International

Two Mapuche die in clashes with Chilean security forces

AFP

Two members of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche community died and three others were injured on Wednesday in clashes with security forces, the government said.

The fighting happened in Arauco province in the south, an area that has been under a state of emergency since last month amid escalating violence.

The incident occurred a day after President Sebastian Pinera said he had asked Congress to extend the state of emergency and the deployment of military forces in four provinces in the Biobio and La Araucania regions, including Arauco.

“I can confirm two deaths so far and I can confirm three injured who have arrived at different hospitals,” Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado said in the capital Santiago.

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CEL

The minister said the deaths occurred during two attacks by hooded men near the town of Canete, 640 kilometers (400 miles) south of Santiago.

The deceased, two Mapuche community members aged 23 and 44, died of gunshot wounds, health officials said. The prosecutor’s office reported the arrest of three people.

The state of emergency was adopted by Pinera on October 12, a date which commemorates the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the Americas and which has become riven by controversy.

The president then extended by 15 days the militarization of these regions, which have experienced an historical conflict between the Mapuche people — Chile’s largest indigenous community — and the state.

The indigenous people are demanding the state return lands that they consider theirs by ancestral right and which have been handed over to private companies, mainly forestry companies and landowners.

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The lack of a solution to Mapuche demands has prompted radical groups to carry out attacks on trucks and private property over the last decade.

One person was killed and 17 injured last month when clashes broke out in Santiago between security forces and protesters marching for Mapuche autonomy.

The confrontations have also brought to light the presence of drug trafficking and self-defense groups, as well as police operations denounced as set-ups by indigenous people.

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”

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.”