Caracas, Jun 18 (Prensa Latina) The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, called on the people of the United States to stop the madness of his government to get involved in the war that Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran are currently waging.

While participating in the Workshop of the Seven Transformations (7T) with the deputies elected on May 25, in the Ríos Reyna hall of the Teresa Carreño Theater Cultural Complex, in Caracas, the ruler assured that “only the people of the United States can stop this madness”.

I call on the American people, do you want another war, do you want the United States to get involved in the slaughter, in the destruction of the Muslim, Iranian and Arab peoples," Maduro asked.

They want the United States to be marked as the initiator of the Third World War, he added, and pointed out that this is the call he is making from the “pacifist and Bolivarian Venezuela”.

The Venezuelan leader called on the streets, from all corners, from North to South and from East to West, to "raise a single voice in the U.S. nation: no to war!

Maduro recalled the destruction and death every time the United States gets involved in a conflict in the Middle East as it happened in Iraq, where a million people lost their lives, as well as in Libya and Afghanistan.

The Head of State urged the countries that are powers in the region and the world to “sit down and force the Zionist State of (Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop its attacks and to respect International Law”.

I call on all the governments of the new powers: China, Russia, Turkey, the countries of the Gulf Council, the nations of the Global South, but especially the Muslim countries, to “support and accompany the Islamic Republic of Iran in its struggle for peace”, he emphasized.

“That has to be the path, not the path of escalating violence, of deaths, of bombs, no,” he reaffirmed.

Likewise, he reiterated his call to the Jewish people to stop the war and to Netanyahu to “stop this madness of infernal war with all the neighboring countries and of wanting to conquer and colonize the entire Middle East and Western Asia”.

It is a Hitlerian, supremacist and Nazi idea, which must be defeated by the Global South, he stressed.

Regarding the 7T Workshop, the President proposed the creation of a Latin American and Caribbean Parliamentary Political School, with the name of the Venezuelan revolutionary David Nieves Banchs.

This center would aim at contributing to the training of political leaders, he pointed out, and called on revolutionary parliamentarians to prepare themselves to become “a sounding board of the People's Power”.

The Brazilian leader, who has consistently pushed for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, objected to attempts to single out Moscow as the sole culprit behind the conflict, telling the French newspaper on Tuesday that “Western countries also bear part of the responsibility.”

“Joe Biden, with whom I spoke at length, thought Russia needed to be destroyed,” Lula said, without elaborating when the conversation took place. “And Europe, which for a long time embodied a middle way in the world, has now aligned itself with Washington and is spending billions on rearmament. That worries me. If all we talk about is war, there will never be peace.”

Moscow has long described the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia and has repeatedly condemned arms supplies to Kiev as counterproductive to the peace process. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg acknowledged last week that President Vladimir Putin was “in a way” right, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also previously characterized the conflict as a proxy war.

“Frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia,” Rubio said in March, noting that the current White House administration is eager to see it end.

Trump has repeatedly rebuked Biden for funneling “crazy” amounts of American taxpayer money to Kiev, arguing last month that the conflict “should have remained a European situation.”

Trump has frequently used campaign rallies to claim that only he could prevent World War III and resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia within 24 hours – a claim he later acknowledged was hyperbolic. His efforts at mediation have faced resistance from European NATO members, who back continued military support for Ukraine.

Last month, following pressure from Trump, Kiev dropped its opposition to direct talks with Moscow, which it had abandoned back in 2022. Since then, the two sides have held two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul.

The first meeting was initiated by Putin on May 16 and resulted in a major prisoner swap. During the second round of negotiations on Monday, the two sides exchanged draft memorandums outlining a roadmap toward an eventual peace deal.

Buenos Aires, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) A day earlier than expected in order to dissipate the popular effervescence in her support, a judge today granted Cristina Fernandez house arrest and thus she will not suffer the humiliation of going to court tomorrow.

Everything indicates that Javier Milei's government, worried that the image of a gigantic march called to accompany the former President to the Comodoro Py courts would not be released to the world, pressured Judge Jorge Gorini to bring forward the notification and thus prevent her from going to the Comodoro Py courts, in an attempt to disarticulate the historic mobilization to accompany her tomorrow, Wednesday.

The measure of force was called by the Partido Justicialista (PJ), joined by multiple political, union, youth, social and self-convened Argentinean organizations; however, the mobilization will still take place, Soledad Magno, Secretary of Regional Relations of the PJ, confirmed to Prensa Latina.

Gregorio Dalbón, one of Cristina's lawyers, stated that the granting of house arrest imposed legality over scorn. Cristina was sentenced to six years in prison and political proscription for life in the Vialidad case, which had more political than judicial color.

She added that Justice decided within the framework of what the law orders and dignity demands: “She will not be humiliated, she will serve her sentence in house imprisonment, as it corresponds in a State of Law”, she said.

This is not only a legal achievement. It is a political, popular and ethical victory in the midst of a systematic persecution that violated every principle of due process. We won because we denounced that the investigating judge was not the natural judge, and therefore the case was born flawed," Dalbón emphasized.

"Cristina is not alone. The people surrounded her, defended her and took care of her. And that, more than any plea, tipped the balance. Today the law defeated the circus. Dignity defeated hatred. And the truth began to make its way in the midst of infamy. This is a step. Not the end", the lawyer emphasized.

Dalbón ratified that they will file legal actions before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to annul the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice against the former president, because it is “illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary”.

“By virtue of the Pact of San José de Costa Rica, the IACHR will surely recommend the annulment (of the trial), and if that body rules that a conviction has to be annulled, it will be annulled”, due to the fact that this type of recommendations of international courts “are binding in Argentina since 2020”, he assured.

Likewise, he referred that an international campaign is being promoted under the slogan “Cristina Libre”, similar to the one carried out from Brazil when current president Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva was imprisoned in 2018, as a result of a conviction that was finally annulled.

Dalbón has already made a presentation to the International Criminal Court and will present it to other bodies.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law an amendment allowing military tribunals to try civilians under certain circumstances, the country’s parliament said on Monday.

The Supreme Court had called such trials unconstitutional in a ruling earlier this year. Judges had argued that military courts were neither impartial nor competent to exercise judicial functions.

The Ugandan parliament passed an amendment last month to address some of these issues, despite boycott from opposition lawmakers, who said the new bill violated the Supreme Court decision.

Human rights activists have long accused the Ugandan government of using military courts to persecute opponents of the president.

Yoweri Museveni has spent close to 40 years in power. His aides have denied rights groups’ accusations and said only civilians who use guns for political violence were prosecuted in such tribunals.

“The law will deal decisively with armed violent criminals, deter the formation of militant political groups that seek to subvert democratic processes, and ensure national security is bound on a firm foundational base”, army spokesperson Chris Magezi wrote on X after the bill was passed in May.

Lima, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) The Judiciary rejected today the habeas corpus filed by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski against the immigration police because it prevented him from traveling to the United States two days before being banned from leaving the country.

The decision is based on the fact that “the alleged violation of his fundamental right to freedom of transit prior to the filing of the lawsuit” that the former president filed against the National Superintendence of Migration has ceased.

The appeal pointed out that this agency violated his individual freedom and freedom of transit, when shortly before a previous court order that obliged him to remain in the country had expired.

He referred to the fact that immigration agents prevented the trip after an alert that he would travel two days before a hearing to which he was summoned, which stopped the intention of the former governor (2016-2018) to travel to the United States, where he lived before becoming president.

Given the situation and at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the hearing was moved forward one day and was held on June 8, and the judge ordered the prohibition of the businessman and politician, who has been under investigation for at least seven years, to leave the country for the next 18 months.

The case under investigation refers to a Kuczynski's company that obtained millionaire contracts for elaborating financial feasibility projects for public works bids.

Such contracts were signed and executed when Kuczynski was Minister of Economy and Prime Minister of the neoliberal government of Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), currently imprisoned for corruption.

Bogota, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, affirmed today that the disrespect towards the decree issued to call for the popular consultation constitutes an act of sedition that should not be admitted by the majority and social forces of the country.

The president's comment, published in his account in the social network X, is disclosed after the National Registrar, Hernán Penagos, ruled out starting the procedures for the exercise of citizen participation until the high courts, such as the Council of State or the Constitutional Court, issue their criteria on the request for the process.

By the way, the president wrote that the decree he signed on the popular consultation, “with all the legitimacy of being the president of the nation by free popular vote, is respected, enjoys presumption of legality, and its application is mandatory, the rest is sedition”.

At this point, he asked the whole current of democratic lawyers to initiate pertinent actions, in accordance with the nation's legal system.

“Unlike other governments, in this one, just for being of different origin, it has been decided by officials who do not agree with the orders of the popular vote of the year 2022 and who are not even of popular election, to empty of power, the presidency, and to illegitimize it with falsehoods, to generate an institutional coup”, expressed the head of state.

He also commented that being the Registrar's Office the arbiter of the elections, “it takes sides, and this should not happen, nor should it be admitted by the majority and social forces of Colombia”.

In another message posted on his social network account X, the governor also assured that if the Senate moves forward with respect to what has already been approved by consensus in the House of Representatives, he will sign the Labor Reform law and will lift the consultation.

Earlier in the day, Penagos stated in a press conference that he will request a concept on the participation exercise to the Consultation and Civil Service Chamber of the Council of State, and will require the high courts to issue a pronouncement on the different lawsuits filed to date against the process.

“In this controversy, which has no precedent or precedent in the country, (...) is to leave it in the hands of the high courts to decide whether or not to continue with the summons”, he said.

He also assured that he will send a copy of the request to the National Agency of Legal Defense of the State and to the Attorney General's Office so that, according to him, they offer “light to see if we continue or not with the process of this call”.

President Gustavo Petro signed last June 11 the decree calling for the popular consultation to introduce changes in the country's labor legislation.

The conflict between the Executive and the Senate has to do with the modifications applied to the text during its transit through the Fourth Commission, and which differ from the content to which the House of Representatives gave its consent in October last year.