Colombian authorities said on Friday they have launched an international hunt for a former defense minister after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction for stealing almost US$500,000 from a presidential campaign.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ratified a lower court's conviction of aggravated theft for Fernando Botero Zea -- son of famed painter Fernando Botero -- saying the former Cabinet minister must serve a 30-month jail sentence for pocketing almost US$500,000 from the 1994 campaign of Ernesto Samper, whose drug-tainted election bid he ran.
Samper was Colombia's president from 1994-1998, a period of tense relations with the US, which repeatedly denounced the president for taking money from the Cali drug cartel, then the world's largest cocaine smuggling organization, based in Colombia's third-largest city.
"We've issued a notice through Interpol to 189 countries to locate Botero," said Oscar Galvis, a spokesman for the DAS intelligence agency. "If he steps foot in the country he'll be immediately arrested."
Botero, who is believed to be residing outside the country, already served a five-year sentence last decade for his involvement in the Andean nation's worst drug-corruption scandal.
In August 1996, he was forced to resign as defense minister and was immediately jailed when it was revealed he accepted millions of dollars in donations on behalf of Samper's campaign from the Cali drug cartel, which at the time was the world's largest cocaine-smuggling organization.
Although the scandal prompted the US to revoke Samper's visa, the former president has long maintained he had no knowledge of what his campaign manager was doing behind his back.
In a statement on Wednesday he applauded the Supreme Court decision, saying it "closed a chapter" in the investigation into the illegal financing of his campaign.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS