International
Noboa assures that Ecuador has a new face with more security after six months in office
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, assured this Friday in his first report to the nation that, in the six months of his mandate, he has achieved a country with a new face thanks to efforts to combat insecurity and for the recovery of institutionality.
In his message to the National Assembly (Parliament), a day after having served six months as head of state, Noboa asserted that he received a country “with fear and without hope,” so he had to take “hard” decisions that other administrations did not dare, in search of a safe country, open to investments, job creation and to “guaranteee the future of all.”
The president said that last January 9 will be a date that the country will not forget, having revealed the scope of “the horror of terrorism”, with a series of attacks and violent actions of organized crime such as the taking of the TC Televisión channel by a group of armed men and simultaneous riots in various prisons with about 200 hostages.
That day, on which he again denounced an attempted coup d’état against him, Noboa declared the “internal armed conflict” against 22 criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking, whom he called terrorists.
The actions of the Government, he said, seek to “start building a country where tranquility and progress are the norm and not the exception.”
He highlighted the commitment and sacrifice of the security forces to fight the mafias that “have accomplices and allies, at all levels of the country: public institutions, public companies, local governments, in our neighborhoods, they are everywhere.”
Despite the changes he reported about, Noboa said that the fight for “the ‘New Ecuador’ has only begun,” he pointed out that social transformation and security are also achieved “with employment, education, with services and empathy” with social actions that reveal “the face of a new Ecuador that grows.”
In that line, he also mentioned the efforts in the energy field of his Government, which in April had to face blackouts in the face of a serious electricity crisis, due to the drought of one of the main hydroelectric complexes in the country.
“We are working very hard to solve the energy crisis, in such a way that Ecuadorians, in the future, do not have to go through more energy rationing. In other words, we are cleaning up what those of the past mudded,” he said.
In the economic area, Noboa mentioned the existence of 105,000 young employment places, the ratification of two trade agreements (with China and Costa Rica) and the reduction of 1,000 points in the risk premium.
Noboa claimed to have recovered the country’s institutionality by asserting that “the new Ecuador does not deal with drug trafficking, drug policy, terrorists or any of its historical costumes.”
“The new Ecuador also does not give in to external pressures or even from citizens who call themselves Ecuadorians and even want their country to be sentenced,” he said, without referring to any specific person, although the day before he sent on social networks “to cry to tears” to former President Rafael Correa for his statements regarding the crisis with Mexico.
Noboa did not speak in his speech about the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito in April, to capture Jorge Glas, former vice president of Rafael Correa, which caused the breakdown of relations with the Mexican Government, as well as the almost unanimous condemnation of the international community.
After that assault, Correa considered that the country should receive pressure from the international community at the political and legal level as a precedent so that a similar situation does not happen again.
Noboa committed himself to his compatriots to “not go back” and “never stay in the problem or in the comfort of the excuse,” but to move forward to “find and travel clean roads that allow the problems of Ecuadorians to be solved.”
And he explained that he follows the lessons that formed his generation: “to be strong so that no one defeats you, to be noble so that no one humiliates you, to be humble so that no one offends you and to continue to be you so that no one forgets you.”
“In just six months we are achieving what other governments did not do in two, nor four, or ten years,” he said.
International
Trump: U.S. has hit three venezuelan narco boats in Caribbean
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that American forces have struck three suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean so far, not two as previously reported.
“We took down boats. It was actually three boats, not two, but you only saw two,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a state visit to the United Kingdom.
The president was asked about remarks by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who accused Washington of plotting to invade his country.
“Stop sending members of the Tren de Aragua to the United States. Stop sending drugs to the United States,” Trump responded.
The Republican leader mentioned this third vessel a day after announcing that U.S. forces had struck a speedboat in which, according to him, three “terrorists” were killed. Later, from the Oval Office, he claimed the boat had been carrying cocaine and fentanyl.
The attacks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas, as the U.S. military maintains a Caribbean deployment under the banner of counter-narcotics operations.
The Trump administration accuses Maduro of heading the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which the Venezuelan government denies. Washington has also offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.
On Monday, Maduro said communications with the U.S. were “broken” in the face of what he called an “aggression” and declared that Venezuela is now “better prepared” in case of an “armed struggle.”
International
Ecuador’s Noboa declares State of Emergency in seven provinces amid fuel price protests
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in seven provinces due to what he described as “serious internal unrest,” as road blockades and demonstrations erupted in response to the elimination of the diesel subsidy and growing concerns over insecurity.
The 60-day measure applies to the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, Bolívar, Cotopaxi, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.
Since Monday, partial protests have been reported in Pichincha, Carchi, Azuay, and Imbabura. On Tuesday, road blockades extended to northern Pichincha and routes in Carchi, near the Colombian border. In response, the Executive headquarters was temporarily relocated to Cotopaxi and the Vice Presidency to Imbabura.
The presidential decree states that the measure comes amid “strikes that have disrupted public order and provoked acts of violence, endangering the safety of citizens and their rights to free movement, work, and economic activity.”
According to the decree, the goal is to “prevent the radicalization of disruptive actions” in the affected provinces and to limit the impact on the population. It further emphasizes that the situation requires an “exceptional intervention by state institutions to safeguard security, guarantee citizens’ rights, maintain public order, and preserve social peace.”
Social organizations and labor groups, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), have strongly rejected the diesel price increase following the subsidy’s elimination.
The decree justifies the two-month duration as necessary “to ensure a strengthened state presence in the affected territories, restore order, and prevent further acts of violence against people, public, and private property.”
International
Colombia’s special peace tribunal hands down first sentence against former FARC leaders
Seven former rebel leaders, including their last known commander Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timochenko,” have been handed the maximum penalty established in the 2016 peace agreement.
Under the ruling, they will face mobility restrictions and be required to carry out activities aimed at restoring the dignity of victims, such as helping locate missing persons and participating in landmine clearance in territories where they once operated. These alternative sentences to prison were part of the historic deal signed in 2016 between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) —once the most powerful guerrilla group in Latin America— and then-President Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) found the ex-commanders guilty of being responsible for the kidnapping of 21,396 people before laying down their arms and transitioning into a political party. “Investigations showed that kidnapping became a systematic practice. These crimes not only broke the law but also left open wounds that persist in families, communities, and the daily life of the country,” a magistrate told reporters in Bogotá, in the absence of the former commanders, who had accepted responsibility for their crimes back in 2022.
It took the tribunal more than seven years to deliver its first ruling, amid criticism from opponents of the peace deal who argue it is too lenient on the rebels. The former commanders still face charges for other crimes against humanity, including the recruitment of minors.
During their decades-long conflict, the FARC held hostage soldiers, police officers, businesspeople, and political leaders, including French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. Images of emaciated captives chained in jungle camps shocked the world and became symbols of the conflict.
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