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In episode 59 of Global Majority for Peace, Ileana Chan speaks with filmmaker Eduardo Flores Torres about the enduring significance of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary project in a moment of renewed U.S. aggression across Latin America. The conversation traces how Castro’s legacy continues to shape Cuban political life, national identity, and the island’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty under one of the longest and most punitive embargoes in modern history.

Drawing from Eduardo’s documentary "Fidel Up Close", the discussion explores the human, political, and historical dimensions of Castro’s life — from his early years and family relationships to the pressures that shaped Cuba’s alignment with the Soviet Union and its decades‑long resistance to U.S. intervention.

The episode also examines how the blockade has defined daily life for generations of Cubans, the extraordinary resilience that has allowed the island to endure, and the shifting geopolitical landscape that now includes deepening ties with China. Against the backdrop of new U.S. military initiatives in the region and escalating rhetoric targeting Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, the conversation situates Cuba’s experience within a broader pattern of imperial pressure and Global South resistance. It offers a grounded look at why Fidel Castro remains a central figure in understanding contemporary struggles over sovereignty, development, and multipolar realignment.

Eduardo Flores Torres is a Mexican cinematographer and co‑director of Fidel Up Close (2021), a documentary offering an intimate portrait of Fidel Castro through rare archival footage and testimonies from family, collaborators, and Cuban intellectuals. He is also a graduate of the London Film School and a member of the Mexican Society of Cinematographers (AMC) and the Society of Camera Operators (SOC) in Los Angeles.

Support Eduardo’s new project “Cuba and the Blockade”, the extraordinary story of how a Caribbean island has survived 60 years of blockade and remains standing.

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Keith Bennett, British analyst, activist, and deputy chair of the Kim Il-Sung Kim Jong Il Foundation, joins Ileana Chan for episode 58 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Keith debunks the dominant myths surrounding North Korea, from allegations of grave human rights violations to claims of deliberate starvation tied to its nuclear program. He traces his own politicization and first visit to the DPRK in 1983, situating the country’s struggle for sovereignty and socialist construction within the broader context of Cold War divisions, sanctions, and propaganda.

Keith highlights North Korea’s achievements in education, housing, and healthcare, its consistent support for liberation movements across Africa and Latin America, and the devastating legacy of the Korean War, including US bombing campaigns and napalm use. Keith also explains how the DPRK’s ideology of self‑reliance (Juche) has enabled survival under some of the harshest multilateral sanctions in modern history, and how shifting positions from China and Russia are reshaping the geopolitical landscape today.

Keith provides a critical lens on how the DPRK has been systematically demonized in ways even Cuba has not, and why narratives of “uniqueness” in human rights violations serve imperialist agendas. He situates North Korea’s struggle within the broader fight for sovereignty across the Global South, offering lessons for movements resisting empire worldwide. Keith Bennett is a British analyst, activist, and writer based in London. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Kim Il Sung–Kim Jong Il Foundation. He is also the co‑founder and an editor of Friends of Socialist China. Engaged with Korean affairs since the early 1980s, he has made numerous visits to the DPRK and written extensively on its struggle for sovereignty, self‑reliance, and resistance to U.S. imperialism.

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Ollie Vargas, British-Bolivian journalist, political analyst, and co-founder of @KawsachunNews , joins Ileana Chan for episode 57 of the Global Majority for Peace podcast.

In this episode, Ollie analyzes the defeat of Bolivia’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party after nearly 20 years in power. He breaks down the internal divisions and external pressures, from US funded propaganda to institutional weaknesses, that led to this pivotal moment. The discussion traces Bolivia’s transformative "golden years" under Evo Morales, marked by nationalization, poverty reduction, and sovereignty, and contrasts it with the new government’s rapid re-engagement with the IMF, World Bank, and U.S. agencies like the DEA.

Ollie provides a critical lens on the US “war on drugs” as a tool of political destabilization and examines the precarious balance Latin American governments now strike between beneficial cooperation with China and coercive alignment with Washington. Drawing from his recent move to Beijing, he also shares insights on the lessons socialist projects worldwide can learn from China’s development model, institutional continuity, and defense against foreign hybrid warfare.

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