International
What does it mean to recognize a new state?
The announcement of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, that Spain will recognize Palestine as a State on the 28th fulfills a political promise, although it does not clear up some questions about the practical consequences that the mandate will have.
The coalition government of PSOE and Sumar pledged to approve it, in line with the non-legislative proposal agreed in Congress in 2014 by most political groups, including the PP.
The situation in Palestine after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the response of this country’s army in the Gaza Strip, which has caused more than 35,000 deaths, pushed the Sánchez Government to take the definitive step in order to press for a solution to the Middle East conflict.
The step of recognizing a State is a legal act regulated by International Law. It depends exclusively on the Government’s agreement, without the need to have the support of Parliament, although it may ask for it.
It is a unilateral decision and does not depend, in the case of Spain, whether or not it has the approval of the EU, which does not have competence in the area of recognition of States.
Of the 193 members of the United Nations, just over 140 recognize it as a State, which will be joined by Spain, Norway and Ireland on the 28th.
There are eight other EU members who have already taken the step, such as Sweden, Romania or Poland, but they have not made important partners such as Germany, France or Italy.
On April 10, 143 countries asked the UN General Assembly to endorse Palestine as a full-fledged state, but this decision must have the approval of the Security Council and the United States opposes it.
Recognizing a new State requires that there be a defined population, a delimited territory and a government that exercises authority over it. “In the case of Palestine, no assumption is now fulfilled because there are no internationally established borders,” the professor of Public International Law at the UNED, Eduardo Trillo, points out to EFE.
Similarly, Trillo points out, there is no government that has control over the entire Palestinian territory – the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -, since the first is exercised by the Palestinian National Authority (ANP) and in the second, Hamas had it until the war with Israel and is a faction that Spain does not consider an interlocutor.
According to Trillo, it is not something that Spain has to specify, because Palestine lacks defined limits according to international law. Therefore, the UNED professor adds, more than at the legal level, recognition should be interpreted as “a political push to the peace process and a support for the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
Spain can from now on formalize political relations with Palestine and sign international treaties, among other initiatives. So far, Spain has signed a memorandum of understanding of cooperation since 1994 channeling humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and another for the establishment of political consultations since 2012.
It is a discretionary measure of the Government, according to the professor of International Relations at the European University, Beatriz Gutiérrez. Today, it is the Consulate General of Spain, located in Jerusalem, that acts as an “embassy” and channels the relationship with the ANP.
Among the questions, Gutiérrez adds, is whether Spain would take the step of recognizing Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, something it has not done so far.
The ANP has an office in Madrid, which since 2010 has had the rank of diplomatic mission – previously it was a “delegation” – and its premises have inviolability.
The head of the office acts as ambassador in practice and participates in the king’s receptions to the diplomatic corps. On its website, there is talk of “The Embassy of Palestine in Spain.”
The war conflict between Israel and Hamas makes it difficult to give content to the state recognition of Palestine. “Until the war is over, it is difficult to make a perspective of the practical effects. It is too early to see how it will be managed,” says the professor of the European University, who agrees that the measure adopted by Spain should be seen, above all, from “a symbolic rather than a legal point of view.”
South Sudan was the last country that Spain gave its endorsement in 2011, after almost all the citizens of this territory supported the separation of the north from the country in a referendum.
In the 21st century, Spain has recognized two other countries: Montenegro, in 2006, and East Timor, in 2002.
International
Florida declares a state of emergency due to severe floods in five southern counties
The Government of Florida declared a state of emergency on Thursday in five southern counties where severe floods have occurred due to the torrential rains that began last Tuesday.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, today issued the order covering Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties, where for now there have been no victims but mainly road flooding, putting drivers and their families at risk.
The state government stressed that tropical humidity will continue to cause heavy scattered rains in southern Florida and that the flood alert will remain in effect throughout this region and the Keys of Florida, a succession of islets in the extreme south of the state.
These storms have also caused tornadoes, highway cuts, suspension of classes and flight cancellations, about 200 this Thursday, at the airports of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Flightaware platform.
Several areas in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale airport were impacted, as well as Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Lauderdale Lakes, where floods forced the cancellation of transport services.
Although the storm subsided this Thursday, several sectors remained underwater, including Hallandale Beach, whose residents today asked for more pumps to evacuate it. In addition, several vehicles remained stranded and some were even submerged.
Meanwhile, the Brightline train had to temporarily close its stations in Miami and Aventura, the two further south, and several universities and schools have suspended classes.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday night, with immediate effect.
International
The IMF approves the disbursement of another 800 million dollars for Argentina
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the eighth revision of the agreement with Argentina, which allows an immediate disbursement of approximately 800 million dollars for the country.
The financial agency indicated in a statement that this disbursement “will support the efforts of the authorities to restore stability and strengthen Argentina’s external viability.”
The total disbursements made under the Fund’s agreement with Argentina amounts to about 41.4 billion dollars.
The IMF stressed that, when completing the review, “the Executive Board considered that the program was firmly on track, with all the quantitative performance criteria until the end of March 2024 met with margins.”
“Non-compliance exementions for a new exchange rate restriction and multiple exchange practices were also approved in the context of some relaxation of the restrictions on the payment of dividends.”
To maintain solid progress, according to the IMF, “it is necessary to improve the quality of fiscal adjustment, to initiate steps towards an improved monetary and exchange policy framework, implement the structural agenda.”
Likewise, “continue efforts to support the most vulnerable, expand political support and ensure agility in the formulation of policies.”
In March 2022, the then Government of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) signed an agreement with the IMF to refinance loans for about 45 billion dollars that the agency had granted to Argentina in 2018, during the presidency of the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
The pact includes quarterly revisions such as the one now surpassed on the level of compliance with demanding goals in terms of fiscal discipline, accumulation of monetary reserves and limits on monetary issuance.
The approval for new disbursements to Argentina by the agency depends on the fulfillment of those goals and the approval of each review, funds that, in turn, the South American country uses to cancel its debt to the entity, which amounted to 40,899 million dollars at the end of 2023.
On Tuesday, the Argentine Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, said that he will negotiate a new program with the IMF after the eighth review of the organization: “From there we will begin to negotiate a new program with them,” he said.
The IMF had highlighted in a statement last May that Argentina reached this eighth review with a “stabilization plan” where it could reach “the first quarterly fiscal surplus in sixteen years,” a “rapid fall in inflation” and “a strong reduction in sovereign risk.”
Argentina had passed this last review in May, but that step had to go through a formal procedure and be approved by the Executive Board of the IMF, something that took place this Thursday, to receive the 800 million.
This eighth review corresponds to the first quarter of 2024, a period marked by the drastic change in economic policy in Argentina after the arrival of Javier Milei to the presidency in December and the implementation of a severe adjustment plan to recover the fiscal surplus this year.
International
Xóchitl Gálvez challenges the presidential election before the authority and asks for a sanction for López Obrador
Former opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz presented this Thursday to the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico a challenge to the electoral process and asked that it open an investigation and, if so, sanction the probable intervention of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as well as the violence of organized crime.
Gálvez clarified that “it is not about asking for the annulment of the election, but that there is a sanction to President López Obrador for his interference in the electoral process” that culminated in the triumph of Claudia Sheinbaum, who obtained 35 million votes, that is, almost 60% of the votes in the elections on June 2.
He explained that a “Judgment for the Protection of the Political-Electoral Rights of the Citizen” was presented with the purpose of contributing elements to the presidential qualification and that in the recitals of his sentence his arguments are taken into account.
“Yes, I am challenging. I am not asking for the cancellation of the election. What I am asking is that the Court sanction the President because there have been more than 50 yellow cards. In a soccer game with two yellow cards you are expelled and not here. The President followed, continued, continued and the Court has to do something,” he said.
He said that he will also ask the Court to investigate the use of public resources in the campaign of Sheinbaum, candidate of the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition, since López Obrador “presented the social programs as his own and expressed that if another party won, they would be removed.”
In the document he delivered to the INE, Gálvez recalled that before the start of the electoral process, López Obrador used the space of his everyday conferences to act as a true “campaign head” of Sheinbaum.
In addition, Gálvez said, “there was a clear systematic and repeated intervention of the governors, who dedicated themselves to promoting Sheinbaum’s candidacy.”
This Thursday, the Specialized Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Mexican Federation (TEPJF) concluded that López Obrador committed gender-based political violence against Gálvez.
The body, according to a statement, determined this position as a result of “expressions expressed” by the president in several of his daily conferences in June and July 2023.
And he added that there was a “symbolic violence” from the “woman and indigenous character” of Gálvez because the stereotype of “inferiority or dependence to access public offices” was “reinforced.”
The then candidate of Force and Heart for Mexico filed complaints with the electoral authority since July 2023 against the president and officials of his Government for the misuse of public resources and gender-based political violence.
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