18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, guilty of the murder of three girls in the English town of Southport (northern England) on July 29, 2024, was sentenced this Thursday to a minimum prison time of 52 years, according to a Liverpool court.

Judge Julian Goose imposed a life sentence on Rudakubana, but since he was a minor at the time of committing the crime, and British law does not allow life imprisonment for minors, a minimum of 51 years and 190 days in prison was determined, discounting the time he has already been under bars since his arrest.

“(Axel Rudakubana) will spend most of his life in prison. I think it is quite likely that he will never be released and that he will be in prison all his life,” Goose added in the reading of the sentence, where he commented that, if he had been 18 years old, he would have sentenced him to life imprisonment without a minimum period.

Rudakubana, who did not express remorse after killing the minors, had pleaded guilty on Monday to the charges of stabbing murder of 6-year-old Bebe King; Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9; and of trying to murder eight other minors and two adults during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

In total, Rudakubana was convicted of a total of 16 charges, including the production of ricin, a biological toxin and the possession of an Al Qaeda training manual, although he admitted that there was no evidence to consider the attack a terrorist cause, but he did commit “equivalent” actions.

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“I am sure that Rudakabana had a fixed and determined intention to carry out these crimes, and that if he had been able to, he would have killed each and every one of the minors, all 26 of them, as well as all the adults who had stook in his way,” said the British magistrate.

Shortly after the punishment against infanticide became known, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that it is considering the possibility of filing an appeal with the Court of Appeal if it concludes that the sentence has been “excessively lenient.”

During the incident, Rudakubana stabbed at least 122 times the youngest of the victims, 6 years old, and tried to “decapitate her,” according to the pathologist who examined the body.

The Rudakubana case has also highlighted the errors in the British anti-terrorist prevention system, after it was revealed this week that the young man had been referred to the youth program ‘Prevent’ from the age of 14 until three times.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement after the conviction was announced that the Southport massacre is “one of the most heartbreaking moments” in the history of the United Kingdom.

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“What happened in Southport was an atrocity and, as the judge has stated, this vile criminal will probably never be released. After one of the most heartbreaking moments in the history of our country, we owe those innocent girls and all those affected the change they deserve,” he said.

He alluded in this way to the “fundamental change” in the protection of minors that he asked for on Tuesday after Rudakubana pleaded guilty, when he dropped that the legal definition of terrorism should be changed to include actions such as that of Southport.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said on Thursday that he has been in contact with Nicolás Maduro to launch an action plan that would allow the “eradication” of armed groups from the border with Venezuela, following the clashes in the Catatumbo area between the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a dissident of the FARC.

“I have talked to the president in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to cover up the illegal passages, especially in the Catatumbo River, and it is acted with flights from side to side, we verify (sic) with the presence of 1,580 compatriots in a refugee camp on the other side,” Petro said in his social network account X.

He also said that “an action plan is being built, a set that seeks to close all space for action of the owners of drug trafficking on the border.”

The president thus responded to criticism the day before for making an official trip to Haiti while the country faces the security and humanitarian crisis caused by the clashes in the Catatumbo, which began a week ago and left between 60 and 80 dead, according to different authorities, as well as some 36,000 displaced people.

“No one disconnects at this time. I inform you that I have been connected with the current Venezuelan Government from Haiti and I have delegated my Minister of Defense to talk to his peer and establish a joint plan to eradicate armed gangs on the border,” Petro added.

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Petro also said that there will be “a meeting of the two defense ministers for this purpose.”

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, who resigned this week and will be in office until January 31, said on Wednesday in New York that the Colombian Government has asked that of Venezuela through diplomatic channels to ensure greater control at the border to prevent the passage of ELN fighters from Catatumbo.

Murillo, who spoke before the UN Security Council at its quarterly session on the Verification Mission in Colombia, said that the two Governments “are coordinated to ensure tranquility on both sides of the border.”

To this end, he added, Colombia has “sadd to the Venezuelan State that it is definitive to avoid the passages of the members of the ELN through the border,” because it is a fact that “there were a series of illegal passages,” although all this without going to the extreme of closing the legal bridges that communicate the two countries.

Colombia and Venezuela share a border of 2,219 kilometers, of which about 375 are in the Catatumbo region, the scene of the clashes between the ELN and the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents, for territorial control and drug trafficking businesses.

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The delegation of the Government of Colombia in the dialogues with the National Liberation Army (ELN) said that the members of the guerrillas participating in the peace process are not in Cuba, after the Prosecutor’s Office reactivated the arrest warrants against 31 negotiators of the armed group.

“Our delegation affirms that to date, and according to official information, in Cuba there are no representatives or people authorized to participate in the peace process belonging to the ELN,” said this Thursday the Government delegation headed by Vera Grabe in a message on her X account.

This statement is made after the Prosecutor’s Office reactivated on Wednesday the arrest warrants against the ELN peace negotiators after Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the suspension of talks due to the “war crimes” that that guerrilla is committing in the Catatumbo.

The Lebanese Shii group Hizbulá warned on Thursday that a postponement of the withdrawal of the Israeli troops present in Lebanon, which must be completed in the next three days, will not be “acceptable”, and asked the Government to act to enforce the deadline established by the ceasefire agreement.

“We will follow the evolution of the situation that is supposed to culminate in the coming days with a total withdrawal. No violation of the agreement and its guarantees will be acceptable, and no attempt to evade them under futile premises,” the political and armed movement said in a statement.

This Sunday expires the ceasefire agreement between the parties, which stipulates the end of the invasion initiated by Israel on October 1 in a period of 60 days, the exit of Hizbula from the border strip and a greater deployment of the Lebanese Army in that region.

The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Mike Herzog, told Army radio on Thursday that they are maintaining contacts with Washington, mediator of the pact, to extend the implementation deadline, while Hebrew media reported an alleged request for an extension of 30 additional days.

“Some leaks that speak of the enemy postponing his withdrawal and staying longer in Lebanon call for everyone to act effectively, especially the political authorities of Lebanon to pressure the countries that sponsor the agreement,” Hezbulá demanded in his statement.

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He also urged them to proceed in the coming days in a way that guarantees the deployment of the Lebanese Army “to the last inch of territory” and not to allow any “pretext or argument” to prolong the Israeli invasion of the south of the country.

The Shiite formation warned that a breach of the date will mean a “flagrant” violation of the pact and the beginning of a “new chapter of occupation”, so the Lebanese State must address the matter using “all” the means guaranteed by international laws.

Since the entry into force of the agreement, on November 27, Israeli troops have withdrawn from almost the entire western sector of the border strip and the Lebanese Army has been deployed in about 80 new points, but with only three days to go, there is still a long way to complete the process.