00:00A national day of enlistment in the Bolivar National Militia as part of the great national plan for sovereignty and peace.
00:20In Nicaragua, authorities registered a 5.4% economic growth during the second quarter of the year 2025.
00:30And over the past 24 hours, more than 60 people were killed in the southern Gaza Strip by the Israeli army.
00:41Hello, welcome to From the South. I'm Luis Alberto Matos from Derezu Studios in Havana, Cuba. We begin with the news.
00:48On Saturday, Venezuela holds a National Militia Enlistment Day, an action framed in the great national plan of sovereignty and peace in Bolivar.
01:07President Nicolás Maduro called Venezuelans to join in the homeland defense in the face of U.S. threats and military deployment in the Caribbean.
01:14The enlistment process takes place on August 23 and 24 for militia members, reservists and citizens interested in participating in the defense of the country.
01:23This day seeks to reinforce the security structure of the country and reaffirm the commitment of the Venezuelan people with the defense of peace and without foreign interference that threatens the stability of citizens.
01:35And in this regard, Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called on the people to join the Bolivarian national militia to defend the country against threats from the United States government.
01:50The minister stressed that this August 23 is a day of popular effervescence where people take to the streets to join not only the ranks of the Bolivarian militia but also a patriotic cause.
02:01He also emphasized that this action is eminently popular and voluntary.
02:05In this context, he indicated that this day is also an expression of rejection of imperialist aggression against Venezuelans and the homeland of Simón Bolivar.
02:13Likewise, the minister presented the operating results for January-August 25, which includes 169 deployments across the national territory and the dismantling of 10 illegal mining camps.
02:29To continue talking more about what is happening right now in Venezuela, let's welcome international law expert Yvonne Tellez.
02:36Welcome, Yvonne, to another briefing of From the South.
02:40Luis Alberto, Enchanted to be here.
02:44It's always our pleasure.
02:46So Yvonne, today we have in this National Enlistment Day in Venezuela, something that was called by President Nicolás Maduro yesterday Friday,
02:54to prove, to show the unity of the Venezuelan people in the defense of their homeland in the face of the aggressions that are taking place recently from the U.S. government.
03:04What can you tell us about the importance of a day like today?
03:07Well, of course, it is of due importance because Venezuelans under the beginning of a threat of a use of force have all the legal and sovereign rights to prepare themselves in case of an attack.
03:31That's, of course, a scenario that we don't want to see, but under the current actions and the narrative that the U.S. is bringing to the tabloids and the media and the official responses and discourses that the U.S. has deployed,
03:55we can see the beginning of a threat of the use of force.
04:02Under these actions, Venezuela has all the sovereign and legal right to prepare itself.
04:11Yvonne, one of the narratives that have been imposed by Western hegemonic media mandated by the U.S. government, there are many narratives of misinformation of the Venezuelan reality.
04:22And one of them is an apparent lack of trust in the Venezuelan government that the people do not support the Venezuelan government.
04:30Yet we see images that we are seeing today in the different Bolivar squares and military headquarters where the enlistment is taking place.
04:37And lots of people going in from all ages to sign and to express that they are willing to fight in the defense of their homeland.
04:45Do you believe that if those narratives were true, if they truly did not support the government, could images like this happen?
04:53Definitely not. And I think we have to separate three issues that are taken to take account here in this situation.
05:04First of all, what happens within a sovereign country is a matter of that country.
05:13That means that the principle of non-interference has to come along and has to be a baseline for the actions.
05:23In this case, first of all, in answering your question, yes, of course, I agree with you that under the support that we are seeing,
05:33that means that definitely the government holds civilian support.
05:42And if, even if, and I want to make this point clear under the international law perspective,
05:49even if the government didn't have that support, it doesn't mean that any foreign country or international organization
06:01could enter into the territory to make decisions about its political, economic, social, cultural system.
06:13That is, the independence and the sovereign independence of any state has to be respected.
06:21So answering your question, yes, of course, there is an enormous support and that's evident.
06:27But, however, even if it didn't have, I mean, I'm talking about Venezuela itself and its government,
06:35even if it didn't have that support, that's an internal affair that doesn't have to be questioned
06:45or doesn't have to be or to fall into a foreign interference.
06:54You were saying no one has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries,
06:59and this is enshrining the UN Charter and international law, as you were saying.
07:03Then, does these actions put more into question, because they are already being highly questioned by the Global South
07:09and many countries, the validity, the currency of the international institutions that are supposed to safeguard these rights,
07:18that we see a country, the U.S., openly, because it's not covert,
07:23only saying that they're going to do something that is clearly illegal,
07:27and yet we see no response coming from these international, traditional, in a way,
07:32international institutions that are supposed to condemn these actions.
07:35How can we analyze this in the face of other organizations that have come out and condemned it,
07:39like Al-Batisipi and many other countries that have condemned what the U.S. is right now doing in the Caribbean,
07:45right in Venezuela?
07:48Yes, and I think your question is of high importance,
07:53because there are two main things at stake here.
07:57One of those is the law of the sea, yes,
08:04and the other one is the use ad bellum,
08:07that means the use of force and the regulation of the use of force,
08:11that that is public international law.
08:14So, in this case, what we're seeing, there's something that we have to take into account,
08:19and what has been condemned?
08:21On the first place, the U.S. naval presence of Venezuela,
08:29and I'm talking about of the territorial baseline of Venezuela,
08:35is not per se unlawful.
08:38What, and I'm talking about the 12 nautical miles,
08:42but, however, and this is what I want to highlight,
08:46what is not permitted under the law of sea,
08:50and under international law,
08:52is the fact that there are potential, there's a potential,
08:56there's a narrative, I'm sorry, about an unlawful threat of use of force,
09:02because even what can be done under what the U.S. is saying,
09:09is that in high seas, the U.S. can, yes, of course,
09:14take action against illegal vessels that are at high seas,
09:21but within the territory of the state,
09:24or even close to the borderline of the territory of the state,
09:31that calls for hostile actions,
09:35that has been said, that's under the United Nations Charter,
09:40that also has been said and stated by the International Court of Justice,
09:46with previous jurisprudence, regarding that the U.S. under this case,
09:53could not claim, for example, self-defense,
09:58or could not claim just the rhetoric of international security,
10:03because it's threatening the territorial baseline,
10:10and the territorial seas, I mean, the territory of the high seas of Venezuela.
10:19So that means that whatever the U.S. wants to do against probable terrorist organization,
10:28has to be done in the high seas, because using, for example,
10:33and labeling the actions against foreign terrorist organization,
10:38does not by itself create an international law license to use force.
10:44So under this umbrella, or under this legal umbrella,
10:49what we expect, of course, is the international condemnation of these actions,
10:54because this is a possible international armed conflict,
11:01that could take place between these two states.
11:06And yes, we're seeing that the Global South is condemning,
11:10because, of course, this has to do with this traditional political and economic blockade,
11:19and condemnation that the U.S. has been leading for all these years,
11:28that the regime has been before the Venezuelan government.
11:35But that is something completely different,
11:37that is a political division that has nothing to do with what international law says can be and can't be done.
11:48Thank you very much, Yvonne, for your inputs here in From the South, as always.
11:54Thank you. Thank you very much, Luis Alberto, for the invitation.
11:58It's a pleasure to have you. We're going to stay in touch for upcoming debates,
12:01and to continue following up on everything that is happening.
12:03Let's now take a short break. Remember, you can join us on TikTok at TelesuEnglish,
12:07where you'll find news in different formats, news updates, and much more.
12:11We're going to be right back. Stay with us.
12:13Welcome back. As we were reporting before the break, over the weekend Venezuela holds a great national militia enlistment day in the face of growing U.S. threats and military deployment in the Caribbean.
12:28Venezuelans are mobilizing to defend their homeland and the future of their country. Let's go live once more with our correspondent Bruno Falci for more details. Welcome, Bruno.
12:49Hello. We are here in the Bolivia Square in the center of the capital of Venezuela, Caracas, where the people are mobilizing answer the call of Nicolas Maduro against a new aggression of United States.
13:11This time, United States accused, without proof, from Venezuela being part of the traffic international of drugs.
13:19And Venezuela answered with documents of United Nations that prove that this denounce is completely false.
13:28But the United States keeps escalating and provoking the country and denouncing Nicolas Maduro, a reward from 50 million dollars.
13:41And people answered this call from Nicolas Maduro, from the president. Voluntarily, they came here in the square. As you can see behind me, they came here to answer this call.
13:54You can see a lot of persons and a lot of people in the square. Now, after thousands of people came by, in all this day, in many places of the country, this calling is happening.
14:09And thousands of people are mobilized to defend their sovereignty in this national, in this show of national unit of the Venezuelan people.
14:22And this is one of the places in all the country, one square, of hundreds of square and center of recruitment, of enlistment, where people keep going, keep arriving.
14:37People from all ages, people, young people, old people, women, young, and men from all kinds of sectors of the society.
14:49And this is a very important mobilization against this new aggression of the United States, who, in a communication war, menace Venezuela from an invasion.
15:04And people answered. With unity, we defend their democracy in this country.
15:14I'm Bruno Fauci, correspondent here in Venezuela. And now we go back in the studio in La Habana.
15:23Thank you, Bruno, for the latest information. We're going to stay informed in upcoming news briefs on everything that is happening as we continue to follow this important weekend, not only a day, important weekend, in Venezuela.
15:37Let's now take our second break. Remember, you can join us on Facebook, where at Teles of English, where you'll find the latest news, our live broadcasts, and much more.
15:45So hit that subscribe button and stay up to date on everything happening around the world. We're going to be right back.
16:11Nicaragua registers a growth in economic activity of 5.4% during the second quarter of the year 2025.
16:18According to a report by the Central Bank of Nicaragua, there is an increase of 0.3% compared to May 2025 and compared to June 2024, 5.2%.
16:29The document highlights mining and quarrying with 22.1% driven by gold extraction.
16:35The financial entity highlighted the growth in service groups such as commerce, transport and communications, financial intermediation, hotels and restaurants.
16:44Over the past 24 hours, more than 60 people were killed in southern Gaza Strip by the Israeli army.
17:11The Nasser Hospital authorities have stated that more than half of the casualties are women and children.
17:16In addition, they recorded 308 civilians who were injured in attacks by Israel on different refugee areas.
17:22Sources specify that some of the victims were waiting for humanitarian aid.
17:26The number of people killed since October 7, 2023 has risen to 62,622, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
17:33In addition, more than 157,673 people have been injured.
17:46In the last 24 hours, also in Palestine, authorities reported eight new deaths in the Gaza Strip due to famine.
17:52The United Nations Relief and Works Agency warned the crisis has been exacerbated by the blockade imposed by Zionism on the entry of food and medical supplies.
18:00Also, the World Health Organization stated death from starvation among children under five doubled in the second quarter of 2025.
18:07Since March 2025, the Gaza Strip has seen more than 280 deaths due to hunger and malnutrition, with 114 of these being children.
18:15In Yemen, thousands took to the streets of Sana'a to condemn Israel's plans to occupy Gaza.
18:26The rally, which has become a weekly event, seeks to denounce the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli offensive has caused a humanitarian crisis.
18:34Participants blame the U.S. government for its complicity in Israel's actions.
18:39In this sense, demonstrators call on the international community to exert pressure to put an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza,
18:45and to stop the Trump administration's support for the Tel Aviv regime.
18:50Like this, we have come to the end of this news brief.
18:56You can find this and many other stories on our website at www.telestripenglish.net,
18:59so join us on social media, Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok.
19:04For Telestrip English, I'm Luis Alberto Matos.
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