Soberanía 80: The Nobel “Peace” Prize Farce

In this week’s episode of Soberanía, hosts Kurt Hackbarth and José Luis Granados react to the farcical irony of far-right Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, unpacking her long record of backing coups, sanctions, and foreign intervention, what this award reveals about Western hypocrisy, and what it all could mean for Mexico. They then turn to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s decision to skip the Summit of the Americas, exploring how it builds on López Obrador’s refusal to attend the Los Angeles edition in 2022 to promote Latin American regional sovereignty against US exclusionism. The discussion continues with the debate around Mexico’s amparo reform bill – in its final stages in Congress – breaking down how it could close off the elites’ endless attempts to game the system and the pushback it has thus sparked from Mexico’s conservative establishment. The episode closes with Losers and Haters, revisiting a familiar figure whose newfound power threatens to do real damage from within the newly dubbed “War” Department.

  • People’s Mañanera January 19

    President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with the ever-frequent reading of the polls, raising revenue without raising taxes, Salinas Pliego tax debt comes due, US Hercules plane landing in Mexico, and Mexican dying in ICE custody.

  • Our Water, In Whose Hands?

    A promising vision from President Sheinbaum for public water management rapidly disappeared. Yet again the Mexican state openly assumes the role it has always played under neoliberalism: facilitating access to natural resources for special interests.