The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, denounced an alleged “sabotage” and asked for an investigation into the power cuts generated since last weekend in different parts of the country, in the face of the impossibility of meeting all the national demand.
“We have initiated an investigation for sabotage, because, in certain areas, in certain power plants, there has been sabotage. We are not going to allow that to happen, and they do it miserable the last week before a popular consultation because they know that they had it lost,” he said without mentioning any name of possible perpetrators.
Noboa added that they have declared the country’s energy sector in an “emergency” and said that he has requested the resignation of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Andrea Arrobo, who last Friday had assured that there would be no blackouts in the short term despite pointing out that the largest reservoir in the country was at its minimum level.
“This investigation is not going to rest, we have already submitted (the complaint to) the Prosecutor’s Office,” he said, adding that “every person involved will be considered, not only a traitor to the homeland, but a threat to national security.”
The ruler added: “No one is going to ‘count’ me (tell a story) in the last second that we have to give five hours of blackout to (the province of) Guayas. We are not going to give more blackouts this week,” he said without mentioning whether the decision applies only to Guayas, whose capital is the port city of Guayaquil, or to the whole country.
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“To counteract the actions of these miserable people, we will cover 50% of the electricity sheet of the homes of the month of April,” he said amid the applause of the attendees of a scholarship ceremony.
The ruler opined that there are those who “today want to deceive Ecuador into saying that we are not prepared for this fight, that we are not prepared to face narco-terrorism.”
“But here, forcefully, with courage, we will not give rest to any of these criminals, nor to the politicians, nor to the former officials, nor to the former presidents, nor to any of these terrorists who today want to end the hope of our youth and the Ecuadorian family,” he added.
His adversaries, he said, take advantage of the needs of the most vulnerable “to see if they turn around a popular consultation that Ecuador requested and that Ecuador is going to vote ‘Yes’.”
More than 13 million Ecuadorians are called to the polls next Sunday to vote in a referendum on security, justice and employment issues.
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Among the questions are the possibility of the military permanently supporting the Police in the control of the security of the country and the extradition of Ecuadorians required by the Justice of other countries, among other issues such as the recognition of international arbitrations in any jurisdiction and hourly labor contracts.
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.
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.
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.”
