International
Former presidents condemn Maduro’s “disrespect” of asylum for opponents in Venezuela
The group of former presidents who make up the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA) lamented on Monday the “disrespect” of diplomatic asylum for collaborators of Venezuelan opponents María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia by the Government of Nicolás Maduro.
The group lamented the “persecution” of members of Machado’s right wing of the campaign, “subject to diplomatic asylum in the representation of the Argentine Republic in Caracas without receiving the respective safe-conducts, which must be granted as a matter of urgency.”
Former presidents of IDEA today denounced in a statement this “violation” of the 1954 Caracas Convention on diplomatic asylum, in this case “with the manifest purpose of enervating” Machado’s support for González Urrutia’s presidential candidacy.
They recalled that asylum is a “humanitarian practice with the purpose of protecting fundamental rights of the person” according to the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
IDEA urged the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) to consider violations of the Asylum Convention by Venezuela and, if applicable, to “urge the States parties to it, in particular Argentina, to file an instance before the International Court of Justice.”
Likewise, IDEA complained that “the illegal and arbitrary imprisonment” of those who make up Machado’s executive arm is maintained.
The statement was signed by former Spanish Government President José María Aznar and former Colombian presidents Andrés Pastrana, Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe.
It is also signed by the former presidents of Costa Rica Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and Luis Guillermo Solís, among a total of twenty former presidents.
On March 26, it was reported from Buenos Aires of the entry of a group of opponents in the Argentine residence in the Venezuelan capital although it was not specified since when they were there.
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
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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