International
80 years since the attack on Hitler that killed Count Claus Schenk von Staufenberg
A day like this Saturday, a bomb placed by Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg exploded in the headquarters of the ‘Führer’ Adolf Hitler in Rastenburg – today Ketrzyn, in Poland – to kill the Nazi dictator who, however, was only slightly injured and would soon trigger his repression against the conspirators.
Von Stauffenberg’s bomb was part of the ‘Valkiria Plan’, an attempted coup d’état conceived between 1943 and 1944 within the Wehrmacht as a desperate response to the unfavorable evolution of the war in Europe.
Shortly before, on June 6, the landing in Normandy had taken place, the allied military operation that would end up being crucial in the defeat of the Third Reich.
Among those responsible for that frustrated attempt to kill the tyrant were retired general Ludwig Beck, division general Henning von Tresckow, colonel general Friedrich Olbricht and other high-ranking officers, although von Stauffenberg was the one who was personally responsible for carrying out his attack on Hitler.
Von Stauffenberg, after being promoted to colonel and relocated as Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army Command, gained such a position in the high instances of the Third Reich that participated in meetings attended by Hitler.
Von Stauffenberg failed in the same way as his conspiratorial comrades, who had to rise up against the regime in Berlin.
That attempt cost them their lives, because the history books show that between 180 and 200 people were executed by the Third Reich, shot, hanged or even strangled, after the failed bomb of Von Stauffenberg.
Von Stauffenberg himself, and three other officers were shot without trial in the courtyard of the building that today houses the Ministry of Defense in Berlin.
Hitler did not die in the explosion of his Rastenburg headquarters, but took his life in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, with Germany – and much of Europe – destroyed, and his regime having committed the systematic murder of six million European Jews on the blackest page in the history of the Old Continent.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the attack, which happens to be the greatest act of military resistance against Hitler during the Third Reich, the Center for Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSB) in Potsdam (east) recalls through a new digital dossier a historical moment that could have given an unexpected turn to history.
In addition to a compilation of historical documents and analyses, the experts consulted by the ZMSB of Potsdam reflect on how the historical evolution of the perception of those facts has been.
Thus, in the early 1950s, the West Germans saw the heroism of Von Stauffenberg and company with some distance.
In 1951, one in three Germans did not link the date of July 20 “to any event or had no opinion,” “another third saw it with critical eyes” and the other 33% saw the attempted murder against the Führer well, according to John Zimmermann, a member of the team of investigators who has prepared the ZMSB dossier.
“The peak of this negative feeling was reached in 1952: 28% thought that Germany would be better if there had been no resistance, and 39% even believed that they could have won the war without it,” added this researcher.
If Von Stauffenberg finally ended up enjoying the status of “hero in public opinion” this is due to the “political history” of Germany, whose authorities, in particular of the administration and the academic world, have turned July 20 into a date with which to remember a man who could have dealt a mortal blow to the Third Reich before time, according to Zimmermann.
International
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
The presidential candidate of Ecuador for the indigenous movement, Leonidas Iza, who was part of the wave of protests of 2019 and who led that of 2022, reveals himself as an “anti-system” politician in the face of “a corrupt system” that he intends to reformulate to relieve the impoverished, because he predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in the Government to meet popular demands.
Iza, 42, is the candidate of Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) that he himself presides over, and with which he was at the forefront of the 2022 wave of protests against the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, where he was arrested and even labeled a “terrorist.”
“I am one of those who has never lost the ability to be outraged when governments have had policies against their own citizens,” Iza, a native of the Andean province of Cotopaxi, said in an interview with EFE.
“I am not against the private sector, I am against those who do not pay taxes and those who come to the Government only to defend their companies,” said the candidate in reference to the last two presidents (Lasso and Daniel Noboa).
“We fight for social justice, not to be violent. It is a reaction to the injustice to which we have been subjected,” he said.
For Iza, who represents the anti-extractivist left of Ecuador, the country has “a corrupt system, a health system that does not work, a deficient and unfair economic system, and public services that are not helping citizens.”
“And that’s what we want to change. We won’t be able to do it overnight, but the State can give relief to the people,” the candidate said.
To do this, it proposes to fight against tax evasion, which amounts to about 7.5 billion dollars a year, and also against corruption, which is estimated at about 3 billion dollars per year, to balance public accounts without having to follow the current credit program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that asks to cut public spending and raise taxes.
He also aimed to increase agricultural productivity, as well as boost tourism to go from 1 to 3 million visitors a year, and anticipated that he will regulate small and artisanal mining to avoid illegal mining but will not allow large-scale mining because it considers that it can contaminate the country’s large river basins.
Iza anticipated that he will not pay the external debt as long as there are “guaguas (children, in Kichwa) who have no education and are dying of hunger, and colleagues who are dying for lack of health.”
“We will tell the IMF and the other multilaterals that we are going to pay, but first we are going to solve the structural problem we have at the moment: education, health and minimum conditions for security,” he warned.
In that sense, Iza pointed out that “the strength of a popular reaction in the streets is accumulating” that must be resolved by whoever is elected. “Knowing my country, which has been on the streets all its life, there will be a popular reaction if (the discomfort) is not resolved in the following months,” he reiterated.
“The option that understands the people is us, and not the sectors that have always been in the Government,” said Iza, who avoided pointing out whether that reaction will reach the dimensions of the strong protests of 2019 and 2022, both led by the indigenous movement.
In this electoral campaign, Iza has left his distinctive Andean red poncho to put on the bulletproof vest in the face of the persistent wave of violence of organized crime that the country is experiencing, because he warned that the “war” that Noboa declared to the criminal gangs has not worked because its leaders are still free.
Faced with this, he promised “a hard hand for all” and recalled that “state institutions must suffocate everyone (criminals)”.
The candidate also advocated deepening international cooperation: “there must be a responsibility of all countries (producers, consumers and drug transit), especially in the region (of Latin America)”.
Asked if Ecuadorian society is ready to have an indigenous president of rural origin, Iza sees himself with popular support to face “the most reactionary sectors that have support in racism and stigmatization.”
International
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
The fire that occurred this morning in a 12-story hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey claimed at least 69 deaths, in addition to causing fifty injuries, according to the latest assessment of the country’s authorities.
The fire originated around 3.30 a.m. local time (0.30 GMT) in a hotel, built entirely of wood, in the Kartalkaya ski center, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, with almost full occupancy.
The flames were extinguished after about ten hours of firefighters’ work and the authorities found the death of 66 people, in addition to rescuing 51 injured, compared to the 10 dead and 32 injured initially estimated.
The hotel, with 161 rooms, had an occupancy close to 90%, because these days are the winter school holidays in Turkey, says the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
The wooden construction and the location of the hotel at the foot of a ski slope, which only allows vehicle access from the front facade, made the intervention of firefighters difficult, the Turkish newspaper explained.
According to the television network NTV, about 300 people, including employees, were in the hotel at the time of the fire, the causes of which are still unknown.
International
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
The Islamist organization Hamas urged the Palestinians on Tuesday to intensify and support their militiamen in the clashes against the Israeli Army during the military incursion that began today in Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and their revolutionary youth to mobilize and intensify the clashes against the (Israeli) occupation army at all points, and to work to thwart the extensive Zionist aggression against the city of Yenin.”
“This military operation launched by the occupation in Yenin will fail, as did all its previous military operations against our brave people and their tenacious resistance,” the Palestinian group said.
Since the beginning of the operation, nicknamed by the Army “Iron Wall”, at least seven Palestinians have died in Yenin and another 35 have been injured, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hamas accused the forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party in the West Bank, of having left Yenin to allow the operation of Israeli troops, instead of defending the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Tuesday that the last assault launched by his forces against Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, seeks to “eradicate terrorism.”
“This is another step towards the objective we have set ourselves: to strengthen security in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” according to a statement released by its Office.
“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” concludes the Israeli president’s note.
The rail comes shortly after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, which includes a weekly exchange of hostages in the Strip for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Following the release of the prisoners, the Army increased its presence in this occupied territory with seven companies, claiming to strengthen its “anti-terrorist efforts.”
The images recorded in Yenin show dozens of Army vehicles accessing the local refugee camp, which has also been bombed by Israeli aviation.
The incursions and attacks of Israeli forces in Yenin, considered a bastion of Islamist-like militias, were already constant but they worsened after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
However, since mid-December it has been the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which governs small parts of the West Bank, that have led an offensive in this population, which until last Friday triggered armed fighting against the militiamen.
This exchange of fire has caused at least 15 people dead on both sides, including two minors.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and in 2024 at least 491 Palestinians have died in the territory by Israeli fire, most of them militiamen from refugee camps, but also civilians, including at least 75 minors, according to EFE’s count.
So far this year, at least 24 Palestinians have already died in Israeli attacks, five of them minors.
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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