International
Sheinbaum launches presidential campaign with border tour amidst US-Mexico tension
Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate for Mexico’s ruling party, will embark on her first campaign tour this Saturday along Mexico’s northern border amidst escalating migratory tensions with the United States.
Sheinbaum has chosen Ciudad Juárez, bordering the US city of El Paso, Texas, as her first stop outside of Mexico City, mirroring current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s campaign strategy in 2018.
The candidate will hold a rally on Saturday at 4:00 PM local time (23:00 GMT) at the Benito Juárez monument in the border city, the same venue where López Obrador launched his campaign six years ago.
This visit holds significance as just on Thursday, US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the incumbent, were at the Texas-Mexico border pledging to tighten border security and control migration.
Ciudad Juárez has become the epicenter of Mexico’s current migration crisis.
Moreover, in the past two years, it has emerged as a major employment hub within the phenomenon of nearshoring.
It’s also considered one of the top 10 most violent cities in the country and the city with the highest number of femicides, the killing of women for gender-related reasons.
Brighite Granados, leader of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) in the state of Chihuahua, told the media that it was Sheinbaum herself who chose Juárez as the location for her first campaign event.
“This is very important because, if you remember, on April 10, 2018, Andrés Manuel also began his campaign in Ciudad Juárez,” she said.
Movement Approval
The candidate already visited the same venue on July 22 during the conclusion of her pre-campaign, where she gathered thousands of supporters.
“Juárez is a bastion of Morena for the country, due to the high approval that our movement has in Ciudad Juárez, we are very happy because Dr. Sheinbaum decided that this would be the first state in her campaign,” Granados said.
Before the rally, at 1:00 PM local time (20:00 GMT), the candidate will meet with a group of entrepreneurs at a local restaurant, as mentioned by some invitees.
Presidential campaigns leading up to the June 2 elections officially commence this Friday, when Morena’s candidate has scheduled an event in the Zócalo of Mexico City, the largest public square in the country.
“For Chihuahua, Dr. Sheinbaum’s visit means a lot, as after leading a massive event in the Zócalo of Mexico City, where she will formally kick off her campaign, she will travel to Ciudad Juárez, where our homeland begins,” stated Carlos Castillo, Morena’s national delegate in Chihuahua.
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.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction