International
60% of participation ninety minutes before the closing of the vote in Ecuador
60% participation in the referendum was reported this Sunday by the National Electoral Council (CNE) ninety minutes before the polling stations were closed in Ecuador, where the day took place with “tranquility” until the murder of the director of a prison was recorded.
The percentage was confirmed by the president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, in the second report on the electoral process to which more than 13.6 million Ecuadorians are summoned to answer eleven questions related to security, justice, investment and employment.
Atamaint publicly invited the population to come to vote because “the country needs them,” he said in a public appearance.
This vote will be a turning point for Noboa, who plays in it the high popularity achieved in the first months of his mandate by having elevated the fight against criminal gangs to the category of “internal armed conflict.”
During the opening ceremony of the day, Noboa remarked that this referendum “will mark the direction of the challenge to face organized crime, the fight against corruption and job creation.”
“Today is our time to make history, to mark a before and after,” said Noboa, for whom “this consultation collects several political flags.”
The referendum is held at one of the most delicate moments for Noboa in the nearly five months he has been in power, with an international diplomatic crisis due to the assault on the Mexican Embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas and with an internal energy crisis with blackouts of up to eight hours a day this week.
In case of winning the plebiscite, Noboa will be reinforced with a view to the new general elections that will take place in less than ten months and where the president evaluates running for re-election, but if he loses he can be weakened for the remainder of his mandate, until May 2025.
Criminal violence has also rebounded in the week of the referendum with the murder of two mayors in rural towns in whose territories there is the presence of illegal mining, an activity in which organized crime has also incursion, which has drug trafficking as its main business.
Among the eleven questions there are five that imply changes in the 2008 Constitution approved during the presidential term of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), while the remaining six must be processed through the National Assembly (Parliament), in case of receiving the support of the population.
Most propose legal tools to strengthen the fight against organized crime, which is attributed the wave of violence that has led the country to be among the first in Latin America in homicides, with about 45 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
Therefore, he proposes that the Armed Forces support the Police in operations against organized crime on a permanent basis, and that the military be in charge of controlling access to prisons, the epicenter of this crisis having been dominated until a few years ago by criminal gangs, with large arsenals of weapons in their possession.
It also seeks to allow the extraditions of Ecuadorians required by the Justice of other countries and raise the penalties for crimes related to organized crime, as well as eliminate the prison benefits for several of these criminal figures.
To this is added the proposals to create a crime of possession and carrying of weapons for the exclusive use of the Police and the Armed Forces and that the weapons seized from crime immediately move on to equip police and military, in addition to expediting the process of expropriation of illegal property.
Other issues focus on establishing a system of constitutional courts, accepting international arbitrations in any jurisdiction and allowing hourly labor contracts.
In Ecuador, voting is mandatory for people between 18 and 65 years old, while it is optional for adolescents between 16 and 18 years old and also for those over 65 years of age, as well as for police, military and prisoners without a final sentence.
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”
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.
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