International
Afro-American peoples of Latin America demand the recognition of their territorial rights
The Afro peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean claimed the recognition of their territorial rights at an international event held in Bogotá on Tuesday, which was attended by a United Nations working group.
“Ensuring the possession of the territory for Afro-peoples continues to be one of the main challenges for our subsistence as a people,” said master of ceremonies and Afro-descendant philosopher Helmer Quiñones Mendoza. Who also highlighted the importance of talking about this claim at the UN Conference on Diversity (COP16), which will take place from October 21 to November 1 in Cali.
The event, which inaugurates a forum that will last until Friday, also had representation of the Black Communities Process in Colombia (PNC), the Ministries of Environment and Equality of Colombia and Brazil, and “hopes to strengthen the process of defending territorial rights,” Mendoza reported.
Neither the legal nor the international ones still guarantee these rights that the forum claims. According to a UN human rights delegation on Colombia, the lack of government action increases the vulnerability of the territories of people of African descent.
Among the speakers, the secretary of policies for African communities of the Ministry of Equality of Brazil, Ronaldo dos Santos, spoke. He lamented the processes of oppression of the people carried out by liberalism and advocated “building tools to empower the people.”
For his part, Miguel Ángel Julio, deputy director of Education and Participation of the Ministry of the Environment, expanded the debate by highlighting the importance of the oceans as part of those territories, especially in island areas. In addition, he claimed water as a basis for territorial organization.
The event is held when the UN approaches the end of the International Decade of African Descendants, initiated by the General Assembly in 2014 and whose theme was “recognition, justice and development” for Afro-peoples, the organization of the forum reported.
Due to the “widespread discrimination” faced by people of African descent, as previously pointed out by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the Human Rights Council of this organization proposed a second International Decade of People of African Descendants starting next year.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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