International

Peru lawmakers move up general elections to April 2024

Photo:

| By AFP | Moisés Ávila |

Peru’s Congress on Tuesday voted to move up general elections from 2026 to April 2024 in a bid to ease tensions and head off deadly protests sparked by the ouster and arrest of president Pedro Castillo.

The political maelstrom has also touched off a diplomatic row with Mexico, which has voiced its support for Castillo, a leftist onetime schoolteacher.

Lawmakers voted 93-30 with one abstention to approve the change in the electoral calendar. The measure also stipulated that current President Dina Boluarte hand power to the winner of those elections in July 2024.

The leader of the legislature, Jose Williams, said for the measure to take effect, it would need to be ratified in another vote in the coming months.

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Castillo was removed from office and detained earlier this month after seeking to dissolve Congress to rule by decree. His ousting was criticized by his leftist Latin American allies including Mexico, and brought thousands of his supporters into the streets.

A subsequent security clampdown, including the deployment of armed soldiers during a state of emergency declared under Boluarte, followed. Officials say at least 21 people have died in the unrest. More than 650 others have been injured.

Demonstrations rattled the country, with roadblocks and airport disruptions, and thousands of tourists were left stranded, including at the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.

Polls show that 83 percent of citizens are in favor of bringing elections forward to resolve the crisis roiling the South American nation.

On Tuesday, a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arrived in Lima to meet with authorities as part of a fact-finding mission.

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Instability

Castillo, a 53-year-old former union leader, unexpectedly took power from Peru’s traditional political elite in elections last year.

He immediately came under fire, surviving two early impeachment bids, and soon also found himself in the cross-hairs of prosecutors looking into numerous graft claims.

He is the subject of six separate criminal investigations.

Castillo’s brief term in power was plagued by instability, with three prime ministers and seven interior ministers coming and going in just over a year.

He has been ordered held in pre-trial detention for 18 months.

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Castillo was arrested as he made his way to the Mexican embassy in Lima to request asylum — sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries.

The government in Lima, which felt slighted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s support of Castillo, on Tuesday declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave the country.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard called Peru’s decision “unfounded and reprehensible.”

“The conduct of our ambassador has been in accordance with the law and principle of non-intervention. Mexico will not change its position,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mexico City meanwhile said it was recalling the ambassador, Pablo Monroy Conesa, “in order to ensure his safety” while adding that its mission would continue to operate normally.

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Peru however has granted safe passage for Castillo’s wife and two children to leave the country, in accordance with international diplomatic conventions, and they were at Mexico’s embassy in Lima, having been granted asylum.

Castillo’s wife Lilia Paredes is also under investigation for alleged involvement in a criminal organization.

International

Hiroshima survivor who embraced Obama dies at 88

The emotional embrace between Barack Obama and Hiroshima survivor Mori—who was eight years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945—resonated around the world.

According to Asahi Shimbun and other local media, Mori died on Saturday at a hospital in Hiroshima.

Mori, known for his research on the fate of American prisoners of war in Hiroshima, was thrown into a river by the force of the explosion on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of the city.

In a past interview with AFP, ahead of his meeting with Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2016, Mori recalled the chaos and desperation that followed the blast.

He described how, after emerging from the water, he encountered injured civilians seeking help amid the devastation, an experience that stayed with him throughout his life.

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In 2016, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to the victims of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. During the visit, Mori was visibly moved as he met the president, sharing a brief but powerful moment that symbolized remembrance and reconciliation.

The bombing of Hiroshima resulted in the deaths of approximately 140,000 people, including those who succumbed to radiation exposure in the aftermath.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and contributing to the end of World War II.

International

Colombia seeks ‘total suffocation’ of armed groups with regional support

Colombia is advancing a strategy aimed at the “total suffocation” of illegal armed groups, seeking to corner them in border regions with the support of Ecuador and Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with AFP.

According to the minister, coordinated pressure from neighboring countries—backed by United States—aims to dismantle criminal networks that use cross-border routes to traffic Colombian cocaine toward North America and Europe.

For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal conflict have relied on border territories as strategic rear bases to evade military operations and maintain logistical support.

However, Sánchez said that dynamic is beginning to change.

“We expect a total suffocation between both nations so they have no spaces where they can live or feel safe […] to close off any room they might have,” he stated during the interview in Bogotá, less than five months before the end of President Gustavo Petro’s term.

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Regional developments have reinforced this strategy. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation, Washington has increased its influence in Caracas, where interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has implemented a renewed anti-narcotics policy.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa—a key U.S. ally in the region—has launched a two-week security plan under strict curfews to combat criminal gangs, with U.S. support.

Sánchez argued that these combined efforts leave illegal organizations with fewer escape routes and operational spaces, effectively placing them in a “dead end.”

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.