CounterVortex

Mexico

CIA operation in northern Mexico revealed

Two US embassy “instructors” killed when the vehicle carrying them plummeted down a mountain ravine in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state were actually CIA officers, according to a Washington Post report. The revelation contradicts initial claims by Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui denying that there was “any involvement of any foreign agent” in the raid on a methamphetamine lab raid in the remote southwestern corner of the state. The names of the two US personnel have not been revealed, but Chihuahua State Investigations Agency (AEI) director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes and one of his agents were also killed in the crash that took place during the operation. President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the revelation of apparent CIA involvement that she is considering sanctions against the government of Chihuahua, asserting that any security collaboration with the US must be approved by Mexico’s federal government. (Photo: AEI via CBS News)

Greater Middle East

Yemen: Houthis threaten to close Bab al-Mandab Strait

Yemen’s unrecognized Houthi administration warned that they are prepared to close the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, mouth of the Red Sea. This is a second maritime chokepoint for oil from the Arabian Peninsula after the Strait of Hormuz, now effectively closed due to Washington’s conflict with Iran. In a post on X, Houthi deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Ezzi said: “If Sana’a decides to close the Bab al-Mandab, then all of mankind and jinn will be utterly powerless to open it.” In a speech, Houthi leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi subsequently warned, “Sanaa will not remain neutral,” framing the current maritime tensions as part of a wider conflict targeting the “Islamic nation.” He said that any further military escalation would be met with an “equivalent response,” calling for increased coordination among members of the “axis of resistance” (meaning Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah). (Map via PCL)

Iran

Podcast: Trump to The Hague! II

International law scholars are warning that Trump may have committed war crimes in Iran, and that his ongoing threats to bomb civilian targets may constitute self-incrimination—by the same standards that US prosecutors used to gather evidence against Russia in Ukraine (before Trump suspended cooperation). Additionally, his exterminationist rhetoric may represent a step on the ladder of escalation toward genocide. In Episode 324 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to make the case—political, legal and practical—for sending Trump to a prison cell at The Hague. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch

Podcast: Hungary, Peru & the electoral struggle

In Episode 323 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a comparison of the simultaneous elections in Hungary and Peru—in which questions of democratic norms versus authoritarian rule both stood in the balance. The defeat of long-ruling quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán is being hailed as a blow to the emerging authoritarian bloc in Europe. But the incoming center-right prime minister Péter Magyar may not mean a complete de-Orbánification. In Peru, the outcome is still pending, as the perennial candidate of the hard right, Keiko Fujimori, faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez. Keiko is the unapologetic daughter of the late ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori; her victory could mean a re-Fujimorification of the country, and a fatal blow to Peru’s deeply troubled democracy. A Sánchez victory, meanwhile, would heighten the social contradictions in Peru—with both opportunities for a more meaningful democracy, and dangers of a backlash from the conservative establishment. (Photo: Anali Marquez Huanca via Facebook)

Planet Watch

Reversal for hard right in Hungary; Peru in the balance

The defeat of Hungary’s quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán in the recent elections has heartened progressive forces around the world—despite the fact that the victorious Péter Magyar is a creature of the center-right. A more stark contest is emerging in Peru, where the right-wing authoritarian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez, who has broad support from the traditionally excluded campesinos of the country’s Andean interior. (Photo: Wikipedia)

East Asia

Chinese workers protest in Russia’s Far East

Chinese construction workers building a fuel-production unit at a Rosneft refinery in Far East Russia’s Khabarovsk krai took to the streets to protest unpaid wages, regional authoritiessaid. At least 200 employees of the Russian-Chinese contractor Petro-Hehua marched through the city of Komsomolsk-na-Amure demanding back payments and help from both the Russian government and Rosneft in returning to China. After the march, some workers staged a sit-in at a nearby park. Following the protest, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur prosecutor’s office said it had opened an inquiry into possible labor law violations, but at least four protesters were fined for illegal assembly. (Photo: The Moscow Times)

Europe

Ukrainian robots break through Russian lines

Ukrainian forces have captured a Russian position using only drones and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), President Volodymyr Zelensky boasted, describing the operation as a milestone in the evolution of modern warfare. “For the first time in the history of this war, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned platforms—UGVs and drones. The occupiers surrendered, and this operation was carried out without the participation of infantry and without losses on our side,” Zelensky said in a video statement. The video showed Zelensky speaking in a room full of various drones and UGVs. He did not give a precise location for the territory taken in the operation. (Photo via Nashaniva.com)

Planet Watch

Zapatistas: ‘nation-state under attack’

Mexico’s Zapatista rebels—who have observed a long ceasefire but still have a zone of control in the back-country of Chiapas state—held an international gathering in the highland city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Featured speaker was a ski-masked “Captain Marcos,” presumably the same charismatic spokesman once known as “Subcommander Marcos.” He delivered an exegesis entitled “A Peephole into the Storm in the World: Nation-States Under Attack” (Una mirilla a la Tormenta en el Mundo: Los Estados-Nación bajo ataque). Marcos portrayed a supra-national imperialism under Donald Trump, in which “the nation-state has no decision-making power.” Marcos decried the “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, and the US oil blockade on Cuba, noting that Mexico has been effectively barred from shipping oil to the Caribbean island nation. He also asserted that in the US-Israeli war against Iran, the big oil companies are the ones who benefit, as the price of oil rises. “That’s what needs to be discussed: who is profiting from these wars?” (Image: Enlace Zapatista)

Iran

Podcast: Trump to The Hague!

The exterminationist rhetoric that has accompanied Trump’s massive bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Iran is condemned by Amnesty International as possible incitement to genocide—itself a crime under international law. Can Trump join Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin as the next world leader to face charges before the International Criminal Court? Yes, if Iran follows Palestine and Ukraine in granting jurisdiction to the ICC for crimes committed on its territory. This is legally valid, despite intransigence from the United States, Israel and Russia alike. The next three convictions by the ICC could be the first of figures from outside the African continent—undermining accusations of a double standard that have hindered the Court’s effectiveness. In Episode 322 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg makes the case—politically and practically—for sending Trump to a prison cell at The Hague. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

EU expands migrant detention and deportation rules

The European Union took a significant step toward adopting a Trump-like approach to migration when the EuroParliament approved a new law expanding the power of security agencies to track, detain and deport migrants. Amnesty International criticized the revised “Return Regulation” as “punitive” and a threat to fundamental rights. The law also allows for people to be deported to countries other than their country of origin—a controversial policy used by the Trump administration. Greece, an EU member, is even working directly with US officials to ramp up deportations. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)

Iran

Iranian Kurds deny receiving US weapons

Leaders of all the major Kurdish opposition parties in Iran denied that they have received weapons from the United States, after President Donald Trump said that Washington had sent arms to the Iranian protesters through the Kurds. “We sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them,” Trump told Fox News. “And I think the Kurds took the guns.” This was immediately refuted by leaders of the the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). (Image: Middle East Forum via Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch

Podcast: world revolution & the digital contradiction

Protests break out in Russia over the new internet restrictions imposed by the Putin regime, while social media and instant messaging have become the “new public square” for the Gen Z protests that have swept the planet over the past months. Exemplifying the identification with online culture, a pirate flag from a Japanese anime series has become the global emblem of the Gen Z resistance. The new youth social media bans in a growing number of countries are opposed by human rights and civil-liberties groups for good reason. Yet the dystopian side of digital technology becomes more apparent each day—from the climate impacts of data centers, to cynical attempts to sell nuclear power as “clean energy” (sic!) to meet the surging electricity demand, to the digital colonization of human consciousness. Protests are also emerging to the new techno-fascism, and this critique must be central to any true oppositional movement. In Episode 321 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg grapples with the contradiction. (Composite image via GIGA. Gen Z protesters in different countries use appropriated image from One Piece manga. Fair use rights asserted.)