The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced today at 11.00 that he will remain in office. For the last five days, the socialist leader has been absent from public life to reflect after a real turn of events surprised everyone in the afternoon of April 24: Pedro Sánchez announced that he would take “a period of reflection” after the latest attacks on the family came from an ultra-right organisation, which led his wife Begoña Gómez to be investigated for alleged relationships with some private companies receiving public contracts and funds. This investigation was opened after a complaint from the far-right union, Manos Limpias, known for its complaints against members of the Spanish left, in most cases based on false and unsubstantiated news. Also in this case the organization has admitted that the news on which the judiciary’s investigation is based could be false: we talked about it with Lorenzo Pasqualini, a freelance journalist based in Madrid, who collaborates with various newspapers and is the author of the El Itagnol website. | The Pentagon will withdraw dozens of special operations forces from Chad in the coming days, the second blow in a week to America’s security and counterterrorism policy in a volatile part of West and Central Africa. The departure of US military advisers in Chad, as well as Niger, comes as Niger, as well as Mali and Burkina Faso, are moving away from years of cooperation with the US and are forming partnerships with Russia – or at least exploring closer security ties with Moscow. Meanwhile, HRW wants to open an investigation for crimes against humanity into one of the worst abuses committed by the Burkina Faso armed forces in years: the Burkina Faso army summarily executed 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, on a single day at the end of February. The mass killings have been linked to an ever-widening military campaign to counter jihadist violence and occurred weeks after Russian troops landed in the West African country to help improve security: we talk about it with Luca Raineri, researcher in international relations at the Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa, expert on the Sahel and with Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior researcher on the Sahel at HRW. At the microphones Luigi Spinola.
29 Apr 2024
