International
The director of the RAE asks to take care of Spanish in AI so that they do not create their own dialects
The director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and president of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (Asale), Santiago Muñoz Machado, called for taking care of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) so that machines speak Spanish in the most correct way possible and at the same time prevent their algorithms from creating digital dialects that would constitute “a great break for the unity of the language”.
“It is important that machines, which are a growing number of non-human individuals who use our language, do so in the best possible way,” Muñoz Machado said in an interview with EFE during the celebration in Quito of the XVII Congress of the Asale, in which issues such as the challenges and opportunities of Spanish in the face of new technologies and the digital world will be discussed.
The Spanish jurist considered that for this there is “a competitive advantage: none of the technology companies that have machines that speak is interested in speaking badly, in the same way that no school or university is interested in having students who do not handle the language well.”
“Large technology companies are not interested in having illiterate people. To help them not have them, what we tell them is that, when they teach the machines to speak Spanish, they use the tools of the language academies, and in that way the machines will speak a language just like that of humans,” explained Muñoz Machado.
Spanish and AI
The director of the RAE admitted that, for the moment, they have not detected major deviations in artificial intelligence, with respect to the canon that the academies establish.
“(But) we must take care of this and that it remains so, because it would be feasible for the algorithms that handle artificial intelligence to determine variations of the language that would ultimately create digital dialects of artificial intelligence, not unintelligible from the common Spanish language,” warned Muñoz Machado.
“That would be a great breakdown of the unity of the language and an unbearable injury to a language that they speak now and with which 600 million people understand. It would be very serious if it happened, but I think there is no will or interest in it happening, not even economically,” he concluded.
In that sense, he emphasized that the scenario that these machines could create languages derived from Spanish, as well as other languages, that only they understood is not science fiction, because “everything that comes out in this matter is happening now.”
AI to detect new words
The jurist, who has directed the RAE since 2018, recalled that in the previous Asale congress, held in 2019 in Seville (Spain), the Spanish Language and Artificial Intelligence (LEIA) project was already created.
“In recent years we have had great revolutions that can affect the tools we use for the general regulation of the language, especially the digital revolution and artificial intelligence. We have opened up to them immediately,” he said.
Thus, they have also seen with AI an opportunity to use this technology to detect new terms and forms of expression that arise and that do not reach them through traditional channels.
The digital revolution has also led to the appearance of new words to name elements or phenomena that did not exist before, most Anglo-Saxon terms that do not generate fear in the academies of the Spanish language.
A mixed language
“It is not a great tragedy because Spanish has always been mestizo, a language very given to incorporating terms from other languages from its origins. He already incorporated many Arabic words and other neighboring languages. And in countries like the Americans it has terms of their original languages,” Muñoz Machado said.
“We’re not too worried. The ‘Dictionary of the Spanish Language’ has 94,000 entries and 189,000 meanings. Every year we incorporate a maximum of a dozen new terms from English, and we also incorporate them raw, without Castilianizing or Spanishizing them, in the same way they mean in English. We enrich the language in that way and nothing happens,” he added.
However, the director of the RAE emphasized that “a different thing is to use English expressions that have equivalent in Spanish only for snobbery or to show a certain knowledge of that culture in an unnecessary and harmful way for the quality and integrity of our language”
At the Asale congress, among other novelties, a ‘Pan-Hispanic Guide to Clear Language’ will also be presented, with the aim that the official communications of the institutions can be understood by any citizen and that they can thus exercise “the right to understand,” as Muñoz Machado defined it, “which is the basis of the exercise of other rights.”
International
ICE agent arrested in Texas over shooting of Venezuelan migrant in Minnesota
U.S. authorities arrested an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Friday in Texas after he was accused of shooting a Venezuelan migrant in Minnesota earlier this year and later providing false information about the incident.
The suspect, identified as Christian Castro, faces four counts of second-degree assault, along with an additional charge related to filing a false official report. He was taken into custody after investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located him, according to a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
The case stems from a January operation carried out by ICE during which Castro shot Julio César Sosa, a Venezuelan migrant, in the leg. Prosecutors allege that the agent later submitted a misleading account of the incident, claiming that Sosa and another migrant had attacked officers with a shovel and a broomstick.
However, investigators say that video evidence and further findings contradicted that version of events, leading to the dismissal of charges initially brought against the migrants by federal prosecutors.
ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, acknowledged in February that agents involved in the incident had given “false sworn testimony” about what occurred.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty described Friday’s arrest as a “critical step forward” in the judicial process and reaffirmed that the investigation remains ongoing.
Internacionales
Rubén Gallego says U.S. policy may push for Cuba regime change under Trump administration
Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego said on Friday in Madrid that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has an “obsession” with Cuba and suggested that the administration of President Donald Trump is determined to change the Cuban government by any means necessary.
Speaking in Spanish during a meeting with journalists at the Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies, Gallego said he believes there could be an attempt to alter the Cuban government, potentially through military or other non-democratic means.
“I think there will be an attempt to change the government of Cuba, it could be through the military or in another way,” said Gallego, who is of Mexican-Colombian origin.
The Arizona senator argued that Cuba does not represent a threat to the United States, describing it as “a very poor island of nine million people.” However, he acknowledged the significant political influence of Cuban-Americans and of Secretary of State Marco Rubio within the current Trump administration.
Gallego also expressed opposition to U.S. military interventions aimed at overthrowing foreign governments, stating that such actions are unacceptable, particularly when their objective is regime change.
He noted that “almost 99% of Democrats” oppose any military intervention in Cuba.
The senator also referred to the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, stating that although Maduro is “a horrible and very corrupt man,” this does not justify overthrowing governments through force.
“If we start arguing that a president is a criminal, what prevents China from saying the same about Taiwan or other nations?” he warned.
Gallego further described the political transition process in Venezuela as a “failure,” arguing that little has changed in terms of governance outcomes.
“We went from one dictator to another, so from a geopolitical and strategic point of view it has been a failure, until we see whether Venezuela achieves a real democratic transition,” he said, referring to Maduro’s replacement by Delcy Rodríguez.
International
U.S. classifies CV and PCC as terrorist groups in major policy shift
The United States government announced on Thursday that it will add the Brazilian criminal organizations Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), a designation set to take effect on June 5, 2026.
The State Department justified the decision by stating that both groups are among the most powerful criminal organizations in Brazil and accused them of coordinating violent attacks against police officers, public officials, and civilians.
The designation comes just days after Brazilian senator and presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro directly asked U.S. President Donald Trump to classify these groups as “narco-terrorist” organizations during a visit to the White House.
Bolsonaro, who is running in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election in October, has made tougher action against organized crime and prison-based gangs a central part of his campaign platform.
He is part of a political dispute with current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has opposed the U.S. classification, warning it could open the door to potential foreign military intervention in Brazilian territory.
The Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital emerged in Brazilian prisons during the 1970s and have since expanded their influence, now controlling extensive criminal activities including drug trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and other illicit operations.
According to security experts and Brazilian authorities, both organizations have tens of thousands of members and support networks spread across multiple states in the country.
The U.S. measure aims to increase financial and operational pressure on these groups by restricting funding sources, limiting international mobility, and expanding cooperation in security enforcement efforts.
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