International
Three missionaries are murdered in Haiti, including the daughter of a U.S. legislator
Three American missionaries were killed at the hands of armed bandits who attacked an orphanage that houses dozens of children in Lison 49, in Plaine, north of Port-au-au-Prince, under the control of armed gangs for several months, the Missions in Haiti organization confirmed on Friday.
Two of them are the daughter and son-in-law of the US state legislator of Missouri Ben Baker, as reported this Friday by the politician himself through social networks.
“My heart is broken into a thousand pieces. I had never felt this kind of pain,” the Republican, a member of the state’s local House of Representatives, wrote on Facebook.
Baker’s daughter, Natalie, and her husband, Davy Lloyd, were in the country serving as missionaries when they were attacked by an armed gang.
Haiti is experiencing a spiral of violence with killings, attacks, rapes and kidnappings at the hands of the powerful armed gangs, a situation that has been exacerbated since the end of last February.
“They went to heaven together. Please pray for my family, we desperately need strength. And also pray for the Lloyd family. I don’t have any other words for now,” Baker added.
The news was shared through social networks by the former president and Republican pre-candidate for the presidency Donald Trump (2017-2021).
“God bless Davy and Natalie. What a tragedy. Haiti is totally out of control. Find the killers NOW!!!,” the Republican wrote in Truth Social.
In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel notice urging Americans not to travel to Haiti due to its “unpredictable and dangerous” security conditions.
Natalie and Davy married in August 2022 and moved to Haiti three months later, according to the young woman’s Instagram account.
On social networks you can see how they worked mainly with Haitian children for the NGO Missions in Haiti Inc., which was founded by Davy’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd, in 2000.
The interim government of Haiti announced last Wednesday that it is extending the curfew for seven more days in the department of the West, where the capital is located and where the state of emergency also applies to try to curb the violence.
The curfew accompanies the state of emergency extended for a month between May 9 and June 8 with the aim of restoring order and taking appropriate measures to regain control of the situation in the face of the high levels of insecurity caused by the armed gangs that control much of Port-au-Prince and other areas.
In order to help stop the violence in Haiti, where insecurity caused about 8,000 deaths last year, a multinational security support mission, led by Kenya and approved by the UN, will arrive in this Caribbean country.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
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