International roundup

By Agencies
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Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega was sworn in for a fourth consecutive term Monday following elections considered rigged and on a day marked by sanctions from the United States and European Union against members of his government.

Alongside him was first lady Rosario Murillo, sworn in for her second term as his vice president.

“We are going to continue fighting to defend the people so they have health care, education and housing,” the former Sandinista commander said in the capital’s Revolution Plaza filled with the waving flags of his party.

Ortega, 76, and Murillo, 70, oversaw the jailing of opposition leaders, including seven potential challengers for the presidency, months before the November election. 

They have remained defiant under foreign pressure.

On Monday evening, Ortega called for the lifting of sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba, both of whose leaders attended the event, and said U.S. President “has more than 700 political prisoners” in reference to those jailed in relation to the storming of the U.S. capitol a year ago.

Ortega maintains that huge street protests against his government in April 2018 were an attempt to overthrow his government with foreign backing.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on more Nicaraguan officials.

The Treasury Department announced it will freeze the U.S. assets of the defense minister and five other officials in the army, telecom and mining sectors. 

The Ortega regime has been hit by rounds of condemnation and sanctions since the vote.

Nicaragua’s government announced in November it will withdraw from the Organization of American States, after the regional body accused Ortega’s government of acts of repression and rigging the election.

The OAS General Assembly voted to condemn the elections, saying they “were not free, fair or transparent, and lack democratic legitimacy.”

A total of 25 countries in the America voted in favor of the resolution, while 7, including Mexico, abstained, only Nicaragua voted against it.

The list of those attending the event on Monday included representatives from China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and Syria. 

CHILE

Chile is implementing a fourth vaccination dose for some citizens as the number of daily coronavirus infections rises.

President Sebastián Piñera was present when two adults with immunosuppression problems received a fourth vaccination for COVID-19 at a Santiago hospital.

Chile is applying a fourth dose early because the current daily infection rate of 4,000 coronavirus cases could rise to 10,000 or more, Piñera said.

Vaccination with a fourth dose for the immunosuppressed will end on Feb. 7, then the program will turn to people over 55 years old who had a third dose at least six months ago.

Chile, which has 19 million people, had planned to start with the fourth dose in February. 

The sharp increase in infections in neighboring Argentina, Bolivia and Peru contributed to its decision to advance the process.

Israel approved a fourth vaccine dose for people most vulnerable to COVID-19, an official said on Dec. 30, becoming one of the first countries to do so as it braced for a wave of infections fueled by the omicron variant.

HONDURAS

A local leader of Honduras’ indigenous Lenca group was shot to death Sunday, police said.

Pablo Isabel Hernández was killed on a dirt road near the town of San Marcos de Caiquín as he headed to a local church with his father and brothers, police spokesman Cristian Manuel Nolasco said.

Nolasco said the ambush may have been related to personal or political disputes.

Hernández served as director of a radio station known as “Radio Tenan, the Indigenous Voice of the Lencas.” 

He was also active in indigenous education and environmental projects.

The Association of Honduran Community Media said in a statement that it “considered the killing yet another attack on freedom of expression and the defense of human rights.”

Hernández was the second Lenca leader killed in less than a year. 

In March 2020, Lenca activist Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante was shot death in the town of Nueva Granada, in the Caribbean coast province of Cortes. 

He had helped lead a fight against construction of a dam.

Both Hernández and Cerros Escalante belonged to the same indigenous community as Berta Cáceres, a prize-winning environmental and Indigenous rights defender who was murdered in 2016.

According to rights groups, over three dozen environmental activists have been killed in Honduras since Cáceres’ death.

Cáceres was a co-founder of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. 

She helped organize opposition to the Agua Zarca dam project, which was to be built on the Galcarque River. 

The river holds spiritual importance for the Lenca people as well as being a critical source of water. The dam project remains frozen.

NORTH COREA

North Korea on Tuesday fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into its eastern sea, its second launch in a week, following leader Kim Jong Un’s calls to expand its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international opposition.

The launches follow a series of weapons tests in 2021 that underscored how North Korea is continuing to expand its military capabilities during a self-imposed pandemic lockdown and deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired what likely was a ballistic missile from the area of its northern Jagang province. 

It said the weapon flew 700 kilometers (434 miles) at a maximum speed of around Mach 10 before landing in waters off its eastern coast, demonstrating a more advanced capability than North Korea’s launch last week.

The North’s state media described the earlier launch as a successful test of a hypersonic missile, a type of weaponry it claimed to have first tested in September.

South Korean officials didn’t provide a specific assessment of the missile type, but some experts said North Korea may have tested its purported hypersonic missile again in response to the South Korean military playing down its previous test.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said the suspected ballistic missile landed outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said officials were checking the safety of ships and aircraft around Japan, but there were no immediate reports of disruptions or damage.

“It is extremely regrettable that North Korea has continued to fire” missiles so soon after the U.N. Security Council discussed its response to the North’s earlier launch, Kishida said.

The Security Council held closed-door consultations on Monday on last week’s launch, but took no action. 

Ahead of the talks, the U.S. and five allies issued a statement urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

South Korea’s presidential office said yesterday’s launch was discussed at an emergency National Security Council meeting, whose members have urged North Korea to return to talks. 

President Moon Jae-in expressed concern that Pyongyang was dialing up its testing activity ahead of the South’s presidential elections in March.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an “immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.”

Still, the launch corresponded with an order issued to ground some flights on the U.S. West Coast.

EUROPE

There wre more than 7 million new cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 across Europe in the first week of January, more than doubling in just two weeks, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

WHO Europe director Dr. Hans Kluge said at a media briefing that 26 countries in its region reported that more than 1% of their populations are being infected with COVID-19 each week, warning there is now a “closing window of opportunity” for countries to prevent their health systems from being overwhelmed.

He cited estimates from the Institute of Health Metrics at the University of Washington that projected half of the population in Western Europe will be infected with COVID-19 in the next six to eight weeks.

“Omicron moves faster and wider than any (previous) variant we have seen,” he said. Kluge called for countries to mandate the use of masks indoors and to prioritize vaccination, including booster doses, of at-risk populations, including health workers and older people. WHO’s Geneva headquarters has previously pleaded with rich countries not to offer booster doses and to donate them instead to poorer countries where vulnerable groups have yet to be immunized.