Three years had passed since the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the revolutionary armed forces FARC. After years of conflict, Colombians thought this agreement would change the country for the better. Nevertheless, the process is still ongoing and a new wave of violence against local leaders and journalists is erupting in different parts of the country. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports in Bogota, Colombia
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The Organization of American States (OAS) should avoid “extreme” positions when confronting regional crises like Venezuela’s social and economic collapse and instead promote dialogue, a challenger for the body’s top job said on Tuesday.Hugo de Zela, a longtime Peruvian diplomat and his country’s ambassador to the United States, is running to unseat the organization’s secretary-general, Luis Almagro, who is seeking a second five-year term. Almagro’s current term is set to end next May.The OAS must push for problems to be solved within its member countries by facilitating dialogue between different factions, de Zela told Reuters on the sidelines of a diplomatic meeting in Bogota.”If the organization puts itself on one of the extremes, it stops being effective at solving problems, it stops being present in the solution and it becomes part of the problem,” said de Zela. “That cannot happen.”Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 30, 2019.Venezuela’s economic and political crisis – which has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine and an exodus of people – has dominated recent OAS meetings, with some member states denouncing President Nicolas Maduro as a dictator, while others back him.Member states have also tussled over the admittance to meetings of a representative sent by Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, who argues Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Guaido this year invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency.Almagro, a Uruguayan whose re-election bid is backed by the United States, Colombia and Brazil, has sought to ramp up pressure on Maduro, including refusing to rule out the use of force against his government last year.”It’s evident that in Venezuela, there is an interruption of the democratic process, it’s evident that the Maduro regime lacks legitimacy, that’s not under discussion. But at the same time, to actively promote the use of force to solve the case of Venezuela is unreal and doesn’t help,” said de Zela.”That is putting ourselves on an extreme. Talking constantly about the use of force to solve the issue of Venezuela is not an effective contribution or a realistic contribution.”Venezuelans must solve their own problems through dialogue, de Zela added, saying free and fair elections must be held urgently in the oil-producing country.”The OAS is not having, as it once did, an active role in cooperation to solve these things,” de Zela said. “There is a lack of dialogue between the member countries and the general secretariat.” 
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Representatives from over a dozen nations that are signatories to a Cold War-era defense treaty for the Americas moved Tuesday to further isolate close allies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with economic sanctions.The 1947 Rio Treaty signatories concluded a meeting in Bogota by vowing to cooperate in pursuing sanctions and travel restrictions for Maduro government associates accused of corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering or human rights violations.”The political, economic and social crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represents a threat for the peace and security of the continent,” Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum said in the meeting’s final remarks.While the United States and the European Union have targeted Maduro associates with economic sanctions, Latin American nations who are supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido have largely resorted to diplomatic pressure – and it will be up to each individual nation to decide how to move forward.The promise of enhanced economic pressure against Maduro comes at a time when Venezuela’s opposition is faltering. Guaido has struggled to mobilize supporters onto the streets and dipped in popularity. Meanwhile, fissures within the opposition are coming to light amidst recent controversies involving alleged abuses of power.David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the Rio Treaty’s resolution Tuesday marks a “small victory” for the opposition but “not enough to really put them in a different place.””Their strategy of maximum pressure seems to be stalling,” he said.The 19 Rio Treaty member nations have been treading cautiously in pursuing economic restrictions against Venezuela while vowing not to invoke a provision in the accord that authorizes them to pursue a military intervention. The accord instructs signatories to consider a threat against any one of them a danger to all.Colombian President Ivan Duque contends that Maduro is offering a safe haven to rebel factions of the National Liberation Army and dissidents with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an assertion the Venezuelan leader denies. Duque urged that nations embark on tougher sanctions going forward.”Here there’s no invitation for use of force,” he said.Despite repeated remarks from Rio Treaty members indicating they will not pursue a military response, Venezuelan leaders contend the signatories are plotting to overthrow Maduro and warning citizens that an intervention could be imminent.”The people should be prepared and alert on the streets,” Diosdado Cabello, head of Venezuela’s all-powerful National Constitutional Assembly, said Tuesday.
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The far-right Vox party won a seat on the committee responsible for running Spain’s parliament on Tuesday, raising its national profile as the Socialists struggled to form a government following an inconclusive national election last month.The Socialists, meanwhile, again held talks with a Catalan separatist party in a bid to gain support.Vox became the third-largest party in a fragmented parliament in the election, more than doubling its seats to 52 after campaigning on a platform of staunch nationalism and an anti-feminist and anti-immigrant stance.Amid some chaotic scenes and scuffles in the parliamentary chamber as the new legislature was sworn in, Vox lawmaker Ignacio Gil Lazaro was elected as one of the oversight committee’s four vice presidents.The nine-strong committee decides when bills are admitted for debate and its members represent parliament overseas, giving it considerable influence.Founded in 2013, Vox won two dozen seats in an inconclusive election in April, the first time a far-right party had won more than one seat since Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s after four decades of dictatorship.In the November election, Spain’s fourth in four years, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) won most seats but fell short of a majority.Despite reaching a coalition pact with the left-wing Unidas Podemos, it is still scrambling to drum up enough support from other parties to control the 350-seat parliament.Hours after the oversight committee election was picked, the Socialists sat down with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in its second formal conversation aimed at securing the Catalan separatist party’s backing for a Socialist-led government.Afterwards, the two parties avoided any mention of support but said in a joint statement they would meet again on Dec. 10.Ahead of the meeting, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had sought to temper expectations that Spain could have a government in place by December.”I don’t want to put a date on it,” Sanchez told reporters on Monday. “It could be December 12, December 20 or January 8.I don’t know. But what’s important to highlight is that Spain needs a government as soon as possible.”Prior to Tuesday’s vote on the oversight committee ballot, a scuffle broke out between a Vox member and a deputy from centre-right Ciudadanos. Socialist party spokeswoman Adriana Lastra twisted her ankle and had to receive medical attention.After the vote, in which Socialist Meritxell Batet was elected committee president, Catalan separatist politicians used the swearing-in process as a platform to demand freedom for jailed Catalan separatist leaders.They also refused to take the traditional oath to uphold Spain’s constitution, instead pledging to campaign for an independent Catalan republic. 
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Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action.The report was compiled ahead of a meeting next week at which EU leaders will discuss punishing Hungary for eroding democratic norms under maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”The Hungarian government has systematically dismantled media independence, freedom and pluralism, distorted the media market and divided the journalistic community in the country, achieving a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” the report says.FILE – The spokesman of the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs, speaks to reporters at the Hungarian Embassy in Paris, Dec.19, 2018.Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the criticisms in a posting on Twitter.”Fact: TV outlet with largest audience, news portal with largest readership, largest weekly (are) clearly pro-opposition,” Kovacs wrote. “But report says: opposition media under constant threat, being muted. What?”Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist parties have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch a so-called Article 7 legal process against both the EU countries.The European Council, which brings together leaders of EU member states, will hold a hearing with EU affairs ministers on Dec. 10 to discuss the proceedings against both countries.Fact-finding mission Ahead of that meeting, the six organizations, which include the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), sent a fact-finding mission to Hungary last month.”Hungary’s situation does not get the attention it should,” IPI deputy director and mission leader Scott Griffen told Reuters. “It is important that the EU public and its institutions understand what is going on in Hungary.”The report said some prominent independent outlets remained in Hungary, but their market weight was dwarfed by pro-government publications.It said Budapest has “a clear strategy to silence the critical press (and operate) a pro-government media empire as a vast propaganda machine.”Critics say that under Orban, state media have become an obedient mouthpiece of his Fidesz party, while the rest of the media landscape is dominated by a conglomerate created by pro-Fidesz businessmen.Orban’s government has denied undermining press freedom.
 
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China will help build several major infrastructure projects in El Salvador including a stadium and water treatment plant, the two countries said Tuesday, signaling China’s growing role in the region after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in China this week, said the investment represented a “gigantic, non-refundable cooperation” for the small Central American nation.He did not disclose the planned investment amount.Under the agreement, China will help build a large sports stadium, multi-story library and water treatment plant.China, the world’s second biggest economy, will also assist at coastal tourist sites, including building streets, parks and a water system along the beaches known as Surf City, and restaurants and shops on the Puerto de la Libertad pier.The projects offer the strongest signal yet of El Salvador’s embrace of close relations with China.El Salvador “adheres to the principle of one China, categorically rejects any act that goes against this principle and any form of ‘independence of Taiwan,'” El Salvador and China said in a joint statement.El Salvador broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in August last year, following the Dominican Republic and Panama in switching sides to China.
 
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Surging violence by criminal gangs in Central America has led to an increase of asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border.  As local authorities in Honduras and El Salvador struggle to counter the gangs and drug smugglers, the U.S. military is trying to help. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb visited the troops working to improve security in Honduras and El Salvador.
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Talks between the Colombian government and the unions and student organizations that are planning major protests this week ended without advances on Tuesday, as the country prepares for its third national strike since late November.Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have participated in protests against President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies since Nov. 21, imperiling the government’s tax reform proposal and leading Duque to announce a “great national dialogue.”Five people have died in connection with the demonstrations, including a young man killed by homemade explosives on Monday in the city of Medellin during a protest at a public university.On Monday, the government asked the unions and student groups that make up the National Strike Committee to call off the Wednesday protest and agreed to a parallel dialogue with them.FILE – Members of the Indigenous Guard and students march in an anti-government protest in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 29, 2019.The committee rejected the request to halt the strike, continuing to demand the government meet only with them instead of including business groups and others in talks.Diogenes Orjuela, the head of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), told Reuters early on Tuesday the strike would go ahead and that his organization would continue to seek dialogue without “conditions on our plan of action which we have through December 10.”The CUT is the country’s main union, with more than 500,000 members.13 demandsThe committee has made 13 demands of the government, including that it reject a rise in the pension age and a cut in the minimum wage for young people, both policies Duque denies ever supporting.A meeting between the committee and the government ended without progress Tuesday, with presidency official Diego Molano telling journalists that certain committee demands could not be met.”What they have requested can’t be fulfilled, particularly if we only maintain the exclusive and independent negotiations,” Molano said, adding the committee’s demand that the ESMAD riot police not be present during demonstrations was also inviable.The death last week of 18-year-old protester Dilan Cruz has helped fuel anger at the ESMAD, which protesters accuse of using excessive force during crowd dispersion efforts. Cruz was fatally injured on the third day of protests by an ESMAD projectile.Orjuela told journalists following Tuesday’s meeting that the negotiations will move forward while protests continue.
 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son Eduardo, once considered for the post of ambassador to the United States, was suspended by his party on Tuesday and could lose the chair of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee.The conservative Social Liberal Party (PSL) suspended Eduardo Bolsonaro for one year for trying to oust its founder Luciano Bivar last month in a battle for control of the party that led to President Bolsonaro leaving to start his own party.The split has left the far-right president without a formal base in Congress for which to push through his agenda of bills aimed at reducing the size of government, fighting graft, loosening gun laws and asserting Christian family values.The small PSL party surged from nowhere to become the second largest in Brazil’s Congress by serving as the platform for Bolsonaro’s successful presidential run last year riding on a wave of conservative sentiment in the country.The party said it punished 18 members for siding with the Bolsonaros in a bitter struggle for control of the party and its large election campaign war chest lost by the president.The PSL will seek to have Eduardo Bolsonaro removed as chairman of the foreign relations committee arguing that the position was assigned to the party according to its number of seats. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a reception late Tuesday at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth on the sidelines of the NATO summit, where leaders are marking 70 years of the alliance.This is the third time the Trumps have met the monarch. They met at a Buckingham Palace banquet during a state visit in June, and during a tea at Windsor Castle in July of 2018.Prior to Tuesday’s palace reception, the president and the first lady briefly met with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at their official residence at Clarence House.As in his previous visits to Britain, anti-Trump protests broke out. Protesters marched from London’s Trafalgar Square towards the palace as the evening reception took place. Among the protesters led by the Stop Trump Coalition, are doctors, nurses and staff of the country’s National Health Service concerned about the potential risks to the British health service system raised by a U.S. – Britain trade deal.Election meddlingBut earlier on Tuesday, Trump promised to stay out of Britain’s general election, scheduled to be held on December 12.“I have no thoughts on it.  It’s going to be a very important election for this great country, but I have no thoughts on it,” Trump said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.But the U.S. president could not resist giving his opinion about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying, “Boris is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.”In a recent interview, Johnson warned Trump against giving him an endorsement, saying it was best “for neither side to be involved in the other’s election campaigns.”In October, Trump praised the prime minister as “the exact right guy for the times” and said that the Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” as prime minister.Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.
It was Trump who said in June the NHS is “on the table”. And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won’t get their hands on it.
Our NHS is not for sale.pic.twitter.com/AUhht3pCgL
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 31, 2019World leaders rarely violate diplomatic norms and wade into other countries’ elections.Trump also said the United States has no interest in Britain’s National Health Service.“We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter,” he said.Trump’s interest in the privatization of the NHS has been a key focus of the British election, with Corbyn accusing Johnson and the Conservative Party of including it in a post-Brexit deal with the United States. Johnson has denied the accusation.Protesters hold a placard at a demonstration during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit for NATO summit, in London, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and the British prime minister are meeting in group events with other NATO leaders including at Buckingham Palace and a meeting afterwards at 10 Downing Street, but it is still unclear whether the two will have a one-on-one meeting during the two-day summit. Other than his meeting with Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday.In between meetings with leaders, the U.S. president also met with supporters in a closed press event. Tuesday’s fundraiser was expected to raise $3 million for his re-election campaign.Prince AndrewPrince Andrew did not join the Royal Family during the reception with NATO leaders. The queen’s son stepped back from his royal duties last month due to his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier found dead in a jail cell in August after being held on sex trafficking charges.Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, claimed that she was directed to have sexual encounters with Prince Andrew.FILE – President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump accompanied by John Hall, the Dean of Westminster, right, and Britain’s Prince Andrew leave after a tour of Westminster Abbey in London, June 3, 2019.Trump declined to weigh in on the controversy, saying Tuesday, when asked by a reporter, “I don’t know Prince Andrew. It’s a tough story.”????On Day 2 of the #USStateVisit, The Duke of York & Prime Minister @TheresaMay welcome President Donald Trump @POTUS to St James’s Palace for a UK/US Senior Business Leaders Group Breakfast Meeting. pic.twitter.com/NfvniwmQKX
— The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) June 4, 2019Since Trump’s statement, old photos of Donald Trump and Prince Andrew at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, have resurfaced.Trump also met Andrew during his last U.K. visit in June. 
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he supports the demonstrations in Iran and urged the world to watch the Iranian government’s violent effort to quash protests that he says have killed “thousands of people.”Speaking in London, where he is attending the NATO leaders summit, Trump said, “Iran is killing thousands and thousands of people right now as we speak.”He added they were killed “for the mere fact that they’re protesting,” and he called it a “terrible thing.”Trump was mum on what, if anything, the U.S. could do in response to the violence, but he said, “I think the world has to be watching.”Later, during a meeting, Trump misheard a question when he said he did not support the protesters. The president also sent out a tweet that said: “The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM. We have under the Trump Administration and always will!”Amnesty International said on Monday it believes at least 208 people were killed in the protests and the crackdown that followed. Iranian state television on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that security forces shot and killed what it described as “rioters” in multiple cities amid recent protests over the spike in government-set gasoline prices.The protests are viewed as a reflection of widespread economic discontent gripping the country since Trump reimposed nuclear sanctions on Iran last year.Trump encouraged reporters “to get in there and see what’s going on,” noting that the Iranian government has curtailed internet access to limit the spread of information about the violence.
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Russia on Tuesday accused a former U.S. Marine it has held for almost a year on spying charges of faking health problems in custody and lying about his ill-treatment to stir up noise around his case.Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was accused of espionage after agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service detained him in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28. Whelan, who is being held in pre-trial detention, denies Moscow’s allegations and says he was set up in a political sting.He has alleged at court hearings that he is being subjected to ill treatment in custody and that his complaints are systematically ignored. In October, he said a prison guard had forced him to his knees and threatened him with a gun.In August, Whelan’s lawyer said his client was suffering from a groin hernia that prison authorities were aggravating, prompting the U.S. embassy to demand immediate access to Whelan.A U.S. diplomat met him last week in jail and called for his immediate release. The U.S. embassy described Whelan’s treatment as “shameful”, said Moscow had refused permission for an outside doctor to examine him.On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Whelan’s allegations of ill-treatment had not checked out and that diplomats were being granted regular access to him in custody.”They (the diplomats) know perfectly well that the public statements by the accused about certain abuses and even threats (made to his) life in pre-trial detention – are nothing more than the defence’s provocatory line to help artificially create noise around his person,” the ministry said in a statement.It said Whelan had received qualified medical treatment from the detention facility’s doctors as well as a special clinic and that they had not found him to have any serious ailment.”So there is no threat to Whelan’s health, and the pretending which he is periodically resorting to is apparently part of the training for U.S. intelligence officers,” the ministry said.The U.S. embassy and lawyers for Whelan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. 
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A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday off the coast of northern Chile, but there were no reports of damage.      The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 3:46 a.m. local time at a moderate depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles). It was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) west-southwest of the city of Arica.The biggest recent quake to hit Chile came in 2010, when a magnitude 8.8 quake caused a tsunami blamed for more than 500 deaths. 
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Protesters trying to cancel national elections have blocked roads leading to the main airport on the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica.Supporters of the opposition United Workers’ Party set up burning roadblocks on the two main roads leading to Douglas-Charles Airport, forcing the cancellation of at least one flight Tuesday morning. Passengers for other flights were forced to walk more than a mile to the airport, dragging their luggage through the street.The opposition says the country’s loose electoral rules allow the possibility of fraud in the Dec. 6 elections and have sued to stop them. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says he plans for elections to proceed.A judge is expected to rule on the case Tuesday.
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The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in t Veld said outside the prime minister's office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.The delegation chief's comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” int Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.The delegation will also meet during the 1 ½-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing. 
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The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.
                   
With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in t Veld said outside the prime minister's office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”
                   
The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.
                   
Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.
                   
The delegation chief's comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.
                   
“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” int Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”
                   
She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.
                   
“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.
                   
A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.
                   
The delegation will also meet during the 1-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.
                  
The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.
                   
 While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing “brain death,” saying the French leader’s comment was a “nasty statement.”Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as leaders of member nations gathered for a summit in London, Trump said, “You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO.”Macron’s comments came in an interview with London-based magazine The Economist published last month.  He has since defended his words, saying NATO “needed a wake-up call” and should be focused on issues other than the amount of money each member spends on its military.NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg gestures during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Winfield House in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and Macron are due to meet Tuesday.Defense spending has been a focus for Trump since he took office in 2017 and complained the United States was taking on an outsized financial burden.Stoltenberg praised Trump on Tuesday, saying his leadership on the issue is “having a real impact.” He cited a $130 billion rise in defense budgets among the non-U.S. NATO members and said that would go to $400 billion by 2024.In addition to budget discussions, Stoltenberg said leaders would be talking about counterterrorism efforts, arms control, relations with Russia and the rise of China.The summit comes as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home.  He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.But when asked if the proceedings weaken his position as he meets with other leaders, Trump said, “I don’t think so.”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged Turkey on Monday to stop holding up support for a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland, as Ankara presses the alliance to support its fight against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.In an interview with Reuters ahead of the NATO summit, Esper warned Ankara that “not everybody sees the threats that they see” and added he would not support labeling the YPG as terrorists to break the impasse.He called on Ankara to focus on the larger challenges facing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”The message to Turkey … is we need to move forward on these response plans and it can’t be held up by their own particular concerns,” Esper said as he flew to London.”Alliance unity, alliance readiness, means that you focus on the bigger issues — the bigger issue being the readiness of the (NATO) alliance. And not everybody’s willing to sign up to their agenda. Not everybody sees the threats that they see.”NATO envoys need formal approval by all 29 members for the plan to improve the defense of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against any threat from neighboring Russia.The dispute, as NATO prepares to hold its 70th anniversary summit, is a sign of deep divisions between Ankara and Washington over everything from the war in Syria to Turkey’s growing defense relationship with Russia.Turkey wants NATO to formally recognize the YPG militia, the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as terrorists and is infuriated that its allies have given the militia support.Ankara has blamed Washington for the current impasse, saying it was caused by the U.S. withdrawal of support from a separate defense plan for Turkey, covering any possible attack from the south where it borders Syria.Asked whether Washington might agree to branding the YPG as terrorists in order to break the deadlock, Esper said: “I wouldn’t support that.””We’re going to stick to our positions, and I think NATO will as well,” Esper said.The issue is the latest source of friction between the NATO allies, which have also been at loggerheads over Turkey’s purchase of advanced Russian air defenses, which Washington says are incompatible with NATO defenses and pose a threat to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jets.Washington said in July it was removing Turkey from the F-35 program and has warned of possible U.S. sanctions.Two U.S. senators pressed the Trump administration on Monday to impose sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of the Russian missile defense system and said the failure to do so sent a “terrible signal.” 
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The government of President Ivan Duque extended an olive branch Monday to labor and student groups organizing recent protests in Colombia by offering to start separate talks on their demands.Administrative Director Diego Molano said the government is willing to immediately initiate talks on 13 points identified by the National Strike Committee – but also asked it to refrain from a planned protest on Wednesday.”We’ve asked them, given the clamor of Colombians and so that the country can begin the Christmas season peacefully, that they suspend the Dec. 4 strike,” Molano said, noting it could have economic and transportation repercussions.Members of the National Strike Committee, comprised of over a dozen labor, student and other activist groups, said it was too late to stop Wednesday’s protest but expressed hope the offer for dialogue nonetheless remains.”The government has been very slow to convoke us,” said Julio Roberto Gomez, head of the General Labor Confederation, one of the nation’s largest unions and a member of the National Strike Committee.Duque had previously insisted that the strike committee join the “National Conversation” he has begun with a wider swatch of society to draft short- and long-term solutions to issues like corruption and inequality.”I’m the president of all Colombians,” Duque said in a televised interview Monday. “Those who march and those who don’t march.”Protest organizers have refused to participate in that dialogue, bashing it as a conversation amongst allies that would dilute demonstrator concerns, and instead demanded that the president establish separate talks specifically with them.Molano did not make clear if the government would still be willing to hold independent talks with the National Strike Committee even if it proceeds with a Wednesday strike.A woman marches with her children in an anti-government demonstration in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 21, 2019..Authorities estimate 250,000 Colombians took to streets around the nation in protests against Duque’s government on Nov. 21. The Strike Committee held a second demonstration last week that drew far fewer people.The strike steering committee’s 13 demands include asking Duque to withdraw or refrain from tax, labor and pension law changes that are either before the legislature or rumored to be in development.It also wants Duque to review free-trade agreements, eliminate a police unit accused in the death of an 18-year-old student protester and fully implement Colombia’s historic peace accord with leftist rebels. 
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A Honduran court sentenced seven people to prison terms of up to 50 years Monday for the 2016 murder of indigenous and environmental rights activist Berta Caceres.The seven men were convicted in November 2018 for the attack, which left Caceres dead while another activist survived.Four men — Elvin Rapalo, Henry Hernandez, Edilson Duarte and Oscar Torres Velasquez — were sentenced to 34 years for the murder and 16 years for attempted murder. The country’s Sentencing Tribunal gave three others prison terms of 30 years for their roles, including an army officer, an ex-soldier and a manager of the dam project Caceres opposed.FILE – Honduran environmentalist Berta Caceres speaks in San Francisco during the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize award ceremony, April 20, 2015.Caceres was shot inside her home in La Esperanza in western Honduras one year after winning the Goldman Environmental Prize for her leadership against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project. The project was suspended following her death.Roberto David Castillo Mejia, who was executive president of the company leading the construction work, DESA, when Caceres was killed, is accused by prosecutors of organizing the logistics of the killing. That case continues.The company has denied Castillo and its other employees were connected to the murder.Caceres had been threatened before and as early as 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had ordered protective measures for her safety. Other members of her group had also been killed. The gunmen who killed Caceres also wounded Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, who was at the home that night. 
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