As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM

OVER the last few weeks of war, the Establishment has tried to stamp out all discussion of causes and contexts.
We are expected to believe this is a war without a history, a battle between good and evil, between a civilised West and Russian authoritarianism and depravity.
The war has indeed been precipitated by Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling class. Russia’s full-scale invasion is causing devastation and misery. Sending solidarity to the Ukrainian people and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops have to be the first things we do.

As US hegemony crumbles and Trump becomes ever more unpredictable, European powers cling to the pact’s militarist agenda in a bid to disguise their own increasing irrelevance, writes CHRIS NINEHAM


