Mexico's Next Top Judge Says Company Taxes Should Be Clear Cut
Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, the Indigenous rights advocate who will chair the top court after receiving the most votes in the election, pledges to bring judges closer to regular citizens and marginalized groups and move away from a system where he says justice is a privilege for the few.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
25 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Venezuela releases 10 jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by US
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, officials said. The complex, three-country arrangement represents a diplomatic achievement for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, helps President Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a swap that he proposed months ago. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked Bukele, a Trump ally. Bukele said El Salvador had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. Maduro described Friday as 'a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela' during his address to a gathering of agriculture producers. 'Today is the perfect day for Venezuela,' he said. 'Today has been a splendid day.' Central to the deal are more than 250 Venezuelan migrants freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a $6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in its notorious prison. That arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove the men that his administration had accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang, teeing up a legal fight that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims. The Venezuelans have been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths as well as cases of torture inside its walls. Lawyers have little access to those in the prison, which is heavily guarded, and information has been locked tight, other than heavily produced state propaganda videos showing tattooed men packed behind bars. Photos and videos released by El Salvador's government on Friday showed shackled Venezuelans sitting in a fleet of buses and boarding planes surrounded by officers in riot gear. One man looked up and pointed toward the sky as he climbed aboard a plane, while another made an obscene gesture toward police. In April, in a heated exchange of diplomatic letters with Venezuela, Bukele proposed exchanging the Venezuelans for the same number of what he called 'political prisoners' held by Maduro. It provoked a harsh response from Venezuelan authorities, who called his comments 'cynical' and referred to Bukele as a 'neofascist.' The State Department office responsible for negotiating the release of American detainees posted a photo Friday evening of the newly released prisoners smiling for the camera inside an airplane bringing them home, some clutching an unfurled American flag. Among those released was 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, whose family says he was kidnapped in January by Venezuelan border guards from inside Colombia, where he was vacationing. 'We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,' his younger sister Sophie Hunter said. Venezuelan authorities detained nearly a dozen U.S. citizens in the second half of 2024 and linked them to alleged plots to destabilize the country. 'We have prayed for this day for almost a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime,' said a statement from Christian Casteneda, whose brother Wilbert, a Navy SEAL, was arrested in his Caracas hotel room last year. Global Reach, a nonprofit organization that had advocated for his release and that of several other Americans, said Venezuelan officials initially and falsely accused him of being involved in a coup but backed off that claim. The release of the Venezuelans, meanwhile, is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year. Long accused of human rights abuses, Maduro for months has used the migrants' detention in El Salvador to flip the script on the U.S. government, forcing even some of his strongest political opponents to agree with his condemnation of the migrants' treatment. Their return will allow Maduro to reaffirm support within his shrinking base, while demonstrating that even if the Trump administration and other nations see him as an illegitimate president, he is still firmly in power. Just a week ago, the U.S. State Department reiterated its policy of shunning Maduro government officials and recognizing only the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the legitimate government of the country. Signed by Rubio, the cable said U.S. officials are free to meet and have discussions with National Assembly members 'but cannot engage with Maduro regime representatives unless cleared by the Department of State.' The Americans were among dozens of people, including activists, opposition members and union leaders, that Venezuela's government took into custody in its brutal campaign to crack down on dissent in the 11 months since Maduro claimed to win reelection. Besides the U.S., several other Western nations also do not recognize Maduro's claim to victory. They instead point to tally sheets collected by the opposition coalition showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won the July 2024 election by a more than a two-to-one margin. The dispute over results prompted immediate protests, and the government responded by detaining more than 2,000 people, mostly poor young men. González fled into exile in Spain to avoid arrest. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have migrated since 2013, when its oil-dependent economy came undone and Maduro became president. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the COVID-19 pandemic, many saw the U.S. as their best chance to improve their living conditions. Despite the U.S. not recognizing Maduro, the two governments have carried out other recent exchanges. In May, Venezuela freed a U.S. Air Force veteran after about six months in detention. Scott St. Clair's family has said the language specialist, who served four tours in Afghanistan, had traveled to South America to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Three months earlier, six other Americans whom the U.S. government considered wrongfully detained in Venezuela were released after Richard Grenell, Trump's envoy for special missions, met with Maduro at the presidential palace. Grenell, during the meeting in Caracas, urged Maduro to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. Hundreds of Venezuelans have since been deported to their home country, including 251 people, including seven children, who arrived Friday. Maduro's government had accused the Trump administration of 'kidnapping' the children by placing them in foster care after their parents were deported.
Boston Globe
37 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Bolsonaro, accused of urging US hostility, ordered to wear ankle bracelet
Last week, Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, citing Bolsonaro's prosecution and what he said was the Brazilian Supreme Court's unlawful suppression of free speech. On Thursday evening, he posted to Truth Social a copy of a letter to Jair Bolsonaro, long among his closest allies on the global far right, lamenting his 'terrible treatment … at the hands of an unjust system' and demanding that his trial 'should end immediately.' Advertisement Friday's punitive measures against the former president, whom authorities view as a flight risk, were the clearest sign yet that Brazil has no intention of backing off his prosecution — or of seeking a quick détente in its ever-widening dispute with the White House. Instead, authorities have ratcheted up the pressure on Bolsonaro and his son. Advertisement Jair and Eduardo Bolsonaro were 'willfully and consciously acting with illicit intent … with the hope of trying to submit the functioning of the Federal Supreme Court to the scrutiny of a foreign state,' Moraes wrote in his order. Their 'clear goal,' he added, was to 'coerce the court.' In a statement, Jair Bolsonaro's defense team said it was 'surprised and indignant' over what it described as 'severe' restrictions. Eduardo Bolsonaro, in a statement posted to social media, said he wasn't surprised. 'We have for a long time been denouncing the actions of dictator Alexandre de Moraes,' he said, accusing the justice of using the Supreme Court 'as a personal weapon for political persecution.' In a speech Thursday night, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — who has vowed not to give in to Trump's threats — used his strongest language yet to condemn Jair Bolsonaro's supporters, whom he accused of siding with the American president. 'They're true traitors of the homeland,' Lula said. 'They don't care about the economy of the country or the damages caused to our people.' For weeks, Eduardo Bolsonaro has gone in and out of the White House to meet with Trump officials and encourage sanctions against Moraes, four people familiar with the situation told The Washington Post this week. Two of those familiar said they had seen a copy of a sanctions order against Moraes within the past month, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details. Often at Eduardo Bolsonaro's side has been Paulo Figueiredo, a right-wing Brazilian influencer who has also been charged with taking part in the alleged coup plot in 2022. Advertisement The men have repeatedly urged action against Moraes, a figure reviled by the Brazilian right for his role in investigating Bolsonaro and for his expansive probes into misinformation on social media. They have pushed US authorities to invoke the Magnitsky Act, which empowers the American government to impose sanctions on foreign nationals. Asked whether it was planning sanctions against Moraes, the White House sent a transcript of remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a congressional hearing in May. 'That is under review right now, and it's a great, great possibility that will happen,' Rubio said when asked whether officials were considering sanctioning Moraes under the Magnitsky Act. Legal experts expressed surprise at the possible use of the Magnitsky Act, named for a slain Russian dissident, which has traditionally been used to sanction officials accused of 'gross' human rights violations. 'If they're trying to do it under the Global Magnitsky Act, it would not work,' said Alex Prezanti, a partner at Global Diligence, an international law firm. 'It would be illegal and could be successfully challenged.' While Eduardo Bolsonaro pressed Washington for action, Brazilian authorities allege he has received both counsel and financial support from his father. The former president has openly discussed the money he has sent his son during his time in the United States, which he has said has topped $350,000. 'The investigation has confirmed the participation of JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO in the criminal conduct,' Moraes wrote in his order, accusing the former president of aiding a 'negotiation with a foreign government so that it can practice hostile actions against Brazil.' Advertisement In April, during an interview with the Post, Jair Bolsonaro said he would have preferred that his son had stayed in Brazil but understood he was trying to help. 'I have a lot of gratitude toward Trump for the way he treats my son Eduardo,' Bolsonaro said inside his Liberal Party headquarters in Brasília. He also mentioned the Magnitsky Act, which he said was 'being studied right now in the United States to apply it against Alexandre de Moraes.' It remains unclear how the White House will react to the new restrictions placed on Bolsonaro. In his Thursday letter calling for the end of his trial, Trump ended with: 'I will be watching.'
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
After hitting rock bottom, higher ed might be about to climb back up
If you had to pick a single institution more responsible for America's social and political problems than any other, one stands out: higher education. Yet that may be starting to change, even if the process is slow and the road long. In just the past two years, and especially the past six months, US colleges and universities have faced a reckoning. Advertisement Their highly corrosive ills — affirmative action, DEI, radical faculty, bureaucratic bloat, raging antisemitism, sky-high tuitions, racist policies, flawed research and even their failure to teach — have all been exposed for the world to see. Yet a combination of court rulings, congressional hearings, public opinion and, not least, President Donald Trump's commendable pressure have sparked some small but notable changes. Advertisement The result could be a welcome new focus on the colleges' original goals: teaching, merit, scholarship, open inquiry, freedom of speech and thought. And perhaps all at lower costs. The damage universities, particularly the elite ones, have caused is indisputable: They've denied admission to countless well-qualified applicants on the basis of race. They've brainwashed students with untethered lefty worldviews and dubious morals. Kids wind up backing terrorist entities like Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, targeting Jews, hating cops and embracing Marxist, socialist fantasies. (Exhibit A: Zohran Mamdani) Advertisement Meanwhile, they learn precious little actual history, science, math, philosophy . . . Many wind up jobless with mountains of debt. The good news: The changes that have been forced on higher education may start to fix at least some of that. Take the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's rules for student loans. Advertisement Easy government money paved the way for schools to raise tuition, hire more staff, indulge in radical, ideologically driven agendas like DEI. But the OBBBA will rein in student loans. It places new limits on how much kids can borrow with government help. And it imposes tougher terms for repayment. Team Trump has also pushed student borrowers to resume payments halted during COVID, reversing the Biden loan-forgiveness programs. That will save taxpayers money, but equally important, tighter lending — and perhaps higher interest rates in the private market — will force kids to think more carefully about taking on debt. Students may see college more as place to acquire knowledge and prepare to earn a living than as a playground for childish activism. The new rules may also deprive colleges of funding that's fueled their bloat and allowed them to jack up tuitions. Schools may have to drop their prices and provide more value for the buck. Trump has also squeezed universities over their antisemitism, DEI programs, hostility toward conservatives and affirmative-action programs. The Supreme Court's 2023 ban on racial preferences in admissions also pushed higher ed to level the playing field, although with meager results so far. Advertisement On some fronts, a few key schools are starting to bend, even if just slightly. After ugly antisemitism erupted at Harvard following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis, and after congressional hearings exposed the school's tolerance for it, Trump held up billions in federal funding, donors cut the school off and Jewish students thought twice about attending. True, Harvard has refused to change many of its policies, but at least it knows it has a problem: Officials are now actively discussing the idea of center for conservative scholarship and have offered other small concessions as well. Baby steps for baby feet. Meanwhile, Columbia University — another leftist, antisemitic hotbed that has fought with Team Trump — just announced new steps it'll take to fight Jew-hatred on campus: It'll no longer meet with an anti-Israel, pro-terror student group, for example, and will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. More progress. Advertisement To be sure, it's taken decades for higher ed to reach its nadir — and it'll take years to reverse. But then, if college and universities have finally hit rock bottom, the only place for them to go is . . . up.
