Tag: colombia

Mysterious deaths of two US Border Patrol agents as one is found dead in vacation hotel room after prostitute tryst – and the other kills himself days after trip

The deaths of two US border patrol agents after their Colombian vacation is being investigated by the FBI. 

Jaime Eduardo Cisneros, 54, and Alexander Ahmed, 54, traveled to Colombia together in late May. 

But before they returned home, Cisneros was found dead in a Medellin hotel after a tryst with a woman described locally as a prostitute. 

Ahmed then killed himself on American soil after returning home from the trip, before FBI agents had the chance to interview him about his friend’s death. 

Cisneros’ cause of death remains unknown. The woman he’d been with was seen waving goodbye to him and leaving his room, according to local outlets. 

US investigators spent days in Medellin working with Colombian officials to piece together how he died. 

Officials discovered that his phone and other valuables were missing from the hotel room where his body was found, and his clothes and suitcase were in ‘total disarray’. 

His wallet had also been emptied.  

After his death, Ahmed returned to Texas alone, but killed himself days after. 

Ahmed’s body was discovered June 4 in El Paso. 

Both men were assigned to the Clint station, just outside Texas’ sixth largest city, and were nearing retirement eligibility.

US Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of US Border Patrol, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by DailyMail.com. 

In December, the US Embassy in Bogota issued a travel alert after eight American men died in a span of two months in the South American nation under ‘suspicious’ circumstances.

To date, 28 tourists, including Americans, have died in Medellin this year, Colombian authorities admitted.

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Chiquita found liable for financing paramilitary group

A Florida jury on Monday found banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).

The jury in the civil case, in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, found that “Chiquita knowingly provided substantial assistance to the AUC to a degree sufficient to create a foreseeable risk of harm to others.”

Chiquita, one of the world’s largest banana producers, has been ordered to pay a total of $38.3 million to the families of eight victims of the AUC, which was a far-right paramilitary group that was designated a terrorist organization by the US. The group disbanded in 2006, according to Stanford University’s Mapping Militants Project.

In an amended Florida lawsuit, which was filed in 2008, the plaintiffs alleged payments from Chiquita to the AUC propped up the paramilitary group’s violence in Colombia and that the company should be held liable for the group’s murders.

In a statement to CNN, Chiquita said it planned to appeal to jury’s verdict.

“The situation in Colombia was tragic for so many, including those directly affected by the violence there, and our thoughts remain with them and their families. However, that does not change our belief that there is no legal basis for these claims,” the company’s statement said. “While we are disappointed by the decision, we remain confident that our legal position will ultimately prevail.”

In 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to making over 100 payments to the AUC totaling over $1.7 million despite the group being designated a terrorist organization. Chiquita recorded the AUC payments as “security services,” though the company never received any actual services from these payments, according to a US Justice Department press release from the time. The company agreed to pay the US government a $25 million fine, the US said in its release.

An unnamed company executive had told the Justice Department that the payments had been made under the threat of violence, according to the release. However, the Florida jury ruled that Chiquita failed to “act as a reasonable businessperson would have acted under the circumstances.”

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The truth behind the ‘alien’ in Colombia: As mysterious corpse is discovered, scientist reveals what it could really be – and whether or not it is an extraterrestrial

While most scientists look to the stars for signs of extraterrestrial life, others claim that the evidence might already be here on Earth.

Mysterious remains surfaced in Colombia this week, which some say could have their origins beyond this world. 

Veteran public radio reporter, Josep Guijarro, claimed the unusual corpse could be an extraterrestrial or a ‘tiny humanoid’ from an ancient species. 

But experts now say that the real explanation is likely far simpler. 

Professor Sian Halcrow, a forensic anthropologist and expert on infant remains, told MailOnline that this is probably the remains of a preterm human baby. 

…The alleged alien has a large elongated skull, slanted eyes, an umbilical cord and, an ‘unusual number of ribs’.

In an article published in Espacia Misterio, he claimed that the remains only had 10 ribs on each side of the body compared with 12 in the typical human. 

Mr Guijarro also claims that the remains emerged from ‘el cerro de los enanos’ (‘the Hill of the Dwarves’) in remote Colombia.

However, in a later post on X, he added that he could not know the exact origin of the specimen because he lacked ‘verifiable data’.  

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Colombian actor Kevin Munoz who appeared on Netflix and Apple TV is found tied up and tortured to death

A Colombian actor who appeared in a Netflix movie and Apple TV series has been found dead with his hands and feet tied.

The body of Kevin Andres Munoz Tovar was found in La Playita, in the Colombian city of Tulua on Monday. 

The actor was found tied at the hands and feet, and suffered several machete wounds in what appeared to be an act of torture, local media reported. 

A 19-year-old teenager, who has not yet been named, was arrested as a suspect for the murder, according to local police.

Major Nicolas Guillermo Suarez Plata, of the Tulua Police District, said: ‘The Valle Police Department reports that,thanks to the timely information provided by citizens, in an operational deployment of the Police, the capture of a 19-year-old man was achieved who, minutes before, had allegedly participated in the homicide of Kevin Andres Munoz Tovar, a renowned actor from a Colombian film.

‘The subjects who caused the injuries then fled the scene, but thanks to information from the community, one of them was captured.’

Tovar participated as a secondary actor in the 2020 Netflix film titled ‘Lavaperros’, which was called ‘Dogwashers’ when released to Western audiences, directed by Carlos Moreno, which focuses on the conflict of a man in financial trouble with a loan shark looking to kill him.

He also participated in the Apple TV series ‘Echo 3’, in which he also had a secondary role.

The show is about an American scientist in Colombia who is kidnapped, and the attempts by her husband and brother to rescue her. 

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After Smelling Legal Marijuana In New York, Colombian President Denounces ‘Enormous Hypocrisy’ Of U.S.-Led Drug War

Unveiling Colombia’s new national drug policy recently, President Gustavo Petro recalled smelling the odor of marijuana wafting through the streets of New York City during a recent visit to the U.S., remarking on the “enormous hypocrisy” of legal cannabis sales now taking place in the nation that launched the global drug war decades ago.

“Marijuana is sold today in Times Square,” Petro said, according to a translation of his speech. “It smelled on all the streets, all the way around the corner, and they sold it…like any other product. I suppose they charge taxes and that New York City or the state of New York lives partially from them.”

“That’s where the war on drugs began,” Petro continued, calling out the U.S.’s lead role in globalizing the drug war more than 50 years ago. “How many people have been imprisoned? How many people have died? Because undoubtedly illegality brought violence.”

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BP’s Financing of Colombia’s Murderous Military

Files unearthed exclusively by Declassified in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, shine a new light on British oil giant BP’s financial arrangements with the Colombian military during the 1990s. At the time, the Colombian armed forces were one of the worst abusers of human rights in the Western hemisphere.

The documents show how BP not only offered to finance the military units operating around its oil sites in the department of Casanare, but also proposed funding Colombia’s “national defence activities” across the country.

On top of this, the files demonstrate how in 1994 BP collaborated with General Álvaro Velandia Hurtado, then the commander of the Colombian army’s notorious sixteenth brigade, on “conflict resolution” in Casanare.

An expert in military intelligence, Velandia has been accused of involvement in a series of brutal human rights abuses including the kidnap, torture, and murder of a social activist in 1987, and collaboration with a Colombian death squad. 

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UN says Colombia’s coca crop at all-time high as officials promote new drug policies

Coca cultivation reached an all-time high in Colombia last year, the U.N. said, as the administration of President Gustavo Petro struggles to reduce poverty in remote areas and contain armed groups that are profiting from the cocaine trade.

The new findings on coca growing were published over the weekend by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, which said 230,000 hectares (nearly 570,000 acres) of farmland in Colombia were planted with coca in 2022, a 13% increase from the previous year.

The South American nation is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, which is made from coca leaves. Colombia provides 90% of the cocaine sold in the United States each year.

Colombia’s government said Monday that the amount of land planted with coca is increasing at a slower pace than in previous years. It hopes new programs that provide greater economic incentives for farmers to adopt legal crops will help reduce cocaine production in coming years.

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