Our country cannot repeat the mistakes of the past, such as when Latin American unity was rejected or when it disregarded Cuban and Venezuela initiatives to connect with labor and educational forces, along with their proposals and warnings.

This editorial by Hugo Aboites originally appeared in the January 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The aggression against Venezuela has created a very unfavorable balance of power for Mexico and the rest of Latin America. If, despite the heroic resistance of the Cuban and Venezuelan guards, U.S. forces were able to launch an armed attack on the capital, capture the President, and bring him before a U.S. court, then much more of that suddenly and menacingly becomes possible.

Increasingly, Mexico will face greater demands, and it will become increasingly difficult and problematic to counteract and resist them. Therefore, our country cannot repeat the mistakes of the past, such as when Latin American unity was rejected in the 1980s and Mexico negotiated its debt alone. Nor can it repeat the mistakes of the 1990s when it disregarded initiatives to connect with labor and educational forces in the three countries, along with their proposals and warnings. These shortcomings resulted in high costs for education, although, it must be said, despite their importance, they do not erase or change history.

After more than 200 US military incursions against Mexico (see García Cantú’s compilation), we Mexicans cannot forget, nor should we cease to be radical in our demand for respect. This is especially true given the profound shifts in global power dynamics and capitalism that are now critically affecting the United States. Even in the 1990s—under neoliberalism—Mexicans were considered “partners”; now, a new and challenging climate has shattered those illusions. What remains, however, deeply ingrained in education and universities, is the neoliberal transformation imposed upon them as part of the country’s adaptation to the new trilateral framework.

The previously existing project of a democratic, open, critical university oriented towards the broad knowledge needs of communities, organizations, regions and people, was replaced by the conception of the public university as a tuition-based, vertical and authoritarian institution, with restricted access, internally segmented and, using empty concepts such as quality and innovation, oriented towards the needs of businesses, governments and local and transnational elites.

Education requires strong institutional, community, and citizen participation to cultivate a citizenry with a deep understanding of the country’s history, capable of defending and resisting. Photo: Jay Watts, Havana University

Since this university proved unable to respond to the demands for more places, low-cost public institutions with zero participation and institutional democracy had to be created: technological universities, welfare universities and professional universities (such as Rosario Castellanos and the University of Health).

The result has been inconsequential: in terms of enrollment nor educational focus, universities and schools are not even close to meeting the educational needs of a country and region living under military threat. What is required is an education with strong institutional, community, and citizen participation; to train citizens in defense and resistance, equipping them with a deep understanding of the country’s history and the social objectives of their professions.

It also involves a strong connection between research and dissemination of local, regional, and national liberation movements. Because from these movements arises the political, cultural, and social force capable of sustaining, for centuries, the struggles for sovereignty, independence, and the creation of centers of power in Latin American nations and around the world—centers that serve as a counterweight to hegemonic powers. This requires democratic processes, free access to education, and replacing the current costly and conservative neoliberal bureaucracy by creating or strengthening forms of governance that include greater and more decisive student and academic participation.

What is required is an education with strong institutional, community, and citizen participation; to train citizens in defense and resistance, equipping them with a deep understanding of the country’s history and the social objectives of their professions.

This is urgent because the right-wing regime that dominates institutions has created a blindness to the country’s reality and a glaring institutional inequality. For example, the UAM’s top officials and academics earn up to 190,000 pesos per month (Gómez Mena, C., La Jornada, 11/01/2026), while the majority of administrative and academic staff (assistants, associates, teaching assistants, temporary workers) may earn less than 10,000 pesos per month.

By officially and comfortably creating and perpetuating this inequality—without criticizing it, much less eliminating it—the university contributes to justifying national inequality. Only the union (SITUAM) disagrees, and with its wage demands and call for a strike on February 1st, it supports the implicit demand for an equitable distribution of available resources. This would ensure that those who currently earn the most are not left in poverty, while also providing stability and better incomes for everyone else, allowing for the hiring of more professors, the admission of more students, and, therefore, what is most needed in this new era: a stronger and more active community, aware of its country and its now perilous circumstances. Thus, within the university, Donald Trump will have lost his most important battle.

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