International
The European Union wants dialogue with the United States, but will respond firmly to “unjust” attacks
showed on Monday its willingness to a “robust” and “constructive” dialogue with the United States, but assured that it is prepared to “respond firmly” to any unjust or arbitrary attack.
“The EU is prepared for a solid but constructive dialogue with the United States, although we also recognize the possible challenges in the relationship with the US. USA and we are prepared so that, when we are attacked unfairly or arbitrarily, the EU will respond firmly,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the end of an informal meeting of community leaders.
The Twenty-Seven met in Brussels to mainly address how to build a more autonomous defense policy and strengthen their military industrial base with more cooperation, but they spent much of the day talking about transatlantic relations.
The meeting took place after the President of the United States US, Donald Trump, decided to impose tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China, and to ensure that he would also apply taxes on the European Union.
Von der Leyen said at a press conference at the end of the meeting that the community leaders spoke, “first of all,” of the transatlantic partnership, which “remains our most important relationship” and is “fundamental to promote peace, security and prosperity.”
“And with the backdrop that we know there is a lot at stake, we have discussed ways to strengthen very pragmatic cooperation with the United States,” he commented, while recognizing that “it is evident that there are new challenges and growing uncertainties.”
German policy alluded to the fact that “this weekend we have witnessed the imposition of very high tariffs on Canada and Mexico,” and in that context he said that “those tariffs raise business costs, harm workers and consumers, create unnecessary economic disruptions and drive inflation.”
“We don’t see anything good coming out of all this, so we give priority to productive debates and commit early,” Von der Leyen said.
The president of the Commission also assured that the EU “stays firm in its multilateral commitments,” whether it is its development aid or our climate objectives, and assured that they are “fully aware that we have our own challenges to master.”
“We have to do our homework. So today it has also become very clear that we will focus on the competitiveness of the European Union,” as the Commission has exposed in its recently presented strategy known as the “Buss of Competitiveness”.
For his part, the President of the European Council, António Costa, assured that the United States “is our friend, our ally and our partner.”
“It is a relationship that has deep roots and will last over time; problems and differences of opinion can also arise between friends,” he said.
When those differences emerge, he said, he advocated “approaching them to talk and find solutions,” but “defending our values, maintaining our principles and without compromising our own interests.”
“Those universal values and principles are at the heart of the international order that we have built since World War II, together with the United States of America, national sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” he concluded.
In addition, Von der Leyen announced on Monday to community leaders that she will study the possibility of relaxing the rules of the European Union (EU) on the control of public deficit and debt to allow an increase in defense spending.
“If you look at national budgets, they are constrained, until now through the new rules of the stability and growth pact. For extraordinary times, it is possible to have extraordinary measures also in the stability and growth pact, and I think we live in extraordinary times,” Von der Leyen said at the end of an informal summit of EU leaders.
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
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