International
Colombia to allow assisted medical suicide: court
AFP
Colombia on Thursday became the first Latin American country to authorize assisted medical suicide for patients under a doctor’s supervision, according to a constitutional court decision.
The country’s highest court ruled that a doctor can help a seriously ill patient take their own life by consuming a lethal drug, without risking going to jail.
Colombia already allows euthanasia — where a doctor is the one to administer a life-ending drug to a patient.
“The doctor who helps someone with intense suffering or serious illness and who freely decides to dispose of their own life, acts within the constitutional framework,” read Thursday’s court ruling that passed by six votes to three.
Colombia decriminalized euthanasia in 1997, and in July 2021 a high court expanded this “right to dignified death” to those not suffering from a terminal illness.
Fewer than 200 people have opted for euthanasia in Colombia since 1997, according to official data.
It is the first and only Latin American country to have taken this step and one of just a few in the world, and did so despite being mostly Roman Catholic.
The church categorically opposes both euthanasia and assisted suicide.
– ‘Intense’ suffering –
According to the Right to Die with Dignity foundation (DMD), the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide “is basically who administers the drug.”
“In the case of euthanasia, it is health personnel who administer the medicine that causes death and in the case of assisted suicide it is the patient who self-administers the medicine that another person has provided,” it explained.
Despite its decriminalization of euthanasia, a doctor still risked jail time of 12 to 36 months for assisting a person end their own life.
Thursday’s court ruling said assisted suicide would be allowed only for people dealing with “intense physical or mental suffering arising from bodily injury or serious and incurable illness.”
A doctor acting outside of this framework could still go to jail for up to nine years.
According to the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, “aid in dying” is allowed in some form or another in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Austria, some states in Australia and some in the United States.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Chile’s lower house of Parliament approved a bill last year that would allow euthanasia for adults. It still requires approval by the Senate.
And a court in Peru last April ordered the government to respect the wishes of a polio-stricken woman to be allowed to die, a rare allowance for euthanasia in that country.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
International
Caracas shuts embassy in Oslo without explanation following Machado’s Nobel win
Venezuela has announced the closure of its embassy in Norway, just days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Venezuelan diplomatic mission provided no explanation for its decision on Monday.
“It is regrettable,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will continue to work in that direction.” The ministry also emphasized that the Nobel Committee operates entirely independently from the Norwegian government.
In its announcement, the Nobel Committee stated that Machado met the criteria established by Alfred Nobel, “embodying the hope for a different future, where the fundamental rights of Venezuelans are heard.”
International
Sheinbaum: Urgent to restore access to towns cut off by heavy rains
Thousands of military personnel and civilians in Mexico worked tirelessly on Tuesday to clear roads blocked by the torrential rains of recent days, which have left more than 300 communities cut off across central and eastern regions of the country. Authorities also launched mass fumigation efforts in several affected areas to prevent the spread of dengue fever.
The official death toll remains at 64, though dozens of people are still missing. President Claudia Sheinbaumacknowledged that the government does not yet know the full situation in many of the isolated villages, which range in population from 500 to 1,000 inhabitants.
“The reopening of roads is one of the greatest urgencies,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s essential to guarantee air bridges, food supplies, clean water, and a proper census of the isolated communities so we can determine the condition of every person living there.”
Private construction companies are also assisting the effort with heavy machinery and technical support to help reopen highways and reconnect rural areas.
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
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