Colombian senator Uribe had procedures on head, thigh, is in ICU-hospial
Members of the media work outside the Santa Fe Foundation, after Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay of the opposition Democratic Center party was shot during a campaign event, in Bogota, Colombia, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
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Free Malaysia Today
2 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Surgery on Colombian senator went well after shooting, says wife
Miguel Uribe was shot in the head during a campaign event in Bogota. (EPA Images pic) BOGOTA : Colombian senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender, survived an initial operation for his injuries after being shot in Bogota today, according to his wife and the hospital treating him, although he remains in intensive care. Uribe, 39, is a member of the opposition right-wing Democratic Center party and was shot in the head during a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighbourhood. Campaigning is just beginning for the country's 2026 presidential election and Uribe, who is from a prominent political family, does not have a well-known platform so far. It was unclear why he was targeted in the attack. Though he has talked about the need to improve security and about having personally suffered in the country's conflict, many other potential candidates, including others from his party, have also said steps must be taken to tackle crime. Uribe's grandfather was president from 1978 to 1982, while his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar. She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991. 'Miguel came out of surgery, he made it. Every hour is a critical hour. He fought his first battle, and it went well,' his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona told local media. 'This will take time.' The couple are parents to a young son. In a statement, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital where Uribe was treated said he had procedures on his head and his left thigh, and remained in intensive care as doctors seek to stabilise his condition. Bogota's mayor, Carlos Galan, whose own presidential candidate father was assassinated in 1989, addressed journalists outside the hospital overnight, saying he had asked for increased protection for all candidates in Bogota and for Uribe's family.
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
National Guard deployed in Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids
A man on a motorcycle waves a Mexican flag as smoke rises from a burning car on Atlantic Boulevard, during a standoff by protesters and law enforcement, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Compton, California, U.S., June 7, 2025. REUTERS/Barbara Davidson LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California National Guard arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, deployed by President Donald Trump after two days of protests by hundreds of demonstrators against immigration raids carried out as part of Trump's hardline policy. About a dozen National Guard members were seen in video footage on Sunday morning lining up at a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where detainees from immigration raids on Friday were taken, sparking protests that continued on Saturday. The complex is near Los Angeles City Hall, where another protest against the immigration raids is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. U.S. Northern Command confirmed National Guard troops had started deploying and that some were already on the ground. "These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday. California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused Trump of deploying the National Guard because he wants "a spectacle." Footage showed at least a half dozen military-style vehicles and riot shields on Sunday at the federal building where the Department of Homeland Security said about "1,000 rioters" had protested on Friday. Reuters could not verify the DHS account. On Saturday law enforcement faced off against a few hundred protesters in Paramount in southeast Los Angeles and then later on Saturday with about 100 people in downtown Los Angeles, according to Reuters witnesses. Federal law enforcement was seen firing gas canisters in Paramount and downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to try and disperse protesters. The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 27 people on Saturday for failure to disperse from the downtown protest, police spokesperson Norma Eisenman said. She said she could not comment on whether LAPD used less lethal force. Less lethal force refers to crowd control tactics such as pepper balls. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrested three people on Saturday on suspicion of assaulting an officer. Sheriff's deputies did use "less lethal force" in Paramount, spokesperson Deputy Brenda Serna said, but she could not specify which exact tactics were used. 'ZERO TOLERANCE' The protests pit Democratic-run Los Angeles, where census data suggests a significant part of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born, against Trump's Republican White House, which has made an immigration crackdown a hallmark of his second term. Trump in a presidential memorandum on Saturday said he was deploying at least 2,000 National Guard personnel following what he described as "numerous incidents of violence and disorder" in response to the enforcement of federal immigration law, as well as "credible threats of continued violence." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also warned that the Pentagon was prepared to mobilize active-duty troops "if violence continues" in Los Angeles, saying the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were "on high alert." "There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE," Hegseth said in a social media post on Sunday, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democratic Congresswoman Nanette Barragan, whose California district includes Paramount, on Sunday criticized the president's decision to deploy National Guard troops, arguing that local law enforcement has adequate resources to respond. "We don't need the help. This is him escalating it, causing tensions to rise. It's only going to make things worse in a situation where people are already angry over immigration enforcement," Barragan told CNN's "State of the Union." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the National Guard would provide safety around buildings, to people engaged in peaceful protest and to law enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles on Friday arrested at least 44 people on alleged immigration violations. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the U.S.-Mexico border, setting a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day. But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also included people legally residing in the country, some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges. (Reporting by Jorge Garcia and Arafat Barbakh; Additional reporting by Sandy Hooper in Los Angeles, Daniel Trotta and Bo Erickson in Washington; Writing by John Kruzel and Michelle Nichols; editing by Diane Craft)
Sinar Daily
4 hours ago
- Sinar Daily
Aiming a blow at narcos, Colombia pays farmers to uproot coca
ARGELIA - With cocaine production at an all-time high, Colombia's government is testing a pacific approach to its narcotics problem: paying farmers to uproot crops of coca, the drug's main ingredient. Among the beneficiaries are Alirio Caicedo and his son Nicolas, who a decade ago planted an expanse of coca as they staked their future on the continued patronage of criminal gangs. Coffee and coca leaf farmer Alirio Caicedo picks dried coffee beans in a village near Argelia, Cauca department, Colombia on May 6, 2025. Alirio Caicedo and his son Nicolas uproot the coca plants they planted a decade ago. Their leaves are coveted by drug traffickers, but these farmers have made a commitment to the Colombian government to eliminate the cultivation of the main component of cocaine in exchange for money. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP) Today, they are uprooting the crops and hoping for the best. The Caicedos and some 4,000 other Colombian families have entered into a pact with the government to replace their coca with alternative crops such as cocoa and coffee. It is part of a US$14.4 million project to reduce supply of a product blamed for untold misery in a country where armed groups force rural communities to grow coca and raze forests for its cultivation. The project seeks to eradicate coca production on 45,000 hectares in three of Colombia's most conflict-riddled regions, including the southwestern Micay Canyon where the Caicedos ply their trade in the Argelia municipality. For farmers it is a risk. They cannot be sure that their new plantations -- coffee in the Caicedos' case -- will succeed, or that guerrillas and other groups whose income depend on cocaine sales will leave them in peace. "When one is planting a coca plant, there is hope that in time... there will be a harvest and there will be some income," Nicolas Caicedo, 44, told AFP while he and his dad, 77, shoveled and tugged at the remaining coca shrubs on their property. "Uprooting the plants means that... there will be no more harvests -- in other words, no more money," from coca at least. With coca, the Caicedos said they were guaranteed an income of about US$800 per month. They have received an initial payment of about US$300 under the project to grow coffee, with more to come. But another farmer, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said he doubted the project could work in areas such as Argelia where illegal groups outnumber the state in terms of fighters and guns. "No armed group that lives off (coca) is going to want a farmer to stop growing coca and switch to coffee," he said. 'Naive' Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first-ever leftist president, took office in 2022 with the goal of extricating his country from the US-led "war on drugs" blamed for double-victimisation of rural Colombians already living under the yoke of violent criminal groups. View of the mountains near in Argelia, Cauca department, Colombia, on May 6, 2025. Alirio Caicedo and his son Nicolas uproot the coca plants they planted a decade ago. Their leaves are coveted by drug traffickers, but these farmers have made a commitment to the Colombian government to eliminate the cultivation of the main component of cocaine in exchange for money. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP) On his watch, cocaine production in Colombia -- the world's biggest exporter of the drug -- reached record levels as demand continues to grow in Europe and the United States -- the principal consumer. Several previous attempts to get Colombian coca producers to change crops have failed as armed groups caused havoc and government payments and other assistance eventually dried up. For Gloria Miranda, head of Colombia's illegal crop substitution program, told AFP would be naive to think this new program will end drug trafficking "as long as there is a market of 20 million consumers and it (cocaine) remains illegal." In his stated quest for "total peace," Petro has sought to negotiate with a variety of armed groups, meaning fewer military operations and the abandonment of forced coca eradication. But talks have mostly broken down, and the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House in January has ramped up pressure on Bogota. The Trump administration is reviewing Colombia's certification as an ally in the fight against drugs -- a move that could restrict millions of dollars in military aid. With high stakes for its crop replacement gamble, observers fear the government may be taken advantage of. Some farmers may "try to deceive" by taking the money while continuing to grow coca, Argelia government secretary Pablo Daza told AFP. Without adequate monitoring, "the chances are quite high that we are wasting money," added Emilio Archila, who oversaw a similar, failed, project under former President Ivan Duque. Miranda assures there will be "meticulous" satellite monitoring, and anyone found not to be complying will be expelled from the program. Used not only for cocaine, the coca leaf is also chewed as a stimulant in Andean countries or brewed into a tea thought to combat altitude sickness. Colombia's appeals for the leaf to be removed from a UN list of harmful narcotics so it can be commercialised in alternative products such as fertilisers or beverages, have so far fallen on deaf ears. - AFP
