International
Biden says goodbye to the Americans: it’s time to “pass the baton” to save the country
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he is “passing the baton” to a new generation to unite the United States and “save” democracy, in what were his first public statements since he ended his re-election campaign for the November elections.
From the Oval Office of the White House, Biden gave a speech of about 11 minutes, which was broadcast live by the country’s main television networks, and in which his goal was twofold: to explain the decision to end his re-election campaign and begin to define his legacy.
“I have decided that the best way to move forward is to pass the baton to a new generation. This is the best way to unite our nation,” Biden said, sitting at the desk of the Oval Office, so that several photographs could be seen behind him, including one of his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015.
Biden has only given four speeches to the nation like tonight’s throughout his term, two of them have been in recent days.
Biden framed his decision not to be re-election in the need to “defend democracy” in the face of the rise of authoritarianism, an idea that dominated his electoral campaign and also guided his decision to run in the 2020 elections, in which he defeated former President Donad Trump (2017-2021).
Biden did not mention Trump by name at any time, but it was clear in his speech that he was referring to the possibility of him returning to power.
“I deeply respect this position, but I love my country more. It has been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But, I think that defending democracy is more important than any title,” he emphasized.
Trump, for his part, responded just a few minutes after the speech ended. In a message on his social network Truth Social, he considered that “The speech of the corrupt Joe Biden from the Oval Office was barely understood and was soooo bad!”
Trump’s name, however, was not the only one that Biden omitted. Nor did he refer to the pressures of recent weeks from dozens of members of Congress and personalities of his party to end his presidential campaign after a nefarious performance in the debate against Trump on June 27.
However, in a serene tone, Biden reviewed the achievements of his almost four years of presidency and considered that he deserved a second four-year term in this historic speech with the flavor of a farewell.
“I believe that my record as president, my leadership in the world and my vision for the future of the United States, everything would justify a second term, but nothing can get in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition,” he said.
When he ended his electoral campaign on Sunday, Biden asked for the vote for the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, who in just two days was able to secure the necessary support to be the party’s candidate, in addition to beating a fundraising record.
In the speech, Biden described Harris as an “experienced”, “hard” and “capable” policy. Harris herself followed the president’s speech live from Houston (Texas), where she plans to give a speech tomorrow, Thursday.
Inside the Oval Office, the president was accompanied by several members of his family, including the first lady, Jill Biden, and his son Hunter, who in recent weeks has been one of his father’s greatest supporters and tonight watched him attentively as he read the speech of a teleprompter.
Once Biden finished the speech, Biden’s relatives and advisors who were in the Oval Office burst into applause and the few journalists inside had to leave in a hurry.
Without the presence of the press, Biden went out to the White House Rosaleda to talk to the employees of the presidential team that had gathered to see his speech. While serving ice cream, he stressed the importance of Harris being elected in November, a source present told CNN.
Biden’s speech had a historic character, since never before had a presidential candidate withdrawn from the race so close to the elections.
The closest precedent dates back to March 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969) announced that he would not be eligible for re-election, but he did so at the beginning of the party’s primaries.
In contrast, Biden made this decision with the primaries already concluded and just three months after the elections.
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”
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.”
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