El Taller: Cuba, Iran and the Wounded Empire with Hilary Goodfriend
In the second part of this El Taller conversation, hosts José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth continue their wide-ranging discussion with Hilary Goodfriend, a postdoctoral researcher at UNAM and specialist in Central American politics.
The conversation turns to the geopolitical fallout from the U.S. war in Iran and what it could mean for Latin America. With Lindsey Graham publicly declaring “Cuba is next” and U.S. military action already underway in Ecuador, the hosts and Goodfriend consider whether a bloodied empire will retreat or lash out at smaller powers, a pattern with deep roots in Central American history.
They also examine the economic vulnerabilities of the region, from remittance-dependent economies like El Salvador to Mexico’s complex position in USMCA negotiations. The discussion traces how decades of U.S.-funded NGO-ization depoliticized social movements, leaving a vacuum that far-right figures like Bukele have exploited—and what lessons progressive governments in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil might draw from Central America’s recent history.
Throughout, the conversation returns to a central tension facing left governments today: the pressure to moderate in the face of destabilization versus the need to mobilize and deliver for the base that brought them to power.
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AMLO Warns of the Rise of Neofascism: “It’s Not the Right, nor the Far Right”
Returning in a video from his La Chingada ranch, he presented his new book, Pueblo, dedicated to Sheinbaum, whom he called the world’s best President.
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Sheinbaum Mocks Calderón: “It Would Be a Gem for Him to Talk About Democracy”
She suggested he explain his security chief García Luna, now serving 38 years in a US prison, and why homicides doubled during his term.
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People’s Mañanera September 30
President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on housing, the environment, water, single nationality, Calderón, and the Lie Detector.
