№ 5 (2024)

This article examines the evolution of both domestic and foreign political life of Venezuela between October 2023 and February 2024. Some important events and developments, which, in our opinion, are worth analyzing, occurred at this time not on their own but under the influence of a number of internal (subjective) and external (objective) factors. In our opinion, internal ones should include, first of all, the extremely unfavorable economic situation that has developed in the country. One of the important external factors is the constant pressure exerted by the United States, which seriously affects the state of affairs in Venezuela. Another aspect of that nature is the negative environment in world energy prices that developed in the middle of the second decade of the 21st century. Particularly noteworthy are the policies of Nicolas Maduro’s cabinet related to the primaries held by the opposition in October 2023, sanctions pressure, as well as some relevant issues related to the new dimensions of the existing border conflict between Venezuela and Guyana around the oil-bearing Essequibo region.

The article, based on Spanish and Chinese sources, deals with the evolution of relations between Spain and China over 50 years of diplomatic relations. Particular attention is paid to studying the main areas of cooperation between the two countries at the present stage. The expert discourse of Spain and China is examined. The authors identify key points of contact within the framework of cooperation in the field of political relations, on the basis of which they concluded that there is significant potential for its development. At the same time, some factors are demonstrated that make it difficult to align the interests of China and Spain and deepen ties between the countries.

At the end of 1967 Yevgeny Yevtushenko went on a big Latin American tour, visiting Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico with poetry performances. According to the internal rules of the Writers' Union, the poet had to write a brief official report on the trip for the Secretariat of the Union. However, Yevtushenko's report can be called neither brief nor official: it is written extensively, passionately and with the express purpose of impressing his superiors with his success and convince them of his reliability and usefulness. In the first part, devoted to Chile, the author of Babi Yar deals with the balance of political forces in the country, speaks of the insufficient — or inadequate — Soviet presence; pays considerable attention to the public response to the literary and political processes in the USSR (the Siniavsky and Daniel case, the Trial of the Four); and, finally, talks about his poetry recitals. The text of the report, preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), is published for the first time, and is accompanied by an introductory article and commentary.

The article analyzes the state of smart agriculture of both the world community and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Quantitative indicators characterizing the shares of leading agricultural technology innovations in the agricultural solution market are given. Quantitative data on the forecast market value of smart agriculture worldwide from 2020 to 2026 and the forecast market value of smart agriculture worldwide by application in 2020 and 2026 are also provided. The author investigates the role of agriculture in the Latin American region's economy and its contribution to global agricultural production. The main trends in the implementation of smart agriculture solutions and the main challenges hindering their widespread deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean are examined. Furthermore, the author considers separately the main solutions that are already in use in the regional countries and gives a brief description of their intended use and of the objects their influence is directed to. Moreover, the results of their use are stated. In conclusion, recommendations for the implementation of smart agriculture projects in the Latin American region are given.

The article analyzes the pre-Hispanic past of the Huastecs (the Maya group, is its early offshoot). For centuries, they developed in the Gulf of Mexico region in isolation from the classical and Yucatan Maya, whom Yu.V.Knorozov studied. The study of the pre-Hispanic past of the Huastecs is conducted on the basis of modern archaeological data. The article emphasizes that the peculiarity of the Huasteca culture was influenced by their lack of a single territory, as well as the development of the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Totonac, Toltec, Otomi, and Aztec cultures here at different historical times. It is established that the main features of the Huastec culture were formed by the 8th century. The Maya people demonstrate the greatest originality and uniqueness of the pre-Hispanic period of history in sculpture and ceramics.

The J. Ortega Reyna’s book studies the influence of the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser’s ideas on the Mexican intellectual environment of the second half of the 20th century, through the prism of the opposition revolts against the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the spreading of the Althusser theory in the University community and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) uprising in the 1990th.