International
By water or land, the security forces shield Rosario against drug trafficking
Whether by water or by land, the hardest core of the Argentine federal forces, which the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, promised a few days ago, is in Rosario equipped with state-of-the-art technology and armored vehicles to reinforce the fight against drug trafficking.
Drug violence, which has been present in the third largest city in Argentina for decades, has intensified in recent weeks with the random murder of citizens in retaliation for the measures of the governor of Santa Fe, Maximiliano Pullaro, to implement the ‘Bukele style’ in the prisons of his province.
Faced with the situation of insecurity, the Executive intervened with the creation of a crisis committee, which sent hundreds of troops from the Prefecture, Federal Police, Gendarmerie, Airport Police and even members of the Army and the Naval Navy to Rosario, working together within a unified command.
It is estimated that they reach a total of 2,000 uniformed personnel. Although sources from the Ministry of Security inform EFE that they are estimated figures and can be even more: in short, “how much should not be revealed.”
As a port city on the banks of the Paraná River, Rosario has the protection of the Argentine Naval Prefecture (PNA), which since last December patrols the waterway day and night with different boats, among which the ‘Toba’ coast guard stands out.
One of the four fast attack boats of the Sheldag class, of Israeli origin, transferred to Argentina in 2018 to protect the water borders of the coast and north of the country, has two static machine guns of 7.62 caliber on the sides of the bridge and a heavy of 12.7 in the bow, with space for 12 prefects.
With 25 meters of length, 6 meters of sleeve and 1.25 meters of drage it can reach 75 kilometers of speed; in addition, it has a rubber Zodiac for coastal approaches or shipments to other ships.
The chief officer of the PNA Damián Centurión, captain of the ‘Toba’, explains to the EFE team embarked on the ship to accompany a patrol that the most frequent crime on the coasts is the smuggling of narcotics.
“Our job is to control and suppress illicit activities in water such as smuggling. Mainly, we take care of the control of the waterways. Our stay here is indefinite. We know that there is a lot to do in Rosario,” he says.
The ship has “endured punishment,” since in the middle of a confrontation it endured bullets of 9 and 22 millimeter caliber without being penetrated
According to the captain, the ship has already “endured punishment”: in the middle of a confrontation, the naval aluminum withstored, without being penetrated, bullets of the caliber 9 and 22 millimeters.
They arrived in Rosario with the ‘Flag Plan’, installed shortly after Javier Milei assumed president, to strengthen security and, according to official data, the reduction in intentional homicides dropped to 47.83%.
In the first two months of 2024, the drug trafficker has carried out 24 murders, while the operatives managed to dismantle organized crime activities, in addition to seizing vehicles, weapons and mobile phones.
“At the moment, there was no worrying fact among our current patrol tasks that go from Rosario, Santa Fe, Arroyo Seco, San Lorenzo and wherever they require us. We are varying the schedules, but we are usually at night,” he adds.
For that work, the ‘Toba’ has thermal, night and daytime cameras with a range of 7 kilometers used to follow boats from a distance and automatically, thanks to its radar system.
The arrival of federal forces included their tactical groups, prepared to deal with anti-terrorist and drug trafficking situations: the special group of federal operations (GEOF) arrived on the streets of Rosario, which uses the ‘Mengshi’ (Chinese word for ‘brave soldier’) type CSK131.
It is a light armored vehicle of the four donated by China to Argentina and put into operation in 2018 for the G20 Summit, it has space for six men and is used to accompany police searches.
This Asian version of the famous HMMWV (‘Humvee’) accompanies checkpoints and checkpoints in the so-called ‘saturation operations’ – as EFE could verify -, which work in an intimidating way by controlling vehicles and in the surveillance of the most dangerous neighborhoods.
These operations begin at 5:00 p.m. (20:00 GMT) until 7:00 a.m. (10:00 GMT) the following day with the intention of preventing and mapping the criminal structure.
The ‘Mengshi’ can reach 135 kilometers per hour, withstand all kinds of calibers of firearms and explosive splinters of low and medium power; it can even be equipped with a heavy machine gun and even grenade launcher.
Although “narcoterrorism,” as the authorities call it, has long tentacles, the arrival of agents and heavy equipment for now shields Rosario against drug trafficking.
International
A magnitude 6 earthquake shakes the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, bordering Colombia
A magnitude 6 earthquake was recorded this Friday in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, bordering Colombia, causing damage to several infrastructures and leaving, so far, 20 people injured.
According to the Geophysical Institute of the National Polytechnic School, the earthquake occurred at 06:44 local time (11:44 GMT) at 1.03 degrees south latitude and 79.69 degrees west longitude.
According to the source, the tremor occurred at a depth of 30 kilometers and 9.31 kilometers from Esmeraldas, capital of the homonymous province.
According to the National Secretariat of Risk Management (SNGR), the affected people had head injuries and bruises.
While the SNGR continues with the verification of affectations, it indicated that 80% of the electricity service and 80% of the telecommunications that were affected, are gradually restored.
Among the affected public buildings are the ECU 911 due to a fall of masonry; the Vargas Torres University, which has cracks; the Los Militares building where the front collapsed and the Prefecture building, among others.
The SNGR reported that the earthquake was felt with strong intensity in seven municipalities of the province of Esmeraldas and moderately in the provinces of Guayas and Manabí, while mildly in Carchi, Cotopaxi, Imbabura, Los Ríos, Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Tungurahua.
About twenty minutes after the earthquake in Esmeraldas, one of magnitude 4.1 was reported in the coastal province of Guayas, located in the southeast of the country, without damage or victims having been reported so far.
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, ordered the displacement of all his ministers to Esmeraldas, in order to coordinate actions after the magnitude 6 earthquake recorded this Friday.
“I have arranged for the immediate deployment of all ministers in the province of Esmeraldas to coordinate the installation of shelters, delivery of humanitarian aid kits and assistance in everything our people need,” Noboa wrote on his social network account X.
The province of Esmeraldas was one of the most affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake recorded on April 16, 2016, which left more than 670 dead, thousands affected, as well as millions of material losses.
This earthquake also hit the province of Manabí, located, like Esmeraldas, on the coast of the Andean country, but also affected other areas and was felt strongly, even in the Ecuadorian capital.
Ecuador is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire or Belt, which concentrates some of the most important subduction areas (sinking of tectonic plates) in the world and is the scene of strong seismic activity.
In addition to Ecuador, the Horseshoe-shaped Belt comprises a large number of countries such as Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States and Canada.
International
Preparations for Pope Francis’ funeral, in figures
The funeral of Pope Francis this Saturday, the first of a reigning pontiff for two decades, is an event that moves dizzying figures and will require the full mobilization of Italian authorities and volunteers.
These are some of the figures that draw what can be expected tomorrow for a historic day:
The Italian Ministry of the Interior has calculated that 200,000 faithful will attend the funeral of Francis. For the next conclave – with a date yet to be defined – and the election of the new pope, that figure amounts to 250,000.
The funeral procession that will move the remains of the late pope from St. Peter’s Vatican to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, where Francis arranged to be buried in a simple tomb.
3,000 volunteers will mobilize the Italian Civil Protection, responsible for the management of the preparations. There will be 55 health teams distributed throughout the funeral procession between San Pedro del Vaticano and the basilica de Santa María la Mayor, in addition to 11 advanced medical posts and 52 additional ambulances that will join the existing fleet.
17 degrees and a radiant sun are expected at 10:00 (08.00 GMT) on Saturday, the start time of the funeral, although the thermometer could reach 24 degrees throughout the day.
The state group Ferrovie dello Stato makes 260,000 seats available to those who wish to approach Rome by train. Civil Protection also confirmed that 500 parking spaces for buses and coaches have been reserved for the same day in Rome and its surroundings.
130 international delegations have already confirmed their presence at the event, but it is expected that the final figure may rise to 170. Fifty will be headed by heads of state or government, including a dozen sovereigns.
120,000 arrivals planned in Rome on April 25 and 26, which will translate into about 320,000 overnight stays, according to figures from the Department of Tourism of the Italian capital, which warns that the estimates may be below even those that finally occur. 101,000 of those arrivals will take place in hotels and another 53,000 in “supplementary establishments”.
11,000 soldiers and members of the security forces, not counting the teams of the international delegations, who will ensure that the funeral is held without incident. Police, police officers and traffic officers will join at least 1,500 soldiers.
5 anti-drone bazooas, capable of intercepting the radio frequencies with which these devices are operated, which will reinforce the decreed no-fly zone over the Roman sky.
International
“A dignified life” for migrants, the plea in Panama in memory of Pope Francis
Catholics who work with some of the 299 migrants deported by the United States to Panama, beg the Government that beyond placing the flag at half-mast for the death of Pope Francis this week, it should pay tribute to him by giving “a dignified life” to the migrants, as the Supreme Pontiff preached.
“Never forget your human dignity,” because “you are not a discard,” the pope wrote last year in a message addressed to the thousands of migrants who had just crossed the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between Colombia and Panama, on their way to the United States.
Known by many as “the pope of migrants” for his defense of those who are forced to leave their land in search of better living conditions, he himself recalled then that he was “son of migrants who went out in search of a better future,” and that “there were times when they were left with nothing, until they went hungry; with empty hands, but their hearts full of hope.”
Therefore, members of Catholic organizations that are part of the CLAMOR Network (the Latin American and Caribbean Ecclesiastical Network for Migration, Displacement, Refuge and Trafficking in Persons), and who work with dozens of migrants in the Panamanian capital deported by the United States, remember the teachings of Pope Francis.
Elías Cornejo, coordinator of social promotion and attention to the migrant population of the Catholic organization Fe y Alegría, which is part of the Clamor Network, explained to EFE in a migrant shelter that we must “look for alternatives for these people, they cannot be kept in conditions that are not favorable or dignified.”
“In the context of the death of Pope Francis, who was incisive in insisting on humane treatment of migrants, I believe that this country that declares itself mostly Catholic (…) beyond the flag at half-mast, I would also ask the national government to dignify that memory of Pope Francis by giving an answer to many people who (…) have the right to have a dignified life,” Cornejo stressed.
“Give them that, try to find a human, Christian, evangelical answer,” he insisted.
The pilgrimage of this group of migrants through Panama began in mid-February, when a total of 299 arrived on three planes from the United States within the framework of an agreement that turned the Central American nation into a “joup” country for their repatriation.
Coming from extracontinental nations such as China, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Pakistan or Nepal, 188 returned to their countries “voluntarily”, according to the latest official information available, and 111 refused to do so, many of them fearing for their lives.
The entire group was first housed in a central hotel in the Panamanian capital, and those who refused to be repatriated to their countries were transferred to a shelter more than 200 kilometers away, near the Darién jungle.
Then, after the decision last March by the Government of Panama to grant them a temporary humanitarian permit for 30 days, extendable up to 90, to find a way out of their situation, they took them back to the capital, although now without any type of logistical support, so the CLAMOR Network occupied that vacuum by first hosting the migrants in a humble hotel in the city, to transfer them days later to one of its shelters.
According to Cornejo, who underlines the support they receive in the shelter of “non-believing people, believing people, Muslim people, people of other religions too,” of the 69 migrants who moved there – families with children continue to stay in a hotel – 47 remain, since they “make their own decisions and move” by their own decision to other places.
“We don’t know where, we have an idea, but we don’t want to keep them or force them to anything, because they are free, they are not people who are imprisoned (…) We don’t want to pressure them, we don’t want to pressure the Government, but we do want to tell them again, ‘please, let’s find a way out of this’. An exit that has to be worthy for the State and for them, for migrants,” he remarked.
At least, he says, from the Foreign Ministry they have guaranteed that they will not deport anyone by force if the new 60-day period ends, an extension that ends in June and that, according to official data shared with EFE, at least 80 migrants have requested.
Two mothers from Asian countries who requested with their children the extension of the “temporary resident permit for humanitarian reasons”, as indicated in the document to which EFE had access, and who asked for anonymity, insisted that returning to their country is not an option, since if they return their “lives are in danger”.
Housed in a humble hotel in the center of the Panamanian capital, on a floor where behind each door there is a family of different nationality, they explain to EFE through a translation application part of their journey to the United States, crossing several countries of America with their minor children, and then their sudden expulsion without knowing the destination, some handcuffed hand and foot.
“When they put me on the plane I felt suffocated. His hands and feet were cold. My heart was beating fast, I had high blood pressure. I told the military,” recalls one of them. There were men and women handcuffed, the children were terrified. They are adults, but children are not, “how can they treat them as criminals?”
Now, they say, they are “afraid” that the day will come when the deadline they were given to stay in Panama will expire. “When this document ends, I don’t know exactly what will happen to us if the United States doesn’t get us out of here.”
“We want to ask Donald Trump to return us to the United States, please,” they begged.
A magnitude 6 earthquake shakes the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, bordering Colombia
Preparations for Pope Francis’ funeral, in figures
“A dignified life” for migrants, the plea in Panama in memory of Pope Francis
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
-
Central America4 days agoCardinal Rodríguez to Attend Funeral of Pope Francis: “He Was Very Dear to Me”
-
Central America4 days agoNicaragua’s Ortega and Murillo Mourn Pope Francis, Acknowledge ‘Difficult’ Relationship
-
International4 days agoDominican Republic Declares Three Days of Mourning for Pope Francis
-
International3 days agoPope Francis and Trump, a relationship of disagreements marked by migration
-
International4 days agoDHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s Purse Stolen in D.C. Restaurant Heist
-
International2 days agoFrom the transfer of the coffin to the funeral, three days to say goodbye to Pope Francis
-
International3 days agoWithin Francis’ private wake: respect and prayer for the deceased pope
-
International4 days agoPope Francis: The Quiet Architect Behind the U.S.-Cuba Thaw
-
International3 days agoTrump’s emissary will visit Russia this week for consultations on the arrangement in Ukraine
-
International2 days agoA very heterogeneous and divided conclave will elect the new pope
-
International2 days agoModi returns to India and shortens his visit to Saudi Arabia after a deadly attack in Kashmir
-
International3 days agoCardinal Becciu’s enigma: will he enter the conclave?
-
International3 days agoThe pope last called the Gaza parish on Saturday and asked about the children
-
International3 days agoA candidate for the Supreme Court denounces an unequal dispute in the judicial election of Mexico
-
International3 days agoAmerican universities and colleges sign a letter against Trump’s policy
-
International3 days agoThe Government of Colombia presents twelve questions that it will propose in a popular consultation to promote its reforms
-
International3 days agoBurma’s military junta extends ceasefire until April 30 due to the earthquake
-
International2 days agoEl Salvador formalizes the proposal for the exchange of Venezuelan deportees, according to Bukele
-
International2 days agoMaradona’s house arrest is again a focus of tension in the trial for his death
-
International2 days agoThe Peruvian Public Ministry denounces the former attorney general for an alleged corruption case
-
International2 days agoA judge orders the Trump Government to restore Voice of America services
-
International3 days agoInternational leaders begin to confirm their presence at Pope Francis’ funeral
-
International23 hours agoThe Pope’s funeral procession through the center of Rome worries the Italian authorities
-
International2 days agoDonald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in mid-May
-
International3 days agoRoyal quinoa, the superfood that grows in front of the largest salt flat in the world in Bolivia
-
International24 hours agoThe Arab League supports Hamas handing over control of Gaza and weapons to the Palestinian Authority
-
International3 days agoChurch charges ceased or resigned in the papacy of Francis for cases of pedophilia
-
International2 days agoThe president of the World Bank underlines his intention to lift his veto on nuclear energy
-
International4 hours ago“A dignified life” for migrants, the plea in Panama in memory of Pope Francis
-
International24 hours agoMigrants want to stay on Mexico’s southern border because of Sheinbaum’s industrial plan
-
International23 hours agoA group of the poor and a delegation of migrants will participate in the funeral and burial of the pope on Saturday
-
International2 days agoMarco Rubio reorganizes the State Department to eliminate offices and jobs
-
International24 hours agoThe pope’s doctor reveals his last moments of life and that he wanted to “die at home”
-
International4 hours agoA Russian general dies in the explosion of a car bomb near Moscow
-
International2 days agoThe Brazilian Supreme Court opens trial against six others accused of leading the coup attempt
-
International24 hours agoFrom email to marriage: the day Pope Francis married a Uruguayan couple
-
International2 days agoA judge in the United States stops the deportation to El Salvador of a hundred Venezuelans
-
International4 hours agoPutin and Witkoff address possible direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine
-
International4 hours agoA magnitude 6 earthquake shakes the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, bordering Colombia
-
International4 hours agoPope Francis’ funeral procession will be a six-kilometer journey through the heart of Rome