International
Colombia police find second top leader of Clan del Golfo criminal organization dead
March 2nd |
Police in Colombia reported on Wednesday that the second most senior leader of the criminal organization Autodefensas Gaitanistas, better known as the Gulf Clan, was found dead on a road in the northwest of the country.
The body of Wilmer Antonio Giraldo, alias “Siopas,” the second-in-command of the Gulf Clan, was identified after being found shot a few kilometers from the municipality of Dabeiba, in the department of Antioquia.
“A criminal profile of 12 years within this criminal structure, this organized armed group,” said Colonel Oscar Hernan Cortes, commander of the Police Department of Uraba, after noting that they are investigating the cause of death.
Security and intelligence sources told Reuters that the death was apparently the result of internal fighting within the Clan del Golfo, an organization with more than 3,000 members dedicated to drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.
Alias ‘Siopas’, 40, had demobilized in 2009 from the fifth front of the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), long before a peace process the government signed with the guerrilla group in 2016.
“Today he was under absolute command of all criminal actions in the department of Chocó and in the Colombian Pacific,” Cortes added in a video.
President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president in the country’s history, is promoting a policy of total peace with organizations such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Gulf Clan, the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra Nevada, as well as urban groups, to end the nearly six-decade armed conflict.
Siopas’ was against a negotiation with Petro’s government that seeks the submission to justice of the members of this criminal gang in exchange for legal benefits such as reduced sentences, the sources said.
The armed confrontation in Colombia, fueled by drug trafficking, has left more than 450,000 dead between 1985 and 2018 alone.
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
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
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