US vows continued defense support for Taiwan
Venezuelans stuck in Mexico:
Venezuelan migrants often have a quick answer when asked to name the most difficult stretch of their eight-country journey to the US border, and it’s not the dayslong jungle trek through Colombia and Panama with its venomous vipers, giant spiders and scorpions. It’s Mexico.
“In the jungle, you have to prepare for animals. In Mexico, you have to prepare for humans,” Daniel Ventura, 37, said after three days walking through the Darien Gap and four months waiting in Mexico to enter the US legally using the government’s online appointment system, called CBP One. He and his family of six were headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where he has a relative.
Mexico’s crackdown on immigration in recent months - at the urging of the Biden administration - has hit Venezuelans especially hard. The development highlights how much the US depends on Mexico to control migration, which has reached unprecedented levels and is a top issue for voters as President Joe Biden seeks reelection.
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the US-Mexico border have dropped so this year after a record high in December. The biggest decline was among Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in January from 49,717 in December.
While two months do not make a trend and illegal crossings remain high by historical standards, Mexico’s strategy to keep migrants closer to its border with Guatemala than the U.S. is at least temporary relief for the Biden administration.
Last week, Mexico said it would give about $110 a month for six months to each Venezuelan it deports, hoping they won’t come back. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador extended the offer Tuesday to Ecuadorians and Colombians. (AP)
❑❑❑ Families mourn missing workers:
The construction workers who went missing in the Baltimore bridge collapse came to the Maryland area from Mexico or Central America, including an enterprising Honduran father and husband who started a delivery business before the pandemic forced him to find other work, according to his family.
Police managed to close bridge traffic seconds before a cargo ship slammed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports early Tuesday, causing the span to fall into the frigid Patapsco River. There wasn’t time for a maintenance crew filling potholes on the span to get to safety.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 28, (Agencies): A bipartisan US congressional delegation pledged continued support for Taiwan on Thursday, days after Congress approved $300 million in military aid for the self-governed island that’s claimed by China.
Congress also approved $400 million on Saturday to counter the Chinese government’s influence in the region, as part of its Defense Appropriations Act.
China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to be brought under its control, by force if necessary. Beijing sends warships and fighter jets near the island daily, as it ramps up its military pressure.
The United States, like most nations, doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a country. However, it is bound by U.S. laws to ensure the island can defend itself and considers all threats to Taiwan as a matter of “grave concern.”
The delegation led by Republican Congressman Jack Bergman, who chairs the House Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee, sought to reassure Taiwan’s leadership of continued support.
“We will continue to assure our colleagues that the strategic relationship is key for the future security of the region,” Bergman said during a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ingwen.
“This includes a strong Taiwan maritime strategy and how we can work together on shared goals to counter China on their increasingly aggressive actions in the region,” he said.
Also:
BANGKOK: The head of ruling military council marked Armed Forces Day on Wednesday with a speech claiming that the nation’s youth were being tricked into supporting the resistance against army rule, and that ethnic armed groups allied with the resistance engage in drug trafficking, natural resources smuggling and illegal gambling.
Senior Gen. spoke in the capital, where thousands of military personnel paraded in an annual show of strength, even as the army has suffered a series of unprecedented battlefield defeats that have tarnished their once invincible reputation.
Min Aung Hlaing touched on familiar themes, urging the international community not to support the resist
Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing Naypyitaw,
At least eight people fell into the water and two were rescued. Two bodies were recovered Wednesday and four remained missing and were presumed dead.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing.
ance forces, whom he blamed for disturbing the process for planned but not yet scheduled elections. Earlier this month, he told ITAR-TASS news agency that elections might be held in parts of the country that are peaceful and stable.
Many Western nations have applied sanctions against Myanmar’s ruling generals because of their 2021 seizure of power and brutal suppression of opposition. Military offensives since then have displaced more than 2 million people, according to the
Nations. Russia’s ❑❑❑ United
TOKYO: Top military officials of Japan, the US and South Korea on Thursday discussed trilateral cooperation initiatives, global security issues, and recent North Korea’s provocation, according to a joint press release issued by the Japanese Defense Ministry.
During their video talks, Japan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 38, was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras along the border with Guatemala. (AP)
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Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida and his US and South Korean counterparts Gen.
and Adm. hailed mutual efforts in achieving trilateral initiatives on the activation of the real-time missile warning data sharing mechanism, and on establishing a multiyear trilateral exercise plan, the press release said.
The three sides agreed that North Korea’s provocative actions including nuclear and missile developments reflect the importance of increasing the depth, scale, and scope of cooperation between the three countries.
They also shared the view that the three-way security cooperation helps ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, the document said. Brown reaffirmed the US commitment to defending Japan and South Korea. In addition, the three leaders plan to hold the next trilateral chiefs of defense inperson meeting this summer.
Charles Q. Brown Jr Kim Myung-soo Haiti council issues statement:
Members of a transitional presidential council who will be responsible for selecting a new prime minister issued their first official statement on Wednesday, pledging to restore “public and democratic order” in Haiti.
The statement, although signed by eight members of what is supposed to be a ninemember council, is still considered a sign that a contentious and drawn-out nomination process is ending and that the council might soon assume its official duties.
“We are determined to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people, trapped for too long between bad governance, multifaceted violence and disregard for their perspectives and needs,” they said.
The members noted that as soon as the council is officially installed, they would help “put Haiti back on the path of democratic legitimacy, stability and dignity.”
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who remains locked out of Haiti, has said he would resign once the council is formally established. Scores of people have been killed, and some 17,000 left homeless.
In recent days, the violence has been largely focused on downtown Port-auPrince.
The council members pledged to “execute a clear action plan aimed at restoring public and democratic order through the restoration of the security of the lives and property of the population, the relief of poverty and the achievement of free elections as well as the reforms necessary to the progress of the nation.” (AP)