Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 13 February 2017

Colombian president asks Trump to support peace deal in call

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) cate exploding levels of
— Colombia’s president is cocaine crops.
asking for President Donald According to Santos’ aides,
Trump’s support in approv- Trump said he was inter-
ing U.S. funding to back the ested in continuing sup-
country’s peace deal with port for Colombia — long
leftist rebels. the U.S.’s staunchest ally in
The request came in a Latin America. Trump also
25-minute phone call Sat- invited last year’s Nobel
urday between Trump and Peace Prize winner to the
President Juan Manuel White House in a future, un-
Santos, the first between disclosed date, aides said.
the two leaders since the Aides released a photo of
Republican president took Santos during the conver-
office. The Obama admin- sation smiling widely. They
istration laid out a plan of wouldn’t say if the Colom-
$450 million in assistance bian leader raised objec-
this year to support peace tions shared widely in Latin
with the Revolutionary America over Trump’s pro-
Armed Forces of Colombia. posal to build a wall with
But Congress has yet to ap- Mexico to keep out illegal
prove the funds and some immigrants. Santos’ aides
conservative U.S. lawmak- said Trump praised the high
ers are pushing for bigger quality of Colombian work-
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos is seen in Bogota, Colombia. In a phone call on Satur- concessions from the FARC manship and construction
day, Feb. 11, 2017, Santos asked for President Donald Trump’s support in approving U.S. funding to and a stronger commit- materials used to build his
back the country’s peace deal with leftist rebels.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan) ment from Santos to eradi- real estate empire.q

Venezuela now leads US asylum requests as crisis deepens

JOSHUA GOODMAN migration Services show top 10 asylum-seeking na- lans per month sought asy- many that it could disrupt
Associated Press that 18,155 Venezuelans tions following months of lum. That compares with 17 years of socialist rule.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) submitted asylum requests sometimes bloody street 2,334 requests in Decem- Instead of reaching out to
— Venezuelans for the first last year, a 150 percent protests in early 2014 seek- ber, 2016, the last month for his opponents, Maduro re-
time led asylum requests increase over 2015 and six ing to oust President Nico- which data is available. trenched and more and
to the United States as the times the level seen in 2014. las Maduro. The number of applicants more Venezuelans began
country’s middle class fled China was second place, But back then, amid the has skyrocketed since De- to uproot as triple-digit in-
the crashing, oil-depen- with 17,745 requests com- widespread jailing and ha- cember 2015, when the flation pulverized salaries
dent economy. ing from citizens of that rassment of opponents of opposition took control and widespread food and
Data from the U.S. govern- country. the socialist administration, of congress in a landslide medicine shortages made
ment’s Citizenship and Im- Venezuela first cracked the fewer than 100 Venezue- election, giving hope to life unbearable for many.q