International

Colombian general investigated for illegal wiretapping

Photo: Fiscalía Colombia

November 13 |

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office announced Saturday that it will investigate the Army commander, General Luis Mauricio Ospina, for allegedly ordering illegal surveillance and interceptions of his wife’s English teacher, linking him as an alleged member of FARC dissidents.

According to local media, General Ospina ordered to investigate Leonardo Colmenares, his wife’s English teacher, who became friends because of their classes, which caused her husband to have doubts about the real reasons why they met periodically.

Thus, in order to justify this illegal monitoring and eavesdropping, General Ospina made Colmenares pass himself off as a member of the Carolina Ramírez front, of the FARC dissidents commanded by alias “Iván Mordisco”.

The Army commander acknowledged in statements to local media that he gave the order to investigate the teacher and blamed his subordinates for any irregularities they may have committed in this case.

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“According to the allegations published in the media, the military high command allegedly abused his functions and ordered to use the intelligence and counterintelligence services of the Army for personal purposes”, explained the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a statement.

The disciplinary investigation of the Attorney General’s Office seeks to determine if, in addition, General Ospina “would have ordered a set-up, accusing without any evidence a citizen of belonging to a group outside the law, and thus justifying such monitoring”.

Likewise, the control body will verify, through the collection of testimonies, evidence and documents, “if the current Army commander would have incurred in disciplinary offenses, by abusing his power and using the intelligence and counterintelligence services, as well as using subordinates, for purposes far from those of the institutionality”.

In turn, the Army Command said in a statement that intelligence and counterintelligence tasks are defined in statutory laws: “in the specific case of the Counterintelligence function, the activities seek to anticipate, prevent, detect and neutralize actions to protect personnel, facilities, material and information,” the statement said.

And it adds: “This is the basis for the Army Commander’s authority to order the Military Counterintelligence Unit to carry out verification activities in response to information that alerts about a possible violation of the security and integrity of the Commander and his family”.

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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.

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.”

International

Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.

The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.

While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.

Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.

Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.