International
Bolsonaro diverted gifts for 1.2 million dollars for his benefit, according to the Police
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro benefited from the diversion of gifts received during official visits abroad that are valued at 1.2 million dollars (about 1.1 million euros), according to a report by the Federal Police of Brazil released on Monday.
The Police assure in their investigation that the plot sought the illicit enrichment of Bolsonaro, whom he accused last Thursday along with 11 other people for the crimes of appropriation of public good, money laundering and association to commit crimes.
According to the researchers, the participants in the scheme used two stratagems to divert the official gifts depending on whether their reception had been formally registered.
Thus, those who were not registered were directly subtracted by the former president without going through the evaluation of the Deputy Cabinet of Historical Documentation, an entity of the Presidency controlled by a Bolsonaro adviser.
Meanwhile, other gifts this organization qualified as “very personal goods” so that Bolsonaro could keep them, based on a “legal interpretation diametrically opposed to the constitutional foundations,” according to the Police.
Among the stolen goods, there is a set of rose gold men’s jewelry of the Chopard brand delivered by the Government of Saudi Arabia to Bolsonaro’s Minister of Energy, Bento Albuquerque.
In December 2022, when there were only a few days left until the end of the ultra leader’s mandate, these jewels were taken on the presidential plane to the United States, where they were auctioned.
The same fate was suffered by other luxury objects received by the president during official visits to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, such as two watches from the Rolex and Patek Phillipe brands.
According to the Police, in the United States, intermediaries of the former president were in charge of negotiating the sale of the jewelry with the purpose of “hiding the real owner and beneficiary” of the transaction.
In this way, the money received for the sale of the two watches went, first, to the bank account of General Mauro César Lourena Cid, father of Bolsonaro’s personal assistant and who occupied an official position of the Government in Miami.
In the following months, those resources were transferred during personal meetings, “in a “split and in kind” way,” to Bolsonaro, who lived for a while in Miami after his electoral defeat against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The far-right leader, on whom other investigations weigh, has denied the charges, waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to determine whether to file a complaint.
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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