International

The US Congress forces Biden to send a shipment of weapons to Israel

The U.S. House of Representatives approved on Thursday a bill that forces the White House to send to Israel the shipment of weapons that Joe Biden’s government paralyzed last week.

The bill was approved with 224 votes in favor and 187 against. Sixteen Democratic congressmen supported the bill that seeks to override Biden’s criteria despite the fact that the party’s leadership had promoted the contrary vote.

Biden has already announced that in the event that the text goes beyond the legislative procedure – which also requires the approval of the Senate, with a Democratic majority – he will use his veto power to stop it.

“We strongly oppose attempts to restrict the president’s ability to deploy U.S. security assistance in accordance with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives,” the White House said.

It is most likely that Biden will not have to use that power since the leader of the majority in the Senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said that he has no intention of submitting the text to a vote.

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In a press conference before the vote, the president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, said that “it is clear that Biden and Schumer have turned their backs on Israel.”

“We want the president to hear this loud and clear: This is a catastrophic decision with global implications. Obviously, it is being done by political calculations,” Johnson said, accusing Biden of “defying the will of Congress.”

The Republicans, who control the Lower House, presented this project after it was known last week that the White House had stopped a shipment of weapons to Israel in order to avoid a military incursion into the enclave of Rafah.

The retained shipment consists of 3,500 bombs, mostly 2,000 pounds (907 kilos) and great destructive power. In an interview after the announcement, Biden admitted that civilians have died in Gaza as a result of the use of American weapons.

The measure was highly criticized by Republicans, questioning Biden’s commitment to Israel, but also by sectors of the Democratic Party aligned with the Israeli state.

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In addition to forcing the Government to “promptly” deliver the weapons to Israel, the bill approved in the Lower House also provides for freezing the budgets of the Pentagon, the State Department or the National Security Council until the shipment becomes effective.

International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”