A peace agreement for the Middle East that does not seem to be an agreement or peace for a Gaza made into rubble by Israel. A growing escalation against Nicolás Maduro that involves covert operations on Venezuelan soil with an increasing military deployment near the country and people detained in international waters. And a new attempt to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine by addressing security in Europe without Europe at the negotiating table.
Donald Trump started the week with a show in Egypt to celebrate an unstable and incipient ceasefire without guarantees of how to consolidate it and ends it with thousands of mobilizations throughout the United States against his authoritarianism, the militarization of the streets and mass deportations without judicial guarantees. No Kings (not to the kings, in Spanish) is the name of the movement that started a few months ago, on the eve of his birthday – June 14 – celebrated with a military parade through the streets of Washington. The motto plays with the significant monarch who exercises power above the law and without democratic control, but also with the memory that the United States already became independent from a monarchy, the British, 249 years ago.
“In June, millions of ordinary Americans, from all walks of life, peacefully took to the streets and declared in unison: No to kings!” organizers say: “The world saw the power of the people, and President Trump's coronation attempt collapsed under the force of a movement against his abuses of power. Now, he doubles down: send militarized agents to our communities, silence voters, and hand out benefits to billionaires while families struggle. This is not just politics. It is democracy against dictatorship. And together, we choose democracy.”
And all this occurs while there are already 18 days of a Government closure that aims to last over time and that keeps the payrolls of officials, public services, airports and social programs up in the air.
Trump wants to redraw the world through threats, tariffs and coercion. He plays with security in Europe by noting that “there is an ocean in between,” which allows him to open the door at the beginning of the week to the shipment of Tomahawks and close it at the end of the week after his two and a half hour conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In just eight months, the US president has gone from insulting Zelensky in the Oval Office to recognizing this Friday the sacrifices of the Ukrainian people, including his comment three weeks ago at the United Nations about kyiv's ability to recover the occupied territory “and go further.” Of course, the Ukrainian president has learned his lesson and has presented himself with a jacket and with numerous compliments to his host, something permanent in every interlocutor who speaks publicly with Trump. However, from what the two said at the end of the meeting, neither Zelensky has obtained the missiles he craves nor has the US president given him future guarantees of security, something that also worries the EU, or of the country's territorial integrity. In fact, Trump has stated: “They should stop as they are.” If they do that, Putin would keep a good part of the Donbas for Russia and consolidate the occupation of Crimea.
Likewise, while playing Risk with Europe, redoubles its threats to Nicolás Maduro's Venezuela with more and more soldiers near the country and authorizing covert operations on Venezuelan soil. And all this in the same week in which two other lethal attacks against boats in the Caribbean have been reported – of which it is not said where they came from, where they were going or where they were sunk – accused, without evidence, of loading drugs.
In turn, Trump does not hide his disappointment at the lack of progress in the peace process in Gaza, where hostages and prisoners have been exchanged, but the situation remains critical due to the lack of humanitarian aid, persistent violence and lack of clarity about the future of Palestine and its aspiration to become a State, supported by more and more countries as was evident a few weeks ago at the United Nations.
“It is not a peace plan,” said Mehdi Hassan, CEO and editor-in-chief of the new media company Zeteo, at the No Kings march in Washington DC this Saturday: “Donald Trump, the man who uses the word Palestinian as a pejorative term, has no plan for Palestinian freedom or for the creation of a Palestinian state or for justice for Palestinians who have been massacred, starved, genocide and ethnically cleansed over the last two years, including the last nine months of his presidency. There is no peace in the Middle East because, as Dr. King said, peace is not just the absence of violence, it is the presence of justice.”