In Mexico, the leader of the CATEM union has been arrested on extortion charges. The arrest of René S.M., leader of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico (CATEM) in Oaxaca, followed an incident at a bar on the city's outskirts. According to the prosecutor's office, he and others are accused of threatening business owners in San Francisco Lachigolo with firearms on December 23, 2024, demanding $50,000 to allow them to continue their operations. The detained leader has been formally charged with extortion, and his legal status is expected to be determined. It was also reported that the Pentagon announced the destruction of three additional vessels linked to narco-terrorism, bringing the total number of ships destroyed since September 2 to 41. Journalist Jesús Esquivel reported that the cumulative toll of these actions includes 144 extrajudicial executions. He emphasized that the Department of Defense has not provided evidence that the deceased individuals belonged to organized crime or details about the narcotics they were allegedly transporting. Lawmakers have demanded that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth provide evidence to justify the lethal actions carried out by the Southern Command in the Caribbean. Meanwhile, during a visit to France, the widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. France reiterated its position, holding Russian authorities fully responsible for Navalny's death and demanding an independent and thorough investigation into the circumstances of his demise. A joint declaration issued at the Munich Security Conference, involving the UK, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, confirmed the findings of an investigation started in 2020. The analysis of Navalny's body confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin associated with poisonous frogs from South America, which is not naturally found in Russia.
