International
Iran warns that it will hit Israel’s energy industry if it attacks it
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned this Friday that it will hit Israel’s energy industry if it is attacked by that country, which in turn has promised revenge for the Iranian missile bombing on Tuesday night.
“If the Zionist regime makes a mistake, we will attack all its energy sources, stations, refineries and gas fields,” said the deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, in statements collected by media such as Dideban.
“The Zionist regime has only three power plants and a few refineries, but Iran is a huge country,” Fadavi said.
The threats of the elite Iranian military corps occur amid speculation about the possible Israeli retaliation against Iran and the oil sector is one of the possible targets for the economic damage it would cause it, according to Israeli media.
The attack against Israel was “the least of punishments”
Tehran (EFE).- The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said on Friday that the attack against Israel was “the least of the punishments for the Israeli aggression.”
Khamenei today led a collective prayer in tribute to the murdered leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah Hassan Nasrala, in which he assured that “the brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate,” in reference to the 200-missile attack on Tuesday night against Israel.
“What our military forces did was the least of the punishments for the aggression of the Israeli regime,” Iran’s highest political and religious authority said at the mosque of Imam Jomeiní in Tehran, where thousands of faithful gathered.
“Every blow to the Zionist regime is a service to all humanity,” he said.
Call for Islamic unity and criticism of the United States
The religious remarked that “every nation has the right to defend its country and territory against the aggressor.”
In this sense, he called on the Muslim world to unite before the enemy, “whose policy is divide and you will defeat.”
“The policy of the Koran is that Muslim nations must be united,” while stressing that the “enemy of Iran is the enemy of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Yemen.”
Khamenei reiterated that Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 was legitimate.
“The Al-Aqsa storm was a legal and international measure and a legitimate right of the Palestinians,” who in their opinion have “the right to face any enemy who has destroyed their home and their life.”
And in reference to the murders of Nasrala and an Iranian general a week ago in Beirut, he warned that “Hezbulah and his heroic leader and martyr are the essence of Lebanon’s historical virtues and identity.”
He also pointed to the United States as guilty of tensions in the Middle East.
“The United States seeks control of the region’s resources through the Israeli regime,” he said.
First collective prayer in 4 years
After the speech, the Iranian supreme leader proceeded to direct his first collective Friday prayer since 2020, when he did so after the death of Qasem Soleimani, former general at the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, murdered by the US in Iraq.
Tuesday’s bombing was the second Iranian missile attack against Israel, since last April it attacked its territory for the first time with another series of missile and drone bombings in response to the death of seven soldiers at the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
After the attack, Israel has assured that it will respond, to which Iran has in turn said that it will reply more strongly.
International
Venezuela Refuses to Repatriate Citizens Amid Tensions Over Chevron’s Departure
The government of Venezuela privately warned the government of Donald Trump that it will not accept its own citizens being deported, following the United States’ decision to end Chevron’s license to operate in the Caribbean country, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the matter, notes that the Venezuelan repatriation agreement is becoming strained after a January meeting between Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell and the Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro, who is not recognized as president by the U.S. The Chevron issue has exacerbated tensions.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration ended Chevron’s license in Venezuela and gave the company a month, until April 3, to leave the country after President Trump criticized Maduro for not accelerating the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as quickly as expected.
The WSJ indicates that Venezuela’s private warning could further hinder Trump’s promised mass deportation campaignof undocumented immigrants, which his administration has already had to pause due to the high costs of using military planes for repatriation flights.
International
Hearing suspended in Guatemala on revocation of José Rubén Zamora’s house arrest
Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín will know until next week if he should return to preventive detention, after this Friday the hearing was suspended for a possible revocation of his house arrest.
The resumption of the hearing was rescheduled for next Monday, at 10:00 local time (16:00 GMT), by order of criminal judge Erick García, since, as he indicated, he lacks the case file for the moment.
The possible return of Zamora Marroquín to prison is due to a case of alleged money laundering in 2022, the year in which the Public Ministry (Prosecution), whose leadership is sanctioned internationally under allegations of corruption, began a judicial prosecution against him.
The journalist’s potential return to prison takes place after this week an Appeals Chamber revoked the house arrest measures that had been granted since October 2024 to the former owner and founder of the media El Periódico, a morning in which he uncovered more than a thousand cases of state corruption.
According to the opinion of the magistrates of the Third Appeals Chamber, there was “an error” in the resolution of the judge who decided to release the journalist last year. The review of the measures was requested by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Zamora Marroquín was detained for the case for more than 800 days, between July 29, 2022 and October 2024, without his guilt being proven to date.
Before this Friday’s hearing, the journalist recalled in statements to the media that he has complied with all the court orders regarding his house arrest, and reiterated that he has not seen his family for more than two years, since they are abroad in the face of the risks they could encounter in the Central American country.
Likewise, he added that the persecution against him has been “physical and psychological but I am not going to give up” and described the Third Appeals Chamber as a court linked to the “corrupt” and Deputy Felipe Alejos, sanctioned by the United States for corruption.
Zamora Marroquín, with 30 years of journalistic career, was arrested on July 29, 2022, just five days after issuing strong criticism for corruption against then-President Alejandro Giammattei, between 2020 and 2024, and his close circle.
The journalist remained in prison for a judicial process for alleged money laundering, which according to international organizations such as the Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) has been plagued with irregularities.
International
Trump withdraws 400 million federal funds from Columbia University for anti-Semitism
Donald Trump’s government canceled this Friday subsidies and contracts with Columbia University in New York worth 400 million dollars “due to its passivity in the face of the persistent harassment of Jewish students,” after receiving on Monday a report commissioned by the administration on anti-Semitism on the campuses of several universities in the country.
This cancellation “is the first set of actions, and new cancellations are expected,” warns a statement signed by the general administrative services, which specify that Columbia currently has 5 billion federally committed.
The decision to cut subsidies and contracts has been made together with the federal departments of Justice, Health, Education and Administrative Services, after the operational group commissioned by the government with the specific task of detecting and denouncing anti-Semitic behavior has not received a satisfactory response from Columbia, according to the statement.
Complaints of anti-Semitism began to appear in Columbia and other campuses shortly after October 7, 2023, the date on which Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel, which was then followed by a war declared by Israel against Gaza that has been one of the deadliest in several decades.
That war gave rise to demonstrations against Israel as they had not been seen on university campuses for fifty years, with Columbia at the spearhead, with some anti-Jewish incidents that made the Joe Biden Government intervene and summon the rectors of several universities to Congress, several of which (including Columbia’s) had to resign.
Despite the fact that the protests have dropped a lot in terms of intensity, Trump went further than Joe Biden: first, he named that operative group on anti-Semitism on campuses, and second, he threatened to withdraw visas or residence permits from students accused of supporting “terrorist organizations like Hamas.”
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon says that Columbia “for too long has left its homework with Jewish students on its campus, but today we show Columbia and the other universities that we will no longer tolerate that terrible passivity.”
And the director of the group that sent his report last Monday, Leo Torrell, abounded in the threats: “Freezing funds is one of the tools at our disposal to respond to this upsurge in anti-Semitism. This is just the beginning,” he said.
Curiously, in the protests against Israel, one of the most active groups has been the left-wing Jews, who have denounced that under the premise of anti-Semitism, legitimate political criticisms against the State of Israel are being included.
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