Latin America

‘Worse than the Special Period’: Cuba’s food situation more desperate by the day^PW^

US escalates trade dispute over GM corn, challenges Mexico’s food sovereignty^Bilaterals^

USTR Katherine Tai has expressed unfounded concern that Mexico’s policies might disrupt billions of dollars in agricultural trade between the countries. No credible evidence exists to support this claim, as determined by analysis from IATP of the economic modeling study that underpins the USTR claim. The economic study was commissioned by CropLife and other agribusiness entities in the U.S. and Mexico, all with strong economic interests in blocking Mexico’s restrictions on GM corn.

In response to U.S. officials’ critique of Mexico’s ban on GM corn as not founded in science, the Mexican government organized a robust series of webinars this spring that presented substantive evidence on the human health concerns surrounding GM food. For years, Mexico’s national science agency has maintained a public database of evidence underlying the concerns about public health and corn biodiversity from both GM corn and the herbicide glyphosate. A synthesis report of these scientific finds is due out shortly.

El Salvador’s model of authoritarianism may be spreading to countries like Costa Rica and Honduras^RNN^

Critiques of Costa Rica's Chaves might be legitimate, less certain of Hondura's Castro. Rolling my eyes at the use of "authoritarianism" either way.

What Will Change in Guatemala with the 2023 Presidential Elections?^Resumen^

Two neoliberal social-democratic political parties are vying for the presidency of Guatemala on this Sunday, August 20. Neither of them has a majority in the next Congress of the Republic. Both turn to Washington for political cleansing.

Jesuit university closed in Nicaragua for “terrorism”^MP^

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega ordered the seizing of all assets belonging to the Central American University (UCA) which was accused of “terrorism,” it was reported in Managua. The educational institution was run by the Jesuit community.

The UCA thus joined the list of universities dissolved by the Sandinista government this year. All UCA bank accounts were also frozen, according to Interior Ministry sources who spoke to Divergentes on condition of anonymity.

...

The UCA became a meeting place for opposition protesters during and after the socio-political crisis of 2018, in which more than 350 people died.

Eyeing normalizing ties with Maduro's Venezuela, France appoints envoy^AM^
Venezuela's oil production signals remarkable rebound^AM^

Venezuela's daily oil production experienced a rise from 732,000 to 810,000 barrels per day between January and July 2023, as per data released by Rafael Tellechea, the Venezuelan Oil Minister and head of the state oil and gas company PDVSA.

Colombian president wants to amend free trade accord with US^Bilaterals^

Russia overtakes US to become Brazil’s top fuel supplier – Bloomberg^RT^ Brazil: Agrarian reform to focus on women^MP^ Bolsanaro’s Butchery: CIA Fingerprints Are All Over Brazil’s Indigenous Genocide ^MPN^

The War Against The West

Zelensky holds court with Ukraine’s most notorious neo-Nazi^GrayZone^
US approves F-16 fighter jets to be re-exported to Ukraine^FT^
US approves sending F-16s to Ukraine from Denmark and Netherlands^Euractiv^ Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed – US congressman^RT^
Better Late Than Never? Spain’s El País Sounds Alarm Over Consequences of Ukraine “Proxy War” for EU’s Future^NC^
Ukraine tells military-age citizens to ‘overcome their fear’ in recruitment campaign^Euractiv^

DPRK, Russia agree to military cooperation: report^CGTN^

Philippines-Japan relations now evolving to include defence: Marcos^ANN^

Retrospectives, Analysis, History, Theory, and Technology

Summer of the Hawks^SeymourHersh^

Wishful thinking is still the rule among Biden's foreign policy team, as the slaughter in Ukraine continues

NYT Reveals That a Tech Mogul Likes China—and That McCarthyism Is Alive and Well^FAIR^

The nonsensical ‘right and left need to unite to take on elites’ take that just won’t die^RNN^

Every few months—sometimes for sinister and ideological reasons, sometimes for just plain ahistorical and dimwitted reasons—a pundit comes along who thinks they’ve cracked the DaVinci code of class politics. “What if,” they ask us (as if the question has not been asked countless times before), “left and right unite to take on the elites”?

Yes! Thank you, RNN! What a gallery of bad takes they've collected. Cenk Uygur, Matt Stoller, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi... e.g, from Greenwald:

Many on the anti-establishment left and right share antipathy for many of the same institutions of power.

Fortunately for those institutions, there's a culture war that keeps those two sides focused eternally on each other, ensuring they never unite against those power centers.

They might share antipathy, but one side wants to create something better in its place whereas the other wants to repurpose them to better oppress minorities. It's obviously true that the elite are designing and amplifying a narrative of political polarization, but we shouldn't play into that narrative by suggesting "What if we all just held hands?" We should reject the framing entirely and say "Actually, we need to overthrow them and also the right-wing are genocidal fascists and we cannot ally with them."

Eugene Debs Really Loved Bicycles^Jacobin^

8 scientists win China's 2023 Future Science Prize^CGTN^ China’s robotics industry makes big strides^ANN^
Chinese scientists realize precise artificial synthesis of hexose from CO2^CGTN^