The Government of Costa Rica on Tuesday congratulated Japan on the appointment of Takaichi Sanae as the country’s first female prime minister and reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening bilateral relations in multiple areas.

“The Government of Costa Rica extends its warmest congratulations to the Government and people of Japan on the election of Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. Costa Rica celebrates this decision, made by the Japanese Parliament, which for the first time places a woman in such a high office,” the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.

Costa Rica also reiterated its “strong commitment to further strengthening the traditional bonds of friendship and cooperation between both nations,” and to promoting joint initiatives “based on mutual respect, multilateralism, and shared democratic values.”

The statement also conveyed Costa Rica’s “best wishes for success” to Prime Minister Takaichi and expressed its “hopes for the well-being and prosperity of the Japanese people.”

Takaichi officially became Japan’s first female head of government on Tuesday after winning a parliamentary vote to succeed Shigeru Ishiba, who resigned in September following poor electoral results during his little more than a year in office.

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Colombia’s judiciary overturned on Tuesday a conviction against former President Álvaro Uribe for witness tamperingin a case linked to his alleged ties with anti-guerrilla paramilitary groups.

The 73-year-old right-wing leader had become in August the first Colombian ex-president to be criminally convictedand sentenced to 12 years of house arrest for bribery and procedural fraud, following a first-instance ruling that his defense immediately appealed.

However, a judge from the Bogotá Superior Court annulled the conviction, ruling that there was insufficient evidenceto incriminate Uribe. The court also deemed the wiretaps used as evidence illegal and pointed to methodological flaws in the original ruling.

Leftist Senator Iván Cepeda, who filed the complaint against Uribe, announced he will file an appeal in cassation before the Supreme Court of Justice. Speaking at a press conference, Cepeda said he received the decision with “calm and respect,” though he disagreed with it.

After a six-hour reading of the verdict, the hearing concluded with Uribe attending virtually.

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Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, spent about 20 days under house arrest before being released on a previous court decision—the same court that has now overturned his conviction.

Mexico and the United States launched a new joint initiative to stop arms trafficking to Mexican territory, in an attempt to attack one of the main sources of violence in the country: the illegal entry of weapons from the north to the south, something that EFE was able to verify this Monday on the Ciudad Juárez border.

The plan contemplates bilateral operations and stricter controls at international crossings, such as the one recently installed on the Córdoba-Americas Bridge, one of the busiest on the binational border and that connects Ciudad Juárez with the American El Paso, where elements of the Mexican Army check vehicles for weapons and ammunition.

Mexican authorities stressed that the objective is to “safeguard national security on both sides of the border.”
The urgency of the agreement was evident after the murder of Héctor René Rocha González, lawyer and former employee of the Municipality of Juárez, which recently occurred in the San Antonio neighborhood of the border town.

The man was chased by hitmen while driving a Jeep Wrangler and died while trying to escape running away; the aggressors shot him with an AK-47 rifle, a weapon that, according to authorities, smuggled from the United States.

For research professor Ricardo Melgoza Ramos, from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, the agreement opens a window of opportunity after failed experiences in the past.

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“There was already talk of an arms trafficking agreement, we will remember the failed process of ‘Fast and Furious’. However, we believe that this new attempt may be positive,” Melgoza told EFE about the weapons tracking initiative agreed between Washington and Mexico City between 2006 and 2011.

“It must be remembered that 200,000 weapons cross from the United States to Mexico: 43% from Texas, 22% from Arizona and 9% from California. Now it will be possible to use the E-Trace platform to quickly detect the origin of the weapon. If this materializes, the flow of weapons will be reduced and criminal groups will be strangled with the financial part,” he said.

Likewise, Melgoza added that the change of security policy under the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum represents a break with the motto of ‘no bullet hugs’ by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).

“Now more is being fought, although there are still regions, such as the Chihuahua mountain range, where organized crime has control. To achieve peace, joint work and purification of police corporations are needed,” he said.

Border operations are part of a mission that arises after the visit of US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to Mexico City, in which he held meetings with President Sheinbaum to strengthen cooperation between both countries on security.

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“We reached an agreement that the United States will reinforce the operations (…) to control the passage of weapons from the United States to Mexico, an agreement of this type had never been reached,” the president remarked after the meeting with Rubio last September.

For his part, the lawyer and former public security official Fernando Rubalcaba highlighted the positive aspects of binational cooperation.

“The benefit is more positive thanks to these agreements, because they allow a climate of collaboration and understanding of a common cause such as public security. How good that a way to avoid the introduction of weapons is being sought, given that almost all high-impact crimes are committed with firearms,” he said.

Rubalcaba stressed that tools such as the IBIS ballistic system in Mexico and Interpol’s international IBIN program can be strengthened with this type of agreement.

“It will allow us to make cross-checks of intelligence information and better track weapons. Military filters on bridges inhibit crime and generate security, although some may perceive the opposite,” he said.

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