International
Lula reactivates the commission that investigates the crimes of the dictatorship in Brazil
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, decreed on Thursday the reactivation of the special commission on political dead and missing persons, which investigated the crimes of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) before its predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, eliminated it.
The measure reverses the decision taken by Bolsonaro (2019 – 2022), a former soldier and a nostalgic for the dictatorship, at the end of 2022, on his penultimate day of government, and appoints new members of the commission, including a university professor, a left-wing deputy and a civilian representative of the Ministry of Defense.
The Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, said in a statement that the decision is “an important step in the guarantee of memory, truth and justice.”
Almeida also pointed out that the work “illegally interrupted by the previous management” of the search for the dead and missing will now be continued and that a schedule will soon be set to resume those activities.
The return of this space was one of the main claims to the Lula Government by the victims of the military regime, who were disappointed by the lack of official support for the commemorations of last April for the 60th anniversary of the 1964 coup d’état, against the left-wing president João Goulart.
Lula vetoed the organization of official acts so as not to further tighten the rope with the Army, at a time when several senior commanders are being investigated by the Police for allegedly plotting a coup d’état against the current president, after his electoral victory against Bolsonaro.
The commission, created in 1995 during the administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, seeks to investigate the circumstances of the political murders; locate the bodies of the disappeared and compensate the victims of the military regime that ruled Brazil for more than two decades.
During those years it is estimated that there were 224 deaths and 210 missing, according to a report by the National Truth Commission presented in 2014.
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
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction