Terrorismo Internacional

Aspecto de uno de los trenes tras el atentado del 11-M de 2004 en Madrid. EP

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Han pasado veintiún años desde el 11-M, y ya casi nadie habla de lo que fue su discutida investigación policial y judicial, ni de su sentencia.

Pero, aunque nadie quiera hablar de ello, aunque oficialmente se diga que todo lo ocurrido quedó perfectamente aclarado con la sentencia y con los autores condenados, sigue existiendo un general convencimiento de que eso no es así.

De que aún no se conoce la realidad de lo ocurrido y, lo que es peor, de que existe una gran presión "oficial" para que no se hable de esas evidentes dudas que rodean toda la investigación realizada.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Tres factores, presentes en el caso de los atentados del 11 de marzo de 2004 en Madrid, prefiguraron qué células y redes yihadistas tienden a preparar y ejecutar con más eficacia y con mayor letalidad actos de terrorismo. Las que establecen conexión con alguna organización yihadista matriz, las que cuentan con al menos un combatiente terrorista extranjero y las que incorporan yihadistas con pasado como delincuentes violentos. Esa combinación de factores, que se repitió en el caso de los atentados del 13 de noviembre de 2015 en París, es de nuevo verosímil en la amenaza que el terrorismo yihadista supone actualmente para las sociedades occidentales en general y las europeas en particular.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Syrian Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing a picture of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in north-eastern Syria (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies – has called on the group to lay down arms and dissolve. His message was delivered in a 27 February letter from Imrali Prison in Turkey where he remains incarcerated. On 3 March, the PKK announced a ceasefire.

These events have been greeted with enthusiasm. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described ‘an opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror’.

But there is also trepidation about what this means for Kurds not just in Turkey, but in Iraq and Syria as well.…  Seguir leyendo »

In an image released by the group, a masked Islamic State soldier poses holding a banner somewhere in the deserts of Iraq or Syria in 2015. Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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The Defense Department is in the process of drafting plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria after some of President Donald Trump’s recent comments. When asked in late January about withdrawing the remaining U.S. forces from the country, Trump replied, “Syria is its own mess. They got enough messes over there. They don’t need us involved in every one”.

But if the Trump administration does decide to move forward with drawing down the U.S. military footprint in Syria, it will be doing so at a dangerous time. Last year, Islamic State attacks in Syria tripled from the previous year. This increased operational tempo was not just about quantity but sophistication, lethality, and geographic spread of attacks.…  Seguir leyendo »

A memorial on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Emily Kask for The New York Times

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On New Year’s Day, a confused, disgruntled and indebted veteran drove into a crowd of joyful celebrants in New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring 35 more. The assailant said shortly before the attack that he had joined the Islamic State, the brutal terrorist movement that at one point controlled an area in the Middle East the size of Britain.

In its heyday, ISIS marketed itself as offering what one fighter called a “five-star jihad”, promising recruits a paradoxical mix of religious authenticity and material rewards, from free housing to a glamorous new identity to access to wives. At its height, it was the wealthiest terrorist organization in modern history.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El pasado sábado, un saudí de cincuenta años que se había radicalizado en los últimos tiempos cometió un atentado terrorista en el mercado de Navidad de Magdeburgo.

Los servicios secretos saudíes habían alertado en 2023 del peligro de este ciudadano. Sin embargo, nadie hizo nada para evitar que Taleb al-Abdulmoshen asesinara a cinco personas e hiriera a más de 200.

Ante semejante situación cabe hacerse al menos dos preguntas.

¿Por qué los servicios de seguridad alemanes desoyeron las advertencias de sus homólogos saudíes y no detuvieron a este ciudadano?

¿Por qué casi no ha transcendido la noticia?

La respuesta es muy sencilla: el atentado no tuvo una inspiración yihadista, sino supremacista.…  Seguir leyendo »

The War on Terror Had an Unexpected Outcome

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The stunningly successful offensive by Syrian rebels last week accomplished what years of bloodshed by larger factions could not. Within four days, the rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, captured much of Aleppo, one of Syria’s largest cities, and now controls most of Aleppo Province and all of Idlib Province. Long-entrenched front lines held by government forces and fortified by Russian firepower crumbled.

Underlying the success of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is a crucial development: It has evolved from being part of one of the most brutal transnational jihadist movements in modern history to positioning itself as a nationalist force — and, for many, a stabilizing actor.…  Seguir leyendo »

Guerrilla fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are preparing to be demobilized in December 2016, just after the signing of a peace agreement that guarantees that the vast majority of them will not be tried before the special tribunal set up by the peace accord, in exchange for their contribution to truth and reparations. Photo: © Raul Arboleda / STR / AFP

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The 2016 Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC guerrilla recognized previous institutional developments, including the multiple transitional justice mechanisms. An example of this is that the transitional justice system that was agreed upon is based on lessons learned from the past that led to the adoption of a model that, through the joint action of different entities, sought to better satisfy the rights of victims. This also took into account that the massive nature of human rights violations required not only judicial, but also extrajudicial and administrative measures in order to maximize the response to the victims.…  Seguir leyendo »

UNITAD has unearthed 68 mass graves and recovered the bodies of over 900 victims of the Islamic State organization in Iraq, but the UN team has only contributed to 15 indictments. Photo: © UN Photos / Unitad

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The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) emerged in June 2014 from the ashes of unsolved political, religious and sectarian conflicts in the Middle East, conflicts which motivated many extremists around the globe to join their actions, notably by using their self-interpretation of Quran. It began by invading considerable territories in Iraq and Syria and was singled out by human rights organisations as a group which was committing most international crimes, including the crime of genocide against Yazidi community, war crimes, crimes against humanity, including sexual and gender-based violence, abduction, extrajudicial killings, torture, recruitment of children, attacks against religious and ethnic groups, and displacing civilian people.…  Seguir leyendo »

How to Talk to Colombia’s Largest Criminal Group

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In late December 2023, Colombia’s largest armed group began to overrun Briceño, a village in the Andes. Residents later told me that the militants carried latest-issue weapons and called themselves the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces. Briceño’s inhabitants said the camouflaged fighters gathered them with a simple message: “We’re in charge now”.

For years, this scene has taken place in towns across Colombia, as the Gaitanistas, an illegal organization that oversees a majority of the country’s drug shipments and migrant trafficking through the Darién Gap, has become one of the most powerful organized criminal groups in South America.

In December 2022, President Gustavo Petro announced cease-fires with five armed groups, including the Gaitanistas, with a goal of opening peace talks.…  Seguir leyendo »

Al Qaeda, a la espera

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Cada 11 de septiembre, desde hace 23 años, solemos acordarnos de Al Qaeda. Últimamente tendemos a hacerlo como si hubiese dejado de existir. Es posible que esta percepción se deba en gran medida a que las noticias sobre la actividad yihadista que desarrolla en distintos lugares del mundo son por lo común atribuidas a ramas territoriales cuyas denominaciones no siempre aluden explícitamente a su matriz fundacional. Pero también obedece a tanta habladuría mal informada que desde hace mucho tiempo se viene refiriendo a Al Qaeda como un fenómeno amorfo reducido a una suerte de idea, cuando no a una mera marca disponible para una apropiación de conveniencia por yihadistas no encuadrados en organización alguna.…  Seguir leyendo »

Taliban security personnel ride atop a military vehicle in Kabul on Aug. 14. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

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Earlier this month, three of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stops were canceled in Austria after officials announced that they had arrested two men accused of plotting a terrorist attack focused on the singer’s stadium shows. One of the men was a 19-year-old Austrian citizen who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online. There have been other recent attacks and plots targeting Western nations including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, as well as Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia.

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan has undoubtedly emboldened existing militant groups, such as al Qaeda, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), Hamas, and others.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting released assassin Vadim Krasikov, Moscow, August 2024. Mikhail Voskresensky / Sputnik / Reuters

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On July 26, on the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, unknown attackers pulled off a coordinated sabotage operation on France’s national railway, leaving millions of passengers stranded. No one initially claimed responsibility for the attack, which is still being investigated; France’s interior minister has suggested that “ultra-left” extremists may have been responsible. Yet intelligence experts have also asked whether Russia might have been involved. “The Russian angle is certainly a strong one”, Javed Ali, a counterterrorism expert and former member of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, told PBS NewsHour after the attack.

Although there has been no clear evidence implicating Russia, there are strong grounds for these suspicions.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Analizar el miedo es una tarea compleja, especialmente cuando se traslada del ámbito individual al colectivo. El ser humano suele temer por su futuro cuando es incierto, imaginando acontecimientos negativos y anticipando posibles situaciones de peligro, aunque sean poco o nada realistas. Este peligro, en la mayoría de los casos, se ve magnificado por sesgos cognitivos que impiden un análisis lúcido y ponderado de lo que está ocurriendo. El miedo, además, aseveran los psicólogos, puede presentarse en varios niveles: como ansiedad en su forma anticipatoria, como angustia cuando el objeto del miedo no es evidente, y como terror o pánico cuando el pavor es desmesurado.…  Seguir leyendo »

At the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow, March 2024. Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

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Over the past few weeks, French authorities have uncovered several terrorist plots targeting the 2024 Olympic Games, which began last week in Paris. In one of them, an 18-year-old Chechen man planned to attack an Olympic soccer match in the French city of Saint-Étienne. He was allegedly in contact with a member of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). The disrupted plot was just the latest in a spike of terrorist activity linked to ISIS. The group’s affiliate, the South Asian–based Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), is responsible for several successful international terrorist attacks this year alone—at a memorial service in Kerman, Iran, in early January; at a church in Istanbul later that month; and at a concert hall outside Moscow in March.…  Seguir leyendo »

130 años de lucha contra el terror

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"Soy una terrorista, no una asesina", exclamó Vera Zasulich al ser interrogada sobre el día de 1878 en el que había disparado al gobernador y jefe de policía de San Petersburgo, Fyodor Trepov, que resultó herido a la altura de la pelvis. Tras cometer el ataque y arrojar su arma al suelo, la mujer esperó a ser detenida.

Durante los meses previos, Zasulich y una colaboradora habían urdido un plan para atentar contra Trepov y el fiscal Vladislav Zhelikovskii, ambos relacionados con el Juicio de los 193: el proceso a 193 jóvenes revolucionarios en la Rusia del zar Alejandro II.…  Seguir leyendo »

Police officers standing guard outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 2024. Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters

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From his confirmation hearing to become Director of Central Intelligence in May 1997 until September 11, 2001, George Tenet was sounding an alarm about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In those four years before al Qaeda operatives attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Tenet testified publicly no fewer than ten times about the threat the group posed to U.S. interests at home and abroad. In February 1999, six months after the group bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, he claimed, “There is not the slightest doubt that Osama bin Laden . . . [is] planning further attacks against us”.…  Seguir leyendo »

A suspect from the Crocus City Hall attack in court in Moscow, March 2024. Yulia Morozova / Reuters

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In March, terrorists affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, attacked Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, killing 145 people and wounding several hundred. The authorities swiftly arrested 12 young men, all of whom were from Tajikistan, the most southern and poorest republic of the former Soviet Union. Tajikistan’s economy is moribund, and the combination of a low growth rate and a youthful population has created an immense diaspora: at least a quarter of Tajikistan’s working-age men live abroad. The country they left behind is repressive, with a government as hostile to many forms of Islam as it is to any signs of dissent.…  Seguir leyendo »

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A près les attentats du 22 mars à Moscou, quatre individus, tous originaires du Tadjikistan, ont été inculpés par les autorités russes, qui ont rapidement fait connaître leur identité et diffusé des extraits d’interrogatoires.

Islam Khalilov, un adolescent originaire du Kirghizistan qui travaille au vestiaire du Cross City Hall, site des attaques, a pour sa part joué un rôle crucial dans le sauvetage de plusieurs centaines de personnes. Ces événements viennent rappeler à quel point la situation des migrants d’Asie centrale installés en Russie est complexe et combien elle pourrait désormais devenir encore plus difficile.

La Russie entretient avec le Kirghizistan, le Kazakhstan, le Tadjikistan, le Turkménistan et l’Ouzbékistan des relations de dépendance mutuelle.…  Seguir leyendo »

El terror y la guerra sobrevuelan Europa

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El Kremlin ya ha decidido. El mensaje está claramente fijado y bien engrasado: el atentado del 22 de marzo en Moscú fue cometido por islamistas radicales, pero -en palabras del propio presidente Putin- este «acto vil» está «vinculado con quienes nos combaten desde 2014 a través del régimen neonazi de Kyiv». Es decir, en la narrativa difundida por el Kremlin y su maquinaria de desinformación, Occidente es el responsable último de este ataque terrorista. Si Putin y el resto de jerarcas rusos lo creen realmente o no es materia abierta a discusión.

Desde la óptica del Kremlin, este ha sido un atentado particularmente inoportuno -y por ello, doblemente vil-.…  Seguir leyendo »