International
López Obrador recognizes drug production in Mexico and blames the United States for the consumption
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, acknowledged on Tuesday that there are “crime groups” that produce drugs in the country, although he blamed the United States because its consumption is “increasingly” higher.
“The causes have to be addressed (in the United States) and this will also help us a lot because here there are crime groups that are dedicated to the production of drugs,” he said in the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the National Guard (GN), a body that he conceived in 2019.
However, he warned that “as long as there is consumption as happens, and more and more, in the United States, more problems” occur in Mexico to “confront organized crime” that traffics in drugs.
This is one of the first times that the president, who will replace the presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1, recognizes the production of narcotics by Mexican cartels.
In fact, at the end of March he stated that there is “very little fentanyl” made in Mexico, after he denied for years the information of the United States Anti-Drug Agency (DEA), which maintains that this narcotic is produced in the country with chemical precursors from Asia.
“We must convince, because we are brothers and good neighbors, Americans so that they address the causes that cause the high consumption of drugs they have,” he recommended to the agents of the GN and a good part of his presidential Cabinet.
He stressed that this situation leads to “very unfortunate” circumstances in the United States, such as the death of young people from overdose, especially due to the consumption of the “terrible drug of fentanyl.”
“What we have to try is that young people do not come out of the families so young, that this custom is revised,” López Obrador suggested.
So he was committed to “helping in any way possible” from Mexico.
On the other hand, the current president described how his administration is “confronting the scourge of violence” with measures such as the daily celebration of the Security Cabinet or the creation of the GN, which López Obrador wants to integrate into the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena).
One of its controversial constitutional reforms announced in February was already attempted in September 2022 with a legal change to include the GN in the Sedena and that, subsequently, was invalidated by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).
During the creation of the Guard, it was established that the body of 130,000 agents should be in charge of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC).
“It is progressing, not as we would like, but we must take into account that it is a very aggravated evil because they left it for a long time without attention,” he acknowledged.
He opined that, since his entry into the National Palace, the causes that originate violence are being “advered” through different policies, such as “guaranteeing” universal access to health and “that there is social security.”
Also, López Obrador demanded to “take care” that drug use does not grow within Mexico, now “very focused” in some areas, and appealed to the original cultures, the “protective shield” of society, to carry it out.
“Mexicans, I say this with all respect, are not vicious or prone to drugs,” he said.
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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