International
Nicolás Maduro asks for “respect for the popular will” after being proclaimed re-elected president of Venezuela
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, asked for “respect for the popular will” after being proclaimed as re-elected president, after elections in which he competed against nine contenders, including the standard-bearer of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia.
“That’s what I paint as president, I respect the Constitution, the public powers and the sovereign life of Venezuela, I respect the popular will (…) I will defend our law and our longing,” the president remarked before dozens of sympathizers who gathered near the presidential palace to listen to his victory speech.
He promised that, with this triumph, he will give “his entire life to carry out all the changes that this homeland needs,” which experienced an intense economic crisis between 2014 and 2021, from which it has begun to recover slightly.
Maduro assured that he will work in his third term “to rescue all the rights violated by the economic war,” alluding to the economic sanctions imposed by numerous countries in recent years, especially by the United States.
He considered that his re-election “is the triumph of peace, stability, the republican ideal, the ideas of equality.”
Around midnight on Sunday, the National Electoral Council (CNE), announced that Maduro was re-elected for a third consecutive term, in elections in which he obtained 51.20% of the votes (5,150,092 supporters).
The president of the electoral body, Elvis Amoroso, who announced the data more than six hours after the closure of the centers, said that the result provided corresponds to the scrutiny of 80% of the votes cast in this Sunday’s elections, which had a massive influx of voters throughout the day.
According to the first report, the standard-bearer of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained 4,445,978 votes, which represents 44.2% of the votes.
He assured that “in the next few hours” the CNE will publish on its website the details of the results, table by table, and will deliver to the 38 political parties that competed a digital report on the outcome of the contest.
Before providing the results, the president of the CNE assured that the data transmission system suffered an attack, to be investigated, which is why, he explained, the winner’s announcement took longer than expected, although he did not give more details about it.
During the campaign, Maduro already confirmed that he would win the elections, considering that he is the “only” capable of maintaining peace and prosperity in the country, on which numerous economic sanctions weigh, especially imposed by the United States, which are, according to the president, the culprits of the crisis in the Caribbean nation.
From January 10, the date on which the new term begins, the president will face a third six-year term at the head of the country, governed by Chavismo for 25 years.
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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