International
Commissioner recognizes that the Government of Colombia did not analyze an alert of violence in the Catatumbo
The Commissioner of the Peace of Colombia, Otty Patiño, acknowledged on Monday that the Government did not analyze the early warning issued last year by the Ombudsman’s Office about a possible confrontation between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a FARC dissident in the Catatumbo region, as has been the case since January 16.
“What was noticeable through the alerts was an exacerbation of the conflict. There was not, and I want to be very self-critical, an in-depth analysis of why that exacerbation of the confrontations between those who had a situation of coexistence, between what they call (…) the Front 33, and the ELN in that region,” said Patiño.
Patiño participated in a technical session of the unconstitutional state of affairs (ECI) of the security guarantees to the signatories of the Peace Agreement, organized by the Constitutional Court, in which they talked about what is happening in the Catatumbo, a region located in the department of Norte de Santander, since the guerrilla violence has left at least six FARC ex-combatants killed.
The humanitarian and security crisis in Catatumbo was something announced by various authorities, including the Ombudsman’s Office, which on November 15 warned, through its early warning system, of “the risk situation” for the civilian population due to the presence and threats of illegal armed groups.
Since January 16, the clashes between the ELN guerrillas and the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents in the Catatumbo have left between 60 and 80 dead according to the counts of the Ombudsman’s Office and the Government of Norte de Santander, while the number of displaced people is more than 50,000 people.
However, the authorities have only been able to collect 47 bodies due to the situation that the most remote rural areas continue to experience, where the authorities have not yet been able to access.
In addition, it became known that a humanitarian commission, led by the Catholic Church, the UN Mission in Colombia and the Ombudsman’s Office, will address the crisis in the Catatumbo region (border with Venezuela), caused by guerrilla violence that since January 16 has left at least 47 dead.
The Ombudsman’s Office detailed on Monday that the objective is to “address the situation in the Catatumbo region, in order to improve the lives of people in vulnerable situations” due to the clashes between the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents in that region of the department of Norte de Santander.
“The Northeast War Front of the ELN has committed to respecting the actions of the humanitarian commission,” the agency added.
International
FAO: Latin America facing “very worrying” scenario due to high numbers of hunger and obesity
Latin America and the Caribbean face a “very worrying, but with positive elements” panorama, given the 41 million people who suffer from hunger and a third of the population dealing with obesity problems, said this Monday in Honduras the deputy director general and regional representative of the FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin.
“It is worrying because we still have 41 million people who go hungry, that is dramatic if we think that in Latin America there are people who do not eat,” Lubetkin stressed to EFE after participating in Honduras in the inauguration of a meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
However, Lubetkin stressed that in the last two years, hunger has decreased, which has allowed 4.5 million people to emerge from food poverty; which “forces” countries to strengthen their public policies to further reduce these figures.
Latin America and the Caribbean also face “bad food”, a problem that affects 140 million people, said the representative, who highlighted that the region has the capacity to produce food for 1.3 billion people.
Lubetkin said that following a healthy diet carries a daily cost of “$3.96” per person in Latin America and the Caribbean, after highlighting that the region has made progress in reducing hunger but records an increase in overweight.
“Almost a third of the region’s population is currently in the obesity scenario,” a problem that also affects “8% of children over 5 years of age,” he added.
In this sense, Lubetkin urged the region to look for “solutions” to eradicate both hunger and overweight and climate change, and warned that Latin America is beginning to fragment into three different realities, something that cannot be allowed.
“Not the whole region is in the same scenario and that is an alarm signal because today Latin America begins to divide into three Latin Americas, in other regions of the world there are subregions with different realities and we did not have that,” he explained.
Neither South America nor Central America can “allow there to be another subregion, to go backwards because it will affect us all,” the official insisted, after calling on the nations to “act together.”
Likewise, Lubetkin demanded greater investments to face climate change, strengthen the region’s agri-food systems and reduce food waste.
Faced with the seriousness of climate change, he said that it is necessary to implement “insurance” for producers that guarantees them the possibility of future production, even in adverse situations, he emphasized.
Finally, the FAO representative asked to create “new conditions” to improve food security in the region and assured that the value of food lost between harvest and sale exceeds “a quarter of all food production”.
International
Dozens of undocumented people, mostly from Latin America, are detained in Florida
Dozens of irregular migrants were arrested in Florida (USA) in recent days, including a member of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, as part of the operations ordered by US President Donald Trump against illegal immigration, the federal immigration authorities reported on Monday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) said on Monday that between January 27 and 28, agents of this government agency carried out raids in Palm Beach County, in southern Florida and where Mar-a-Lago, the president’s residence, is based.
The operations resulted in the arrest of 32 people from Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Many of these “illegal foreigners,” the federal agency added in a statement, have criminal records that includes drug possession, theft, prostitution, illegal re-entry, resistance to an officer, violation of probation, fraud, among others.
All of them are detained pending their expulsion or a hearing before an Immigration judge, ICE added.
Likewise, the Florida Highway Patrol reported this Monday in its X account of a joint operation with federal agents carried out in Tallahassee, capital of this southern state, which ended with the arrest of “alleged members of the Aragua Train” on suspicion of conspiracy to smuggle weapons, affiliation to criminal gangs and illegal entry into the United States.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said days ago that he signed an agreement for the state Highway Patrol to add its support to immigration operations carried out by the federal Department of Homeland Security.
International
Activities paralyzed in Haiti in the face of new threats from the barbecue gang leader
The metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince was paralyzed this Monday, due to the new threats of the leader of the coalition of ‘Vivre Ensemble’ (Live Together), Jimmy Chérizier ‘Barbecue’, about possible attacks on several neighborhoods of the capital of Haiti.
Today all schools closed their doors, several public and private institutions did not open, nor did public transport work at full capacity and small businesses marched at a low pace.
In the streets, fear and anxiety were evident on the faces of pedestrians on a day in which intense shootings were heard in several parts of the capital, including the center, which has been under the control of the gangs for almost a year, which has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and take refuge in camps and provincial cities.
Faced with this situation, the Haitian National Police (PNH) has been on maximum alert since yesterday afternoon, after the Ministry of Justice warned in a note of “threats of armed gangs.”
The director general of the Police, Rameau Normil, has instructed the central and departmental directors, the commanders of specialized units and the heads of police stations and sub-police stations to keep their troops on maximum alert and take all measures to counter any attack by armed gangs against the civilian population, according to the Facebook page of the police.
The police added that on Saturday night a “highly strategic” meeting was held to address the security situation.
He also stressed that he has strengthened security devices on several important roads to protect the lives and property of citizens.
In recent days, specialized police units such as the Temporary Anti-Band Unit, SWAT troops and the Search and Intervention Brigade, with the support of heavy equipment from the PNH, operated in several areas of central Port-au-Prince, which allowed road accesses to be cleared to “facilitate the entry of law enforcement during interventions and operations”.
In the interventions, according to the police, there were exchanges of gunfire with the gang members.
On the other hand, last Friday the Prime Minister of Haiti, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, chaired a meeting of the Governing Council in which ministers and secretaries of state evaluated the progress of the major national projects, with special attention to insecurity in the country.
To combat violence, Fils-Aimé has promised the acquisition of equipment to reinforce the PNH and the Armed Forces, as well as further training of security forces and strategic coordination to carry out faster and more effective interventions.
According to data verified by the United Nations Office for Human Rights, at least 5,601 people died in Haiti in 2024 as a result of the actions of criminal gangs (a thousand more than the previous year), 2,212 people were injured and 1,494 were kidnapped.
In mid-January, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that the number of displaced people in Haiti has tripled in just one year and has exceeded one million people (1,041,000), of whom more than half are children.
FAO: Latin America facing “very worrying” scenario due to high numbers of hunger and obesity
Dozens of undocumented people, mostly from Latin America, are detained in Florida
Activities paralyzed in Haiti in the face of new threats from the barbecue gang leader
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