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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 11 February 2025
Colombia’s interior minister resigns as cracks deepen in President

Petro’s coalition

By MANUEL RUEDA ro’s closest aides in which
Associated Press Benedetti claimed he had
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) raised almost $4 million for
— Colombian Interior Min- the Petro campaign and
ister Juan Fernando Cristo hinted he had obtained the
resigned on Monday as money from illegal sources.
a political crisis shook the In the recordings, Benedetti
government of President threatened to take down
Gustavo Petro, following his the government if he was
decision to appoint a con- not rewarded with a Cabi-
troversial political operator net position for his work dur-
as chief of staff. ing the presidential cam-
In a letter posted on X, paign.
Cristo said that he wished Last week Benedetti was
to pursue objectives such charged with corruption by
as supporting the imple- Colombia’s Supreme Court
mentation of a 2016 peace in a separate case, where
deal with the Revolutionary he is accused of interfering
Armed Forces of Colom- illegally in government con-
bia “without limitations” tracts awarded to a digital
and wrote that “frustration security company in 2017.
should not allow Colombia Under the Petro administra-
to return to an era of po- Colombia’s Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, right, speaks with Special Representative and tion Benedetti has served
litical and social exclusion Head of the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia Carlos Massieu, before an event marking the 8th as Colombia’s ambassador
that generates violence.” anniversary of the peace agreement signing with the FARC in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 21, 2024. to Venezuela, and as am-
Two government minis- Associated Press bassador to the United Na-
ters resigned last week af- tions Food and Agriculture
ter Petro named Arman- a growing security crisis. The minister of the environ- been accused of corrup- Organization, a post that
do Benedetti as his chief More than 50,000 people in ment and the minister of tion and violence against had been vacant since
of staff, and scolded his the northeast of the coun- culture also resigned last women. 1999.
Cabinet for not executing try were forced to flee their week, saying in interviews Unlike many members of Last year, Benedetti’s wife
government programs, in homes in January as fight- that they did not want to Petro’s Cabinet, Benedetti filed a police complaint in
a televised meeting that ing surged between rebel work with Benedetti. is not affiliated with left- Madrid, where she claimed
descended into heated groups. A former senator from Co- wing parties, and was once that he had ripped off her
discussions and tearful re- Cristo said that he had in- lombia’s Caribbean coast, a supporter of the conser- clothes and threatened her
criminations.On Sunday, formed Petro about his Benedetti is an experi- vative leader Alvaro Uribe. with a knife. She has since
Petro asked all of his gov- plans to resign last Thurs- enced political operator In 2023 Colombian news retracted the accusations,
ernment ministers to resign day. In his resignation letter who helped raise hundreds magazine Semana pub- which Spanish authori-
so that he could select a he did not refer to Benedet- of thousands of dollars for lished recordings of a heat- ties did not pursue due to
new Cabinet to tackle sev- ti’s appointment as chief of Petro’s 2022 presidential ed conversation between Benedetti’s diplomatic sta-
eral challenges, including staff. campaign, but has also Benedetti and one of Pet- tus at the time.q

Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in east Jerusalem and

seize books they say incite violence

By MAHMOUD ILLEAN and estinians want it to be the The three-story bookstore, large selection of books, meant.” She said they used
NATALIE MELZER capital of their future state. raided on Sunday, has a mainly in Arabic and Eng- Google Translate on some
Associated Press lish, about the conflict and of the Arabic titles to see
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli the wider Middle East, in- what they meant before
police raided a long-estab- cluding many by Israeli carting them away in plas-
lished Palestinian-owned and Jewish authors. It hosts tic bags.
bookstore in east Jerusa- cultural events and is es- In a statement, the police
lem, detaining the owners pecially popular among said the two owners were
and confiscating books researchers, journalists and arrested on suspicion of
about the decades-long foreign diplomats. “selling books containing
conflict. The police claimed The bookstore’s owners, incitement and support for
the books incited violence. Ahmed and Mahmoud terrorism.”
The Educational Bookshop, Muna, were detained, and As an example, the police
established over 40 years police confiscated hun- referred to an English-lan-
ago, is a hub of intellectual dreds of titles related to the guage children’s coloring
life in east Jerusalem, which conflict before ordering the book entitled “From the Riv-
Israel captured in the 1967 store’s closure, according er to the Sea,” a reference
Mideast war and annexed to May Muna, Mahmoud’s to the territory between
to its capital in a move not The shuttered Educational Bookshop is seen after Israeli police wife. the Jordan River and the
recognized internationally. raided the long-established Palestinian-owned bookstore in east She said the soldiers picked Mediterranean Sea that to-
Most of the city’s Palestin- Jerusalem, detaining its owners and confiscating books about out books with Palestin- day includes Israel, the oc-
the decades-long conflict saying the books incited violence,
ian population lives in east Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. ian titles or flags, “without cupied West Bank and the
Jerusalem, and the Pal- Associated Press knowing what any of them Gaza Strip.q