Rubio Condemns Conviction of Colombia’s Right-Wing Former President Uribe

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The most prominent events this week: the former Colombian President álvaro urbe The United States announces bribery Definitions and sanctions on BrazilMexico City represents the anniversary Establishment Tenochtitlán.

On Monday, a court of Colombia found a former leader guilty of a crime for the first time in the country’s history.

Former President Alvaro Urby was convicted of bribery and procedural fraud. Prosecutors have argued that Orepe, who in the period from 2002 to 2010, had offered the payment of a paramilitary member to withdraw a certificate that he funded paramilitary groups in the 1990s. The case spanned 13 years.

Orepe is a very crime and conservative figure who has been very influential even after his time in office. The Allies have successfully strengthened Juan Manuel Santos and Ivan Duque to the presidency, although Santos will be spilled politically later. The right -wing Urby Party is planning to manage a candidate in the presidential elections for the next year.

Euri condemnation is major news in Colombia. But a statement of subsequent social media from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio added an international element to the story. Rubio denied that Orepe had committed any crimes and wrote that “the weapon of the Judicial Branch in Colombia by extremist judges had a disturbing precedent.”

Ourby, along with Colombia, was closely aligned with the United States while he was in office with conservative political groups in the United States near Rubio. The position of Rubio repeated the recent Trump administration’s criticism of the trial of former Brazilian President Geer Bolsonaro. In an editorial, a Colombian newspaper El EspCTADOR Rubio’s statement is called “unacceptable intervention by the United States in our judicial system.”

This week’s ruling was against Orepe only at the department’s court level, and his lawyers said they would appeal. The case is a test of the safety of the judiciary in Colombia.

“The ruling on a former president is not desirable, but it should not cause a disaster in democracy. On the contrary: it is one of the symptoms of institutional health,” wrote the journalist Vladimir Florez. El Tiempo. 2023 Foreign policy The analysis found that at least 78 political leaders in democratic and semi -democratic countries were accused this century.

As with Brazil, the Trump administration’s dissatisfaction with the trial of Urby can be the consequences of Colombia’s relations with the United States.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent on many Brazilian commodities; The definitions were detailed in an executive order that also complained about the trial of Bolsonaro. Meanwhile, US officials are considering allowing anti -drug cooperation with Colombia by a final date for renewal next month. The partnership sends tens of millions of dollars from financial aid to Bogota every year.

The condemnation of the Orebi may also stimulate the Colombian right at a moment when the popularity of left -wing President Gustavo Petro declined. For months, Orepe urged the right -wing parties in the middle to the appropriate parties to unify before the elections next year.

Columbia’s middle politicians were recently hesitated in cooperation with Urby, which is partly due to legal charges against him. In the latest presidential elections in the country, the candidate who was the second most popular after Petro was a former unknown mayor who designed himself as a political-and-not candidate for the hard Urbey right.

Friday, August 1: Panama assumes the rotating presidency for one month of the United Nations Security Council.

Sunday, August 17: Bolivia held general elections.

New American definitions. On Wednesday, the Trump administration followed its duties by 50 percent of Brazilian goods – with many exemptions. Dozens of products were left outside the tax list, leaving the rate of effective tariffs of the United States on Brazil at about 31 percent, according to Goldman Sachs estimates.

Buyers in the United States of Brazilian goods have been pressed severely for exemptions, which include orange juice, fertilizers, energy and aircraft. Brazil is a source of more than half of the consumer orange juice in the United States, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Washington has also submitted financial penalties for the Brazilian Supreme Court judge who supervises the trial of Bolsonaro, Alexander de Morris. The moves against Brazil are “the clearest example so far [the Trump administration’s] Oliver Stinkel has written in promoting tyranny Foreign policy This week, adding that they are “obligated to reduce our influence in the country.”

Mexico, for its part, escapes 30 percent of the US specific definitions on Thursday after President Claudia Shinbom received a call with Trump. Currently, many goods that are not covered by a current trade deal are subject to the duty of 25 percent.

Trump said after the call. He added that he hoped to sign a commercial deal with the country soon.

Travel diplomacy. Last week, Argentina announced commercial travel permissions and a larger square with China. This week, it issued a similar announcement with the United States: The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding that would jump from the restart of Argentina in the American visa waiver program. The process may take about three years to complete it.

Washington is partially adhered to because the Argentines have the lowest rate of US visa to be overlooked for any Latin American country. But this step is also a response to the friendly position of Argentine President Javier Millie towards the United States.

Argentina enjoyed the visa -free travel to the United States until 2002, when it stopped amid a financial crisis in Argentina and tightened the American border after 11/10. Chile is the only Latin America to have this privilege today.

Aztec. Last week, Mexico celebrated the 700th anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlán, the original city of Aztek, which preceded the city of Mexico.

In the main square of the capital, hundreds of actors simulated the founding of Tenochtitlán. The elderly Aztec told historians that the city’s site was chosen when they saw a eagle sitting on aloe vera and carrying a snake, and it is believed to be a divine sign. The image was filmed on the flag of Mexico.

Tenochtitlán was a city built on islands in the center of the lake, divided by channels, somewhat closer to Venice, Italy. The Spanish colonists drained the water at a later time, but the city center is still where the old Aztek Temple was.

Shinbom spoke at the ceremony, saying that “great civilizations” built Mexico before the Spaniards arrived. She urged the end of anti -control racism.

The Brazilian Air Force plane, heading to Manus and Sao Paulo, ride at Boa Vista International Airport in Brazil on May 4, 2018.Evaristo SA/AFP via Getty Images

About six months have passed since the Trump administration has moved to close asylum on the borders of the United States and Mexico. At that time, some Latin American countries have tightened their immigration restrictions, while others allowed people looking for work or protection.

A new report was examined this week by the mixed research center for migration patterns from the year to date. In addition to Brazil, which accepted some immigrants who have previously sought to build life in the United States, people are looking for neighboring Paraguay. The country has received 15,000 residency requests between January and May, which is a few on the right track to break the annual record; Among the leading Brazilian, Argentina and Bolivians were among the top Brazilian applicants.

Thousands of Ecuadorians went to Argentina, according to the Ministry of Interior Ecuador. It has calculated 7,754 Ecuadorians who left for Argentina between January and May and no longer. The Ecuadorians immigrated to the borders of the United States and Mexico in large numbers at the end of the period of former US President Joe Biden due to the increasing violence and economic strains in the country.

Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are all part of the nine -state residence agreement between the Mercosur customs union and many other South American countries that reduce the movement between them.

However, individual countries have some legal space to tighten or reduce immigration requirements. Ecuador and Argentina have increased restrictions in recent weeks. Uruguay went in the other direction, and expanded access to a residence policy, which is largely beneficial to Cuban immigrants.

It is too early to say how migrants in Latin America will affect the economies of their new host countries. But the loss of the United States can be the profit of another country. This week, senior former officials of the Biden Administration wrote in the Brookings report that the expanded numbers of legal immigrants to the United States after 2020 helped the country to stagnate post -guardian.