International

Biden: “Our commitment to Israel’s security is armored”

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, said on Wednesday that his country’s commitment to Israel’s security in the face of Iran’s threats “is armored.”

“As I have told Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against the threats of Iran and its allied groups is armored,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“I say it again: armored. We are going to do everything we can to protect Israel’s security,” he added, referring to the threats made by Iran after Israel bombed its embassy in Damascus.

Biden and Kishida spoke at a meeting about the security of Israel but also about the war in the Gaza Strip, where both support the proposal for a truce that will alleviate the humanitarian crisis and the release of hostages from Hamas.

In addition, the US president again referred to the possibility of the United States changing its position regarding that conflict, just as Biden warned Netanyahu that it could happen if Israel continued with its current strategy.

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“We will see what (Netanyahu) does in terms of fulfilling the commitments he made with me,” Biden said.

For his part, moments earlier, former US president and Republican pre-candidate Donald Trump (2017-2021) affirmed that Joe Biden has “totally” lost control of the Israeli situation.

“He has abandoned Israel, he has totally abandoned Israel,” he told the press upon his arrival in Atlanta (Georgia), where he is planning a fundraising act.

Trump considered that Biden “has no idea where he is or who he supports,” he considered that he is a person “with little intellectual capacity” and maintained that “any Jew who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have his head examined.”

This same Wednesday, in the White House, Biden said that he is still negotiating a possible ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.

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The day before, in an interview with Univision, the US president criticized the way of acting of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Gaza in response to the attacks in Hamas on October 7, which has led to the occupation by force of almost the entire enclave, the destruction of homes and the death of more than 33,400 civilians.

“I think what you’re doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his way of doing things,” he told the Latin American media.

Biden said in that intervention that what he requested “simply” is a ceasefire, that the Israelis allow access for the next six or eight weeks of food and medicine.

Related Topics:Biden Israël White House

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International

Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra dies in campaign road accident

Presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, representing the Partido de los Trabajadores y Emprendedores (PTE) in Peru, died in a traffic accident while traveling to a campaign event, local authorities confirmed Sunday.

Becerra, who also served as president of the centrist political party, ranked among the lowest in opinion polls in a crowded field of more than 30 candidates competing in the presidential election scheduled for April 12.

Recent surveys place Rafael López Aliaga at the top of voter preferences.

The accident occurred near the town of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, when the vehicle carrying the candidate overturned for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The candidate Becerra has died,” Balvin Huamani, mayor of the district of Pilpichaca, told RPP radio.

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According to Huamani, he personally transported the 61-year-old candidate to a local health center, where doctors confirmed his death.

The Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) expressed condolences over Becerra’s passing and wished a speedy recovery to the three people who were traveling with him and were injured in the crash.

International

Noboa intensifies anti-cartel crackdown as violence persists in Ecuador

A close ally of Washington, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a hardline security strategy against cocaine cartels for more than two years, yet homicide, disappearance and extortion rates remain high across the country.

Between Sunday night and the morning of March 31, Ecuador’s armed forces will launch a “very strong offensive” with “advisory support” from the United States, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced Tuesday.

The government has kept details of the operation confidential and has not confirmed whether U.S. troops will be deployed on Ecuadorian soil, as has occurred at times during Noboa’s administration.

As part of the security measures, residents in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro will be subject to a nightly curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for the next two weeks.

“We are in a war,” Reimberg said, urging citizens to remain indoors. “Do not take risks. Stay home and allow the security forces and our allies to do the work that must be done.”

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Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major departure point for drugs heading to the United States. Meanwhile, the violence associated with trafficking has increasingly affected the local population.

Bordering the world’s largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has gone from being considered a relatively peaceful country to recording one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—52 killings per 100,000 inhabitants—according to the **Observatory of Organized Crime.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.