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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 farright 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.

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.”

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.

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.

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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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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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The Palestinian Center for Missing Persons warned in a statement about the legal and humanitarian ambiguity regarding the fate of thousands of people in the coastal enclave.

Estimates suggest that the vast majority of them are still under the rubble of homes destroyed by systematic Israeli bombings, the group stated.

It also criticized the continued withholding of information about the fate of women detained by the Israeli army, which “constitutes a serious violation and raises serious concerns about the possibility that some of them may be subjected to enforced disappearance.”

This situation prevents families from knowing the truth and from receiving a proper burial in the event of death, the Center stressed.

The Center called for effective international pressure to fully reveal the fate of all missing persons and to compel Israeli authorities to immediately announce the detention locations of all those arrested in the Gaza Strip.

It also demanded that Israel allow Palestinian Civil Defense teams to work in the destroyed areas to recover victims.

The Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs announced yesterday that more than 12,500 women, including 9,000 mothers, died during the conflict in the coastal enclave.

More than 56,000 children were orphaned after losing one or both parents, while 21,193 women were widowed, further increasing their burden, the Ministry lamented.

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According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, during a telephone call, both leaders advocated for intensifying regional and international efforts to contain the escalating violence, unleashed after a US and Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.

El-Sisi expressed his deep concern about the repercussions of the conflict, including rising energy prices, disruptions to supply chains, and impacts on air and sea transport.

He also criticized Iran’s attacks on Arab countries, although Tehran claims they only target US bases.

The text highlighted that the two leaders also discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, following Hezbollah’s entry into the war and the Israeli response, which included the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from the south of the country and intense bombing campaigns.

In recent days, Cairo has launched a diplomatic offensive to seek a negotiated solution to the regional crisis.

As part of this campaign, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdellatty held separate talks with his counterparts from Türkiye, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, as well as the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.

He also spoke with the prime ministers of Qatar and Lebanon, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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In statements to news outlets broadcast on Prima Radio station this Monday, Tajani asserted, “We will continue working to ensure that diplomacy prevails” and “at the European level, we call on everyone to de-escalate the situation.”

However, the foreign minister lamented that “the decisions of the United States, Israel, and Iran do not seem to indicate a swift end to the military action” and noted that in response to this situation, Italy closed its embassy in Tehran, but without severing diplomatic relations with that country.

Tajani emphasized in his press briefing at the Foreign Ministry that “we have always stated that Italy is not at war with anyone,” although “we have decided to coordinate our defense actions, together as Europeans, in the event of an attack.”

“The priority is the safety of 70,000 Italians in the region,” the foreign minister affirmed, according to a report published on the website of the Il Messaggero newspaper, and added, “more than 20,000 have been repatriated,” although none were involved in the attacks, “neither civilians nor military personnel.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni indicated on Saturday that close dialogue has been fostered, in the last few hours, among Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, initiating coordination among four major European states to jointly address this crisis and strengthen diplomatic efforts.

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According to a government statement released last night, the floods caused serious material damage and disrupted operations at the capital’s airport.

The Minister of Public Service and Human Capital Development, Geoffrey Kiringa Ruku, stated that rescue teams are continuing search operations to recover the bodies of all the victims.

For his part, Kenyan President William Ruto ordered the release of food from national reserves for distribution to affected families.

Experts attribute the heavy rainfall to climate change, which is accelerating global warming and increasing the contrast between heavy rains and droughts in East Africa.

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Guo responded in this way after being asked about reports of coordination between the Group of Seven (G7) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) for possible coordinated releases of oil reserves.

Although the spokesperson sent those interested to consult the relevant authorities, he added that energy security is crucial for the global economy and all stakeholders have a responsibility to ensure a stable energy supply.

The US and Israeli attacks on Iran and the subsequent Iranian response triggered instability in the Middle East, and the price of crude oil rose above 100 dollars for the first time since 2022.

The IEA maintains strategic petroleum reserves as part of an emergency system designed to help countries withstand price crises.

abo/iff/ro/idm

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When asked by the press whether Russia would increase its oil supplies to China and India following the situation in the Middle East, Novak replied: “We are always ready; Russian oil is in demand. We will sell it if it is purchased.”

Following the conflict sparked by the United States and Israel, which violates international law, Iran has responded with a series of measures, including attacks on the military bases and infrastructure of those two countries in the region, located in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other countries.

As a result, crude oil production in most of these countries has ceased. Adding to this, the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed, and a dozen ships have already been attacked, presumably to deter others from crossing. All of this has created a perfect storm in the global energy market.

For example, Qatar Energy has declared force majeure for its customers due to the disruption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.

abo/arm/kmg/gfa

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In its 2025 report, published yesterday and disseminated today by the local press, the UN agency warns of the increase in documented incidents, as well as the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war.

Of the 1,534 victims, 854 are women and 672 are girls, while the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu account for almost 80% of those affected, the report stated, adding that armed groups are responsible for 75% of the attacks.

The UNJHRO also drew attention to the involvement of state agents such as the DRC Armed Forces and the National Police, which, along with the National Intelligence Agency, are allegedly responsible for 19% of the documented cases.

The report mentions the occurrence of practices such as sexual slavery, primarily of women and girls who are held in prolonged captivity, subjected to repeated rapes and forced pregnancies.

It also emphasizes that while 70% of victims have access to emergency medical care, less than two percent receive comprehensive support, including legal, psychological, and social follow-up.

In light of this situation, the organization urged the government to expedite legal proceedings against perpetrators and ensure the systematic registration of children born as a result of rape.

It also called on the international community to increase financial support and enable comprehensive and sustainable care for survivors.

abo/arm/ga/kmg

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This article by Jesus Estrada originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Demanding that the federal government address points in their petition related to regulating the food market and the marketing of crops, which were presented last December and continue to be ignored, members of the National Front for the Rescue of the Mexican Countryside (FNRCM) will demonstrate on highways and railway lines on March 20.

Eraclio Rodríguez Gómez, one of the organization’s leaders, stated in an interview with La Jornada that the government only fulfilled its promises regarding water, but other issues remain unresolved, such as establishing an agricultural development bank, removing basic grains from the Free Trade Agreement, and guaranteeing prices.

“When corn reached almost 8 pesos per kilogram, a kilogram of tortillas cost 27 pesos; today, corn costs between 3.30 and 3.50 pesos, at best, and tortillas cost exactly the same. This tells us that the government is very closely tied to big business, favoring them with its profits.”

He explained that these are demands related to the creation of a national agriculture, that the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) should have a different vision, “not one that depends on imports and exports, but on national needs, with goals for the country.”

This, he considered, “would give us a different field, because we cannot continue developing an agriculture conditioned by the prices set by the Chicago stock exchange, which rather than regulating is a totally speculative market.”

Eraclio Yako Rodríguez Gómez is a former Morena deputy & was previously President of the Commission for Rural Development and Conservation, Agriculture and Food Self-Sufficiency of the Chamber of Deputies

“The support from SADER arrived late”

Members of the FNRCM criticized the fact that the support from SADER to market basic grains such as yellow corn arrived late and only partially, with 600 pesos per ton provided by the federal government and 150 pesos paid by the state administrations of Chihuahua and Tamaulipas.

They complained: “We have an attempt at subsidies when most yellow corn producers have already had to sell, because they had many commitments to cover and the government let time pass; they helped until there is not much grain left in the warehouses, at least in Chihuahua, there is less than half of what was produced last year.”

Rodríguez Gómez stated that “the overdue payments for corn and wheat have not been fully resolved; very little progress has been made, and with the current prices for the harvest still in storage, the proposal they’re making is very poor. There’s no way a farmer can sell their crop with such a low price per ton on the market; many will go straight to bankruptcy.”

“The proof that there is no progress is that the price of a kilogram of tortillas remains between 25 and 30 pesos, which is paid by the final consumer; therein lies the government’s failure, which has not been able to bring order to the market,” he warned.

Eraclio Rodríguez described as a failure of the SADER the fact that farmers sell their crops at extremely low prices, while marketing companies, the masa and tortilla industry and intermediaries (coyotes), generate large profits.

“Profits are for business owners”

He stated that “when corn reached almost 8 pesos per kilogram (between 7.60 and 7.80 pesos), a kilogram of tortillas cost 27 pesos; today, corn costs between 3.30 and 3.50 pesos, at best, and tortillas cost exactly the same. This tells us that the government is very closely tied to big business, favoring them with its profits.”

The leader of the national front pointed out: “We don’t want subsidies, because in the end that money will end up in the hands of big business; we ask that if corn is worth 7 pesos per kilogram, tortilla business owners pay that amount, because they want to pay the price of tortillas as if corn were worth 8 pesos.”

Rodríguez Gómez questioned: “Where is the government’s hand, then? Julio Berdegué (head of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development) is lying when he says he seeks to regulate the market, but he has been a liar since the beginning of this federal administration; that is nothing new to us.”

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This article by Nestor Jimenez and Fernando Camacho originally appeared in the March 7, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The president of the National Council of Morena, Alfonso Durazo, stressed to the members of this body that, heading into the 2027 elections, opportunism and personal political aspirations must be set aside, while warning that political projects fail due to internal weaknesses and temptations arising from petty calculations.

Before the members of the Morena party who make up the highest body of the party – second only to its National Congress – and with the attendance of many of the aspirants for the candidacies for governorships and federal deputies for next year, the Governor of Sonora also asked them to take care of Morena and the Transformation, and made it clear that in the face of that objective, “we are all indispensable.”

At this moment, he stressed, “there is no room for ambiguity. What is at stake, I repeat, is not a position or a political situation. What is at stake is the progress of the second phase of the Fourth Transformation led by our President, Claudia Sheinbaum.”

The Morena party’s leadership met this Saturday at a hotel on Paseo de la Reforma to approve the guidelines for defining the 2027 candidates. During the opening of the session, Durazo stated that “transformation projects fail not only due to external attacks, but also due to internal weaknesses, due to the temptations that arise from the petty calculations of some of its members.”

He pointed out that the complexity of the upcoming electoral process is “evident” and warned that “there are no more rosy campaigns. On the contrary, they are full of poison.”

Given these conditions, he added that “unity is not an organizational luxury, it is a strategic condition to successfully face the demanding electoral horizon that 2027 is already outlining.”

He believed that the rules to be approved this Saturday should help strengthen internal autonomy and guarantee fair, equitable and transparent processes, “so that no one, even in defeat, harbours a feeling of injustice within themselves.”

Photo: La Jornada, Yazmín Ortega Cortés

Accompanied by governors from the party and members of the National Executive Committee, Durazo affirmed that Morena is currently riding a wave of success, but indicated that this wasn’t always the case. “In these prosperous times, it’s necessary to emphasize one of its founding principles: here in Morena, there are no public offices, only public responsibilities, and we mustn’t forget that.”

And when we stray from the ethical principles that gave rise to our work, he added, “people stop believing; when we act opportunistically, people stop believing; when everything revolves around personal ambition, people stop believing; when it’s just a matter of ‘you get out so I can get in,’ people stop believing. Closing these gaps is an essential condition for the consolidation of the project.”

Following this, he called on the members of Morena to process what he defined as legitimate internal aspirations, “without fragmenting ourselves, without weakening ourselves and without putting the people’s trust at risk,” since when we walk divided, “the same old people win, the elites who historically hijacked power to subject it to their particular interests win.”

He advocated for selecting candidates by evaluating electoral competitiveness, track record, consistency, ethical performance, and commitment to the project, and concluded that the rules that are approved represent an ethical and political message that will be sent to society.

With this new phase of work within the political institute, he emphasized that “the fate of a personal political aspiration is not at stake here. Anyone who thinks so is profoundly mistaken. What is at stake here is the strength of Morena in the coming years. We are a social force that today has an even greater responsibility: to demonstrate that the Transformation does not depend on a single individual, but on an organized, disciplined, and politically responsible movement.”

At the same time, he advised those seeking candidacies, “that in their journey they should never undermine the very institution that has provided or will provide them with political support for their aspirations. No one will gain anything by denigrating fellow candidates, much less the movement and its governments. I remind you that the movement needs us all and that in politics the shortest distance between two positions is not necessarily a straight line. If we are loyal to it, the movement will generously guarantee us political life well beyond 2027.”

He also asked them to understand that party discipline does not mean uniformity, but rather honoring the agreements made by the National Council, “authentic unity is not achieved by sacrificing consistency. We understand unity in its most demanding sense, not that of an uncritical unity or one built on forced silences.”

Emphatically, he reminded them twice that Morena is no longer an opposition party, “but a key element of the country’s governance,” and urged the council members to understand their responsibility in that context.

Durazo placed the electoral reform initiative as a priority, because “it is not just a proposal from President Claudia Sheinbaum and her agenda with allies in the 2024 campaign, but it would lay new foundations.”

He called on the national councilors to “understand that taking care of Morena is taking care of the transformation, that taking care of internal politics is taking care of sovereignty, that taking care of the principles of our movement is taking care of the future of Mexico, that taking care of the coalition with our sister parties, the Green Party and the Workers Party, is not a simple sum of votes, but a strategic understanding to strengthen the capacity of our movement to drive the national transformation.”

The session is expected to last for at least a couple of hours, with the meeting continuing behind closed doors.

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This article by Jaime Quintana Guerrero originally appeared in the March 8, 2026 edition of Desinformémonos.

A women-run health cooperative, which celebrates 19 years of providing medical care this March 12, promotes cooperativism and the solidarity economy as basic principles, and offers its services to the south of Mexico City.

It is a cooperatively planned and managed organization of healthcare professionals. Its specific area of ​​focus is health promotion and disease prevention, and its objective is to promote the right to health. It currently consists of twelve collaborating members who serve approximately one hundred people monthly.

In the context of International Women’s Day, Andrea Ríos, a dental surgeon and president of the Panamédica Health Cooperative, explained in an interview with Desinformémonos: “Ninety percent of us are women.” She pointed out that one of the problems they’ve faced is the enforcement of internal agreements. She gave the example of rules that were established regarding roles and fines for not cleaning the cooperative’s initial physical spaces. “The men didn’t want to do it and preferred to pay the fine; the problem wasn’t whether you were a man or a woman, the problem was that you were a member, and that was an agreement you had to comply with,” she explained.

“The social and solidarity economy is a complex way of life and organization because everything is horizontal,” Ríos explains. “We all come from a background where we’re taught about bosses, employers, and employees; it’s hard for us to change our mindset. Cooperatives offer that: we’re people who are more aware or more empathetic towards others; we don’t seek profit, but we do seek to live well,” he explains.

Since 2007, the Panamédica Health Cooperative has maintained its autonomous structure, avoiding the influence of partisan organizations. It originated in the south of Mexico City through a loan agreement with the neighborhood administration of the Villa Panamericana Housing Unit’s Social Center, located near the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Photo: Panamédica Health Cooperative

However, explains Sofía Jiménez, who is currently the treasurer of the Board of Directors, “we had to change locations to have greater autonomy, since that space belongs to the residents of the Pan American Village and there was also a conflict of interest due to the political parties. There were internal conflicts where we were caught in the middle; we had to leave a place where we had many patients and seven years of work.”

In a second phase and in a different space, Sofía Jiménez recounts, the mutual scheme was initiated, based on the fair distribution of expenses and risks, with an advance payment for a service. This model was learned from schemes existing in Argentina, which the Mexican cooperative members visited. “It was weakened by the pandemic; however, the seed remained,” she explains.

Dr. Sofía Jiménez, who also served as president of the cooperative, recalls that “a group of students from health-related disciplines—doctors, dentists, and psychologists—organized the construction of a primary care clinic in a self-managed and autonomous manner to work on promotion and offer service to the community.”

“We have a vision,” says psychologist Sofia, “here the doctor is not placed above, as in this hierarchy, but is part of that process of taking care of your health.”

The cooperative offers services such as dental care, psychology, medicine, homeopathy, nutrition, optometry, physiotherapy, and some alternative therapies. “In each of our services, we try to take an interdisciplinary approach; that is, if a patient comes to the medical department and has an earache, they probably also need dental treatment,” explains Andrea Ríos, a dental surgeon and president. Or, for example, “if someone is clenching their teeth a lot, they might be stressed; so we try to refer them to the psychology department as well.”

Among some of the external situations in which they have provided support, recalls Sofía Jiménez, is the attention given to the parents of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers’ college, who were given medical attention in the first days, as well as the support given to victims of the housing units in Taxqueña after the earthquake.

In these 19 years of existence, women have acquired greater responsibility and leadership in the care of the space and the collective, an organic change within the cooperative.

“We went to big cooperative events, where there are large cooperatives, many men and very few women. We started to get involved there; despite many things, there is more awareness of being able to make that change, of being able to transform how we relate to each other, but sometimes we don’t realize it and we can fall into repeating the same patterns,” reflects Sofía Jiménez, treasurer of Panamédica.

One of the problems, the cooperative members believe, “is the issue of power and respect for agreements,” and another fundamental one, for a woman, mother and cooperative member, “is taking care of themselves.”

One of the important issues, the interviewees agree, is the care of the community and the patient. They point out that they are working on integrating this issue through training workshops for health promoters. “There are a lot of issues that affect us, both for the care of the caregiver and for the care of the people being cared for.”

“Now we want a school for caregivers and health promoters to be created from within the cooperative itself; that is the path we are on, taking care of those who take care of us,” concludes Andrea Ríos, president of the Panamédica Health Cooperative.

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This article by Juan Carlos Rodríguez originally appeared in the March 3, 2026 edition of El Sol de México.

While the theft and smuggling of hydrocarbons in Mexico is measured in millions of liters, the National Energy Commission’s (CNE) program to help contain this illicit activity is progressing in dribs and drabs.

Two months after the requirement came into effect for all hydrocarbon, LP gas and petroleum product transport units to carry a QR code and GPS geolocation systems, only a third of the vehicles have complied with this regulation.

In Mexico, it is estimated that there are around 1.2 million units that transport fuels ; however, only about 3,725 QR codes have been issued, according to information obtained by El Sol de México through a request via the National Transparency Platform.

Regarding liquefied petroleum gas, 1,373 QR codes have been provided, of which 1,182 correspond to distribution permits and 191 to transport permits ,” explains the CNE in its response, as of February 4 of this year.

In the area of ​​petroleum products, 2,352 QR codes have been granted, of which 252 are distribution permits and 2,100 are transport permits by means other than pipelines.

In total, these permits cover some 360,000 delivery vehicles, tank trucks, tank ships, semi-trailers and tractor-trailers that, since January 1 of this year, should carry the markings to monitor their routes, as well as loading and unloading operations.

On September 23, the Director General of the CNE, Juan Carlos Solís Ávila, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation an agreement ordering that all vehicles that transport or distribute fuels must carry identification data in order to prevent illegal activities.

The marking system includes semi-trailers, tank trucks, tractor-trailers, tank cars and delivery vehicles associated with each permit, allowing for effective tools for detecting illicit conduct, as well as improving the traceability of transported products, the agreement states.

Likewise, the commitment considered it essential that all vehicle units associated with the transportation and distribution activities of petroleum products, LP gas and petrochemicals by means other than pipelines have a global positioning system (GPS) , which allows real-time monitoring of the vehicles.

This technological tool not only allows the verification of permitted activities, but also contributes to providing greater security and certainty to the people who carry out this activity in order to “mitigate the negative impacts caused by the theft of vehicle units, as well as by the diversion of products and the improper use of authorized vehicles,” the document highlights.

Originally, a 15-day period was given to process and acquire the sticker and the code that includes vehicle data and a QR code. However, given the complexity of the operation, the deadline was extended to December 31, 2025. But even with the extension, the process has been slow.

And while the distribution of stickers has been staggering, the distribution of GPS devices is even worse. This publication requested an estimate from the National Electoral Council (CNE) of the number of vehicles already equipped with geolocation systems, but no information is available.

“This Hydrocarbons Unit does not currently have the requested information; this is because the integration of statistics that break down said data is in the implementation phase,” the agency stated.

El Sol de México also asked the CNE the number of units and/or permit holders that have been sanctioned for not complying with the new requirements to prevent fuel theft, but the data is not available either.

“This Hydrocarbons Unit does not have the requested information, since the Verification Unit is the area that, within the scope of its supervisory, verification and sanctioning powers, can have it.”

Last November, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) considered that illicit activities related to fuels, including so-called fiscal fuel theft, are likely to persist, according to the report it sent to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In its third-quarter report, the oil company listed several risks, such as theft, diversion, and manipulation of crude oil, natural gas, and refined products from its pipeline network.

Pemex added that these acts include the illegal extraction of hydrocarbons, such as clandestine taps on its pipelines, and the illegal trade of fuels, such as those brought into the country through tax evasion, a practice known as fiscal fuel theft.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez is a reporter with three decades of experience chasing uncomfortable stories.

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This article by Montserrat Antúnez originally appeared in the March 8, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo.

Mexico City. Companies such as Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser, and Abbott took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to promote their infant formula products with false information. Some courses and donations to the Mexican government were part of their strategies to discourage breastfeeding and regulations on the subject, concluded a study published in the scientific journal International Breastfeeding Journal.

“It’s a serious matter. These industries took advantage of the fear we had as a population, not knowing how the virus was transmitted, and used it to position and sell their products, which are not equivalent to breast milk. They are a substitute for specific cases of infants, but not an ideal food for babies,” explained Christian Torres, coordinator of Conflict of Interest and Industry Interference at the organization El Poder del Consumidor and one of the six authors of the article titled The Corporate Political Activity of the Breast Milk Industry in Mexico during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was published in early 2026.

The research, which analyzed corporate behavior between 2020 and 2022, identified Nestlé as the top-selling brand in Mexico and the one that implemented the most aggressive Corporate Political Activity (CPA) strategy. Its strategy included a “Support Plan” with donations of products and medical equipment, as well as the management of coalitions with government institutions such as the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Secretariat of National Defense, and the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF).

“As part of its actions, in 2020, Nestlé launched the ‘ Nestlé COVID Emergency Support Plan,’ which reported monetary donations of 7.1 million pesos; the distribution of 100 million food packages with Nestlé brand products, including commercial infant formulas, to more than 50 institutions, hospitals, and civil society organizations; and in-kind donations or aid through its various brands. Mexican Economic Development (FEMSA) and YZA Pharmacy organized donation campaigns for commercial infant formulas, inviting the public to participate,” the investigation reads.

In addition to promoting itself on social media as a company that supports the healthcare sector, it disseminated messages and blog posts that raised doubts about whether a mother with COVID-19 should breastfeed and suggested formula as a “safe” option. It spread the false idea that its chemical products could offer specific protection against the virus that breast milk did not.

The Enfamil brand, manufactured by Mead Johnson Nutrition, a subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser, published a study on its website showing that babies fed with commercial formulas during the first 12 months of life had better development of motor skills than those fed with other types of formulas.

“Our interviewees shared the fact that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry disseminated information about the supposed increase in immunity associated with the consumption of CMF [Commercial Infant Formula], taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic,” the research mentions.

Similarly, the researchers added that in Mexico, training was provided to health professionals “positioning CMF [Commercial Infant Formula] products as a solution to be used during the COVID-19 pandemic. This took advantage of the widespread fear among mothers, fathers, and caregivers, with the claim that CMF could improve the immunity of babies and young children.”

Oscar Reséndiz Lugo, lead author of the study, explained that the direct impact of the strategies used by infant formula companies is to discourage breastfeeding and to position themselves in the eyes of policymakers and the public.

“If you put all those components into the entire political arena, what happens is that self-regulation is still allowed for these types of industries; that is, they formulate their own regulatory codes, they propose their own regulatory strategies, and they can conveniently establish more precise issues that promote the advertising of their products ,” Reséndiz Lugo mentioned.

Since 1974, the World Health Assembly has recognized that women are ceasing to breastfeed their babies due to the influence of unethical marketing practices for breast milk substitutes. Therefore, in 1981, it adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, which Mexico signed and committed to implementing. However, practices contrary to the provisions of this instrument are still being observed.

Oscar Reséndiz insisted that Mexico still does not have a robust legal framework that allows it to sanction companies that do not comply with the international code.

The research also indicates that excessive exposure to formula advertising, the distribution of free samples, inadequate labeling, and industry influence on health professionals, the main promoters among mothers, persist in Mexico.

Similarly, she highlighted that in the country only 34.2 percent of children receive exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, a figure below the international goal proposed by the World Health Organization to increase the rate to 50 percent by 2025.

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This editorial by the La Jornada editorial board originally appeared in the March 8, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project*.*

President Donald Trump hosted his counterparts from Argentina, Javier Milei; Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz; Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; Dominican Republic, Luis Abidaner; Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; El Salvador, Nayib Bukele; Guyana, Irfaan Ali; Honduras, Nasry Asfura; Panama, José Raúl Mulino; Paraguay, Santiago Peña; and Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, along with the president-elect of Chile, José Antonio Kast, at his golf course in Doral, Miami.

The attendees, handpicked for their ideological affinity and political subservience to the magnate, did not attend the presentation of the so-called Shield of the Americas as equals sharing concerns and viewpoints, but rather as subordinates receiving orders and thunderously applauding their boss’s every whim, even when he stands before ten Spanish speakers and tells them, “I’m not going to learn your damn language.” At the reception, Trump declared that the “consensus” is that the only way to defeat organized crime and the nonexistent narco-terrorist groups is to “unleash the power of our armed forces,” for which he will deploy “the supreme power of the United States,” which, thanks to him, is “once again” the world’s leading military power. In reality, it has never ceased to be so, nor has it experienced any substantial increase in its capabilities under Trumpism; only the level of willingness to use unilateral and arbitrary force has changed.

Beyond the Republican’s blunders and his obsession with blaming Mexico for the insatiable consumption of illicit substances in American society, the most striking aspect of the meeting is that each of the attending leaders uses tough-on-crime rhetoric while simultaneously carrying an extensive criminal record. Milei has twice promoted cryptocurrency scams; he placed José Luis Espert at the top of his congressional list, even though it was already public knowledge that Espert received $200,000 from drug trafficker Fred Machado; he sold his party’s candidacies; and he allowed his sister to collect “commissions” from suppliers of the National Disability Agency. Paz was indicted for corruption, embezzlement, and awarding contracts detrimental to the state for promoting projects with serious irregularities and inflated prices when he was mayor of Tarija. Chaves has dozens of open cases against him for corruption, including abuse of power, embezzlement, influence peddling, and illegal campaign financing. He was sanctioned and demoted by the World Bank after a pattern of sexual harassment of female subordinates was proven. Noboa, who maintains Ecuador under a state of emergency and cultivates an image of a gangster willing to do anything against drug trafficking, has justified the constant discoveries of cocaine shipments on ships belonging to his family’s shipping company. The Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit against Corruption Networks (UFERCO) in Honduras accuses Asfura of structuring a money laundering scheme, embezzlement of public funds, and fraud from his position as mayor of Tegucigalpa. The list of offenses extends to the rest of the Latin American and Caribbean leaders, and, of course, the host is the first US president convicted of a serious crime. Thus, it is clear that the Shield of the Americas has nothing to do with combating crime, but rather with advancing the imposition of the Monroe Doctrine.

A couple of days before the summit, Costa Rica’s president-elect, Laura Fernández, described Mexico as “a prime example of where we don’t want to end up” in terms of violence, organized crime, and drug trafficking. Fernández served as Minister of the Presidency and Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in the Chávez administration, whose agenda she wholeheartedly endorses. If the future president truly wants to spare her country the immense suffering endured by ours over the past two decades, she should consider that the security crisis began when a politician from her own far-right political persuasion did what she is now preparing to do: open Mexico wide to US intelligence agencies, subordinate internal decisions to Washington’s interests, ignore the socioeconomic roots of crime, and wage war against her own citizens, in which state violence became the measure of success for a control strategy disguised as security. The lessons of the Calderón administration are also valid for the rest of the rulers (and the ruled) who still see or pretend to see in the White House’s “war on drugs” an offensive against criminal structures and not the mechanism of imperialist domination that it is.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—On Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day, Venezuela not only celebrates women but continues to empower them by holding in their honor the first National Popular Consultation of 2026. This method of direct government allows the people to identify and prioritize solutions to the most urgent needs in their communes.

On January 21, 2026, the acting president of Venezuela and the first woman to serve as commander in chief of the Venezuelan Army, Delcy Rodríguez, announced that the first Popular Consultation would be held. During a working session of the Federal Government Council, she described how the projects chosen this time would focus on two strategic dimensions: Economic Transformation, focused on local entrepreneurship and productive projects, and the Human City, aimed at infrastructure works, services, and habitat improvements.

The communal popular consultations are a mechanism created and promoted since 2024 by President Nicolás Maduro. In preparation for this consultation, more than 36,000 community projects were loaded into the platform managed by the National Popular Government System, with 5,336 communes and community circuits participating.

• The projects available for selection can be viewed on the Ministry for Communes website.
• The polling stations can also be found at this link on the Ministry’s website.

On February 26, the acting president announced that the top 10 communes with the highest youth participation would receive direct funding for a project starting March 8. “We recently held something unprecedented in our country: the Youth Popular Consultation. This opened the doors for young people from the communities to begin participating in the community councils and to start envisioning the city, the buildings, the streets, and urban planning as the youth want it,” she stated.

Turnout across Venezuela was high in the early hours of Sunday, as verified by Ultimas Noticias correspondents in the states of Merida, Miranda, Aragua, Yaracuy, Portuguesa, Apure, Guarico, La Guaira, Zulia, Falcon, Trujillo, Barinas, Tachira, and Carabobo.

On Sunday’s late afternoon, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that the popular consultation would be extended until 7:00 p.m. The CNE emphasized that the process unfolded normally with outstanding citizen participation.

“The voting process, which began today at 8:00 a.m., was scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m.; however, due to the high turnout of voters, it has been decided to grant a one-hour extension,” the statement reads. However, there were reports of voters who wished to participate but were unable to do so due to undisclosed system issues. The CNE reiterated that all polling stations with voters remaining in line would stay open until the last person exercised their right.

International witnesses
An international delegation accompanying the consultation highlighted the development of the process and praised the democratic participation, as reported by AVN.

Silvia, a member of the delegation from Catalonia, Spain, stated that the consultation “is an enormous exercise in democracy.” She emphasized that direct participation “takes the exercise of self-government rights to the extreme” and considered Venezuela “an example to the world that decisions must be made at the local level.”

She also highlighted the role of women in grassroots organizations: “They are brave, they wield enormous power in their communities, and they are highly politicized. No one will be able to change their way of thinking,” she added.

Selena, an international observer from the US, emphasized that this election dismantles narratives disseminated in her country. “In the US, a false narrative was constructed that there is a dictator here. We know that’s false. I, who live in the US, don’t have the right to decide where resources go. Here I see a stronger democracy, a system where most projects are led by women,” she stated.

International Women’s Day
The choice of March 8 for the first consultation of 2026 was intentional. The Ministry for Communes stated in a February 25 press release that “women are at the forefront of each of the communal projects and in the consolidation of the new Communal State.”

The leading role of women is also evident in entrepreneurship and science. President Maduro stated on April 25, 2025, that of the 1.8 million businesses registered at that time, 64% were led by women.

Minister of Culture Ernesto Villegas highlighted the significance of celebrating this year with a woman as the acting leader of the country. He saluted all Venezuelan women fighters, “from the humblest and simplest of our people, to those with the greatest prominence.” He also expressed solidarity with victims of violence and those deprived of their liberty, referencing those killed in Iran and Deputy Cilia Flores, the wife of President Maduro, who was kidnapped on January 3 during the US invasion of Venezuela.

Seven popular consultations since 2024
With the consultation this Sunday, March 8, a total of seven have been held since 2024. The first was held on April 21, 2024, in 4,500 communal districts with more than 27,000 projects submitted. On August 25 of that year, the second consultation took place in 4,505 districts with 30,784 projects.

The two popular consultations of 2025 resulted in 2,259 water projects, 1,319 road projects, 1,239 habitat projects, 1,153 electricity projects, 873 education projects, and 798 sanitation projects, according to the Ministry for Communes.

Acting President of Venezuela Calls For Massive Participation in March 8 National Popular Consultation

In 2025, Venezuela held four popular consultations. The first took place on February 2, with more than 36,000 projects submitted. The second was on April 27, involving 5,338 communes and 47,214 community councils. On July 27, the country held the first National Youth Popular Consultation, followed by a fourth consultation on November 23, 2025. President Maduro reported that 5,336 communal circuits approved 10,672 projects during that event.

“In 2025, this beautiful people designed, proposed, and approved with their vote 33,743 projects for an investment equivalent to $337 million,” he said on December 29, 2025.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/JB


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By Alan MacLeod – Mar 4, 2026

European nations are joining the United States and Israel in their war on Iran. From providing economic and diplomatic support, to supplying military assistance to Washington, Europe is moving from a passive supporter to an active participant in the campaign to overthrow the Iranian government.

Chief among these actors is the United Kingdom, who is allowing its military bases across the world to be used in the attack. These include sites in Cyprus and on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also revealed that British aircraft were “in the skies” over the Middle East, aiding its allies in their operation.

Despite this, Starmer’s tepid rhetorical support for the bombing earned him official rebuke from both President Trump and his domestic adversaries. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, for instance, condemned Starmer for being “too scared” to stand against Iran, lest it anger the public. A recent poll found that only 28% of Britons support the US’ military actions against Iran. Sensing massive public opposition, Nick Robinson, one of the BBC’s most influential political anchors, suggested that public protests against the Iran War should be preemptively banned.

On Sunday, an Iranian drone hit a UK military base in British-occupied Cyprus, causing Britain to evacuate the families of service members stationed there.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was vociferous in her support for the US/Israeli regime change project. “There is renewed hope for the long-suffering people of Iran. We strongly support their right to determine their own future,” she wrote, condemning Iran for its supposed aggression against its neighbors, while saying nothing about the attacks on Tehran and other cities.

She also revealed that she had spoken to a number of Gulf state dictators, including the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. Describing them as “strategic partners,” she reiterated Europe’s full support for them.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also signed off on the US/Israel war. In a long statement that included a number of factual errors, he wrote that, “The Iranian people have the right to determine their own future. Germany is coordinating closely with the United States, Israel and partners in the region,” adding:

“In recent weeks, the regime in Tehran has brutally suppressed the peaceful protests of courageous Iranian women and men…The United States has long sought a negotiated solution. Iran has not agreed to a reliable arrangement to end its military nuclear program, nor has it committed to scaling back its missile program or ceasing destabilizing activities.”

Merz ended by calling on Iran to cease its military attacks on Israel. It did not ask for the US or Israel to do the same. “Israel is a victim of unjust war, like Ukraine,” he said. Later, Merz went even further, stating that, “This terrible regime in Tehran must go,” and even that Iran should not be protected by international law.

Tellingly, Israel chose Germany as the safest location to store its presidential aircraft, Wing of Zion, during the war, sending it to Berlin last week.

French president Emmanuel Macron echoed Merz’s words, condemning Iran for its belligerence, calling for regime change in Tehran, and offering no rebuke of US or Israeli actions. He also noted that “France also stands ready to deploy the necessary resources to protect its closest partners, should they request it,” a statement that suggests Paris is ready to involve itself more deeply in the war at any moment.

At the same time, Macron announced a major revamp of France’s atomic missiles program, predicting that “the next fifty years will be an era of nuclear weapons.” The president stated that France had agreed to a new “advanced deterrence” strategy that will see French nuclear weapons capability being expanded to cover eight other European countries: the UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark.

The only major European Union country currently opposing the assault on Iran is Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it a “violation of international law” and an “unjustified and dangerous military intervention.” The government in Madrid refused to allow American troops stationed at military bases in his country to be used in the attack, insisting that they must “operate within the framework of international law” if they wish to stay in Spain.

Immediately, more than a dozen large US aircraft left bases in southern Spain for Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

The diplomatic reaction from Washington was equally swift. Trump announced that he would cripple Spain’s economy as a punishment. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain, we don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said, thereby stating his intention to treat Madrid in the same fashion as the US treats Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.

The European reaction to the war on Iran is part of a wider trend of increased vassalization of the continent. It did not react when US forces blew up the Nordstream II pipeline between Russia and Germany, nor when Trump declared a huge trade war on the continent. And it immediately began negotiating when Trump stated his intention to annex Greenland from Denmark.

Europe has long been helping Israel carry out its genocide in Gaza, blocking international efforts at the United Nations, sending weapons to the IDF, and sharing military intelligence. For years, British spy planes – based in the same bombed air base in Cyprus – have surveiled Gaza and likely passed that information on to Tel Aviv.

IRGC Deploys New-Generation Missiles in Latest Wave of Operation True Promise 4

At the same time, governments have vigorously suppressed pro-Palestine demonstrations, even as its population turns against Israel. A recent continent-wide survey found that 20 times as many Italians hold “very unfavorable” (43%) views of Israel than “very favorable” ones (2%). Even in Germany, where popular support for Israel is highest, only 21% said they hold favorable opinions of the state (including only 4% highly favorable), with 65% displaying open opposition (including 32% who strongly dislike it). A massive plurality of Britons, meanwhile, agreed with the statement: “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.”

Germany, though, has initiated blanket bans on Palestine solidarity, including prohibiting the phrase, “From the River to the Sea.” German journalist Hüseyin Doğru has been sanctioned by the EU over his Gaza reporting, leaving him without any access to money. And in the United Kingdom, police have arrested nearly 2000 people under the Terrorism Act for their support of activist group, Palestine Action.

Earlier this month, Avi Nir-Feldklein, Israel’s ambassador to the EU, said that the continent was already “in a war with Iran.” He is right: Europe is a direct participant in the US/Israeli operation, the consequences of which could be extremely grave, and greater than anyone imagined.

(MintPress News)


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This article by Nancy Flores originally appeared in the March 7, 2026 edition of Revista Contralínea. The views expressed in this article are the authors’* own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project.*

The first official round of review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) begins on March 16; prior to this, President Donald Trump requested the elimination of 54 non-tariff barriers , including issues related to energy, food, mining, pharmaceutical and technological sovereignty, as –in his opinion– these limit the capabilities of the trade relationship.

The requests from the US government – ​​made by Trump himself in July 2025, when he granted Mexico an extension on the 30 percent tariffs he sought to impose across the board – aim to overcome the “difficulties” faced by US companies in having profitable businesses or expanding them, especially in areas of exclusivity for the Mexican State or definitively prohibited.

According to the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program, the US Presidency considers the following as non-tariff barriers: restrictions on private investment in the energy sector; the ban on genetically modified corn; fracking and open-pit mining; the nationalization of lithium; the gradual denial of permits to import glyphosate and other pesticides; the reduction of permits for planting genetically modified cotton; restrictions on the import of fresh potatoes; and the dominance of the private company Telmex-Telcel in the telecommunications market, among other items.

When asked about this by Contralínea –in her press conference on February 3–, President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that there would be no concessions on sovereign issues, and added that most of the 54 non-tariff barriers had already been addressed.

“There are 54 [non-tariff barriers announced by the United States government] that have been under discussion for some time now, several months. Almost all of them have been resolved. And there are some where we can’t do exactly what they say. For example, regarding… they said: ‘barriers are being put up in the electricity sector.’ So we said: ‘well, no.’ [Because] there’s simply a new Constitution, there’s a new law that establishes a 54-46 ratio; there’s a 46 percent opportunity for private investment.”

The President confirmed to Contralínea that one of the barriers the Trump administration asked to be removed is related to the Calica mine case. “There is indeed the issue of Vulcan—it’s called that—which is the area where they had a limestone mine, which President López Obrador [canceled]. They exceeded the environmental impact limits; they overexploited the area. It was declared a Protected Natural Area. They have a dispute related to the Treaty, and they are looking for a mechanism, if there is a solution: that they could mine in another location that is not a protected area, with all the established environmental criteria, and that the area, which is ultimately their property, could be used for other purposes. A port they have there could have other uses. So, they are working on that; there is no agreement yet on that front.”

Sheinbaum Pardo added that among the 54 matters reviewed were “ some competition issues related to the new competition agencies , the National Antitrust Commission. And some other issues like that. […] The entire coordination is handled by the Ministry of Economy. But we never give in on anything that we consider to violate our sovereignty, our laws, or our project.”

“But wasn’t the majority going in that direction, that is, to put our sovereignty at risk?,” the president of the Republic was asked.

“No, no, not at all. And it had a lot to do with clarifications of issues that ‘were supposed to be violating the Treaty,’ and which were shown not to be violating the Treaty.”

Mexico’s “non-tariff barriers,” according to Trump

The 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers reveals the areas in which the Donald Trump administration has pressured Mexico in the context of the upcoming review of the USMCA. Among these, the alleged barriers to investment in the energy sector stand out. These include prioritizing Pemex’s oil exploration , restricting private participation in the electricity sector to 46 percent (54 percent is reserved for the CFE), and definitively prohibiting fracking. In the mining sector, the US government criticizes the fact that only the state-owned company LitioMX is authorized to exploit this strategic metal.

These strategic areas, linked to issues of national sovereignty, were recovered following the arrival of the so-called Fourth Transformation (first, during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term, and now with President Sheinbaum). Even the US report itself acknowledges this: “Since December 2018, Mexico has implemented an energy policy focused on restoring the primacy of its state-owned electricity company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), and the state-owned oil and gas company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) .”

It adds that “private companies operating in Mexico are often unable to participate effectively, or even at all, in the Mexican energy sector due to frequent delays, unexplained or unjustified rejections, and inaction regarding applications for new permits or modifications to existing permits.” It criticizes the fact that, in June 2022, the Ministry of Energy announced a new policy requiring users of the gas transportation network to source their natural gas from Pemex or the CFE, which led “several” U.S. companies to withdraw from the Mexican energy market. And in July 2022, the United States requested consultations with Mexico under Chapter 31 of the USMCA regarding these measures.

However, the oil sector is not entirely closed to US investment: a report from the US Department of Commerce, dated February 12, 2016, indicates that private operators who secured blocks during the 2015-2018 bidding rounds continue exploration and development activities, including drilling campaigns, seismic surveys, and the construction of offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. “ US companies are key players and are actively seeking technology, equipment, and service partners to help meet production timelines and improve efficiency in both deepwater and onshore operations.”

In addition, “Pemex’s 2025-2030 investment plan calls for the development of 18 new fields, the construction of 15 platforms, and drilling in existing shallow-water and onshore fields, which will maintain demand for platforms, derricks, subsea systems, and well services.” The Department of Commerce even indicates that these intermediate projects present opportunities for U.S. suppliers of equipment, engineering, and EPC services. As an example, it cites Mexico’s plans to install more than 14 pipelines (175 kilometers), build and expand storage terminals, and modernize its refining network, including six existing refineries and the near-complete construction of the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco.

“These projects require pumps, compressors, control systems, and construction services, and are subject to 25 percent local content requirements (increasing to 35 percent by 2025). U.S. companies with competitive technology and local partnerships are well-positioned to participate, particularly in projects to enhance desulfurization capacity and meet the growing demand for cleaner fuels in Mexico.”

Areas that the US seeks to free up for IP

However, the US Presidential report on non-tariff barriers complains that in October 2024 – already with President Claudia Sheinbaum – Mexico ratified a constitutional amendment to reclassify CFE and Pemex as public companies, instead of productive companies, “in order to undermine the participation of private companies, including US companies, in the Mexican energy market.”

He adds that in January 2025, President Sheinbaum “presented a package of reforms with six bills related to energy that, among other things, include as a principle guaranteeing the prevalence of the CFE and its maintenance of at least 54 percent of the average energy sent to the grid, requiring the participation of the CFE in at least 54 percent of any ‘mixed investment’ electricity generation project and establishing a preference for the CFE over private entities in the generation and marketing of electricity.”

It also expresses its rejection of the likely ban on fracking (extraction of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons through hydraulic fracturing), considered not only as a highly polluting technique, but also as a waste of clean water.

The United States also complains about Mexico’s public policy on mining, which prohibits open-pit mining, and about the nationalization of lithium—both promoted by the current administration. According to the Trump administration, the legislative amendments stipulate that “the exploration, exploitation, and use of Mexican lithium [remains] under the exclusive control of a newly created state-owned company, LitioMx, and exclude private companies from obtaining concessions, licenses, contracts, permits, and authorizations to carry out these activities.”

The US Presidency also attributes restrictions to the USMCA due to barriers to investment in transportation infrastructure , arguing that this area is completely closed to foreign investment. Furthermore, it questions the 49 percent foreign ownership limit for express courier companies, land for agricultural, livestock, and forestry purposes, as well as for port management services.

Threat to Food Sovereignty

Another area in which the Trump administration has shown interest is related to Mexico’s food sovereignty. Identifying sanitary and phytosanitary barriers that supposedly limit the USMCA, the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers points to the US Presidency’s dissatisfaction with the ban on genetically modified corn and expresses opposition to Mexico’s Biosafety Law, which places limits on genetically modified products.

Furthermore, the USMCA panel on genetically modified corn, which ruled against Mexico in December 2024 in the dispute opened by the United States, after the government of President López Obrador published a decree to prohibit human consumption of that genetically modified grain, and thereby protect the main reservoir of that food, refers to the USMCA panel on genetically modified corn.

Constituted in accordance with Chapter 31 (Dispute Settlement) of the USMCA, the panel determined that some elements of the Decree on glyphosate and genetically modified corn – published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on February 13, 2023 – cannot be applied “as they are not based on an adequate risk assessment, scientific evidence and relevant international standards.”

Regarding this, the report from the U.S. President’s Office on non-tariff barriers states: “In June 2024, the United States participated in a hearing before the dispute settlement panel. In December 2024, the panel issued its final report, agreeing with the United States on all seven legal claims under the USMCA. On February 5, 2025, Mexico issued a measure declaring ineffective the measures that the U.S. Trade Representative successfully challenged in the USMCA dispute. The United States will continue to closely monitor Mexico’s compliance with its USMCA commitments to ensure that its agricultural biotechnology measures are science-based and provide U.S. corn producers with the market access that Mexico agreed to grant under the USMCA.”

In that same section, it rejects the gradual ban that our country seeks to implement on glyphosate and other highly toxic pesticides and agricultural chemicals. It also complains about the limitations on its exports of fresh potatoes and the restrictions on permits for U.S. companies to plant genetically modified cotton in Mexican territory.

The Other Alleged Barriers

As part of the alleged limitations to the USMCA, the U.S. government also identifies customs and trade facilitation barriers. In this regard, it notes that Mexico frequently notifies new customs or tax requirements only two weeks before they take effect, leaving U.S. exporters little time to adapt their systems and comply with the change.

It also calls for the elimination of restrictions applied at some ports to the entry of goods: “The USMCA prohibits arbitrary limits on the number of ports in which a customs broker may operate. However, Article 161 of Mexico’s Customs Law limits a broker’s operations to four ports if they are not part of a customs agency. The United States continues to urge Mexico to amend the law to allow brokers to operate at any port where they can perform their duties.”

Furthermore, it cites barriers to market access for medical devices, supplies, and pharmaceuticals. On this issue, it notes that COFEPRIS should expedite the permitting process.

Regarding intellectual property protection, the U.S. government is urging Mexico to expedite the registration of patents and trademarks, but also to curb the sale of counterfeit or pirated goods. As an example of these sales, it notes that “the El Santuario and San Juan de Dios markets (in Guadalajara), as well as Tepito (in Mexico City), are listed in the 2024 Notorious Markets Review (Notorious Markets List) for the sale of pirated and counterfeit products.”

Additionally, the Trump administration points out that barriers still exist to electronic payment, insurance, and telecommunications services. In the latter category, it complains about the dominance of a private company of Mexican origin: Telmex-Telcel (América Móvil), which it accuses of monopolizing the market.

In this regard, he points out: “despite the profound reforms of the telecommunications sector in 2013 and 2014, new market entrants still have to compete with the dominant traditional provider that has maintained a market share of almost 70 percent, and which was designated as a ‘preponderant economic agent’ by the IFT.”

Although it does not refer to Telmex-Telcel by name, it does point out that “the entrenched position of this dominant provider, particularly in the mobile services market, demonstrates the constant need for rigorous application of the regulations that the IFT adopted to address its status as a preponderant economic agent.”

Therefore, he criticizes the constitutional reform of December 2024 to eliminate autonomous bodies, since it replaces the IFT with a new antitrust competition agency, which could benefit Telmex-Telcel.

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The post Trump Wants Major Surrender from Mexico on USMCA appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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This statement was released by the Inter-University and Popular Assembly for Palestine on March 7, 2026.

Yesterday, March 6, 2026, students from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and other faculties of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) decided to boycott, cancel, prevent, and expel Diego Olstein from our facilities. We did so consciously and politically because of his public stance in favor of Zionism and against the pro-Palestinian university organization.

Diego Olstein is a historian trained at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an Argentine citizen by birth and an Israeli by choice, who in 2024 published an open letter against the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pittsburgh. In that text, he openly opposed the student movement that demanded an end to the genocide in Gaza. He demanded that the encampment condemn October 7 as if there were a parity of forces between the resistance of the people occupied for almost eight decades and a colonial, military, and genocidal state sustained by U.S. imperialism.

In that same letter, Olstein defended the idea that taking a stand against Zionism is tantamount to discriminating against Jews. In doing so, he reproduced a central lie of Israeli hasbara: the equation of Judaism with Zionism, used for decades to politically shield Israel, portray the Zionist state as a victim before the world, and delegitimize all solidarity with Palestine.

He also attacked the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and defended the so-called two-state solution, ignoring that as long as the State of Israel exists as a colonial, expansionist, racist, and supremacist enclave, there will be no real possibility of Palestinian liberation. The two-state policy has served for decades to administer apartheid and indefinitely postpone the freedom of the Palestinian people.

In the current context, giving space to an avowed Zionist and a public opponent of the pro-Palestinian university movement means normalizing colonialism, illegal settlements, and genocide under the guise of academic pluralism. The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) should be enough to prevent figures of this kind from receiving political or academic legitimacy in a public institution sustained by the Mexican working class.

Furthermore, this invitation comes after the authorities responded tepidly last year to student protests against the Faculty’s ties to Zionism, denying links and responsibilities, only to then open institutional space to a figure who has publicly spoken out against the pro-Palestinian university student organization.

From the Inter-University and Popular Assembly for Palestine, we demand that the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and the College of History be held accountable for this

Invitation to the student community, workers, and professors of the faculty who have spoken out against Zionism countless times. We also demand that our spaces be free of apartheid, Zionism, and any other form of racial supremacism.

If the College of History wants to open serious historiographical debates on Palestine, colonialism, and memory, and wants to invite Israeli historians, then invite critical and anti-Zionist voices like Ilan Pappé, Shlomo Sand, or Palestinian historians and humanists like Walaa Alqaisiya, Nur Masalha, or Rashid Khalidi. Translate their works, discuss them in class, and foster critical thinking about discourses of racial supremacism, so far removed from a humanist education.

The public university cannot continue to function as a platform for Zionism.

We call for university and popular organization against Zionism, the imperialist advance, and the normalization of supremacist and fascist ideologies in our spaces.

Zionists out of UNAM
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Inter-University and People’s Assembly for Palestine


  • Trump Wants Major Surrender from Mexico on USMCA

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  • Zionist Diego Olstein Expelled from UNAM

    News Briefs

    Zionist Diego Olstein Expelled from UNAM

    March 8, 2026

    This statement was released by the Inter-University and Popular Assembly for Palestine on March 7, 2026. Yesterday, March 6, 2026, students from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and other faculties of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) decided to boycott, cancel, prevent, and expel Diego Olstein from our facilities. We did so consciously…

  • Mexican Public Education at Risk Again

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    Marx Arriaga’s firing is a part of an attempt to reverse progress, undo the advances made by AMLO’s administration & to try to privatize and commodify public education once again.

The post Zionist Diego Olstein Expelled from UNAM appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.


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This statement was released by the Partido Popular Socialista de México on February 15, 2026.

Editor’s note: Mario Delgado Carrillo is Mexico’s current Secretary of Public Education, who previously supported President Enrique Peña Nieto’s neoliberal education reforms when Delgado was a member of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática. Marx Arriaga is a Mexican civil servant who worked in the Secretariat of Public Education and was responsible for educational materials, including public school textbooks of the New Mexican School, which were heavily criticized by the Mexican right wing for their content and for being inspired by the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, as well as by the CNTE (class-conscious teachers union) and other elements of the left for being a top-down imposition, and not incorporating the knowledge of Mexican teachers. Marx Arriaga was appointed by President AMLO in 2021, and was removed by Mario Delgado in mid-February.

Mario Delgado Carrillo, enemy of the “New Mexican School,” must be relieved of his post.

Public education in our country has been contested by progressive and revolutionary forces and conservative and counter-revolutionary forces throughout our history. A reform by progressive and revolutionary forces is followed by a counter-reform by opposing forces, and vice versa.

In the contemporary period, beginning in 1982, changes began in the superstructure, in the legal order: Constitutional Articles 27, 28, 3, 123, and 130, fundamentally, underwent counter-reforms that modified the base, the economic structure on which the Mexican State rested, moving from state capitalism to a dependent market economy (neoliberal State); in the case of education, as the role of the State changed, its orientation also changed.

Why does this dispute occur? Because education can be a weapon for emancipation, for the liberation of our people, or it can serve for their domination, to subjugate them. For this reason, education has never been neutral; it has always responded to the interests of the sector of the social class that holds the government, that is at the head of the State.

Therefore, the fundamental problem of education in all historical stages and for all peoples has been the following: What kind of human being should be formed? Another problem that follows: Who educates? The State or private individuals?

In Mexico, starting in 1982, the nationalist sector of the ruling bourgeoisie was displaced by another sector with a neoliberal mentality dependent on the directives of the big bourgeoisie and the instruments of foreign domination: OECD, World Bank, IMF, IDB, World Bank, even USAID.

Thus, public education in our country changed its orientation; it ceased to be a weapon of emancipation and became an instrument of domination at the service of big capital, both national and foreign, so that Mexicans would only learn to read, count, and obey, in addition to promoting and strengthening private education; that is, they privatized and commodified it.

They turned education into a commodity, into a business; therefore, it ceased to be a social right and became a privilege.

Despite the constitutional reforms, imposed by neoliberal governments from 1982 until that of Enrique Peña Nieto, promulgated on February 25, 2013, five advanced theses remained in Article Three of our Constitution, against the will of reactionary sectors: one on the orientation of teaching; another on the concept of democracy; another on the doctrine of nationalism; another on human relations; and, finally, another on the educational function of the State.

If these theses are analyzed, it will be concluded that they all converge on a single purpose: to establish the qualities of the type of human being that should be formed, which also corresponds to the nation-building project that emerged from the Mexican Revolution. It also raises the objective of coverage, stating that all education provided by the State will be free. No developed or underdeveloped capitalist country has a statute on education like ours

Peña Nieto’s education reform can be considered the culmination of all neoliberal reforms in education, because its aim was to eliminate the teaching profession and transform its high function into a kind of occasional job that anyone could do and, therefore, work without labor rights.

With the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the Presidency, he promised as a campaign promise to overturn Peña Nieto’s reform. He did so, but only partially. He made positive changes, but they were still limited. However, he charted the course for what he called the New Mexican School, progressively changing the orientation of the curricula at different educational levels and, logically, also introducing new content for the free textbooks

This unleashed the fury of conservative and counterrevolutionary forces, both internal and external, because not only were there these changes, but the New Mexican School no longer promoted private education and ended the lucrative business of the large publishing companies that printed billions of free textbooks and all kinds of educational materials, in addition to other profitable businesses involving public officials and national and foreign businesspeople.

However, a serious mistake made by the two progressive governments we have had, both that of López Obrador and that of Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, is having placed at the head of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) two figures openly opposed to public education, two individuals with a neoliberal mentality who are not distinguished by their honor and honesty: Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, first, and now Mario Delgado Carrillo

The latter has been carrying out a subversive campaign, installing public officials from his own faction, establishing links with counterrevolutionary political forces and with representatives of large commercial enterprises. His purpose is to recover, by any means necessary, the spaces, businesses, and privileges they lost during the administration of President López Obrador.

Hence the viciousness with which Dr. Marx Arriaga Navarro was treated, who, as Director of Educational Materials at the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), spearheaded the reform of the educational content of free textbooks and who advised that their printing should once again be a task for the State

So it’s not just the dismissal of the official outside the bounds of legality, but what lies behind this decision: an attempt to reverse progress, undo the advances made by the previous administration, and try to privatize and commodify public education once again. In short, to turn public education back into a means to dominate and subjugate our people and, moreover, into a big business.

We hope that President Claudia Sheinbaum will not allow it.

Partido Popular Socialista de México

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