International
“The Chilean government is more continuous than you think,” says its Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren
The Chilean Foreign Minister, Alberto van Klaveren, acknowledges in an interview with EFE that his Government, and especially President Gabriel Boric, have better approval outside than inside Chile and says that the progressive president leads a project with “much more continuity than is sometimes thought.”
For the 75-year-old diplomat, and a member of the most veteran and moderate wing of the Executive, Boric embodies a “new progressivism,” “with generational elements.” But it relies on “the management of previous progressive governments.”
“President Boric himself recognizes it. I am thinking about the relationship he has with former Presidents Bachelet and Lagos… There is much more continuity than is sometimes thought,” says Van Klaveren, who has been in office for a year.
Former ambassador and former Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Van Klaveren leads the Foreign Ministry at a complex time for global geopolitics, but admits that he receives less criticism from the opposition and citizens than other portfolios because Chilean foreign policy is assumed as a “state question.”
“I am struck by the contrast between the external image, not only of the president, but of Chile and his Government, and the internal image,” he adds.
On the eve of the International Press Freedom Day, which this year Unesco commemorates in Chile with a major event, the chancellor affirms that he is concerned about global disinformation campaigns, “driven by very dark sectors, linked to organized crime and even governments.” Which, in addition, affect different countries, especially in electoral processes.
For the diplomat, governments must face this threat with “greater transparency,” “more communication” and “more pluralism in the media.”
Van Klaveren also warns of an increase in “radicalization” in America and Europe, which “does not come from the moderate right, which has its space and great experience in terms of government.” But of “the alternative right, which begins to exert pressure on the rest of the political spectrum and has a chain impact.”
In some countries of the region, Van Klaveren also observes “a certain tendency” to authoritarianism, a phenomenon that, from his point of view, is a consequence of the crime crisis that crosses the continent and that leads citizens to prefer to renounce certain freedoms in exchange for security.
Boric is one of the toughest leaders with the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and the bilateral relationship has had several impasses.
The last, following the Aragua Train, the criminal gang born in a Venezuelan prison and whose tentacles have spread throughout the continent, and the murder in February of Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, asylyled in Chile.
“It is highly likely that this crime has been organized outside Chile (…) We would like to think that it has not (it has been orchestrated by the Venezuelan Government), but obviously all hypotheses are open and it will be the judicial investigation that will have to clarify it,” he says.
With regard to the upcoming July elections in Venezuela, Van Klaveren does not want to go in to assess the options of the opposition. But he assures that Chile is interested in “contributing to the development of an open and plural electoral process, with guarantees.”
On the irruption of the Ecuadorian police in the Mexican embassy, another matter that has convulsed the region, the chancellor is clear in defending international law and the inviolability of diplomatic missions. But, in turn, he celebrates that the dispute has gone to international courts.
“It confirms a trend in Latin America that distinguishes us from other regions of the world and that has to do with the principle of the peaceful solution of differences,” he says.
Boric also stands out for being a defender of the Palestinian cause and one of the great critics of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where more than 34,400 Palestinians have already died.
“We hope that both the United States and countries in the area, such as Saudi Arabia, can promote an agreement between Israel and Hamas that will stop the death of so many innocent people and achieve a relative normalization of the area,” he emphasizes.
Despite the criticism, Chile has never considered the breakdown of relations with Israel, as Colombia has done. In addition, Van Klaveren rules out that his support for the Palestinian State may affect his relations with the United States, the largest Israeli ally.
“There is understanding for our position. Obviously there may be differences in appreciation of what is happening, but our relationships are totally normal,” he says.
International
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.
“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.
“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.
Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.
Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”
The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
International
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.
The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”
This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.
International
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, returned this Thursday to delegate – for the second time – the Presidency to the Secretary of Public Administration and Cabinet of the Presidency Cynthia Gellibert, whom he himself appointed by decree vice president in charge, in the face of the open confrontation he maintains with the vice president, Verónica Abad.
As he did last week, Noboa again issued a decree in which he announces that he is absent from the Presidency from Thursday to Sunday, to make an electoral campaign in search of his re-election in the elections of February 9, and during that period of time it will be Gellibert who will be in charge of the head of the State.
This action of the president of Ecuador is a matter of evaluation by the ordinary and constitutional justice at the request of the vice president, Verónica Abad, who claims to assume the presidential functions during the full period of the electoral campaign, in which according to the Constitution the head of state must ask for leave for being a candidate for re-election.
In his decree, Noboa argues that, although the Constitution determines that the Vice Presidency must assume the head of State in the event of the absence of the president, this “is not limited to the elected vice-president, but to the person who to date is exercising the functions of the Vice Presidency.”
Before appointing Gellibert as vice president in charge by decree, Noboa sent Abad to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Turkey, after a judge annulled the five-month suspension that the same Government had imposed on him. Until now, the vice president remains in Ecuador to claim to be the one who temporarily assumes the Presidency.
The new period of Gellibert with presidential powers began at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) this Thursday and is scheduled to end at 22:00 (03:00 GMT) next Sunday, time at which the debate between presidential candidates is expected to end where Noboa is summoned to participate.
After the debate, Noboa plans to travel to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency.
After the first assignment of the Presidency to Gellibert, Abad denounced a “coup d’état” and urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply the Democratic Charter, considering that the constitutional order had been broken because it had not received the presidential powers, as contemplated in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
In addition, he filed a protection action with which he seeks that the Justice annul the decrees in which Noboa appointed Gellibert as vice president in charge and delegated the Presidency to him. A court admitted the appeal on Friday, but did not accept some precautionary measures that Abad also asked for to suspend those effects immediately.
Controversies like this will be part of the analysis and evaluation of the electoral observation mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) for the Ecuadorian elections, as anticipated on Wednesday by its leader, Spanish MEP Gabriel Mato.
The confrontation between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign for the second round of elections for the extraordinary elections of 2023, and was reflected when he assumed the charges, when in one of his first decisions, the president sent the vice president to Israel as ambassador, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Abad has denounced Noboa for alleged political gender violence and has accused her of leading a harassment against her to force her to resign and thus avoid having to delegate the Presidency to her during the electoral campaign period, which runs from January 5 to February 6.
The titular vice president has also accused the Government of being behind the corruption investigation in the offices of the Vice Presidency that involves her son in a case where the Prosecutor’s Office also sought to indict Abad, but the National Assembly (Parliament) voted mostly against lifting the jurisdiction, although the ruling party voted in favor.
The general elections in Ecuador are called for Sunday, February 9 and, according to the polls published so far, Noboa and the candidate of the correismo Luisa González appear as prominent favorites to move on to the second round.
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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