Latin American Publications!

Organized by the Cuban Book Institute (ICL) and published by the Arte y Literatura publishing house, the event gathers readers every Saturday on Calle de Madera, next to the Plaza de Armas (Parade Ground) in Old Havana, will take place at 11:00 hours (local time).

The volume, originally published in 1925, narrates a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, specifically the preparations for a party she is hosting that evening.

Through an unconventional narrative structure, with time jumps, flashbacks, interior monologues, and a masterful use of stream of consciousness, the novel unfolds a language rich in poetic imagery that delves into the emotional complexity of its protagonist, the ICL notes.

The text provides a critical examination of British society following World War I (1914–1918), revealing the tensions, wounds, and transformations that ensued.

jdt/iff/jha/mml

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These actions of disintegration “must be followed by tracking the suppliers of weapons and ammunition to these criminal gangs, an essential step to fully eradicate this harmful phenomenon completely,” added the priest, quoted by Radio Metropole Haiti.

Maisonneuve explained that the current police operations are made possible by the willingness of government institutions to confront these groups, while the lack of further actions to eradicate them responds “to complicity between the leaders of these gangs and certain officials”.

The religious authority assured to have evidence, according to the radio station, that members of the current government “are heavily involved, like the uniformed officers during previous executives, in the trafficking of weapons and ammunition across the border”.

This is the main source of supply for the gangs, which, he recalled, has been denounced since 2016 by the Karl Lévêque Institute, run by him, an entity that also summoned the executive earlier because of the participation of several officials and parliamentarians in obtaining weapons.

Ending gang terrorism in the Caribbean nation, he said, also requires “strict control of land, sea and air borders, as 90 percent of the solution to the security problem depends on it”.

abo/ro/apb

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Mexico City, Jan 23 (Prensa Latina) The ambassador of Cuba to Mexico, Eugenio Martinez, presented to the director general of Protocol of the Foreign Ministry, Jonathan Chait, the Copies of Style that accredit him as designated Ambassador to the government of this nation.

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Mara Roque, editor of the publication, in six languages, detailed that the first issue of 2026 is devoted to hotel chains such as Gran Caribe, Isla Azul, Gaviota, but also addresses issues of popular camping and tourism in all its dimensions, events, sun and beach, cultural and the promotion of fairs in Cuba.

Our articles are focused on the traveler and of course to industry professionals, while we offer contacts to boost the entry of visitors to Cuba, he noted.

As a novelty, he explained that it is now a reality magazine Eventis, after a pilot year with four editions and that is dedicated to events related to tourism based in Cuba.

“We talk about sustainable events, their organization, trends, services and many places that can serve as spaces for these modalities,” he said.

The well-known communicator commented that Eventis (the I for information, initiatives, international) is a complement of BuenViaje a Cuba, the first with a quarterly frequency and the second with six annual issues.

Cuba has a stand at Fitur in Madrid in the Latin America and the Caribbean pavilion, where products such as rum and tobacco were presented, and offers from the western, central and eastern regions of the island, along with others from the group Cubanacan, Cubasol and Cuportes, among others.

Mijain Lopez, five times Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, a feat that made him a world legend of the sport, is a guest figure in space and one of its greatest attractions.

From this Saturday until the closing of the fair, Issac Delgado and his orchestra will perform in the days of Fitur open to the general public.

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The event, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, will bring together companies from Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Uruguay, El Salvador and Chile.

Prominent national theater groups such as El Garden of Short Stories (Jardín del Cuento), Double theater, The bycicle comany and the National Theater of Costa Rica will also participate.

Among those selected appear children’s proposals, physical theatre, circus, contemporary dramaturgy and theater shows, with names such as La Congregación Teatro (Colombia), Compañía Criolla (Argentina), La Mandragora Teatro (Mexico), Moby Dick Teatro (El Salvador) and La Llave Maestra (Spain/Chile).

FITECR 2026 is presented as a special event with the purpose of strengthening Ibero-American exchange, making new narratives visible and turning San Jose into a theater epicenter for ten days of diverse program.

abo/ro/vnl

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US President Donald Trump aims to create a new United Nations instead of fixing it, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—During a massive Chavista demonstration in Caracas on Friday, Venezuelan Interior Minister and PSUV Secretary General Diosdado Cabello called on the Venezuelan people to trust in the revolutionary leadership headed by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. The mobilization commemorated the January 23 anniversary of the 1958 ousting of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and demanded the immediate release of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

“Our sister and comrade Delcy Rodríguez needs constant, unwavering support. She has already stepped up and taken the lead. She did not seek this responsibility, but like every Venezuelan woman, she was told, ‘It is you.’ And there is Delcy, fighting for the homeland,” Cabello stated.

“Rest assured that we will never deviate from the path of Bolívar and Chávez,” he added.

The leader emphasized the strategic nature of Chavismo’s progress: “Sometimes we have had to move forward at great speed, other times we have had to slow down due to circumstances and the times. But we have always followed the path of the Bolivarian Revolution. Always, even in the worst situations.”

Analysts state that, given current threats to the continuity of both the Bolivarian Revolution and Venezuela’s status as an independent republic, the Chavista leadership is making pragmatic decisions. While some without substantial political training might view these as deviations, experts suggest they are strategic retreats designed to regain strength and maintain the momentum of the Chavista project.

Furthermore, these analysts explain that mainstream media is working constantly to sow division and distrust within the Chavista leadership, its base, and the international support for the Bolivarian Revolution. Given these circumstances, they suggest patience and firm strategic analysis of the facts, which so far demonstrate clear direction within the leadership.

During his speech, Cabello referenced the loyalty shown by the Venezuelan people in countless mobilizations for President Maduro and Cilia Flores, calling it a daily collective expression of support. He noted that this loyalty was forged through conscience, morality, and countless battles.

“Loyalty used to be an individual value, measured by a person. Today, it is a collective value and, when that happens, we are undoubtedly witnessing a revolution,” he noted.

Cabello stated that while the revolutionary process has been the target of numerous attacks, the people remain standing and will not surrender. He emphasized that the entire world knows that President Maduro and his wife were kidnapped by US imperialism.

“We have a history of peace, but also of much struggle, of fighting until victory. What is happening with President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, is a kidnapping; the whole world knows. They were kidnapped from Venezuela and taken to the United States. From here, we demand their release. Our people are in the streets demanding the president’s release every day,” he added.

Regarding the January 23, 1958, anniversary, Cabello described the date as “the last great betrayal against the people.” This refers to the agreement reached by political parties, including the Communist Party, to oust the dictator. This agreement was later broken by the exclusion and prohibition of the Communist Party and a neocolonial regime to benefit the local oligarchy.

“Today, we combine the demonstration to commemorate that last great betrayal with our reaffirmation of loyalty to President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Here in Venezuela, we have a government that operates according to the Constitution. Comrade Delcy Rodríguez has the full support of the party and our people to continue moving forward. Our greatest victory in these days will be to bring back President Maduro and Cilia,” he emphasized.

Defense Minister Padrino Condemns US Experimental Weapons; Venezuela Restructures Defense Commanders

Acting president’s message
Acting President Rodríguez recalled that January 23, 1958, vindicated the hope of the Venezuelan people when they raised their voices for freedom and overthrew Marcos Pérez Jiménez’s regime 68 years ago.

On Friday, Rodríguez wrote on social media that “that popular rebellion marked our history and, today, it is reborn in national unity to consolidate peace and prosperity in Venezuela.”

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

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By Misión Verdad – Jan 22, 2026

During last week’s Annual Message to the Nation, the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, presented relevant data on the country’s oil sector performance in 2025.

She highlighted milestones, such as reaching the production target of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day (BPD).

Rodríguez reported that oil production experienced a 12.9% increase over the past 12 months. Consequently, oil activity in the country grew by 16% in its gross domestic product (GDP).

According to her, a large part of those results was possible because of the Productive Participation Contracts (CPP) model, which is part of the Anti-Blockade Law for National Development and the Guarantee of Human Rights, in effect since 2020.

During 2025, the CPP framework facilitated direct investment of $900 million in the country’s oil activities.

The acting president also formally requested that the National Assembly enact a reform to legally “shield” the CPPs. This amendment seeks to modernize the legal framework to facilitate the attraction of foreign and domestic investment, allowing greater private capital participation in the operation of oil fields.

In this regard, Venezuela will now discuss and execute a reform process in the concession administration of oil fields.

Context of the Anti-Blockade Law
In August 2017, Donald Trump’s first administration unveiled its first major package of illegal sanctions against Venezuela’s oil activities. As the sanctions regime was implemented, the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) was barred from accessing any international financing mechanism.

This consisted of removing PDVSA from the international oil bond market, thereby disabling its ability to obtain financing through debt mechanisms.

Various PDVSA accounts abroad were frozen, along with other assets (such as Citgo Petroleum in the US). In 2019, the US government barred Venezuela from the international energy market, designating all of its production as “sanctioned oil.”

With the discretionary framework of the illegal unilateral coercive measures, it became very difficult for PDVSA to form any alliance with any international oil company.

Consequently, all commercial, investment, or financing activity based on Venezuelan hydrocarbons entered a gray area, sustained primarily by the emerging structure of an alternative, non-public, and entirely discretionary trade and investment system.

In this regard, it is necessary to highlight some particularities of the oil industry. It is a sector that requires constant investment, which is necessary to sustain production levels and cover the needs of the supply chain, including inputs, spare parts, capital goods, and the human resources that drive the sector.

By 2019, PDVSA was in no position to sell crude oil in the international market. This broke the company’s cash flow. Field production declined once the undelivered crude oil storage tanks collapsed, incurring high additional costs for storage on ships.

In this context, the Anti-Blockade Law was born, approved by the then National Constituent Assembly.

Practical questions
There are many practical examples of the Anti-Blockade Law and its implementation. One of them is that, according to the current Organic Hydrocarbons Law, companies authorized to trade Venezuelan crude oil must have a broad, verifiable public record of at least two years as international petroleum product marketers.

In the context of the illegal US blockade against Venezuela, various trading companies registered in allied countries such as Iran, Russia, Qatar, Turkey, China, and others emerged that did not meet that requirement. So, to allow the flow of oil evading the blockade, it was necessary to suspend that condition without amending the Hydrocarbons Law or dismantling or repealing it entirely.

The Anti-Blockade Law emerged within a framework of planned and managed ambiguity. It was superimposed on other national laws, including organic laws, to manage the economic and social situation, preventing a downright collapse of the country’s main economic activity and the central hub of national life.

Its implementation resulted in the selective non-application of certain key provisions of other laws, in order to make government administration practical in an extraordinary, accelerated, and changing context.

Productive Participation Contracts (CPPs) are defined in the Anti-Blockade Law as a mechanism for partnership between the Venezuelan State and private capital from various sources to meet the financing, operational, and commercial needs of the Venezuelan oil industry.

Article 28 of the law empowers the government to design and implement exceptional procurement and payment mechanisms, prioritizing domestic production for the purposes of fundamental rights, foreign exchange generation, and the management of entities affected by sanctions.

It has implemented a practical approach to attract oil and gas investment, allowing private companies to operate fields with certain benefits—without necessarily forming joint ventures with PDVSA—in exchange for increasing production, as a response to unilateral sanctions and by easing management under PDVSA.

These contracts seek to provide legal certainty and benefits to both partners and the Venezuelan State, through faster investment recovery (in less than a year), lower tax burdens, and greater participation by allied companies in production.

According to some sources, the companies that have participated in CPPs in Venezuela’s oil sector include international firms such as China Concord Petroleum, Hainan Breey Energy, North American Blue Energy Partners, Vulcan Energy Technology, and Miller Energy, as well as Venezuelan companies such as Inversiones Alvorada & Cladoca.

These are companies that have protected their financial assets from the reach of Western governments to avoid secondary sanctions for doing business in Venezuela.

Some of these associations have focused on key fields such as PetroCedeño and PetroZamora.

However, many CPPs were developed under a locked-down scheme, or with information subject to confidentiality, since the Anti-Blockade Law highlights the need to protect data on alliances in order to safeguard the parties involved in the agreements.

Attacks Against Venezuela and the Scramble for Oil and Cash

Investments, resources, and geopolitics
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has urged legislative action to incorporate elements of the Anti-Blockade Law into a reformed Organic Law of Hydrocarbons.

All of this points in two fundamental directions: first, to ensure the transition of the Venezuelan economy and its energy activities from a period of intense blockade to one of new licenses and the partial lifting of illegal sanctions; and second, to leverage the experience of CPPs to shape new concession schemes and business models. The partial reform of the Hydrocarbons Law would bring together the essential elements currently in force, along with those that have been tested in recent years.

Rodríguez highlighted that the current Hydrocarbons Law was designed when Venezuela had enough developed fields to attract investment. The new reform seeks to facilitate the inflow of capital specifically into virgin or “green” fields (those without prior intervention or infrastructure), which were not prioritized in the past.

Venezuela currently has 14 mega oil fields that account for 60% of the country’s certified reserves. This suggests that 40% of the estimated reserves are located in key areas of the country where there is no corresponding investment in oil production.

CPP mechanisms, “shielded” by a new Hydrocarbons Law, could increase international investment, boost oil production, and reshape the production outlook in the coming years. But they could also offer new geopolitical opportunities.

The Venezuelan oil issue has unfolded under the dilemma of whether Venezuelan resources should be in the Western or non-Western orbit. But objective realities suggest other issues. For example, Venezuela has some 303 billion barrels of reserves that have not been tapped or developed. The contrast is evident between the amount of reserves and the current production level.

Another element to consider is that the country has spent a decade under a barrage of coercive sanctions that have directly targeted its oil industry, when what should have been pouring in was investment, given the strategic value of being the world’s largest crude oil reserve.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has projected that, by 2050, the world will consume about 123 million barrels per day, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) has reported that 80% of the world’s oil wells have passed their peak production and are in decline.

These data suggest that only countries with large reserves should be earmarked to receive the largest medium- and long-term investment. In light of these data, the case of Venezuela has been an exception.

It is an objective fact that the country is large enough and has sufficient resources to accommodate most of the major oil companies from the various global power blocs.

That is one of the premises suggested by Delcy Rodríguez regarding the restoration of energy relations with the United States, reaffirming the country’s interest in partnering on various fronts “with China, Russia, and other countries also,” given that, up to 2019, the United States was the second-largest customer for Venezuelan oil, until Washington’s own coercive measures no longer allowed it.

The strategic reorientation of Venezuela’s oil sector, both internally and externally, could be achieved through effective mechanisms such as integrating the CPPs into the Hydrocarbons Law, while preserving the State’s absolute ownership of PDVSA as the leading and central entity in the national oil industry.

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SH

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The National Assembly of Venezuela approved the 2026–2027 Legislative Plan and the Partial Reform Bill of the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons in first discussion.

During the plenary session on Thursday, January 22, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, underscored the need to adapt the legal framework to current economic realities. He emphasized that the new legislative plan will prioritize laws that protect citizens’ income and ensure price stability amid market fluctuations.

Deputy Orlando Camacho, chairperson of the Standing Committee on Energy and Oil, presented the statement of purpose for the hydrocarbons bill, noting that the regulations in place since 2006 require updating in light of the “accelerated energy transition” and high global competitiveness.

#ENVIVO | Diputado Orlando Camacho: “Este proyecto de reforma es un paso audaz hacía la modernización del sector energético” pic.twitter.com/MKsCEmMoyX

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) January 22, 2026

The reform introduces a structural change by formalizing Productive Participation Contracts (PPCs). Under this model, operating companies assume full responsibility for project management at their own risk and expense, which allows operational activity to be streamlined without the state incurring debt or direct financial obligations.

The PPC mechanism enabled the country to reach a production of 1.2 million barrels per day in 2025 and attract nearly $900 million in investments, as recently detailed by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

With regard to expanding production, the reform includes specific incentives for “green fields,” that is, unexplored deposits. Since these deposits require massive capital investments to begin exploration, flexibility in the tax regime and royalty payments has been proposed, seeking an economic balance that would be attractive to national and international investors.

Similarly, the legislative proposal places particular emphasis on strengthening legal certainty within the energy sector. To this end, the possibility of resorting to independent mediation mechanisms for dispute resolution has been incorporated, ensuring a predictable and fair investment environment, always in strict compliance with the principles established in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Finally, this new reform seeks to formulate a strategic alliance between the public and private sectors. The central objective is to achieve an increase in crude oil production, recognizing that joint efforts by both sectors are the most efficient way to modernize the industry and ensure that oil continues to be the primary engine of the nation’s economic development.

Venezuela To Launch Website for Public Monitoring of Oil and Mining Revenues

Sovereignty and economic recovery
Deputy Jesús Faría emphasized that this reform responds to the successful practices already evaluated under the Anti-Blockade Law, aimed at consolidating national independence and recovering the country’s principal industry.

The approval of the reform, however, is only the first stage. The project will now advance to the phase of consultation and second discussion for final enactment, with the aim of strengthening oil as an engine of economic development by the end of 2026.

Amid threats from the United States, which has expressed its intention to seize Venezuelan oil, the Venezuelan government has reaffirmed that the country’s energy wealth belongs exclusively to its people.

The legal reform acts as a shield against the blockade, allowing Venezuela to maintain its 19-quarter streak of sustained growth and an 8.5% growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The government of Venezuela “is here to guarantee the happiness of our people; we are here to safeguard our territorial integrity, our sovereignty, our freedom, and our independence,” said Delcy Rodríguez during a social outreach event at the Hugo Salas Socialist Mission Base in La Vega parish of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

During Thursday’s plenary session of the parliament, the Draft Bill on the Protection of Socioeconomic Rights was also approved in first discussion. It is part of the government’s 12 legislative proposals, and its main objective is to protect workers’ wages.

In addition, the Organic Bill for the Acceleration and Optimization of Administrative Procedures and Formalities of the Public Administration was approved by a qualified majority in its first discussion.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SH

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This article by Sandra Hernández García originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Editor’s note: Alessandra Rojo de la Vega and Mauricio Tabe Echertea have both made news for aggressive, hostile social media stunts against Latin American governments: in the case of PRI Mayor Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, she was responsible last year for illegally removing a sculpture of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara from a park in the Cuauhtémoc borough; while PAN Mayor Mauricio Tabe Echertea announced he was demanding the embassies of Cuba, Venezuela & Nicaragua be moved from the Miguel Hidalgo borough.

The Comptroller General of Mexico City launched two investigations in the Cuauhtémoc and Miguel Hidalgo boroughs following accusations against their mayors, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega and Mauricio Tabe Echartea, respectively, of summoning thugs and shock groups during the Generation Z march, which left more than 100 police officers injured.

According to the agency, last November it received a resolution approved by the plenary of the Legislative Branch, in which it made known facts allegedly constituting administrative offenses attributable to public servants assigned to both districts, for which reason it opened two files with number OIC/MH/D/0091/2025 and OIC/CUA/D/0459/2025.

The purpose is to initiate the necessary procedures and actions for the investigation and resolution of the case.

The agreement mentions a series of names of people who allegedly mobilized shock groups, thugs, and even informal merchants who went to the march under threats.

Those allegedly participating from the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office included Rubén Jiménez Barrios, current leader of street vendors and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); also council members Grecia Maribel Jiménez Hernández and Jean Leonet Jiménez Hernández, and the PRI’s political operations secretary, Erik Alejandro Jiménez.

Meanwhile, the mobilization was operated by Roberto Arceo Trujillo, deputy director in the district, and Alberto González Mancilla, former candidate for regional councilor of the PAN.

As well, the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) sent a document to the Congress of Mexico City in which it reports on the immediate psychological attention received by 263 police officers after their participation in critical incidents, such as violent marches, in which security personnel have been injured and several of them even hospitalized.

The document explained that the agency has a care system through which 24,000 services have been provided to active personnel, their families, and the public.

Additionally, working groups are being held with the Undersecretary of Government to address the concerns of public servants who participated in the demonstration on October 2nd, and to analyze their proposals so that the officers have the optimal resources for the performance of their duties.

According to the SSC, a total of 27,000 officers have received decorations, incentives and rewards for outstanding, heroic and/or exemplary actions.

• 

  News Briefs

  Mexico City Investigating Ultra-right Mayors in Connection with “Gen-Z” Shock Groups

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Two investigations were launched in Cuauhtémoc & Miguel Hidalgo following accusations against Alessandra Rojo de la Vega & Mauricio Tabe Echartea related to the half-geriatric, half-lumpen march in November.

• 

  News Briefs

  Former DEA Agent Sentenced for Protecting Drug Trafficking Friends

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Such cases are not rare for the corrupt American institution, which portrays itself as waging some sort of Drug War, but in reality operates as a critical management link between drug traffickers and the US security state.

• 

  Analysis

  Classism & Racism in the Era of the Fourth Transformation

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  In a world where dehumanization, exclusion, persecution of people based on their ethnicity, racism, and classism are exponentially increasing, these practices are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms.

The post Mexico City Investigating Ultra-right Mayors in Connection with “Gen-Z” Shock Groups appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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By Pablo Meriguet, Zoe Alexandra – Jan 21, 2026

In the wake of the unilateral US attack on Venezuela, an emboldened empire has sought to intimidate and threaten other nations which threaten its total hegemony.

Three weeks later, the ramifications of the unprecedented US attack on Venezuela continue to reverberate. The military action in itself provoked nearly unanimous condemnation among experts in international diplomacy and law and has also been a tremendous source of pain for the families of the more than 100 people killed in the nearly two-hour operation on South American territory.

The illegal operation also sparked concerns about the consequences that such a unilateral measure taken by Washington will have on the region and on global geopolitics.

After the attack, several journalists asked Donald Trump directly if the next target would be Cuba, which his administration has been targeting by exacerbating the economic blockade and seizing Venezuelan tankers bound for the island. They repeated threats made by his own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, a declared opponent of the revolutionary government.

Trump’s ambiguous response to reporters sparked much speculation, until the US president himselfwrote on Truth Social: “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of oil and money from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided “Security Services” for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week’s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years. Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

Despite threats,a massive march of nearly 500,000 people paraded through the streets of Havana to honor the 32 Cuban combatants who were killed in Venezuela. During the march, the country’s top leaders promised that they would not surrender in the face of renewed imperialist aggression.

Abel Prieto, Cuban writer and the president of Casa de las Américas, and Dr. José R. Cabañas, the director of the Center for International Policy Research and former Cuban ambassador to the United States, spoke to Peoples Dispatchto share their perspectives on the threats lodged by Trump and how the attack on Venezuela has transformed the region.

Regarding the regional impact of the US military action that resulted, among other things, in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, Abel Prieto asserts that this is an act of extreme right-wing aggression that broke the most basic rules of international law and opens a new and dark chapter in the history of the Americas.

“What the Trump administration did in Venezuela was an act of fascist barbarism, completely illegal, against all norms of civilized coexistence between nations,” he said. “It represents the beginning of a sinister era where, as Ivan Karamazov said, ‘everything is permitted’ for the most powerful. It has been a blow to the Venezuelan people, to the Cuban people, and to all Latin American peoples.”

“However,” Prieto says, the attack has also turned the tide among the progressive movement, “I believe it has strengthened anti-imperialism and anti-fascism in all decent people, whether they are on the left or not. The Yankee Empire is in irreversible decline, and this makes it more violent and rabid.”

Dr. José R. Cabañas, for his part, affirms that the United States’ act of ignoring and destroying international law reveals a geopolitical purpose that cannot be hidden: “The full application of the Monroe Doctrine attempts to dominate the region’s natural resources, prevent countries such as Russia or China, but also the European Union as a whole, from developing preferential economic ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations. The actions of January 3 against Caracas and other subsequent actions have caused fear among certain political forces in the region, but at the same time have reinforced the independent national agenda of several governments that have demanded that the US develop bilateral relations based on greater equality and respect.”

Cuba Reaffirms Strategic Alliance With Venezuela

An emboldened empire will be met with steadfast resistance
Regarding the growing danger facing Cuba following Washington’s more aggressive stance, Prieto states: “This supposed ‘victory’ [in Venezuela] has emboldened [the United States]. That is why there are threats against Cuba.”

We feel a mixture of pain and pride [for the 32 Cuban combatants killed on January 3]. Pain, obviously, because 32 Cuban families have been brutally torn apart. Pride, because we know that they faced an enemy that was vastly superior in numbers and military technology, and that they fell with courage and honor, doing their duty. They are our heroes, and they will inspire us in the face of any new aggression.”

Dr. Cabañas agrees that the killing of the 32 Cuban soldiers in combat is already an act of aggression against Cuba: “At the moment, the most significant impact on Cuba has been the loss of our 32 heroes who fell defending the same ideals as our internationalists in Africa, Grenada, or other regions of the world. The imperial forces do not understand the ties between Venezuela and Cuba, which long predate the revolutionary processes of both nations. Their roots go back to the independence movements against the European colonial powers.”

In this regard, Prieto added that the defense of the Cuban Revolution will be carried out to the bitter end: “I don’t know how far these fascists, full of hatred and lacking in morals, will go to hurt Cuba. Our people are not afraid. They will defend their Revolution in the worst circumstances, without ever giving up.”

A long history of aggression and resistance
Perhaps that is why Cuba is the country that has known the most in the history of the entire continent about US hostility and boycotts against a sovereign government. Dr. Cabañas recalls: “Over the last 67 years, the United States has used every weapon possible to destroy the Cuban Revolution. In the 1960s, there were more than 100 CIA-armed gangs in the country that caused hundreds of deaths among the civilian population; there were several terrorist actions, from the invasion of Playa Girón to the persecution of Cuban ships on the high seas.”

The former diplomat recalled that this year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the worst CIA-backed terrorist attacks against Cuba “which claimed dozens of civilian victims. In the 1970s, strains of animal and human diseases were introduced into the country, causing great losses.”

He also recalled that the economic and commercial blockade is a US strategy of attrition that the Cuban people know better than anyone: “The blockade against Cuba was originally established in 1962, but it was updated in legislative bodies that were approved in 1992 and 1996. Not to mention the barrage of negative information against the country, trying to isolate it from the rest of the international community and cause frustration among the local population.”

In this regard, Dr. Cabañas recalls that for six decades, despite facing diverse and persistent attacks, the Cuban Revolution has creatively resisted and continued building a society that centers people’s needs and defies US interests for the region. “They have tried to use all means to destroy us and have failed in their essential purpose. Cuba faced the COVID-19 pandemic with its own resources and had five times fewer victims than the United States, which supposedly had all the resources to prevent thousands of deaths.”

Now, Dr. Cabañas says, Cuba faces the effects of an even stronger economic, commercial, and financial blockade, “But even under these circumstances, Cuba repeats the same question: how would the country progress if it were not the victim of that hostile policy, which is much older and much more complex than the recent events we are referring to now?”

Perhaps that is why Cuba has also been the country that has most vigorously rejected US intervention in Venezuela, not only through diplomatic communiqués, but also through the mobilization of masses who rejected an aggression that seems to loom as a possibility on its borders. Dr. Cabañas states: “Havana was perhaps the capital that, in a matter of hours, mobilized its population for a mass demonstration condemning the crimes committed against Venezuela. These demonstrations have spread throughout the country… Our government has repeatedly expressed Cuba’s historic position both in terms of solidarity with our Latin American and Caribbean brothers and sisters, and in terms of the respectful and equal relationship that the United States is obliged to have with its neighbors and with the international community as a whole.”

(Peoples Dispatch)

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By Max Blumenthal – Jan 19, 2026

Mossad is taking advantage of deadly riots that rocked Iran this month to solicit spies through a series of social media ads. In one of history’s strangest collaborations, the Israeli intel agency has purchased the ads through an LLC owned by Atlanta-based standup comic Desi Banks.

Update: This report and a September 2025 article by journalist Jack Poulson have resulted in the termination of Farsi-language recruitment ads by Israel’s Mossad assassination agency.

Google has suspended the company used to purchase those ads on the grounds of “egregious” violations. But the Atlanta-based comedian who owns that company, Desi Banks, still refuses to answer our requests for comment.

Update #2: Desi Banks has finally commented on the affair, claiming ignorance of how his LLC was used to purchase ads recruiting Iranians for the Mossad. “I have kids, and never in my life would I be involved in something like this,” Banks stated on Twitter/X. However, the comedian has provided no details on how his LLC was used for such clearly malicious purposes.

Days after anti-government rioters spread mayhem across Iranian cities, Israel’s Mossad published a new series of Farsi-language online recruitment ads. The Israeli foreign intelligence service has taken partial credit for the deadly unrest, pledging in a December 29 Twitter/X post that its agents were “in the field” with protesters. Now, it is escalating its infiltration efforts by soliciting spies inside Iran and throughout the Persian diaspora.

One of the most recent ads appeared January 14 on a Twitter/X account associated with Israeli intelligence, @payameabi. It featured a short AI video showing an Iranian protester seated defiantly in the middle of a street, confronting a phalanx of state security officers on motorbikes.

“Your role, Iranians abroad, is vital,” the tweet by @payameabi declares. “The final days of the regime have arrived. If you know someone who works in sensitive industries and centers, call us… Our organization is by your side.”

The text is followed by a link to a Google form which allows potential recruits to apply as Mossad informants, promising them protection and lucrative rewards. At the center of the recruitment form is an image of a tattooed arm holding a trash bag emblazoned with the logo of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It reads, “Build the future. Opportunities. It is right now.”

A separate Mossad recruitment ad also released on January 14 makes explicit reference to the violent upheaval inside Iran: “Our organization has heard the voice of you, the people of Iran, and is planning the final blows against the regime. Your compatriots inside Iran are engaged in a fateful struggle, and we intend to help you. As Iranians far from the homeland, you feel a sense of helplessness these days, which is understandable, but some of you can play a vital role in this stage.”

Similar solicitations appear on a Telegram channel called BlueMessage. One which appeared this month amid the riots that shook Iran features another AI-created image showing a forlorn-looking young man standing apart from a grim urban crowd of austere Iranians. “Your role is vital,” the Mossad appeal states. “We can help you and Iran.”

Mossad recruiting Iranian agents through Atlanta standup comedian’s company
The Mossad has placed several recruitment ads on YouTube and other Google-owned social media platforms through Desi Banks Productions LLC, an eponymous company owned by a Black, Atlanta-based comedian. Known for urban-themed standup comedy and online video sketches like “How Them Pimps Used to Be Back in the Day,” “Going to Yoga with a White Girl for the First Time,” and “How it Be When a Skinny Dude is With A Big Girl,” Banks might be the unlikeliest conduit for highly sensitive Mossad operations. On the other hand, the comedian’s apolitical profile and likely need for production support might have made him the perfect candidate for an intelligence agency seeking to conceal its fingerprints.

Atlanta-based comedian and content creator Desi Banks

Is Banks aware that his company is responsible for buying Mossad recruitment ads on Google? Or did Israeli intelligence rely on another entity to deceive Banks?

The Grayzone visited the address listed in Desi Banks Productions’ corporate records in hopes of questioning the comedian. It took us to a downscale condominium complex at 1195 Milton Terrace SE in Atlanta’s Chosewood neighborhood. No one appeared to be home at the address, nor was it possible to leave a note in a mailbox seeking comment from Banks.

Banks did not respond to a September 2025 query from Jack Poulson, the reporter who first revealed the comedian’s apparent role in the Mossad ad campaign. At the time of publication, the standup comic is on tour in Philadelphia, PA. A January 18 afterparty planned by Banks at the nightclub NoTo Philly was cancelled seemingly at the last moment.

According to a September 2025 report by Poulson and Lee Fang, the Mossad recruitment ads have appeared in 19 countries around the world, but the only country in which each one appeared was Germany. There, the Mossad has solicited information from family members of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Western Media Whitewashes Deadly Riots in Iran, Relying on US Government-Funded Regime Change NGOs

The Mossad has not only claimed a pivotal role in the insurrectionist riots which spread mayhem across Iran this January, it received credit for the disorder from former CIA director Mike Pompeo, who declared on his Twitter/X account, “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them…”

Tamir Morag, a correspondent for Israel’s Channel 14, echoed Pompeo. “We reported tonight on Channel 14: foreign actors are arming the protesters in Iran with live firearms, which is the reason for the hundreds of regime personnel killed,” he stated on Twitter/X. “Everyone is free to guess who is behind it.”

Though the comedian Desi Banks has remained silent on his company’s apparent role as a Mossad shell, at least one of his colleagues has expressed suspicion about his activities. In an interview with Wallace “Wallo” Peeples, a motivational speaker and former long-term prisoner known for his commentary on “the game,” Banks was visibly uncomfortable when asked if “somebody” had visited him “to help you go the next level.”

“You might see somebody who’s not that talented, or not that funny, or whatever, and all of a sudden they be all the way up here, and you trying to figure out how that happened… Have anybody came to visit you?” Wallo asked Banks.

“Nahhhh,” Banks replied, averting his gaze. “I don’t think they gonna try to do that. Hell naw.”

(The Grayzone)

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

Caracas, January 23, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan healthcare workers marched to the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Caracas on Thursday to demand the release of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores following their kidnapping by US forces on January 3.

During the march, nurse Betsy Caraballo emphasized her desire for the president’s return “to continue with his public policies,” particularly those focused on the healthcare sector.

“The empire must release him because this was a kidnapping. He is a constitutional president and the people are calling for his return,” she told reporters. Multiple grassroots and sectoral organizations have staged marches in recent weeks to support Maduro and Flores while condemning their kidnapping.

Upon reaching the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office, the demonstrators, accompanied by Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the president’s son and National Assembly deputy, delivered a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

The letter urged the UN official to publicly condemn both the violation of international law principles and the infringement of Maduro and Flores’ personal immunity and integrity. It also demanded the immediate release of both officials by the United States government.

A day earlier, renowned Argentine professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel requested that UN Secretary-General António Guterres urgently establish a commission to investigate the conditions of detention and treatment of the Venezuelan president and the first lady, who is also an elected legislator.

In his communication, Pérez Esquivel stressed that this expert human rights commission must safeguard the well-being of Maduro and Flores following their “kidnapping” in an operation that “violated Venezuela’s sovereignty.”

Washington’s January 3 attacks saw military and civilian sites bombed in Caracas and surrounding areas, killing over 100 people. Maduro and Flores were indicted on charges including drug trafficking conspiracy, and both pleaded not guilty in their arraignment hearings on January 5. The trial will resume on March 17.

US officials have never presented evidence of the involvement of high-ranking Venezuelan officials in narcotics activities, while specialized agencies have consistently found the Caribbean nation to play a marginal role in global drug trafficking.

Diplomacy for resolving “differences”

US officials followed the January 3 military operation by imposing conditions on the Venezuelan oil industry and vowing to control crude sales for an indefinite period. Simultaneously, Caracas and Washington have moved forward in the reestablishment of diplomatic ties.

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has repeatedly defended the importance of diplomacy. During a televised broadcast on Wednesday, Rodríguez pledged to engage with US counterparts with “no fear.”

“We are in a process of dialogue with the US, with no fear of facing our differences, from the most sensitive to the least sensitive ones, through diplomacy,” she stated. Venezuelan leaders have sought to highlight the legacy of independence hero Simón Bolívar as a guiding principle for diplomatic efforts.

For his part, US President Donald Trump praised the ongoing relationship with the Venezuelan authorities on Thursday aboard Air Force One, hailing Rodríguez for demonstrating “very strong leadership.”

Trump’s comments followed a Wednesday White House announcement that Rodríguez is expected to make an official visit to the US, although “no date has been set.” The purported official trip would be the first by a Venezuelan president to the US in over a quarter-century.

At the same time, the White House continued its Venezuela policies with the appointment of diplomat Laura Dogu as chargé d’affaires at the US Venezuela Affairs Unit, based in Colombia. This unit has been responsible for managing relations between the two countries since the suspension of diplomatic relations in 2019.

Dogu, who is lined up to take over as ambassador if ties are restored, began her diplomatic career in the 1990s. She has served as an ambassador to various Latin American countries over the last decade and succeeds John McNamara, who had held the post since February 2025. McNamara traveled to Venezuela earlier this month to discuss the potential reopening of the US embassy with Venezuelan authorities.

Venezuela suspended diplomatic relations with the US in 2019 after the Trump administration recognized the self-proclaimed “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate authority. Embassies and consulates have remained closed since then. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello recently stated that efforts to reopen the embassies are “progressing.”

The Trump administration’s January 3 attacks drew domestic criticism and renewed congressional efforts to curtail the White House’s use of military force abroad. However, a War Powers Resolution failed to garner a majority in the House of Representatives on Thursday. A previous initiative was likewise narrowly defeated in the Senate.

The post Venezuelan Healthcare Workers Demand Maduro’s Release as Rodríguez Defends ‘Fearless’ Diplomacy with the US appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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This article by Irving Sanchez originally appeared in the January 22, 2026 edition of Sin Línea.

For more than 20 years, Joseph Bongiovanni was one of the most visible faces of the fight against drugs in the United States. As an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he led high-risk operations, entered burning buildings, and participated in investigations that resulted in landmark convictions against drug traffickers.

However, this Wednesday , the former federal official experienced a very different scene, as he heard his sentence for using his badge to protect old acquaintances who had become drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York . Afterward, he maintained his innocence, but the court determined that his conduct constituted a betrayal of the institutions he swore to defend.

District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo reportedly sentenced Joseph Bongiovanni to five years in federal prison on various corruption charges. The sentence was considerably less than the fifteen years requested by the prosecution, especially after a jury acquitted him of the most serious charges, including receiving $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia.

Lawrence J. Vilardo explained that the sentence reflects the complexity of the case, marked by two lengthy trials and mixed verdicts, as well as the covert nature of the defendant’s work throughout his career. The judge acknowledged that Joseph Bongiovanni had received numerous awards for his work, but stressed that this did not negate the seriousness of his actions.

According to prosecutors, the former agent’s corruption manifested itself in both deliberate omissions and calculated cover-ups. They pointed to a turning point in 2008 , when Joseph Bongiovanni had sufficient information to act against traffickers he had known since childhood, but chose not to, allowing their operations to grow and expand in the United States and Canada.

The prosecution alleges that the former agent falsified official reports, stole documents, tipped off criminals about ongoing investigations, and protected businesses linked to organized crime, including a strip club involved in sex trafficking. He was also accused of diverting attention from his colleagues and favoring members of the Italian-American criminal community.

The case has once again placed the DEA under scrutiny, in a context where at least seventeen agents have been accused of corruption in the last decade. So far, the agency has not commented on Bongiovanni ‘s sentencing .

• 

  News Briefs

  Former DEA Agent Sentenced for Protecting Drug Trafficking Friends

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Such cases are not rare for the corrupt American institution, which portrays itself as waging some sort of Drug War, but in reality operates as a critical management link between drug traffickers and the US security state.

• 

  Analysis

  Classism & Racism in the Era of the Fourth Transformation

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  In a world where dehumanization, exclusion, persecution of people based on their ethnicity, racism, and classism are exponentially increasing, these practices are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 23

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on Interoceanic trail derailment report, collaboration with US, extortion, declining homicides in Veracruz, and Veracruz infrastructure investment.

The post Former DEA Agent Sentenced for Protecting Drug Trafficking Friends appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Ruth Dávila originally appeared in the January 22, 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.*

In the era of the Fourth Transformation (4T), the political project of the Morena movement, classist and racist expressions predominate. Words like “chairos,” “nacos,” “prietos,” “indios pata rajada,” and others are some of the expressions that make up the vocabulary of those who feel aggrieved by the rise to power of those who represent those “others” who, in their imagination, are associated with poverty, Indigenous people, and dark skin.

When in 2006, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) first ran for president, which was awarded to the PAN member Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), we witnessed the construction of a campaign that labeled AMLO as a danger to Mexico, and that described the supporters of the “obradorista” movement as “pelados”, “gatos”, “nacos” and “chairos”.

This occurred during the early rise of social media, the television duopoly, and the presence of organizations like the Communication Council, Voice of Business. The arrival of memes was also used to cruelly express: “Why do they call AMLO Whiskas? Because nine out of ten cats prefer him.” [Gato, cat, is a derogatory term denoting a domestic worker – editor]

This construction of otherness is frequently idealistic; that is, in the terms of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, it is an idealization of the “other,” of the different. In his Reflections on Violence (2007), Žižek revisited the era of fascism to illustrate how a caricatured image of Jews was constructed: prominent noses, avarice, usury, and so on. Similarly, in the period leading up to the Rwandan genocide, the significant role played by the media in disseminating hate speech against the Tutsis, who were also stereotyped, is well-documented. This resulted in a large-scale interethnic war between Hutus and Tutsis characterized by extreme violence and cruelty toward the latter.

It is evident that hate speech and expressions that exalt negative characteristics of the opposing group consequently materialize expressions of violence that transgress human rights.

With these examples, I aim to highlight that the discursive construction of “others” is frequently laden with prejudice. This otherness is constructed in order to place that “other” in the position that, according to the dominant group, corresponds to them; the result is usually exclusion and discrimination.

Parasite (2019), dir. Bong Joon-ho

Regarding the smell of these “others” as a way of indicating their class position, it clearly alludes to their poverty or skin color; likewise, the ideological-political stance stems from a need to construct an “us vs. them” dichotomy. An example of this is seen in the South Korean film Parasite (2019), where both social classes (poor and rich) share a sense of identity, belonging, and delimitation of physical and symbolic space.

A central element of the film is the constant allusion to the smell emanating from the members of the Kim family, who belong to the lower class; for the Park family, the former smell like the underground and poverty. And what do the “others” smell like? Those who don’t belong to “our group,” those we see as inferior. It might seem like a bad joke or something anecdotal, but these expressions alluding to the smell of those “others” who are inferior because of their class or race are, as the brilliant film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho shows, expressions of aporophobia (rejection of poor people), classism, and hygienism.

A few days ago, a sign on the door of the Faculty Lounge—the place we go for coffee or tea—at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), my workplace, apologized for the inconvenience caused by the painting of the area. The sign read: “We apologize for the inconvenience and the smell, but the Faculty Lounge is being repainted. Thank you for your understanding.” After the first sentence, someone anonymously added, in blue marker and printed letters: “[Sorry for the inconvenience and] the smell of leftist rhetoric,” a clear expression of classism.

We cannot dismiss this as a mere anecdote or the behavior of someone unable to control their anger or impulses. In a world where dehumanization, exclusion, persecution of people based on their ethnicity, racism, and classism are exponentially increasing, these practices are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms.

Ruth Dávila is an Associate Professor in the Division of Multidisciplinary Studies at CIDE, the Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

• 

  Analysis

  Classism & Racism in the Era of the Fourth Transformation

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  In a world where dehumanization, exclusion, persecution of people based on their ethnicity, racism, and classism are exponentially increasing, these practices are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 23

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on Interoceanic trail derailment report, collaboration with US, extortion, declining homicides in Veracruz, and Veracruz infrastructure investment.

• 

  News Briefs

  Sheinbaum: Wage Policies & Social Programs Broke Decades of Neoliberal Neglect

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  During a tour of Puebla, Mexico’s President cited these changes as reversing the historical backwardness faced by the popular sectors.

The post Classism & Racism in the Era of the Fourth Transformation appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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

Interoceanic Train: People’s Safety First

President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that the first report on the derailment will be ready next week.

The Railroad Transport Regulatory Agency decided that operations will not begin without national certification following the reports and investigations. In addition, an international certification will be conducted to provide certainty to Interoceanic Train users.

Cooperation Yes, Subjugation No: Security with Sovereignty

The Mexican Government reaffirmed that international cooperation is welcome. Each country acts exclusively in its own territory, with no U.S. agents operating in Mexico or Mexican agents operating in the United States, thus respecting national sovereignty.

Extortion on the Decline: 089 Cancels Nearly 90% of Fraudulent Calls

Thanks to reporting through the 089 telephone number, nearly 90% of extortion calls have ended without their recipients being victims. In the remaining cases, investigation files were opened, leading to arrests and chip cancellations, in coordination with telephone companies.

Veracruz Turns the Page: Intentional Homicides Drop 28%

Since September 2024, intentional homicides in Veracruz have decreased by 28%, as a result of coordination between the federal and state governments.

Transformative Investment: Nearly 20 Billion Pesos for Veracruz

The President announced an investment of nearly 20 billion pesos (US$1.14 billion) for 2026–2027, with the resources allocated to highways and roads; drinking water; river dredging and channeling; and housing for those who lost everything in the 2025 torrential rains and flooding.

• 

  Analysis

  Classism & Racism in the Era of the Fourth Transformation

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  In a world where dehumanization, exclusion, persecution of people based on their ethnicity, racism, and classism are exponentially increasing, these practices are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 23

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on Interoceanic trail derailment report, collaboration with US, extortion, declining homicides in Veracruz, and Veracruz infrastructure investment.

• 

  News Briefs

  Sheinbaum: Wage Policies & Social Programs Broke Decades of Neoliberal Neglect

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  During a tour of Puebla, Mexico’s President cited these changes as reversing the historical backwardness faced by the popular sectors.

The post People’s Mañanera January 23 appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Emir Olivares originally appeared in the January 22, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Acatzingo, Puebla. Continuing her tour of the state, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum asserted that through wage policies and social programs, decades of neglect of the people, which prevailed during neoliberal governments, have been broken. She emphasized that since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office, priority has been given to the working class because the poverty they experienced was not due to a lack of desire to work, but rather to a system that abandoned them.

Before thousands of residents of Puebla gathered in this community, the governor emphasized that since the beginning of the Fourth Transformation administrations, the guiding principle has been “the good of all, first and foremost the poor.” Based on this principle, a wage policy was established that has consistently recovered workers’ salaries, noting that in 2018 the minimum wage was 3,000 pesos, and by January 2016 it had reached 9,000 pesos—a 150 percent increase in real terms.

At the same time, the social programs implemented since the previous administration have allowed 13.5 million Mexicans to escape poverty. For this reason, he insisted, the principle of “For the good of all, the poor first” remains in effect, because it has yielded results in helping those who need it most.

Sheinbaum emphasized that social programs have become constitutional rights for the general population because the government operates on the principle that no one should be left behind, and therefore, wealth must be distributed throughout the country. For this reason, people are no longer asked which party they will vote for, as this support is guaranteed by the Constitution.

The President asserted that these policies have disproven the neoliberal myths that wage increases would lead to higher inflation, decreased investment, and a devaluation of the peso: Currently, wage increases have been implemented and inflation is under control; there are high levels of foreign investment and the peso is stronger than ever.

The President also reiterated another principle of her movement: there cannot be a rich government with a poor population. That is why, she said, corruption has not been tolerated, and this has allowed those resources to be channeled into social programs.

• 

  News Briefs

  Sheinbaum: Wage Policies & Social Programs Broke Decades of Neoliberal Neglect

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  During a tour of Puebla, Mexico’s President cited these changes as reversing the historical backwardness faced by the popular sectors.

• 

  Analysis

  Communism Without Rifles

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The Communist Party of Mexico’s mere existence helps prevent the political landscape from being reduced to a false dilemma between a managed progressivism & an increasingly aggressive right wing.

• 

  Analysis

  Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The opposition’s claim that Morena is the PRI of the 70s lacks foundation; the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine popular support.

The post Sheinbaum: Wage Policies & Social Programs Broke Decades of Neoliberal Neglect appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This article by Alejandro Jiménez originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of El Sol 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 the Mexican political map, the institutional left seems to have compacted into a single bloc: Morena and its constellation of allies.

On the right, however, the spectrum is broader, louder, and increasingly radicalized: traditional conservatives, recycled technocrats, occasional libertarians, and, more recently, openly far-right expressions that no longer hide.

In this context, it is striking that there is almost no visible presence of a left wing clearly positioned to the left of Morena, yet one that remains within the realm of legal, public, and peaceful politics. This space, now practically empty, is what the current Communist Party of Mexico, whose general secretary is Pavel Blanco, is attempting to fill.

In a country where the center is constantly shifting to the right on issues such as security, militarization, migration, and labour rights, the absence of a clearly anti-capitalist left leaves the field open for these agendas to become normalized without any counterweight.

This is not the historical PCM that was dissolved in 1981 and absorbed by the processes that led to the PSUM and, later, the PRD. It is an organization reconstituted in the 1990s, with a limited presence, no electoral registration, and activity that is more ideological than strictly political. Its reach is small, its visibility marginal, but its position on the political chessboard is interesting.

The current Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) is clearly further to the left than Morena, which it considers a reformist, national-popular project more concerned with managing capitalism than transforming it. However, at the same time, it does not subscribe to the logic of armed struggle, unlike the EPR, the EZLN, and other groups that have opted for insurrection. In other words, it occupies an intermediate space: radical in its discourse, but not militarized; anti-capitalist in its ideology, but not clandestine.

That combination— radicalism without guns —is precisely what is needed in the public debate today. Not because it will win elections in the short term, but because it broadens the scope of what is politically debatable. In a country where the center is constantly shifting to the right on issues such as security, militarization, migration, and labour rights, the absence of a clearly anti-capitalist left leaves the field open for these agendas to become normalized without any counterweight.

Morena, despite its rhetoric of transformation, governs with the rules of the market, with the armed forces and with a clientelistic pragmatism that, in fact, tends to resemble the PRI of the 1970s more as a state party, with all its latent authoritarianism.

In this context, a force that reminds us—even from the margins—that other possibilities for social organization exist, other ways of understanding work, property, and power, fulfills an indispensable political function: it broadens the debate. It doesn’t win elections, but it changes the language. It doesn’t govern, but it makes people uncomfortable.

The question is not whether the current Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) has a future as a majority party. The answer, today, seems clear: no. The question is whether its mere existence helps prevent the Mexican political landscape from being reduced to a false dilemma between a managed progressivism and an increasingly aggressive right wing.

Perhaps, in times of superficial polarization, what is most needed is not an armed left nor a domesticated left, but a left that discusses, makes uncomfortable, and reminds us that politics is not exhausted in the administration of the possible.

• 

  Analysis

  Communism Without Rifles

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The Communist Party of Mexico’s mere existence helps prevent the political landscape from being reduced to a false dilemma between a managed progressivism & an increasingly aggressive right wing.

• 

  Analysis

  Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The opposition’s claim that Morena is the PRI of the 70s lacks foundation; the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine popular support.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico SA

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Canada has begun to make moves (such as rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China), but Mexico is clinging to the USMCA: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

The post Communism Without Rifles appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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This editorial by Pedro Mellado Rodríguez originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo. The views expressed in this article are the authors’* own and do not necessarily reflect those ofMexico Solidarity Mediaor theMexico Solidarity Project.*

A sophism, explains the Royal Spanish Academy, is a false reason or argument that appears to be true, such as the one used by those who warn, from the media and the opposition, that the electoral reform promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo—to reduce the number of proportional representation seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as to reduce subsidies to political parties and lower the cost of the country’s electoral apparatus—could lead us to live in a one-party regime like the one the PRI imposed on Mexicans for seven decades. They warn that Morena has become an authoritarian party that intends to perpetuate itself in power.

However, there are substantial differences between the authoritarian, deceitful, corrupt, and thieving regime of the PRI, in alliance with the PAN, which stole elections and trampled on the popular will, and the regime of the Fourth Transformation, which came to power with the real, clear, concrete, and overwhelming support of the majority of voters. The problem for the opposition, the recalcitrant right wing, and the mainstream media—resentful, manipulative, and mendacious—is that the opposition has collapsed to such an extent that even if the PAN, PRI, and Movimiento Ciudadano combined all their forces, they could not defeat Morena.

And the only reason is because the majority of Mexicans reject those hypocritical parties, who tear their clothes judging the Fourth Transformation as a government that will turn Mexico into a dictatorship, when finally, after more than 70 years of PRI trickery and after two failed PAN six-year terms, they ended up playing political games under the same banner and defending the same abject causes.

And the numbers don’t lie. With or without proportional representation seats, the opposition in Mexico is floundering, and the overrepresentation they accuse Morena of is what has allowed them to survive, at least until now.

PRI President Luis Echeverría Álvarez adopted the posture of a left winger and supporter of Third World liberation, but was using it as a strategy to diffuse criticism from Mexico’s left, while he was subjugating Mexico’s interests to those of the United States of America, as an operative with the CIA.

Crushing The Lie

In the 1970s, the PRI was the sole party, an appendage of the government for more than 70 years, while the electoral bodies were administered by the Ministry of the Interior through the Federal Electoral Commission, and the manipulation of the vote at the whim of the president in office was perversely natural, which allowed the Institutional Revolutionary Party to win presidential elections with excessive percentages, such as the 89.81 percent that brought Adolfo López Mateos to power in 1958; the 87.69 percent that gave Gustavo Díaz Ordaz the victory in 1964; the 88.81 percent with which Luis Echeverría Álvarez came to power in 1970 and the 91.90 percent that José López Portillo y Pacheco boasted in his victory in 1976.

The PRI’s electoral decline began to be reflected in the 1982 presidential elections when the lackluster technocrat Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado barely reached 68.43 percent of the votes, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari struggled to prevail, through a fraudulent result in 1988, against the candidate of the National Democratic Front, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, with 50.56 percent of the votes.

The decline of the PRI and its ally and accomplice party, the PAN, was reflected in a significant drop in their voting percentages: in 1994 the obscure technocrat Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León garnered 48.69 percent of the votes to reach the Presidency; in 2000 the PAN member Vicente Fox Quesada, as the alleged beneficiary of a questionable negotiation with the United States government, barely had 42.52 percent of the votes; in 2006 the PAN member Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, considered a spurious President by a large segment of the population, barely had 35.89 percent of the votes, in elections that are presumed to have been stolen from the PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In 2012, the PRI based its presidential campaign on the excessive use of illicit resources, vote buying, and unequal media support in favor of Enrique Peña Nieto, who garnered 38.21 percent of the votes.

The key fact is that in 2018, despite all the odds being stacked against him, the Morena candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won the presidency with 53.19 percent of the vote, a percentage no presidential candidate had achieved in the previous thirty years. This demonstrated overwhelming popular support, effectively thwarting any attempt at manipulation or fraud by the electoral authorities. In the 2024 elections, the Morena candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, won with 59.75 percent of the vote.

The difference is very simple: both Claudia and Andrés Manuel came to power with a very broad, real, genuine popular support, far removed from the manipulated and inflated numbers of the PRI and the elections resulting from the backroom deals and trickery of the PAN candidates.

1988 President candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, who had his victory stolen in a blatant fraud.

The Journey

It should be recalled that on July 8, 2017, in statements published by the newspaper Reforma, Manuel Bartlett Díaz, who in 1988 was Secretary of the Interior and simultaneously president of the Federal Electoral Commission, asserted that Carlos Salinas de Gortari did not win that year’s presidential election against the candidate of the National Democratic Front, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano. Bartlett Díaz specified that it was not through cyber fraud, but rather through the manipulation of figures and, subsequently, the destruction of ballots following an agreement with the National Action Party (PAN). He maintained that the best proof that Salinas de Gortari did not win is the desperate manner in which he surrendered to the PAN, so that the Chamber of Deputies, acting as the Electoral College, would recognize him as President-elect, and then, months later, the ballots—which were proof of the fraud—were burned.

In her morning press conference on January 24, 2025, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated that the victory of the PAN member Vicente Fox Quesada in 2000, when José Woldenberg was president of the Federal Electoral Institute, was the result of an agreement between the United States government and the PRI President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León.

President Sheinbaum Pardo stated that when the United States government granted Mexico a $40 billion loan to address the crisis triggered by the December crisis (the 1994 economic crisis), a negotiation personally handled by President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, the Mexican President was required to commit to facilitating a democratic transition. This required the PRI to relinquish power and hand over the presidency to the opposition in 2000. The losing candidate, this time from the PRD, was once again Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano.

In the 2006 election fraud, the president of the Federal Electoral Institute was Luis Carlos Ugalde, who attained that position with the backing of Elba Esther Gordillo, leader of the National Union of Education Workers. Gordillo supported the victory of Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, the PAN candidate, and later played a significant role as an ally of his administration. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the PRD candidate, lost the election.

Leonardo Valdés Zurita was president of the Federal Electoral Institute during the 2012 elections that gave PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto a controversial victory over López Obrador. In 2018, López Obrador won the presidency in an election where his margin of victory was so overwhelming that it made any maneuver by the president of what is now called the National Electoral Institute, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, impossible.

The evident bias of Valdés Zurita and Córdova Vianello has been demonstrated in their unconditional support for the promotion of a new political party called Somos México, driven by the “Pink Tide” headed by businessman Claudio X. González, which also includes the remnants of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, allied in the 2024 elections with the PRI and the PAN.

The Hardline Vote

Clear evidence of Morena’s electoral strength and the real, majority popular vote that supports it is that between 2018 and 2023 it won the Mexico City mayoral race and 21 governorships: Morelos, Veracruz, Puebla, Chiapas, Tabasco, Zacatecas, Tlaxcala, Nayarit, Campeche, Baja California Sur, Colima, Michoacán, Baja California, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, and the State of Mexico. All of this despite the evident hostility of the national president of the National Electoral Institute, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, and his loyal Executive Secretary, Edmundo Jacobo Molina.

In the 2018 presidential elections, Morena’s candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, only lost in one of the country’s 32 states: Guanajuato. And in the 2024 elections, Morena’s presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, was only defeated in one of the country’s 32 states: Aguascalientes.

In the race for federal congressional seats by relative majority on Sunday, June 2, 2024, Morena and its allies secured 256 victories, representing 85.33 percent of the vote, while the PRI, PAN, and PRD together garnered 42 victories, or 14 percent. The “Let’s Continue Making History” coalition won 60 of the 64 Senate seats by relative majority, two per state, across 30 states, achieving a 93.75 percent success rate.

Of course, the claim that Morena is the PRI of the 1970s is baseless, since the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine majority popular support; they are real, as is the profound collapse of the opposition. In democracies, the majority rules. The electoral reform that President Sheinbaum Pardo is proposing is entirely legitimate, as it has the support of the majority of Mexicans who back her government in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Pedro Mellado Rodríguez is a journalist who, for five decades, has been a keen and critical observer of public life in Mexico.

• 

  Analysis

  Communism Without Rifles

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The Communist Party of Mexico’s mere existence helps prevent the political landscape from being reduced to a false dilemma between a managed progressivism & an increasingly aggressive right wing.

• 

  Analysis

  Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  The opposition’s claim that Morena is the PRI of the 70s lacks foundation; the votes with which it won in 2018 and 2024 reflect genuine popular support.

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico SA

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Canada has begun to make moves (such as rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China), but Mexico is clinging to the USMCA: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

The post Morena is not the PRI of the ’70s appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

By John Perry and Roger D. Harris  –  Jan 21, 2026

Since the US invasion of Venezuela on January 3rd and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaragua’s opposition figures – who enthusiastically identified with their confederates in Venezuela – have hoped that regime-change efforts in Caracas would encourage Washington to destroy Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

Republican senator Rick Scott thinks now is the time to “fix” Nicaragua as well Cuba. Commentator James Bosworth, a cheerleader for US imperialism, asks, “Why hasn’t Trump gone after Ortega in Nicaragua?”

Such speculation is unsurprising. Both Trump administrations have endorsed the designation of Nicaragua, as well as Venezuela and Cuba, as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” Trump’s former adviser John Bolton described the three countries in 2018 as a “troika of tyranny,” while his current Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls them “enemies of humanity.”

A few days after the attack on Caracas, Trump said Cuba was “ready to fall” and should “make a deal … before it’s too late.” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded: “No one dictates what we do.” Along with Cuba, the governments of Mexico and Colombia were warned that they might be “next” in Trump’s sights, as he maintains his huge military deployment in the Caribbean and continues his so-called war on “narcoterror.” 

Clearly, Venezuela and Cuba are under the greatest US pressure. Neither Trump nor Rubio has included Nicaragua in their follow-up threats, but the country is not being ignored. 

The court indictment against Maduro accuses him of leading a regional drug-trafficking network that ran through Central America. Although Nicaragua is not specifically named, opposition media were quick to claim that the Sandinista government was being denounced. Trump himself, commenting on Honduras’s November 30 election in Truth Social, seemed to suggest this when he asked: “Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?”

In reality, unlike its neighbors, Nicaragua is largely free of drug-related violence. Its army operates what it calls a “retaining wall” (muro de contención) against drugs transiting the country, and regularly publicizes drug seizures. Despite this, the State Department classifies Nicaragua as a “transit country” for narcotics and the US Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew its officials in 2025, claiming poor cooperation from authorities. 

On January 14, the security minister in neighboring El Salvador (a Trump ally ) accused Nicaragua of allowing a drug shipment worth over $9 million to cross the waters between the countries by boat. Nicaragua strongly denied the allegation, pointing out that it is among the safest countries in the region and cooperates with El Salvador in dealing with narcoterrorism, including extraditing members of Salvadoran drug-trafficking gangs arrested in Nicaragua. 

Nicaragua continues to be unjustly singled out for criticism on issues beyond drugs. In July 2025, Nicaragua’s reputation as a safe country was implicitly recognized even by the US Department of Homeland Security, which acknowledged that it has become “a worldwide tourist destination.” Numerous articles, including in the New York Times and Travel and Tour World, encouraged people to visit. 

But, as Nicaragua-based commentator Becca Renk points out, this has drawn “punitive measures” from US authorities, including sanctions on tour operators (allegedly for facilitating migration to the US), advisories warning against Nicaragua’s supposed dangers, and more. “Despite a flurry of positive reports in the travel press, U.S. officials say Americans should avoid Nicaragua because it’s an authoritarian regime,” the New York Times said in June 2025, contradicting its earlier recommendation to visit the country. 

Perhaps the most bizarre allegation is that Nicaragua’s celebrated religious traditions are threatened by its government. In December, reports appeared claiming that bibles could no longer be brought into the country based on a notice supposedly photographed in a Costa Rican bus terminal. The story was widely repeated, with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom reporting that not only are bibles banned, but so is praying in public. The stories fitted the State Department’s broader narrative of religious repression. 

But the reports were completely false. Nicaraguan churches confirmed there is no such ban, the bus company’s advice to travelers does not mention bibles, and farcical attempts by a pair of Youtubers to prove that the ban exists proved fruitless.

Nevertheless, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, based in the UK, which posted the original claim about the ban, ignores requests to remove it.

More seriously, December also brought a heavily biased report from the US Trade Representative. The report accused Nicaragua of “labor rights violations,” based largely on evidence from Nicaraguan opposition groups, many funded by US sources such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The Trade Representative argued that Nicaragua should be expelled from the regional trade treaty and that punitive, 100 per cent tariffs should be imposed on its exports to the US.

Had these sanctions been applied, they would have drastically affected Nicaragua’s exports and employment in many key areas of the economy. Fortunately, after lobbying by US businesses heavily invested in Nicaragua, they were watered down considerably. 

However, similar damage could result from federal legislation. Representatives Chris Smith and María Elvira Salazar have introduced the Restoring Sovereignty and Human Rights in Nicaragua Act of 2026. If passed, it would trigger “targeted sanctions” on Nicaraguan businesses, block new US investment and further restrict access to international finance. 

Other proposed legislation, introduced by Senator Rick Scott, would link sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. All four countries (in the case of Bolivia, in the recent past) have been examples of alternative models of government that prioritize the interests of the poor, not those of international capital.

CELAC Emergency Meeting: Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua Strongly Condemn US Neo-Colonial Military Attack Against Venezuela (+UN Security Council)

Nicaragua’s trade is closely linked to that of its neighbors. Honduras, under Xiomara Castro, has been a close ally. But this month she handed over the presidency to neoliberal Nasry Asfura, who “won” the country’s recent election following Trump’s blatant interference. Nicaragua will then be left as the only progressive government between Mexico and Colombia. Nevertheless, it can probably count on some reluctance in Central America to ostracize a country located on key trade routes and which has a crucial role in regional electricity distribution. Indeed, Asfura has already disappointed anti-Sandinistas by promising good bilateral relations.

Some commentators, such as Politico’s Nahal Toosi note that Nicaragua “is oddly missing from Trump’s list” of targets now that Washington is further asserting hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere. 

Justifying intervention on the basis of fighting “narcoterror,” however, is even more difficult in Nicaragua’s case than it was for Venezuela. Claims that President Daniel Ortega is linked to Nicolás Maduro’s fictitious Cartel de los Soles are unsupported by Washington officials. Politico cited one anonymous US official who said that “Nicaragua is cooperating with us to stop drug trafficking and fight criminal elements in their territory.”

Nicaragua is a low-income country which, unlike Venezuela, lacks oil or other strategic resources coveted by the US. Its 1979 revolution, the subsequent US-backed “Contra” war and more than four decades of military and economic pressure from the US, including a coup attempt in 2018, have prepared Nicaragua. Resistance to any overt military attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government would be massive. Older Nicaraguans recall 16 years of neoliberal rule after the Sandinistas lost power in 1990, when public services were decimated. 

Since returning to office in 2007, the Sandinista government has massively invested in hospitals, schools and housing; the country is free of the high crime levels that bedevil its neighbors. Unlike Cuba and Venezuela, its economy has not so far been heavily damaged by US coercive measures. 

Furthermore, Nicaragua’s opposition groups are deeply divided, enjoy little popular support, and offer vague promises of “democracy” that amount to a return to neoliberalism. They have little currency among Trump’s Florida base, fixated on regime change in Venezuela and Cuba. As Juan Gonzalez, a former Latin America aide to President Biden, told Politico: “The lesson from Nicaragua is: Don’t matter too much, don’t embarrass Washington and don’t become a domestic political issue.” 

Trump and his advisers may also have learned a lesson from kidnapping Venezuela’s head of state: it failed to remove the government and instead strengthened its popular support. Pro-US Venezuelan politicians like Maria Corina Machado, who promised Washington that they would have public backing, were deceitful. If they had been put in charge, the country would likely have descended into chaos. This was true for Venezuela, but it would also be true for Cuba and Nicaragua. 

Nicaragua’s respite, however, is unlikely to be long-lasting. Venezuela, because of its strength and leading role, has been the primary target. Striking Venezuela kills two birds with one stone. Every blow against it also directly hits Cuba, which is far more dependent on Venezuela than is Nicaragua. But if both Venezuela and Cuba are significantly weakened by the imperial siege, Nicaragua will be ever more isolated and ripe for attack. In short, it is not so much that Nicaragua has escaped the attention of US imperialism, but that its time has not yet come.

JP/RDH/OT

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

By Larry C Johnson – Jan 22, 2026

Just because the Western press does not report on China’s impressive response to the US abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro and his wife does not mean it did not happen. I find the following article posted on RT (i.e., Russia Today)shocking:

China strongly condemned the kidnapping and violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Without large-scale gestures in the style of Trump or Macron, the country has taken steps because it has come to the conclusion that the U.S. is making control of Venezuelan oil a tool to curb China’s presence in South America and hinder its rapid, irreversible development. . . .

Just hours after the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro became known, Xi Jinping convened an urgent meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, which lasted exactly 120 minutes. There were no communiqués or diplomatic threats, but only the silence before the storm, because this meeting activated what Chinese strategists call an “integrated asymmetric response” to respond to aggression against the partners in the Western Hemisphere, with Venezuela being the landing head for Latin America in the “backyard of the US.”

The first phase of the Chinese reaction set at 9:15 a.m. on the 4th. January, when the People’s Bank of China discreetly announced the temporary suspension of all transactions in US dollars with companies that have ties to the US defense sector. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics awoke with the news that all their transactions with China had been frozen without notice.

At 11:43 a.m. the same day, the State Grid Corporation of China, which controls the world’s largest power grid, announced the technical review of all of its contracts with U.S. suppliers of electrical equipment, implying that China is disconnecting from American technology.

At 2:17 p.m., China National Petroleum Corporation, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, announced the strategic reorganization of its global supply routes. That means the energy weapon has been re-activated, which in turn means the lifting of oil supply contracts with US refineries worth 47 billion dollars a year. This oil, previously delivered to the east coast of the US, has now been diverted to India, Brazil, South Africa and other partners in the Global South. This caused oil prices to skyrocket by 23 percent in a single trading session. . . .

In another train, the China Ocean Shipping Company, which controls about 40 percent of global maritime transport capabilities, conducted a so-called optimization of operational routes, meaning Chinese cargo ships have begun to avoid the use of American ports: Long Beach, Los Angeles, New York and Miami, which relies on Chinese maritime logistics for their supply chains, suddenly lost 35 percent of their normal container traffic – a disaster for Walmart, Amazon, Target, and others. These companies, which rely on Chinese ships for the import of products manufactured in China into American ports, saw their supply chains partially collapse within a few hours.

China’s Special Envoy Reaffirms Unbreakable Brotherhood With Venezuela Against US Naval Blockade and Piracy

I am assuming the report is accurate. If true, this shows that China is very well prepared to play hardball with the US while retaining a calm facade. There is one more paragraph I want to share:

The coronation came on 5. January, when Beijing activated the financial weapon: The Chinese cross-border interbank payment system (CIPS) announced that it would expand its operational capacity to include any global transaction that the Washington-controlled SWIFT system wants to circumvent. That means China has provided a fully functional alternative to the Western financial system for the world. . . . The reaction was immediate and massive: in the first 48 hours after commissioning, transactions worth 89 billion dollars were settled. Central banks from 34 countries opened operational accounts in the Chinese system, which means an accelerated de-dollarization of one of the most important sources of funding in the US.

CIPS is a potentially very powerful new tool in the BRICS financial infrastructure that is developing before our eyes. The fact that SWIFT is relying on ancient technology — i.e., ancient in the sense that it is non-digital and is nothing more that an out-dated closed email system that was relevant in the 1990s but is now being eclipsed by the digital age.

The US attempt to use tariffs as a political bludgeon to coerce countries to change their politics is enabling the more rapid development of financial infrastructure that the US cannot control. Trump and his dinosaur advisors are still laboring under the delusional that the US and the dollar reserve system are irreplaceable. There are several facts that most in the US fail to grasp: 1)more countries are dumping dollars and buying precious metals while doing trade in their respective currencies, 2) the US is over leveraged as its debt spirals out of control and no quick solution to re-industrialize the US.

(Substack)

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

This editorial by Carlos Fernández-Vega originally appeared in the January 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

This is not a semantic issue, nor can it be argued that the constant threat of one power annexing another country is merely a difference of “viewpoints” or a “clash of rhetoric,” because it is, in reality, a blatant act of theft and a violation of international law. And if the unhinged head of the White House cartel has demonstrated anything, it is his constant aggression against the community of nations (except, of course, Israel, with the genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu at its helm), and it seems no one dares to put a stop to it.

So far, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s statement at the World Economic Forum has been the only denunciation of Trump’s imperialistic actions, especially his penchant for illegally appropriating third-party nations, including Canada itself, in the name, he claims, of US “national security.” And that leader’s warning is clear: “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” and historically, Third World countries always appear on the “menu” to be consumed.

Well, the above is relevant because yesterday President Sheinbaum was asked about the aforementioned statements by Mark Carney—who is openly anti-annexationist—and the irrational reaction of the orange-clad demented politician (“Canada exists thanks to the United States”), and her comment on the matter was clearly not the most appropriate: “I wouldn’t call it a ‘clash of discourses,’ but rather simply different points of view regarding what is happening internationally. I haven’t spoken recently with the (Canadian) Prime Minister; we have reached out and we are going to try to have a conversation; and, of course, with President Trump, regarding all the negotiations related to the USMCA.”

Everything suggests that the Mexican government has been slow to act and has become trapped in a single mechanism.

The need to be cautious and handle the delicate bilateral relationship with the madman in the White House with the precision of a surgeon is understandable, but there are facts that cannot be ignored, such as in the case of Trump and his constant threat to make Canada the 51st state (the 52nd would be Greenland), nor is the insistent “warning” to invade Mexican territory acceptable, in his eager expansionist attitude, under the pretext, as he says, of “fighting the drug cartels”.

So, for a disturbed individual like Trump to try to annex another country and incorporate it into his own territory is not precisely a “difference of viewpoints” and even less a “clash of discourses,” but rather demands the response, however rhetorical, of an aggressed nation against the aggressor and the public denunciation of the systematic violation of international law.

True: the trilateral relationship under the USMCA is hanging by a thread, not for lack of will on the part of Mexico and Canada, but due to the increasingly extortionate tactics of the man who works at Mar-a-Lago and, occasionally, in the Oval Office. Canada has begun to make moves (its rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China is evidence of this), but Mexico is clinging to the treaty: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

Just yesterday, the Mexican president announced the expansion of trade mechanisms with Europe, Latin America, and Asia, although she said, “We believe the USMCA will be preserved; there may be some changes, but ultimately it will be maintained because it is mutually beneficial. Obviously, we have and seek relationships with other regions of the world.” However, everything suggests that the Mexican government has been slow to act, because it should have opened these channels long ago. But it has become trapped in a single mechanism.

In fact, yesterday President Sheinbaum insisted that “we are going to work to ensure that (the USMCA) does not fall apart, and we believe it is beneficial for all three countries to maintain the trade agreement. Next week, Secretary Ebrard (who warns that “the United States is undergoing a major strategic shift, reorganizing itself based on conservative economic nationalism”) will go to Washington to continue working on trade issues.” She also revealed that “a working group is currently monitoring the Security Understanding, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although there is also a group from the Ministry of Citizen Security and the Attorney General’s Office.”

• 

  Analysis

  Mexico SA

  January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

  Canada has begun to make moves (such as rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China), but Mexico is clinging to the USMCA: all its eggs in one basket, something that, given the frenzied dynamic imposed by Trump, doesn’t seem to be the wisest course of action.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 22

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on tough talkin’, economic update, Puebla violence, Puebla flooding reconstruction and electoral reform.

• 

  News Briefs

  Progressive International’s Emergency Nuestra América Summit Arrives at Critical Juncture for Latin American Unity

  January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

  Beset by disunity, cynical calculation, tepid reformism and an ascendant ultra-right, Latin America and the Caribbean must unite against a US imperialism which aims to snuff out any emancipatory possibilities and subjugate the continent once and for all.

The post Mexico SA appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The Venezuelan military high command has implemented a strategic restructuring within its ranks, in order to strengthen preparations for foreign intervention, border security, and internal order. The strategic operational commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), General Domingo Hernández Lárez, has formally announced on social media the renewal of military commands in the Comprehensive Defense Regions (REDI) and Comprehensive Defense Zones (ZODI) throughout Venezuela.

Through the institutional process announced this Wednesday, January 21, the military appointed 28 new commanders who will assume responsibility for safeguarding national sovereignty in critical regions of Venezuela, just two weeks after the US empire’s military attack against the country. According to Hernández Lárez, these appointments respond to the need to boost the institution’s operational capacity.

The new military commanders will be responsible for planning and executing territorial defense missions under the principles of civil-military unity. Furthermore, the restructuring aims to optimize the logistical and tactical response to the threats facing Venezuela in the current global context.

Renewal in strategic regions
The commander-in-chief confirmed that the commanders of the units with the highest geographical command will lead efforts in border and coastal areas. Specifically, Major General Pablo Lizano Colmenter will assume command of REDI Los Andes, while Major General Erasmo Ramos Iriza will command the Eastern REDI. These appointments are crucial for combating drug trafficking and smuggling in the border regions.

Various federal entities through the ZODIs will also have their command structures updated, as reported by Últimas Noticias. The officers designated for these tasks include:

• ZODI Miranda: Division General Rufo Parra Hernández (replacing Division General Carlos Eduardo Aigster Villamizar)
• ZODI Delta Amacuro: Division General Miguel Chacín Socorro (replacing Division General Richard Rondón Liendo)
• ZODI Yaracuy: Division General José Freitas Gómez (replacing General Luis Reyes Rivero)
• ZODI Monagas: Division General José Caldera Vivas (replacing Major General Romerl Enrique Romero Domínguez)
• ZODI Barinas: Division General Gustavo Belizario Sánchez (replacing Major General Pablo Ernesto Lizano Colmenter)
• ZODI Táchira: Division General Carlos Augusto Bastidas (replacing Division General Michell Leonardo Valladares Molina)
• ZODI Aragua: Division General Francisco Sánchez Carballo (replacing Major General Ángel Daniel Balestrini Jaramillo)
• ZODI Falcón: Division General José Herrera Duarte (replacing Division General Francisco Luis Moreno)

The high command also paid special attention to the protection of jurisdictional waters, appointing Vice Admiral Juan Solórzano Araujo to head the Eastern Maritime and Insular Operational Defense Zone, and Vice Admiral Uldren Gedde Díaz to head the Western Maritime and Insular Operational Defense Zone. With these appointments, the Bolivarian Navy reinforces its surveillance of the exclusive economic zone and the Caribbean and Atlantic trade routes.

Air bases and operational coordination
Resolutions 63275 and 63276 reflect significant changes at the country’s two most important air bases. At the General Francisco de Miranda Air Base in La Carlota, Brigadier General Fidel Humberto Olivo Pacheco Ramírez was appointed to replace Major General José Freitas Gómez. At the El Libertador Air Base (BAEL), Division General Marco Antonio Vásquez Pérez has replaced Division General Jesús Alberto Fernández Peñaloza.

The FANB has made these changes to guarantee internal peace through a more agile and coordinated deployment. Hernández Lárez emphasized that each of these officers possesses the necessary experience to meet the standards of the Organic Law of the Armed Force.

Laboratory for US weapons
On Thursday January 22, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino explained that Venezuela has become a “laboratory” for weapons testing by the US regime. During the handover ceremony of the Venezuelan military academies, Padrino emphasized that on January 3, the nation was the victim of a systematic bombing directed by US imperialism and assisted by high-level artificial intelligence.

“The president of the US admitted that they had used weapons that they had never used on battlefields,” Padrino reported, “weapons that no one else in the world had. They used that technology against the people on January 3, 2026,” and that this aggression resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

Padrino highlighted the importance of the “Ayacucho Plan” to adapt study programs to these new realities. He reiterated that the new appointments, made under the instructions of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, ensure the continuity of operational exercise throughout the national territory.

Venezuela: Acting President Announces Changes in Healthcare and CIIP

Padrino declared that President Nicolás Maduro is currently a “prisoner of war” and demanded his return, describing him as an honest leader and a victim of baseless charges. “Our resilient and revolutionary spirit has fought yet another battle,” Padrino reaffirmed. “The sovereign and independence principles remain intact.”

Table with changes

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| | Command Level | Region / Zone | New Commander | Outgoing Commander | | REDI | Los Andes | Major General Pablo Lizano Colmenter | Major General José Gregorio Martínez Campos | | REDI | Eastern | Major General Erasmo Ramos Iriza | Major General Juan Ernesto Sulbarán Quintero | | ZODI | Miranda | Division General Rufo Parra Hernández | Division General Carlos Eduardo Aigster Villamizar | | ZODI | Delta Amacuro | Division General Miguel Chacín Socorro | Division General Richard Rondón Liendo | | ZODI | Yaracuy | Division General José Freitas Gómez | General Luis Reyes Rivero | | ZODI | Monagas | Division General José Caldera Vivas | Major General Romerl Enrique Romero Domínguez | | ZODI | Barinas | Division General Gustavo Belizario Sánchez | Major General Pablo Ernesto Lizano Colmenter | | ZODI | Táchira | Division General Carlos Augusto Bastidas | Division General Michell Leonardo Valladares Molina | | ZODI | Aragua | Division General Francisco Sánchez Carballo | Major General Ángel Daniel Balestrini Jaramillo | | ZODI | Falcón | Division General José Herrera Duarte | Division General Francisco Luis Moreno | | ZODI | Maritime (Eastern) | Vice Admiral Juan Solórzano Araujo | Admiral Leonardo Alberto Castellano Molina | | ZODI | Maritime (Western) | Vice Admiral Uldren Gedde Díaz | Vice Admiral Ángel Humberto Sisco Mota | | Air Base | La Carlota | Brigadier General Fidel Humberto Olivo Pacheco Ramírez | Division General José Freitas Gómez | | Air Base | El Libertador | Division General Marco Antonio Vásquez Pérez | Division General Jesús Alberto Fernández Peñaloza |

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

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Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has formally announced the electoral schedule for this year’s communal project consultations, and that that the first popular consultation of 2026 will be held on March 8. This date carries significant symbolic weight, as it coincides with International Women’s Day, highlighting the leading role of women community leaders in local governance.

This Wednesday, January 21, during the first session of the Federal Council of Government in Plaza Bicentenario, Caracas, the acting president explained the specifics of this democratic process. The election will take place in all 5,336 communal districts across the country, where citizens will go to the polls to directly select the projects that will receive immediate funding to improve services and infrastructure in their own communities. The session brought together the 24 governors and 335 mayors elected in last year’s elections.

In addition to setting the date, Rodríguez reported that this first national consultation of the year will align with the executive’s strategic guidelines. Specifically, the submitted projects must respond to the First and Second Transformations (7T) promoted by President Nicolás Maduro: Economic Modernization and Full Independence. She explained that they are doing so in order to empower the people to manage resources that directly contribute to productive sovereignty and the strengthening of the economic model from the ground up.

The acting president emphasized the importance of efficiency in the execution of these resources. She insisted that citizen participation does not end with voting, but extends to the social oversight of every project. To make this happen, the Federal Council of Government will act as a facilitating body so that municipalities receive the necessary technical support throughout the modernization process.

Economy
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez also made important economic announcements that will shape the national agenda in the coming months; among them, a 37% increase in national revenues has been projected for fiscal year 2026.

She noted that the distribution of income for the different levels of government will remain the same as in 2025: 53% for communes, 29% for governorships, 15% for mayoralties, and three percent for “institutional strengthening.”

She added that the additional resources will be managed through the two newly created sovereign funds: the Social Protection Fund, intended to improve workers’ income and strengthen social programs, and the Infrastructure and Services Fund, aimed at investments in water, electricity, and road infrastructure.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez Leads Cabinet Meeting to Drive Economic Development in Venezuela

Institutional unity
During the meeting on Wednesday, Rodríguez strongly urged governors and mayors to put partisan interests after the common good. She called on all regional authorities to work together for Venezuela and for social peace.

“We want the people to see us as a power in action and in exercise to protect the highest values ​​of our republic,” she emphasized during her address, noting that political and economic stability depends on the responsiveness of the nation’s institutions to the needs of the Venezuelan people. Therefore, coordination among the different levels of government is essential for the success of the March 8 popular consultation. “Local leaders must guarantee logistical support at each polling station to ensure massive voter turnout,” she requested.

The government hopes this process will strengthen the social fabric and participatory democracy. Planning this consultation represents a decisive step toward transferring direct powers to organized communities. At the close of the event, regional authorities reiterated their commitment to territorial development, assuring that the voice of the communal circuits will guide public investment throughout the first quarter of 2026.

(RedRadioVE) by Jhulimar Fraga with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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Cuba reaffirmed its support and solidarity for Venezuela and its people and government, as well as its decision to continue strengthening the historic bonds of brotherhood and cooperation that unites both nations.

This was stated by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez in a telephone conversation held on Thursday, January 22.

Labeling Kidnapping a ‘Capture,’ Media Legitimizes Violation of International Law

During the conversation, the Cuban president also reiterated Cuba’s strong condemnation of the United States’ military aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of constitutional President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores.

Le manifesté nuestro respaldo y solidaridad con la Patria de Bolívar y Chávez, su pueblo y el gobierno bolivariano; asi como la decisión de continuar fortaleciendo las históricas relaciones de hermandad y cooperación.

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— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 22, 2026

In the early hours of January 3, US troops, under orders from Donald Trump, illegally entered Venezuelan territory and carried out bombings in various locations in Caracas and the states of Miranda, La Guaira, and Aragua, killing at least 108 people, including civilians and military personnel. The aggression culminated in the kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

(Diario VEA)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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