Latest news with #Zapatista
eNCA
5 days ago
- Politics
- eNCA
Indigenous rights defender elected head of top Mexican court
Hugo Aguilar, an Indigenous rights defender and former advisor to Mexico's Zapatista guerrilla movement, won election to become the head of the country's Supreme Court, official results showed Thursday. The change in the key post, long reserved for elite jurists, follows unprecedented elections on Sunday in which Mexico became the first country in the world to choose judges at all levels at the ballot box. Aguilar, a constitutional law specialist and member of the Indigenous group Mixtec, is now one of the highest profile Indigenous leaders in Latin America. During his campaign, he proclaimed "it's our turn" and denounced the "exclusion and abandonment" of native peoples. Around 20 percent of Mexicans identify as Indigenous. Aguilar was a legal advisor to the now demobilized Zapatistas during negotiations with the government following an armed uprising in 1994. He has said Mexico's Indigenous peoples are owed a "a significant debt." Aguilar worked at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples under President Claudia Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- both of whom have criticized what they say is the elite's grip on the judiciary. The trailblazing judicial elections have been controversial in the Latin American nation. The overhaul was initiated by Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the Supreme Court over whether his policy changes were unconstitutional Despite confusion and low turnout -- with only about 13 percent of eligible voters participating -- Sheinbaum declared the election a success. Her opponents, however, branded it a "farce" and warned it would consolidate the ruling party's power, as it already dominates both houses of Congress. The majority of Mexico's Supreme Court justices quit over the judicial reforms last year and declined to stand for election. Aguilar follows in the footsteps of Benito Juarez, Mexico's first Indigenous president who also led the Supreme Court from 1857 to 1858.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indigenous rights defender elected head of top Mexican court
Hugo Aguilar, an Indigenous rights defender and former advisor to Mexico's Zapatista guerrilla movement, won election to become the head of the country's Supreme Court, official results showed Thursday. The change in the key post, long reserved for elite jurists, follows unprecedented elections on Sunday in which Mexico became the first country in the world to choose judges at all levels at the ballot box. Aguilar, a constitutional law specialist and member of the Indigenous group Mixtec, is now one of the highest profile Indigenous leaders in Latin America. During his campaign, he proclaimed "it's our turn" and denounced the "exclusion and abandonment" of native peoples. Around 20 percent of Mexicans identify as Indigenous. Aguilar was a legal advisor to the now demobilized Zapatistas during negotiations with the government following an armed uprising in 1994. He has said Mexico's Indigenous peoples are owed a "a significant debt." Aguilar worked at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples under President Claudia Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- both of whom have criticized what they say is the elite's grip on the judiciary. The trailblazing judicial elections have been controversial in the Latin American nation. The overhaul was initiated by Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the Supreme Court over whether his policy changes were unconstitutional Despite confusion and low turnout -- with only about 13 percent of eligible voters participating -- Sheinbaum declared the election a success. Her opponents, however, branded it a "farce" and warned it would consolidate the ruling party's power, as it already dominates both houses of Congress. The majority of Mexico's Supreme Court justices quit over the judicial reforms last year and declined to stand for election. Aguilar follows in the footsteps of Benito Juarez, Mexico's first Indigenous president who also led the Supreme Court from 1857 to 1858. sem/mel/sms/bjt
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Book Review: ‘Hope in the Dark' by Rebecca Solnit
In an era of climate collapse and political upheaval, Rebecca Solnit's 'Hope in the Dark,' first published in 2004 and later updated in 2016, redefines hope not as naivete, but as a radical act of defiance. Part manifesto, part historical corrective, the book resurrects forgotten victories to prove that progress is often invisible, nonlinear, and collective. Solnit, a historian and activist, dismantles the myth of powerlessness by spotlighting movements that reshaped history despite seeming futile in their moment. The Zapatista uprising of 1994, she argues, redefined revolution not as a single explosive event but as a 'slow conversation' across generations. The fall of the Berlin Wall — unforeseen by experts — she wrote exposes the fragility of oppressive systems when met with sustained dissent. Her 2016 update weaves in Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock protests, framing them as modern iterations of this 'subversive hope.' Central to Solnit's thesis is the metaphor of darkness, rejecting apocalyptic fatalism: 'The future is dark … like the darkness of the womb.' Hope, for her, is the audacity to act without guarantees, a lesson drawn from anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1980s and post-Katrina mutual-aid efforts like the Common Ground Collective. Stylistically, Solnit merges lyrical prose with critical urgency. She chastises media narratives that equate activism with failure if immediate victories are not won, noting that the eight-hour workday and abolition of slavery were once deemed impossible. Her chapters unfold as interconnected essays, blending memoir (her 1980s anti-nuke protests) with global dispatches (Chile's democratic revival, Ukraine's Orange Revolution). Critics may crave more policy prescriptions, but Solnit's goal is philosophical: to reframe activism as a practice of storytelling, where every protest rewrites the dominant narrative. The book is not a roadmap but a compass, guiding readers through despair with historical proof that 'the impossible is inevitable.'
