International
Guatemalans in the U.S. denounce bias in candidate registration in their country’s elections
March 18 |
Guatemalans in the United States are concerned about the transparency and credibility of the elections in their country, with only a few days left before the deadline to register to vote abroad, on March 25.
A little more than 100,000 Guatemalans in the U.S. could vote in the next general elections on June 25. But Carlos Lam, leader of the Guatemalans Without Borders Association, told the Voice of America that to date the number of his countrymen in the United States eligible to vote does not reach 100,000.
In Washington, a group of Guatemalans working to achieve a greater number of registrations met this week to fine tune details of the strategy of “mobilization” of their countrymen in the final stretch of registration in the metropolitan area of the U.S. capital.
Lam said that with the Platform of Guatemalans Abroad they have tried to increase the number of registered voters.
Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which is organizing the elections, plans to set up six voting centers in the U.S., and this will be the only country outside Guatemala where people can vote, Lam said.
The TSE has said that the process is progressing successfully and that thanks to the registration campaigns, inside and outside the country, “the registration of the registered population, as of March 12, is 9,206,866 citizens”.
Lam and other activists point out that the electoral process began to lose credibility due to alleged irregularities in the registration of candidates.
“We have seen with great concern the partiality of the TSE regarding the registration of candidates,” he said.
Lam pointed out that peasant leader Thelma Cabrera and former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas, two attractive figures among indigenous peoples and the opposition, “were denied participation as presidential candidates”.
Thelma Cabrera is an indigenous leader and human rights defender who with the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP) won in the 2019 presidential elections more than 400,000 votes, 10% of the votes cast in the first round, which placed her in fourth position.
Jordan Rodas, who in August 2022 completed his mandate as Human Rights Ombudsman, joined the MLP as Cabrera’s running mate.
The binomial was rejected by the TSE in a first ruling on January 28. After a review and appeal before the Constitutional Court, it was rejected again.
The TSE has not given explanations about the refusal to register the candidates except for the “invalidity” in the validity of the termination of one of the candidates, which was promoted by one of the magistrates, local media reported.
The TSE did not respond to a request for comment from Voice of America on the candidate registrations.
Concerns about lack of transparency have permeated the citizenry, Lam explained, and residents abroad are following closely and there have been multiple protests against the TSE.
The platform of Guatemalans Abroad has denounced inconsistencies in the process, including the refusal to register certain candidates while others, including questionable figures, have been approved.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction