International
Lacalle Pou shows her admiration for the commitment of María Corina Machado
The president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, highlighted this Friday his admiration for the commitment of the Venezuelan María Corina Machado, who is disqualified to compete for the Presidency of her country.
“We have said it over and over again: free elections, respect for human rights and full democracy. Your commitment and effort for the Venezuelan cause is admirable,” were the words that the president used to respond on the social network X a publication in which Machado said that they had had a dialogue.
“I have just spoken with the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, whom I thanked for his permanent support and solidarity with our struggle for democracy and freedom. At the hours of the 28th, he confirmed his commitment to the values that unite us and gave me his admiration for the great example of civic courage that Venezuelans give to the world. Thank you very much, dear President!” Machado said there.
A day earlier, the candidate for the Presidency of Uruguay for the ruling National Party, Álvaro Delgado, shared a statement that he signed together with the candidates of three other political forces that make up the current government coalition, in which they asked for transparency in the Venezuelan elections.
“The conditions of next Sunday’s elections, where there are exiles, political prisoners, harassment of the opposition and the disqualification of the main opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, do not guarantee a democratic process,” they said.
This statement was also signed by Andrés Ojeda (Colorado Party), Guido Manini Ríos (Open Cabildo) and Pablo Mieres (Independent Party).
On February 1, Lacalle Pou had already spoken about the Venezuelan elections and stressed that they would not be “free and democratic” after Machado’s disqualification.
“We do not try to have a point of view as we like a government more or less,” the president said that day, who added that Machado’s disqualification was a sign that there was “no will” for the elections to be transparent.
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.
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