International
Future Colombian Minister of the Interior: We will explore the future possibility of the Constituent Assembly
The future Minister of the Interior of Colombia, Juan Fernando Cristo, assured on the date, when his appointment was announced, that he will assume the portfolio with the purpose of seeking a national agreement that allows to explore “the possibility” of convening a National Constituent Assembly, an idea of President Gustavo Petro.
Christ, who was Minister of the Interior during the mandate of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), assured in a statement that one of his fundamental purposes will be “the search for a true national agreement that allows the possibility of convening a National Constituent Assembly under the parameters of the Constitution of ’91 to be explored in the future.”
Thus, next week he will begin to talk to all sectors, such as allies, opposition, high courts, unions, guilds and employers.
The purpose is “to see if we finally achieve a national agreement that eventually can or not – and that will arise from the conversations – end in the Constituent Assembly that would not be convened or elected, it would be a process that begins now and that if we reach a national political agreement it would be elected in the next Government, not in this Government.”
Petro has been outlining in public events the idea of a Constituent Assembly that allows the inclusion of the social reforms proposed by his Government and that are bogged down in Congress.
However, in the latest statements, instead of talking about convening a National Constituent Assembly, he has mentioned that it must be the people themselves who ask for it, as a primary constituent.
Christ himself, a traditional liberal politician who was a senator for 16 years (1998-2014), Minister of the Interior between 2014 and 2017 and delegate of the Government in the peace negotiations with the FARC, had shown himself in statements on his social networks against the Constituent Assembly saying that it is “unfeasible.”
But now it is open to this possibility if there is a national consensus for it and in a future legislature, which would mean that it would not be Petro who would carry it forward.
Christ, who will replace Luis Fernando Velasco, another liberal, led as a minister the Constitutional Reform of Balance of Powers that eliminated presidential re-election and, as a senator, was the author of the Law on Victims and Restitution of Lands. In addition, he led the agenda for implementing the peace agreement with the extinct FARC.
Among its purposes precisely, in addition to seeking the national agreement, will be the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016, in addition to “deepening the territorial autonomy of Colombia” and of course promoting the Government’s legislative agenda.
“In the coming days we will meet with all the ministers, those who are coming and the incoming ones, and with the president of the Republic to define the priorities of that legislative agenda, within which there will undoubtedly be the labor reform, the health reform and a new effort to bring forward the statutory law of Education,” said the new Minister of the Interior.
Christ is the last addition to Petro’s cabinet for the second half of his mandate.
Petro also announced in recent days changes in the ministries of Justice, where Néstor Osuna will be replaced by criminal lawyer Ángela María Buitrago; in Agriculture, where Jhenifer Mojica will be replaced by Martha Carvajalino, and in Transport, from which William Camargo leaves and María Constanza García arrives.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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