The essayist warns that there is authoritarianism on all three sides and is pessimistic about the current situation.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Gustavo Borges 23 June 2025 — Cuban-born essayist Rafael Rojas asserted this Sunday that despite the tendency toward authoritarianism on all three sides, it still makes sense to talk about left, right, and center in analyzing world politics.
“It still makes sense to talk about left, right, and center, more due to geography than ideology, because we find conservative traits, tendencies toward authoritarianism or autocracy, both on the left, the right, and the center,” the academic said in an interview with EFE.
Rojas, winner of the 2006 Anagrama Essay Prize, published History as a Weapon, an essay that analyzes the role of Latin American intellectuals in the Cold War and examines works such as Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America and Ángel Rama’s The Lettered City.
The text, published by Siglo veintiuno editores, analyzes the debates of the British publication New Left Review, reviews the reflections of intellectuals such as Alejo Carpentier and Marta Harnecker and reveals the symbols, myths and strategies of the Latin American narrative in the dispute that divided the world into two blocks.
“I’m talking about how difficult it is to talk about a left when we’ve had such diverse leaders in the same movement, such as Mujica, Boric, and Lula, and at the same time Maduro, Ortega, and Díaz-Canel.”
“In this essay, I talk about how difficult it is to talk about a left when we’ve had such diverse leaders in the same movement, such as José Mujica in Uruguay; Gabriel Boric in Chile; Lula da Silva in Brazil; and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela; Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua; and Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba,” he observed.
For Rojas, a full member of the Mexican Academy of History, the Cold War was the third world war, and if we’re talking about the fourth, the world is already experiencing it, with simultaneous conflicts in several places.
“The third was the Cold War. The fourth is ongoing with Russia in Ukraine; Israel in Gaza; and in its disputes with Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. We also have the conflict between China and Taiwan, which could escalate at any moment,” he stated.
The academic sees no signs of optimism regarding these wars because international organizations, starting with the UN and specifically the Security Council, are unable to put a stop to them.
“These wars are fueled by global geopolitical failures; the deterioration of the alliance between the United States and Europe; Europe’s internal crises with the rise of nationalist, neoconservative governments opposed to the idea of a united Europe; while China and Russia are going their own way,” he reflected.
While accepting that there is little reason for optimism in today’s world, the editor of Historia Mexicana magazine considered that in some places pessimism could be tempered; for example, in the United States, where President Donald Trump doesn’t hold all the cards in his numerous disputes.
“Trump doesn’t have all the cards in his favor in his project to dismantle democracy. We’re seeing resistance at all levels, against the immigration raids, the military deployment, and judicial resistance from institutions, universities, and the public,” he noted.
“Trump doesn’t have all the cards in his favor in his project to dismantle democracy. We’re seeing resistance at all levels.”
The academic does not see any country led by a leader currently, although he observes democratic forces in Europe resisting the advance of new conservatisms, new nationalisms, and nostalgia for fascism.
“There are no leaders, but there are currents, and from them come leaders. The political power plays are gradually adjusting, shifting from one side to the other, and I wouldn’t rule out the emergence of democratic leaderships in the transition from the first quarter to the second of the 21st century,” he opined.
Regarding humanity’s tendency to follow alpha males, he said it has been a constant throughout history and that we only have to remember “the era of fascism, of left-wing and right-wing totalitarianism, with great warlords like Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, which was reproduced in the Cold War, and the long tradition of caciques [chieftains] that has existed in Latin America since the 19th century.”
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