International
What does it mean to recognize a new state?
The announcement of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, that Spain will recognize Palestine as a State on the 28th fulfills a political promise, although it does not clear up some questions about the practical consequences that the mandate will have.
The coalition government of PSOE and Sumar pledged to approve it, in line with the non-legislative proposal agreed in Congress in 2014 by most political groups, including the PP.
The situation in Palestine after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the response of this country’s army in the Gaza Strip, which has caused more than 35,000 deaths, pushed the Sánchez Government to take the definitive step in order to press for a solution to the Middle East conflict.
The step of recognizing a State is a legal act regulated by International Law. It depends exclusively on the Government’s agreement, without the need to have the support of Parliament, although it may ask for it.
It is a unilateral decision and does not depend, in the case of Spain, whether or not it has the approval of the EU, which does not have competence in the area of recognition of States.
Of the 193 members of the United Nations, just over 140 recognize it as a State, which will be joined by Spain, Norway and Ireland on the 28th.
There are eight other EU members who have already taken the step, such as Sweden, Romania or Poland, but they have not made important partners such as Germany, France or Italy.
On April 10, 143 countries asked the UN General Assembly to endorse Palestine as a full-fledged state, but this decision must have the approval of the Security Council and the United States opposes it.
Recognizing a new State requires that there be a defined population, a delimited territory and a government that exercises authority over it. “In the case of Palestine, no assumption is now fulfilled because there are no internationally established borders,” the professor of Public International Law at the UNED, Eduardo Trillo, points out to EFE.
Similarly, Trillo points out, there is no government that has control over the entire Palestinian territory – the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -, since the first is exercised by the Palestinian National Authority (ANP) and in the second, Hamas had it until the war with Israel and is a faction that Spain does not consider an interlocutor.
According to Trillo, it is not something that Spain has to specify, because Palestine lacks defined limits according to international law. Therefore, the UNED professor adds, more than at the legal level, recognition should be interpreted as “a political push to the peace process and a support for the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
Spain can from now on formalize political relations with Palestine and sign international treaties, among other initiatives. So far, Spain has signed a memorandum of understanding of cooperation since 1994 channeling humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and another for the establishment of political consultations since 2012.
It is a discretionary measure of the Government, according to the professor of International Relations at the European University, Beatriz Gutiérrez. Today, it is the Consulate General of Spain, located in Jerusalem, that acts as an “embassy” and channels the relationship with the ANP.
Among the questions, Gutiérrez adds, is whether Spain would take the step of recognizing Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, something it has not done so far.
The ANP has an office in Madrid, which since 2010 has had the rank of diplomatic mission – previously it was a “delegation” – and its premises have inviolability.
The head of the office acts as ambassador in practice and participates in the king’s receptions to the diplomatic corps. On its website, there is talk of “The Embassy of Palestine in Spain.”
The war conflict between Israel and Hamas makes it difficult to give content to the state recognition of Palestine. “Until the war is over, it is difficult to make a perspective of the practical effects. It is too early to see how it will be managed,” says the professor of the European University, who agrees that the measure adopted by Spain should be seen, above all, from “a symbolic rather than a legal point of view.”
South Sudan was the last country that Spain gave its endorsement in 2011, after almost all the citizens of this territory supported the separation of the north from the country in a referendum.
In the 21st century, Spain has recognized two other countries: Montenegro, in 2006, and East Timor, in 2002.
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
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