El Taller: The Real Story of the Tren Maya
In this episode of El Taller, Kurt Hackbarth and José Luis Granados Ceja speak with Professor Etienne von Bertrab of University College London about his new graphic-book Más allá: una historia del Tren Maya. Von Bertrab explains how the book emerged from frustration with academic publishing and a desire to bring rigorous, balanced research to a wider public. The conversation explores the origins and construction of the Tren Maya, the social and environmental controversies surrounding it, and what the project reveals about the broader goals of Mexico’s Fourth Transformation. From historical extraction in the southeast to today’s debates over development, welfare, and sovereignty, the interview offers a nuanced, informed look at one of the country’s most ambitious—and misunderstood—projects.
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The Poor as Instruments, Not Allies
Welfare programs with political aims are not the same as forging political alliances with the impoverished population created by voracious neoliberal capitalism.
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Florida, the Race for the Presidency & Opaque Capital
Contemporary Florida is the distorted and advanced mirror of a new form of global governance, where money laundering has not only been tolerated, but institutionalized & updated for the digital age, fed by a murky river flowing from the Global South.
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People’s Mañanera December 22
President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on economic achievements, Sonora development plan, extortion of immigrants, Baja California Sur dam, water treaty with US, nepotism loopholes, and García Luna.
