The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala has called for public assistance on social media to find and capture a Guatemalan man suspected of being involved in a human smuggling ring that transported 20,000 migrants to the United States. This comes as President Donald Trump continues his crackdown on irregular migration.

Helmer Obispo Hernández, who “is believed to be in Guatemala,” is accused of being “part of a people smuggling network,” the embassy stated on social media platform X, providing a link to report “any information about” the man.

Hernández, 41, is a “lieutenant” in the “criminal organization” led by Guatemalan Eduardo Renoj, who was arrested a few days ago in California, according to U.S. authorities.

Renoj is accused of leading “one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the U.S.,” the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement on Monday.

Along with Renoj, 49-year-old Cristóbal Mejía, his “alleged right-hand man,” was also arrested.

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Migrants smuggled from Guatemala reportedly paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to the ring, the embassy said.

Renoj’s organization is linked to a 2023 traffic accident in Oklahoma that resulted in seven deaths, including a four-year-old child. The driver of the vehicle involved is in custody.

“Identifying and dismantling these organizations makes our borders safer and creates a stronger and more prosperous region,” the U.S. embassy stated.

Guatemalan authorities have not provided any updates on Obispo as of now.

Like much of Central America, Guatemala was part of the route used by thousands of migrants to reach the United States, which has tightened its immigration policies since Trump returned to the presidency in January.

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In recent weeks, there has been a reverse trend of migrants heading south through Central America after abandoning their plans to reach the U.S. due to fears of being deported.

On the U.S. side of the border, soldiers are placing barbed wire along the massive border wall, while on the Mexican side, troops have set up a camp on the edge of a mountain. In both cases, the goal is the same: to close off any gaps for irregular migration.

The military presence on this 3,100 km border was strengthened after Donald Trump returned to power, declaring the region a “state of emergency” and pressuring Mexico to deploy an additional 10,000 soldiers.

These efforts seem to be yielding results, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which reported a 65% decrease in migrant interceptions in January compared to the same month in 2024.

“If there were a hundred crossings a day before, now it’s no more than five. Yesterday, there were none,” says a Mexican National Guard officer during a patrol in the impoverished mountainous area of Nido de las Águilas, where the metal fence weaves through much of Tijuana.

The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, attributes these results to the “coordination” between CBP and the Mexican National Guard, including a WhatsApp group where both forces share data, photos, and videos from their operations.

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For Mexico, containing migration and the trafficking of fentanyl to the U.S. is crucial—issues Trump uses to justify the 25% tariff on exports from both Mexico and Canada, its partners in the USMCA trade agreement.

However, the offensive against migrants, which includes the deportation of individuals who fled poverty, violence, and authoritarian governments to reach the U.S., was not enough to prevent the tariff from taking effect this week.

Even worse, Trump has declared a “war” on drug cartels, which he labels as “terrorists,” and whose crackdown was intensified by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Argentine federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano has ordered an investigation into the phone records of individuals implicated in the Libra cryptocurrency scandal, including the country’s president, Javier Milei, to determine if there were any communications between them.

Sources involved in the investigation confirmed to the Argentine newspaper La Nación that Taiano is already analyzing the data to establish whether there were any call exchanges among key figures linked to the launch of the virtual currency. The cryptocurrency saw exponential growth after Milei mentioned it on social media, only to collapse shortly afterward, potentially leading to fraud charges.

To advance the probe, authorities have requested the collaboration of the Directorate of Technical Assistance for Criminal Investigation (Datip), a department within the Prosecutor’s Office, as they previously did with the Specialized Cybercrime Prosecutor’s Unit.

According to the prosecutor, the investigation is focused on potential crimes, including abuse of authority, fraud, influence peddling, and bribery. The judiciary has requested information from Argentina’s Central Bank and companies such as Google in an effort to determine the cryptocurrency’s origin and the role of Milei and five businessmen in its rise and downfall, La Nación reported.

Milei has faced over a hundred legal complaints following his promotion of the cryptocurrency, which later collapsed, causing significant financial losses for investors. Plaintiffs have cited statements from one of Libra’s partners, businessman Hayden Mark Davies, who acknowledged having served as an advisor to Milei and claimed that the president “endorsed and promoted” the project.

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