Jueves, 7 de diciembre de 2017 (Continuación)

Palestinians in Rafah protest on 6 December against US plans to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo,

Every time it seems Donald Trump cannot outdo himself, he does it again. Now he has announced that his administration will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing nearly seven decades of American policy. This step will have multiple negative ramifications, many impossible to predict.

Jerusalem is the most important of the so-called final status issues that have been repeatedly deferred during the Israel-Palestine negotiations because of their extreme sensitivity. Trump has ploughed into this imbroglio like a bull in a china shop, zeroing in on the most complex and emotional issue of all those connected to Palestine.

Jerusalem is undoubtedly the most important aspect of the entire Palestine question.…  Seguir leyendo »

Huthi rebel fighters inspect the damage after a reported air strike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition targeted the presidential palace in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, on 5 December 2017. Mohammed Huwais/AFP

MundoOriente Próximo,

What exactly happened and what led up to this sudden twist in Yemen's devastating war?

On 4 December, Huthi fighters killed Yemen’s former president and their erstwhile ally, Ali Abdullah Saleh. His violent death and the military defeat of his loyalists in Sanaa were the culmination of months of growing tensions between Saleh’s General People’s Congress party (GPC) and the Huthis. Before coming to blows, the Huthi-Saleh alliance had fought the Saudi-led coalition, which is backing the internationally recognised government of Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to a stalemate. After nearly three years of war, including a punishing air campaign and a policy of economic strangulation, they still controlled the north, where the majority of Yemen’s population lives.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Whatever one thinks of the initial military engagement leading to the eventual downfall of the country’s leader Muammar Qaddafi, there is no doubt that the international community failed Libya after the intervention. Today, Libya is a quasi-failed state, with multiple governments competing for legitimacy. Its accumulated wealth, its oil and a residual Libyan nationalism seem to be all that keeps the country from further fragmentation. This increasing power vacuum has turned Libya into a conduit for desperate migrants trying to reach the shores of Europe. In the absence of a well-functioning state, criminal interests exploit human misery, all the more so as people smuggling remains one of the few viable activities in a collapsed economy.…  Seguir leyendo »

Women admitted to the maternity ward at Roi Baudoin hospital in Kinshasa, DRC, are counselled by staff after having been detained for non-payment of medical fees. Photo: Getty Images.

Internacional, , ,

Around the world, human-rights activists fight on behalf of people imprisoned in unsanitary jails and denied a fair trial. These victims often suffer the double indignity of being mistreated by their captors and deprived of basic services. In many countries, these abuses are not only taking places in prisons, but in hospitals, too.

A new Chatham House paper that I co-authored with Tom Brookes and Eloise Whitaker shows that up to hundreds of thousands of people are detained in hospitals against their will each year. Their crime? Being too poor to pay their medical bills. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in several sub-Saharan African countries, notably Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, but there is also evidence of it in India and Indonesia.…  Seguir leyendo »

¿Hacia dónde va América Latina?

MundoAmérica,  

La reciente elección presidencial de Chile, junto con la contienda del 26 de noviembre en Honduras, señala el comienzo de un ciclo electoral que durará todo un año en América Latina. Para finales de 2018, Colombia, México, Brasil, Costa Rica, Paraguay y quizá Venezuela habrán elegido a nuevos líderes. Como sucedió en Chile y Honduras, habrá sorpresas, pero sin duda ciertos temas serán vitales en estos países: la corrupción, la delincuencia y la violencia; una enorme y profunda insatisfacción con la democracia y una creciente frustración con los desempeños económicos mediocres o absolutamente terribles.

Estos problemas pueden llevar a resultados muy variados.…  Seguir leyendo »

Si el cosmos nos llama, ¿qué le respondemos?

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

Cuanto más miramos hacia el universo, más sospechamos que alguien también pudiera estar mirándonos. Esa posibilidad se hizo más patente este año cuando un equipo de astrónomos descubrió al menos tres planetas en el cercano sistema estelar Trappist-1 que podrían ser capaces de sustentar la vida.

El descubrimiento de vida en otro planeta podría cambiar el nuestro. Modificaría esencialmente lo que cada uno de nosotros siente respecto de ser un ser vivo en el cosmos y, como suele suceder con los descubrimientos astronómicos, nos restaría soberbia.

Seguramente conoces algunos ejemplos famosos. Copérnico demostró que la Tierra y otros planetas giran alrededor del Sol, y no el Sol alrededor de la Tierra.…  Seguir leyendo »