Engineer Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano died on October 28 in Mexico City at the age of 92. A victim of an oncological illness, he was the first elected head of government of the capital.

---

Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas inherited that cause and devoted more than six decades to it, along with the defense of the rights of the working classes and the structural transformation of Mexico’s political system.

He became established as a reference point for the country’s progressive, patriotic and transformative struggles.

RELATED: Long Live Independent, Free, Sovereign Mexico!: President Sheinbaum

The engineer was the son of General Lazaro Cardenas del Río, who carried out the 1938 nationalization of Mexico’s oil industry, a decision that placed crude oil under state control and became a milestone of national sovereignty.

His remains are being mourned on October 29 at the French Pantheon in the capital, the mausoleum where his life partner, Celeste Batel, also rests. He is survived by three children: Lázaro, Cuauhtémoc and Camila Cárdenas Batel.

🇬🇧 The Socialist International mourns the passing of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, our Honorary President, a tireless champion of democracy and social justice in Mexico and Latin America. Our heartfelt condolences to his family, his comrades and the people of Mexico.

📷 “Cuauhtémoc… pic.twitter.com/JEsGQyNnKf

— Socialist International (@Soc_Intl) October 29, 2026

From PRI to PRD

Cardenas began his political activity in 1954 through the National Liberation Movement (MLN, in Spanish) and served as governor of Michoacán from 1980 to 1986. In 1987 he led the deepest break in contemporary Mexican politics. Together with Ifigenia Martínez, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and César Buenrostro, he founded the Democratic Current within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in Spanish) to fight the imposition of the presidential candidate and the shift toward the neoliberal model.

He left the PRI that year and was nominated by the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution, later building the National Democratic Front with a range of social forces. The July 6, 1988 presidential election was marked by the scandalous fraud of the so-called “system crash,” which imposed Carlos Salinas de Gortari. That day marked a turning point in the struggle for clean elections. Cardenas led the peaceful protest, together with other candidates, to avoid violence and bloodshed in the country.

After the fraud was carried out, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas drove the founding in 1989 of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a platform oriented toward rejecting privatizations and budget austerity, and defending secularism and state control of strategic industries.

After his presidential bids in 1988 and 1994, on July 6, 1997 he became the first elected head of government of what was then the Federal District. His victory dismantled the direct control of the executive branch over the capital and established an administration with a social emphasis, transparency and priority attention to vulnerable sectors.

At 90, at the tribute paid to him by National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he firmly recalled that winning democracy in Mexico cost the lives of between 600 and 800 activists who fell in various days of struggle. Their killings remained unpunished under the governments of the regime.

🕊️ Un encuentro que quedó para la historia. El 3 de julio de 2018, dos días después de su triunfo electoral, @lopezobrador_ se reunió con Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a quien reconoció como precursor del movimiento democrático que daría paso a la 4T.

Así el momento. 👇#OnceNoticias 🔻 pic.twitter.com/ZkUXFx1lpP

— Once Noticias (@OnceNoticiasTV) October 29, 2026

Text reads: “A meeting that has gone down in history. On July 3, 2018, two days after his electoral victory,
@lopezobrador met with Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, whom he recognized as the precursor of the democratic movement that would lead to the 4T (4th transformation).”

Final Years and Honors

In his last years, Cardenas defended strategic resources against transnational capital. On March 18, 2026, at the ceremony for the 88th anniversary of the oil expropriation in Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz, President Claudia Sheinbaum named him head of the Advisory Commission of the state oil company Pemex.

He received an honorary doctorate from the National Polytechnic Institute in January 2026, and in September 2026 the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) created the Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Chair in recognition of his contribution to sovereignty and self-determination.

He ran for president a third time in 2000. The defense of strategic resources was his last great cause, which he upheld uncompromisingly in his final years against the appetites of transnational capital.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opened her morning press conference in the Treasury Hall of the National Palace with the homage, describing the former governor and presidential candidate as one of the central figures of contemporary Mexican politics. She presented his political life not as a single campaign, but as the foundation of a broader national transformation.

“His legacy is of honesty and democracy, but democracy that comes from below, not the democracy of the elites. Democracy as the people in power,” she asserted.

Members of her cabinet joined the tribute, underscoring the peaceful and sovereign character of Cárdenas’s historic campaign.

Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez highlighted the leader’s composure in channeling popular outrage through democratic means after the electoral manipulation of 1988. “Leading a popular mobilization requires responding to people’s expectations, but also protecting their lives and preserving the possibilities of continuing the struggle,” she said, honoring militants persecuted by the regime of that era.

For his part, Pablo Gómez, head of the Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform, defined Cárdenas as “the leader of the political rupture with national surrenderism, anti-democracy and corruption.” He called him an indispensable precedent for the electoral gains of the present day.

The high-speed train collision in Urda, in the Spain’s province of Toledo, has 69 deaths confirmed on October 29, with 107 injured still hospitalized after a train was cleared to move despite a safety system failure.

---

The Spanish Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF) rectified this afternoon the last figure of death people of the train accident of Wednesday in Urda, in the Spanish province of Toledo, south of Madrid, mantaining at 69 the number of fatalities. The correction came minutes after the same agency raised the figure to 74 on its website.

Sources from the Ministry of Transport assured that the official data are those provided by the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha and that they do not confirm “any data” of those deaths, despite the figure published earlier on the website of the Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF), which is hosted on the page of the Ministry.

RELATED: Spain Declares Three Days of National Mourning After Toledo Rail Tragedy

According to the account provided by authorities, the LZB safety system on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line went down at 8:30 A.M. local time, forcing at least six trains to stop. Six minutes later, at 8:36 A.M. local time, the control center authorized the Renfe AVE train to resume its journey. It traveled 25 kilometers before hitting, at 8:53 A.M., an Iryo train that was stopped on the track. The investigation is ongoing and the sequence of events has not been confirmed in court.

Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the order issued from the Adif command center at Atocha station in Madrid “inexplicable.” He confirmed that the system was showing a red warning alerting to the presence of the stopped train.

The authorities reported that the person responsible for authorizing the advance is identified and under investigation, amid harsh questions about the state management of public transport after two serious accidents were recorded in the same year.

The judge in charge of the case barred access to anyone not involved in the work around the crash site, covering a two-kilometer perimeter along the high-speed line in both directions. The order bans the removal of materials and the dissemination of images in order to preserve evidence, traces and evidence for the clarification of criminal responsibilities.

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida de teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)

Workers on Strike

The collision reignited harsh criticism of state management of public transport. Spain has now recorded two serious rail disasters in a single year.

The Spanish Union of Train Drivers and Rail Assistants (SEMAF) held a 24-hour national strike on Renfe services, including at Sants station in Barcelona, to demand better safety conditions on the rail network.

Drivers’ representatives said the lack of state investment in rail infrastructure directly compromises the integrity of workers and passengers. They demanded urgent hiring of more staff to avoid work overload and guarantee required rest, and a concrete protocol for extreme weather. They recalled recent weather events that caused derailments and infrastructure collapses, such as walls falling onto the tracks in Barcelona province.

The union urged the Government of Spain to direct budget funds toward renewing the network and strengthening safety across the public transport system.

The investigation remains open and the crash zone sealed. The union’s three demands, more staff, protected rest periods, and a weather protocol, now form part of a wider reckoning over how Spain runs its railways.

The results of the technical investigation and the judge’s inquiry will determine who bears responsibility. Authorities are expected to release updated figures as rescue and identification work continues.

The U.S. war against Iran has cost U.S. taxpayers $47.1 billion dollars, according to the latest Pentagon figures delivered to Congress, as the economic fallout threatens Republicans just days before the midterm elections.

---

The conflict, launched unilaterally by Washington and Israel in late February, keeps draining public resources with no end in sight. The number comes from U.S. Central Command (Centcom), and covers expenditures through October 16.

It is the most current estimate of a war whose bill has climbed by $3.5 billion since early September, when it stood near $43.6 billion.

RELATED: U.S. Midterms: Trump’s Grip on Congress Comes Down to the Gas Pump

The reports sent to Congress break the spending down line by line. The largest share, roughly $29 billion, went to replacing munitions consumed on the battlefield. Another $12 billion covered additional operational expenses, and $6.1 billion paid for military equipment lost or damaged.

The figures also show $7.6 billion spent on U.S. Air Force logistical support for troops deployed across the region, including air transport, communications and base maintenance. Yet even that official tally leaves something out: the cost of repairing U.S. military bases in West Asia damaged by Iranian missile and drone attacks does not appear in the Pentagon’s estimate.

The Congressional Budget Office has put the monthly burden at between $2 billion and $3 billion. That same agency warns that rebuilding depleted ammunition reserves could take around five years, a delay that would undercut Washington’s ability to respond to other crises.

The US war against Iran had cost $47.1 billion by October 16, with bombs, missiles and other munitions accounting for more than 60 percent of the total, The New York Times reported, citing figures the Pentagon presented to Congress last week.

Despite President Donald Trump… pic.twitter.com/a6bZTQa1Kz

— VOH (English) (@H_Voice3) October 28, 2026

Republicans Under Pressure

The rising cost has turned into a central political issue with midterm elections now a week away. Voters will decide which party controls Congress during the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, and the war’s economic fallout is hitting close to home.

Instability and higher energy prices have become visible consequences of a campaign that began without congressional authorization. Those same pressures now threaten to punish Republicans at the polls, as the administration’s threats of new attacks add further uncertainty.

The October 16 cutoff means the published number is already stale. Every additional strike, every replacement missile and every surge of troops pushes the figure higher before the next report lands. The Pentagon’s own admission that it cannot yet account for damaged bases suggests the true cost will keep growing well after the ballots are counted.

What began as a unilateral military venture now carries a price tag measured in tens of billions, a depleted arsenal and a five-year rebuild timeline. That arithmetic, delivered to Congress just before voters head to the polls, has placed the war’s defenders on the defensive.