International
Latin American leaders hold summit with Brazil back in the fold
January 24 | By AFP | Philippe Bernes-Lasserre / Mauricio Rabuffetti |
Fifteen Latin American heads of state and government meet Tuesday in Buenos Aires for a regional summit welcoming back Brazil as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva looks to rebuild bridges after his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro pulled out of the grouping.
The 77-year-old Lula, in Argentina for the first international trip of his third term, will participate in the seventh Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit, bringing together 33 states from the region.
Lula was one of the founders of CELAC, during the first “pink wave” on the continent in the first decade of the century.
And now he brings Brazil back into the fold after Bolsonaro had suspended the country’s participation in the grouping.
Host Argentina this week hailed a “new climate in Latin America”, with the region ushering in a new wave of left or center-left governments since 2018, including Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, Chile, Colombia and Brazil.
A forum for consultation and cooperation, CELAC is not a regional integration mechanism with binding opinions.
And for all the importance underlined on Monday by Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and Lula of “the need to integrate Latin America,” CELAC is struggling to unite members over successive regional crises, like Peru.
“Latin America is bankrupt from the institutional point of view (…) it has not succeeded in integrating collectively into the world,” Ignacio Bartesaghi, an expert in international relations at the Catholic University of Uruguay, told AFP.
At the very least, CELAC “remains a vast and diverse space of Latin American countries from which minimal agendas or common interests for the region can be established”, agreed Bernabe Malacalza, researcher in international relations at the Argentine national research center CONICET.
“There is not even certain basic consensus in Latin America, as on the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship,” Bartesaghi stressed.
“There are (at CELAC) presidents who do not even recognize each other,” he noted.
Like Paraguay’s Mario Abdo Benitez, whose country broke diplomatic relations with Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela in 2019.
Lula meanwhile has pledged to reopen the embassies.
‘Rebuild Mercosur!’
Maduro at last minute called off his trip, citing “a risk of aggression” from “the neo-fascist right,” a possible reference to some Argentine opposition politicians calling for him to be arrested on arrival.
Other significant absentees in Buenos Aires include Mexico’s leftwing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, leader of the second largest economy in Latin America and host in 2021 of the last CELAC summit.
CELAC however remains the interlocutor of choice for China, or the EU to negotiate cooperation agendas with the region.
But even here, “The impossibility of holding an EU-CELAC summit since the last one in 2015 (in Brussels) illustrates (…), the absence of a solid biregional political dialogue,” Malacalza said.
In this sense, the return of Lula could give a boost to certain sub-regional issues, such as the free-trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur group which comprises Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The deal was finalized in 2019 but never ratified, due in particular to concerns about Bolsonaro’s environmental policy.
Lula has indicated a willingness to resume contacts.
“We are going to rebuild Mercosur!” Lula said Monday evening, referring to the customs union which has been torn in recent months over a free trade treaty with China.
“We will recreate Unasur!” he continued, referring to the moribund Union of South American Nations created in 2008 on the initiative of himself and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
Latin America is only the initial phase of the Brazilian president’s international push, with Lula heading to Washington in February and to China “after March.”
International
Germany says football bodies alone will decide on possible World Cup boycott
The German Football Association (DFB) and FIFA will decide with full “autonomy” whether to boycott the upcoming World Cup, which will be hosted mainly by the United States in six months, following threats made by former U.S. president Donald Trump, the German government told AFP on Tuesday.
Trump has threatened to seize Greenland and impose higher tariffs on European countries that oppose the plan, raising political tensions between the United States and Europe.
“This assessment therefore lies with the relevant federations, in this case the DFB and FIFA. The federal government will respect that decision,” Sports State Secretary Christiane Schenderlein said in a statement emailed to AFP.
AFP had asked the German government about the possibility of a boycott of the World Cup to be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.
“The federal government respects the autonomy of sport. Decisions regarding participation in major sporting events or possible boycotts fall exclusively within the responsibility of the relevant sports federations, not the political sphere,” said Schenderlein, a member of the conservative CDU, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
International
Daily Mail publisher insists reports relied on legitimate sources amid privacy trial
Two British tabloids accused of phone hacking and other forms of “unlawful information gathering” against Prince Harry and six other individuals, including singer Elton John, insisted on Tuesday that their reporting relied on legitimate sources.
Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, sought to rebut allegations of privacy violations through illegal methods on the second day of trial at London’s High Court, following a lawsuit filed by the seven claimants.
Prince Harry, 41, who attended court hearings on both Monday and Tuesday, could be called to testify starting Wednesday in a trial expected to last up to nine weeks.
Lawyers for the claimants said the alleged illegal activities took place between 1993 and 2011, with some incidents reportedly extending as late as 2018. They argue that the tabloids hired private investigators to intercept phone calls and obtain confidential information, including detailed phone records, medical histories, and bank statements.
However, Anthony White, counsel for ANL, told the court that the trial would show the company presents “a compelling account of a pattern of lawful source acquisition” for its articles.
White added that the claims would require the court to believe that journalists and staff at the tabloids had engaged in widespread dishonesty, which the company strongly denies.
International
Death toll from southern Spain train crash rises to 40
The death toll from the train accident that occurred on Sunday in southern Spain has risen to 40, according to investigative sources cited by EFE on Monday afternoon.
Since early Monday, search operations have focused on the damaged carriages of a Renfe train bound for Huelva, which collided with the last derailed cars of an Iryo train traveling from Málaga to Madrid after it left the tracks.
The crash has also left more than 150 people injured. Of these, 41 remain hospitalized, including 12 in intensive care units at hospitals across the Andalusia region.
More than 220 Civil Guard officers are working at the site, searching the railway line and surrounding areas for key evidence to help identify victims and determine the causes of the accident.
The tragedy has revived memories of the deadliest railway disasters in Europe in recent decades. In Spain, the most severe occurred on July 24, 2013, when an Alvia train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 people and injuring 130 others.
At the European level, the worst rail disaster took place on June 3, 1998, in Eschede, northern Germany, when a high-speed train struck a bridge pillar at 200 kilometers per hour, resulting in 98 deaths and 120 injuries.
Germany says football bodies alone will decide on possible World Cup boycott
Daily Mail publisher insists reports relied on legitimate sources amid privacy trial
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