Chile

Group Seeks Chilean Prosecution of IDF Sniper Rom Kovtun Over Gaza Hospital Siege

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Israel Defense Forces soldier Rom Kovtun looks away from the scope of his sniper rifle in this undated photo.(Photo by Hind Rajab Foundation)

The Hind Rajab Foundation filed the complaint, citing universal jurisdiction and Chile’s law against genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

A Brussels-based human rights group on Monday filed a criminal complaint in Chile seeking the prosecution of an Israel Defense Forces sniper accused of taking part in the deadly 2024 siege and destruction of Gaza’s largest hospital.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF)—named after the young Palestinian girl who was killed in January 2024 along with six relatives and two rescue workers by IDF troops in Gaza City—said it filed the complaint in the 8th Guarantee Court in Santiago, the Chilean capital, requesting investigation and prosecution of Rom Kovtun, an Israeli Ukrainian sniper in the 424th “Shaked” Battalion of the Givati Brigade, under Chilean Law 20.357.

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The law criminalizes genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes under the Rome Statute, the 1998 treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which in 2024 issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged murder and forced starvation in Gaza.

HRF’s complaint was formally submitted by Chilean lawyer Pablo Andrés Araya Zacarías, a partner at Silva-Riesco Abogados. The filing invokes universal jurisdiction—the legal principle empowering states to investigate and prosecute individuals for heinous crimes regardless of where they occurred—based on Kovtun’s presence in Chile and Israel’s refusal to prosecute him.

According to the complaint, Kovtun took part in the March-April 2024 siege and attack on al-Shifa Hospital in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. The World Health Organization said at least 21 patients were killed during attacks on the facility, while Gaza officials claimed the toll was much higher.

Survivors and witnesses said IDF troops executed civilians during the raid on al-Shifa, including 13 children. The IDF denied the allegations. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers were also abducted and allegedly tortured by their IDF captors. Israeli claims that Hamas fighters were using al-Shifa as a command center were subsequently debunked as lies.

Hundreds of Palestinian bodies—some with bound limbs and signs of torture and execution—were found outside the hospital after IDF troops withdrew from the area, although it is not known if they were all killed there.

“The targeting and destruction of a functioning hospital during a military siege strike at the core of international humanitarian law,” HRF general director Dyab Abou Jahjah said on Monday. “When evidence indicates that a sniper participated in such an operation, domestic courts cannot look away. Universal jurisdiction exists to ensure that the most serious crimes do not go unexamined simply because they were committed abroad.”

The @hindrajabfoundation.be has filed a complaint in 🇨🇱 #Chile, seeking investigation and prosecution of sniper Rom Kovtun for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The filing details his alleged participation in the siege and destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital.→ https://bit.ly/4tF1EJt

— The Hind Rajab Foundation (@hindrajabfoundation.be) 2026-02-16T20:27:28.387883Z

HRF head of litigation Natacha Bracq said that “international humanitarian law grants special protection to hospitals, medical personnel, and the wounded.”

“The encirclement and destruction of a functioning medical complex, combined with the deprivation of food, water, and medical care, are not collateral damage—they constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide,” she added.

Israel is facing a genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has issued multiple provisional orders for Israel to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza. Critics say Israel has ignored the orders.

Chile embraced universal jurisdiction in the decades following the fall of the US-backed military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 1998 arrest in London for crimes against humanity stemmed from an international warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón based on universal jurisdiction.

HRF, which was founded in the Belgian capital in September 2024, has filed numerous legal complaints targeting alleged IDF war criminals. In one case, Israel helped an IDF soldier targeted by the group while vacationing in Brazil to flee the country in order to avoid arrest.

In October 2024, HRF filed what it called an “unprecedented” complaint at the ICC—which, like the ICJ, is located in The Hague, Netherlands—against 1,000 IDF troops accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza. One year later, HRF filed another ICC complaint against 24 IDF members allegedly involved in the killing of Hind Rajab, her relatives, and two paramedics.

While there have been no known prosecutions of any individuals targeted by HRF, last May Peru formally opened a probe into “an Israeli national accused of participating in the genocide in Gaza.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
UK Labour Party Foreign Secretary David Lammy repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
UK Labour Party Foreign Secretary David Lammy repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.

Continue ReadingGroup Seeks Chilean Prosecution of IDF Sniper Rom Kovtun Over Gaza Hospital Siege

‘What Climate Breakdown Looks Like’: 50,000+ Flee Wildfires as Chile Declares ‘State of Catastrophe’

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

This photo shows the site of a forest fire in Penco, Biobío region, Chile on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Xinhua via Getty Images)

“The first priority, as you know, in these emergencies is always to fight and extinguish the fire. But we cannot forget, at any time, that there are human tragedies here,” said the country’s president.

On the heels of another historically hot year for Earth, disasters tied to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency have yet again turned deadly, with wildfires in Chile’s Ñuble and Biobío regions killing at least 18 people—a figure that Chilean President Gabriel Boric said he expects to rise.

The South American leader on Sunday declared a “state of catastrophe” in the two regions, where ongoing wildfires have also forced more than 50,000 people to evacuate. The Associated Press reported that during a Sunday press conference in Concepción, Boric estimated that “certainly more than a thousand” homes had already been impacted in just Biobío.

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“The first priority, as you know, in these emergencies is always to fight and extinguish the fire. But we cannot forget, at any time, that there are human tragedies here, families who are suffering,” the president said. “These are difficult times.”

According to the BBC, “The bulk of the evacuations were carried out in the cities of Penco and Lirquen, just north of Concepción, which have a combined population of 60,000.”

Some Penco residents told the AP that they were surprised by the fire overnight.

“Many people didn’t evacuate. They stayed in their houses because they thought the fire would stop at the edge of the forest,” 55-year-old John Guzmán told the outlet. “It was completely out of control. No one expected it.”

Chile’s National Forest Corporation (CONAF) said that as of late Monday morning, crews were fighting 26 fires across the regions.

As Reuters detailed:

Authorities say adverse conditions like strong winds and high temperatures helped wildfires spread and complicated firefighters’ abilities to control the fires. Much of Chile was under extreme heat alerts, with temperatures expected to reach up to 38ºC (100ºF) from Santiago to Biobío on Sunday and Monday.

Both Chile and Argentina have experienced extreme temperatures and heatwaves since the beginning of the year, with devastating wildfires breaking out in Argentina’s Patagonia earlier this month.

Scientists have warned and research continues to show that, as one Australian expert who led a relevant 2024 study put it to the Guardian, “the fingerprints of climate change are all over” the world’s rise in extreme wildfires.

“We’ve long seen model projections of how fire weather is increasing with climate change,” Calum Cunningham of Australia’s University of Tasmania said when that study was released. “But now we’re at the point where the wildfires themselves, the manifestation of climate change, are occurring in front of our eyes. This is the effect of what we’re doing to the atmosphere, so action is urgent.”

Sharing the Guardian‘s report on the current fires in Chile, British climate scientist Bill McGuire declared: “This is what climate breakdown looks like. But this is just the beginning…”

The most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference, where world leaders aim to coordinate a global response to the planetary crisis, was held in another South American nation that has faced devastating wildfires—and those intentionally set by various industries—in recent years: Brazil. COP30 concluded in November with a deal that doesn’t even include the words “fossil fuels.”

“This is an empty deal,” Nikki Reisch of the Center for International Environmental Law said at the time. “COP30 provides a stark reminder that the answers to the climate crisis do not lie inside the climate talks—they lie with the people and movements leading the way toward a just, equitable, fossil-free future. The science is settled and the law is clear: We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and make polluters pay.”

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
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Continue Reading‘What Climate Breakdown Looks Like’: 50,000+ Flee Wildfires as Chile Declares ‘State of Catastrophe’

Spanish PM says Gaza, Venezuela and Ukraine territorial unity is not negotiable

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds a press conference following the European Union (EU) Leaders’ Summit in Brussels, Belgium, on October 23, 2025. [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday that the territorial unity of Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Venezuela is not open to negotiation.

In a post on the X platform, Sanchez said that “respect for the sovereignty of all states and their territorial integrity is a non-negotiable principle, from Ukraine to Gaza, including Venezuela”.

Commenting on remarks by US President Donald Trump, who described Greenland as having a strong strategic position and said the United States needs it for national security reasons, Sanchez expressed his rejection of those statements.

He added that Spain “will always remain actively committed to the United Nations and will be in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland”.

On Sunday, Spain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Chile said in a joint statement that they “reject unilateral US military operations” in Venezuelan territory.

The statement, distributed by the Spanish authorities, said: “We express our deep concern about what is happening in Venezuela and our rejection of unilateral military actions carried out on Venezuelan territory.” Such actions had violated the “basic principles of international law, in particular the prohibition of the use of force and respect for territorial sovereignty established in the United Nations Charter.”

READ: Venezuela Vs US: Is Maduro paying the price for his support of Gaza? 

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Continue ReadingSpanish PM says Gaza, Venezuela and Ukraine territorial unity is not negotiable

Few in Caracas are celebrating as they face an uncertain post-Maduro future

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/few-in-caracas-are-celebrating-as-they-face-an-uncertain-post-maduro-future

A member of the militia group known as “Colectivos” takes part in a march calling for release of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, after he and his wife Cilia Flores were captured following U.S. strikes on Venezuela, in Caracas, Venezuela. Photograph: Gaby Oráa/Reuters

There was a whirlwind of emotions on the streets of Caracas on Sunday, 24 hours after the first-ever large-scale US attack on South American soil and the extraordinary snaring of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

“Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama.

“Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker from Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro.

Leandro voiced shock as the couple waited in a 100-person queue to buy flour, milk and butter alongside a quartet of nuns. “W ho could have imagined that his would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked.

“If I thought it would improve the country I’d welcome it,” Leandro added, as shoppers were allowed into the overcrowded supermarket in small groups. “But I don’t believe this will happen. If they wanted peace, this isn’t the way to achieve it.”

Similarly confused sentiments could be heard all over Caracas on Sunday as its 3 million citizens came to terms with the traumatic nocturnal blitz on their city – a move the governments of Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay warned set “an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security”.

“It’s all so distressing,” said Gabriel Vásquez, a 29-year-old video-maker, recalling how he had been woken by the sound of a “gigantic” explosion at about 2am on Saturday and how his community in central Caracas was plunged into darkness as aircraft circled overhead.

“I thought that any time my house could get bombed too,” said Vásquez, whose neighbourhood was still in the dark on Sunday. “We have no water, no electricity, no phone reception – nothing,” he complained.

…

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/few-in-caracas-are-celebrating-as-they-face-an-uncertain-post-maduro-future

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Continue ReadingFew in Caracas are celebrating as they face an uncertain post-Maduro future

‘This Is State Terrorism’: Global Outrage as Trump Launches Illegal Assault on Venezuela

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A woman watches a public television broadcast by Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino in Caracas, Venezuela on January 03, 2026. (Photo by Boris Vergara/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It is brutal imperialist aggression,” said former Bolivian President Evo Morales.

The Trump administration’s military assault on Venezuela and apparent abduction of the country’s president in the early hours of Saturday morning sparked immediate backlash from leaders in Latin America and across the globe, with lawmakers, activists, and experts accusing the US of launching yet another illegal war of aggression.

Latin American leaders portrayed the assault as a continuation of the long, bloody history of US intervention in the region, which has included vicious military coups and material support for genocidal right-wing forces.

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“This is state terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against Our America,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote in a social media post, demanding urgent action from the international community in response to the “criminal attack.”

Evo Morales, the leftist former president of Bolivia, said that “we strongly and unequivocally repudiate” the US attack on Venezuela.

“It is brutal imperialist aggression that violates its sovereignty,” Morales added. “All our solidarity with the Venezuelan people in resistance.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, one of the first world leaders to respond to Saturday’s developments, decried US “aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.” Petro said Colombian forces “are being deployed” to the nation’s border with Venezuela and that “all available support forces will be deployed in the event of a massive influx of refugees.”

“Without sovereignty, there is no nation,” said Petro. “Peace is the way, and dialogue between peoples is fundamental for national unity. Dialogue and more dialogue is our proposal.”

The presidents of Chile and Mexico similarly condemned the assault as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law.

“Based on its foreign policy principles and pacifist vocation, Mexico urgently calls for respect for international law, as well as the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, and to cease any act of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” the Mexican government said in a statement. “Latin America and the Caribbean is a zone of peace, built on mutual respect, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and the prohibition of the use and threat of force, and therefore any military action puts regional stability at serious risk.”

One Latin American leader, far-right Argentine president and Trump ally Javier Milei, openly celebrated the alleged US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, declaring on social media, “FREEDOM ADVANCES.”

Leaders and lawmakers in Europe also reacted to the US bombings. Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, issued a cautious statement calling for “deescalation and responsibility.”

British MP Zarah Sultana was far more forceful, writing on social media that “Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves—and that’s no coincidence.”

“This is naked US imperialism: an illegal assault on Caracas aimed at overthrowing a sovereign government and plundering its resources,” Sultana added.

This story has been updated to include statements from the presidents of Chile and Mexico.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
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Continue Reading‘This Is State Terrorism’: Global Outrage as Trump Launches Illegal Assault on Venezuela