Trump’s escalation against Venezuela is about more than oil, it is about regaining control over the ‘natural’ zone of influence of the United States at a moment where its hegemony is slipping, argues VIJAY PRASHAD
AS explained very well in these pages by Tim Young on September 5, Mexico under outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been remarkably successful in rolling back privatisation, promoting welfare and infrastructure and reclaiming control over natural resources — and also in neutralising the political right and its discourse.
The result was a crushing victory in the June 2 elections for Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman ever to win the presidency, who will take office on October 1.
Equally important, Morena and its allies in the Workers Party (PT) and the Greens (PVEM) won two-thirds of the seats in both houses of the Mexican congress. This exceeded expectations and was a stunning blow to the Establishment: it means that the new congress (which has already taken office on September 1) can pass constitutional amendments.
A November 15 protest in Mexico – driven by a right-wing social-media operation – has been miscast as a mass uprising against President Sheinbaum. In reality, the march was small, elite-backed and part of a wider attempt to sow unrest, argues DAVID RABY
DAVID RABY reports on the progressive administration in Mexico, which continues to overcome far-left wreckers on the edges of a teaching union, the murderous violence of the cartels, the ploys of the traditional right wing, and Trump’s provocations



