The Biden administration announced an end to US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. This is in larger part thanks to the constant activism and mobilization of peace groups around the US. Guest host Greg Wilpert talked to Hassan el Tayyab, the Legislative Manager for Middle East Policy of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, shortly before the announcement was made. He outlines the background of the war, the history of US support, what an end to US support would mean, and what further steps need to be taken to put an end to the devastation in Yemen.

Transcript

Greg Wilpert

Welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast, I'm your guest host, Greg Wilpert. Last Sunday, January 24th, Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, as he is often known by his initials, became the 15th head of state to test positive for contracting covid-19. His infection is not much of a surprise, though, considering his relatively casual attitude towards the coronavirus pandemic. Exactly how has Mexico been coping with the pandemic? And more generally, what have AMLO's other policies meant for Mexico since becoming president?

Greg Wilpert

After all, when AMLO took office a little over two years ago, as a leftist, he represented a big hope for the revival of Latin America's so-called pink tide. Joining me to analyse the current situation in Mexico under Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is Laura Carlsen. She is director of the Mexico City based Americas Program and a consultant with Just Associates and joins me today from Oregon. Thanks, Laura, for being on the analysis.News.

Laura Carlsen

Thanks, Greg, it's a pleasure to be here.

Greg Wilpert

So Mexico, in terms of the number of per capita deaths from covid, is actually Latin America's third worst hit country after Panama and Peru. And at the moment, the trend line is still going up, actually, at least the death rate. In other words, according to the Covid death rate, Mexico has been worse off than Brazil under a right wing president Jair Bolsonaro. So, can you just comment on why that is and what's been going on in Mexico under AMLO with regard to the pandemic?

Laura Carlsen

Yeah, I think it may even have surpassed Panama and just be behind for Peru in terms of deaths per 100,000 of population. So there's a lot of factors there. But the pandemic has been pretty much out of control for a while now, as in other places in the world. What we saw in Mexico was the first spike in the springtime in March and April, and then sort of a lull and another spike now that we've been seeing for about the past month or so  with the numbers really rising since the Christmas break, when people, despite fairly firm warnings from the government, got together in families and and in social gatherings.

Laura Carlsen

The problem with Mexico from the very beginning, the pandemic, the pandemic was put in the hands of an epidemiologist, Hugo Lopez Gatell, who became very famous nationwide as the leader of the covid response. And it seemed to be a science based response that was happening there. But it was always balanced with the economic considerations. The problem, and that's normal, you know, I mean, that's to be expected, a developing country where you actually can have people pushed into life threatening poverty, you have to balance those factors because you just can't go too far one way or the other. And it's not an easy thing to do. We've seen it happening in other countries as well. The problem was that from the very beginning, the messaging from the president himself and the majority of the population looks directly to the presi...