International

Philippines postpones self-rule vote in restive Muslim region

AFP

The Philippine government said Friday it will postpone elections key to ending decades of sectarian bloodshed in a troubled Muslim region, with the pandemic and a stalling peace process blamed for the delay.

The vote was a key provision in a 2014 peace agreement aimed at ending a conflict estimated to have claimed 150,000 lives and was due to take place next May in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

But former rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group appointed to lead a transitional government have said they needed more time before elections to a local legislature can go ahead and the vote will instead be held in 2025.

“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed… (the bill) yesterday resetting the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to 2025,” his spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.

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The law grants Duterte the authority to appoint members of the 80-member transition authority whose terms would end with the 2025 election, Roque said.

Former MILF rebels have warned that the failure of the peace process would likely draw disillusioned Muslim youths in the region towards the more hardline Islamists still waging an armed campaign in the southern Philippines.

But restrictions imposed because of the pandemic and the transitional government’s inability to draw up an election code had left them with little choice but to delay the poll, Georgi Engelbrecht, senior analyst for the Brussels-based peace monitor International Crisis Group, told AFP last month.

“The extension is not the most perfect solution but nonetheless it’s a start,” he said.

A report by the monitor warned in April that the process of decommissioning the MILF’s 40,000 fighters was “sputtering”, with fewer than a third having laid down their weapons.

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And the Duterte government “has been slow to distribute to them the economic packages meant to entice them to cooperate”, it added.

Violence has also persisted despite the peace deal, with radical Islamic groups setting up shop in what remains the poorest part of the country.

In May 2017, hundreds of pro-Islamic State foreign and local gunmen seized Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city.

The Philippine military wrested back the ruined city after a five-month battle that claimed more than a thousand lives.

An insurgency first emerged in the mainly Catholic Asian nation in the early 1970s as a bid to set up a separate Muslim state in the Mindanao region, though the rebels later scaled down their goals to autonomy.

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An earlier peace treaty between Manila and a rival Muslim rebel faction had created a self-ruled area in 1996, but it was hampered by a lack of funding and corruption while the MILF fought on.

The new entity is better-funded and slightly larger. The national government retains police powers.

International

Ten Bodies Found in Mexico’s Zacatecas State Amid Security Operation

Mexican authorities discovered the bodies of 10 people on Saturday in the central state of Zacatecas, a region that was heavily affected by organized crime violence just a few years ago.

The victims were found in different municipalities across the state, which experienced a surge in violence between 2021 and 2022 as rival criminal groups fought for control of key drug trafficking routes.

Rodrigo Reyes, secretary general of the Zacatecas state government, said on social media that the bodies were located in the municipalities of Morelos, Pánuco, and Sain Alto.

Authorities have not yet disclosed the causes of death or identified those responsible for the killings.

Reyes said security forces have launched a coordinated operation to locate those behind the crimes and strengthen the police presence in the affected areas as the investigation continues.

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International

U.S. to Limit Visa Duration for Foreign Students and Journalists

The United States has announced new limits on the legal length of stay for foreign students and journalists, marking the latest tightening of immigration policies under President Donald Trump.

The changes, outlined in an administrative rule published on Thursday, are expected to take effect in September, unless Congress blocks the measure.

Under the new policy, holders of student visas will be allowed to remain in the United States for no more than four years.

Foreign journalists will be limited to 240-day stays—approximately eight months—with the possibility of applying for extensions of the same duration.

The policy imposes even stricter rules on Chinese journalists, whose visas will be capped at 90 days.

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More than 100 international news organizations and press freedom groups, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), criticized the measure in an open letter, arguing that it would reduce both the quantity and quality of international coverage of events in the United States.

The Republican Party, led by President Trump, currently holds a majority in Congress and has pledged to curb both illegal immigration and certain forms of legal immigration.

Previously, the United States generally issued student visas for the full duration of an academic program, while foreign journalists could receive visas valid for up to five years.

Central America

Nicaragua Cuts Diplomatic Ties With Italy Over Red Brigades Dispute

The Nicaraguan government announced on Thursday that it is severing diplomatic relations with Italy following criticism from the Italian government over Nicaragua’s long-standing decision to shelter Alessio Casimirri, a former member of the Red Brigades convicted in Italy for the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani criticized the administration of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo on Wednesday for continuing to provide refuge to Casimirri, who was sentenced in Italy to six life terms for his role in Moro’s abduction and killing.

In a statement issued Thursday, Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry said it was ending all diplomatic relations with Italy, describing Tajani’s remarks as “unjustified, aggressive, and irresponsible.”

Tajani made the comments during a gathering of conservative leaders from Europe and Latin America held in Madrid.

“We have absolutely nothing in common with the positions of extremist governments such as Nicaragua, a country that continues to harbor dangerous Red Brigades terrorists like Alessio Casimirri,” Tajani said, according to Italian media.

The diplomatic break marks a new escalation in tensions between the two countries over the decades-old case involving Casimirri, who has lived in Nicaragua for many years despite repeated calls from Italy for his extradition.