International
Honduras extradites alleged drug matriarch to the US
AFP
Honduras on Tuesday extradited Herlinda Bobadilla, a 61-year-old alleged gang leader arrested in a shootout that killed one of her sons, to the United States on drug charges.
A US indictment alleges Bobadilla, also known as Chinda, and two of her sons led the “Los Montes” drug cartel — one of the largest in Honduras.
Los Montes is “responsible for the distribution of multi-ton quantities of cocaine into the United States valued at millions of US dollars,” the indictment said.
The clan matriarch was captured with three other people in the mountainous department of Colon in the country’s northeast in May.
One of her sons, Tito, was killed in a shootout. Another fled and is still on the run.
The trio had allegedly taken control of Los Montes after Bobadilla’s other son, Noe Montes-Bobadilla, was arrested and extradited to the United States in 2017 and subsequently sentenced to 37 years in jail for drug trafficking.
In handcuffs and surrounded by members of the special forces, Bobadilla was taken Tuesday to the air force base at Toncontin near the capital Tegucigalpa.
She was handed over to six members of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and escorted onto a plane that took off for the United States.
She will be tried in the Eastern District Court of Virginia on a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine to be “unlawfully imported into the United States,” according to the indictment.
Honduras is a major transit country for Colombian cocaine and other narcotics headed mainly to the United States.
The US had offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Bobadilla and her sons.
In April, former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was also extradited to the United States on drug charges just over a year after his brother Tony was sentenced in New York to life in prison.
In May, Honduran former police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla was also sent to the United States to stand trial for allegedly supervising drug trafficking operations on behalf of his boss, Hernandez.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
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Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction