February 10, 2026

Interview by Carlos Aznárez, editor of Resumen Latinoamericano, with Mariela Castro Espin, head of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), on important international issues. Feb. 3, 2026. For original in Spanish, resumenlatinoamericano.org, Translation by John Catalinotto.

Mariela Castro, in addition to being the head of CENESEX (Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education), is an active militant in all matters of internationalist solidarity. Fully committed to defending the Palestinian Resistance and opposing Zionism, she now adds to her list of priorities, first, joining her people in developing Cuba’s political and military defense against imperialist attacks to the maximum, and then, for the same reasons, giving her full support to Bolivarian Venezuela.

We spoke with Mariela about this hostile reality that our peoples are experiencing, and this is the result we offer our readers.

Carlos Aznárez: We are living in a truly turbulent time in the world, a time that has nuances of perversity and cruelty characteristic of capitalism but which is now expressed in a totally stark manner, without subtlety.

In this context, there are two or three fundamental paradigms on which we would like to hear your opinion. One of them is, obviously, what has just happened in Bolivarian Venezuela: a planned attack, an act of war that ended with the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his partner, member of the National Assembly Cilia Flores.

In that scenario, there was combat in which 32 Cuban combatants were viciously murdered, along with a significant number of Venezuelans, both civilians and military personnel. The first two questions are: To what extent is capitalism advancing in its voracity that it carries out this level of violence with complete impunity? Are you surprised by what has happened, this brutal attack on the sovereignty of a people who are not at war with anyone?

Mariela Castro Espin: Honestly, yes, it does surprise me. Because theoretically, everyone talks about capitalism being in decline, and that in this process of decline, it will drag the whole world into who knows what, into how many more catastrophes. And that is what we are witnessing. This is not new, but new ways of acting are.

Because the two world wars were about the division of the world. The colonization of the American continent is what allowed [imperialism] to accumulate new wealth and strengthened the capitalist system. But there have been many other moments when it became clear that new tycoons needed to accumulate more than they already have; and to do so, they needed to appropriate certain resources, which led them to develop all kinds of policies, discourses, economic forums and mechanisms for economic control of other countries.

Because what they have in their own nations is no longer enough for them. They are superrich and represent less than 1% of the world’s population. This has been going on for a long time: the division of the world’s wealth.

Now, after World War II, the United States occupied a position of leadership, of hegemony, which was becoming increasingly total. They really wanted to control absolutely everything, so they could decide what wealth they appropriate, which countries they would invade to plunder that country’s wealth and also administer it. Above all, they did so from a position of global dictatorship, not only of the U.S. but now also of the figure of Donald Trump and the whole group of mafiosos who follow him and benefit from all these policies.

I am sure that it never crossed his mind to do anything he is doing. These are the orders, the instructions, given to him by the truly powerful, those who really hold most of that wealth. So, of course, I am surprised to see a man without limits, unpredictable, without ethics, a man who has been power-hungry since childhood, one of those who buy everything with money and believe that anything goes. A man with these characteristics has become president.

Everyone who has sat in the emperor’s chair of that empire has had to do terrible things as part of that colonizing strategy, and now with these more clearly neo-Nazi, fascist nuances, and with very strong economic power that conditions him, which is Zionist capital, the Zionist business community.

CA: Zionist capital that has collateral in different countries around the world, and of course also in Latin America.

MCE: That’s right. Many of those political buffoons like Milei and others play along with him and facilitate this global mega-business community’s continued appropriation of wealth. Look at the situation in Argentina now, which is in danger and on the verge of becoming an extension of Israeli territory. But this has also been happening quietly in Central America. They have already been positioning themselves, buying and occupying territories belonging to the Indigenous populations, who are the ones who really protect the land and its natural resources.

In other words, these signs have been visible for a long time. All the wars that the empire has waged, led by the U.S., have taken place between the 20th and 21st centuries, above all. It is really the continuation of this process of dividing up territories and their riches. And, of course, using cognitive warfare to develop a narrative to distort reality and manipulate international public opinion in order to gain the support they need. Or at least to avoid having opponents who could stand in the way of their projects, those who could prevent them from carrying them out.

International law nullified 

Therefore, they have neutralized the United Nations and the mechanisms that humanity has built to protect the entire system of rights. International law and the documents generated by the United Nations have been completely nullified and dismantled.

As the Canadian leader surprisingly said, there is no longer any international order, even though humanity has been pushing for a new global order that is equitable and just. This new order already no longer exists, but what is coming is worse. A world without order, without rules, tailored to Donald Trump and his imperial whims. Because, in addition, these tycoons, who make up less than 1% of the world’s population, must be happy to have a representative like the president of the United States, who has no limits or scruples, who is not guided by any rules, not even the U.S. Constitution.

CA: Speaking of this lack of limits abroad, it is worth noting that the same is true of Trump operating in his own backyard. Do you agree?

MCE: The people of the U.S. are suffering terribly; they are suffering as they have in other times in their history, because what is happening is not new. And with this ICE brutal persecution of migrants, which affects men, women and even children, where people are murdered with incredible ease and impunity, it is clear that Trump’s fascism is lethal.

The people have already suffered this on many occasions, and they have been experiencing it lately with the protests in favor of the Palestinian people and against the Zionist-imperialist genocide. Let us remember that this nation was created in the same way as the State of Israel, by usurping the territories of what we have called the First Nations. There were cultures. There were different Indigenous nations, many people who also died, as the Palestinian people are dying now, through genocide and ethnic cleansing.

What is happening today in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine is the same thing they did to occupy and colonize the territories of North America, and also a large part of the world. Countries that have been plundered and impoverished or that suffer theft through genocide. So, the same historical mechanisms that have characterized imperialism continue to be repeated, not only in its suffering, but also in its expansionist phase.

CA: Many people, when talking about Trump or Milei, lightly characterize them as “crazy.” Do you believe in that theory, or is there something more behind Trump’s actions?

MCE: No, he’s not crazy. He’s a sociopath who also grew up without limits. Anything goes and, “I take what I want,” no matter what. And that’s what [U.S. imperialism] did with this military aggression against Venezuela, where they bombed five Venezuelan cities — mainly the capital — to distract attention while they entered to kidnap the legitimate constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and his spouse.

Let’s remember that Cilia Flores is a long-time deputy, who is the First Combatant and also the president’s spouse. Her kidnapping is also illegal, has consequences, and is a violation of established global norms. Really, if international law existed, they couldn’t kidnap anyone, but in the end, they do it to anyone who stands up to them. They are blatantly unpunished.

Note that the Mossad’s modus operandi does not differ from the methods of U.S. imperial power, because they are one and the same; they were born almost together and have developed and strengthened each other. And they do the same thing everywhere, wherever they need to appropriate wealth and territory, eliminate entire populations and assassinate popular leaders who resist them. There is the case of how many leaders and scientists they have assassinated in Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon. This pattern of behavior is constant, and the world prefers to look the other way, especially politicians, who make decisions in each country and who always put themselves at the service of the empire, out of cowardice and opportunism, but also because they are extremely afraid.

CA: In many cases, they say that the U.S. pressures and extorts them.

MCE: Of course, they are pressured, they are coerced. This coercion leads to public humiliation, public attacks and the creation of a psychological and media environment worldwide to discredit certain leaders.

In this sense, the example of the prime minister of Spain is worth mentioning, who vacillates in his decisions, because he is under popular pressure within his own parliament, but he is also under very dangerous pressures. Not just pressure, but threats [from imperialism]! This has also happened to the judges of the International Criminal Court, who have been accused and threatened with death, both them and their families.

Imperialism employs terror

And yet they remain steadfast despite all these machinations of vandals, of international criminals. They use machinations of terror, because they are inflicting terror in order to dominate. And this is how the capitalist system has developed, through terror and brutality.

So it is a shame that there is so much distraction when the world is moving in such a dangerous way that all of humanity is in danger. There is a lot of distraction, there are people who don’t even know what is happening and think that nothing is going to happen to them. Some, because they are far away from a geographical area, or because they say “no, it’s not going to happen here, we are friends with the U.S.” All of this is going to lead to a catastrophe that is really not easy to imagine.

CA: In this same context, and returning to Venezuela, at the opposite end of the spectrum from what you have so aptly described, there is resistance, both from the Venezuelan people and from their revolutionary leadership. Amidst the catastrophe of having a president kidnapped and civilians and military personnel killed, they tried to preserve the constitutional order and move forward with a government whose fundamental objective is to rescue the kidnapped. This is no small feat, suffering the extortion of this imperialism that tells you: “Well, if you fight, I’ll bomb you; if you fight, I’ll torture you.”

In other words, that is the extortion that people in general experience. And on the other hand, I also want to highlight, I want us to talk about both things, the role of Cuba’s internationalist solidarity, having sent fighters who fought to the bitter end to protect the president. It had been a long time since Cuba had lost so many combatants. Because Cuba is not invading countries. Cuba sends doctors, literacy teachers and athletes. But what has happened is very serious. I wanted to ask you what the impact of this painful situation was on Cuban society?

MCE: The biggest impact was the first news that came in that morning. First, a journalist friend called me and said, “They’re bombing Venezuela.” I said, “That can’t be.”

And my friend replied, “Go to Telesur, so you can keep up with the news.” And I started to see the events unfolding, the kidnapping of the president and his spouse. Then I said to myself, “No, this has already happened,” now we have to see how the world reacts to this situation, because it cannot be allowed. So, the pain was very great, even on a physical level, very painful.

And I said to myself, “Our comrades were carrying out an internationalist mission to protect President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, because there were already threats, and it was known that they were studying the president’s movements for some kind of attack.” That was known. And the threat was a kidnapping, because the threats were open. But it sounded more like bragging.

The thing is, in Cuba we take their bragging seriously, because we have already had painful experiences, including the loss of valuable lives. So, the first thing I thought was: How many comrades will have died in battle in this U.S. military operation, which was not surgical, it was crude? The thing is, they have a lot of technology, and they also suffered many casualties, but they refuse to admit it.

Our comrades fought back

They suffered many deaths and many injuries, because our comrades fought back. Of the 32 fighters dead, some were sleeping, because of the changing of the guard, or were drivers. But 21 fought directly. Only 21 soldiers faced two hundred robots. Because you know how the U.S. army moves, full of protection. But they are not capable of hand-to-hand combat. They don’t have that ability, because for that you have to have convictions. They are defending the richest people in the world, not even their own people.

We know what our combatants are like; we know how Fidel, how the leadership of our country has trained our combatants in the FAR [Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces] and the revolutionary armed forces of the Ministry of the Interior.

I knew we were going to have casualties. And they fought to the death, but they inflicted casualties on the enemy. And the imperialists don’t want to talk about that, because it discredits them. It was not a successful surgical operation, it was a disaster, and worst of all, there were all the violations of national and international laws and regulations against kidnapping the president of a sovereign state without even having any arguments as a pretext.

There is not a single valid argument to condemn him. Besides, who do they think they are? They think they are the world’s police! In fact, with new technologies, they already have a lot of control over people and countries. And they decide arbitrarily and always unfairly, against their own people and against other peoples.

Now with this Greenland story … please! They themselves are putting relations with their allies in difficulty. But they have proven to be so cowardly that we don’t know what will happen. We imagine they will take Greenland. Because they want it, because they have wanted it for more than 150 years. They have many arguments as pretexts that Greenland should belong to them.

CA: Do you think the Venezuelan revolutionary leadership is handling these difficult circumstances well?

MCE: I see that they are responding very intelligently, very united. In other words, this aggression has united the Venezuelan people. They recognize their leaders. They know that Nicolás Maduro is still in command, he is still the president. And there are close relationships, and decisions are being made in the midst of the very complex circumstances they are experiencing, which those who do not understand what is happening will question.

They use fake news and lies

And some will say — as they are doing with so much fake news and so many lies they are spreading — that there are betrayals, that they are already surrendering to the United States. But between Cuba and Venezuela there is a very strong, indissoluble unity. And we do not allow it, and we are also fighting all this fake news that is trying to divide, to create mistrust towards the current Venezuelan leadership. They are trying to discredit the acting president Delcy Rodríguez and other important figures in Venezuelan politics.

They are seeking to create informational chaos so that people will give up and allow them to do as they did with Gaza, where they tried to demonize its leaders, brutally demonizing the insurgent organization that has led everything that has happened in the last two years since the Al-Aqsa Flood, even though the leaders of this organization were elected by their people at the polls.

So, they have dedicated themselves to demonizing everything that has a positive impact and mobilizes consciences. Like when the Zionist Netanyahu said that this leading organization of the Palestinian insurgent movements had been created by them, which is a lie. They did try to sell weapons to one side when there was conflict and civil war in Gaza, but they were never created by them. In the same way, now Trump says he likes Delcy, that she is wonderful; all to confuse and make people believe that she is at his service and not at the service of her people.

Fortunately, Venezuela has demonstrated in all its internal work, its strengthening, the popular reaction in support of President Nicolás Maduro and the policy initiated by Hugo Chávez. Venezuela is preparing for whatever may come.

CA: And Cuba is doing the same, calling for the defense of the country.

MCE: Since the triumph of the revolution, Cuba has suffered attacks and aggressions of different kinds from successive U.S. governments. Therefore, Cuba has had to develop a defense strategy that integrates its own experiences and those of other countries, such as Vietnam, such as the doctrine of the war of the entire people.

So, it is a permanent strategy that is being strengthened, and at this time, some tasks are being reactivated with the entire population so that everyone knows what to do in the face of different types of aggression, and above all, updating us on the latest military tactics used by the U.S. army with the use — above all — of new technologies, as we have seen in Gaza, or now in the aggression against Venezuela.

In other words, this is one of the lines of global governance developed in Davos in recent years, which leads almost to the abolition of national governments and the establishment of a global government, a world government. Of course, to establish it, it has to be through a fascist and neo-Nazi dictatorship like the one they are developing.

In short, our people are preparing for different situations for defense. Cuba is not an aggressor country; Cuba will have to defend itself in order to support other peoples in their defense. This will be done by prior agreement, by consensus and at the request of the peoples, as happened in Angola and as happened providing protection for President Nicolás Maduro. In other words, what Cuba has developed with great force is the principle not only of sovereignty and independence but also of solidarity among peoples.

Fidel always taught us that these are non-negotiable principles. Principles are not negotiable. With imperialism and all its facets, there is no possibility of negotiation. As Jean Paul Sartre said: You don’t negotiate with fascism, you fight fascism. And many other intellectual figures around the world have expressed themselves along the same lines. In other words, there is no possibility of negotiation, only dialogue. Because the principles of the sovereignty of peoples cannot be negotiated.

We will see what happens with this [U.S.] president’s other aspirations, which are blatantly and openly to appropriate the wealth, especially Venezuelan oil, the wealth of Greenland and other peoples. And in the case of Cuba, what interests him most is to dismantle the example that we have resisted the empire for 67 years.

They have done everything, as Trump himself said, and they have not been able to destroy this Cuban Revolution. And the people, the more aggression they face, the more united they become, strengthening the defensive capacity of our people and their ability to respond. Note that, despite the surprise attack on Caracas, our comrades fought to the death. And they inflicted significant casualties on them, which they will never acknowledge, because they are afraid that it will weaken their image as powerful, white, blond machos who seek to dominate the world.

So, we are in a new era of imperialism in decline. But a new and very dangerous era, in which humanity no longer has the mechanisms to protect itself, because they have all been nullified.

CA: Finally, knowing how much of what is happening in Palestine hurts you and hurts us, we see that the empire is now setting up a “peace board,” an initiative that is really a farce. How do you see the resolution of the Palestinian issue in this context of an endless genocide, in which this new Hitler aspires to build a real estate project in Gaza on the corpses of so many Palestinians?

MCE: They had been planning this project for a long time. And no one wanted to talk about it. It was even specifically mentioned by a retired U.S. military officer, but then no one else followed up on the issue. Or those who did were silenced.

This is a “Greater Israel” plan, since there are more countries that are going to be invaded, despite the fact that they have been so subjugated and cowardly, as is the case with Egypt.

In reality, what is happening now is the carrying out of that project, which they have been enriching, modifying and adjusting to the current circumstances. They had it all planned out. The Al-Aqsa Flood was the pretext they used to commit this great genocide, in which they never respected the ceasefire in either Palestine or Lebanon.

Then, suddenly, this new proposal for a “peace board” for Palestine — which, moreover, is not only for Palestine; it will surely be worldwide, for them to impose and command in a dictatorial manner. Surprisingly, and painfully, we have seen how many countries that we did not expect to do so are supporting or considering supporting the Yankee – Zionist proposal.

This is really what leaves me speechless, in the sense of saying: How is this possible? They were not going to accept this in any way, but they have done so.

There are others who are on the U.S. payroll, kissing the emperor’s boots, as is the case with Milei, who is giving away national territory to the Israelis. And to say Israelis is to say the United States.

Trump’s speeches are totally absurd, unimaginable. But they are taking place, they are being disseminated; and even though people mock his words, he continues to command exorbitant, unprecedented power. The BRICS have not been able to move forward, and we have had Trojan horses that have not facilitated certain processes. Unexpected Trojan horses, but heavily pressured by their national oligarchies and by imperialism. Sadly, this has happened, as was the case with the impediment to Venezuela’s entry into the BRICS.

CA: It is as you say, a process that seems unstoppable, although it is absolutely necessary to creatively imagine a way to put a stop to this fascist advance. Where do you think we can look to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

MCE: The question is something like, what are we doing? Resistance is growing stronger around the world, even within the U.S. The Black Panther Party has resurfaced, social self-defense movements have been organized, and yet they still have the decency and culture of adherence to the law that kills them. They do not respond with firearms to the brutal enemy that is attacking and killing them. They do not do that. Instead, people like those in ICE are doing horrible things that are raising awareness even within the U.S., but there is no decisive leap forward to stop this ruthless brutality.

CA: We remain there, in that last sentence. How much work still needs to be done to move from protest to confrontation with imperialism. Because time is running out. And, really, with every minute that passes, the imperial offensive grows. Thank you, Mariela, for your answers that help us see the light in so much darkness.