By Britt Nelson

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

Clinton, Cruz, Sanders and Trump all won something in Tuesday’s Arizona primary and caucuses in Utah and Idaho, but a black cloud from Belgium extended over these western states.

 

Voters — along with the rest of the Americas — woke up Tuesday morning to more horrific news coming from Europe with at least 31 dead and 270 wounded in multiple bombings in Brussels, Belgium, all the result of ISIS Islamic terror.

 

Voter turnout was high Tuesday in these western states. It’s obvious that the bombings motivated more people to get out and vote with national security on their minds.

 

New York billionaire Donald Trump won the Republican Arizona primary and took all the state’s 58 delegates and he leads with 739 delegates out of 1,237 needed to win the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in July. Coming in second was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and third was Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But neither Cruz nor Kasich won any delegates from Arizona.

 

In Utah, it was a solid win for Cruz, who won more than 50 percent of the vote and all 40 of the state’s delegates, bringing his total delegate count to 465. Neither Trump nor Kasich won any delegates from Utah.

 

For Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she won a majority of Arizona’s 75 Democratic delegates while Sanders received a proportional amount. She now has 1,681 total delegates.

 

Sanders handily beat Clinton in Utah and Idaho caucuses, taking in the majority of their delegates. He now has 937 total delegates.

 

To win the Democratic presidential nomination a candidate needs to win 2,382 delegates.

 

That’s the news end of what happened on Tuesday – now for the horror and reaction from the candidates, the President and politicians in general.

 

Trump spoke early Tuesday on the morning news shows to slam Islamic terror saying over and over that borders need to be closed and the flow of Muslims stopped. He also said that Obama’s plan to bring thousands of Syrian refugees to the USA must not happen. Cruz later echoed much of what Trump said, and so did Kasich.

 

Speaking from Cuba, President Obama also spoke out against the bombings saying the world needs to act as one world to stop the extreme violence against innocent people. The president has been criticized for spending only 51 seconds speaking on the bombings during a televised address to the Cuban people Tuesday.

 

Obama is in Cuba to recognize the normalization of relations between this Communist island nation and the USA.

 

On social media, Clinton said “Today’s attacks will only strengthen our resolve to stand together as allies and defeat terrorism and radical jihadism around the world.”

 

After Obama spoke on TV news from Cuba, Trump said on social media “President Obama looks and sounds so ridiculous making his speech in Cuba, especially in the shadows of Brussels.”

 

The wounded — in the Brussels attacks — included 9 Americans, according to news reports.

 

Brussels is just another terrorist attack in a long, long list of bloody murderous assaults against humanity around the world by Islamic extremists who continue to be successful in spreading their message of hate as the death toll mounts.

 

Europe is now in full-scale warfare against all the extremists with no end in sight. Enough is enough.

 

Politicians are giving their standard speeches to find and punish the guilty, and we all need to stand as one against terror. These continuing statements are hollow and shallow in light of all the dead.

About the author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for thePalatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.