International
Peru’s Minister of Education says about the deaths in the protests: “Human rights are not for rats”
The Minister of Education of Peru, Morgan Quero, said on Wednesday that human rights are not “for rats,” when asked about the 49 people who died from the repression of law enforcement in the anti-government protests of late 2022 and early 2023.
“Human rights are for people, not for rats,” Quero replied when asked by a journalist why the Executive had not pronounced on the deaths of demonstrators on International Human Rights Day, which is commemorated on December 10.
“Yesterday was human rights day, the Government has not pronounced on the 50 deaths of the protests,” asked the journalist of the newspaper La República, before the minister burst in with his response.
Controversial statement by the Minister of Education of Peru
The minister had attended an official event, at the end of which the press asked him about the debate opened yesterday by the president, Dina Boluarte, about applying the death penalty to rapists of minors.
In this regard, Quero said that his ministry has removed more than a thousand teachers involved in cases of sexual abuse of minors.
The video with the minister’s statement was widely spread on social networks and generated numerous criticisms and requests for resignation.
I reject
“My rejection of Mr. Morgan Quero’s expressions. Only a government without any moral taste like that of Boluarte can have a minister of Education who only demonstrates ignorance and contempt, equating the lives of victims of human rights violations with rats,” said Congresswoman Ruth Luque on the social network X.
The explanation of the Peruvian minister
Shortly after, Quero held a telephone interview with Channel N to clarify “the unfortunate circumstance” resulting from his statement, and initially maintained that his words “had been misrepresented”.
But when asked where the misrepresentation was, he acknowledged that he assumed that the question was about the previous topic that he was dealing with with the press.
“I assumed that the question was about the same thing (the rape of minors), because we were in a wide corridor and, perhaps, my mistake was to assume that the question was also about the issue of the death penalty,” said the minister, adding that, believing that he was being asked about the rights of pedophiles, it was “that forceful.”
When the Canal N journalist asked him if his words deserved a public apology, the minister said no.
“No, I repeat again, I assumed it was a question within the context in which this dialogue with the media had evolved (…) I deeply regret the pain of the victims and families who were affected in these circumstances,” he said.
The Peruvian Minister of Education already starred in a controversy a few months ago by calling the violations suffered among schoolchildren in Awajún communities, in the Peruvian Amazon, as “cultural practice.”
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
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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