Many events marked the course of this year 2023; a period marked by deep cracks in international politics, with disputes between defenders of opposing ideologies, in addition to other extremely important factors that affected the economy and conditioned processes and the good development of humanity.

Events inherited from 2022 such as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continued throughout this period with peaks of tension that are still unsolved, and the result remains devastating. Ukraine insists on strengthening military alliances, but with a very powerful ally: the United States, which offers its appreciated weapons support, while the Western press is biased and only shows one side of the facts, leaving Vladimir Putin's government as the largest responsible for the trance, victimizing others, and ignoring that the episode has a historical precedent. The world forgets, once again, that the story is not always as it’s told.

These incidents were somewhat overshadowed by other headlines when at the beginning of October Israeli military bases received surprise attacks by Palestinian forces, and since then both territories have remained in constant confrontation. So far, the outcome is thousands of dead and injured, especially Palestinians, in addition to a Gaza Strip destroyed by the intensity of the opposing offensive that boasts technological superiority in every sense and that they have not hesitated in exacting it on the civilian population with the justification of wanting to end terrorist groups like Hamas.

For this crusade that also has a precedent of almost eight decades of continuous aggression against Palestinians, we were also able to witness the favoritism of the media that arbitrarily ignores how much they have been massacred and displaced due to legendary differences, mainly religious, and that for this reason, they have suffered the blunt blow of the occupation of their lands and ethnic cleansing for the world to see.

However, this time images of the extermination of that town have been widely circulated, mostly of the most vulnerable who were unable to escape or find safe refuge, as well as correspondents and health personnel, among other officials accredited there while events went down.

leading world organizations have echoed the dispute between Israel and Palestine with different perspectives; requests have been made from aid and humanitarian channels to the ending of hostilities through dialogue and mutual agreement, but it’s difficult without an attitude of true peace intention on behalf of the parties involved, and as long as the opportunistic attacks remain, and collaboration continues to come from the United States—once again the United States—with the shipment of high-powered munitions, by the way, without approval by the Congress of that country.

Politics have proven unstable throughout the year, and the right wing has prevailed in the world with more or less erratic governments. In Latin America it’s indisputable that the left has lost momentum and the regional bloc is dispersed and in crisis.

Peru started 2023 with demonstrations to demand justice and the return of Pedro Castillo to the presidency, as well as the resignation of the person designated in his place, Dina Boluarte, who is held responsible for the current chaos in that country, for the deaths and injuries in the protests, the depressed economy, and the complex political and social atmosphere. The people demand improvements in society to Boluarte, especially ending corruption and increasing domestic wealth.

Several electoral processes took place in the world, and on our continent we want to highlight the presidential elections in Paraguay, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Argentina, in addition to the Council and the constitutional plebiscite in Chile, and the counselling referendum in Venezuela.

Just days before elections in Ecuador, called in an extraordinary style, Fernando Villavicencio, the progressive candidate for the Movimiento Construye-Gente Buena alliance, was murdered. With this assassination, the Ecuadorian nation had to reinvent itself to get out of the pre-electoral confusion, which forced it to hold the vote under a state of emergency.

Daniel Noboa, the youngest elected leader of that country, emerged winner from the trance, who at 36 years old seems more like a spoiled child than a politician. In fact, his career is only two years old, but from his family he inherited not only a surprising fortune but also an interest in administering Ecuador because his father was candidate five times. Noboa will complete the 2021-2025 period that Guillermo Lasso began, and from there he already intends to run again with the promise of working for necessary changes, many related to insecurity.

One the one hand, Guatemala did not experience its process peacefully either. The elected, Bernardo Arévalo, with his anti-corruption proposal, has not yet sat in the presidential chair and his environment is already in turmoil. The most recent events are related to the discontent of the Public Ministry.

For this reason, Arévalo alleged that it’s a classic coup d'état attempt, while protesters, international institutions and allied governments assure that the accusations are unfounded in order to seek to delegitimize the elections certified by the Guatemalan Supreme Electoral Court and prevent it from starting its administration in mid-January 2024.

One case that attracted all the attention, the astonishment for some and the applause for others, was the presidential elections in Argentina, decided in the second round last November in favor of Javier Milei, a candidate who came out of nowhere and immediately stood out for its rude projection, for proposing exaggerated reforms such as the elimination of fundamental ministries and entities, as well as any predecessor social project.

The far-right Milei is also defined as a radical conservative supported by similar people such as the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro or the North American Donald Trump, recognized for his extreme positions. Let’s remember that the King of Spain, Felipe VI, also attended his investiture; the Ukrainian, Volodimir Zelenski; among other representatives of related governments such as former Argentine president Mauricio Macri. Likewise, from the list of absent counterparts we highlight Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, China, even the United States.

We highlight how Milei sometimes expresses antagonistic ideas, and has an ideological discourse that has shifted since he entered public politics—as if searching for his place—in addition, he is authoritarian, aggressive, and speaks out against the State and in favor of privatization. His greatest promise is to turn Argentina into a world power, a goal that everyone likes, but ambitious to achieve in such a short time, especially given how he takes a country with an elevated inflation rate.

The fact is that with his election the political board of the South American nation was shaken, as it seeks to find alternatives that will get that society out of its difficulties and therefore they considered that voting for the left would be the same, clearly as a sign of protest. For this reason, they decided on the option that they believe will offer radical change, at whatever cost: the ultra-liberal Milei, who will most likely leave a lot to talk about next 2024.

Other processes caught our interest, such as the general elections held in July in Spain, which gave way to the 15th legislature to elect the president of the government. After several turbulent months, Pedro Sánchez won the support of the absolute majority of the Chamber with 179 votes in favor and 171 against to lead for the next four years. However, in several parts of Spain there were demonstrations before and after such announcement, and their demands are diverse, related to the future amnesty law and social justice.

In the Latin American region we also saw the management of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador during 2023, who has been promoting tough initiatives against organized crime since 2019, and for this reason has faced international criticism and demands, but domestically he has managed to reverse the situation of insecurity of his people.

We are also interested in the progress of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration, in Brazil, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in Mexico, who, one year after completing his mandate, shows efforts on issues of emigration and economic growth. Likewise, the violence in Haiti, the challenges that Gustavo Petro faces to address the existing deep social crisis in Colombia, drug trafficking and other problems, to which he dedicates his will, but the murder of social leaders, indigenous people and human rights defenders continues.

In this South American nation we highlight the attempts, still inconclusive, to establish peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but which have been interrupted on repetitive occasions due to disagreements.

These and other contexts reveal corruption in high political spheres in the region, as in the world, we do not escape the dilemma of the right positioning itself in every corner. We live in a highly complex sociopolitical environment that affects the majority because it brings the destruction of societies due to barbarism and insecurity, the constant threat to democracy, monetary depression, and its collateral damage such as increased poverty, emigration, hunger, eviction, which generate terrible humanitarian situations. An example of this is also what countries in Africa and Asia are experiencing, think of Burkina Faso, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, Afghanistan, and many more that endure the delays of colonization and other current trends.

Other random incidents that we don’t want to fail to mention are the riots in France demanding social improvements and the end of discrimination. In the United States, police intimidation, the excessive use of weapons in the civilian population; and the legal problems of former President of the United States, Donald Trump, who this year faced accusations of a different nature such as commercial fraud, inflammatory comments, bribery and other ways of altering the 2020 elections in his country.

Despite the shadows that Trump drags, he is not only one of the candidates for the presidency of the next 2024, but he is a favorite for the Republican Party. He has already anticipated layoffs, deportations, and only two genders, just to name a few of the measures he wants to endorse.

I this weren’t enough, nature responding to so much human aggression. This 2023 have suffered meteorological phenomena that caused floods and devastated territories, causing deaths, injuries, and serious quantifiable losses; an example was Storm Daniel for Libya and other European countries and Hurricane Idalia in America.

In contrast, we also experience droughts in various parts of the planet such as the Brazilian Amazon, Uruguay, Bolivia, or North Africa. In each of the affected areas, large agricultural productions were lost, which favors the scarcity of essential resources.

Earthquakes like the one that devastated Türkiye and Syria in February, with almost 60 thousand deaths; or as it happened in Morocco in September; the heat waves that made 2023 the hottest period on record, the large forest fires in Hawaii, Chile, Canada or France; as well as the dumping of wastewater from the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, damaged in March 2011, are just some of the environmental disasters we had to tell about.

Among the most important events held in the world this year we cite several meetings, that of BRICS+, the Group of Twenty, the Group of 77 plus China, the Puebla Group, the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the XXVIII Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), among others.

Thus, in bold strokes, 2023 passed, an frantic year in every sense, with an evident trend towards the decline of left-wing processes, thanks, in part, to the strangulation of the media that often fail to fulfill their primary mandate, to inform, they aim to manipulate at their convenience, and this makes the collective memory go in the same direction.

For this reason, and for the rest that affects us such as incapacity, low availability of resources, lack of support and trust, we have societies fed up with the economic deficit and the lack of support from the powers. And, as we see, this situation repeated in every corner, intensifies discontent and the desire of seeking alternatives, or the opposite, apathy and conformism.

Let's hope for a 2024 that does not punish us so much, that allows each of us to work for individual and collective objectives.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff