Titulares

Last week, the Royal Navy’s HMS Trent appeared off the coast of the South American nation of Guyana. While the vessel arrived for routine training with the Guyanese military, its presence served to ward off threats to Guyanese sovereignty, particularly Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s stated desire to absorb the Essequibo region in the country’s western reaches.

On December 3, Maduro conducted a referendum with small turnout that approved the annexation. Likewise, he appointed a governor for the future seized territory. Two days earlier, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Venezuela to “refrain from taking any action” to change the status quo in the Essequibo region.

Most probably, Maduro intends to regain popularity by appealing to Venezuelan nationalism and instigating an international conflict in the same way that the Argentinian military junta did in 1982 when it invaded Britain’s Falkland Islands. In both cases, the governments of Argentina and Venezuela suffered from a deep legitimacy and governance crisis. In the case of Venezuela, Maduro is very concerned with the high participation of Venezuelans in the primary elections and the overwhelming victory of Maria Corina Machado, a candidate the government barred from running. (Machado is currently appealing her proscription in the Supreme Court).

For the 65th anniversary of the Cuban revolution on January 1st, six of the most important dissenting officers in the regime’s history issue a historic warning on the global threat it poses and call on their former comrades to end "the corrupt tyranny subjugating and impoverishing the Cuban people."

The signatories of the remarkable open letter are a former member of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party and Chief of Staff for ten years of Raul Castro's office, a Brigadier General and Deputy Chief for Air Defense, three high-ranking officers of the Intelligence Directorate, and a Lieutenant Colonel who called for Fidel Castro's resignation. All live outside Cuba having broken their ties with the dictatorship; some are sentenced to death for alleged "treason."

Washington DC, Dec.14.– The House of Representatives on Wednesday, Dec. 13, formally launched its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The vote was 221-212. All Republicans voted in favor of the inquiry while no Democrats voted for the inquiry outlined in H. Res. 918.

“The facts don’t lie. It’s time to get the American people answers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X before the vote.

Why are House Republicans formalizing Biden’s impeachment inquiry? 

Several House Republicans have argued that by formalizing the inquiry, the chairmen of the three committees handling the investigation into Biden’s conduct will gain more power to compel interviews, obtain documents, and further the case that the president improperly benefitted from his son’s overseas deals. This move now allows Republican congressional investigators to collect more information about Biden’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. 

GOP lawmakers have already issued an array of demands to executive branch agencies and the president’s son related to the probe, but argue that the Biden administration and Hunter Biden have so far done nothing but obstruct the investigation. 

• Foreign and Israeli sources say both sides are far from reaching a new cease-fire deal.
• PM Netanyahu said that Israel will continue its war against Hamas despite international pressures.
• Two missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels missed a commercial tanker near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
• New U.S. sanctions against Hamas were announced Wednesday, targeting officials and representatives who help manage its financial network.
• Saudi Arabia will still be committed in principle to resume negotiations for a normalization deal with Israel when the war in Gaza ends.  
  

Tel Aviv, Dec.13.– The IDF is engaged in intense fighting in the Shujaiyeh neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, Hamas' last remaining stronghold in northern Gaza. It said it destroyed over 250 terror targets from the sea, land and air. The IDF estimates that even after the combat ends in Jabalya and Shujaiyeh, the military effort to dismantle Hamas will take a long time.