International
Peru declares state of emergency as ousted leader remains in prison
| By AFP | Luis Jaime Cisneros and Patrick Fort |
Peru declared a nationwide state of emergency Wednesday amid violent protests against the ouster of ex-president Pedro Castillo that have left seven people dead.
The announcement came as a judge ordered Castillo to remain in prison, on charges of rebellion and conspiracy for another 48 hours ahead of a release hearing.
Castillo’s arrest last week after he tried to dissolve congress and rule by decree has sparked days of nationwide protests that quickly escalated into violence.
Defense Minister Alberto Otarola announced the new 30-day state of emergency due to “acts of vandalism and violence, road blocks.”
He said the measure involved “the suspension of the freedom of movement and assembly” and could also include a night-time curfew.
The new president, Dina Boluarte, again moved to ease tensions by calling for elections to be brought forward, this time to December 2023.
On Sunday, Boluarte had already said she would seek to advance elections from 2026 to 2024 but that did not appease Castillo supporters demanding his release and elections now.
Last week, a judge ordered Castillo to be held for seven days, and he was meant to be released on Wednesday.
However, prosecutors filed a request late on Tuesday to hold him in pre-trial detention for 18 months.
Judge Juan Checkley on Wednesday postponed a hearing on the new request until Thursday after defense attorneys argued they had not received all documents from the public prosecutor.
He also ordered Castillo to remain in detention for another 48 hours.
Castillo, a leftist former school teacher, was in power for only 17 months in the South American nation that is prone to political instability and is now on its sixth president in six years.
His short period in office was marked by a power struggle with the opposition-dominated Congress, and six investigations into him and his family mainly for corruption.
‘Serious social convulsion’
Castillo was facing his third impeachment bid when, last Wednesday, he announced he was dissolving Congress and would rule by decree.
But lawmakers went ahead and voted to sack him and he was quickly arrested while trying to flee to the Mexican Embassy and seek asylum.
Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, was sworn in as his successor.
Her attempts to calm tensions have failed, including an earlier state of emergency in several flashpoint regions.
Boluarte has now twice proposed advancing elections.
“Legally it works for April 2024 but by making some adjustments we can bring them forward to December 2023,” she told reporters.
Rights ombudsman Eliana Revollar told AFP on Tuesday that things could still get worse.
“This is a very serious social convulsion. We fear that it will lead to an uprising because there are people calling for an insurrection, who are asking to take up arms,” said Revollar.
Five people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces on Monday following another two on Sunday.
Six of the seven deaths have been in the Apurimac region, where Boluarte was born.
‘I will never give up’
Castillo also appeared in court on Tuesday by video link as he appealed his initial seven-day detention.
He called his arrest unjust and arbitrary and said he would “never give up and abandon this popular cause that brought me here.”
He also called on security forces “to lay down their arms and stop killing these people thirsty for justice.”
Protests by Castillo supporters began almost immediately after his arrest.
Mexico’s leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said his country still recognizes Castillo as president, has joined other regional leftist leaders in pledging support for the ousted leader.
Protesters have set up road blocks in numerous regions.
The worst-hit areas are in the north and south, including the region of Cusco, a tourism lure that is home to the Machu Picchu Inca citadel, and Peru’s second city, Arequipa.
In Lima, dozens of demonstrators threw stones at the police on Tuesday evening as they tried to reach Congress, with the police firing tear gas to disperse them.
Indigenous and agrarian organizations called an indefinite strike to begin on Tuesday, forcing the train service between the city of Cusco and Machu Picchu to be suspended.
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
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