International
The NATO Council will meet next week to elect Rutte secretary general
The North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decision-making body, will meet next week to decide on the formal appointment of the Dutchman Mark Rutte as secretary general of the organization, diplomatic sources told EFE on Thursday.
Although Rutte’s path at the head of the Alliance was cleared today when the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, withdrew his candidacy, the formal decision has to be made by the North Atlantic Council, also known as the Atlantic Council, the sources indicated.
They explained that there is agreement between the allies that it is Rutte who picks up the witness of the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg at the head of NATO, but the decision is not yet formally made.
It is expected that this formal election will take place next week within the Atlantic Council at the level of the ambassadors of the 32 member countries and that it will be ratified by the leaders, as planned, in July at the Alliance summit in Washington.
Iohannis indicated on Thursday to the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) that his country was renouncing its candidacy and this body in turn informed NATO of its withdrawal, after getting Rutte the support of the other 32 member countries.
With this announcement, the acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands becomes de facto the only candidate to lead NATO.
Iohannis, who had announced his candidacy last March, stressed today that his country also supports Rutte’s candidacy.
In recent days, other countries in the region, which initially opposed the Dutchman’s candidacy, such as Slovakia and Hungary, finally gave Rutte their approval.
The Prime Minister of Hungary, the ultranationalist Viktor Orbán, announced on Tuesday that after the recent agreement with NATO in order not to have to join the allied activities in Ukraine, he has decided to support Rutte as the next secretary general.
The Slovak president, Peter Pellegrini, also said on Tuesday that he would support Rutte, who thus has the unanimous support of the 32 NATO-allied countries.
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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