International

Trump could testify next week in the final stretch of his criminal trial

The defense of the former president of the United States. Donald Trump (2017-2021) said on Thursday that the tycoon has not yet decided if he will go up to the stand to testify next week, the date that the judge of the case wants it to be the final stretch for this criminal trial that began a month ago with the jury selection.

On Friday there will be no session and next Monday it is expected that Michael Cohen, who was a lawyer and right-hand man of the former president and is the last witness of the Prosecutor’s Office, will continue with his testimony after having already spent three days on the stand.

Trump’s lawyers also left the door open to summon more witnesses and said that it would not take “long” to make the announcement of who they would be.

For his part, Judge Juan M. Merchan considered it appropriate to warn both parties that they were prepared for the final allegations on Tuesday. That could mean that the case will reach the jury to pronounce its verdict next week.

This week, Cohen testified that Trump ordered him to pay $130,000 to silence Stormy Daniels during the campaign, a porn star who claims to have had relations with Trump in 2006, and detailed how he later reimbursed him for his expenses.

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During the examination of the star witness of the Prosecutor’s Office this Thursday, Trump’s chief lawyer, Todd Blanche, was more agitated than the witness, who, for his part, answered serenely and sometimes extremely slowly.

Trump’s defense focused on questioning Cohen’s honesty and morality before the jury and on reviewing in detail some of the evidence that has been shown so far in the trial.

Thus, he asked Cohen to tell the lies he told the Intelligence Committee of the 2017 House of Representatives, where he lied under oath, which cost him to be accused of perjury in 2018.

The defense also analyzed the relationship with Cohen’s press, who explained that journalists came to him to ask him to confirm or deny information about Trump during the almost ten years he worked for him, and acknowledged that with some of them he came to establish a friendly relationship.

The former lawyer said that he never made any statement without first consulting the Republican politician.

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Blanche attacked Cohen’s professionalism by pointing out that he secretly recorded some of his conversations with the press, including about forty with The New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, who has written 38 articles about him and was in the Manhattan Criminal Court room today following the case.

To which the former lawyer, who can no longer practice, justified – without receiving the question – that in the state of New York they consider it legal to record a phone call without letting the other person know.

However, Trump’s lawyer reproached him for also recording conversations with clients, something that is not allowed for lawyers in this state.

He also recorded conversations with Trump, one of them in 2016 that he used as evidence in this trial.

With regard to other conversations with the former president and his circle during the last stretch of the 2016 presidential elections, in which Cohen points out that the issue of payment was discussed to silence the extramarital relationship, Blanche questioned Cohen’s memory by pointing out that at that time he received an average of 50 calls a day.

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Trump, who is in the middle of the electoral campaign but has to attend the trial four days a week, paid attention during the testimony of his former employee, thus breaking with his habit of “listening to the testimonies with his eyes closed”, especially after lunch.

Today the news was not only inside the room, but also outside, where dozens of large penis-shaped pink balloons flew over the vicinity of the court.

The balloons overprinted the faces of people like Merchan or that of the Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, who has filed the accusation that Trump has in the dock.

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.