International
Duque sees “despair” and “insecurity” in Petro’s attitude and proposes a “democratic debate”
Former Colombian President Iván Duque sees that there is “despair” and “insecurity” in his successor, Gustavo Petro, who accused him of being a “terrorist” for the “murder” of dozens of young people at the hands of the public forces during the 2021 protests.
In a message published on the social network X, Duque (2018-2022) made a parallel between his career and that of Petro. He asked “that the healthy democratic debate begin now” for the presidential elections of 2026.
“There is despair, insecurity, paranoia, schizophrenia evident in this behavior, which intensifies with the drunkenness of applause and the motivation to eclipse failures and scandals. No more threats or attacks. Let the tragedy end on August 7, 2026 (the day that Petro’s mandate culminates), but let the healthy democratic debate begin without stopping at more crazy things to attract attention,” Duque said.
The day before, President Petro called his predecessor a “terrorist” for the “murder” of young people during the social outcuse of 2021. According to social organizations, more than 80 people died violently, most of them from police abuses.
“When 60 young people killed by the State die, burned, tortured, when thousands of young people were arrested, the question is then: who was the terrorist? Who should be described as a terrorist?” Petro asked in a government act in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca (southwest).
Petro added: “The president of the republic today has to say that the terrorist was not the popular youth, that the terrorist was the State of Colombia and particularly the Government of (…) Mr. Duque. The 60 killed in Cali by you were not terrorists, the terrorist was you.”
In that sense, Duque wondered, “Who is the terrorist?” He recalled that he has never been a member of “illegal or terrorist armed groups,” as if Petro did, who was a guerrilla of the 19 de Abril Movement (M-19).
“I have never made an apology for terrorism by flying flags of illegal armed groups,” added the former president, referring to the controversy that erose last month when Petro ordered the M-19 flag to be displayed in a public event in which he commemorated the murder 34 years ago of former guerrilla commander Carlos Pizarro.
Among other issues that Duque reminded Petro of, there are the “alliances with criminals in prisons to make the most of the election.” Or the call to young people to “express themselves with violence and vandalism with the promise of impunity if they are prosecuted.”
“I have never exalted the seizure of the Palace of Justice (in 1985), the murder of José Raquel Mercado (union leader kidnapped and executed by the M-19), the Tacueyó Massacre (in the 1980s), nor hundreds of kidnappings calling them ‘revolutionary’ acts,” Duque added in reference to Petro’s attitudes.
Likewise, Duque said that he has not “promoted the paramilitary leaders to return to the country to avoid their punishments, revictimizing those who have caused them so much pain,” referring to what happened to the former commander of the United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) Salvatore Mancuso, appointed peace manager by the Government and who may be released in the coming days.
“I have not threatened journalists, businessmen, politicians, judges, guilds, industrialists, intellectuals for not thinking like me, much less disagreeing with me,” Duque concluded in his decalogue of response to Petro.
Former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) accused the current president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, of wanting to instigate “civil war” in the country and of constantly challenging the Constitution.
“The president instigates civil war. Let’s add so that that war does not divide the citizenry, so that it is the president’s against all of Colombia,” said Uribe, leader of the opposition party Centro Democrático, in a video published on his social networks.
Uribe assured that “the president of the republic, instead of reorienting the young people of Cali, as part of the support he wants to give them, instigates them more to violence, applauds violent acts.”
“He repeats to them that my permanence in politics is attachment to power when he should give thanks that that permanence allowed him to base himself on anti-uribism for his election,” said Uribe, who ruled in the periods 2002-2006 and 2006-2010.
He also stated that Petro defies the Constitution as a step “in his purpose of unleashing a civil war between compatriots.”
“We work so that respect for the Constitution and respect for the ideas of fraternal economy one more to the citizenry (…) That it is against all of Colombia, that it does not divide the Colombians more,” he concluded.
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
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
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