Genocidal & Extractive Capitalism

ByLenia Batres

This editorial by Lenia Batres originally appeared in the March 1, 2026 edition of El Universal. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media or the Mexico Solidarity Project.

This week, the United States claimed to be negotiating to avoid war with Iran. It was merely a cover for a new attack. In the early hours of Saturday, it launched missiles at Iran from four of its air bases in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. The US opposition has called the attack an “unnecessary war,” “illegal,” “premeditated,” “catastrophic,” and “unconstitutional.” How is something like this even possible?

The United Nations has not even reached a century since establishing in the Charter of the United Nations that our peoples were determined “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, to create conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained , and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

Just as humanity was beginning to overcome the most insatiable phase of wealth concentration in its history, a rapacious oligarchy emerges, relying on the most brutal features of global capitalism in a new attempt to seize the remaining natural resources.

This elite espouses a mixture of the ideologies that have underpinned the most brutal moments of this capitalism: supremacism (fascism, Zionism, racism), interventionism (coups), and neoliberalism. There are no longer even lukewarm attempts to reconcile legitimate ideologies such as democracy or human rights.

This capitalism is simple: it feeds on war and seeks to plunder peoples of their minerals, hydrocarbons, and water. Peace and the self-determination of peoples are obstacles to it. Democracy is an obstacle to it. Demands for life, liberty, and a healthy environment are obstacles to it. Humanity is an obstacle to it.

Venezuela, Cuba, Iran: these are escalating cases of destruction and misery. Bombing cities, killing civilians, creating misery—it doesn’t matter to the aggressor. Violence only begets violence. Where are the efforts to stop it?

Lenia Batres is a Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation of Mexico.

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