Gustavo Petro thanked Cuba and Venezuela for their Role in the Peace Processes in Colombia

May 19, 2025

Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed his gratitude on Monday to Cuba and Venezuela, guarantor countries of his nation’s peace processes, for their efforts to help seal an agreement between insurgent groups and the government. (more…)

Burkina Faso: the Silenced Revolution

By Jose Ernesto Novaez Guerrero on May 17, 2025 from Havana

In the African Sahel, a revolution is underway that is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media. In an area historically dominated by French colonialism and neocolonialism, the military in three states—Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso—have seized power. (more…)

José Mujica, the former Progressive Uruguayan President, has Died

May 14, 2025

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, one of the most important and respected leaders of the Latin American left, has died after a long battle with esophageal cancer according to a statement released Tuesday by the current president of the South American country, Yamandú Orsi.

“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica,” Orsi wrote on his Twitter account. “President, activist, role model, and leader, we will miss you dearly, dear old friend. Thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people,” he added.

From guerrilla fighter to president

Born in Montevideo in 1935, ‘El Pepe’ Mujica, as he was popularly known, represented an unusual facet of politics, having come a long way from participating in the guerrilla movement in the 1970s—which cost him 12 years in prison—to winning democratic elections. He established himself as a president without a university degree who never enriched himself or sought to use the privileges of power.

In 2010, after taking office, he did not even want to move into the elegant presidential residence. Unconcerned with protocol, he chose to live in his simple home alongside his wife, Lucía Topolanski, another historic, fundamental, and highly recognized figure in regional politics. They never owned property, assets, luxury cars, or large bank accounts. There was never a single suspicion of corruption.

“I am not poor, I am sober, light of luggage. I like to live with just enough so that things do not rob me of my freedom,” he used to say to refute the compliments about the humility with which he lived and which had earned him the label of “the poorest president in the world.”

Mujica also distinguished himself by always declaring himself an atheist, an identity that set him apart from other Latin American leaders who swear on Bibles, go to Mass, pray, and ask God to help them govern.

Thanks in part to these convictions, which were far removed from any religious pressure, he promoted the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage.

But if there was one thing that surprised people about this former guerrilla fighter, it was his unprecedented boldness in countering entrenched global drug policies to make Uruguay the first country to legalize the production, sale, and consumption of marijuana.

In doing so, he made the world look again, whether with amazement, skepticism, or admiration, at a “little country”—as writer Eduardo Galeano affectionately called it—with just over three million inhabitants nestled on the southern Atlantic coast.

It attracted so much attention that Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica wanted to tell his story in a documentary entitled ‘El Pepe: una vida suprema’ (Pepe: A Supreme Life), which premiered in 2018 at the Venice Film Festival.

The anticipation surrounding the film demonstrated the interest in learning about a president who, three years earlier, had left office with a record approval rating of 65%.

A life of activism on the left

Mujica became involved in activism as a teenager. That is why, at the age of 21, he decided to give up his studies altogether to join the National Party, a force that was emerging to counter the Colorado Party, which had ruled the country for almost a century.

But the White Party was more right-wing, and Mujica felt more ideologically aligned with the left, so in the early 1960s, he joined the new Popular Union.

It didn’t last long, as in 1964 he joined the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, the extreme left-wing guerrilla group that identified with the Cuban Revolution and sought to seize power by force at a time when the country was suffering from instability, with a succession of collegial governments, a serious economic crisis, growing social protests, and repression.

The Tupamaros began to gain international attention through kidnappings, executions, bombings, and bank robberies committed to finance their activities. Mujica and the rest of the guerrillas participated in these acts.

In the 1971 presidential elections, left-wing organizations created the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) and its candidate, Líber Seregni, won 18% of the vote. It seemed that the nascent two-party system between the White Party and the Colorado Party was breaking down.

The results, however, were marred by fraud that, as was proven three decades later, was organized by the US and handed victory to Juan María Bordaberry (Colorado Party), the president who in 1973 would lead a self-coup that would usher in a succession of military regimes that ruled until 1985.

It was precisely during Bordaberry’s government (1972-1976) that Mujica was imprisoned for the fourth time along with the rest of the Tupamaros leadership. This time it would be for good. Unlike on previous occasions, he was unable to escape from prison.

Imprisonment and return

For 12 years, Mujica became a hostage of the dictatorship. His arrest had been extrajudicial and he was never tried or charged with any formal offense, so he was more a victim of kidnapping.

With the guerrilla movement defeated, the Tupamaros were subjected to constant torture and abuse until, at the dawn of democracy in 1985, they were granted amnesty and released from prison.

Mujica laid down his arms and returned to politics. He joined the Frente Amplio, a coalition of progressive forces formed in the early 1970s, and in 1995 he won his first elected office, winning a seat in the Chamber of Representatives.

As a congressman, Mujica began to play a more prominent role in the country’s public life. His guerrilla past did not prevent him from gaining increasing leadership and popularity, while the Frente Amplio grew stronger and the two-party system created by the National Party and the Colorado Party began to fade.

In 1999, Mujica became a senator. That year, the FA candidate, Tabaré Vázquez, made it to the second round against Jorge Batlle (Colorado Party). Although he did not win, it seemed that it was only a matter of organization and time before the left would reach the presidency. And so it was. In 2004, Vázquez won decisively in the first round with 51.6% of the vote.

It was the heyday of progressive governments in the region, with Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández (Argentina); Evo Morales (Bolivia); Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil); Rafael Correa (Ecuador); Fernando Lugo (Paraguay); and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) all in power.

In 2010, Mujica would join this select group.

Government and legacy

In 2010, Mujica would join this select group, when he won the 2009 presidential election in a second round with 54.6% of the vote.

At 74, he established himself as a disheveled leader, uninterested in protocol or political correctness, but also pragmatic and far removed from the ideological extremism that had marked his early days.

After more than four decades, his transition from guerrilla fighter and political prisoner under a dictatorship to democratic leader was complete.

But he still had surprises in store. In 2012, when no one expected it, Mujica promoted an end to prejudice and the legalization of the production, sale, and consumption of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes. That is, the entire commercial circuit of a plant that continues to be stigmatized. No country had dared to go so far.

It was a risky move, as it broke with the US-imposed war on drugs, and the project was not supported by the majority of Uruguayans. The intense social debate that erupted in Uruguay attracted worldwide attention.

“It’s not nice to legalize marijuana, but it’s worse to hand people over to the drug traffickers. There is no good addiction, except for love,” he said in one of the many famous quotes with which he defended an initiative that was finally approved in late 2013 and changed the parameters of the war on drugs worldwide.

It was not the only controversy. In 2011, Mujica revived the legalization of abortion, which his predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez, had vetoed despite 60% of the population supporting the measure.

A year later, Uruguay became the second country in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Cuba, to legalize voluntary termination of pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation, or later if the pregnancy was the result of rape.

The innovative and progressive nature of Mujica’s government with regard to civil rights was consolidated in 2013, when the equal marriage law came into force, allowing same-sex couples to marry. At that time, it had only been approved in Argentina in the region.

Farewell

In 2014, the Uruguayan left won its third consecutive general election, allowing Mujica to hand back the presidential sash to Tabaré Vázquez, the leader of the Frente Amplio who was running for re-election that year.

Mujica then returned to the Senate, where he remained until 2020, when he resigned his seat and ended his political career due to the Covid pandemic.

He was 85 at the time, so he chose to devote himself to farming and gardening on his ranch with his wife, Lucía Topolansky, a former Tupamaro guerrilla and political prisoner who, like Mujica, became one of the country’s most important leaders. In addition to being a senator, in 2017 she became the first woman to hold the vice presidency in Uruguay.

But the former president never completely withdrew from public life. Whether through interviews or international trips, especially in Latin America, he remained one of the most popular and respected political figures in the region.

Source: RT

Maduro: We will Rescue all Venezuelans Kidnapped in El Salvador

May 16, 2025 from Caracas

Caracas, May 16 (RHC)– Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during the march celebrating Family Day and the return of Maikelys Espinoza, a girl kidnapped by the United States (US), assured that the 252 Venezuelans kidnapped in El Salvador will return sooner rather than later. (more…)

Bolivia’s President Arce Declines to Run for Reelection

May 15, 2025 from Caracas

Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced that he will not be running for re-election in the coming general elections, scheduled for August 2025. His decision comes amid growing political tensions with former president Evo Morales, who was recently expelled from the ruling party, MAS-IPSP. (more…)

The National Endowment for Democracy Targets Cuba with $6.6 Million in 2025

By Camila Escalante on May 15, 2025

The Trump-Rubio regime is lifting restrictions and will restore funds to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) towards foreign interference in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Washington is continuing its permanent political interference campaign in Cuba, through the resumption of funding of active projects financed by the NED. (more…)

Despite Setbacks, Latin America’s Long History of Anti-Imperialism Continues

By John Perry on May 14, 2025

A review of AMERICA, AMÉRICA: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin

“An American team will win the next soccer World Cup,” a Nicaraguan boy once told me. It took me a second to realize he meant Brazil or Argentina, not the United States. Greg Grandin’s new book shows that “America” (or, in Spanish, América) was the name used for the whole hemisphere by the late 17^th century. In the 18^th, the great liberator Simón Bolívar set out his vision of “our America”: a New World free of colonies, made up of distinct republics living in mutual respect. He even cautiously welcomed the newly declared Monroe Doctrine as a rejection of European imperialism. Bolívar died without realizing his dream of a Pan-American international order but, Grandin argues, his ideals would be revived and eventually be enormously influential. (more…)

Cuba: Mariela Castro “The World’s Problems belong to Everyone”

May 12, 2025

Following the broadcast of the Round Table on Friday, May 9, dedicated to the 18th Conference Against Homophobia and Transphobia, the Miami press took excerpts from the program and began a campaign to manipulate its content.

Several digital media outlets financed by the US government echoed the action and replicated it. These are the same media outlets that have never spoken out against the blockade or said a word against the vote that the United States and Israel cast together every year at the UN to maintain it, in disregard of the will of almost all nations.

To keep our people and the revolutionary LGBTIQ+ activists informed, in response to this manipulation, we are publishing below the full text of the words of Dr. Mariela Castro Espín, Director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), during the exchange of ideas at the Round Table.

Randy Alonso: Each of the 18 editions of the conference against homophobia and transphobia has included, in addition to the defense of these rights, the defense of other rights, even beyond our borders.

“The rights of the Palestinian people have been defended. The rights of the Cuban Five Heroes to return to their country have been defended. The right of Óscar López Rivera to return freely to his Puerto Rico has been defended. And that is why I would like, Mariela, to open our Round Table by talking about what this 18th edition of the Conference Against Homophobia and Transphobia is about.”

Mariela Castro: Well, first of all, we are continuing with the slogan Love is the law. We are celebrating that love is the law for all families, and we continue to celebrate it, educate, communicate, and contribute to the processes of cultural transformation of our people, as evidenced in the new Constitution of 2019 and the Family Code, because, if we compare it with the 1976 Constitution and the 1975 Family Code, we can see very clearly how the revolutionary process has contributed to the cultural enrichment of our people in order to advance in closing the remaining gaps in equity, to advance in meeting people’s needs, as they are identified through consensus building to determine important changes in policies and in our laws.

“This is the first thing we are working on. That is, to continue working with our people to understand, read, and interpret the meaning of normative texts in their proper context, starting with the Constitution, because sometimes interpretation leads to the violation of rights.

“So this is a way of contributing to that process of guaranteeing or effectively exercising the rights of all people, with special emphasis on LGBTIQ+ people, especially those for whom these actions are specifically intended, that is, so that all families understand their responsibilities according to what has been established, to everything that is being instituted as humanist values of the revolutionary process.

“Before, they used to say, ‘Well, they didn’t do it before.’ No, before we were learning, before all societies were transforming, they were integrating new elements for the advancement of society itself.

“But as we understand more, as scientific institutions contribute elements of analysis to political decision-making, well, these elements that were not understood before are being introduced. And this was true globally, not just in Cuba.

“Now, as you rightly said, our activism is not only oriented toward looking selfishly or seeking very specific reforms for certain social groups, which is a bit what capitalism has tried to do: that everyone fight for their specific rights and not for general rights.

“The world’s problems belong to everyone. The problems of humanity affect LGBTIQ+ people, and the problems of LGBTIQ+ people affect all of humanity. Therefore, all transgressions, discrimination, social exclusion, and social injustices must be viewed in an integrated manner.

“Capitalism, and especially neoliberalism, insisted heavily on the social segmentation of different groups of popular struggles. Why? So that they would not unite in understanding the need for systemic change, as did the first Latina activists who stood out in those famous Stonewall protests in New York, which later led to the development of activism and struggle.

“In this sense, those comrades fought against the capitalist system, they fought against capitalist oppression, and attempts have been made to sugarcoat them and make them very superficial so that the next generation who identify with these struggles will also be very superficial. And that is what we defend: the depth of popular struggles, of struggles for social justice. And this year, of course, we dedicate it to them.

“Last year, it went to Palestine, to the struggle of the Palestinian people, and we were convinced that this year we would not have to talk about the struggle of the Palestinian people because victory would have been achieved and respect for the sovereignty of this people would have been achieved. Well, it’s quite the opposite, it’s worse. With impressive impunity, imperialism continues to use the Zionist entity entrenched in the same occupied territories that they identify as the State of Israel to achieve complete and total ethnic cleansing and impose a vacation spot in Gaza because they like that wonderful place on the Mediterranean.”

Randy Alonso: Something more or less similar to what Hitler’s fascism wanted to do to the Jewish people themselves.

Mariela Castro: Exactly. Well, there is no Jewish people, there is a Jewish religion. There were actually many people of the Jewish religion in Europe who were used and victimized in an exaggerated way, using biblical myths to lead them to occupy Palestinian territories.

“Of course, at that time, imperialism was led by the United Kingdom, then by the United States, in order not to lose geopolitical control of the Bosporus Strait and the Red Sea.

“In other words, they didn’t want to lose their colonial power, so they established a very brutal neocolonial power that got worse over time, using people who initially came from Europe.

“They are not Hebrews, they are of the Jewish religion, and many are also Christians, but they are not Hebrews, nor are they Semites, and above all, what they imposed was a Zionist power that distances itself from the values of the Jewish religion, because it is not the same thing.

“Zionism is a political supremacist movement that emerged shortly before Nazism and was closely linked to the persecution of Jewish families. It is closely linked to all the worst aspects of Nazism and fascism, which are now resurging with great force.

“That is why this year we are drawing attention not only to one place, Palestine, but to all of humanity. In other words, we are focusing on the historic anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, and anti-colonial struggles, which also include the situation in Cuba, which has been suffering for more than 60 years from economic, financial, and commercial blockade and many other forms of aggression by imperialism.”

Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English