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Nobel Prize winner Óscar Arias: Maduro leads a “narco-state” and it is difficult for him to surrender power

The former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Óscar Arias, said in an interview with EFE that the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, leads a “dictatorship” and a “narco-state,” so he considers it difficult for him to hand over power.

“I feel very sad but it hasn’t been something I wouldn’t have imagined. It’s not a surprise. I anticipated it because the dictators do not know how to move away from the presidential chair and, in addition, there is something very peculiar about the Government of Venezuela, and that is that it is a narco-state,” Arias said.

The 1987 Nobel Peace Prize assured that the elections of last July 28 in Venezuela were “a farce” in which Maduro “stole” the triumph and the Venezuelan people do not “deserve” that.

“The Venezuelan people deserve the government to be handed over to the winner but, unfortunately, I am very skeptical. It is not easy for a narco-state, knowing that they are going to rot in a dungeon, to hand over power,” Arias said.

The president of Costa Rica, who ruled between 1986 and 1990 and between 2006 and 2010, considered that it is “difficult” for Maduro to leave power, but that he still hopes that the situation may change because “putting Venezuela to produce is impossible with a dictatorship like the one that Maduro has.”

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“Unfortunately what is going to happen with six more years of Maduro is that that people, already miserable, suffering from hunger, are going to become more and more impoverished. It is impossible, with that ideology that the Chavistas have, to be able to take out (before) that country, think about foreign investment, domestic investment, that they can diversify the economy, end inflation,” he said.

Arias, 83 years old, regretted that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have not been so blunt when referring to the Venezuelan elections, although he clarified that it may be understandable if their intention is to be mediators.

“I thought that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were going to tell Maduro: ‘your choice was a robbery, you stole the election of the Venezuelan people disrespecting the will of that people expressed at the polls, you committed a fraud that cannot be hidden’, but I was wrong, they didn’t do that. I understand that if the role is to mediate, they don’t have to be so blunt,” he said.

Arias assured that in advance all the polls gave as the winner the opponent Edmundo González, supported by the leader María Corina Machado, in a context in which there is “a very great discontent” with the Maduro Government and Chavismo, in general.

“The rulers of Venezuela, (Hugo) Chávez (already deceased) and Maduro have done a lot of damage. In Venezuela, killing a person is called homicide, but starving an entire people is called Chavismo and that’s what has happened. The best example is that more than 7 million Venezuelans have left (emigrated),” he said.

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The Government of Venezuela denounced on Thursday to ambassadors that the electoral records released by anti-chavism are false and intend to “ignore the results” of the presidential elections, in which the electoral body ratified Nicolás Maduro as the winner, a victory questioned inside and outside the country.

For its part, the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), disclosed on a website “83.5%” of the electoral acts that, they insist, demonstrate the triumph of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, something that the Government of Venezuela rejects when considering that they are “forged documents.”

The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office announced last Wednesday an investigation for “conspiracy” and other crimes on the website where the majority opposition disclosed the minutes of the presidential elections.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has not published the minutes that certify Maduro’s victory, as indicated by the legal regulations, and left in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) the process of “certification” of the official result, at the request of the president.

Former President Arias said that “for a long time” there are no independent institutions in Venezuela, since they all respond to Maduro’s orders.

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Fire in India’s Jhansi Hospital kills 10 newborns

At least 10 newborns have died following a fire in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Jhansi, India, which was attributed to a faulty oxygen machine, authorities reported on Saturday, adding that 39 babies were rescued.

“Unfortunately, 10 infants have died,” said Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, regarding the fire that occurred on Friday night.

The fire started at 10:30 PM (17:00 GMT) at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical University in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The rescued babies, all only a few days old, were moved to another area of the hospital for treatment.

Dr. Narendra Senga, the director of a medical faculty attached to the hospital, also confirmed the death toll of 10 infants.

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Seven british citizens arrested in Spain for hashish trafficking 1.2 tons seized

Seven British citizens were arrested in Spain for hashish trafficking in an operation that led to the seizure of 1.2 tons of the drug, which is made from cannabis resin, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior reported on Saturday.

“National Police agents, in collaboration with the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK, have dismantled an organization allegedly dedicated to transporting drugs in trucks in Marbella and Elche,” the ministry stated in a press release.

“Agents seized 1,200 kilos of hashish and arrested seven British citizens,” the report specified.

The drugs were found in Marbella and Fuengirola, in southern Spain, as well as in Elche, in the southeastern region.

Part of the hashish was hidden in “large plastic barrels filled with fine mortar sand.”

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In addition, the police seized over €63,000 in cash, five passenger vehicles, and a heavy-duty truck.

All of the detainees have been placed in pretrial detention.

Spain serves as the gateway for most of the hashish sold in Europe, due to its proximity to North Africa, the main production area.

In 2022, Spain seized 324.7 tons of hashish, according to the latest available official annual data.

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Sinaloa cartel network dismantled in Spain following kidnapping and ransom incident

Fourteen members of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel were arrested in Spain following an investigation that began with the kidnapping and murder of an associate, the Spanish National Police announced on Sunday.

“The dismantled criminal network, based in Catalonia, is allegedly involved in the kidnapping and death of a man whose body was found in a wooded area of the region,” explained the National Police in a statement. The victim had traveled from Italy to meet with some of the leaders of the gang.

The criminal organization was “mainly composed of Mexican individuals” and was “linked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.”

The victim, a 46-year-old man, was allegedly working for the organization and had traveled to Barcelona from Italy to meet with leaders of the criminal network. The kidnapping took place between late May and June, and the victim’s family in Kosovo alerted the police after receiving a ransom demand of €240,000 (approximately $253,000). The family paid part of the ransom, $32,000 in cryptocurrency.

The victim’s body, whose nationality was not disclosed, was found in August in a forest, showing signs of violence and in an advanced state of decomposition.

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The arrested individuals are allegedly connected to drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, and murder. They received packages from Mexico containing methamphetamine soaked into pieces of clothing, which were sent to Catalonia. Once in Spain, they extracted the drug in a laboratory they operated.

The Sinaloa cartel is named after the northwestern Mexican state where it was founded and remains one of the most important criminal organizations in the world, despite the incarceration of two of its historic leaders, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, in the United States.

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