Las fuerzas militares mexicanas arrestaron a un alto líder dentro del Cartel del Golfo. El arresto surge mientras la organización trabaja para brindar apoyo financiero a candidatos políticos en la región fronteriza norte, dijeron a Breitbart Texas fuentes policiales estadounidenses.

Conocido como “El Vaquero”, Evaristo Cruz Sánchez es el actual líder de la facción de Matamoros del Cartel del Golfo y está vinculado a la mayor parte de la violencia en todo el noreste de Tamaulipas.

El operativo tuvo lugar el martes al mediodía en Salinas Victoria, a poca distancia del área metropolitana de Monterrey en Nuevo León, dijo una fuente policial estadounidense a Breitbart Texas. Las fuerzas de inteligencia mexicanas estaban rastreando a Vaquero después de que apareció en Nuevo León. El narco-líder, estaba tratando de mantener un perfil bajo y cambiaba de casas seguras con regularidad. El Vaquero buscó refugio en Monterrey luego de que las fuerzas militares y la Guardia Nacional comenzaran a cazarlo en Tamaulipas, reveló la fuente policial americana.

Las fuerzas militares mexicanas arrestaron a El Vaquero cuando se reunía con un hombre conocido solo como “El Chago” Villarreal, un jefe del crimen organizado local y ex miembro de Los Zetas que ahora esta ligado al Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Según la fuente policial estadounidense, los dos narcotraficantes se reunieron para discutir el financiamiento de campañas políticas en el norte de México.

Ildefonso Ortiz es un galardonado periodista de Breitbart Texas. El es un cofundador del proyecto Cartel Chronicles de Breitbart Texas junto con Brando Darby y la dirección ejecutiva de Breitbart.  Puedes seguirlo en Twitter y en Facebook . Lo puedes contactar en [email protected] .

Brandon Darby es el director general y editor en jefe de Breitbart Texas. El es un cofundador del proyecto Cartel Chronicles de Breitbart Texas junto con Ildefonso Ortiz y la dirección ejecutiva de Breitbart.  Puedes seguirlo en Twitter y Facebook . Lo puedes contactar en [email protected] .

Gerald “Tony” Aranda es un escritor que colabora con Breitbart Texas.

As the U.K. mourns the death of Prince Philip —Queen Elizabeth II’s husband—the royal family and other public figures are expected to follow certain strict protocols in the days leading up to his funeral, not least the Queen herself. She is expected to pause her state affairs as she enters an official period of mourning that will last eight days.

Here we look at some other rules relating to royal deaths.

Always carry a black outfit

The royal family has been prepared for the latest death for their entire lives, at least in terms of their attire. All royal family members are expected to carry a black mourning outfit with them whenever they travel overseas in case a family member dies while they are away.

In the event that a death occurs while they’re abroad, royal family members must return wearing their black outfit as they must be seen to be mourning on arrival.

The black outfit rule was introduced after Elizabeth was without any black mourning clothes when her father, King George VI, died on February 6, 1952 as she was visiting Kenya when she heard the news. She and Philip were en route to Australia by ship at the time but had made a stop at the Treetops Hotel in the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa.

Upon hearing of the death of her father, Elizabeth headed to Entebbe in Uganda where she would get a plane back to the U.K. A black outfit was sent from the ship to Entebbe so that she would be dressed appropriately upon landing in the U.K.

Newsreaders are also traditionally expected to wear black as a mark of respect when announcing the death of a royal family member.

Back in 2002, BBC came under fire as presenter Peter Sissons wore a burgundy tie and grey suit to deliver the news of the Queen Mother’s death.

In a statement at the time, the BBC said: “The guidance to presenters was that they should wear sombre clothes for the announcement of the Queen Mother’s death and black ties for the funeral.”

Wear a hat and suit

At the funeral, royal family women will be expected to follow the traditional protocol of wearing a hat or a fascinator, while men will be suited up.

…and a long skirt

Royal family women should also be wearing a black dress or skirt falling just on the knee or below it, as reportedly preferred by Elizabeth.

…and tights

Royal family women are also required to wear tights, which is reportedly “the only hard, steadfast rule in terms of what the Queen requires,” according to royal expert Victoria Arbiter.

Lower flags

Other protocols include the lowering of flags. They must be flown at half-mast for the funerals of royal family members, “subject to special commands from Her Majesty in each case,” according to the National Association of Civic Officers in the U.K.

According to a document from the Hertford Town Council Constitution of Hertfordshire, England outlining the “protocol to mark the death of a senior member of the royal family,” upon the formal announcement of death, “flags are flown at half-mast until 08.00 on the morning following the state funeral. If the death or period of mourning falls on St George’s Day, the English flag should be replaced by the Union flag.”

Hold the funeral eight days following death

According to a document from the Hertford Town Council Constitution, funerals of senior royal members take place eight days after the day of the death, while “for the Sovereign, the funeral will take place 10 days after the day of death.”

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, funerals are limited to 30 people and no public viewing of Philip’s body will be held. The funeral will likely be attended by family members, friends and heads of state from Commonwealth countries.

Details around the funeral have not been released by the royal family. Officially announcing Philip’s death, the royal family tweeted on Friday: “Further announcements will be made in due course.”

State vs. ceremonial funerals

According to a 2013 House of Commons document distributed to members of U.K. parliament, there are two types of royal funerals—state and ceremonial.

“A state funeral is defined by the Royal Encyclopedia as ‘generally limited to Sovereigns, but may, by order of the reigning monarch and by a vote of Parliament providing the fund, be extended to exceptionally distinguished persons.'”

A ceremonial funeral is held “for those members of the Royal Family who hold high military rank, for the consort of the Sovereign and heir to the throne,” according to the document. The Queen Mother and Princess Diana were both given a ceremonial funeral.

Both types of funerals will entail “a military procession carrying the coffin to Westminster Hall, a period of lying in state, and a service at Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral.

“A state funeral is commonly held to differ from a ceremonial funeral in two respects: a parliamentary motion authorises it, and the gun carriage bearing the coffin to the lying in state has, since the funeral of Queen Victoria, been drawn by Royal Navy sailors rather than by horses.

“The process for deciding when a state funeral should be held for a person other than the Sovereign is relatively unclear, not least since it happens so rarely and at long historical intervals. There is no official process set out in public,” the document says.

— Blockchain is being used to boost trade through the China-Europe train routes, which have contributed significantly to lowering logistics costs and served as a lifeline stabilizing global trade amid the pandemic.

— Riding the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013, the China-Europe freight train service has connected over 60 domestic cities with major European countries.

Aerial photo shows a China-Europe freight train bound for Helsinki, Finland departing from Putian Station of Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province, Nov. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Hao Yuan)

by Xinhua writers Ma Yujie, Yang Di and Li Like

CHENGDU, April 11 (Xinhua) — Blockchain is being used to boost trade through the China-Europe train routes, which have contributed significantly to lowering logistics costs and served as a lifeline stabilizing global trade amid the pandemic.

On April 1 at the Chengdu International Railway Port, a major port in southwest China’s Sichuan Province for China-Europe cargo trains, a new version of the blockchain-powered platform Sino-Europe Trade Link 2.0 was put into operation by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

The updated platform, which allows enterprises to raise funds directly from the bank, will lower costs and speed up the cash flows of relevant foreign trade companies.

Riding the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013, the China-Europe freight train service has connected over 60 domestic cities with major European countries.

This undated file photo shows a waybill issued in 2007 for a freight train departing from China to Latvia. (Chengdu International Railway Port Administrative Committee/Handout via Xinhua)

Wang Haiyang, general manager of the Chengdu branch of logistics company Shenzhen Neptune Logistics Co., Ltd, displayed a waybill of the company in 2007. On it, there were over 20 stamps plus a jumble of handwritten notes in different languages.

He recalled how the cargo — four tonnes of glass — was transported from Qingdao, a major port city in east China’s Shandong Province, to Riga, the capital city of Latvia, over a period of 36 days.

“Logistics enterprises back then had to go to the railway station to pick up the waybill before departure and take it to customs for inspection and to have it sealed. After that, the waybill would be kept by the driver and be checked by every country along the route. That’s why there are so many stamps and signatures on it,” he said.

“Even after arrival, it took us another three days to go through all the clearance procedures and have the delivery accepted,” said Wang. “Now the China-Europe train only takes about a third of the time.”

The tall order was made possible via a basket of innovations China has made to boost the service. A conspicuous improvement was the intermodal transport document.

Traditionally, the delivery of goods by railway involves multiple parties and waybill standards are not uniform among countries. So a journey could require several waybills and none of them could be used to pick up the goods, making delivery time-consuming and costly.

The intermodal transport document, however, simplifies these en-route procedures and substitutes all waybills. It can also work as a certificate for enterprises to raise funds from the bank.

The document, introduced in 2017, has provided great convenience for foreign trade enterprises and is being widely accepted.

This undated file photo shows the intermodal transport document issued in 2017 by the Chengdu International Inland Port Operation Co., Ltd. to the Rongoudeyuan Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. (currently known as the Haotong Supply Chain). (Chengdu International Railway Port Administrative Committee/Handout via Xinhua)

Boosted by such new measures, the China-Europe cargo train service has entered the fast track in recent years. Statistics showed that it took three years and three months for the freight trains to make 200 trips, but only two months to increase from 800 to 1,000 trips.

Last year, the freight trains made 12,400 journeys and transported 1.14 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo, respectively up by 50 percent and 56 percent year on year.

The intermodal transport document has also laid the foundation for the application of blockchain in cross-border trade.

Blockchain is a specific type of database where all clients can share data yet no one can adjust or erase any exchange. It is therefore lauded for its safety, security and transparency, and has promising applications in facilitating trade.

“We take advantage of blockchain’s merits, such as its tamper-proof nature and timestamps, to form reliable trade data. That can greatly improve the financing capabilities of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises,” said staff with ICBC’s Sichuan branch.

“Compared with 2007, we now have the support of blockchain, the Internet of Things and big data, which can help track logistics and significantly lower the risk of cargo damage. So there’s better protection for both the banks and the customers,” said Chen Ran with Chengdu International Inland Port Operation Co., Ltd.

As more data is recorded on the platform, it can also be used by foreign trade companies to obtain more credit.

A China-Europe freight train unloads cargoes at the Chengdu International Railway Port in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)

“In the past, banks cared most about our assets, now they are more concerned with our business flows, capital flows and logistics,” said Xiao Lin, general manager of automobile importer Sichuan Haotong Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.

Xiao said that the intermodal transport document has helped the company maintain a sound capital flow, and their annual imports have risen from just two vehicles to almost 200.

“In addition to cross-border trade, we can also explore the application of the intermodal transport document in domestic logistics in accordance with domestic laws, thus drafting a multimodal transport scheme that can be widely applied,” said Wei Bo with China Railway Chengdu Group Co., Ltd.

(Video reporters: Yang Hua and Yang Di; Video editor: Liu Yuting) ■