Gen-Z Protests in Mexico or Coordinated Chaos?
Protesters tearing down steel fence in the Zócalo Mexico City. Screenshots via José Luis Granados Ceja.
Is Mexico the next country to see a youth anti-government uprising? It seems that some would like it to be. On November 15 in Mexico City, thousands of demonstrators, estimates vary on how many participated, took to the streets to protest against the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum. Participants also said that they were protesting against the president’s handling of the problem of insecurity in Mexico. They demanded that the government take a tougher stance against organized crime following the assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Monzo.
The day of protests led to clashes between demonstrators and police. According to official reports, at least 100 police officers were injured, as well as 20 protesters. The protesters removed the fence protecting the National Palace, to which the police responded by firing tear gas and arresting 20 of the protesters, accusing them of theft and assault.
The Executive’s reaction
For her part, Sheinbaum stated that she supported the protesters’ right to protest, but that she did not support any acts of violence: “Today there was a demonstration where they say young people marched, but in reality there were very few, and they violently removed some fences and broke windows… Violence should never be used to bring about change; always peaceful means.”
The Secretary of Public Education, Mario Delgado, claimed that the protest was fueled by information seeking to manipulate the younger population by hiring thousands of bots. In this regard, the Executive insists that the demonstrations are being financed by groups and individuals who remain “behind the scenes.”
A plot to provoke the demonstrations?
Before the November 15 demonstration, Sheinbaum publicly stated that obscure interests would finance the events: “We agree with freedom of expression and demonstration if there are young people who have demands, but the question here is who is promoting the demonstration… People should know how this protest was organized so that no one is being used.”
According to the Executive, a network of international right-wing groups, opposition figures, influencers, and bots is coordinating with each other to promote a process of destabilization in Mexico. Among the names that have allegedly spent almost 90 million Mexican pesos (almost USD 4,881,767) to promote the demonstrations are telecommunications entrepreneur Ricardo Salinas Pliego (owner of Azteca Noticias) and the far-right international NGO Atlas Network.
The president pointed out that a large part of the money comes from abroad: “There is evidence that many of the promoters have nothing to do with Generation Z, but rather that this is a political operation financed from abroad.”
Thus, according to the government, as part of the plot to delegitimize the government, the network of opposition figures allegedly orchestrated a media campaign to gradually generate unrest among Mexico’s younger population through the use of hundreds of accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and other social networks. Reports indicate that the social media accounts gradually began to call for a “peaceful demonstration” against the government.
Among the politicians who echoed the call for a demonstration are the mayor of Cuauhtémoc, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, the opposition movement Marea Rosa, and the country’s former right-wing president, Vicente Fox.
Sheinbaum: “They want to spread a false idea internationally”
In addition, President Sheinbaum said on November 17 that several international media outlets are trying to spread the idea that acts of repression are taking place in Mexico, which she claims is absolutely false.
On the contrary, the Executive attempted to demonstrate, through videos and photographs, that the goal of some masked protesters was to tear down the fence protecting the National Palace, attack the police, and force a response from law enforcement in order to justify a narrative that is being promoted internationally, namely that young people are being repressed in Mexico.
A popular but attentive government
According to the latest polls, Claudia Sheinbaum maintains an approval rating of more than 70% of the population, which is why she has stated that “the majority of the population” does not agree with the recent demonstrations.
However, despite its popularity, the Executive has spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what happened on November 15. This is because opposition groups have stated that they will mobilize again on November 20, and they hope that the call to action will grow stronger as the days go by. This explains why Sheinbaum and her team are trying to tackle a problem that could become a real headache, even more so if it is confirmed that the smear campaign is in fact a plot orchestrated inside and outside Mexico by dark forces.
Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch
Africa: Recent Election Crisis and Continent’s Youth in Revolt
Mass protest in the Ivory Coast. Photo: PCRCI
The past few months have seen three elections across Africa, in Tanzania, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire. Each exposed a deepening democratic crisis on the continent. While the ballot boxes were filled and the slogans of “stability” and “unity” were loudly proclaimed, the underlying reality was very different; repression, exclusion, and a profound disconnect between the political class and the masses, especially youth.
In all three cases, aging leaders clung to power through electoral processes that were anything but democratic. The continuity of these regimes is part of Africa’s enduring entrapment within neoliberal and neo-colonial frameworks, where the ritual of elections serves to legitimize old orders and satisfy liberal democracy’s important symbolic tenet of holding elections without any fundamental change.
Tanzania: a crisis of legitimacy
The October 29, 2025 elections in Tanzania marked a turning point toward deeper authoritarianism. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 97.66% of the vote, a margin that raised more questions than celebrations. The opposition, led by CHADEMA party figures such as Tundu Lissu and Amani Golugwa, faced relentless harassment long before polling day. Opposition rallies were dispersed, candidates were barred, and dozens of party members were arrested.
Following the announcement of results, Tanzanians poured into the streets of Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza, only to meet state brutality. A total internet shutdown, curfews, and reports of mass killings and disappearances turned the election aftermath into one of the darkest chapters in Tanzania’s political history. Human rights groups have since alleged grave violations, though independent verification remains difficult under government censorship.
Regional responses were telling. The African Union (AU), initially quick to congratulate President Suluhu, later walked back its stance under public pressure, admitting the elections had “failed to meet democratic standards”. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) reported that even its own observers were harassed and detained by Tanzanian security forces. But, beyond rhetorical concern, no meaningful interventions followed.
Cameroon: the century of Paul Biya
Meanwhile, in Cameroon, Paul Biya, now 92 years old and in power since 1982, extended his rule for another seven-year term. The October 12, 2025 election, where Biya supposedly won 53.66% of the vote, came after mass disqualifications of opposition candidates 70 out of 83 applications were rejected by the Electoral Commission (ELECAM). Among those barred was Maurice Kamto, the major opposition figure who had previously challenged Biya in 2018.
With viable opposition effectively neutralized, Issa Tchiroma Bakary became the nominal challenger. His supporters protested even before the official results, alleging manipulation and fraud. Protests in Douala, Garoua, and Maroua were met with live ammunition and mass arrests. The images of unarmed protesters being shot at while demanding transparent elections have further tarnished Cameroon’s already fragile legitimacy.
Cameroon’s youth, facing unemployment rates above 30%, have become increasingly alienated from a political system that offers neither opportunity nor representation.
Côte d’Ivoire: the illusion of reform
In Côte d’Ivoire, President Alassane Ouattara, 83, secured a fourth term, continuing a pattern of constitutional manipulation that has defined Ivorian politics since independence. Having argued that the 2016 constitutional reform “reset” term limits, Ouattara sidelined his main rivals, Laurent Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro, both of whom were barred from contesting.
The election had no real competition and a state apparatus designed to reproduce the status quo. Opposition groups organized protests, only to face mass arrests and bans on demonstrations. The government’s heavy-handed tactics show what is becoming a broader regional trend, electoral processes are increasingly hollowed out, while Western donors and Bretton Woods institutions continue to embrace “stability” over justice.
Ouattara’s rule represents a particularly insidious strain of technocratic neoliberalism governance through economic orthodoxy rather than political legitimacy. Once hailed by the IMF and World Bank as a model reformer, Ouattara has overseen rising inequality, rural poverty, and youth unemployment, even as Côte d’Ivoire posts impressive GDP figures. As Jonis Ghedi Alasow of Pan African Today noted, “the reported approval ratings of over 90% in some of the elections (Tanzania and the Ivory Coast) stand in stark contrast to the palpable discontent in these societies. This discontent is not only evident in opposition politics during electoral cycles but also in the daily challenges and frustrations that citizens voice, extending far beyond electoral processes. These are not elections — they are coronations. Ouattara’s popularity in Western capitals stems from his willingness to implement austerity and privatization, not from the consent of his people.”
Beyond the ballot: what to make of Africa’s electoral crisis
The Accra Collective of the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) released a statement calling out the wave of electoral fraud, constitutional manipulation, and state repression sweeping the continent. Declaring that “ruling elites have turned elections into tools for preserving power rather than instruments for expressing the popular will.”
Their critique points to a larger truth: Africa’s democratic crisis is not just political, it is structural. Elections are embedded within a neo-colonial framework, where sovereignty is constrained by debt, trade dependency, and elite alliances with global capital. Leaders like Biya, Ouattara, and Suluhu remain in power precisely because they are reliable custodians of imperial interests, managing resource extraction and neoliberal reforms under the guise of “stability”.
As Ghedi Alasow adds, “It is important to remember that elections have never been a panacea for the fundamental problems facing our people. Africa’s history is a testament to the fact that meaningful change emerges not from ballot boxes but from organized struggle.”
But, at the same time, popular anger is growing on the continent, the youth of Africa are beginning to question not just fraudulent elections, but the very legitimacy of the systems that sustain them. Movements inspired by Pan-Africanism, socialism, and grassroots organizing are re-emerging and organizing, calling for a politics that serves the people rather than capital.
Ghedi Alasow remarked, “The popularity of leaders like Traoré underscores what people truly seek: patriots who are willing to defend their interests. People are less concerned about the means through which leaders come to power, but more about whose interests those leaders champion once in office. The neocolonial order is in crisis. It can no longer credibly claim legitimacy or democratic character.”
Who makes the future
The crises in Tanzania, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire are symptoms of a larger continental malaise; the collapse of bourgeois democracy under the weight of inequality, corruption, and neocolonial dependency. Electoral rituals continue, but their content has been emptied. Without popular participation, economic sovereignty, and mass organization, elections will remain instruments of domination, not change in any foreseeable future.
True democracy, as the Socialist Movement of Ghana reminds us, “must rest on popular sovereignty where power flows from the organized masses, not from the boardrooms of multinational corporations or the dictates of imperial powers.”
Africa’s future, then, will not be decided by the aging autocrats who cling to office, nor by the technocrats who serve imperial finance. It will be forged by a generation that refuses to be silenced, a generation determined to reclaim democracy from the shadows of neocolonialism and to rebuild it in the light of people’s power.
Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch
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