International
Thousands of displaced people in Haiti flee the violence of armed gangs
Thousands of people living in the areas of Solino, Nazon and Christ-Roi, in the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, have left their homes fleeing the advance of the armed gangs towards new territories, in the face of the indifference of the authorities and despite the presence of the Multinational Security Support Force, which leads Kenya.
“The gang members are very close,” a woman told reporters in tears, who has not known since Thursday morning the whereabouts of her children, who, like her, fled from the gangs, which since Monday have terrorized the Haitian capital, which has already left several dead, according to different media.
Last Sunday the leader of Vivre Ensemble, former police officer Jimmy Cherizier alias ‘Barbecue’, announced a resurgence of violence and asked the population not to leave their homes if it was not necessary, which has led to the paralysis of activities in the capital of impoverished Haiti.
Several dead in Haiti due to gang violence
Between Monday and this Thursday, several people have died, either at the hands of the gangs themselves or in clashes between armed gangs, according to local media.
Panic reigns in the different neighborhoods near the areas already under the control of the gangs, which last Monday shot two American commercial planes, which led to the closure of the Toussaint Louverture international airport, the main one in the country, and the suspension of flights by several companies.
EFE could observe this Thursday men, women and especially children with suitcases on their backs, or at least bags on their heads, fleeing their neighborhoods threatened by the gangs, trying to save what they could. A few people were able to move, taking everything with them.
Thousands of people have taken refuge in Bourdon, on the premises of the Citizen Protection Office, which had been housing students from the Faculty of Law and Economics of Port-au-Prince for several months, when she was evicted by the gangs.
More than 1,000 dead
This is the umpteenth public space invaded by displaced people fleeing the atrocities of the armed gangs belonging to the coalition of alias Barbecue.
Between July and September alone, at least 1,223 people died and 522 were injured as a result of violence and the fight against gangs, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (Binuh).
Added to this are the 3,900 victims between dead and wounded in the first half of the year, after 2023 closed with about 8,000 victims.
Haiti had, until last September, 702,973 internally displaced people, according to official figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and it is very likely that these figures will increase with the upsurge in gang violence
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.
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