International
12 dead after intervention in Paraguay’s largest prison

December 19 |
The National Police of Paraguay indicated that the intervention executed on Monday in the national penitentiary of Tacumbú left a preliminary toll of 12 dead.
The dead left, so far, by the military police intervention in the most important penitentiary in the country are 11 inmates and a member of the National Police, belonging to the tactical group Lince.
The deceased officer was identified as the assistant sub-officer Martín Mendoza.
The Ministry of Health informed that it attended a total of 54 people injured during the operation who were referred to different health care centers, of which 14 are National Police officers and 40 persons deprived of their liberty.
In addition, another 40 people, including police officers, military personnel and inmates, were treated by mobile clinics set up outside the Tacumbú penitentiary, making a total of 94 injured people.
On the other hand, the Paraguayan State managed to recover the aforementioned prison, which was in the hands of the “Rotela Clan”, thanks to the mega-operation called “Veneratio”, an operation carried out by the Paraguayan National Police and the Military Forces.
In fact, Paraguayan authorities said that the leader and founder of the “Clan Rotela,” Armando Javier Rotela, was recaptured and transferred to the Viñas Cue military prison, located in Asunción.
It should be noted that Armando Javier Rotela had absolute control of the penitentiary from an exclusive wing where he ran the criminal organization of drug trafficking and other related crimes. He will now be placed in an isolation cell due to his high dangerousness, so he will not have contact with other inmates in the Viñas Cue military prison.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
International
Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.
The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.
While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.
Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.
Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.
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