International
The Government accuses the opposition of an alleged plan to tear down a bridge in Venezuela
The Government of Venezuela accused the opposition of an alleged plan to tear down a bridge in the south of the country, with the aim of “causing anxiety” in the population in the face of the presidential elections on July 28.
“We have detected and unveiled a serious plan to demolish (…) the first bridge over the Orinoco River, the Angostura Bridge,” said the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who also reiterated the denunciation of plans to attack facilities of the national electricity system.
According to the official, members of the opposition elaborate these “perverse plans” because “they do not want an election, because they already know they are defeated” and, therefore, “they want to sabotage” the July elections.
“Efremism, which seeks to cause suffering to the people of Venezuela, who have attacked the national electricity system, which has promoted the terrible economic blockade against our homeland, (…) now has these perverse plans against the vital infrastructure of the nation,” he said.
According to Rodríguez, between 10% and 20% of the “guayas (thick and resistant wire) that support the bridge” have been cut, so the Executive decided to divert the circulation of cargo transport over the Orinoquia bridge – the second on the Orinoco River – and set, at 40 kilometers per hour, the maximum speed limit for private vehicles.
For his part, the Minister of Transport, Ramón Velásquez, reported plans to rehabilitate the bridge, which include the restitution of the wires, general maintenance, lighting and the installation of a surveillance system through cameras.
The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) activated a plan ordered by President Nicolás Maduro to protect the electrical system from alleged sabotage that, according to the head of state and candidate for re-election, prepares the majority opposition against this sector.
According to the president, the opposition is preparing an “electric war” by seeing himself, he assured, “lost” in the presidential elections, and claimed to have “six, eight, nine, ten proofs” – which he did not show – of these facts.
The Government also accuses the opposition of wanting to carry out a coup d’état and of looking for guarimbas (protests) in the country.
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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