International
Colombia will ask the UN to extend the implementation of the peace agreement to more than 15 years
The Government of Colombia will ask the UN Security Council to consider the possibility of expanding the implementation of the peace agreement signed in 2016 with the former FARC guerrilla beyond the 15 years agreed when it was signed, Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said on Tuesday.
“We are proposing that an adjustment be made to the implementation framework plan that was designed to be implemented in 15 years and with the delays we must seriously consider the possibility of extending the implementation period of that framework plan,” Murillo said about the proposal that President Gustavo Petro will present to the Security Council on Thursday.
For the time being, the possibility of extending the 15-year period for the implementation that was signed and working on tables to work “extraordinary and emergency measures” will be considered to expedite the implementation because, as Murillo pointed out in a press conference: “It is very clear that we will not be able to comply with the agreement in the 15 years that were proposed in the framework implementation plan and will probably require an extension.”
That extension “has been said that it has to be (…) from five to eight years,” although at the moment it is under discussion.
“Althog much progress has been made in the implementation of the peace agreement, it is supremely important that the structural obstacles that are to the timely implementation and full implementation of the agreement can be removed,” said the chancellor, who stressed that the current Government is the one that has implemented the most.
These obstacles are “institutional” but there are also “budgets” for peace in Colombia and others “that have to do with the legal and legal that have really prevented the accelerated advance of the implementation of the agreement,” Murillo said.
Therefore, the Government wants to propose “a shock plan for the next two years” that will require “extraordinary measures, some emergency, to be able to put the implementation in tune,” and thus “overcome the structural barriers that the complete implementation of the agreement has.”
The president of Colombia will go to New York on Thursday for the quarterly session of the Security Council where the state of implementation of the peace agreement will be discussed and where the UN verification mission will present its report for this quarter.
“Petro will be very clear that he remains firmly committed to the implementation of the agreement, but obviously connected to the policy of total peace and in that sense he will request that it continue with the unanimous support and accompaniment of the international community through the United Nations Security Council, but also an accompaniment to the new measures and the guarantees that will obviously be proposed to accelerate the implementation,” Murillo anticipated.
In New York, the president will also participate in the inauguration of a monument at the UN headquarters made with the smelting of weapons left by the FARC and will also meet with the Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres, to talk about Colombia and other countries such as the situation in Gaza or the war in Ukraine.
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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