CUBA
Havana not promoting unrest
The government has had no role in promoting popular unrest in Latin America, but supports the protesters’ goals, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez said on Friday. “We don’t have any involvement in the protests in Latin America except providing the example of the Cuban revolution,” Rodriguez told participants at a forum in Havana. Last month, the Organization of American States accused Cuba and Venezuela of “financing, supporting and promoting” unrest and exporting socialist ideology and organizing tactics across the continent. Violent protests over economic hardship and other grievances erupted in countries including Ecuador and Chile in the past few weeks. Rodriguez spoke at a forum of left-wing groups from Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Germany, the Palestinian territories and Puerto Rico, among others. Participants waved flags and banners decrying US foreign policy. The government regularly holds solidarity meetings with activists from around the world. It provides lodging and transportation, but participants generally assume other costs, like airfare, according to those at this year’s meeting. Activists said that Cuba was an inspiration for weeks of protests set off by hikes in the cost of living in some Latin American countries, but added that the nation had no direct involvement.
EL SALVADOR
Murder rate lowest in years
The country’s homicide rate has fallen to its lowest level in decades, with an average of 3.6 killings per day last month, President Nayib Bukele said on Friday. There were 112 murders last month, he said, calling it “the safest month since the peace accords,” which were signed in 1992 to end 12 years of civil war. If the rate holds, the country’s homicide rate could reach as low as 20 per 100,000, less than Mexico’s. Last year, there were 3,340 killings recorded, or about nine per day. The bloodiest year of gang violence, 2015, saw 6,425 homicides, or 17.6 per day. After taking office on June 1, Bukele deployed police and soldiers to combat extortions that provide most of gangs’ incomes.
NICARAGUA
Man convicted of NY murder
A court on Friday convicted a dual US-Nicaraguan citizen of killing a nursing student in New York state after an unusual trial that saw many witnesses testifying by long-distance video conference. A prosecution official cited Judge Maria Fabiola Betancourt as saying that sentencing for Orlando Tercero would be held within days. Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell confirmed the conviction in a tweet. The maximum sentence is 30 years. The 23-year-old former Binghamton University student was found guilty of killing 22-year-old Haley Anderson on March 8 last year. Witnesses said that the two had a romantic relationship, but Tercero wanted a more serious relationship, trial testimony showed. The woman, originally from Westbury on Long Island, was found strangled in his bed. Tercero fled to Nicaragua the day after the killing. The trial was held in Managua because the law forbids extradition of its citizens. The Broome County District Attorney’s Office in New York facilitated testimony by witnesses who spoke with the help of a translator via a video link from a room in the office in downtown Binghamton. One of the witnesses, a police investigator, said via the video link that Tercero left a note at his residence saying that he was sorry.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was