Cuban Tourism Drop

The number of tourists arriving in Cuba during the first quarter of the year, amidst an energy crisis, was 48% lower than in the same period of 2025, official sources reported on Monday.

According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), approximately 298,000 tourists arrived on the island in January, February, and March, whereas 573,300 international travelers were recorded during the same period the previous year.

Tourism—considered a driving force of the Cuban economy in recent decades—was severely impacted by geopolitical tensions, particularly by the oil embargo imposed on the island by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, following the operation in Venezuela to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro. Cuba had been a major beneficiary of Venezuelan crude oil.

Trump also warned in January that he would order the imposition of tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba.

The frequent blackouts, shortages, and deprivations that hit Cubans hard also impact visitors. For instance, vehicles rented for tourism can barely fill up with 20 liters of gasoline at special service stations, where lines stretch on for days. Furthermore, both public and private transportation have been curtailed. All of these issues will continue to impact the island on an economic as well as functional level. 

Mexican Shooting

The Mexican government announced that it will bolster security at tourist sites after a man opened fire on tourists at a set of pyramids just outside Mexico City, less than two months before the World Cup.

Monday’s shooting, carried out by a lone attacker atop one of the pyramids at Teotihuacán—a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Mexico’s most visited tourist attractions—killed a Canadian tourist and injured a dozen others.

It also triggered, the following morning, a barrage of questions from reporters to President Claudia Sheinbaum regarding the security protocols her administration was implementing ahead of the World Cup, which Mexico will co-host with the United States and Canada this summer.

Located approximately one hour from Mexico City, Teotihuacán was slated to be a key destination for visitors during the tournament. Just days before the shooting, local lawmakers had even pushed for an initiative to revive an interactive nightly light show projected onto the pyramids for World Cup visitors, an attraction that had been suspended at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gathering the Global Left in Barcelona

Spain's Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will spearhead gatherings of the global left in Barcelona on Friday and Saturday, in a bid to defend multilateralism and mobilize left-wing movements against the far right.

The meetings, organized by Spain and left-wing political networks, come as U.S. President Donald Trump's swift cuts to humanitarian aid, military interventions, and threats to abandon NATO have shaken the status quo of international relations and prompted a rethink of global allegiances.

Borne out of a wake-up call for European socialists after the far-right ⁠surge in EU elections in 2024, the aim of the so-called "Global Progressive Mobilization" starting on Friday is to mobilize advocates of left-wing ideas, culminating in a declaration of common actions on goals from defending democracy to the green transition, organizers said.

A second gathering on Saturday - entitled "In Defense of Democracy" - is organized by the Spanish government and is the fourth installment of a summit launched by Lula and Sanchez in 2024.

On Orwell in Spain

George Orwell’s writings on Spain and the civil war of 1936-39 are a remarkable, if underdiscussed resource to understand both the war and the writer himself. I was not privy to the degree of Orwell’s leftist political viewpoint, identifying deeply with workers against “bourgeois capitalism.”  Still, there is the disillusionment that follows, not of all leftist politics itself, but of the belief in international cooperation towards progress and even in the concept of truth. 

Clearly there is much that Orwell learned being in tangential contact with authoritarian systems that he would bring to his subsequent writings on totalitarianism. All the chaos of the May Days, where the legitimate republican government crushed the anarchist-led vanguard of the revolution in which Orwell had served, seemingly at the behest of the Soviet authorities, makes for a kaleidoscopic experience for the writer and reader alike. And what was the British government thinking?

Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is a fine piece of writing on its own. His prose is tinged with humor and cynicism, but still contains that vital human element that any good war narrative must. The story is narrow in scope by necessity of the author’s experience, and yet much can be learned of the conflict that shaped Spanish history in the 20th century. The only complaint to be had is that it is quite brief.

Illegal Minining in Peru

Peruvians head to the polls Sunday to elect a new president and Congress, but illegal mining — a major driver of deforestation and mercury pollution — has received little attention on the campaign trail, even as it spreads deeper into the Amazon and Indigenous territories.

Experts warn the gap reflects a broader failure to confront what has become the country’s largest illicit economy, with growing impacts on the environment, public health, and Indigenous communities.

According to projections by the Peruvian Institute of Economics, illegal mining generated more than $11.5 billion in 2025 and over 100 tons of gold exports — rivaling the legitimate business sector and surpassing drug trafficking.

Some candidates, including former ministers and technocratic candidates such as Jorge Nieto and Alfonso López Chau, are proposing to include measures such as gold traceability, financial intelligence, and protections for environmental defenders; but these remain fragmented efforts falling short of a comprehensive strategy.

Deportation News

U.S. government attorneys informed a federal judge on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) still intends to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia, despite a new agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their countries of origin.

The Salvadoran national's case has become a focal point of the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year. Since his return, he has fought against a second deportation—to a series of African countries—proposed by Homeland Security officials.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland had already barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting or detaining him. She wrote that the agency lacks a viable plan to deport Ábrego García, and in February, she referred to “one empty threat after another to expel him to countries in Africa without any real possibility of success.”

Ábrego García has maintained that, if he is to be deported, he should be sent to Costa Rica, which previously agreed to accept him. However, Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, noted in a memorandum issued in March that deporting Ábrego García to Costa Rica would be “detrimental to the United States.” Lyons wrote that Ábrego García should be sent to Liberia because the United States has expended government resources and political capital negotiating with the West African nation to accept nationals from third countries.

Peru Elections Primer

With just one week remaining until the 2026 Elections, Keiko Fujimori and Rafael López Aliaga continue to hold the top spots in voting intentions, albeit without a significant increase compared to previous months. They are followed by Carlos Álvarez and Roberto Sánchez, who are indeed experiencing growing support among the electorate, according to the latest poll from the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP).

Fujimori, the daughter of the late Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori, has been a perennial candidate for the Presidency over the last few decades, but has fallen short numerous times. López Aliaga, nicknamed “porky”, is the former mayor of the capital city Lima. Both leading candidates have had numerous allegations of corruption leveled against them, including by their opponents in the debates. Still, they have maintained steady leads in the acrimonious race to fill a position that many would see as unenviable. 

Peru has had eight presidents in the last ten years, with many being impeached for corruption. Some presidents saw national approval ratings reach as low as two percent. What Peru needs is a strong, competent and independent leader who can tackle issues like corruption and instability. But one week out from the elections that prospect seems remote.