International
Bukele receives King Philip VI in San Salvador, on the eve of his investiture
Nayib Bukele, elected president of El Salvador for a second consecutive term and who will be inaugurated on Saturday, received in San Salvador the King of Spain, Felipe VI, whom he met privately.
The Royal House shared some photographs in which Bukele and King Felipe VI are seen shaking hands and then reuniting.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo, who accompanies King Felipe VI on the trip, as well as the ambassador of Spain in El Salvador, Carlos de la Morena Casado, and officials of the Salvadoran Government.
Felipe VI landed around 14:40 local time (20:40 GMT) at the international airport San Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, the main airport in the country, and was greeted by the chancellor, Alexandra Hill.
Subsequently, after going through a Cordon of Honor and the interpretation of the National Anthems of the two countries, Felipe VI received the greeting from the staff of the Embassy of Spain in El Salvador, according to the Royal House in a statement.
This is the first time that Philip VI has traveled to El Salvador since he was king. The last one was as a prince, on June 1, 2014, to attend the inauguration of the then president, Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019).
El Salvador and Spain have maintained bilateral relations since the 1980s and cooperate in different areas.
Bukele will take office this Saturday in the Plaza Capitán General Gerardo Barrios, known as Plaza Cívica and located in the heart of the Salvadoran capital, to preside over El Salvador in the 2024-29 five-year period in a second consecutive term.
The presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei; of Honduras, Xiomara Castro; of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chávez, and of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, who would arrive around midnight, will also attend.
Felipe VI and Milei will be at the Bukele investiture event in the midst of the crisis between the ruler and the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
International
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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