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Tackling hunger in Haiti, the arduous task of the World Food Program

In the Central Kitchen of the World Food Program (WFP) in the capital of Haiti, dozens of people work against the clock to fight hunger: some cut food, others cook in huge pots, some carry trays in vehicles to deliver them to the camps where thousands of families wait for that plate of food, sometimes the only one of the day.

One of those shelters is the Isidor Jean Louis School, in the center of Port-au-Prince, which has been welcoming 600 refugees for months after leaving their homes due to the violence of the armed gangs. There EFE accompanies the WFP.

One of those staying at that hostel is Elva Senfró, 85 years old. He has been there for months after fleeing the neighborhood by his son in the middle of a cruel gang attack.

“The gang was attacking the neighborhood, burning the houses, and my son ran me out of the place and brought me to school, where I have been living for five months (…) I would like to eat something every day, but it is not like that, it is only possible when they bring me something,” this old woman tells EFE.

In Haiti, about five million people (almost half of the population) face acute food insecurity and, of them, 1.64 million face “emergency” levels, according to the data handled by WFP. They are the highest rates since the 2010 earthquake, which caused about 300,000 deaths.

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In recent years, Haiti has experienced a steady increase in hunger, and the prevalence of acute food insecurity went from 35% in 2019 to almost 50% in 2024.

Something that the director of the WFP in Haiti, Jean-Martin Bauer, insists on in statements to EFE: “There are five million people who have difficulty getting food. They are people who don’t know what they are going to eat tomorrow, who don’t have money to know if they are going to eat the next day.”

Among the most affected areas is the Artibonite Valley, considered the country’s barn and where armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops.

The department of the West, the rural areas of the south and several poor neighborhoods of the capital, such as Croix des Bouquets and Cité Soleil, with important hotbeds of hunger, are also a cause for concern.

“Artibonite is an area that produced a lot of food for the country and now they themselves have nothing to eat, due to the violence,” explains Bauer, who estimates that there are 3,000 producers who cannot cultivate the land and abandoned it due to the violence of the gangs.

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Around two in the afternoon, the staff of the Center for Peasant Animation and Community Action (CAPAC), one of the local organizations with which the WFP works, arrive at the Isidor Jean Louis College.

It is an operation that they carry out daily: some quickly go to school and take the food to a room on the second floor, while others organize the refugees to proceed with the delivery of lunch.

The little ones lead the line, and they are followed by the elderly and pregnant women. They receive a tray of rice with fish and a bottle of water.

The rest of middle-aged people, between pushing and arguments, take a long time to organize to enter the room. When the food is already in his hands, everyone goes to the place of the school where he resides and eats in silence, enjoying every bite.

“The population wants security. People who go to church with the children, who go to school, who go to the market, are afraid and are leaving little because they don’t want to be kidnapped on the street. The population doesn’t deserve that, it deserves a better life,” says Bauer.

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And he adds: “Those of us who work on the humanitarian issue would like to see freedom of movement on the street. If there is so much hunger, it’s because the producers can’t get to sell to the capital. We want to see the producers leave the Artibonite and enter the capital to sell their products. That they bring good food to the markets. That is the most important issue for the food system.”

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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International

Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.

The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.

While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.

Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.

Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.

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