strengths need to come together in a process of regional integration that respects the diversity of our peoples and their cultural traditions. I might add that our region’s proximity to the center of imperialism—whose attempts to convert it into a “backyard” has resulted in important, hard-earned learning processes—assigns it a special role in the world anti-imperialist revolution.

In our continent, socialism has been a longstanding aspiration. The ideas of the October Revolution and before that those of the Paris communards, were seized upon by the Latin American people. Communism is a living tradition—”theory is gray,” Goethe said, “but green is the tree of life”—and communism must be understood in the latter sense: as a living project. Here in Venezuela, as in much of Latin America, Indigenous and African belief systems and the emancipatory elements of Christianity have made communism stronger and ironically more orthodox than it would have been otherwise, and possibly more than it has been elsewhere in the world. There is no shortage of Latin Americans who consider Marx, Engels, and Lenin as the family gods, as Latin American forefathers! While some might consider Latin America’s messianic attitude toward communism to be a weakness—and no doubt it has contributed to left-errors and overreach—it can also be a strength, if it is combined with what Marta Harnecker called a “pedagogy of limitations” and a sober assessment that those very ambitious and profound communist aspirations need to have a material base, which may be long in construction.

The Venezuelan revolutionary experience contains many lessons for socialists in other parts of the world. One important lesson that has been learned in Venezuela is that the project of socialist construction requires a dialectical but complementary relation between transformed state power—state power that has had a revolutionary command center introduced into it—and processes of grassroots construction. It is in the second area, the grassroots, that a new social metabolism can be developed, though always under the tutelage and coordination of a strong state, which is needed both to foster the grassroots transformations and to protect the country, organizing the defense against imperialist aggressions. The state must also take charge of the heavier side of industrialization and technological progress that is necessary for sovereignty but, of course, is beyond the capacities of the communities.

IY: In your reading of Karl Marx, the “alternative” to capitalism is not reducible to nationalizations or an expanded welfare state, but to a shift in the logic of value—from a commodified and marketized “exchange value” to a direct “use value”—alongside a reorganization of production, consumption, politics, governance, and planning, all on a grassroot level, grounded in cooperative productive institutions that are self-managed by members of the local community. If we translate that today—as it appears in your writings and fieldwork—into a concrete institutional and economic design at the levels of ownership, distribution, and political administration, it seems to us that Venezuela’s anti-imperialist socialist communes, supported by the state, have already come a long way. In your view, how can we define the Venezuelan commune? What are its strengths and its problems? And how can commune members ensure a complete exit from market society and capitalist exchange within a regional and international environment that is capitalist and imperialist and hostile?

CG: No revolutionary process—or rather, no successful revolutionary process—is linear. A truly revolutionary moment, which is what existed here in Venezuela at the beginning of the 21st century, by definition mobilizes the mass of people and therefore unleashes their most profound aspirations for all-around emancipation. This represents what we could call the “utopian” moment of a revolution. It certainly occurred here in Venezuela. I experienced it in full force when I arrived to the country 20 years ago: it was a moment of euphoria, and there was often the sense that everything belonged to everyone, even internationally. A slogan that appeared on state-run shops, billboards, and t-shirts was “Venezuela es de todos” (Venezuela is everybody’s), and it was meant honestly, with foreigners and visitors being included among the “todos.” One felt—conditioned partly, of course, by the commodity supercycle that was occurring at the time—that the world of universal abundance was just around the corner.

The subsequent trajectory of the revolution has involved negotiating between, on the one hand, these very ambitious aspirations—a maximalist project that is essentially communist—and, on the other hand, the real-world obstacles and pressures that the revolution faces, including the pressing needs for technological development and defense, and the necessary alliances and compromises that must be made. One of the paradoxes and tensions in every revolution carried out in a world dominated by U.S. imperialism is that you proclaim total emancipation, a world free from oppression and exploitation, overcoming gender oppression and racial oppression, and you announce the goal of establishing a harmonious relation to nature, but your daily work will be to build an effective army and make very pragmatic decisions and compromises. Good revolutionary leadership, which Venezuela has had in President Chávez, President Maduro, and now has in acting President Delcy Rodríguez, is about managing this situation, never losing sight of both poles of it: the utopian-strategic and the practical. I think that so far it has been done very well, though of course in ways that are necessarily going to be imperfect and uneven.

The Venezuelan socialist commune certainly belongs to the most ambitious and maximalist side of this equation—it expresses the desire to overcome the world of exploitation and all oppressions. Its immediate history is in the project of building socialism that Chávez declared in 2006, then tried to legislate in 2007 with the unsuccessful constitutional reform, and then finally found a different approach, the commune, in 2009. However, it should be noted that at the same time as Chávez pursued this very radical, very ambitious project, he was also doing more pragmatic “developmentalist” projects—such as the Orinoco Belt heavy-oil project, which involved extensive international participation—and large-scale welfare programs like the Great Venezuelan Housing Mission. So, the pursuit of the “utopian” and strategic goal was always combined with hard-headed realism. Chávez, Maduro, and the people have tried—and continue trying—to “take the sky by storm,” as Marx said of the Paris Communards, but they have always kept their feet firmly on the ground. I think that is what it means to be a revolutionary, not merely a romantic “beautiful soul” (to use Hegel’s term).

It should be pointed out that the tension involved in negotiating between the most ambitious, socialist side of the Bolivarian Revolution, on the one hand, and the practical issues of survival in the world, on the other, also exists inside the communes, since the communes proclaim the highest socialist ideals, but quite often their daily work will consist in solving problems such as those related to plumbing or garbage collection. Here, too, of course, managing this tension requires revolutionary leadership and the social base’s ability to see the glorious future of all-around emancipation and meaningful abundance in the humblest daily activities, even if it is a distant goal. The coexistence of these two dimensions is part of any successful revolutionary project. To take two examples, it was embodied in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which fought fascism and the Japanese occupation while understanding its anti-fascist struggle as part of the broader communist project. It is also captured wonderfully in Fyodor Gladkov’s socialist-realist novel Cement (1925): the task of building the communist future is presented quite literally as figuring out how to get a cement factory running again—under gunfire from White Army forces and amid innumerable social and material difficulties.

All of this is to say that the “complete exit” from market society—not least because it will require defeating U.S. imperialism in a worldwide battle—is a distant goal. Getting there will not be an easy, short, or linear process. The challenge consists in holding the goal in sight, while building and experiencing parts of it in the present. That requires skillful and creative leadership, communicative skills, and human imagination. It is a challenge, but it can be done. We have examples of it in the past, as I was saying.

‘In Venezuela, the People Are Truly the Subject of the Revolution’: Interview With Thierry Deronne

IY: How, in your view, can Arab societies (most of which do not have political processes at the level seen in Latin America) benefit from the grassroots popular resistance—political, economic, and cultural—embodied in the Venezuelan commune experience?

CG: It is not for me to say, with regard to Arab societies, how they can benefit from the Venezuelan example of socialist communal construction, though I would point out that there has been a longstanding sharing of ideas between the Latin American region and the Arab countries, which goes on to this day. What I can say is that the strategic project of liberation from imperialism and initiating a march toward socialism has a universal character in our time, because the main enemy (the United States-led imperialist system) and many of the essential structures of domination are the same everywhere. This means that what is learned in one context is almost sure to have relevance in another—allowing, of course, for very important differences in terms of productive forces, history, political culture, traditions, and so on.

However, I would like to point out that cultural and societal differences should not be exaggerated in the way that postmodern, post-structuralist thought has encouraged us to do. Moreover, there have been serious errors due to the undialectical way the same body of thought has encouraged us to conceive our differences. Recognizing the existence of difference does not negate the universal but rather confirms and expresses its validity. (Put another way: The universal does not express itself through the negation of difference—to think so is to confuse the universal with the general or the homogeneous—but rather it expresses itself through the particular and individual phenomenon with its differences). For example, acknowledging the particularity of our past and living Indigenous societies in Latin America, which often embody already-existing socialist practices, does not negate but rather confirms the validity of Marx’s discoveries about the possibility of overcoming value production through free association of laborers and social property. In effect, we become more Marxist, more communist, not less Marxist and less communist, by recognizing and respecting the specific character of an Indigenous society. This is what the great Latin American Marxist thinker José Carlos Mariátegui demonstrated, who showed how analyzing what was then called “the Indigenous question” on the bases established by Indigenous peoples themselves would lead us to the most Marxist issue of all: the problem of the land (i.e. property relations). He also showed how the coming together of the modern socialist movement and the Indigenous peoples’ struggle to maintain their de facto socialist land-use in Peru could make both movements stronger on their own respective terms.

I would like to point out that the commune should not be converted into a fetish and a kind of socialist panacea for peoples and nations everywhere. In places where communal traditions exist it may be relevant. However, there are many communal projects that proclaim socialist ideals or claim to be leftist but are neither useful for socialism nor are they anti-imperialist, which is the sine qua non of any valuable undertaking today. (The most explicit example of the communal form serving the nefarious purposes of imperialism and Zionism is the Israeli kibbutz, which is an instrument for robbing Palestinians of their land, but there are other examples of communal projects that are functional to imperialism in other parts of the world.) Marx indeed saw value in many communal undertakings, but if you read Marx with any degree of rigor, you will be brought face to face with the fact that Marx did not “defend the commune in general” without considerations of context and content, neither the Paris Commune nor the Russian rural commune. He realized that, to be viable, the communes needed to be part of a wider context, a revolution of national emancipation. In our time, that wider context is an anti-imperialist (and anti-Zionist) revolution of national liberation that will be conducted by a vanguard party or other class-based organization. The need to be part of that larger revolutionary project is what Marxism teaches us, and it is reflected in Chávez’s thought. Chávez said, “The isolated commune is counterrevolutionary” and “The commune is a cell, but a cell needs a body.” He also insisted on the need to build a National Communal System. (For more exploration of these ideas, see my recent article, “Socialist Communes and Anti-Imperialism: The Marxist Approach,” published in Monthly Review this summer.)

Since I mentioned above the contribution of the emancipatory elements in Christianity to the Latin American revolutionary project, I want to say something about Islam, which is the dominant religion in the Arab countries. Of course, Islam like most other religions also has many emancipatory and humanly valuable elements, but its relevance to the revolutionary project of our times goes beyond these specific features. The most important thing is that, for the past few centuries, most Muslim-majority peoples have lived under forms of colonial or imperialist domination by Northern powers. As a result of this experience, the culture of Islam tends historically toward anticolonial and anti-imperialist positions. An indirect confirmation of this is that when Islam becomes the official religion of a pro-colonial, pro-imperialist state such as Saudi Arabia, it produces numerous fractures, contradictions, and dissident movements. This reminds us that, because of basic historical and geographical trajectories, Islam is fundamentally a religion of the oppressed and dominated.

Now, it would be profoundly absurd—and in fact contrary to every sociological and historical principle consistent with Marxism—to imagine that the culture and belief systems of the oppressed of the world are not revolutionary assets. Indeed, the two billion Muslims of the world are one of the main pillars of the global anti-imperialist struggle that defines our epoch.

IY: Beginning in the summer of 2025, the U.S. carried out a massive military deployment in the Caribbean. There have been drone and missile attacks on fishing boats, involving the extrajudicial killing of more than 130 people, and multiple violent seizures of oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude. These actions culminated in the bombing of Caracas on January 3 of this year and the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife the national assembly member Cilia Flores. How do you understand these unprecedented attacks, and what do you think their medium- and long-term impact will be? You have mentioned the probable return of armed struggle as a form of resistance to this new kind of imperialist intervention. Beyond that, what other challenges do Venezuela and the countries in the region face in this new scenario?

CG: I began this interview pointing out the importance of considering January 3 within the historical continuum. In that same spirit, I want to point out that a correct, materialist perspective on the events of that day will recognize the heavy conditioning of U.S. imperialism’s actions both before and after it took the decision to do a Blitzkrieg attack on Venezuela and illegally kidnap President Nicolás Maduro and first combatant Cilia Flores. On the one hand, the unity of the revolutionary bloc within Venezuela, the unbroken loyalty of the military, and the armed character of the people put real limits on what imperialism could do in this context. It meant that the United States was unable to do a classic ground invasion and also unable to do regime change through a coup d’etat. For all of those reasons, the United States opted for a tightening of the blockade, by preventing oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude from leaving the country, and it decided to kidnap the President.

In fact, the closest historical precedent for the illegal kidnapping of President Maduro and Cilia Flores on January 3 is the operation that murdered FARC leader Alfonso Cano in 2011 at the dawn of peace negotiations in Colombia, which left Timochenko (Rodrigo Londoño) at the head of that anti-imperialist guerrilla movement to complete a negotiation process that was already under way. In that sense—and looking once more at historical continuities—it is worth pointing out that acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s decisions after the January 3rd attack essentially follow the lines of the negotiation plan already laid out by Nicolás Maduro. Prior to his kidnapping, Maduro had already foreseen a possible revision of the Hydrocarbon Law and a controlled opening to U.S. oil interests. Notably, most oil experts do not predict a great change in the amount of oil being produced in Venezuela over the upcoming years, since investors are not enthusiastic. As a result, promises of a “new boom” that greatly benefits either the United States or Venezuela is very unlikely.

It is important to recognize that the new scenario following January 3 does involve a tactical retreat and significant challenges for the Bolivarian Revolution as well as for progressive forces in the region, most especially Cuba (whose revolution has been a socialist example and beacon of hope for revolutionaries around the world). The fact that the United States will control Venezuela’s oil sales in the near future indeed represents a blow to Venezuela’s sovereignty in one specific area. What the Venezuelan government has done, I must emphasize again, should be considered a tactical retreat. It was wise to do so. Controlled retreats and compromises are an important part of any revolutionary playbook. However, it will be important for the Venezuelan revolution—if it wishes to keep the retreat as a merely tactical one—to continue its anti-imperialist political stance and assert sovereignty in other areas, while it prepares to recover full control of its oil production and commercialization at a future date.

To maintain its strategic project in the difficult time that lies ahead, the Venezuelan revolution has some important assets. These include: (1) a powerful political party, the PSUV; (2) a loyal military that is allied with the people in what Chávez called “the civic-military alliance”; and (3) improved control over the financial sector, which developed in response to the United States blockade over the past decade. Over and above these three elements, Venezuela’s most decisive revolutionary “asset”—in fact, the very essence of the revolution—is the alliance between popular power and the revolutionary government. This must be maintained at all costs. Moreover, in the upcoming period, it will be the task of popular power, particularly as expressed in the communes, to maintain the highest socialist and anti-imperialist ideals of the revolution, just as the communal movement did during the blockade-induced crisis we experienced during the last decade. It will also fall upon this movement to attempt to maintain some of the more revolutionary international connections on a people-to-people, South-South basis that may not be so easy for the State to do now through overt diplomatic relations.

In fact, this has already been happening, inasmuch as communal forces have been working diligently on campaigns for the return of President Maduro and have been working to maintain some of the internationalist ties, such as that with the revolutionary forces among the Colombian people. In the difficult time we face in the future, it is important to maintain the impressive unity of Venezuela’s revolutionary forces, demonstrated both over the last decade and in the immediate responses to the January 3rd attack. That being said, within the unified revolutionary bloc in Venezuela, there have always coexisted tendencies that are more middle-class and technocratic, on the one hand, and others that are more working class and connected with the communes, on the other. The former have been strengthened over the past decade, because of policy decisions that were necessary to survive the imperialist blockade. Therefore, it will be important that the socialist-leaning forces of the revolution, especially those involved in the communes, demonstrate, by way of example—as they did in the last decade—their capacity and robustness in the economic, political, and cultural spheres. To be clear, this should not take the form of chest-beating and “critical” discourses, but patient concrete work of commune-building and ideological and practical formation of the masses: that is, a range of efforts that show by way of example that the communal sector is the most solid, most trustworthy and disciplined, and most antiimperialist pillar of the revolution.

One final observation. Fascism has advanced in the United States and actually seized power there, in a way that has become very explicit with Trump’s second presidency. Meanwhile, a fascist and more explicitly colonialist imperialism—MAGA imperialism—has scored some real victories in the Latin American region through its recourse to more violent actions and open intervention. This can provoke despair in the left, particularly since the response from the anti-imperialist, anti-fascist forces in the region has so far been slow, disorganized, and not decisive enough. However, people on the left should be patient. Fascism typically wins the first battles, while the response of the most profound anti-fascist forces is necessarily slower to take shape. This is partly because anti-fascism must mobilize the peace-loving majorities of the world and partly because its methods of internal organization are more democratic. However, once this force awakens, its power and creativity are immense, and its capacity to crush the enemies of social progress and human emancipation is resounding.

Ibrahem Younes is an Egyptian researcher and translator whose core interests include sociology, Marxism, and world-systems analysis. He regularly writes on Latin American affairs for the Al Mayadeen Network website and the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

(MRonline) by Ibrahem Younes

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

This article originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of almomento.

Alejandro Martínez Araiza, general secretary of the National Food and Commerce Union (SNAC), marks 295 days today in blatant defiance of the Federal Labor Law (LFT). Despite demands from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), headed by Marath Bolaños, the union leader refuses to disclose the whereabouts of more than 500 million pesos belonging to the workers’ assets.

The conflict, which is escalating in tension as the months go by, stems from the systematic violation of Article 373 of the Federal Labor Law. This law requires union leadership to provide detailed accountings of their assets. However, union members from companies with a national presence, such as Mondelez, PepsiCo, Sabritas, Barcel, Mars, Sigma Alimentos, Alpura, and Pan Ideal, report that there is no record of how union dues accumulated over the past six years have been managed.

Mexican union leader Alejandro Martínez Araiza proudly uses a photograph of himself before the US Congress for some reason, probably not a good one. In September of last year, he posted an embarrassing eulogy to US racist Charlie Kirk on his Facebook account.

A Challenge to Transparency

Since May 19, 2025, the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration (CFCRL), under the direction of Alfredo Domínguez Marrufo, formally urged Martínez Araiza to submit a detailed report of the SNAC’s finances. Far from complying, the leader has openly refused, cynically arguing that “97 percent of the country’s unions do not report their assets.”

This stance has been interpreted by rank-and-file workers as a direct challenge to the anti-corruption policies implemented by President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration. Despite the legal challenges filed, the workers point out that Domínguez Marrufo has refused to cancel the union leader’s registration, which they describe as a “ratification of complicity.”

Re-election Irregularities

The history of irregularities doesn’t end with a lack of financial transparency. On April 15, 2025, Martínez Araiza secured his re-election in a process riddled with suspicion. According to reports, the leader moved the elections forward by seven months, holding them during Holy Week to minimize oversight.

Even more serious is the alleged intervention of CFCRL officials to validate the process. File CFCRL-MODMIEMBROS-20250415-25297-0817 reveals that, on the very day of the election, the union requested to modify its membership list. Just 24 hours later, Marco Antonio Magadán Ocampo, Deputy Director of Union Registration Verification, approved the request, updating the list to 17,161 members in an expedited manner.

The speed with which the CFCRL has processed the paperwork in favor of the SNAC contrasts sharply with the bureaucracy faced by workers’ complaints. Just three weeks after the election, Rafael Mendoza Mendoza, Technical and Registry Support Director, issued the certificate of modification of the board of directors under registration number 4232.

For the dissident workers, these actions confirm the existence of an institutional protection network that allows Martínez Araiza to operate above the law. While his 500 million peso fortune remains unaudited, the rank-and-file workers are demanding the President’s immediate intervention to stop what they consider a corruption scheme rooted in the old practices of opaque unionism.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  500 Million Pesos in Dues Missing; Workers Believe Mexico’s Federal Labour Regulator Complicit

  March 10, 2026

  Alejandro Martínez Araiza, General Secretary of the National Food and Commerce Union has spent 295 days today in blatant defiance of Federal Labor Law.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 10

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on security strategy, approval ratings, electoral reform, cooperation with the US without subordination, and USMCA renegotiations.

• 

  News Briefs

  Pulling The Leash: US Sets Record with 25 Trump Cabinet Visits to Mexico in 13 Months

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  A non-stop parade of imbeciles & criminals who shouldn’t even be let out of their neighbourhood, nevermind their country, have stained the soil of this great Republic.

The post 500 Million Pesos in Dues Missing; Workers Believe Mexico’s Federal Labour Regulator Complicit appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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

Less violence and more opportunities: the security strategy delivers resultsThe National Security Strategy has reduced intentional homicides by 44% between September 2024 and February 2026, decreasing from 86.9 to 48.8 murders per day, making this the lowest figure for this month in at least ten years.

Authorities have made 46,400 arrests, seized 24,000 firearms, and confiscated 346 tons of drugs. In addition, through the strategy against extortion, 161,000 reports have been received, preventing 88% of extortion attempts. At the same time, the government announced the construction of 500 new upper-secondary schools, along with 487 peace fairs and he recovery of public spaces to strengthen the social fabric.

Strong public support: 75% presidential approval ratingsPresident Claudia Sheinbaum presented the results of the Enkoll opinion poll conducted for the daily El País, which shows 75% approval of her administration. She explained that the majority of the population supports the transformation project, affirming that the government’s true alliance is with the people of Mexico.

Electoral reform with popular supportThe President stated that more than 80% of the population supports the Electoral Reform, including proposals for proportional representation congressional deputies to be elected directly by voters and for reducing the public funding allocated to political parties and elections.

Mexico cooperates with the United States without subordinationIn relation to the group promoted by Trump, it was stated that Mexico does not need to be invited, since it maintains a direct agreement and monthly working groups with the United States on security matters. The President emphasized that the bilateral relationship is ongoing and producing results, particularly in decreasing the flow of fentanyl, independently of political statements or summits.

USMCA: Mexico seeks to reduce tariffs in renegotiationSheinbaum indicated that Mexico will seek to reduce tariffs on products that meet rules-of-origin requirements, especially steel, aluminum, and motor vehicles, during the review of the USMCA, whose first round of negotiations begins March 16. The President also reported that her government is in dialogue with producers and companies to regulate the corn market.

• 

  Labor | News Briefs

  500 Million Pesos in Dues Missing; Workers Believe Mexico’s Federal Labour Regulator Complicit

  March 10, 2026

  Alejandro Martínez Araiza, General Secretary of the National Food and Commerce Union has spent 295 days today in blatant defiance of Federal Labor Law.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 10

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on security strategy, approval ratings, electoral reform, cooperation with the US without subordination, and USMCA renegotiations.

• 

  News Briefs

  Pulling The Leash: US Sets Record with 25 Trump Cabinet Visits to Mexico in 13 Months

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  A non-stop parade of imbeciles & criminals who shouldn’t even be let out of their neighbourhood, nevermind their country, have stained the soil of this great Republic.

The post People’s Mañanera March 10 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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The National Assembly of Venezuela approved with a qualified majority the Organic Law of Mines, aimed at strengthening the legal framework governing the country’s mineral resources.

The draft bill of the law was approved in its first discussion during the regular session of the parliament on Monday, March 9.

The discussion, held at 5:00 pm, was the sole item on the agenda of the plenary session at the Federal Legislative Palace.

This procedure was carried out in strict compliance with the provisions established in Article 104 of the Internal Regulations and Debates of the Venezuelan parliament.

The National Assembly thus formalized the processing of one of the priority initiatives of its strategic agenda for the 2026 parliamentary period.

Venezuela’s Acting President Rodríguez and US Secretary Burgum Outline Strategic Mining Partnership (+Diosdado Cabello)

The discussion of this law represents progress in the current legislative agenda, focused on regulating the country’s mineral resources.

During the debate, lawmakers presented the foundations of the proposal prior to its referral to the corresponding commission for the preparation of the report for the second discussion.

(Últimas Noticias) by Olys Guárate

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SC

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

The foreign affairs minister of Venezuela, Yván Gil, repudiated the recent hostile remarks against Venezuela made by US Senator Markwayne Mullin, who has been designated to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Gil noted that such statements contrast with the constructive spirit with which the two governments are attempting to rebuild their bilateral relations.

Gil emphasized that it is imperative to protect the progress achieved in restoring diplomatic and consular ties, keeping them away from individual agendas that sabotage mutual understanding.

He stressed that the process of normalization between Caracas and Washington responds to a sovereign decision aimed at overcoming “microphone diplomacy,” which historically hindered progress between the countries.

According to Gil, Mullin’s disrespectful statements represent a setback in the path recently undertaken by the two countries to normalize their diplomatic relations. The Venezuelan government considers that respect for self-determination must be the fundamental pillar of any institutional rapprochement with the US administration.

Gil’s remarks came after the nominee for US Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, said that his country’s objective is for Venezuela to “return to democracy” through “free and fair elections.”

A call to move beyond rhetoric to guarantee coexistenceThe Venezuelan government urged political actors in the United States to abandon narratives that undermine international coexistence. Gil called for turning the page on aggressive rhetoric, arguing that such positions do not provide real benefits to relations between sovereign states.

Venezuela reaffirmed its willingness to maintain frank and respectful dialogue, as long as the nation’s dignity and independence are recognized—principles that the Foreign Ministry will defend with absolute firmness against any attempt at interference.

Canada Has Spent Decades Undermining Venezuelan Democracy

Gil reiterated that Venezuela wants to builds bridges for cooperation but will not tolerate disrespect that cloud the ambience of negotiations. Caracas’ call seeks to safeguard regional stability and ensure that official channels of communication prevail over the personal opinions of officials.

He underscored that the Venezuelan government hopes that diplomacy will prevail under protocols of mutual respect, preventing bellicose discourse from interfering with the shared interests of the peoples.

(Últimas Noticias) by Randolph Borges

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SC

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

By Jessica Dos Santos  –  Mar 3, 2026

VA columnist Jessica Dos Santos walks readers through a flurry of major developments Venezuela has gone through since the Jan. 3 US attacks.

A couple of weeks ago, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright did not just visit Caracas. He was hosted at the presidential palace with a traditional joropo presentation before being taken on a tour of oilfields like the estate owner who comes to check in on his land and cattle. His statements were clear enough: Washington has sights set on oil, gas, and “critical minerals.”

The spectacle of a Trump administration official getting the red carpet treatment, six weeks after that same administration bombed Caracas and kidnapped the Venezuelan president, was puzzling for many of us, to put it mildly.

We are told that Delcy Rodríguez has a gun to her head, and I totally agree. But she smiles while this gun is cocked and I find it hard to completely ignore what I see and hear.

Days after Wright, it was the Southern Command chief, Francis Donovan, alongside Acting Assistant War Secretary Joseph Humire, to drop in to meet Rodríguez, alongside Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. Both US officials were likewise heavily involved in the January 3 attacks that killed over 100 Venezuelans. Donovan promised to return “soon” because he is apparently involved in “stabilizing (Venezuelan) security and transition toward a new era.”

At the time, the Venezuelan government talked about a “cooperation agenda” with the US against drug trafficking and terrorism. Just a few months ago, Venezuelan leaders were denouncing the US as the main source of drug trafficking and terrorism in the hemisphere (and it’s true). Speaking about the meeting days later, the acting president said it wasn’t easy: “I had to sit face to face with those who murdered my father [leftist leader assassinated in 1976 while detained by the Venezuelan state] and with those responsible for killing our January 3 heroes […]. I did it for Venezuela.”

She did it for Venezuela? Are all these things being done for Venezuela? Many are quick to point out the Venezuelan forces’ underwhelming response against the US attack, though we have to wonder what the cost would have been otherwise, assuming it was actually possible to have done more. Maybe the reaction is due to having spent months listening to one leader after another praise the readiness of the defense forces and vowing that such an event would never happen. The armed forces have given no explanation about the January 3 events.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez gave an interview to NewsMax where he talked about implementing a “free market economy” and “adapting legislation” to attract US investment. At the same time, he ruled out elections in the near term, though he left the door open for far-right candidate María Corina Machado to eventually participate. Meanwhile, Machado has been announcing her return to the country for weeks but has faded from the spotlight. She clearly needs Trump’s approval for whatever she wants to do next.

In contrast, Trump surprised everyone by inviting former electoral rector and presidential candidate Enrique Márquez to his State of the Union address, showcasing him as one of the high-profile people recently released from the Helicoide prison. It’s already fueling speculation that the White House might choose to back a figure much more moderate than Machado as part of its announced “three-phase plan” for Venezuela.

Nevertheless, in the same speech, Trump praised his “new partner and friend, Venezuelan,” bragging about his “close relationship” with the acting president while accusing Maduro of being an “outlaw dictator” and honoring Eric Slover, a pilot who was injured in the January 3 operations against Venezuela. For its part, the government has stood by Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, but has framed the US attacks as a “stain” in the two countries’ relationship.

On the domestic front, authorities are releasing hundreds and hundreds of people, from opposition politicians to poor saps, whom we never knew why they were arrested in the first place. Some of the spokespeople who today praise the government’s gesture and commitment to peace with the Amnesty Law are the same ones who months ago would rail against anyone who questioned the detention of campesino or trade union activists, of young idiots who made TikTok videos criticizing Maduro, or pointed out the double standards in letting Guaidó and other confessed criminals walk free.

The cabinet has also seen some major changes, including the appointment of a career opposition politician, Oliver Blanco, as vice minister for Europe and North America. At the same time, Alex Saab’s middle name is now “unknown,” because there has been no official update since the rumors of his arrest. Additionally, some media speculated that former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami was extradited to the US; others denied it, but we’ve only heard of him once since his arrest in early 2023.

Venezuelan foreign policy has changed dramatically as well. Gone are the references to imperialism, even to the highly touted “multipolar world.” It’s not just the express rapprochement with the US, thanking Trump officials for their “respect and courtesy” while they manage our oil revenues. Days ago, when the US and Israel launched the attack against Iran, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry published an unbelievable statement that even condemned Iran for retaliating against US bases in the region. In fact, the communiqué was taken down after a barrage of criticism.

Meanwhile, familiar problems persist… People are still waiting for the currency to stabilize and for some increase to their incomes, but that has yet to happen. Direct flights to the US are set to resume, and the deportation of Venezuelans also continues apace.

Nicolás Maduro Guerra, a deputy and the president’s son, has assured everyone that he talks to his father regularly and he “agrees with everything.” I find myself asking: does Maduro also agree with the US Treasury blocking the Venezuelan government from funding his legal defense?

Brazil’s Lula da Silva, trapped between his short memory and his desire to be friends with God and the Devil at the same time, says that Maduro’s arrest is a minor issue and that democracy is the main issue. How can you talk about democracy in a country where the president was just kidnapped and 100 people were killed? Colombia’s Gustavo Petro echoes this line, and we’re inevitably reminded of past Colombian treason against Venezuela.

Social media plays a crucial part in all this, hogging attention on everything from Bad Bunny to the “therian phenomenon” or the adorable monkey Punch in a Japanese zoo. Well… what about Trump’s deadly antics? Or the Epstein files? And Palestine? Venezuela suffered an unusual invasion, and the world is too numb to take note.

These two months have felt like five years. At some point we’ll be able to calmly take stock of how the pieces have fallen and think about the next steps. But first we need a chance to breathe. The struggle continues.

(Venezuelanalysis)

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

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says the US-Israeli attacks on fuel storage facilities amount to nothing less than “intentional chemical warfare” against the Iranian citizens.

The National Iranian Oil Refinery and Distribution Company said in a statement that the United States and Israeli regime carried out missile attacks on oil depots in the provinces of Tehran and Alborz late on Saturday as part of their strikes on Iran’s infrastructure.

In a post on his X account on Sunday, Baghaei said the US-Israeli criminal war against Iran has entered a dangerous new phase as the enemies conducted “deliberate” strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.

“By targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air, poisoning civilians, devastating the environment, and endangering lives on a massive scale,” he added.

Iran Announces ‘Blinding’ US, Israel’s Eye in Region; Vows Harsher Retaliation Coming

The Iranian spokesperson warned that the consequences of this “environmental and humanitarian catastrophe” will not be limited to just Iran’s borders.

“These strikes constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—all at once,” Baghaei said.
The strikes on Iranian oil storage facilities are aimed at disrupting Iran’s revenue and logistics.

The attacks caused significant fires, environmental concerns, and casualties. Thick choking black smoke hang over Tehran after the attacks.

(PressTV)

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

The general secretary of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, announced that participation in the March 8 National Consultation exceeded 35% of the electoral roll of registered voters in those states, thereby strengthening the exercise of direct democracy across the country.

“The goal set by President Maduro was 20 comrades per grassroots committee, but we went further and set the goal at 30,” he said during his tour of the Tiuna Fort on Monday, March 9, where he was accompanied by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. “Our people mobilized and demonstrated that the structure of this party is at the service of the people’s power. This party is at the service of grassroots communities in every corner of our country.”

He said that after evaluating the consultation process, there was great satisfaction “in confirming that what began as an idea has now become an established method, strengthened every day and increasingly consolidated as part of our participatory and protagonist democracy.”

The people govern in VenezuelaThe minister for Social and Territorial Development, Héctor Rodríguez, reported that Caracas saw the highest turnout in the entire capital region during the seventh National Popular Consultation and the first of 2026.

He congratulated the people of Venezuela, and especially women, for their participation. He pointed out that during the assembly process more than 36,000 projects were proposed, of which 5,338 projects were selected in the consultation, giving the people a leading role not only in identifying problems but also in deciding where resources should be directed. 

“This is proof that in Venezuela it is the people who govern—the materialization of Bolívar’s and Chávez’s popular projects, and the materialization of this consultation process proposed by the president of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro. We are very happy with the results in yesterday’s voting,” he said.

The deputy general secretary and head of communications of PSUV, Jorge Rodríguez, said that the steady increase in participation in the National Popular Consultation every three or four months is clear evidence of the strength of the initiative.

He considered that this growth “represents a true materialization of democracy, where the people’s will is expressed through voting to directly decide which projects are priorities for communities.”

Venezuela Advances Grassroots Democracy with 10,000 New Communal Projects

He also highlighted the increase in participation. “The number of voters far exceeded the records of the previous consultation” held in November, he noted.

“This is a very strong and powerful message from the people to continue advancing along the path of building democracy, peace, harmony, and a process of democratic coexistence,” he said.

(Últimas Noticias) by Odry Farnetano

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/CB/SC

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

This article by Roxana González originally appeared in the March 10, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

In 13 months of government, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has sent a total of 25 commissions to Mexico, mostly headed by the heads of the main security agencies, an unprecedented figure in the history of the bilateral relationship.

His cabinet has visited our country on more than one occasion since the Republican returned to the White House on January 20, 2025, according to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE): Marco Rubio, Secretary of State; Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture; Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior; and the directors of the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, and the Northern Command came.

The arrival of the US officials has been framed “within the work that both countries are carrying out to strengthen security on both sides of the border and improve trade,” the SRE explains .

Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) , and Gregory Guillot , director of the Northern Command, are the White House officials who have been in our country the most, with three visits each, amid President Trump ‘s insistence that the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum give Washington a more important role in the fight against the drug cartels that produce fentanyl and smuggle it into the United States.

“We have eliminated 97 percent of the drugs that come in by water, and now we are going to start attacking the cartels by land,” the US President said just last month during a press conference.

Gusano Marco Rubio

The Mexican president, for her part, has repeatedly said that the two countries are collaborating in the fight against the cartels, but that her government will not allow the proposal to send US soldiers across the border.

“We’ve said it before, and we’re going to explain it in more detail now. We believe there’s something the United States can help us with a lot: stopping the flow of illegal weapons from the United States to Mexico,” Sheinbaum declared yesterday at her morning press conference.

According to information provided by the SRE, John Ratcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the head of the Bureau of Investigation (FBI) , Kash Patel, are among the officials who have visited our country most frequently.

Their presence in Mexico, according to some specialists such as Dr. Andrew Selee, President of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), based in Washington, has been key in the capture of drug trafficking leaders such as Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, killed by Mexican security forces on February 22, or the capture of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, in January 2016; as well as in the extradition of drug traffickers to the neighbouring country.

“Although Claudia Sheinbaum ’s government has assured that all anti-drug trafficking operations in Mexico have been carried out by Mexican forces, it is evident that behind the biggest blows, such as the killing of El Mencho, is US intelligence, specifically from the CIA and the FBI,” the expert stated in an interview.

He recalled that it was Mexico’s own Ministry of Defense that reported, through a statement, that central military intelligence agencies participated in the operation against Oseguera Cervantes, and that within the framework of coordination and cooperation with the United States government, there was also support from US authorities, specifically from the new Joint Interagency Task Force Against the Cartels, which involves several agencies of the Donald Trump administration.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin , and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are among the officials listed among the 25 visits reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This number represents three times the number of visits ordered by the Republican president during his first term, which ran from 2017 to 2021.

No other administration, including those of the PAN and PRI parties, has received the same number of US officials in such a short time.

• 

  News Briefs

  Pulling The Leash: US Sets Record with 25 Trump Cabinet Visits to Mexico in 13 Months

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  A non-stop parade of imbeciles & criminals who shouldn’t even be let out of their neighbourhood, nevermind their country, have stained the soil of this great Republic.

• 

  News Briefs

  Farmers Will Blockade World Cup if Government Doesn’t Address Agricultural Crisis

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  Mexico’s three year crisis is causing desperation, aggravated by US crop dumping, a hostile Agriculture Secretary, monopoly profiteering and an unwillingness from the government to protect agriculture and food sovereignty.

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  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 9

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on US “anti-drug” militarization, new oncology hospital, International Women’s Day, electoral reform, and screwworm.

The post Pulling The Leash: US Sets Record with 25 Trump Cabinet Visits to Mexico in 13 Months appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Alejandro Torres Lemus originally appeared in the March 10, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Agricultural producers affiliated with the National Front for the Rescue of the Mexican Countryside (FNRCM) sent a letter to the organizers of the 2026 World Cup warning that if the federal government does not address their demands and the crisis facing the countryside, they will block highways during the sporting event, and, depending on the authorities’ response, they are even considering disrupting airport operations.

In an interview with La Jornada, Baltazar Valdez Armentia, president of the organization Campesinos Unidos de Sinaloa, explained that the document was sent to warn about the possibility of intensifying protests in the coming months due to the lack of solutions to the profitability problems faced by farmers’ crops.

“Let’s hope we don’t reach that point, but we have warned that we could intensify the demonstrations in June, coinciding with the World Cup; the roads could be blocked if there are no responses from the government,” he warned.

Valdez Armentia clarified that the threat is not intended to create conflict, but rather to highlight the severity of the situation facing the primary sector in the country. He explained that farmers have been facing a profit crisis for about three years in most of their crops, mainly staple grains such as corn, wheat, sorghum, and beans. “At this moment, there is practically no profitability; the countryside is slowly being devastated,” he warned.

On February 28, representatives of agricultural producers held a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, in which they explained the crisis in the Mexican countryside and the main demands of the sector.

In that meeting, “we discussed the issue of corn prices in Sinaloa; she committed to a dialogue with the industrialists of the livestock sector to establish a profitable price based on the Chicago Board of Trade, plus a contribution from the industrialists and the government without specifying a price, in addition to regulating imports.”

He mentioned that the free importation of corn leaves them defenseless against the competitive price of American farmers, “who are full of subsidies, compared to the national ones who do not have enough support.”

“They don’t know the reality of Mexican agriculture”

In this context, Valdez Armentia pointed out that the head of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development, Julio Berdegué, “is opposed to rescuing the agricultural sector. Last year we signed agreements, and they haven’t been fulfilled. The President even appointed the Undersecretary of Agriculture (Leonel Cota Montaño) and his private secretary, Carlos Morales, as liaisons with Sinaloa farmers regarding the price of corn, and that reflects very poorly on the Secretary. From my point of view, he doesn’t understand the reality of Mexican agriculture,” he stated.

Given this situation, the FNRCM plans to hold a series of protests and blockades on March 23. They were originally planned for the 20th, but were rescheduled because they have a meeting on the 19th with academics and producers from the United States and Chile at the Faculty of Economics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Excluding basic grains from the USMCA, among the demands

Baltazar Valdez Armentia, President of the United Farmers of Sinaloa.

Among the main demands of the front is the exclusion of basic grains from the Mexico-United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), since farmers believe that free imports will allow them to recover production costs along with a reasonable profit, without affecting the market price for the consumer.

The peasant leader explained that Mexican producers compete on unequal terms against farmers from other nations who receive more subsidies and government support.

“Corn is a clear example; while consumers continue to pay for corn-derived products calculated at prices of up to seven pesos per kilo, producers currently sell their grain for around 4.30 pesos according to the Chicago Board of Trade,” he explained.

Among the key points in the farmers’ demands are establishing a guaranteed price policy and reviewing the supply chain of basic grains to redistribute profitability towards the most affected producers.

“The rescue of the countryside should be a matter of national interest; for us it is a question of survival or disappearing from agricultural activity,” concluded the president of United Farmers of Sinaloa.

• 

  News Briefs

  Pulling The Leash: US Sets Record with 25 Trump Cabinet Visits to Mexico in 13 Months

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  A non-stop parade of imbeciles & criminals who shouldn’t even be let out of their neighbourhood, nevermind their country, have stained the soil of this great Republic.

• 

  News Briefs

  Farmers Will Blockade World Cup if Government Doesn’t Address Agricultural Crisis

  March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

  Mexico’s three year crisis is causing desperation, aggravated by US crop dumping, a hostile Agriculture Secretary, monopoly profiteering and an unwillingness from the government to protect agriculture and food sovereignty.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 9

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on US “anti-drug” militarization, new oncology hospital, International Women’s Day, electoral reform, and screwworm.

The post Farmers Will Blockade World Cup if Government Doesn’t Address Agricultural Crisis appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Last week, Venezuela welcomed two new groups of migrants under the Return to the Homeland Plan, continuing the repatriation efforts that have seen a steady flow of arrivals since the beginning of 2026. These operations, landing at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, La Guaira, occurred during the same week that US military aircraft were spotted conducting provocative maneuvers just kilometers from Venezuela’s coastline.

Recent flight data and statistics
So far in 2026, 21 repatriation flights have arrived from the US, returning a total of 3,548 Venezuelan deportees. Last week, 256 Venezuelans were repatriated across two flights. When added to cumulative figures from previous years, a total of 22,519 migrants have returned to the country. Many of these individuals were deported after being subjected to the harsh conditions of the US carceral system and racist persecution within US borders.

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Both flights were operated by the US-based GlobalX Airlines. Details below:

• Flight 118: Arrived on Monday, March 2, from Miami, Florida, with 130 deported migrants. The group included eight minors, 21 women, and 101 men.
• Flight 119: Arrived Wednesday, March 4, from Miami, Florida, with 126 deported migrants, including nine minors. No further demographics were provided.

Notably, no flight was reported for Friday, breaking the recent pattern of three repatriation flights per week.

Alleged “joint patrol” and sovereignty concerns
On Friday, March 6—the same day the resumption of Venezuela-US diplomatic relations was announced—an alleged “joint patrol” involving US aircraft took place just meters from the coast of Caraballeda, in La Guaira state.

On Monday, March 9, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) published photos of two US F-35 fighter jets, a KC-46 refueling jet, and a P-8 aircraft performing the maneuver. Despite SOUTHCOM’s “joint” label, no Venezuelan aircraft were visible in the images, and the operation was not reported by Venezuelan civilian or military authorities.

Analysts suggest that the timing and publication of this information by SOUTHCOM is designed to create internal friction between the patriotic forces of the Bolivarian Revolution and the Venezuelan Chavista leadership. Experts further argue that this represents an attempt to humiliate those who prioritize territorial integrity and sovereignty, implying a potential flaw in Venezuela’s current communication strategy.

Imperialist aggression and the sovereign shield of return
The mass displacement of the Venezuelan people was a phenomenon intentionally triggered by the illegal US blockade and the hybrid war launched by Washington. These measures were designed to collapse Venezuela’s economy and were paired with psychological operations that initially incentivized migration, later shifting toward the stigmatization of the Venezuelan diaspora. Today, many who left Venezuela seeking stability find themselves victims of summary deportations and systemic abuse.

Venezuela’s Humiliating Retreat May Be Temporary

In contrast to the hostility encountered in the US, every Venezuelan returning via the Return to the Homeland Plan is integrated into a comprehensive state protocol. Upon arrival, returnees receive medical attention, psychological counseling, and specialized legal support to facilitate their reintegration into the country’s social and economic life. Since 2018, this program has functioned as a sovereign shield, allowing those fleeing xenophobia and exploitation abroad to rebuild their lives with dignity in their own land.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SF

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By Wayne Kublalsingh  –  Mar 7, 2026

On Saturday 28th February 2026, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamanei, went to his office as usual. At around 8:30 am, he and his eight-month-old granddaughter and her parents were assassinated in an Israeli/US air assault. In these CIA/Mossad attacks, one hundred and sixty-five pupils and fifteen teachers of the Shajarah Tayyebeh Girls’ elementary school were killed. But why was the Ayatollah so exposed?  

First, Iran and the US were involved in nuclear negotiations. The key mediator in these talks, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi (Oman), had announced that the talks were nearing resolution. Negotiations were set to resume on the following Monday. The aerial strikes must have been unexpected. Second, the Supreme Leader had said: “If you can relocate 90 million Iranians to another city, I will move after that. If you can provide underground bunkers for all the Iranian people, then I will take them.” He felt it was dishonourable to himself seek refuge whilst most of the population was itself exposed.

The Ayatollah had been the victim of an assassination attempt in June 1981 at Abuzar Mosque in Tehran; carried out by either the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) a Marxist group, or Furqan Group possessed of a clandestine cell system, and a Shia anti-clerical Islamist ideology. The Supreme Leader, like 90% of Iran, is Shia. At his death, he was still carrying old wounds to his arm, vocal cords and lungs. Recently, as he sat in state, a little boy approached him and said, “Pray for me to become a martyr.” The octogenarian replied: “You must first grow up. Insha Allah, you must first grow up, study hard, gain knowledge, and Insha Allah become beneficent, live for 80 or 90 years, then become a martyr.”

Ayatollah Khamenei was the second of two Supreme Leaders of Iran. In 1979 the Imperial State of Iran was deposed in a popular revolution. It was succeeded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Supreme Leaders Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini Ayatollah (1979-1989) and Khamenei (1989-2026). Khamenei was born into a pious and frugal family in 1939. His father was a cleric. His mother, from a family of prominent clerics, possessed an avid interest in Literature and History. 

The Supreme Leader himself was a keen student of History and Literature (Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and African History). In 1997, he publicly praised Africa’s revolutionary heritage: “In the last decades, Africa has had great men like the late Nkrumah, Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere, & Nelson Mandela. All of them were involved in the struggle against oppression. We’re deeply fond of Africa because this region has always stood up against oppression.”

When Mosaddeq, Iran’s democratically elected leader, was deposed in a CIA/MI5 US-British coup in 1953, Khamenei was 14. When the US installed puppet monarch, the Shah of Iran, fell to the Revolution in 1979, he was 40. He was a student of Ayatollah Khomeini, and witnessed the latter’s powerful opposition to the Monarchy. The Shah exiled Khomeini to Turkey and was held under house arrest (1964-1965), then Iraq (1965-1978), then expelled to France (1978-1979). 

During the Shah’s reign, Khamenei himself was imprisoned by the Shah’s secret police SAVAK, six times. He was a fiery gospeller against US/Israeli imperialism. Following the decapitation of Mosaddeq in 1953, who sought to nationalize Iranian oil, the Shah had conceded the production volumes and pricing of Iranian oil to US and European companies. Khamenei advocated for an Islamic Republic. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a theocracy. It comprises a judiciary, an executive (governed by an elected President) and a unicameral legislature (Majles), whose 290 members are elected every four years. The Majles is responsible for legislation, budget approval, and oversight of the executive branch. Khamenei was President between 1981-1989, much of his time spent on the Iran-Iraq (1980-1988) warfront.

The Supreme Leader is Wilayat Al Faqih, the Guardian of the Islamic Jurist, elected by an Assembly of Experts. The Assembly is the deliberative body of Iran, empowered to appoint, supervise, and discharge the Supreme Leader of Iran. The latter is the nation’s commander-in-chief of the army; with supreme authority to guide the populace, to interpret Islamic law (daily life, including regulations on financial transactions, marriage, and religious rituals, e.g. fasting, prayer), and to discharge fatwas. 

The Wisdom Behind Martyr Ali Khamenei’s Refusal of Nuclear Weapons

In October 2003, Khamenei issued a fatwa that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons were forbidden under Islam. In 2010, in response to sectarian tensions, he declared a fatwa that insulting the wives of the Prophet Muhammad (specifically Aisha) or other respected Sunni figures was forbidden. He underscored the religious obligation to protect the environment and combat pollution. 

On the sexes, he stated: “Both possess boundless potential, and there is no difference between them. In the field of knowledge. Both men and women can compete equally. Men are not more knowledgeable than women. Throughout History, there have been great and distinguished women. A woman in the home is a flower. She is not the servant of the house. You should not say, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ Or, ‘Why didn’t you do that?’ Or ‘Why is the house not clean?’ She is a flower. And a flower must be cared for. It must be protected.”

Not long before his assassination, he stated: “My life has little value. I have a disabled body. I have a little bit of dignity which you yourselves have given me. I put this all on the line. I am ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this Revolution and for Islam. May all this be sacrificed for you.”

Death, for Ayatollah Khamenei, was not an obstacle. Allah would decide. In life, he morally and militarily empowered Iran, the Palestinians and the Axis of Resistance (labelled by the US/Israelis “terrorists” or “evil”) to the hilt. In death, his life empowers and emboldens global resistance to boot out the US armies and military bases from West Asia, an area wrongfully known as the Middle East, thanks to Eurocentric colonialism. 

WK/OT

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By Roger D. Harris  –  Mar 7, 2026

Venezuela and Iran hold the largest and third-largest petroleum reserves in the world, respectively. Both have been targeted for regime change by Washington. The world’s hegemon naturally seeks access to such resources. Yet it would be simplistic to think that would be only for narrow economic motives. 

Dominion over energy flows – especially from countries with large reserves – is central to maintaining global influence. Washington requires control of strategic resources to sustain its position as global hegemon; a goal reflected in its official policy of “full spectrum dominance.” The 2017 National Security Strategy establishes “energy dominance” as an instrument of imperial power. 

For Venezuela and Iran, sovereign control over their vast hydrocarbon wealth is a prerequisite for exercising even a modest degree of independence and some regional and global influence within a geopolitical landscape dominated by the US and its allies.  

Venezuela-Iran nexusVenezuela and Iran were founding members of the OPEC alliance of oil-producing countries in 1960. Both countries rejected Western dominance and nationalized their considerable oil sectors. In Iran, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh established the National Iranian Oil Company in 1951, precipitating the CIA-MI6 coup that deposed him. In Venezuela, President Carlos Andrés Pérez nationalized the oil industry in 1976 through the creation of a state oil company. PDVSA was later expanded and reoriented by President Hugo Chávez after 2002. 

In a prescient address at Tehran University, Venezuelan President Chávez admonished: 

“If the US empire succeeds in consolidating its dominance, then humankind has no future. Therefore, we have to save humankind and put an end to the US empire.”

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and Iran’s Islamic Revolution are both of necessity anti-imperialist projects that have forged ties with Russia and China, Washington’s two major-power “strategic competitors.” The hegemon’s response reflects its broader pattern of targeting resource-rich, independent states that resist integration into the US-led “world order.” 

Both countries have been targeted for their non-aligned foreign policy. Iran occupies a central position in the resistance to Zionism, supporting Hezbollah, the former Syrian government, Ansar Allah (the Houthis), and above all the Palestinian struggle. Likewise, Venezuela has been among the strongest supporters in Latin America of Palestinian self-determination, severing relations with Israel in 2009. Venezuela, too, has been the main supporter of the beleaguered Cuban government. 

In 2015, US President Barack Obama declared Venezuela an “extraordinary threat” to US national security as an excuse to impose unilateral coercive measures on Caracas. Two years later, President Donald Trump intensified the hybrid war against Venezuela, modeled on the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

Washington has repeatedly signaled its disregard for international law: Obama’s drone strikes on US citizens in 2011; Trump’s killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in 2020; the January kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and “First Combatant” Cilia Flores; and on February 28, the murder of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

In short, the US-led empire has demonstrated its readiness to capriciously employ lethal force whenever deemed expedient – with confidence that it will face few immediate consequences from the international community. 

Oil markets and the timing of warThe US-Israeli attack against Iran on February 28 was anticipated. Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi both warned of an imminent strike. Nasirzadeh was killed in the attack, while Araghchi survived. Israeli officials had earlier described previous attacks as “only the beginning,” while President Trump publicly acknowledged that a strike “could very well happen.” 

Energy markets had also been anticipating escalation. Official agencies, market commentary, and the corporate press repeatedly warned about potential oil supply disruption, especially via the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. Oil market indicators reflected these concerns, with oil prices surging in the days preceding the attack.

For years US policymakers had explicitly linked Iran sanctions to oil-market management. Foreshadowing the present escalation, the US announced in 2019 that ending Iranian oil waivers was intended to drive Iran’s exports to zero, while coordinating with major producers to keep global markets “well supplied.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo based the pace of reducing Iranian oil exports on “market conditions.”  

At the same time, US officials openly discussed Venezuela’s vast oil resources as strategically significant. This convergence suggests that Venezuelan oil capacity played a role – at least indirectly – in the timing of Washington’s Iran policy.

Oil-market stability therefore acted as a timing constraint on Washington’s Iran policy. In this context, Venezuelan oil assets could potentially be an offset option to buffer the impact of supply disruptions in the Middle East. It was expedient for the US to stabilize the Venezuelan oil supply prior to upending the Iranian one. 

Thus, Washington’s Venezuela strategy was in part to secure oil assets to cushion markets. The same senior personnel and “maximum pressure” logic applied to both countries. Elliott Abrams, for example, held roles relating to both Iran and Venezuela during the first Trump administration. US interdictions of Iranian petroleum shipments to Venezuela in 2020 further illustrated how the two sanctions theaters intersected.

At the same time, Venezuelan oil was only one factor. Washington had already identified Saudi and Emirati production capacity as critical to maintaining global supply should Iranian exports disappear. Restoring Venezuela’s oil infrastructure to former levels will take time. So US intervention there may mainly serve a psychological purpose – helping calm markets during the Middle Eastern conflict.

Venezuela and Iran: Oil and Survival

Venezuela’s resilience  
Despite the January 3 seizure of President Maduro, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution survived the decapitation with a seamless continuation of leadership under interim President Delcy Rodríguez. This outcome compelled the US to negotiate rather than outright conquer – as they did in Iraq and Libya and are attempting to do in Iran. Still, the strategic balance of power is heavily titled in Washington’s favor.

So far Venezuela has avoided Iran’s fate: an ever mounting death toll, massive infrastructure devastation, widespread destruction of cultural institutions, and the assassination of top political, religious, and military figures. The US president has even floated the threat to “wipe them [Iran] off the face of this Earth.” The same USS Gerald R. Ford – the world’s most technically advanced aircraft carrier – was part of the January 3 attack on Venezuela and is now deployed off the coast of Iran. 

Against this backdrop, President Rodríguez received the CIA director, cabinet-level energy and interior secretaries, the commander of US Southern Command, and the US diplomatic envoy. On March 5, Washington and Caracas announced an agreement to reestablish diplomatic and consular relations. 

Venezuela’s new Organic Hydrocarbons Law reflects changing conditions since the original legislation was enacted a quarter of a century ago. Higher cost structures for heavy and extra-heavy crude require major investments, while Venezuela’s ability to attract foreign capital has been strangled by US sanctions. 

The new law preserves state ownership of PDVSA and majority state ownership in joint ventures. In contrast, opposition politician María Corina Machado’s “Venezuela, Land of Grace” program would privatize it all. 

An ephemeral détente
But make no mistake – the ultimate goal of the empire remains regime change. Washington’s kidnapping of President Maduro was intended to demonstrate the empire’s dominance. Yet it also revealed its limits: the durability of the Bolivarian Revolution and the reality that even great powers must sometimes negotiate with governments they oppose. 

As Venezuelan oil analyst Franco Vielma observed, the country’s leadership has developed “creative resilience, strategic prudence, and pragmatic flexibility.”

“They have their strategy, and we have ours,” said Venezuelan President Rodríguez. The contest between imperial domination and national self-determination therefore continues.

RDH/OT

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The governing party in Colombia, Historical Pact, is leading the Senate elections with 22.72% of the votes (4,413,636), followed by the far-right Democratic Center, which obtained 15.62% (3,035,715), with 99.56% of polling stations counted in the preliminary stage. Thus, the governing bloc is projected to secure five more seats than four years ago.

Colombians went to the polls on Sunday, March 8, to elect 102 senators and 183 members to the House of Representatives for the 2026-2030 term. Voters also chose the candidates of three interparty coalitions who will run in the upcoming presidential elections on May 31.

In the House of Representatives, the Democratic Center leads with 13.53% of the votes (2,566,981), followed by the Colombian Liberal Party with 11.13% (2,111,702). Votes from 99.53% of the polling stations have been counted in the preliminary round. However, the website of the National Registrar’s Office shows votes for the governing coalition, the Historical Pact, separately for each department, making it difficult to determine which political group is actually leading in the lower house of parliament.

Regarding the elections, President Gustavo Petro wrote on social media, “The real election today is the Congress, and it is measured in seats. Protecting the Congress vote at this moment is fundamental.”

Interparty consultations for presidential elections
Three interparty consultations (on separate ballots) were held to elect a single candidate to represent each coalition for the upcoming presidential race.

Senator Paloma Valencia, from the right-wing Democratic Center founded by former President Álvaro Uribe, won the consultation within her party and became the presidential candidate of the far-right coalition, Great Consultation for Colombia. She recieved 45.76% of the votes (3,236,286) at 99.86% of the polling stations counted, according to preliminary data from the Registrar’s Office.

“President Uribe left a mark that I intend to follow,” declared Valencia in her first speech after the results were announced.

In the internal elections of the right-wing coalition Solutions, former Mayor of Bogotá Claudia López received the most votes, with 8.74% of the ballots (618,705). On the other hand, from the leftist Front for Life, former Senator Roy Barreras secured first place with 8.42% of the votes (595,978).

Colombia Holding Parliamentary Elections on March 8

However, the three winners of the interparty consultations will not be the only candidates in the presidential elections. Iván Cepeda, Abelardo de la Espriella, and Sergio Fajardo will also compete in the first round of the presidential elections on May 31, when Colombia will elect Gustavo Petro’s successor.

Senator Iván Cepeda remains the leading candidate according to the voting intention polls. Cepeda, a key figure of the governing Historical Pact, could not participate in this Sunday’s consultations after being excluded by the National Electoral Council (CNE) in a controversial decision. Yet, he remains the central figure of the popular and progressive field for the May elections.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/SC/SF

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

Sovereignty first: Mexico does not allow military interventionPresident Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed Donald Trump acknowledgement that Mexico will not permit the entry of U.S. troops into the country. She reaffirmed that cooperation with the United States continues in intelligence and security.

Sheinbaum pointed out that one of the main forms of assistance that the U.S. can provide is stopping the illegal trafficking of weapons, since at least 75% of the weapons in hands of organized crime in Mexico comes from the U.S.

New Women’s Oncology Hospital in CDMXThe President inaugurated the Women’s Oncology Hospital in the Gustavo A. Madero municipality of Mexico City. The hospital aims to become a national model for treating breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer.

The hospital offers AI-equipped mammographs, territorial diagnostics, operating rooms, chemotherapy, and immediate biopsies. Treatment will begin within a maximum of 30 days after diagnosis, reducing delays that have caused preventable deaths.

International Women’s Day and memory in light of the machismo of the old regimeSheinbaum highlighted the positive balance sheet of International Women’s Day, with peaceful mobilizations and legitimate demands. The President declared that feminism is not compatible with the right-wing, which has historically denied rights and freedoms.

She recalled sexist statements from figures of the old regime, such as former president Vicente Fox, who called women “two-legged washing machines,” and PAN leader Diego Fernández de Cevallos, who referred to them as “the old ladies,” as examples of the historical denial of women’s rights.

Over 80% support the Electoral ReformThe President reiterated that, according to an Enkoll opinion poll conducted for the Spanish daily El País, more than 80% of Mexicans support the Electoral Reform. The legislation includes points such as strengthening budget oversight, reducing political party financing, eliminating re-election and nepotism, and regulating the use of AI in election campaigns.

Science against pests: plant to combat screwwormSheinbaum reported that the construction of a fly plant in Chiapas will be completed in two months. The facility is aimed at providing flies that can control the screwworm plague that affects livestock and caused the temporary closure of the border with the United States to Mexican meat exports.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 9

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on US “anti-drug” militarization, new oncology hospital, International Women’s Day, electoral reform, and screwworm.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexican Politics & Gender Parity

  March 9, 2026

  Since 2019 constitutionally, and since 2025 in practice, Mexico is the only country in the world with parity of women and men in the three branches of government, writes Martí Batres.

• 

  News Briefs

  Somos México: Old Salinas Supporters, Claudio X Supporters, TV Azteca Supporters, & PRIAN supporters

  March 9, 2026

  Neither left nor right so actually right, Mexico’s newest party Somos MX gathers together the neoliberal political detritus of other parties for one more kick at the can.

The post People’s Mañanera March 9 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Por Alan MacLeod – 5 de marzo de 2026

Un gran número de usuarios anónimos de X (Twitter) han reportado que sus nombres reales están siendo buscados inesperadamente en Google en Israel, poco después de que comenzaran a criticar al país por sus acciones en Palestina. Algunos relacionaron el fenómeno con Au10tix, el software que X requiere que los usuarios (incluso los anónimos) usen para verificar su identidad real.

Au10tix es una empresa israelí fundada y compuesta por exespías israelíes del grupo de inteligencia militar de élite Unidad 8200. MintPress News investiga este inquietante fenómeno. “La mayor operación honeypot del planeta”.
“No bromeo cuando digo que mi nombre legal completo, incluido mi segundo nombre, ha sido buscado en Israel 11 veces en el último día”,  escribió  TransFemPOTUS, una usuaria anónima de X que ha sido muy crítica con las acciones de Israel. Este no fue un incidente aislado. “Entonces, aparentemente, mi nombre legal completo fue buscado en Israel el otro día”,  reveló  TheAtlantean9, un usuario anónimo de extrema izquierda con una bandera palestina en su biografía. Mientras tanto, el artista Bionico Bandito  declaró  que “Mi nombre completo fue buscado 100 veces en Israel cuando publiqué esto”, refiriéndose a una caricatura que representa a los asociados de Jeffrey Epstein siendo ejecutados. En todo el mundo, desde cuentas japonesas conservadoras  hasta teóricos de la conspiración estadounidense, usuarios anónimos informan que los datos de Google Trends muestran que sus nombres reales, no divulgados en ningún sitio en línea, están siendo buscados masivamente en Israel.¿Cómo pudo pasar esto? Algunos culparon a Au10tix. “Solo Au10tix y X tienen mis datos obtenidos mediante la verificación de identidad”,  escribió  un usuario en una publicación viral, y agregó: “Los rumores son totalmente ciertos”.

“Ahora está 100% confirmado que Israel está buscando en Google a usuarios anónimos sobre X y sus familiares poco después de que hablaran en contra del país”, escribió otro, concluyendo que “X es ahora la operación honeypot más grande del planeta”.

La teoría se centra en la empresa de seguridad israelí Au10tix, a quien, en 2023, se le encargó verificar la identidad de los usuarios, un requisito previo para unirse al servicio premium de X que permite a los usuarios un alcance mucho mayor.

El proceso requiere que las personas carguen una foto de su pasaporte u otro documento de identidad con fotografía y permitan que Au10tix escanee su rostro con la cámara de su dispositivo. Au10tix  afirma  que elimina los datos de los usuarios en un plazo de 72 horas tras recibirlos. Sin embargo, el hecho de que la empresa haya sido fundada y esté compuesta por veteranos del conocido grupo de espionaje israelí Unidad 8200 —un grupo responsable de muchos de los escándalos más escandalosos de hacking, infiltración y ciberguerra de la última década— ha generado sospechas en muchos.

The idea that Au10tix itself, or the Israeli government could be using the data given to it by users in order to combat online criticism is far from outlandish. The Department of Homeland Security is already known to be doing the same, sending hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and other large social media apps demanding they share the personal information and identities of anonymous users who have criticized the actions of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Government officials confirmed to The New York Times that platforms have often complied with their requests.

Au10tix: Authentically Israeli

Au10tix was founded in 2002 by Ron Atzmon, a Unit 8200 veteran whose father was treasurerof Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. It got its start providing hi-tech security systems at airports and other venues, before branching out into the online sphere.

Atzmon does not hide his strong political views. His professional LinkedIn profile is littered with posts supporting Israel, or condemning American students protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan, or reposting videos of far–right commentator Douglas Murray presenting the protestors as antisemitic supporters of terror.

A significant number of Au10tix’s employees are also ex-Israeli spooks. Until 2016, Eliran Levi was a Unit 8200 agent. In 2022, the company hired him as a developer. Others, however, go straight from the intelligence services into Au10tix. Lior Emuna, for instance, left her job as an intelligence analyst at Unit 8200 to join Au10tix. She is now an analytics manager. And in 2019, Sara Benita left her position as a mobile communications systems operator at Unit 8200 to become an engineer for the company. Director of product management, Shay Rechter, meanwhile, was a senior Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commander before joining the organization.

Unit 8200 is the IDF’s most elite intelligence unit. Often described as “Israel’s Harvard,” it serves as the centerpiece of the country’s hi-tech spying and military apparatus. The unit is dedicated to surveillance, cyberwarfare, and online manipulation operations, and has been responsible for many of the most shocking acts of tech-based sabotage and terror in recent years.

This includes the 2024 Lebanese pager attack, where agents smuggled thousands of booby-trapped electronic devices into the country, exploding them en masse, killing 42 people and wounding thousands more. The event was widely condemned, even by former director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, as an act of terrorism.

Wiz Acquisition Puts ‘Israeli’ Intelligence in Charge of Your Google Data

Unit 8200 also created the notorious Pegasus software that was used to spy on more than 50,000 journalists, politicians, diplomats, business leaders and human rights defenders worldwide. Confirmed targets included President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and Iraqi president, Barham Salih.

Known purchasers of Pegasus include the Central Intelligence Agency and the government of Saudi Arabia, who used it to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was assassinated by Saudi agents in Türkiye. All sales of Pegasus had to be approved by the Israeli government, who reportedly had access to the data Pegasus’ foreign customers were accruing.

Unit 8200 also reportedly produced malware that attacked Microsoft Windows operating systems, using loopholes it found to attack control systems, delete hard drives, and shut down key systems, such as the energy infrastructure of Iran.

Surely their most deadly endeavor, however, is Project Lavender. The group developed the Lavender software, which uses A.I. and big data to develop a profile on every person in Gaza (including children), assigning them a score of 1-100, based on individuals’ perceived connections to Hamas. A wide range of characteristics, including sharing similar work schedules to or being in a WhatsApp group with a known Hamas member, would raise one’s score. If an individual’s number reached a certain level, they would automatically be put on a list.

These A.I.-driven kill lists allowed the IDF to find a way around what they called “targeting bottlenecks,” with Lavender identifying over 37,000 Palestinians to be executed in the first few weeks of the attack alone. There was little-to-no human oversight on these systems.

Se sabe que Lavender es un caso de éxito o fracaso. Muchas profesiones con patrones de comunicación similares a los de Hamás, como policías y bomberos, o incluso personas con el mismo nombre que un combatiente de la resistencia, fueron señaladas para su ejecución. Las propias fuentes de las FDI  sugieren  una tasa de falsos positivos del 10%.

La Unidad 8200 pudo lograr esto gracias al masivo aparato de vigilancia que ha desarrollado con el tiempo. Cada movimiento público de los palestinos está vigilado por cámaras de reconocimiento facial. Sus llamadas, mensajes de texto y correos electrónicos son monitoreados. Se recopilan expedientes de cada palestino, incluyendo su historial médico, vida sexual e historial de búsqueda, para que esta información pueda usarse posteriormente para extorsionar o chantajear. Si, por ejemplo, una persona engaña a su cónyuge, necesita urgentemente una operación médica o es homosexual en secreto, esto puede usarse como palanca para convertir a civiles en informantes y espías de Israel. Un ex agente de la Unidad 8200 dijo  que, como parte de su entrenamiento, le asignaron memorizar diferentes palabras árabes para “gay” para poder escucharlos en conversaciones.

Por eso es tan controvertida la colaboración de X con Au10tix, una organización fundada y dirigida por agentes de un poder extranjero, que obliga a los usuarios a proporcionarle sus datos personales más íntimos. La Unidad 8200 existe para llevar a cabo operaciones de ciberguerra y espionaje clandestino en todo el mundo, y es una incógnita hasta qué punto alguien se retira realmente del negocio del espionaje.

Si bien su reputación es muy controvertida a nivel mundial, la Unidad 8200 se considera el grupo más prestigioso del ejército israelí. En un país con servicio militar obligatorio, los padres gastan fortunas en clases de ciencias y matemáticas para sus hijos, con la esperanza de que superen el competitivo proceso de selección, sabiendo que representa una vía rápida hacia una carrera lucrativa en el floreciente sector tecnológico del país. Cientos de ellos terminan  trabajando  en Google, Amazon, Facebook y otras grandes plataformas tecnológicas estadounidenses.

Au10tix ha insistido en que no almacene los datos personales de los usuarios, incluidas sus identidades. Pero cuando una empresa está fundada, dirigida y compuesta por miembros de una de las organizaciones de espionaje más infames del planeta —cuyo modus operandi ha sido infiltrar, vigilar y chantajear tanto a sus aliados como a sus oponentes—, surge la pregunta: ¿por qué confiaríamos en ellos?

( Noticias de MintPress )

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This editorial by Martí Batres originally appeared in the March 9, 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*.*

In her book Politics of Sexes, Sylviane Agacinski recalls that: “The idea of ​​parity was first advanced by one of the most audacious French feminists, Hubertine Auclert, the same one who, in 1880, in a letter to the prefect, had refused to pay her taxes until she could vote.”

“Some years later, in 1884,” Agacinski continues, “Hubertine Auclert again called for the extension of so-called ‘universal’ suffrage to women and suggested at the same time that the Assemblies should be composed ‘of as many women as men’.”

However, more than a century later, when writing her book, Agacinski makes a denunciation, a painful complaint: “There is unanimous indignation at the small number of women in the National Assembly and the Senate – about 5 percent in 1996! – and when it is declared desirable that women and men participate equally in decision-making.”

Even now, 30 years after Agacinski’s book, the representation of women and men in the French National Assembly is not equal. It barely reaches 36% of the total.

In several so-called first-world countries, which are presented as the most advanced civilizations in the dominant discourse, the situation is no better. In the United States, women hold 28% of the seats. In Canada, 30%; in Italy, 32%; in Germany, 32%; in Japan, 14%; and in South Korea, 17%.

Women’s legislative representation in European countries has improved in Switzerland, at 39%; in the United Kingdom, at 40%; and in Spain, at 44%. It has also improved in the so-called advanced welfare states: Norway: 42%; Denmark: 44%; Sweden: 44%; and Finland: 45%.

Women’s legislative representation, however, reaches its highest percentages in African, Arab, and Latin American countries. For example: Rwanda: 63%; Cape Verde: 45%; South Africa: 45%; United Arab Emirates: 50%; Cuba: 57%; Nicaragua: 55%; Bolivia: 50%; Mexico: 50%; Costa Rica: 49%.

Mexico has 50% female representation in Congress. Almost exact parity. In the Chamber of Deputies there are 249 men and 251 women. In the Senate, 64 men and 64 women.

Furthermore, it currently has female Speakers in both legislative chambers. It has a Supreme Court of Justice with five female and four male justices. And a female President of Mexico, Head of State, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

In the Judiciary, only Bolivia has made progress towards parity.

Since 2019 constitutionally, and since 2025 in practice, Mexico is the only country in the world with parity of women and men in the three branches of government.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 9

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on US “anti-drug” militarization, new oncology hospital, International Women’s Day, electoral reform, and screwworm.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexican Politics & Gender Parity

  March 9, 2026

  Since 2019 constitutionally, and since 2025 in practice, Mexico is the only country in the world with parity of women and men in the three branches of government, writes Martí Batres.

• 

  News Briefs

  Somos México: Old Salinas Supporters, Claudio X Supporters, TV Azteca Supporters, & PRIAN supporters

  March 9, 2026

  Neither left nor right so actually right, Mexico’s newest party Somos MX gathers together the neoliberal political detritus of other parties for one more kick at the can.

The post Mexican Politics & Gender Parity appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Álvaro Delgado Gómez originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo.

Mexico City. A hodgepodge of old politicians from the six-year term of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, former ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), former electoral officials and even journalists linked to the PRIAN and its governments, as well as employees of the magnates Claudio X. González Guajardo and Ricardo Salinas Pliego, are recycling themselves in Somos MX , the new political party that says it is neither “left nor right” and that is also united by its animosity towards Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The figures of Somos MX as militants, advisors and consultants range from the former PAN member Carlos Medina Plascencia, with whom Salinas de Gortari inaugurated in 1991 the “concerted concessions” with the National Action Party (PAN) —which has governed the state ever since—, and Gustavo Madero Muñoz, signatory of the Pact for Mexico with Enrique Peña Nieto, to María Amparo Casar Pérez, President of Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), the pressure group of González Guajardo that is financed by oligarchs, and the former deputy Jorge Díaz Cuervo, rector of the University of Liberty, owned by Salinas Pliego.

The lists include prominent figures from the governments of Salinas de Gortari, such as his former attorneys general Ignacio Morales Lechuga and Diego Valadés Ríos; from Vicente Fox, such as Jorge Castañeda Gutman and Rubén Aguilar Valenzuela; from Felipe Calderón, such as Consuelo Sáizar, Arturo Sarukhán, Heriberto Guerra, José Luis Luege and Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, the former director of Cisen who never knew that Genaro García Luna, his cabinet colleague, was a drug trafficker, and even from Enrique Peña Nieto, with Enrique de la Madrid.

Emilio Álvarez Icaza and Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo were members of the National Civic Front that supported the Pink Tide (a Mexican neoliberal protest ‘movement,’ not the reformist governments of Latin America.)

This political project, which gathers the remnants of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and offshoots of the PAN, PRI, and even Morena parties, is chaired by Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, while the general secretary is Cecilia Soto, a former deputy for the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM) in 1988 and presidential candidate for the Labor Party in 1994. The third in command is Edmundo Jacobo Molina, in charge of political education, who served for 15 years as executive secretary of the National Electoral Institute (INE). The representatives to the INE’s General Council will be Marco Antonio Baños, a former councilor identified with former PRI member Manlio Fabio Beltrones, and Emilio Álvarez Icaza, a former PAN senator.

Other members of the Secretariat, as the national leadership is called, include Roberto Heycher Cardiel, in charge of alliances and who was Executive Director of Electoral Training and Civic Education at the INE under Lorenzo Córdova; Juan Francisco Torres Landa, a member of México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (United Mexico Against Crime), responsible for the Internal Justice Commission; María José Gómez-Mont Herrera Prats, a youth leader; Díaz Cuervo, with the portfolio of Science, Technology, and Culture; as well as Patricia McCarthy, a former electoral councilor from Yucatán, and Rodrigo Morales Manzanares, also a former councilor and friend of Calderón.

What stands out about the Somos MX party is the list of figures who make up the Advisory Council, a body that does not require its members to formally join the party, but seeks to gather their points of view. Among them are former Supreme Court Justices Margarita Ríos Farjat, Valadés Ríos—Attorney General under Salinas de Gortari—, José Ramón Cossío, and Javier Láynez Potisek, co-author of Ernesto Zedillo’s 1994 Judicial Reform; Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, former president of the National Electoral Institute (INE); Federico Reyes Heroles, former advisor to Justice Norma Piña Hernández; Martha Bárcenas, Ambassador to Washington appointed by López Obrador; and Jacqueline L’hoist, director of the Gender Unit for Mexico and Latin America at Grupo Salinas, who has never spoken out against her boss’s misogynistic remarks.

Also noteworthy in this group are Roger Bartra and Francisco Valdés Ugalde, who unified the intellectual groups of Enrique Krauze and Héctor Aguilar Camin around the presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez and, since 2020, encouraged the PRIAN coalition that the magnate González Guajardo created in his residence in Lomas de Chapultepec, as this reporter has documented.

Also members of the Somos MX Advisory Council are former official Casar Pérez and PAN member Ana Lucía Medina, both operatives of Claudio X. González; María Elena Morera, García Luna’s defender and contractor; former PAN members Marcela Torres Peimbert, Manuel Clouthier, Ernesto Ruffo, Carlos Medina Plascencia, Gerardo Priego Tapia; former PRD members Carlos Navarrete, Antonio García Conejo, Carlos Heredia Zubieta, Ramón Sosamontes, Salvador Nava, René Arce and José Manuel Fócil; and former PRI members Agustín Basave, Demetrio Sodi, Leobardo Alcalá and José Ignacio Peralta, former governor of Colima accused of corruption.

Somos MX also has, in an advisory capacity, its journalistic side with Lázaro Ríos, former director of the Reforma newspaper, Francisco Calderón Lelo de Larrea, cartoonist of the same newspaper; Beatriz Pagés Rebollar, director of Siempre magazine; the writer Elena Chávez, the announcer Tere Vale, the host Adriana Pérez Cañedo, as well as the reporters Ivonne Melgar and Laura Brugés.

Edmundo Jacobo Molina, who served for more than 14 years as Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Institute (INE), promoted the creation of a political party along with politicians from the PAN and PRD parties. Photo: Somos MX.

Also members of the Advisory Council are María del Carmen Alanís, former president of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) and her husband, Emilio Rabasa, an official in Zedillo’s administration; the searching mother Cecilia Flores; Reyna Rodríguez, former judge from Guanajuato; former electoral councilor Arturo Sánchez Gutiérrez, commentator José Antonio Crespo, Macario Schettino, Leopoldo Hernández, Rogelio Gómez Hermosillo, and Juan Pablo Castañón, former president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX).

The cultural community is also represented by actress Claudia Ramírez, actor Joaquín Cossío, and tenor Fernando de la Mora. Even a member of the military is involved in the project: retired General Pedro Felipe Gurrola, who served as the General Coordinator of Security in Michoacán during the administration of fugitive former governor Silvano Aureoles.

Somos MX held its National Constituent Assembly on Saturday, February 21, whose delegates approved the Statutes, Declaration of Principles and Action Plan, which were presented to the INE on Friday the 27th, to request its registration as a national political party.

In his first speech as president of Somos MX, whose only experience as a leader was as interim president of the PRD for six months in 2008, Acosta Naranjo clarified that this party does not have a defined ideology.

“The central struggle is not between right and left, but between democrats and authoritarians. Authoritarians have no place in Somos MX under any circumstances,” said the former PRD member, who has reiterated that in the 2030 election he will ally with the PRI and the PAN—if it maintains its registration in 2027—to confront Morena and its allies: “The fight is for the defense of freedoms.”

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera March 9

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on US “anti-drug” militarization, new oncology hospital, International Women’s Day, electoral reform, and screwworm.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexican Politics & Gender Parity

  March 9, 2026

  Since 2019 constitutionally, and since 2025 in practice, Mexico is the only country in the world with parity of women and men in the three branches of government, writes Martí Batres.

• 

  News Briefs

  Somos México: Old Salinas Supporters, Claudio X Supporters, TV Azteca Supporters, & PRIAN supporters

  March 9, 2026

  Neither left nor right so actually right, Mexico’s newest party Somos MX gathers together the neoliberal political detritus of other parties for one more kick at the can.

The post Somos México: Old Salinas Supporters, Claudio X Supporters, TV Azteca Supporters, & PRIAN supporters appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of RT en Español.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded on Monday to her US counterpart, Donald Trump, who over the weekend announced the creation of a continental military coalition against drug cartels and asserted that Mexico has rejected his help in combating organized crime.

“It’s good that President Trump publicly says that when he has proposed that the United States Army enter Mexico, we have said no, because it is the truth, and we proudly continue to say no ” the President stated at a press conference.

“We collaborate and cooperate in intelligence and other security-related activities, but operations in Mexico are carried out by the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Security, the National Guard, state police forces, and prosecutors’ offices,” she added.

Sheinbaum added that one thing Trump can help Mexico with is stopping arms trafficking, since the State Department itself has acknowledged that 75% of the arsenal used by the cartels is American. “If the United States stops the flow of weapons, they won’t have these kinds of high-powered weapons anymore,” she noted.

On Saturday, Trump led the Shield of the Americas Summit in Miami , which was attended by 12 far-right leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean who joined an unprecedented interventionist strategy that has the alleged objective of fighting organized crime.

There, Trump asserted that Mexico is the “epicenter” of drug cartel violence. “The cartels run Mexico . We can’t allow it. Too close to us. Too close to you,” he declared, warning that he could send missiles directly to other countries in the region to eliminate the groups that produce and traffic illegal drugs.

He also spoke about Sheinbaum in a contradictory way, on the one hand praising her, but on the other he asserted that she does not want the U.S. to help Mexico fight drug traffickers.

“I like the president very much . She’s a very good person. She has a beautiful voice. A beautiful woman, with a beautiful voice,” he said. He then claimed that he had already asked her to allow him to “eradicate the cartels,” to which the president supposedly replied, “No, no, no, please, Mr. President.” In his account, Trump even tried to imitate Sheinbaum’s voice.

• 

  News Briefs

  President Sheinbaum Responds to Trump & Shield of the Americas Militarization

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  The Mexican President addressed comments made by the US President at the Shield of the Americas Summit, a sordid gathering of regional sycophants & lumpen-criminals held in Miami, one of the world’s worst cities.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexican Farmers Announce Nation-Wide Blockades for March 20th

  March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

  Citing insufficient support, bankruptcies, crop-dumping by the US, and abandoning Mexican food sovereignty in USMCA negotiations, farmers say the government’s ties to big business has pushed them to this national action.

• 

  News Briefs

  Morena National Council President Urges Party to Eradicate Opportunism Before 2027 Elections

  March 9, 2026March 8, 2026

  The Governor of Sonora asked the National Council to take care of Morena and the Transformation, and made it clear that in the face of that objective, “we are all indispensable.”

The post President Sheinbaum Responds to Trump & Shield of the Americas Militarization appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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At the recent “Shield of the Americas” summit, which was attended by Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, the Republican magnate ironically stated: “President of Panama, I love that canal. Jose, I think you made the greatest deal in history. He bought it for one dollar. One of our brilliant presidents. I can’t sleep over that deal. They gave it to him for one dollar.”

The comment alluded to the process by which the United States gradually transferred the administration of the interoceanic waterway to Panama, officially culminating in 1999 after decades of diplomatic negotiations.

This transfer was based on the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977, which defined the path for the infrastructure to pass completely into Panamanian hands.

In addition to the joke, Trump emphasized that his administration maintains a firm stance against the presence of foreign powers in the region.

In that context, he stated that he will not allow hostile actors to gain influence in the Western Hemisphere, making direct reference to the strategic importance of the Panama Canal.

In response, Frenadeso stressed that these statements not only falsify history but also constitute a direct offense to the dignity of the Panamanian people.

The Panama Canal was neither a sale nor a generous concession from US imperialism.

For much of the 20th century, our country suffered the imposition of a colonial enclave that divided the national territory and placed a strategic strip of the country under the control of a foreign power, the group stated in a press release.

The recovery of the Canal was the result of decades of national resistance and the struggles of the Panamanian people.

It was the result of the sacrifice of generations who confronted colonialism and paid with persecution, repression, and human lives for the defense of national sovereignty, the document adds.

abo/arm/mem/ga

The post Panamanians reject Trump’s remarks on the Canal first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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The event, in a hybrid format, will be a space for reflection that will strengthen academic and cultural ties in the region.

Participants will engage, for two days, in keynote speeches and panel discussions with experts from Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

In these challenging times, our purpose is to exchange ideas at all costs, affirmed the cultural institution, which has been, for decades, a platform for dialogue and integration dedicated to the study, research, and promotion of literature, visual arts, music, and critical thinking.

Casa de las Americas stands as a beacon projecting the richness and cultural diversity of the continent, driven by a humanistic vocation and a commitment to social justice.

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The post Casa de las Americas to hold colloquium on musicology first appeared on Prensa Latina.

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During a tour of southern Spain, also in his capacity as the candidate for the Por Andalucía coalition for the Presidency of the Regional Government, Maillo recalled that IU has been “saying NATO no, bases out for 40 years.”

In this regard, he referred to the refusal of Pedro Sanchez’s national government to allow the United States to use the Moron de la Frontera (Seville) and Rota (Cadiz) bases in the Pentagon and Israeli aggressions against Iran.

Maillo told a group of journalists during a visit to La Linea de la Concepcion (Cadiz) that the desire for peace is widespread among the Spanish people, and certainly the rejection of involvement in a war that is not theirs to wage.

He added that he welcomes the government’s decision, which “for the first time” refuses to cede the use of both military installations on Andalusian soil for “an illegal war that violates international law.”

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