Tag: 2025-06-26

Tropical Wave Brings Rainfall Across Belize

The National Meteorological Service of Belize is warning of increased rainfall and gusty winds as a tropical wave moves across the country.

According to the official 6:00 a.m. weather forecast, a Small Craft Caution is in effect due to occasionally gusty winds along coastal waters. Operators of small vessels are advised to exercise caution while at sea.

The Met Service has also issued an Excessive Rainfall Watch for the next 24 to 48 hours, cautioning that heavy showers and thunderstorms could lead to localised flooding in vulnerable areas. Residents are urged to monitor the weather and stay tuned to official updates.

In its Tropical Weather Outlook, the Met Service noted that no tropical cyclone formation is expected in the North Atlantic Basin within the next 48 hours.

The public is advised to remain alert and follow guidance from national authorities as the system continues to develop.

Ecuador’s Most Wanted Drug Lord Recaptured in Hidden Bunker

Ecuadorian security forces have recaptured Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, the country’s most wanted fugitive and notorious drug lord, ending a months-long manhunt that began after his dramatic prison escape earlier this year.

Macías, leader of the feared Los Choneros gang, was found hiding in an underground bunker beneath a luxury home in Manta, on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. The 10-hour joint operation by police and military personnel ended without gunfire. Authorities uncovered the bunker behind a disguised trapdoor in the stone floor of the three-storey home, leading to a concealed room equipped with air conditioning, a bed, and a refrigerator.

Fito had been serving a 34-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking when he escaped from La Regional prison in Guayaquil in January 2024, allegedly with help from two prison guards. His breakout triggered deadly prison riots, a nationwide state of emergency, and intensified scrutiny of Ecuador’s crumbling prison system and rising gang violence.

Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, has been blamed for turning Ecuador from a peaceful nation into one of the most violent in Latin America, forging ties with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and importing brutal tactics such as decapitations and public executions.

He is also suspected of ordering the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a crime that shocked the nation and drew international condemnation.

Authorities say Fito offered no resistance upon capture and was flown to Guayaquil under heavy guard, where he is now being held in La Roca, a maximum-security prison.

 

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