International
‘Green cards’ for undocumented spouses of Americans: “A hope for many”
María Villanueva and Gustavo Villeda met in 2019 in a church in Silver Spring, a suburb north of the capital of the United States, and although they fell in love and started dating, she was reluctant to marry him because she did not want to “suffer” for a reality that was already familiar to her.
Villeda, born in Guatemala, emigrated to the United States in 2004 irregularly and it is this status – which he has not been able to adjust – that made Villanueva, a Mexican with American nationality, doubt about whether or not to go through the altar.
Today, not only do they live together and got married last summer, but they have a two-month-old child in common.
“I said that I was never going to marry someone who didn’t have papers, out of fear and the anguish that they might separate us,” the 32-year-old explains laughing in an interview with EFE from the dining room of her house in the small town of Laurel (Maryland).
She left Mexico at just 7 years old to reunite with her father – who already lived in the United States – while her husband emigrated as an adult with the expectations that the ‘American dream’ would allow her to send money to a sick daughter she left in Guatemala and who is about to turn 20.
“I haven’t seen her grow up and I don’t want this to happen to me again with him,” he says, looking at his son Alfonso Jesús, who sleeps next to him in the mother’s arms. Both are sitting on the sofa in the living room, presided over by a set of photographs of their wedding hanging on the wall and visible as soon as they enter the small house.
The couple agrees that, once married, the great impediment to trying to fix Gustavo’s papers has been the economic factor. “I suffer from severe migraine, we have needed the money for doctors and we have not been able to allocate it to the (regularization) application,” says María.
But now the situation of uncertainty of this family can change because Villeda is one of the more than half a million migrants eligible to take advantage of the new program, announced last Tuesday by the Government of President Joe Biden, and thus regularize their status in the country.
The measures mainly benefit people married to U.S. citizens – a condition that he fulfills – who will be able to take the first step in the process to obtain a residence permit in the United States.
Gustavo, still assimilating the new opportunity that has been presented to him, assures that the news has reached him “by surprise” and, although he does not know in detail how the process continues, he is optimistic to have “a hope for many” in front of him.
Supported by a legal figure known as ‘parole’, this permit grants those who are already in US territory protection against deportation and allows them to apply for a work permit.
With the labor authorization, which will be valid for three years, migrants who entered the country irregularly and are married to U.S. citizens can apply for residence and, subsequently, citizenship.
To benefit from this formula, the person must have married a U.S. citizen before June 17, 2024 and have lived in the country for at least 10 years.
At the same time, months after this announcement enters into force, the couple does not overlook the fact that next November there will be presidential elections in the country that can change everything.
“We are concerned that all this may come to nothing, that it may be spoiled by a change of government or by disputes between them,” says María, questioning the presumptuous presidential candidates – Joe Biden and Donald Trump-, although she is convinced to “take the risks” and to take advantage of these months before the elections.
“We hope that you respect the families who, like us, are going through this situation and who have been fighting for a reform,” adds the woman, who is a collaborator of CASA, an NGO for defense and assistance to immigration.
Even with all the difficulties in mind, the two agree that there is hope and they are willing to keep looking for it.
International
Donald Trump spoke with Zelenski in a call in which Elon Musk also participated
The future president of the United States, Donald Trump, had a conversation with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a call that took place after winning the presidential elections and in which billionaire Elon Musk also participated.
Trump and his promises to Zelenski
Trump, who talked to Zelenski for 25 minutes on Wednesday, reiterated to the president his support for Ukraine, although he did not go into details on how he would do it, according to the American digital media Axios, which cites sources with knowledge of the call.
The Republican promised during the campaign – in which he already spoke with Zelenski’s team and met with the president on his visit to the United States this year – a quick solution to the war with Russia, without supporting any of the parties and criticizing the millionaire aid packages of the Joe Biden Government to Ukraine.
Elon Musk also on the line
Trump was not the only one to promise help to Ukraine: tycoon Elon Musk not only listened to the conversation but assured Zelenski that he will continue to support his country through his Starlink internet satellite network.
“Starlink is the backbone of Ukrainian military communications on the front because everything else has been destroyed or blocked by Russia,” Musk said in a post on his social network X.
According to Axios, at the end of the conversation Zelenski felt calm and said that he interpreted the early call as “a positive sign.”
Congratulations to Trump
After the election results were known, Zelenski congratulated Trump on his X profile for his victory in the elections and expressed his confidence that “Ukraine continues to have strong bipartisan support in the United States.”
The president said on the same social network that he had “an excellent conversation” with Trump and that he congratulated him “for his historic and decisive victory, a result that was possible thanks to his impressive campaign.”
Last year there was a controversy between Zelenski and Musk after the owner of X went to his social network to mock the president for his requests for military and financial aid to deal with the Russian invasion.
For his part, Zelenski criticized Musk for these comments, as well as for his proposal that the country cede part of its territory to Russia in order to achieve peace.
International
Cuba tries to recover two days after the impact of Hurricane Rafael
Brigades of linemen (electrician technicians) fixing laying and fallen poles on the ground, people cleaning the streets and some private businesses operating with generators illustrate this Friday Cuba’s attempts to recover, after two days of the impact of Hurricane Rafael.
There are still roads cut, streets crossed by fallen trees, debris and garbage accumulating, traffic lights turned off and many people on the streets collecting part of the damage caused by the cyclone that hit the west of the country with winds of up to 186 kilometers per hour and rains of up to 195 millimeters (or liters per square meter).
Many areas in the west of the country – including the capital – continue without electricity since Wednesday, despite the fact that the National Electric System (SEN) managed to unify again on Friday morning after almost 48 hours of fracturing in subsystems after the second total blackout in three weeks.
Cuba is recovering electricity after the passage of Hurricane Rafael
The SEN synchronization means that the whole country is already interconnected in a single network, but not all Cubans have electricity because in many places the poles, cables and transformers affected by the cyclone have not yet been repaired.
In Havana, with at least 495 fallen electric poles, only 17% of its almost two million inhabitants currently have electricity, according to official data.
In addition, great effects persist in the provinces of Mayabeque, Artemisa and Pinar del Río. These last two provinces are totally disconnected from the SEN.
In the rest of the country, blackouts are also occurring, but due to the SEN’s inability to produce enough electricity to meet demand, a chronic and growing problem in Cuba due to the frequent breakdowns of old power plants and the fuel deficit, the result of the lack of foreign currency to import it.
Resumption of classes and public transport
Rafael is the second hurricane to make landfall in Cuba in 2024. The previous one was Oscar, who hit the northeastern end of the island for 24 hours between October 20 and 21, leaving eight dead, 12,000 damaged homes and 13,000 hectares of crops affected.
The authorities do not report missing or deceased for the moment due to Rafael, who have recognized “strong damage” in homes, infrastructure and crops of Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana, although without providing specific figures for the moment.
They also reported that the 250,000 evacuated throughout the country by Rafael, most of them in Havana, are returning to their homes as conditions improve.
As part of the recovery, the Minister of Education, Naima Trujillo, assured that next Monday the school year will resume “in most institutions”, after its suspension prior to Rafael’s impact. In the west there are many schools with affected.
In Havana, the local transport company reported on the “gradual restoration” of service in the main arteries, but said that the maritime transport of passengers through the capital’s bay remains suspended.
Damage to housing and agriculture
Rafael made landfall in Cuba as a hurricane of great intensity on Wednesday afternoon and crossed the island from south to north for more than two hours.
In Artemisa, where Rafael made landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a category three hurricane, the houses affected total 2,825, according to the official newspaper Granma, which presented a meeting of the National Defense Council headed by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Artesa authorities detailed that there is damage to 15,000 hectares of banana, cassava, bean and rice crops; and 40 schools suffered damage. In Mayabeque they counted 441 homes with “significant damage” and reported damage to agriculture as in Artemisa. In Havana they reported more than 461 collapses between total and partial.
The most critical situation in the Cuban capital, in addition to the 461 total and partial collapses, is concentrated in the fallen trees, which have torn off electrical and telephone cables, reported the local governor, Yanet Hernández.
International
Machado urges international justice to “act” against the Maduro Government
The leader of the Venezuelan opposition María Corina Machado made this Friday a call on the international justice to “act” and “dissuade” the Government of President Nicolás Maduro, as well as to stop the “persecution of citizens” and negotiate with the opposition.
“Maduro is going to sit down to negotiate the day when the cost of clinging to force in power is higher than the cost of accepting a negotiation for the transition. And we’re not there yet,” Machado said during his remote participation in the Free America Forum, held in Mexico City.
In view of January 10, when the winner of the presidential elections is scheduled to take office, as established by the Venezuelan Constitution, Machado said that he will continue to fight “to the end” and asked for the support of the countries of the world.
Machado asks for support for international justice against Maduro
The opposition leader said that “Maduro feels today that he can commit all kinds of abuses and crimes against humanity, and the reaction of the international community will be zero,” although she acknowledged that there have been “important statements and reports from Human Rights organizations.”
“But international justice has to act, because it is the way to dissuade those who today are being pressured by Maduro to continue persecuting, torturing and murdering Venezuelans,” he said.
“By raising this cost of repression, we, Venezuelans, can exert much more internal pressure without the costs we have assumed so far,” he added, referring to the arrests that have taken place after the elections, which the Venezuelan opposition describes as “political prisoners.”
Gonzalez Urrutia asks for recognition
Likewise, at the diplomatic level, Machado asked to recognize the opposition Edmundo González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela, despite the fact that Maduro was proclaimed winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE) in the elections of last July 28.
“We must be able to pressure Nicolás Maduro to understand that the international community is not going to turn the page. July 28 is a before and after that will never leave us, and like us, this fight has a single destiny, the freedom of Venezuela and the return of our children home,” he insisted.
Machado also thanked the countries that have recognized González Urrutia, including Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
In its second edition this year, the Free America Forum brought together representatives of 70 countries in the Mexican capital from November 6 to 9, seeking to be a counterweight to the Sao Paulo Forum, which brings together the Latin American left.
Donald Trump spoke with Zelenski in a call in which Elon Musk also participated
Cuba tries to recover two days after the impact of Hurricane Rafael
Machado urges international justice to “act” against the Maduro Government
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