Colombian airport police find $47,500 cash inside passenger's
stomach
A suspect swallowed nearly $50,000 in cash in a failed
attempt to smuggle the funds out of Colombia, officials said Monday.
Bogota airport police said they X-rayed the suspect because he
was acting nervous while preparing to board a flight for Lima, Peru.
The photo showed dozens of latex-wrapped packets inside his stomach
and police assumed it was drugs, since such a smuggling technique is
used by traffickers.
But as the suspect passed the packages from his body, police
discovered they were filled with cash - $47,500.
"We find drugs inside the stomachs of smugglers all the time, but
this is the first time we've ever found dollars," the head of
Bogota's airport police, Col. Jorge Luis Vargas, told The Associated
Press.
Passengers leaving Colombia can carry up to $10,000 in cash without
having to declare it. Police say new anti-money laundering laws have
made it more difficult for drug traffickers to send and receive
cash, forcing them to adopt the same methods used to smuggle drugs.
Vargas said interrogations of the suspect indicated the money was
probably going to be used to pay for a drug shipment.
Mexican first lady says she will not run for presidency
The wife of Mexican President Vicente Fox, Martha Sahagun, announced
on Monday that she will no trun for presidency in the 2006
elections, but will continue working for the common welfare
regardless of the state of national politics.
Sahagun said the future of Mexico is her top priority and expressed
her unconditional respect for President Fox and the national
institutions.
"As of Dec. 1, 2006, another stage in my life will be over, shared
with my husband, President Vicente Fox," the first lady said in a
message to the nation from the Presidential Palace of Los Pinos.
"From that date we will go to our house together, to enjoy our
family, without this meaning I will resign to my compromise with the
poor," she added.
Sahagun, 51, cleared up in this way the speculation in the past few
months that she would run as the candidate of the ruling National
Action Party in the 2006 elections.
Opinion polls placed her only second to Andres Manuel Lopez, mayor
of Mexico City, in voting preferences.
Rumors of her candidacy intensified last week after the secretary of
Fox, Alfonso Durazo, resigned from his post, claiming that he
objected to Sahagun's running for office with the full support of
her husband.
The first lady said that although she thinks "Mexico is prepared to
be ruled by a woman," she would not run for office in 2006.
US starts
flying illegal Mexican immigrants home
The US government on Monday began flying illegal Mexican immigrants
for free to the interior of their home country, as part of an effort
to reduce illegal border crossings, the Homeland Security Department
announced.
Over 130 Mexicans were on the first flight of the program, under
which illegal Mexican migrants may volunteer for the program to
return home via charter aircraft from Tucson, Arizona, to either
Mexico City or Guadalajara, and then to be transported by bus to
their hometowns.
"This is a well-coordinated, crucial step that is necessary for both
humanitarian and law enforcement reasons," Asa Hutchinson, the
undersecretary for border and transportation security, said in a
statement.
"The deaths of so many in the desert are a tragedy that must end,"
he said.
The United States and Mexico had reached an agreement on a voluntary
repatriation program, under which Mexican nationals would be given
the option of returning to their place of origin
when apprehended for illegal entry, the department announced late
last month.
Those migrants who decline repatriation to their place of origin in
the interior of Mexico would be repatriated to the northern border
of Mexico through regular means, it said.
"The goal of this program is to save lives by safely returning
Mexican nationals to their homes, away from the dangers of the
Arizona-Sonora desert where smugglers and the harsh summer climate
contribute to the deaths and injuries of illegal border crossers,
"Hutchinson said last month.
The program, to cost about 13 million US dollars, will be limited to
the Arizona-Sonora region, one of the most popular and most deadly
crossing points, and the United States hopes to ship about 300
Mexicans home every day.
The department said the repatriation is only a pilot program set to
run no later than Sept. 30, and at its conclusion, the US and the
Mexican governments will evaluate the program and
recommend future plans.
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