Por Anabella González, CNN en Español

Semanas después de ser rebautizada con el nombre de “Arena” y sin datos que la guiaran a su familia de origen, Catira Alejandra dio una alegría inesperada en un presente sombrío. El sábado, luego de más de 15 días de la tragedia en Venezuela, esta perrita de pelaje claro que fue rescatada en La Guaira se reencontró con sus dueños.

Los saltos y movimientos frenéticos de Catira al volver a ver a su familia contrastan con las imágenes que los rescatistas registraron al encontrarla, donde se la ve temblorosa, asustada, con la cabeza gacha y la mirada triste. Al igual que ella, cientos de animales están en refugios, de acuerdo con cifras oficiales, y esperan que su destino imite al de Catira.

Como consecuencia de los terremotos, miles de venezolanos no solo perdieron a seres queridos y vieron sus hogares derrumbados, sino también buscan a sus mascotas, con quienes muchos aún no logran reencontrarse.

Desde el 24 de junio, al menos 648 animales de compañía (entre perros y gatos) han sido rescatados en La Guaira, uno de los estados más afectados por los sismos; y San Bernardino, una urbanización de Caracas, según dijo el lunes Maguildas Vargas, la presidenta de Misión Nevado, un proyecto del Gobierno de Venezuela que da refugio a animales que buscan hogar.

“Hemos logrado hacer 18 reencuentros familiares” con animales que fueron rescatados en La Guaira tras la tragedia, dijo Vargas, auxiliar veterinaria.

La mayoría de los animales localizados, explicó, estaban heridos y tenían fracturas, politraumatismos, mutilaciones, escoriaciones o cortes; y les prestan atención veterinaria y refugio hasta que puedan volver con sus hogares de origen.

CNN se contactó con Misión Nevado y con Maguildas Vargas para conocer si hay cifras actualizadas, y está en espera de respuesta.

La presidenta de Misión Nevado pidió días atrás a las personas que buscan a sus mascotas que hagan fichas de sus animales extraviados y se las hagan llegar por las redes sociales para difundir e impulsar las búsquedas.

Así, las redes sociales están desde hace semanas inundadas de imágenes y videos: las fotos de perros grandes, perros medianos y pequeños, gatos blancos y negros, rayados y multicolor circulan sin descanso junto a pedidos desesperados e información básica para localizarlos.

El refugio de la Granja Los Corales, en el estado La Guaira, es uno de los epicentros para cientos de animales rescatados.

“Estamos aquí como punto de encuentro para que aquellas personas que estén buscando a sus mascotas puedan venir a revisar si se encuentran en las instalaciones”, dijo Rene Cardozo, coordinador del refugio en la región, en declaraciones a la señal estatal Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

A la par del trabajo del Gobierno de Venezuela, muchos refugios han llevado a cabo tareas similares de manera independiente.

María Cordova hizo su primer rescate animal cuando tenía 15 años, en el año 2013. Desde entonces, hace más de una década que lleva adelante esa misión desde Barquisimeto, en el estado Lara.

Ella es repostera y trabaja en su casa, lo que le permite organizar sus horarios para atender a los animales y dedicarse gran parte del tiempo a los rescates.

Días después de los terremotos, la joven viajó en dos oportunidades a La Guaira, donde con su refugio Amor Animal auxiliaron a 22 animales. “Buscamos a sus dueños, sabemos que muchos aún están hospitalizados y no han tenido opor

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — Ordinarily, a claim like the one President Donald Trump leveled at China in prime time this week might herald a major rupture in ties with Beijing.

“The People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” Trump declared Thursday from the East Room, sounding personally stung that, according to a minority view of intelligence, the country had tried to undermine his election chances in 2020.

“The Chinese government wanted (the) US president to lose the next election,” he claimed. “The reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them, charged them billions and billions of dollars worth of tariffs, and built the strongest military anywhere in the world.”

The assertions were serious — if neither new nor entirely backed with evidence — and drew immediate indignation from Chinese officials. Yet they were not accompanied in Trump’s speech by any suggestion he planned to punish the Chinese government for its alleged actions.

By the next day, a White House official said planning for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s lavish state visit to Washington in two months was continuing apace. And they offered no answer when asked whether Trump planned any repercussions for China in response to what he claimed was a data breach of historic scale.

It was a different story for American intelligence officials who Trump alleged had withheld the China information from him during his first term. He tasked four separate federal agencies with investigating, instructing them “to fire those involved in the cover-up, and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people.”

The difference in approach laid bare Trump’s fixation on re-litigating the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. But it was also evidence he has little interest in upending what has become a fragile balance with Xi after a fraught first year back in office.

In some ways, Trump’s speech Thursday marked a departure from the tone he has struck in recent months toward China and its leader, with whom he has worked to cultivate personal ties over the course of several in-person meetings.

“I’m a big fan of President Xi,” Trump said at last week’s NATO summit in Turkey, praising the country for mostly staying on the sidelines of the war in Iran, despite fears early in the war that Beijing could provide Tehran with military assistance.

After Trump levied his election accusations on Thursday night, China’s foreign ministry responded by saying they had “no factual ground.”

“China adheres to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. We have no interest in interfering in the US elections and have never done so,” spokesperson Lin Jian said, offering criticism of the US and alluding to the negative impact of the claims could have on US-China ties. “We urge the US to reflect on its own behavior, stop unwanted vilification of China … and act more in ways conducive to China-US relations.”

Stabilizing ties has been a priority for Trump’s administration recently after a bruising year of tariff standoffs. Xi hosted Trump for a pomp-filled state visit to Beijing in May, and the two leaders plan to meet again in Washington in late September.

Trump has also suggested he may return to China this year for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in Shenzhen. And Xi could visit the United States for the Group of 20 summit Trump is hosting in Miami.

In all of his engagements with Xi over the past year, Trump has never

By Tierney Sneed, Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on election officials in key battleground states, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin doubling down Friday on claims that hundreds of thousands of non-citizens are illegally registered to vote – claims that the agency has quietly acknowledged aren’t fully vetted.

In a news conference, Mullin repeated the claim first made in a release of documents alongside President Donald Trump’s primetime Thursday night speech, alleging that DHS had found a cumulative quarter-million non-citizens registered in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

However, letters from DHS to the states informing them of the allegations are more hedged.

Mullin’s letter to Pennsylvania, for instance, notes that the figure is unverified. It says that there “may be as many as 14,576 non-citizens on the states voter rolls,” but that 8,594 came up as matches as non-citizens on its files. It asks for Pennsylvania’s help on working “collaboratively on identity verification” to more efficiently “ensure the accuracy of our findings.”

The Trump administration is attempting to force states to hand over sensitive voter data so that the Justice Department can audit their voter registration files. State election officials of both parties have told CNN they fear that the administration would use the data to exaggerate the problem of non-citizen voting, as a way to sow doubt about the midterm results, if Republicans fare poorly.

The administration’s data-collection effort has run into major legal hurdles, with more than a dozen courts siding with states that have refused to provide their voter rolls to the federal government and a separate judge ruling that the DHS program that is central to the audits is illegal. Mullin railed against that ruling Friday while also threatening election officials with prosecutions for not participating in the DHS voter roll reviews.

“If the election officials – once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to – then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison,” Mullin said.

The Justice Department made a similar threat earlier this month in letters to all 50 states that were quickly dismissed by election officials, many of whom were gathered at a conference in South Dakota during Trump’s speech.

“I’m not intimidated by that at all,” New Hampshire’s Republican Secretary of David Scanlan, whose state recently secured the dismissal of a DOJ lawsuit seeking the data, told CNN Thursday.

“I see this is a temper tantrum disguised as an official letter because they have hit roadblocks,” added Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat.

Idaho’s Republican attorney general’s office responded with a sharp letter of its own, telling DOJ its “insinuations of criminal violations of the federal election laws are not well taken.”

The citizenship data system that DHS is using to review the rolls – which is known as SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) – has a reputation for presenting an inflated picture of registered non-citizens. DHS explicitly requires states that use the program voluntarily for voter list maintenance do further investigations of its matches.

Mullin did not include any of that context in his remarks, nor did he describe the 250,000 number as potential non-citizens, as DHS did in its press release announcing the letters to the four states.

“We can affirm that on its face, we refute these claims,” Nevada Democratic Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar told CNN in a statement Friday. “These numbers are wildly speculative at best and the Department of Home

CNN

By Tierney Sneed, Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on election officials in key battleground states, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin doubling down Friday on claims that hundreds of thousands of non-citizens are illegally registered to vote – claims that the agency has quietly acknowledged aren’t fully vetted.

In a news conference, Mullin repeated the claim first made in a release of documents alongside President Donald Trump’s primetime Thursday night speech, alleging that DHS had found a cumulative quarter-million non-citizens registered in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

However, letters from DHS to the states informing them of the allegations are more hedged.

Mullin’s letter to Pennsylvania, for instance, notes that the figure is unverified. It says that there “may be as many as 14,576 non-citizens on the states voter rolls,” but that 8,594 came up as matches as non-citizens on its files. It asks for Pennsylvania’s help on working “collaboratively on identity verification” to more efficiently “ensure the accuracy of our findings.”

The Trump administration is attempting to force states to hand over sensitive voter data so that the Justice Department can audit their voter registration files. State election officials of both parties have told CNN they fear that the administration would use the data to exaggerate the problem of non-citizen voting, as a way to sow doubt about the midterm results, if Republicans fare poorly.

The administration’s data-collection effort has run into major legal hurdles, with more than a dozen courts siding with states that have refused to provide their voter rolls to the federal government and a separate judge ruling that the DHS program that is central to the audits is illegal. Mullin railed against that ruling Friday while also threatening election officials with prosecutions for not participating in the DHS voter roll reviews.

“If the election officials – once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to – then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison,” Mullin said.

The Justice Department made a similar threat earlier this month in letters to all 50 states that were quickly dismissed by election officials, many of whom were gathered at a conference in South Dakota during Trump’s speech.

“I’m not intimidated by that at all,” New Hampshire’s Republican Secretary of David Scanlan, whose state recently secured the dismissal of a DOJ lawsuit seeking the data, told CNN Thursday.

“I see this is a temper tantrum disguised as an official letter because they have hit roadblocks,” added Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat.

Idaho’s Republican attorney general’s office responded with a sharp letter of its own, telling DOJ its “insinuations of criminal violations of the federal election laws are not well taken.”

The citizenship data system

* WHAT…Dangerous rip currents and breaking waves due to
elevated surf expected.

* WHERE…San Luis Obispo County Beaches and Santa Barbara
County Central Coast Beaches.

* WHEN…From Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening.

* IMPACTS…There is an increased risk of ocean drowning. Rip
currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Waves can
wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats
nearshore.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS…Highest surf will be focused across south
facing beaches due to a southerly swell produced by Tropical
Storm Elida. Another tropcial system is forecast to form in a
similar area and move along a similar path, bringing additional
hazardous conditions to the coasts on the heels of this first
event. Additionally, a long period southerly swell created by
Southern Hemisphere storms will arrive late next week.
Additional High Surf Advisories and/or Beach Hazards Statements
may be needed next week.
Remain out of the water due to hazardous swimming conditions, or
stay near occupied lifeguard towers. Rock jetties can be deadly
in such conditions, stay off the rocks.

The post Beach Hazards Statement issued July 17 at 12:53PM PDT until July 21 at 11:00PM PDT by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.