International
The US makes “significant progress” with Saudi Arabia to increase defense cooperation
The United States made “significant progress” with Saudi Arabia to increase cooperation between the two countries in defense, part of the “megapact” that Washington has been promoting for months and that could lead to the normalization of relations between Israel and the Saudi kingdom.
These advances occurred during the meeting held this weekend in Saudi Arabia by the White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, and the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman, as John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, explained to the press on Monday.
Kirby said that the agreement “is closer than ever” and that the text that details the terms of it is already “almost finalized.”
The spokesman refused to set a date for the official announcement of those agreements, but assured that this weekend a “historic progress” was achieved in the elements of the so-called “megapact” that concern both Saudi Arabia and the United States.
“We believe that, after this weekend, we have achieved a set of practically definitive texts on some of those bilateral agreements between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Kirby emphasized.
In a similar tone, the Saudi Government has pronounced itself, which this Sunday, through the official SPA agency, indicated that the draft of the “strategic agreements” is already “almost finished.”
The details of this “megapact” that Washington has been promoting for months and that took a back seat after the October 7 attack by the Islamist group Hamas, which caused 1,200 deaths and triggered an Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip with more than 35,000 fatalities, have not yet been made public.
However, those negotiations have been reactivated in recent days and have gained greater importance within the framework of the talks to end the war in Gaza and rebuild the enclave.
Specifically, according to the details revealed by the US media, progress has been made in the negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States for the signing of a defense pact that allows the Saudi kingdom to strengthen its position vis-à-vis Iran, which it considers the main threat in the region.
That pact would allow Riyadh to have long-term access to advanced weapons, without its transfer being interrupted by diplomatic incidents, as it tried to be part of the Democratic bench of the US Congress after the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia has also pressed for the agreement to allow it to enrich uranium, although Washington could impose some conditions to prevent the door from being opened to a possible nuclear weapons program.
In exchange for those concessions, Saudi Arabia would agree to limit Chinese technology in its most sensitive networks, in what is perceived as an attempt by Washington to limit the impact of the Asian giant in the region.
Once Washington and Riyadh reach an agreement, the next step would be to get Israel to agree to create a Palestinian state and end the war in Gaza.
However, the creation of that Palestinian State seems incompatible with the political positions of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has publicly opposed it and whose permanence in power depends on the support of far-right politicians who support the creation of more Israeli settlements in territories that the Palestinians claim as their own.
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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