Foreign Digest: Iraq and Syria, Nicaragua, Venezuela and France

Iraq and Syria: United States and Iraq conducted a joint raid in Iraq last week against a cell of the Islamic State terrorist organization. U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces, the main opposition militia that is backed by the U.S., captured in Syria an Islamic State leader who had led a raid on a prison that had freed other I.S. terrorists. The I.S. is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization that was responsible for the deadliest acts of terrorism in world history, the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America. The I.S. had seized large swaths of Iraq after the withdrawal of the U.S.-led international coalition that had overthrown the tyrannical terrorist-sponsoring Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, and Syria, after the start of the ongoing rebellion against the Syrian Baathist tyrant, Bashar Assad. The U.S. has led another international coalition that has deprived the I.S. of its territory and continues to target the Islamist terrorists for destruction. Nicaragua: The United Nations High Commissioner for human rights reports a serious worsening of the human rights situation in Nicaragua since last year, citing particularly a growing number of reports of torture and rape of detainees. The Central American State is led by a Marxist Sandinista, Daniel Ortega who had been a dictator since seizing power in a revolution in 1979, was voted out of office after being pressured to allow free and fair elections in 1990, and was elected back into office as President in 2007 and then breaking his promise not to rule as a dictator again. United States last week was able to obtain the release of well over a hundred political prisoners who then arrived in Guatemala on their way to being resettled in America Venezuela: The Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela issued an arrest warrant for the opposition’s winning presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a conservative former diplomat who won the election in July in a landslide, but whose victory the regime refuses to recognize. Seven Latin American States denounced the warrant in a joint statement. The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, also denounced and appealed to the intervention of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The Colombian Parliament approved a motion unanimously to refer the Socialist dictator to the ICC. Uruguay announced that it will file a complaint this week and Argentina asked the ICC for arrest warrants for the Socialist dictator and other key regime leaders. With the threats and persecution, Gonzalez sought asylum in the Spanish Embassy and was granted safe conduct to Spain, where he will continue to increase international pressure against the Socialist regime. The Venezuelan dictator meanwhile moved the observation of Christmas to October 1. The Catholic bishops of Venezuela objected to the move and condemned the state repression and persecution in general, especially the detention of political prisoners, including minors, without due process, and the repression of the opposition. The Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America issued a devastating report on the violations of liberty and representative government. The United States had mediated an agreement between the regime and the opposition for free and fair elections, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, but with the Socialist dictatorship’s gross violations of free and fair elections, according to international observers, the U.S. has begun to reimpose sanctions and is recognizing Gonzalez as the President-elect of the South American State. France: The President of France asked a conservative former Member of Parliament and European Union negotiator late last week to serve as Prime Minister and form a government. In the French parliamentary elections two months ago, the anti-migrant far right and the left made gains of votes and seats at the expense of the ruling centrist coalition formed by the President, who has two more years in his term. But the centrists and the center-right won enough seats to keep the not only the nationalist far right, but the far left, which was part of the leftist bloc that won the most seats, from gaining a majority and being able to govern on their own. The Head of State is a powerful figure in the Fifth French Republic and governs through his premier. France is a great power ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.