International

Paraguay justice minister sacked for letting guerrilla leader’s body into prison

Photo: Daniel Duarte / AFP

| By AFP |

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez on Tuesday sacked his justice minister and the director of a women’s prison for allowing a coffin with the body of a slain guerrilla leader into a jail where the man’s sister is serving a sentence.

“The Minister of Justice (Edgar Taboada) and the director of the Good Shepherd prison were dismissed,” the president’s office said in a statement.

Osvaldo Villalba, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP) was killed Sunday by the military in the northeast of the country, along with two comrades, police said.

His coffin was taken to the women’s prison by his relatives so that his convicted sister — a co-founder of the EPP — could say goodbye.

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The family “arrived unexpectedly at the women’s prison, (the coffin) came as a surprise,” said the justice minister a couple of hours before being removed.

The minister explained that the remains of the 39-year-old Villalba, who had a $150,000 reward on his head, had already been delivered to a cemetery next to the prison and that his relatives then came and took it to the prison itself.

Accompanied by dozens of anti-riot police, it was allowed into the prison where his sister Carmen, 50, was given five minutes to say her final farewells.

She is one year into an 18-year sentence for kidnapping the daughter of former President Raul Cubas in 2004.

The justice ministry allowed the entry “for humanitarian reasons,” said Taboada, noting that in 2010, the remains of a deceased son of a prisoner were also taken to a jail before burial.

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The EPP has been blamed for the killings of some 80 soldiers, police and civilians, and the kidnapping of over a dozen people.

International

Football Fan Killed in Clashes After Colombian League Match

Fans of Cúcuta Deportivo and their traditional rivals Atlético Bucaramanga clashed outside the stadium following their local league match on Tuesday, leaving one supporter dead and several others injured.

The deceased fan was stabbed, according to a senior police official in Cúcuta who confirmed the cause of death in a video statement. Local media reported that the victim was a supporter of the visiting team, Atlético Bucaramanga.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw. Authorities had banned the entry of Atlético Bucaramanga’s organized supporters into the stadium in an effort to prevent disturbances.

Despite the restrictions, violence broke out in the surrounding areas after the game. Among the injured were three police officers, an institutional source told AFP.

The incident adds to a series of recent violent episodes linked to Colombian football. The most recent occurred in December, when supporters of Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellín clashed in the stands and on the pitch, leaving 59 people injured.

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International

Missing Spanish Sailor Rescued After 11 Days Adrift in Mediterranean

The man had departed from the port of Gandía, on Spain’s eastern coast, with the intention of reaching the southern Spanish town of Guardamar del Segura, a journey of about 150 kilometers, a spokesperson for Spain’s maritime rescue service told AFP.

Search boats and aircraft were deployed on January 17, but the operation was called off on January 22 after efforts proved unsuccessful. Alerts were then issued to vessels navigating the area in case they spotted any signs of the missing sailor.

As hopes were fading, a surveillance aircraft from the European Union’s border agency Frontex spotted the sailboat on Tuesday, along with a person signaling for help, approximately 53 nautical miles northeast of Bejaia, Algeria.

A nearby vessel, the Singapore-flagged bulk carrier Thor Confidence, carried out the rescue and is expected to bring the man to an end to his ordeal when it arrives on Thursday in the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras.

Maritime rescue services shared images on social media showing a small white sailboat drifting at sea and secured alongside the much larger ship.

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It remains unclear how the sailboat ended up hundreds of kilometers off its intended route or how the man managed to survive for so long alone in open waters.

International

Rubio Says U.S. Could Participate in Follow-Up Russia-Ukraine Talks

The United States could join a new round of talks this week aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.

Teams from Kyiv and Moscow met last Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi in their first publicly acknowledged direct negotiations to discuss the peace initiative promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“They are going to hold follow-up talks again this week,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “There could be U.S. participation.”

However, Rubio suggested that Washington’s role may be more limited than during last week’s discussions, which included Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

The secretary of state indicated that progress may have already been made on security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Kyiv’s key demands in any agreement with Moscow after nearly four years of Russian invasion.

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“There is one remaining issue that everyone is familiar with, and that is the territorial claim over Donetsk,” Rubio said, referring to the eastern Ukrainian region that Russia wants Ukraine to cede.

“I know that active efforts are underway to see whether the positions of both sides on this issue can be reconciled. It remains a bridge we have not yet crossed,” he added during the hearing.

Rubio acknowledged that the territorial question would be particularly difficult for Ukraine to resolve.