International
Suspect ‘got’ $8,000 for killing Paraguayan prosecutor on honeymoon
| By AFP |
A suspect in the murder of a Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor shot dead while honeymooning on a Caribbean island has confessed to accepting $8,000 for the execution-style killing, Venezuela said Thursday.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos shared a video with journalists in which Gabriel Carlos Luis Salinas Mendoza, a Venezuelan citizen arrested in Caracas on Tuesday, appears to confess to his part in the crime.
“We rented a jet ski, we went to Baru beach (in Colombia) and we executed” the crime, Salinas, one of two alleged hitmen, is seen telling interrogators.
Afterwards, “I got $8,000 and came to Venezuela” across the border.
Pecci, 45, was felled by two shots while relaxing on an idyllic island beach with his wife, Paraguayan journalist Claudia Aguilera in May.
The couple got married on April 30 in the nearby city of Cartagena.
Aguilera, who was pregnant at the time, has recounted that two men arrived on the beach on a jet ski or small boat. One approached Pecci, and “without a word,” shot him twice.
Salinas is accused of having driven the jet ski.
He states in the video that he was acting for a man named Francisco Correa, known as “El Monin.”
Ceballos said Salinas would be tried in Venezuela, where the law prohibits extradition to other countries.
The investigation has yet to identify the masterminds behind the crime. The United States has offered a reward of $5 million for information on who is responsible.
Pecci had specialized in organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and terror financing.
At the time of his murder, Paraguay Attorney General Sandra Quinonez said Pecci had obtained important convictions in an 11-year campaign against cross-border and drug crime.
Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, is contending with a wave of violence despite a 2016 peace deal that disarmed the FARC guerrilla group and ended a near six-decade civil conflict.
Fighting over territory and resources continues in parts of the country between dissident FARC guerrillas, the ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels, particularly in areas bordering on Venezuela.
For its part, landlocked Paraguay — nestled between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina — has become an important launchpad for drugs headed for Europe.
Paraguay and Colombia have recently strengthened cooperation in the fight against organized and cross-border crime.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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