Category Archives: Mexico

Parents of murdered Perth brothers say world a ‘darker place’ after Mexico tragedy

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The parents of Callum and Jake Robinson travelled to Mexico to identify the bodies of their children

The parents of two Australian brothers murdered while on a surfing trip in Mexico say the world has become a darker place since their deaths.

Originally from Perth, Callum Robinson, 33, and his brother Jake, 30, were on a surfing trip with their American friend Carter Rhoad, 30, in the state of Baja California when they failed to check in to a pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada.

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Missing surfers died from gunshots after attempted robbery, Mexican officials say

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Families of two Australians and American who went missing in Baja California have identified the bodies, officials say

Mexican authorities have identified the three dead bodies found in a well in Mexico as Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their travelling companion, Jack Carter Rhoad.

The trio, who went missing in the Pacific coast state of Baja California, were killed with gunshots to the head, Mexican authorities said on Sunday.

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‘High degree of probability’ bodies found in northern Mexico are missing Perth brothers

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Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

Three people have been arrested on charges of kidnapping after three bodies were found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend went missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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US asylum app strands migrants and aids organised crime, rights group says

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CBP One app offers far too few appointments, meaning asylum seekers must wait or pay human trafficking groups, report reveals

A US government smartphone app that tightly limits asylum appointments at the US-Mexico border is stranding vulnerable migrants in Mexico and enriching organised crime groups, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The report, which draws on interviews with more than 100 migrants, as well as officials and activists, documents how the CBP One app – which is all but mandatory for asylum seekers – offers 1,450 appointments a day, when arrivals at the border averaged 7,240 a day between May 2023 and January 2024.

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Weather tracker: Mexico swelters under season’s first heatwave

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Anticyclonic conditions have allowed temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country

Mexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season. The heatwave started on Sunday 14 April, when Mexico City recorded a new date record with a high of 32.9C, surpassing the previous record of 32C from 1998.

Anticyclonic conditions over the region have been responsible for this heatwave by inhibiting cloud formation, allowing temperatures to rise significantly. These conditions persisted through much of last week, allowing temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country.

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Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn

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For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds

Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.

The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.

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War, grief and hope: the stories behind the World Press Photo award-winners

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Images from Gaza, Ukraine, Madagascar and the US border chosen by global jury from more than 60,000 entries

• World Press Photo winners 2024 – in pictures

Photographs documenting the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, migration, family and dementia have topped this year’s World Press Photo awards – one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions.

Mohammed Salem, Lee-Ann Olwage, Alejandro Cegarra, and Julia Kochetova have been announced as the winners of this year’s competition, which is run by the World Press Photo Foundation – an independent, not-for-profit organisation that celebrates the importance of press and documentary photography.

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Mexico calls on UN to expel Ecuador over embassy raid as tensions soar

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Ecuadorian police forced their way inside embassy in Quito to arrest former vice-president who was seeking asylum in Mexico

Mexico is demanding that the United Nations expel Ecuador from the world body as part of a complaint to the top UN court over a police raid last week on the Mexican embassy in Quito.

Tensions between Mexico and Ecuador have soared since late last week when Ecuadorian authorities forced their way into the diplomatic mission to arrest Ecuador’s former vice-president Jorge Glas who had been holed up there seeking asylum in Mexico.

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Mexican president releases footage of ‘despicable’ raid on embassy in Ecuador

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemns assault by Ecuadorian officers, who dragged out ex-vice-president sheltering in mission

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has condemned what he described as a “despicable authoritarian” assault on his country’s embassy in Quito and released dramatic images showing Ecuadorian security forces dragging the country’s former vice-president from the building.

Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s vice-president from 2013 until 2018, sought shelter at the Mexican mission in December claiming he was suffering political persecution. But the 54-year-old politician was arrested there on Friday after Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, took the extraordinary step of ordering a raid on the embassy.

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Ecuador’s arrested former vice-president taken to hospital

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Jorge Glas brought to naval hospital from maximum security prison three days after his controversial capture in Mexican embassy

Ecuador’s former vice-president Jorge Glas has reportedly been taken to hospital from the maximum security jail where he was being held – three days after the politician was captured inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito during a police raid that drew outrage across Latin America.

Glas, 54, was sent to the Alcatraz-inspired prison La Roca (the Rock) in Guayaquil on Saturday, one day after being detained by Ecuadorian security forces inside the Mexican mission where he had sought asylum.

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Total solar eclipse: millions watched rare spectacle as moon blocked sun in Mexico, US and Canada – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories on the total eclipse below:

First contact is when the moon’s outer edge first appears to touch the sun, creating the beginnings of a partial eclipse and a crescent sun reducing in size until totality (second contact).

In the moments before totality, look for (in order) shadow bands, Baily’s Beads and a diamond ring, three of the most memorable stages of a total eclipse.

It gives us the opportunity not just to leverage all the great scientific capabilities that we have in the US, using all kinds of equipment, aircraft, kites, balloons, sounding rockets, all flying up into the atmosphere to observe.

But in addition we have trained regular citizens, not professional scientists, to use solar telescopes. And we have an app on your phone. We’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people taking pictures, and by pulling all that data together, we think we’re going to understand the shape of the sun down to within a few kilometers.

When literally day turns to night, animals start to behave differently, we’re seeing changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s a mystical, mysterious experience. And I love the thought that millions of Americans will stand together today, looking up into the sky wearing their glasses. It is amazing.

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‘A mystical experience’: millions watch total solar eclipse sweep across North America

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Almost 32 million people in the path of totality as moon’s shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border and then traversed 15 states

The ethereal spectacle of a total solar eclipse swept across North America on Monday afternoon, giving tens millions of people in Mexico, the US and Canada the chance to witness a rare and dazzling celestial show.

Almost 32 million people were in the path of totality as the moon’s shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border at lunchtime and traversed 15 states over the next hour and a half, although many, especially in the south and midwest, were denied a clear view by low clouds and rain.

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Excitement builds ahead of total solar eclipse in US, Mexico and Canada

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Rare celestial event on Monday will see the moon block out the sun for a few minutes and day turn to night, with fans hoping the clouds don’t spoil the view

Across the US, Mexico and Canada, people have rushed to stake out spots to witness a rare total solar eclipse, while forecasts for cloudy skies worry some hopeful spectators.

The phenomenon happens when the moon lines up perfectly between the Earth and the sun, blocking out the sunlight. The eclipse will be visible in the three countries on 8 April.

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UN chief joins condemnation of Ecuadorian raid on Mexican embassy

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António Guterres voices ‘alarm’ as Latin American governments sharply criticise Quito’s move to arrest former vice-president

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has added his voice to a torrent of criticism of Ecuador’s decision to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito in order to arrest the former vice-president Jorge Glas.

“The secretary general is alarmed at the forced entry of Ecuadorian security forces into the premises of the Mexican embassy,” Guterres said through his spokesperson on Sunday, adding that violations of the sanctity of diplomatic and consular property “jeopardise the pursuit of normal international relations”.

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Mexico suspends diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police raid embassy

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Ecuadorian police forcibly enter the embassy in Quito to detain former vice-president Jorge Glas

Mexico has suspended diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police forcibly broke into the country’s embassy in Quito to detain former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries.

Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up in the embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December, arguing he was being persecuted by the attorney general’s office.

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Candidate for mayor of Mexican city of Celaya killed on first day of campaign

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Bertha Gisela Gaytán is one of at least 22 mayoral candidates murdered in Mexico since September 2023

A candidate running to be mayor in one of Mexico’s most violent cities has been killed on the first day of her campaign, adding to the death toll in what experts say could be the country’s bloodiest elections in history.

Bertha Gisela Gaytán was shot in a town just outside of the city of Celaya, where she was running for Morena, Mexico’s governing party. A video on social media shows a group of activists and supporters of Morena walking through the streets before shots ring out.

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Let the music play: Mexico beach bands victorious after noise complaints

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Hotel owner in Mazatlán had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play after complaints from foreign tourists

Bands who play the thumping tuba-and-drums songs of northern Mexico on beaches in the resort city of Mazatlán appear to have emerged victorious this week after noise complaints had threatened to silence them.

But anybody who planned to witness the 8 April eclipse in a moment of awed silence will likely be disappointed. Mazatlán, on the Pacific coast, will be first place in North America where the path of totality will be visible.

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Arizona court rules Mexico can proceed with lawsuit against five US gun dealers

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Companies accused of facilitating gun trafficking and and of being responsible for bloodshed that their guns contribute to in Mexico

A trial court in Arizona has ruled that the Mexican government may proceed in its trailblazing lawsuit against five US gun dealers, who stand accused of facilitating gun trafficking across the border into Mexico.

Mexico argues that the companies’ marketing campaigns and distribution practices mean that they are legally responsible for the bloodshed that their guns contribute to.

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Mexico: report challenges official story of migrant facility fire in which 40 died

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Investigation asserts that detention centre staff had key to cell in which men were being held but did not open door to let them out

A new report has challenged the official version of events during a fire in a Mexican migrant detention facility that killed dozens, alleging that staff could have let the men out of their cell, but instead decided – or were told – not to.

The fire in Ciudad Juárez broke out on 27 March 2023, when detainees started a fire to protest conditions at the facility. But as the flames spread, the men were left in a locked cell as smoke filled the building, until firemen arrived. Forty men were killed, and another 27 survived, with life-altering injuries.

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Mexican detectives found after vanishing during search for 43 missing students

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Officials gave no indication of how detectives were found or whether they were freed from captivity

Two detectives looking for 43 students who went missing almost 10 years ago have been found unharmed, two days after they themselves disappeared in Mexico’s Pacific coast state of Guerrero, officials have said.

Officials did not say on Tuesday how the two federal detectives, a man and a woman, were found or whether they had been freed from captivity.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said that a search effort had been launched to find the two federal detectives, a man and a woman. Speaking at his daily news briefing, López Obrador said: “I hope this is not related to those who do not want us to find the youths.”

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