International
The pope’s doctor reveals his last moments of life and that he wanted to “die at home”
The doctor of the Gemelli hospital in Rome Sergio Alfieri, coordinator of the team that attended Pope Francis, told this Thursday the last moments of the pontiff’s life: “I entered his room and his eyes were open. I checked that he had no breathing problems and tried to call him but he did not answer,” he said and explained that he decided not to take him to the hospital because his desire was to “die at home.”
“I didn’t respond to the stimuli, not even to the painful ones. At that moment I realized that I couldn’t do anything else. I was in a coma,” Alfieri explains in statements published in the Italian media.
According to the doctor, “if he had lost consciousness” he would have “had to follow the guidelines of his personal health assistant, Massimiliano Strappetti, who was like a son for the Holy Father” and who were those of “no therapeutic cruelty.”
“During his last hospitalization he expressly asked that intubation not be carried out in any case,” which “would have helped him breathe, but it would have been difficult to go back and extubate him, with the lungs infected with a virus,” he explains.
The one who was also his surgeon in two operations explained: “On Monday around 5:30 in the morning I received a call from Strappetti: The Holy Father is very sick we have to go back to the Gemelli. I warned everyone and twenty minutes later I was there in Santa Marta, it seemed difficult to think that an income was necessary.”
“We ran the risk of him dying in the transfer, I explained to him that hospitalization would have been useless. Strappetti knew that the pope wanted to die at home, he always said it when we were in the Gemelli. He died shortly after,” recalls Alfieri.
In another interview, he says that “he never exposed himself to danger.”
“It’s as if, approaching the end, I had decided to do what I had to do. As happened on Easter Sunday, “when he accepted the proposal of his personal health assistant Massimiliano Strappetti to go around the square through the crowd,” he adds.
About the cause of death, Alfieri explains that “it was one of those heart attacks that take you in an hour, maybe an embolus started and a blood vessel in the brain was occluded. Maybe there was a hemorrhage. These are events that can happen to anyone, but the elderly are more at risk, especially if they move little.”
According to the death certificate, signed by the director of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State, Andrea Arcangeli, the death occurred at 7:35 local hours (5:35 GMT) on April 21 in his apartment, the Vatican residence Casa Santa Marta, due to a stroke, which resulted in a coma and then a cardiocirculatory arrest.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
International
Caracas shuts embassy in Oslo without explanation following Machado’s Nobel win
Venezuela has announced the closure of its embassy in Norway, just days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Venezuelan diplomatic mission provided no explanation for its decision on Monday.
“It is regrettable,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will continue to work in that direction.” The ministry also emphasized that the Nobel Committee operates entirely independently from the Norwegian government.
In its announcement, the Nobel Committee stated that Machado met the criteria established by Alfred Nobel, “embodying the hope for a different future, where the fundamental rights of Venezuelans are heard.”
International
Sheinbaum: Urgent to restore access to towns cut off by heavy rains
Thousands of military personnel and civilians in Mexico worked tirelessly on Tuesday to clear roads blocked by the torrential rains of recent days, which have left more than 300 communities cut off across central and eastern regions of the country. Authorities also launched mass fumigation efforts in several affected areas to prevent the spread of dengue fever.
The official death toll remains at 64, though dozens of people are still missing. President Claudia Sheinbaumacknowledged that the government does not yet know the full situation in many of the isolated villages, which range in population from 500 to 1,000 inhabitants.
“The reopening of roads is one of the greatest urgencies,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s essential to guarantee air bridges, food supplies, clean water, and a proper census of the isolated communities so we can determine the condition of every person living there.”
Private construction companies are also assisting the effort with heavy machinery and technical support to help reopen highways and reconnect rural areas.
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Caracas shuts embassy in Oslo without explanation following Machado’s Nobel win
Sheinbaum: Urgent to restore access to towns cut off by heavy rains
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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