International
Spain is optimistic about the future of Guatemala with the Government of Arévalo de León
Spain sees with optimism the future of Guatemala after the arrival of Bernardo Arévalo de León, inaugurated on January 15, due to his government plan and his social projects.
This was stated by the now former ambassador of Spain to Guatemala, José María Laviña, who was at the head of the diplomatic delegation from September 2020 until the end of his mandate this week.
“It has been three and a half intense years,” Laviña recalled in an interview with EFE, referring to his arrival in Guatemala in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Undoubtedly, the passage of Laviña in Guatemala was also marked by the support of Spain and the European Union for the Guatemalan electoral process, at risk for much of 2023 due to the attempts of the Public Ministry (Fiscalía) to reverse the triumph at the polls of Arévalo de León.
According to the Spanish official, the Guatemala he met in 2020, when landing in the country, is not the same as the current one: “Politically, there are indeed differences to the last stage of the Government of (Alejandro) Giammattei, with the attempts made from different institutions and powers to prevent the investiture of Bernardo Arévalo.”
However, in his vision, the new president was able to take office thanks to the effort of the Guatemalans to maintain democracy, and “in the second term,” due to international support.
“I was surprised by the virulence of those attacks, of those judicialization, of politics, that there was the final stage of last year against the president and the political party Semilla,” he added.
Laviña asserted that he had never lived an investiture like the one scheduled for last January 14, where, according to experts, the inauguration of Arévalo de León was at risk and that is why it was delayed until January 15.
“Everyone who has attended the inauguration in Latin America has seen very unique things, but I think that what happened here with those 12 hours of delay, about the scheduled schedules, I think no one expected it,” he said.
In the same sense, Laviña considers that it was “a little sad” what happened by the “image” that Guatemala was providing “live” to the world.
Regarding the new Government, the now former ambassador says that there are “many opportunities” for the country because Arévalo “has a very evident social content in his political program” in search of the “welfare state” for the most disadvantaged.
“The triumph of democracy in Guatemala can and should be an example for many countries that have experienced complicated situations,” he said, with “optimism” about the future of the Central American nation.
The 60-year-old diplomat, born in Oviedo (in northwestern Spain) assured that it has been a “privilege” to occupy the position in Guatemala, a country that has left his mark and where he has been practically “five percent of my life.”
From September 2020 to date, he visited 20 of the 22 departments (provinces) of the country and the “most remote” places in the territory, hand in hand with Spanish cooperation.
“I think Guatemalan gastronomy has a lot of future, based on traditional dishes, and its places are wonderful,” Laviña stressed, always trying to get out of the “bubble” that is Guatemala City, which “does not represent the country.”
Regarding Spain’s relationship with Guatemala, Laviña described it as “very good” both in the past and at present.
In place of Laviña, the Spanish Government appointed the diplomat Clara Girbau, who served as permanent representative of Spain to the European Union as coordinator in charge of the working groups on relations with Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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