Central America
The University of Texas, symbol of repression against pro-Palestinian protests
Days after dozens of police officers arrested more than 100 of their colleagues in two days of protests against the war in Gaza, Linda decided to return to the campus of the University of Texas (Austin) to ask for the resignation of the president of the institution.
The third-year biochemistry student, who asked to hide her name to protect her identity, assured EFE that she does not feel discouraged, quite the contrary. “There is nothing they can do to me that compares to what young people are going through in Gaza.”
The response of the main public university in Texas to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations has been one of the toughest in the country. Without any threat of negotiation with the student leaders, the institution forcibly dissolved a camp set up by university students in a park on campus.
The images of the eviction, where the agents took the students by the arms and legs, threw pepper spray at them and even arrested a photojournalist, became a reflection of the repression against the student movement that has spread throughout the country.
The governor of the state, Republican political media Greg Abbott, has already made it clear which side he is on. “The University and the State will use all the tools at their disposal to quickly put an end to all illegal protests on campus,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
On campus, however, this message has not deterred student activists, who have more protests planned for this last month of classes.
“The repression (…) what it has done is increase the number of people who are willing to fight what is right,” stressed Linda, who has been part of the pro-Palestine student organization Palestine Solidarity Committee, suspended last week by the institution in response to the demonstrations.
A hundred young people, professors and supporters of the anti-war cause once again took the university’s south park shouting slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “We will not stop, we will not rest.”
Aman Odeh, a doctor and associate professor at the University of Texas, approached the esplanade holding his phone up. On the other side of the screen, a group of about six children watched the protest.
“They are part of a family in Gaza that welcomed me,” said the pediatric specialist. “I spent two weeks there as part of a mission and they wanted to see what’s going on here, they feel supported.”
Odeh went up on the stage and, with the phone in his ear, repeated the words of Mohammed, 15 years old, on the other side of the world: “I want to tell you how proud I am; his voice sends a powerful message.”
In addition to expressing a feeling of rejection of war, university students also seek with the protests a series of defined objectives. Force your alma mater to break financial ties with companies that sell weapons to Israel.
Higher education centers in the U.S. are financed with public money, tuition and donations. With the latter, institutions invest in a series of assets, from bonds to shares in private companies, to obtain more capital
Specifically, the students are asking the University of Texas (UT) to stop investing in companies that manufacture weapons and military equipment such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dymanics and Boeing.
Roger Reeves, a professor of literature in UT who has been involved in the pro-Palestinian movement, told EFE that the presidency of the university has decided to “listen” to the members of the faculty, but has not committed to negotiating.
“They say they listen, but at the same time they are inviting the police to occupy the university campus,” the academic stressed.
Central America
Arévalo calls corruption the “fuel of inequality” and reaffirms commitment to public transparency
Guatemala’s President, Bernardo Arévalo, stated on Friday that corruption is “the food of misery” in his country and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to continuing to strengthen public spending transparency.
During the first anniversary of the National Commission Against Corruption (CNC) established by his administration, the president expressed his satisfaction with the progress made.
“The road has been difficult,” he said, “but I am greatly satisfied with the fight against corruption, which is the fuel of inequality and the food of misery,” the president declared before members of the international community and government officials.
Arévalo also mentioned that the people who elected him in 2023 for a four-year term that began on January 14, 2024, “demand that we combat corruption.”
Central America
Zúñiga hopes CIDH experts can help investigate intellectual authors of Berta Cáceres’ murder
Bertha Zúñiga, daughter of the murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres, expressed her hope on Friday to EFE that the expert group appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) will help investigate the authorship of the crime to “heal the wounds” and rebuild the social fabric in indigenous communities affected by the hydroelectric project her mother opposed.
The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) represents an “effort to exhaust the investigations” into the responsibilities of all individuals involved in Cáceres’ murder, as well as in the “violence suffered” from the implementation of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, led by the company Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), emphasized Zúñiga.
“We hope that, with the collaboration of the prosecutorial entities, (the experts) will effectively collaborate to move forward on what we have proposed and demanded for many years: formally requiring the intellectual authors of this crime and analyzing the related crimes,” including corruption and other violations, as well as proposing a comprehensive reparation plan for the victims of the hydroelectric project,” Zúñiga explained.
The CIDH appointed a group of four experts from Argentina, Chile, the United States, and Guatemala on Friday to provide technical assistance to Honduras in investigating the intellectual authorship of Cáceres’ murder, which occurred on March 2, 2016, while she was sleeping in her home in La Esperanza, despite the multiple death threats she had reported due to her opposition to the Agua Zarca project.
Central America
Nicaragua’s family confinement program: 7.18% of released prisoners reoffend
Nicaraguan authorities have released a total of 48,964 common prisoners under the family confinement regime over the past ten years, with 7.18% of them reoffending by committing at least one crime, according to the country’s vice president, Rosario Murillo.
Murillo, who is also the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and appointed “co-president” in a reform to the Constitution, stated through official media that “7.18% are individuals who have reoffended in criminal activity from 2015 to today, February 14, 2025.”
This means that 3,515 out of the 48,964 common prisoners with final sentences who have been granted family confinement privileges have returned to criminal activity, according to the report.
The early release of common prisoners has faced criticism, particularly from feminist organizations, who argue that these benefits have contributed to an increase in femicides and general crime in Nicaragua.
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