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Fresh clashes in Colombia on protest movement anniversary

AFP

Anti-government protesters and police traded blows on Monday in demonstrations across Colombia that marked two months of unrest in which more than 60 people have died.

Colombia has been rocked by protests since April, following opposition to a proposed tax hike that morphed into a mass movement against the right-wing administration of President Ivan Duque.

The demonstrators demand an end to police repression and more supportive public policies to alleviate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has plunged more than 40 percent of the country’s 50 million inhabitants into poverty.

Riot police were deployed “on 20 occasions in various cities” Monday, the general director of the Police, General Jorge Vargas, reported in an audio recording sent to the media.

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Demonstrators attacked police installations in the cities of Medellin and Pereira, with protestors demolishing a statue of the country’s namesake, Christopher Columbus, in Barranquilla in the north. Riot police responded with water cannon and tear gas.

A dozen public transportation vehicles were also “vandalized”, Vargas said.

In the capital Bogata, dozens drew silhouettes of civilians killed by the country’s military in the over fifty-year-long conflict between the state and the FARC guerrilla — violence that has resurged in recent years despite a peace agreement signed in 2016.

More than 60 people have died in the protests, according to the country’s Ombudsman.

Human Rights Watch has accused law enforcement of committing “egregious abuses”, saying police are implicated in at least 20 homicides. The United States, the European Union and the UN have condemned police abuses.

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The government claims that illegal groups involved in drug trafficking and the National Liberation Army (ELN) — Colombia’s last recognized guerrilla group — have infiltrated the protest movement in a bid to sow chaos.

A major group representing the protesters said on June 16 it would suspend demonstrations,  promising to “continue our struggle in other settings such as art and concerts”.

More hardline factions in the movement have pledged to carry on. 

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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.

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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.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

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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