International
The pro-Palestinian student movement in the United States looks at itself in history to continue
Opposition to the war in Gaza has triggered a student movement in the United States not seen since the protests against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and in rejection of the Vietnam War in the 60s, although the difference is the strong police reaction to more peaceful rallies.
The one that has already been called by historians such as Robert Cohen, of New York University, as the largest university movement in the United States in the 21st century has parallels with the uprisings of the past, but is also unique in forcing Washington to “be more careful with what it does with its military help.”
For Juan González, who was one of the leaders of the 1968 protests at Columbia University (New York), today’s demonstrations are much more peaceful but are facing more immediate repression.
“Never in the history of student protests has a protest been suppressed for so little violation of the law,” said Cohen, an expert in social movements, in a recent interview.
“Basically they are setting up camps in public spaces, they are not interfering with classes (…) we took several buildings in a single day,” he said in an interview with EFE González, 76, who considers that the police response is being much more severe on this occasion, with eviction of peaceful camps and more than 2,000 arrested.
Authorities from both New York City in the United States and the university were willing to negotiate with González and the other student leaders, he explained, something that has only happened in a handful of educational centers during the current movement.
In educational centers such as the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Texas in Austin or the University of South Florida in Tampa in the United States, state and local law enforcement agencies have entered to evict the camps and forcibly expel the students shortly after they congregated with the approval of the university authorities.
Another of the main differences is the historical context: the student protests of 1968 against the Vietnam War were included in a much larger movement that transcended the campuses and that included other causes such as the rejection of racial discrimination.
“Our strike in Columbia began only a couple of weeks after Martin Luther King was killed (…) there were riots and riots in more than 100 cities across the country,” explained González, who recalls that the worst moment of police repression was when in 1970 the Ohio National Guard killed four students at Kent State University.
The students’ requests, however, have similarities. Currently, university students ask educational centers to cut all kinds of ties with Israel and its military industry, while in 1968 they asked the institution to cut ties with the IDA, a center that was investigating weapons to be used in Vietnam.
The protests of now are also loaded with an “internationalist perspective” something that for the historian of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Tanalís Padilla did not happen years ago in the United States.
“Within the empire, the country’s actions are rarely taken aware of,” Padilla said of these protests against injustices that are happening “in another part of the world.”
The author of “After Zapata” indicated that this student movement has similarities with the fight against the Vietnam war in the 70s and the civil rights claims in the 60s, but contrary to the first case, “U.S. soldiers are not dying” and, in the second, there was no internationalist vision and solidarity with the suffering of the people of Palestine.
“It is a movement of international solidarity that has not been seen in a long time, which gives hope and it is very important that it happens in the most powerful country in the world,” said the teacher, a Jewish descendant of victims of the Holocaust and who has participated in the MIT student camp.
International
Indonesia remembers 2004 tsunami from mosque that stood at ground zero
Indonesia commemorated the 167,000 victims of the 2004 tsunami in this country from the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in the city of Banda Aceh, which stood firm against the waves at ground zero of one of the greatest natural disasters of the modern era.
Acting Aceh provincial governor Safrizal Zakaria Ali and popular cleric Abdullah Gymnastiar led the rituals, which drew hundreds of white-clad worshippers to join in prayers along the grounds of the compound.
The hosts throw water and flowers on a grave, as a sign of mourning and remembrance for the deceased.
The tsunami “changed the lives of millions”
“That day, the disaster changed the lives of millions. Mothers, fathers, children lost their lives. Cities were devastated,” the politician recalled during his speech at the memorial service, which was broadcast live on social media.
A magnitude 9.1 earthquake recorded at 7:58 a.m. local time about 120 kilometers west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26, 2004, created waves up to 30 meters high that hit Banda Aceh about 20 minutes after the initial tremor.
Some 61,000 people have died in this town, around 25% of its inhabitants, located in the far north of Sumatra and considered the epicentre of the tragedy.
The image of the solitary mosque standing a few hundred metres from the coast, while the houses around it had been washed away by the waters, became one of the most iconic images of this natural disaster.
Indonesia, hit by 167,000 deaths
Other coastal towns in Sumatra, such as Calang and Meulaboh, were also affected by the tsunami, which left some 167,000 people dead in the country, according to official figures.
At least the tsunami and the scale of the human tragedy it caused led the Islamic separatist guerrillas operating in Aceh and the Indonesian government to reach a peace agreement and put an end to more than three decades of fratricidal fighting.
“The tsunami opened the doors to peace in Aceh. The disaster helped people realize that peace was the best solution,” the governor said.
In addition to the events scheduled in Indonesia, other countries, such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, have organised ceremonies to commemorate the natural disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 228,000 people in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
The waves even hit the east coast of Africa, with the South African town of Rooi-Els, more than 8,000 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake, being the furthest away from the loss of life.
International
Javier Milei: the eccentric far-right economist who shook up Argentine politics
Javier Milei, the economist who burst into Argentine politics with an incendiary speech and an irreverent attitude, has advanced in 2024 in his offensive against the State and has become an emblematic figure of the regional and even global far right.
Aged 54 and a native of the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, Milei had a meteoric rise in Argentine politics thanks to his bizarre television appearances, in which he presented himself as a loud and combative libertarian economist.
His emergence was marked by a visceral rejection of the “political caste,” a term he frequently uses to disqualify traditional political actors, although he has adapted it over time to suit his current adversary.
The owner of the chainsaw
Milei ‘s electoral victory , first in the legislative elections that made him a deputy in 2021 and then in the 2023 presidential elections that took him to the Casa Rosada, was due in part to his image as an outsider politician who promoted novel and different ideas than those of his opponents.
After winning the general elections in November with 55.65% of the votes against the official candidate Sergio Massa, he took office on December 10 and in his first speech he anticipated that the only way to solve the country’s economic difficulties was through a severe adjustment.
This adjustment has advanced with ferocity over the last 12 months with a drastic cut in public spending and a dismantling of the State that has resulted in the closure of more than a dozen ministries, the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the disappearance of social aid and organisations, the fall in funding for public education and health and an increase in poverty and destitution.
Popularity and support
These effects, although presented as the flip side of a successful and rapid stabilization of the macroeconomy, have been openly promoted – and even proudly celebrated – by a Milei who has not only not moderated his violent rhetoric but has accused those who demand that he tone down his speech of being “lukewarm.”
Despite this, the president’s popularity remains above 50%, his followers have shown absolute loyalty and his party’s projections for the legislative elections scheduled for October 2025 are increasingly better.
This support, combined with the political skill of some of his close associates in the Government , has allowed him to successfully negotiate some of his initiatives in Congress, where he still has a narrow minority.
Reference of the extreme right
One of the main focuses of Milei’s administration has been international politics, with more than a dozen trips abroad in which he dedicated himself to weaving a network of alliances with far-right leaders.
Beyond his unconditional alignment with Israel and the United States, which he has strictly respected this year, the Argentine president has attended numerous summits promoted by conservative organizations or leaders and even hosted an edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Buenos Aires.
At that meeting, he repeated some of the warnings he had issued in Davos and at the UN about the advance of socialism and the dangers facing the West, and advocated a “right-wing international” with Argentina as a “beacon to the world” alongside governments such as those of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Donald Trump in the United States.
Intensify policies
In parallel, Milei has insisted this year on the need to move forward with a moral change in Argentine society, abandoning “the impoverishing ideas of collectivism” to replace them with the extreme individualism advocated by his “anarcho-capitalist” model.
To fight this “cultural battle,” he has recruited some of the country’s most conservative thinkers and influencers, who are accompanying him in his offensive against “the human rights scam,” “radical feminism,” and the “aberration” of social justice, among other causes of “stupid progressivism.”
Looking ahead to next year, Milei has anticipated that he will not moderate but rather intensify the policies he has implemented in 2024, has promised a “deep chainsaw” and has anticipated major reforms in tax, pension, labor, criminal, political and national security matters.
“If we could do so much with the whole world against us, imagine what we can do with the wind in our favor. We could go twice as far, twice as fast,” he said this month in his speech marking his first anniversary in power, and declared: “The smaller the State, the greater the freedom.”
International
Russia claims to have foiled a series of attacks against top military leaders
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had foiled a series of attacks against top military officials in the country and announced the arrest of four Russian citizens as part of the investigation.
“The Russian Federal Security Service has thwarted a series of attacks against high-ranking military personnel of the Ministry of Defense participating in the special military operation (in Ukraine), as well as members of their families,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the attacks were being planned by “Ukrainian secret service agents.”
Putin admits security failures
According to the FSB, the bombs used to kill high-ranking military personnel in Moscow were camouflaged as an external battery and a folder with documents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week described the recent assassination in Moscow of Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov , head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defence, as a “serious failure” by the security services.
“This (Kirilov’s murder) of course means that our law enforcement officers and special services are letting such attacks go by. We need to improve our work and avoid such serious failures,” Putin said during his big end-of-year press conference.
According to Moscow, the perpetrator of the crime is an Uzbek, who was promised $100,000 and the chance to settle in an EU country by the Ukrainian secret services for killing the Russian general.
The suspect was arrested and admitted his guilt during an interrogation broadcast by the security services.
Indonesia remembers 2004 tsunami from mosque that stood at ground zero
Javier Milei: the eccentric far-right economist who shook up Argentine politics
Russia claims to have foiled a series of attacks against top military leaders
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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