International
The fiscal and police team investigating the president of Peru, at the Government Palace of Lima
The team of prosecutors and police officers that entered around midnight on Friday at the home of the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, arrived around 4.30 a.m. (9.30 GMT) this Saturday at the Government Palace of Lima, where it will continue with the proceedings of an open investigation against the ruler.
Anti-corruption prosecutors and agents of the High Complexity Crimes Investigation Division (Diviac) of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) arrived at the government headquarters, in the historic center of the Peruvian capital, after staying for more than five hours in the house of Boluarte, in the Lima district of Surquillo.
The participants in the operation broke the lock of the main door of the Boluarte house after their requests to access the property were not met. The ruler was not at home at that time.
Both the prosecutors and the police officers who intervened in the operation told the journalists that the investigation is confidential and they cannot offer more information about the investigations.
The entrance to the Boluarte house and the Government Palace is made as part of a preliminary investigation opened against Boluarte for the alleged commission of the crime of illicit enrichment.
The Prime Minister of Peru, Gustavo Adrianzén, declared himself this Saturday “indignant” by the raid that the Prosecutor’s Office made on the president’s house and considered that there has been “an intolerable abuse of the dignity” of the Head of State.
“I am outraged by what happened, what has happened this midnight constitutes an intolerable abuse of the dignity of the presidency of the Republic and the nation it represents,” Adrianzén told the RPP station.
The prime minister added that “it is not possible” that they have to “witness absolutely disproportionate and if not unconstitutional actions,” since the ruler is protected by the immunity granted by her office.
The Boluarte house was searched by a team of prosecutors and agents of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) as part of a preliminary investigation opened against the ruler for the alleged commission of the crime of illicit enrichment.
The prosecutors carried out the operation for the purpose of registration and seizure of the luxury watches that, according to local media, Boluarte used in different public activities and has allegedly not declared as part of his estate.
Adrianzén recalled that the president requested that the proceedings of the case be rescheduled, but said that this “has not been granted” by the Prosecutor’s Office.
“It is unusual, to say the least, that at midnight and on a holiday, as we are right now, these actions have to be carried out,” he emphasized.
The Presidency of Peru and the Public Ministry have maintained a controversy in recent days regarding the proceedings initiated as part of the investigation opened for the alleged lack of declaration by the ruler of her luxury watches.
Last Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office denounced that the visits to the ruler were frustrated both at her home and in the Government Palace, while the Presidency assured that representatives of the Public Ministry were attended by members of the staff of the Boluarte office, who received a notification for the president.
Supreme Prosecutor Hernán Mendoza declared before the Congressional Oversight Commission that the president “had frustrated” the investigations by not attending the citations made for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
After that situation, the legal defense of Boluarte asked to reschedule the proceedings in the investigation of the case of luxury watches that the president did not declare and for which she is being investigated for illicit enrichment.
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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