ROBERTO MOREJÓN

 

1.-THE MOST DEVASTATING ISRAELI OFFENSIVE AGAINST GAZA CONTINUES WITH IMPUNITY

Israel's war in Gaza, with the support of the United States, has resulted in a devastated enclave and more than 44,600 civilians dead, most of them children, women and the elderly, in addition to 103,000 wounded. One of the most horrifying crimes was the Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza City on August 10, which killed more than 100 people and wounded dozens.

 

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas appointed Yehya Sinwar in August as the new head to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran. Far from bringing about an immediate and permanent cease-fire, as demanded by much of the international community, Tel Aviv continues its attacks that include refugee camps and obstructs humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

 

In May, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in the city of Rafah.

 

On April 18, the United States, whose government sends $26 billion in military assistance annually to Israel, used its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to sabotage Palestine's admission as a full member of the United Nations.

 

It did so again, for the fourth time, on November 25 when it vetoed a resolution in the Security Council for a ceasefire in Gaza.

 

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants requested by the court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes.

 

2. OVERTHROW OF BASHAR AL ASSAD AND ISRAELI ATTACKS ON IRANIAN CONSULATE IN DAMASCUS AND LEBANON DEEPEN CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

 

A swift offensive led by the Al-Qaeda-rooted Islamic fundamentalist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) ended on December 8 with the entry into Damascus, the Syrian capital, and the fall of the government headed by President Bashar al Assad.

 

The advance of the group, considered terrorist, began on November 27 and in a few days forced the withdrawal of Syrian military defenses, first taking the cities of Aleppo and Hama.

 

 

Russia offered asylum to Assad and his family, who arrived in Moscow on December 8.

 

On April 1, Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

 

Iran criticized the UN Security Council's inability to respond to Tel Aviv's bombing of the consulate, hence its warning about a response to the aggression.

 

Iranian armed forces attacked what they exposed as Israeli military bases on April 13.

 

On the 19th of that month, Iran suffered a drone strike by Israel, whose regime claimed it was a response to Tehran's preceding action.

 

On October 1, Iran bombed Israeli military targets, claiming it was in direct response to the aggression by the Hebrew state against Lebanon, which cost the lives of an Iranian general and the top leader of the Shiite organization Hezbolah, Hassan Nasrala.

 

The Iranian government said it was also responding to the assassination on its territory of the then leader of the Hamas resistance movement, Ismail Haniyeh, which was blamed on Tel Aviv.

 

Israel again attacked Iran in late October in what it described as a response to Tehran's previous action.

 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on May 20 in a helicopter crash. Massoud Pezeshkian replaced him.

 

After 70 days of continuous Israeli attacks on Lebanon, on the grounds of exterminating the Hezbollah movement, the parties agreed to a cease-fire on November 27.

 

The agreement included a truce followed by the withdrawal of the Shiite group's forces north of the Litani River and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. The Israeli onslaught in Lebanon killed 2,800 people and wounded 13,000.

 

The Zionist regime assassinated Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on August 1. He was also blamed for the simultaneous detonations of beepers or pagers in Lebanon on September 22.

 

The series of explosions killed nearly 40 people and left 3,000 injured.

 

 

3.-CONFLICT CONTINUES IN UKRAINE

The war in Ukraine continued in 2024 amid rising tensions between the United States and its NATO allies with Russia. Following statements by leaders of European nations on increased participation with Ukraine in the war against Russia, Russia ordered nuclear weapons exercises.

 

In the March elections in Russia, President Vladimir Putin won a resounding victory and subsequently stated that his country does not refuse a dialogue with the West, but said it depends on them.

 

The conflict reached a new phase with the incursion of Ukrainian troops into Russia's Kursk region in August.

 

On November 19, Ukrainian armed forces attacked a military facility in the Russian province of Bryansk with U.S.-made ATACMS-type rockets, which are considered long-range.

 

Russia attacked a military facility in Ukraine on November 21 with an Oresshnik-type hypersonic non-nuclear ballistic missile.

 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a warning to the West after it allowed Kiev to use its missiles to target Russian soil.

 

The Russian president said that after the ATACMS and Storm Shadow missile strikes, the latter from the UK, the regional conflict in Ukraine acquired elements of a global scale.

 

4.-ELECTORAL TRIUMPHS FOR NICOLÁS MADURO, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM AND YAMANDÚ ORSI

President Nicolás Maduro, political leader Claudia Sheinbaum and Frente Amplio leader Yamandú Orsi won in the elections held in Venezuela, Mexico and Uruguay, respectively.

 

In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro won the July 28 elections, leading extreme right-wing leaders to order a wave of violence, which was controlled by law enforcement agencies.

 

The extreme right, with the support of Latin American, U.S. and European governments, proclaimed its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, protégé of the ultra-conservative leader, Maria Corina Machado, as the supposed “president-elect”.

 

In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, a scientist and environmental expert, won the elections in June, the first woman to hold the presidency in more than 200 years of independence in Mexico.

 

The left won Uruguay's elections on November 25 and Yamandú Orsi, candidate for the Frente Amplio, will become the new president, after focusing his campaign on social justice.

5.-VIOLENCE IN ECUADOR, INCLUDING AGAINST AN EMBASSY

Violence was exercised in Ecuador even against the Mexican embassy on April 5, in order to arrest former vice-president Jorge Glas, who had requested political asylum.

 

Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador. The then Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena alleged the flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and denounced the injuries suffered by her country's personnel in Ecuador.

 

Conservative President Daniel Noboa implemented a state of emergency during the year in response to frequent murders attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking.

 

6.-RETURN OF THE CONTROVERSIAL DONALD TRUMP

With a clear margin in the electoral votes not predicted by analysts, the former U.S. president Donald Trump triumphed in the November 5 elections, a hard setback for his opponent, the vice-president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.

 

The real estate magnate drags fans, confronts friends and adversaries, has an explosive speech and has outstanding accounts with the justice system, but he knew how to turn the dissatisfaction with the economy's performance to his advantage.

 

Even the two assassination attempts were manipulated by playing the victim, in the midst of an election campaign characterized by the inconsistent performances of the initial Democratic candidate, President Joseph Biden.

 

When Biden was persuaded to drop out of the race, Kamala Harris was unable to present credentials in such a short time.

 

7.- COUP ATTEMPT FAILED IN BOLIVIA

The former head of the Bolivian army, Juan José Zúñiga, led an attempted coup d'état in Bolivia, which was opposed by the government, the rest of the armed forces and the population.

 

President Luis Arce directly confronted the ringleader and said that the investigations showed that Zúñiga had accomplices, including civilians and other military personnel.

 

More than twenty uniformed officers and civilians were detained as part of the investigations, including the three top former commanders of the Armed Forces.

 

8.-FOREST FIRES IN BRAZIL, CHILE AND BOLIVIA

Bolivia, Chile and Brazil mobilized forces, equipment and financial assistance to fight forest fires.

 

For more than 120 days, until October, the government of President Luis Arce deployed operations by the armed forces and specialized personnel in an unprecedented joint operation to fight forest fires.

 

In Brazil, the government did the same to extinguish flames concentrated in the Amazon and then, in May, earmarked financial aid to help rebuild homes and businesses lost to extensive flooding, which caused dozens of deaths.

 

Forest fires advanced dangerously in February in regions of central Chile, a disaster described by President Gabriel Boric as “the greatest tragedy in the South American country since the earthquake of 2020”.

 

9.-BIGGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN THE RECENT HISTORY OF SPAIN

 

The worst DANA of the century, also known as cold drop, devastated southern Spain in November, particularly the Valencian community, with rainfall of 200 to 400 millimeters in 24 hours.

 

The storm left massive floods, and caused more than 220 deaths.

 

King Felipe VI of Spain and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were both subjected to insults by an angry crowd in Paiporta, a municipality hard hit by heavy rains.

 

In the opinion of the neighbors, the authorities abandoned them to their fate and failed to prevent the catastrophe.

 

10.-LEFT ADVANCES IN FRANCE, BUT NO GOVERNMENT IS YET FORMED

 

The New Popular Front, an alliance of left-wing French parties, won the majority of votes in the second round of legislative elections in June, but ultimately failed to win the approval of a prime minister.

 

The coalition came out ahead of the alliance of President Enmanuel Macron and the far-right National Rally.

 

France remained in suspense for three weeks about the possibility of being governed by the far-right party, the big winner of the European elections and of the initial round of the early legislative elections.

 

Macron should have appointed a new prime minister from the ranks of the left-wing coalition, but as no bloc obtained an absolute majority, he negotiated pacts with other formations and ultimately succeeded in placing the conservative Michel Barnier, who was dismissed on December 7 by the National Assembly.