International
Rwanda begins the commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 genocide
Rwanda began this Sunday the hundred days of mourning established by the country to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 moderate Tutsis and Hutus were killed, a massacre that still shookes the world and Rwandan society.
To begin the commemoration, the country’s president, Paul Kagame, lit accompanied by the first lady, Jeannette, the traditional flame of remembrance at the Center in Memory of the Genocide in the capital, Kigali, where more than 250,000 victims of the massacre lie in mass graves.
In a solemn act with moments of silence only interrupted by the commemorative songs singed by a military band and by the protocol instructions, a dozen heads of state and government paid their respects to the white cement blocks where the graves of the victims are housed.
Among the leaders present were the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, and the presidents of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa; Central African Republic (RCA), Faustin-Archange Touadera; Madasgascar, Andry Rajoelina; South Sudan, Salva Kiir; Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso; Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan; and the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel.
Likewise, the head of state of Mauritania and current president of the African Union (AU), Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, attended on the same day that it is precisely six months since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, for which Tel Aviv faces accusations of genocide in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Several former presidents, including the American Bill Clinton or the French Nicolás Sarkozy, as well as the president of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, also traveled to Kigali to join the memory acts.
The commemoration program that starts today throughout the country includes the prohibition of large celebrations, such as weddings or sports competitions, and the organization of concerts and other cultural or leisure events not related to genocide in bars and public spaces.
In addition, within the framework of these events, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has issued new certificates to register four other monuments commemorating the genocide as world heritage sites, in Kigali, Bisesero (west), Nyamata (southeast) and Murambi (south).
“This means the international recognition that what happened in Rwanda is a tragedy, not only for Rwanda but also for the entire international community, all of humanity,” the director general of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, told the press on Friday.
The one hundred days of mourning marked by the Rwandan Government will conclude on April 13 with an act at the Center for the Memory of the Genocide of Rebero (Kigali), in memory of the politicians who were killed for opposing the massacre.
The genocide began on April 7, 1994 after the murder the day before of the presidents of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, and Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira (both Hutus), when the plane in which they were traveling was shot down over Kigali.
The massacre that followed – the Rwandan Government accused the Tutsi rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of the murder, against whom it had been waging a war since 1990 – caused the death of at least 800,000 moderate Tutsis and Hutus in just over three months.
The genocide was one of the worst ethnic killings in the recent history of humanity.
Paul Kagame warned this Sunday in his speech that the conditions for an ethnic killing can occur anywhere if they are not controlled.
“The process of division and extremism that leads to genocide can occur anywhere if it is not controlled,” the president said in a forceful intervention before about 3,500 people gathered at the imposing BK Arena stadium in Kigali.
He defined any “ambiguity” about who were the victims of the genocide as “a form of denialism, which constitutes a crime.”
The president referred to the situation in the east of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), whose Kigali Army he accuses of supporting the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded in 2000 by leaders and other Hutu Rwandans exiled in that country.
“The remains of those forces (perpetrators of the killing) are still in the east of the Congo today,” Kagame said, assuring that they have the “full support of the blue helmets of the United Nations” and that “their objectives have not changed.”
International
Colombia and the United States want to “play a constructive role in the case of Venezuela”
The Governments of Colombia and the United States stressed in Bogotá that they want to have a “constructive role” in the presidential elections on July 28 in Venezuela. In turn, they expressed their willingness to contribute to what is required.
“Both the United States and Colombia want to play a constructive role in the case of Venezuela, in the solutions that the Venezuelan people define,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Luis Gilberto Murillo.
In a joint press conference with the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Administration and Resources, Richard Verma, Murillo stressed that “the Venezuelan people have been advancing in their solutions.”
“We continue, as we have always said, open to continue contributing in the way we are requested and in the way in which the Venezuelan people require it,” Murillo added.
Murillo and Verma installed the XI High-Level Dialogue of Colombia and the United States, in which more than 250 officials from both countries participate to discuss issues of the bilateral relationship such as rural transformation, peace and the fight against narcotics.
This statement comes just a few hours after Murillo denied that the Colombian government delivered a draft political agreement to Venezuela ahead of the elections.
The chancellor also recalled that Colombia participates in the dialogues with the opposition and is “very willing” to collaborate, but “has not made any proposals.”
Colombian media have echoed a publication in the newspaper El País according to which the Colombian ambassador in Caracas, Milton Rengifo, allegedly delivered to President Gustavo Petro a draft of “political peace” in Venezuela for after the presidential elections in July.
International
The United States maintains that Israel’s operation in Rafah is of a “limited” scope
The Pentagon held on Tuesday its analysis that the operation of the Israel Defense Forces in Rafah has a limited scope and although he described the attack on a camp of displaced people as “horrible”, he asked to wait for the results of the Israeli investigation.
“We still think it’s a limited operation,” Pentagon’s deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a press conference.
In that intervention he stressed that “of course” they have seen the images of the attack on a camp of displaced people from Tal al Sultan, where the impact of a missile and the subsequent fire killed 45 people on Sunday night.
“It’s horrible. It’s heartbreaking and it must stop. We must also remember that we support Israel in its fight against Hamas. It is a terrorist organization that is embedded in tunnels, that uses innocent civilians as hostages and that uses people as human shields. That’s why we are going to support Israel in its efforts to defeat Hamas,” he said.
Singh reiterated that they continue to urge the Israeli Executive to take all precautions to protect the population and stressed that they are waiting for the conclusions of the investigation opened by Israel, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described what happened as a “tragic mishap.”
The vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, said on Tuesday that “the tragic word does not even begin to describe” the Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in which 45 people died last Sunday night.
Harris made those statements to questions about the bombing, during a ceremony in Washington for the inauguration of Courtney O’Donnell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The vice president did not respond to a second interrogant, about whether that attack crossed a “red line” in the United States’ policy towards Israel.
In an interview with CNN on May 8, US President Joe Biden warned for the first time that he would stop supplying Israel with certain offensive weapons, which he acknowledged has been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Rafah to invade.
The United States warned Israel that it is opposing a large-scale operation in Rafah, but so far the Biden government has maintained that the current military operations are of limited scope.
The Israeli airstrike, in which about 45 Palestinians were killed, many of them children, affected a camp of tents for displaced people in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where the war has caused about 36,000 deaths.
After the incident was known, Netanyahu claimed that the death of civilians in Rafah was a “tragic mishap.”
The deceased were in an alleged “safe zone” in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, in the northwest of Rafah, where there were hundreds of displaced people in an improvised camp that Israel had not yet ordered to evacuate.
The Israeli Army reported that it was a “precise intelligence-based operation” aimed at eliminating two high commanders of Hamas who were in a building in the area, although it admitted that a fire later generated that caused a high number of fatalities.
International
Cuba describes the new US measures for entrepreneurs on the island as “limited”
Cuba described as a “limited measure” the permission granted by Washington for island entrepreneurs to open American bank accounts through the internet to carry out financial transactions from the island.
For the Cuban Government, the new provisions of President Joe Biden’s Administration “exclude most of the population,” in addition to “do not touch the body of the blockade (U.S. economic embargo on the island) nor modify the extreme measures.” All of these implemented during the presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021).
“In case it means a real opening and not an electoral announcement, the Government of Cuba is determined not to hinder its implementation,” Johana Tablada, deputy director general of the United States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) of Cuba, said at a press conference.
The U.S. Treasury Department explained in a statement that it authorizes Cuban businessmen to “remotely open, maintain and use U.S. bank accounts through an online payment platform to make authorized transactions” either from the United States, Cuba or any other country in the world.
Until now, islanders who visited the United States could open bank accounts in the North American country but they could not use them once they returned to Cuba.
According to American sources, those companies with links to Cuban government officials and members of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one) sanctioned by the United States will not benefit from this measure.
American sources explained to the press that the rest of the sanctions on the island are still in force, such as the presence of Cuba on the list of states that promote terrorism.
In that sense, Tablada stressed that “it will be very difficult” to apply the measures for the permanence of Havana on the list.
“It’s going to be very difficult for a Cuban to find a bank (…) that wants to open an account,” he stressed.
In addition to facilitating access to the US banking system, Joe Biden’s Administration updated the internet services it allows in Cuba. These include social media platforms, videoconferences, games and maps.
He also authorized the export of Cuban-born software from the United States to other countries.
It also lifted the blockade on transfers of funds that originate and end outside the United States. This is in order to facilitate the sending of remittances to Cuba.
Colombia and the United States want to “play a constructive role in the case of Venezuela”
The United States maintains that Israel’s operation in Rafah is of a “limited” scope
Cuba describes the new US measures for entrepreneurs on the island as “limited”
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
-
International3 days agoBrazil exceeds 3,000 deaths from dengue so far in 2024
-
International3 days agoThe Colombian Prosecutor’s Office formally accuses former President Álvaro Uribe of three crimes
-
International2 days agoThe UN estimates the number of deaths in the Papua New Guinea avalanche at 670
-
International2 days agoInternational partners embrace the Palestinian Authority for a two-state future
-
International3 days agoNoboa assures that Ecuador has a new face with more security after six months in office
-
International2 days agoSpain assures that no one will intimidate her in her support of the Palestinians
-
International2 days agoIsrael reproaches in a video in X Spain’s policy of recognizing the Palestinian State
-
International1 day agoAt least 45 dead in an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah
-
International3 days agoGuterres reminds Israel that the orders of the ICJ are mandatory
-
International3 days agoNeighbors block streets in Port-au-Prince to protect themselves and prevent the entry of gangs
-
International2 days agoA sidnappings cause alarm among migrants from the Mexican border with the United States
-
International1 day agoHaiti impatiently awaits the arrival of the multinational force to “restore peace”
-
International4 days agoIsraeli bombings throughout the Strip as tanks advance in Rafah
-
International4 days agoVolodymyr Zelenski plans to travel to Madrid this Monday after canceling his previous visit
-
International3 days agoBiden says that Floyd’s death at the hands of the police four years ago changed the world
-
International50 mins agoThe United States maintains that Israel’s operation in Rafah is of a “limited” scope
-
International4 days agoThree missionaries are murdered in Haiti, including the daughter of a U.S. legislator
-
International4 days agoSevere or moderate food insecurity is low but affects 26% of households in Colombia
-
International4 days agoThe president of Egypt pledges to allow the passage of aid to Gaza by Kerem Shalom
-
International1 day agoNauseda wins the second round of the presidential elections with 76% of the districts scrutinized
-
International1 day agoNorth Korea notifies Japan of its intention to launch a satellite before June 4
-
International2 days agoELN says that resuming kidnappings for economic purposes is not an ultimatum to the Government
-
International1 day agoSeoul, Tokyo and Beijing show their willingness to resume the trilateral summits “on a regular basis”
-
International4 days agoNoboa assures that Ecuador has a new face with more security after six months in office
-
International49 mins agoColombia and the United States want to “play a constructive role in the case of Venezuela”
-
International1 day agoBolsonaro says he suffers “endless persecution” after a new judicial setback
-
International1 day agoSheinbaum says that the indigenous peoples will be subject to law in the Mexican Chiapas
-
International4 days agoPutin asks to resume peace negotiations with Ukraine
-
International4 days agoGuterres reminds Israel that the orders of the ICJ are mandatory
-
International60 mins agoTrump declares himself “boring!” during the final arguments of the Prosecutor’s Office
-
International1 day agoJustice rejects that the investigation of luxury watches has violated the rights of Boluarte
-
International52 mins agoCuba describes the new US measures for entrepreneurs on the island as “limited”