International
Disagreements make it difficult to elect the members of the transitional council in Haiti
Internal disagreements made it difficult on Wednesday to elect the members who will make up the transitional presidential council in Haiti and, even, one of the main parties involved, the Pitit Dessaline, announced that he will not send a representative to that institution.
The creation of the transition council is the result of last Monday’s meeting in the capital of Jamaica, convened by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to seek a solution to the extreme situation in Haiti and in which representatives of Haitians, the UN and international partners, including the United States, also participated, with its Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the helm.
After that appointment, the Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who is in Puerto Rico after staying several days in unknown whereabouts, announced in a message to the nation his resignation from office as soon as the presidential council is constituted because, he said, “no sacrifice is too great” for the country, which “needs peace, stability and lasting development.”
This Wednesday, at a press conference, the leader of Pitit Dessaline, former Senator Jean Charles Moise, announced that his political formation rejects the initiative of the transitional council and will not send a representative, despite being one of the movements, forces and sectors of civil society that should appoint the seven members who will make up the institution along with two observers.
The Pitit Dessalines (Descendants of Dessalines) is a left-wing formation that emerged in February 2017 that is declared open to all those who “share the ideal of Dessalines until the end” (Jean-Jacques Dessalines, father of the independence of Haiti).
This was one of the entities that should designate the components of the presidential council together with the January 30 Collective, Montana Agreement, December 21 Agreement, EDE/RED, the Fanmi Lavalas party and the Private Sector, while the observers will represent the Regrouping by a National and Sovereign Entente (REN) and the Diaspora of Haitians residing abroad.
These actors and formations practically reflect the different sectors of national life in Haiti.
But, in the face of the disagreements that have arisen internally, many of those movements have not yet sent the names of those who will be part of the institution, which must agree on the appointment of an interim prime minister and will prepare the way for the holding of presidential elections.
At the moment, only some of the chosen names have been known, such as that of Edgard Leblanc Fils, of the January 30 Collective.
In addition to the disagreements registered internally, the appointment of representatives may be delayed because some of the people who would be appointed run the risk of having the status of ineligible by not having declared their property.
On Tuesday, the United States considered that the transitional council could be formed in 24 or 48 hours and showed its desire that the appointment of an interim prime minister take place “without delay.”
Several voices were raised against the pact reached at the Caricom meeting, including that of former rebel leader Guy Philippe, who will not be able to be on the presidential council due to a money laundering sentence in the United States.
Before the agreement reached in Jamaica was known, Jimmy Chérizier, alias Barbecue, on behalf of the coalition of armed bands ‘Vivre Ensemble’ (Living Together), also rejected the negotiations of the international community because it is the Haitian people “who must take fate in their hands” and showed their opposition to foreign forces.
On Tuesday, dozens of people demonstrated, with banners and barricades on fire, in front of the embassy in Port-au-Prince of Canada, one of the key foreign actors in the country along with the United States and France, against the transitional presidential council.
Violence increased exponentially in Haiti after it was known on February 28 that Henry had pledged to hold elections before the end of August 2025, despite the fact that in 2022 he reached an agreement with parties, civil society organizations and members of the private sector to leave power on February 7, 2024, which did not happen.
The powerful armed gangs then increased their actions against institutions, companies and prisons, from which more than 3,000 prisoners fled, including members and leaders of gangs, and tried to attack, unsuccessfully, the National Palace and the Ministry of Justice, despite the state of emergency and the curfew in force in the department of the West, where Port-au-Prince is located.
Haiti is awaiting the deployment of the multinational security support mission approved by the UN and led by Kenya, whose president, William Ruto, reaffirmed on Wednesday his country’s commitment to lead that force once the transitional council is appointed.
International
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
The American press agency Associated Press (AP) announced this Friday that it has sued three members of the Donald Trump Administration after being banned from the Oval Office and the presidential plane Air Force One for not complying with the directive of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not to be retaliated for it by the Government. The Constitution does not allow the Government to control freedom of expression,” the media maintains.
In its style guide, AP decided to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name”, still mentioning the new name chosen by Trump, since it is a body of water that shares a border with Mexico and Cuba.
The White House formally blocked AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One on February 14. “We are very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The agency’s lawsuit, of 18 pages and filed before a federal court in Washington DC, alleges that they have decided to take this step to claim their right to editorial independence and prevent the Executive from coercing journalists to use only a language approved by it.
Trump signed the executive order to change the name to Gulf of America on January 20, the first day of his return to power. He later named February 9 as ‘ Gulf of America Day’.
The AP complaint is specifically directed against the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, his number two, Taylor Budowich, and the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.
This Thursday, more than thirty US media asked the Government to restore AP’s participation in presidential events and not to take into account “the editorial point of view” when limiting access to the White House.
Among the signatories are the television networks Fox News and Newsmax, with a conservative tinge, in addition to other large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic.
AP highlighted when reporting on his complaint that this Friday Trump referred to that agency as “radical left-wing lunatics”: It is “a third-rate company with a first name,” he said about it, the main one in the country and founded in 1846.
International
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
The Legislature of the city of Buenos Aires approved this Friday the suspension of the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO), a measure that, according to the deputy head of government, Clara Muzzio, “allows to save 20 billion pesos (about 18,894 million dollars)”, and advanced the legislative elections for May 18.
“The City Legislature suspended the PASO, a measure that saves $20 billion for neighbors,” Muzzio announced on Friday.
For his part, the mayor of the City, Jorge Macri, maintained that the PASO “were an expensive mechanism that only solved the problems of politicians, not of the people.”
The May 18 elections, which were originally scheduled for July, will be held through the Single Electronic Ballot system.
In that instance, the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires will elect their local legislators and, in October, they will have to return to the polls to define, together with the rest of the country, the composition of the chambers of Deputies and Senators.
“The fact that the elections are in May allows each Buenos Aires to decide on their own city, without being tied to national discussions,” said the mayor.
The project was approved in the Buenos Aires legislature with 55 votes in favor, 3 against and one abstention, after an agreement between the main political forces.
The suspension of the primaries in the City of Buenos Aires occurs one day after the Argentine Parliament approved the same measure at the national level.
The original project sent by the national government sought the elimination of the primary system but finally, given the lack of support for that objective, the government chose to promote an initiative that suspends them for this year.
The primary election system was first implemented in Argentina to define the candidates for the 2011 general elections, based on a political reform approved by Parliament at the end of 2009, with the aim of democratizing political representation, transparency and electoral equity.
According to the PASO system, to be qualified to compete in the general elections, candidates or lists of candidates must achieve at least 1.5% of the total votes in the primaries.
All parties are obliged to participate in the primaries, although they do not necessarily have to present more than one list of candidates to decide which one will lead to the general elections, an option for which the majority of the forces have opted in the last elections.
That is one of the reasons why the system has been questioned, among which are also its costs and the cumbersomeness of the organization.
International
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Friday that threatens to impose tariffs on foreign governments that apply digital fees to US companies, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
The order states that “foreign governments have exercised a growing extraterritorial authority over US companies, particularly in the technology sector,” and directly cites the taxes on digital services that “several business partners” apply since 2019.
According to the text, the Trump Administration will impose tariffs on those governments that use taxes or regulations that are “discriminatory, disproportionate or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from US companies to that government or its chosen domestic entities.”
Trump delegates to the US Trade Representative the possibility of “renewing investigations” on the so-called technology fees of Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Turkey, imposed in the first term of the Republican, and if so, “take all appropriate actions”, which would include the imposition of tariffs.
“US companies will no longer sustain failed foreign economies through fines and extortionational taxes,” says the White House document, which provides for a “process” for them to “report” these “disproportionate” measures to the Commercial Representative.
He also instructs him to investigate together with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce whether in the European Union or the United Kingdom the use of products or services of US companies is “required or encouraged” to “undermine freedom of expression”, political activity or, “otherwise, moderate content”.
It also suggests to the Representative, among other things, to hold “a panel” with its partners of the T-MEC (Canada and Mexico) on the tax on digital services in Canada, and identify ways to achieve a “permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions”.
The order does not mention any specific company, but mainly affects large technology companies such as Apple, Google (subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta and Amazon, which have precisely starred in a resounded approach to President Trump since he won the elections in November.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump ordered to investigate the digital fees to his companies abroad and threatened to apply tariffs to the six countries indicated today; taxes were imposed in the government of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, and subsequently suspended.
Trump signed another executive order aimed at restricting access to US technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, what he calls “foreign adversaries”, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China.
The executive order does not specify in detail what measures will be taken to restrict the access of these “foreign adversaries” to US technology.
Under the label of “foreign adversaries”, the order identifies China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the “regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro”, according to the text.
Trump justifies his decision with the argument that “economic security is national security” and maintains that the country must protect its sensitive infrastructures and technologies, from artificial intelligence to semiconductors and advances in biotechnology.
The executive order focuses especially on China, pointing out that companies linked to Beijing have used investments in the US to access key technologies and that the Chinese government is taking advantage of US technology to modernize its military apparatus.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, Trump has announced several restrictions on trade with the aim of balancing the trade balance and pressuring countries such as Mexico and Canada to make concessions on immigration and efforts against drug trafficking.
It has imposed a 10% tariff on China, which is in addition to the rates already applied during its first term (2017-2021).
Trump’s new restrictions come after his predecessor, Joe Biden, took steps to limit exports of semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology to China, which led Beijing to respond with export controls on graphite, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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