International
642 million voters participated in India’s general elections
The Electoral Commission of India revealed on Monday that 642 million of the almost 970 million voters went to the polls in the general elections, which ended last Saturday after 44 days and whose results are expected this Tuesday.
“We recorded a world record of 642 million proud Indian voters. This is a historic moment for us,” the head of the Indian Electoral Commission, Rajiv Kumar, said at a press conference.
The official, in charge of ensuring the good development of the gigantic elections, said that 312 of the 642 million voters were women. This is “more than in 2019, both in total and percentage terms,” Kumar said.
The chief commissioner said that these elections recorded fewer violent incidents.
“There were only 39 repetitions of the elections” in the districts, he said, “this had never happened and in 2019 this number was 540.”
The officials of the Electoral Commission will start counting the votes of the electronic voting machines next Tuesday from 8:00 local time (2:30 GMT), counting district by district simultaneously and without a time limit.
“The counting process is absolutely robust,” he said.
However, the results are expected to be known on the same day, or at least a count that shows a clear majority in the Lower House of Parliament or Lok Sabha that allows one of the parties to declare itself the winner.
The general elections in the subcontinent began on April 19 and ended on Saturday, spaced in seven phases due to the logistical challenge of making a country of about 1.4 billion inhabitants vote and guaranteeing security.
In the absence of official results, most of the polls published last weekend by private media give Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the winner.
However, the parties of an opposition coalition called the National Inclusive Alliance for the Development of India or simply INDIA have been skeptical about these polls.
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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