La PNC informó que agentes de la SGAIA localizaron, erradicaron e incineraron 68.160 matas de marihuana en Las Cruces, Petén, durante un operativo realizado el 20 de junio en una zona montañosa de difícil acceso, una acción que las autoridades valoraron en Q34,08 millones (USD 4,463,278.60) y que se enmarca en la ofensiva del Estado contra los cultivos ilícitos en el norte de Guatemala.

El golpe se suma a otros operativos recientes en el mismo departamento. Según la Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias, el 6 de junio fueron destruidas más de 115.416 plantas en el caserío Ixmuconé, Petén, con un avalúo superior a Q57,7 millones.

La operación más reciente fue ejecutada por la Subdirección General de Análisis e Información Antinarcótica de la Policía Nacional Civil tras tareas de reconocimiento y búsqueda en áreas remotas del departamento. Después del hallazgo, los agentes arrancaron e incineraron las plantaciones conforme a los protocolos establecidos.

Las autoridades calcularon que el cultivo destruido tenía un valor aproximado de 34 millones 80 mil quetzales. La PNC sostuvo que la destrucción representa un golpe a las estructuras dedicadas a la producción y comercialización de drogas.

El municipio de Las Cruces se ha convertido en uno de los puntos más sensibles para este tipo de operaciones por sus extensas áreas montañosas, su difícil acceso y su cercanía fronteriza. De acuerdo con la información oficial incluida en el reporte, Petén es hoy el principal foco de localización de sembradíos clandestinos de marihuana en Guatemala.

En mayo de 2026, en el caserío Flor de la Esperanza, también en Petén, las fuerzas de seguridad localizaron e incineraron 87,800 plantas distribuidas en tres campos de cultivo, con un avalúo de Q43,9 millones. Ese mismo mes, en el caserío Ixcoch, agentes de la SGAIA erradicaron y quemaron 59.904 matas dentro del plan de desarticulación de bandas del crimen organizado.

La respuesta a la pregunta central del operativo es concreta: la plantación destruida estaba compuesta por 68,160 matas de marihuana y fue encontrada en un sector montañoso del municipio de Las Cruces, Petén. La intervención terminó con la erradicación total y la quema en el lugar para impedir su traslado y su comercialización.

Según el Ministerio de Gobernación, la destrucción de estos cultivos forma parte de una estrategia permanente para impedir que la droga llegue a los mercados ilícitos de Guatemala y otros países de la región. La publicación oficial añadió que los operativos continúan en distintos puntos del país, sobre todo en áreas rurales y montañosas donde grupos criminales buscan establecer cultivos clandestinos.

El marco legal que rige estas acciones es la Ley Contra la Narcoactividad, Decreto 48-92, que prohíbe de forma estricta la siembra, el cultivo y la cosecha de marihuana en territorio guatemalteco. El protocolo establece que, tras localizar un sembradío, el personal antinarcótico realiza el conteo, toma muestras para pruebas de campo en coordinación con jueces fiscales y luego arranca e incinera la totalidad de la plantación en el mismo terreno.

Los registros oficiales citados por el medio también señalan que en 2025 Guatemala superó la erradicación histórica de 2,6 millones de matas de marihuana. Ese balance anual incluyó además la destrucción de miles de kilos de marihuana procesada y de plantaciones de otras sustancias ilícitas, como amapola y hoja de coca.

Fuera de Petén, los reportes oficiales ubican otros focos de incautación en San Marcos, en localidades como Tajumulco y Sipacapa, y en Totonicapán, donde se han desmantelado plantaciones menores en municipios como Momostenango.

CHICAGO — Opening weekend visitors at the Barack Obama Presidential Center called the 44th president’s legacy an example of unifying, scandal-free «Black excellence,» while they lamented what they view as a dark turn for the U.S. under President Donald Trump.

«The community is great, we’re just kind of glad it’s here,» Lauren Tillman, who lives about 40 minutes outside of Chicago, told Fox News Digital. «We needed something like this. Chicago looks like a certain place to certain people who are not from the area… so I just think this brought everybody together, like, ‘oh there’s something for the community,’ for Black people, and on Juneteenth, so I thought that was great, too.»

The presidential center’s opening weekend began with a star-studded private ceremony and concert on Thursday night, and the 19.3-acre campus opened to the public on Friday during the Juneteenth holiday, which celebrates the day Black slaves were declared free in 1865.

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«Just knowing that Chicago doesn’t always get the best rep, to know that we’ve had a Black president come from this place, and then to memorialize his legacy is just great,» said Ashley Woods, who joined Tillman at the opening.

«To know that [Obama] was going to try to do at least something for his people, that meant a lot to me and being here means a lot,» added Tillman.

«And I think, to piggyback off that, I think the legacy is Black excellence,» continued Woods. «Again, growing up in a place like Chicago, you don’t really think you can do much besides being a rapper or, you know, going into sports, but so see that somebody actually made it to the top per se, they were able to run the nation, there was very little scandal around him and his family, like it just shows you that we can be more than what America tells us we can be.»

OBAMA’S LEGACY PROJECT OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE RESIDENTS

Lauren Tillman and Ashley Woods speak with Fox News Digital at the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Friday. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)

Sheryl Rogers and Peggy Neely-Harris made the trip from St. Louis for the weekend’s festivities.

«What it means for African Americans [is] a coming together, a reckoning, a remembrance of the excellence that is within each one of us, particularly in African Americans and particularly at this time when our very existence is under attack,» Rogers told Fox News Digital.

Neely-Harris agreed, and said that the brand new presidential center is a symbol of hope and renewal, and that the center is a «light in this present darkness.»

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Sheryl Rogers and Peggy Neely Harris speak with Fox News Digital on the opening weekend of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)

«[Obama] has left an excellent example of how you should live, what type of character you should have and the love of family and community,» Rogers continued. «You can see love just exudes from them, and I love to see love in action.»

«No scandal,» she added.

However, Obama did face some major scandals and controversies during his two terms in the White House.

Obama’s DOJ infamously seized records of Fox News’ phone lines, including a phone number that belonged to the parents of a reporter.

The seizure was approved after a warrant was granted by a judge, and in an affidavit seeking the warrant, an FBI agent called reporter James Rosen a likely criminal «co-conspirator» in a violation of the Espionage Act.

Obama also faced government weaponization claims when his IRS allegedly slow-rolled the tax-exempt nonprofit approval of grassroots conservative organizations that set out to oppose his agenda.

Groups with words such as «Tea Party» or «Patriot» in their names were allegedly hindered from forming for months and years.

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Barack Obama speaks during the dedication of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, in Chicago. (Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)

Operation Fast and Furious was another chart-topping Obama scandal.

ATF agents intentionally allowed illegal straw purchases of weapons near the U.S. southern border with Mexico, in hopes that tracking the firearms would lead them directly to high-level cartel kingpins. But the Obama-era agency failed to monitor at least 2,000 of the weapons, which did in fact make their way into the hands of dangerous characters.

One of the weapons in the ill-fated sting was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.

When, in 2012, then-Attorney General Eric Holder was subpoenaed during a House Oversight Committee investigation into the matter, he refused to comply, disallowing the committee from seeing thousands of pages of records pertaining to the operation. He later became the first U.S. cabinet official to be held in contempt of Congress, but the Obama DOJ failed to prosecute him.

Obama ordered the extrajudicial drone strike killings of four terror-tied Americans in Yemen without due process.

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Valerie Reynolds speaks to Fox News Digital during the opening weekend of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Friday. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)

Twenty-six-year-old Chicago resident Valerie Reynolds told Fox News Digital she thinks the center will improve the image of the city’s South Side, which often finds itself in news headlines for violence and poverty.

«I think Barack Obama’s legacy is and will continue to be the inspiration of togetherness, of the power of what can be done and what can be created when we all come together,» she said. «It’s absolutely something that we are missing today. I’ve seen divisions in this country in ways that I’ve never seen before, and I was reminded of just how vast those divisions are being out here today, because it’s the first time I’ve felt this closeness since he ran for office in 2008.»

An emotional Kia Ware, a woman from Virginia, said the grand opening of the center was a sad reminder of the direction of the U.S. since Obama left office.

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Kia Ware speaks with Fox News Digital during the opening weekend of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Friday. (Peter D’Abrosca/Fox News Digital)

«It makes me sad because I was so proud of everything that was accomplished during that legacy in terms of, you know, fighting for vulnerable people and vulnerable lands and protection of so many things that are now being erased forever, and I feel like it’s setting us back,» she said.

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Ware added that Obama is still a «powerhouse» in the Democratic Party, and said that people who believe in his legacy want him to «step back in.»

«I guess it just means, like for me, I just am feeling very thankful that we have those eight years of history for putting women forward, putting minorities forward,» she said. «I felt like that unification, just seeing all people of different backgrounds and ages and generations here, I get that same feeling.»

As Colombia heads into a pivotal presidential runoff on Sunday, conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella is riding a wave of voter frustration over crime, cartels and economic uncertainty.

His rise comes as outgoing President Gustavo Petro faces mounting political turmoil, turning the election into a high-stakes battle over the future of one of America’s most important allies in Latin America.

De le Espriella’s campaign is built on a platform of law and order, anti-cartel crackdowns and repairing U.S.-Colombia relations as he faces leftist politician Iván Cepeda in the presidential runoff. Cepeda is from Petro’s socialist party.

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In a region increasingly defined by larger-than-life political figures, de la Espriella is known universally as «El Tigre,» and has transformed his nickname into a political movement. Campaign rallies feature tiger imagery, merchandise and slogans built around strength and fearlessness.

He has openly embraced comparisons to President Trump, presenting himself as a political outsider willing to confront entrenched elites, challenge progressive orthodoxies and restore what supporters describe as strength and order to government.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech during a troop recognition ceremony at the Jose Maria Cordova Military Cadet School in Bogota on March 11, 2025. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier this week Trump endorsed him stating in part on social media that: «Colombian Presidential Candidate, «El Tigre (THE TIGER),» Abelardo de la Espriella, is a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader, who fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.»

Trump added, «Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, it is my Honor to give Abelardo my Complete and Total Endorsement. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR «EL TIGRE» ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA — HE WILL NOT LET THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA DOWN. It will rise to a new height of Greatness!»

President Donald Trump, left, waves as he greets El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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Aside from the Trump comparison, he’s also been likened to El Salvador’s President Bukele. Like Bukele, he has built a political brand around toughness, disruption and public frustration with crime. His campaign rhetoric frequently emphasizes restoring state authority and defeating criminal organizations through overwhelming force.

Petro’s ally, Iván Cepeda, has pledged to continue the administration’s social and economic agenda while expanding negotiations with armed groups.

Cepeda’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on his campaign and hopes for the country.

Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, of the Pacto Historico party, speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlantico department, Colombia on May 24, 2026.  (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)

Carlos Chacón, executive director of Instituto de Ciencia Política (ICP), a think tank in Colombia told Fox News Digital, «Colombia is torn between two models and two visions: the leftist model, which seeks to increase state intervention in the economy, a model already proven to generate fiscal deficits and economic crises; a model that prioritizes negotiations and appeasement over security, resulting in the strengthening of criminal networks nationwide; and, above all, a model whose political agenda is to alter the Constitution.»

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Chacón said the difference between the two candidates is clear, saying that Abelardo’s model «favors free enterprise and seeks to ensure security, regain territorial control, downsize the state, revitalize strategic sectors, and mend international relations, would be implemented entirely within the framework of the 1991 Constitution.» He added, «Abelardo has never spoken of replacing the constitutional model with an authoritarian one, as is the case with the project proposed by Petro, Cepeda.»

Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026.  (Sergio Acero/reuters )

One of the recurring themes of de la Espriella’s campaign has been rebuilding a close relationship with Washington and pursuing a more aggressive security partnership against narcotrafficking and armed groups. He has advocated U.S.-backed operations against narco-terrorist camps and stronger bilateral cooperation on security issues.

De la Espriella rise comes as the outgoing Colombian President Petro faces a battle over allegations of improper involvement in the country’s presidential election. The head of Colombia’s congressional investigative commission has proposed suspending president Petro while authorities examine allegations that he improperly intervened in the presidential campaign on behalf of his political movement.

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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31.  (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)

The proposal has triggered fierce debate across Colombia, with supporters describing it as necessary accountability and critics arguing it exceeds constitutional authority. Petro has denied wrongdoing and remains in office.

The outcome of this election will help determine not only the future of Colombia’s security strategy, but also the trajectory of one of Washington’s most important allies in the Western Hemisphere.