International
Ecuador declares the Mexican ambassador persona “non grata” by comment by López Obrador
The Government of Ecuador announced that it decided to declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur, persona “non grata”, in response to statements by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about the murder of former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the apparent electoral consequences of that crime.
The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador, in a statement, invoked the principle of “non-intervention” in the internal affairs of another country and the Vienna Convention to take the diplomatic measure that implies the departure of the ambassador’s country.
In addition, he indicated that the South American nation is still experiencing the “mourning” for the shooting crime of Villavicencio, which occurred in August last year, when the then presidential candidate was leaving an electoral political rally in a busy neighborhood in northern Quito, in broad daylight.
In a press conference in his country, the Mexican president commented on the consequences of Villavicencio’s assassination in the context of last year’s presidential elections in Ecuador, which gave the victory to the current president, the businessman Daniel Noboa.
López Obrador said that, according to his criteria, the crime of Villavicencio harmed above all Luisa González, the presidential candidate of the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former progressive governor Rafael Correa (2007-2017), an opinion that has also been shared by several electoral analysts in Ecuador.
The Mexican ruler assured that there is social responsibility in the context of situations of violence and said that the media do not escape from it either.
“In the context of the recent and very unfortunate statements of the president of Mexico,” the Ecuadorian Government “has decided to declare the Mexican ambassador ‘persona non grata’ in Quito,” by invoking “article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” said the Foreign Ministry in Quito.
He assured that “Ecuador is still mourning” for the murder of Villavicencio, a crime that “caused shock in Ecuadorian society and attacked democracy, peace and security.”
“The country continues to face transnational organized crime that threatens the State, its democratic institutions and its population,” he added.
He also emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will maintain its “firm commitment to permanently ensure respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the Ecuadorian State and the fundamental principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.”
Villavicencio was shot at gunnail on August 9, 2023, at the exit of an electoral rally in Quito when there were eleven days left before the first round of the extraordinary general elections.
The murder of Villavicencio raised the wave of violence that has plagued Ecuador for about three years to unprecedented heights, so the country became one of the most violent in Latin America, with 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
On January 8, President Noboa decreed a state of emergency at the national level due to the high levels of insecurity, and declared a situation of “internal armed conflict,” for which he renamed 22 organized crime groups as “terrorists.”
The spiral of violence in Ecuador was unleashed just after Noboa announced its decision to implement a plan to regain control of prisons, many of them dominated internally by groups of criminals, whose rivalries have left more than 450 prisoners killed since 2020 in a series of prison massacres.
International
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday (April 19, 2025) in major cities like New York and Washington, as well as in small communities across the United States, in a second wave of demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The crowds denounced what they view as growing threats to the country’s democratic ideals.
In New York City, demonstrators of all ages rallied in front of the Public Library near Trump Tower, holding signs accusing the president of undermining democratic institutions and judicial independence.
Many protesters also criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including mass deportations and raids targeting undocumented migrants.
“Democracy is in grave danger,” said Kathy Valyi, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She told AFP that the stories her parents shared about Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany “are happening here now.”
In Washington, demonstrators voiced concern over what they see as Trump’s disregard for long-standing constitutional norms, such as the right to due process.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
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