Category Archives: Mexico

Venezuala: Blinken congratulates González on winning election as more countries come out against Maduro

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US secretary of state also voices concern for opposition candidate’s safety while Venezualan government accuses Washington of leading ‘coup attempt’

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has congratulated Edmundo González “for receiving the most votes” in Venezuela’s election, as more countries came out to recognise the opposition candidate as the winner of Sunday’s disputed poll.

Blinken spoke with González and opposition leader María Corina Machado in a phone call on Friday and voiced concern for both of them, the state department said. On Thursday, Blinken recognised González as the winner of last Sunday’s vote, citing “overwhelming evidence”.

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Son of El Chapo pleads not guilty in Chicago as mystery cloaks cartel arrests

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Officials have mixed accounts around arrest of Sinaloa co-founder El Mayo after Guzmán López turned himself in

Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in Chicago, days after his arrest in a dramatic operation in which he may have delivered his father’s former business partner to US authorities.

Guzmán López, 38, was detained on Thursday alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the other co-founder of one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups, after touching down in a small plane in El Paso, Texas.

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More than 500 Mexicans flee to Guatemala to escape cartel violence in Chiapas

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Chiapas, once a haven for Guatemalans fleeing genocide, sees citizens crossing border to escape tyranny of cartels

The Mexican state of Chiapas was once a haven for Guatemalans fleeing genocide at home, but this historical relationship has recently flipped, with hundreds of Mexicans crossing the border to escape the violent tyranny of organised crime groups.

Entire communities emptied out last week as more than 500 men, women, children and the elderly fled with what they could carry and walked across the border, citing food shortages and the conflicts between criminal groups pressing in ever closer on their homes.

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Mexico president asks cartels not to fight each other after arrest of drug lords

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador makes unusual public appeal after arrest of top leaders of Sinaloa cartel

Mexico’s president has taken the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other following last week’s detention of the top Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily press briefing that he trusted that drug traffickers knew they would only suffer if they stepped up the internal wars that already plague the Sinaloa cartel.

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Mexico president calls for ‘transparency’ amid secrecy over Sinaloa cartel arrests

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US announces arrest of two leaders of organised crime group as Mexican authorities say they were in the dark

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has called for “transparency” after the sudden and secretive arrests by US authorities of two top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, 76, founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, and has been a top target of US law enforcement for decades, with a $15m bounty on his head.

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Top leaders of powerful Sinaloa drug cartel arrested in Texas

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Biden praises law enforcement for fentanyl charges against members of ‘one of the deadliest enterprises in the world’

The US justice department has arrested two leaders of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including the cartel’s co-founder, for leading deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the charges against cartel leaders Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, one of the group’s co-founders, and Joaquin Guzmán. Both men face several charges in the United States for allegedly leading the cartel’s criminal operations.

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Transfemicide becomes a crime in a ‘watershed’ moment for Mexico City

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Galvanized by the 2016 murder of trans sex worker Paola Buenrostro, activists applaud law as critical for feeling safe

When the trans sex worker Paola Buenrostro was killed by a client in Mexico City, her friend Kenya Cuevas grabbed the man to stop him fleeing and recorded the scene as police arrived amid sirens, screams and red and blue lights.

Despite the footage and witness testimonies, a judge considered there was insufficient evidence to hold the man and released him after 48 hours, since which time he has been on the run.

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Tropical Storm Beryl smashes through Caribbean and heads for Texas coast

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Earliest category 5 hurricane on record is 495 miles south-east of Corpus Christi, with winds near 60mph

Tropical Storm Beryl, which has already smashed its way across the Caribbean as a hurricane before slamming into the Yucatán peninsula, is intensifying once again and expected to make landfall as a hurricane for the third time along the Texas coast.

The powerful hurricane – Beryl is the earliest category 5 hurricane on record – was by early Saturday approximately 495 miles (797km) south-east of Corpus Christi, Texas. The storm is forecast to turn toward the north-west later Saturday and then north/north-westward by Sunday night.

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Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Mexico as category 2 storm and expected to reach Texas

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Hurricane warning issued for coast from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancún, including Cozumel, with coastal residents in Texas told to prepare

Hurricane Beryl has made landfall as a category 2 storm in Mexico’s top tourist destinations, triggering a red alert in the region following its deadly trail of destruction across several Caribbean islands.

The storm’s core shifted over the Yucatán, with winds slowing to approximately 100mph (160km/h) as it reached the north-eastern region of Tulum, famed for its white-sand beaches, lush landscapes and Mayan ruins.

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Hurricane Beryl barrels through Cayman Islands after battering Jamaica

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Category 3 storm with wind speeds of up to 120mph continues to wreak ‘utter devastation’ in Caribbean

Hurricane Beryl is barrelling through the Cayman Islands after causing death and destruction in Jamaica.

The British overseas territory is bearing the brunt of the hurricane, which has been causing “utter devastation” in the Caribbean since Monday, when it almost destroyed parts of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

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Four dead as category 5 Hurricane Beryl wreaks havoc across Caribbean

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With winds up to 160mph, the monster storm pushed through Grenada and is on track for Jamaica and the Yucatán peninsula

At least four people have died after Hurricane Beryl wreaked “almost complete destruction” on small and vulnerable islands in the Caribbean.

The monster hurricane, which is now barrelling towards Jamaica, has strengthened to category 5 status, which means it can achieve wind speeds of over 157mph (253km/h).

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‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Grenada

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Roofs blown off by 150mph winds and thousands hunkered down as hurricane reaches Caribbean island of Carriacou

Hurricane Beryl has made landfall on the Caribbean island of Carriacou after becoming the earliest storm of its strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.

Carriacou is one of the islands of Grenada, where officials said winds increased up to 150mph (240km/h), blowing off roofs and causing other damage.

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Tropical Storm Beryl predicted to turn into first hurricane of season

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Storm is forecast to glance off Barbados on Sunday before heading through Caribbean and toward the Yucatán

Tropical Storm Beryl is forecast to become the first hurricane of the season before skirting the southern tip of Barbados in the south-eastern Caribbean on Sunday.

Beryl currently holds maximum sustained winds of 60mph (95km/h) and is traveling west at 21mph (34km/h), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center.

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US inspections of Mexican avocados to resume after suspension over assault of inspectors

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US agricultural department employees were attacked and detained earlier this week in Michoacán state

US government inspections of avocados and mangoes in the Mexican state of Michoacán will gradually resume, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, announced on Friday, a week after they were suspended over an assault on inspectors.

The US agriculture department inspectors “will gradually begin to return to the packing plants following recent aggression against them”, Salazar said in a statement. “However, it is still necessary to advance in guaranteeing their security before reaching full operations.

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Ancient Mayan vase purchased by US woman for $4 returned to Mexico

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Anna Lee Dozier bought ceramic vessel at Maryland thrift store but it will now reside in Mexico City’s main museum

Mexico has regained a lost ancient Maya vase because of a US woman who bought the artefact for less than $5 at a thrift store.

Anne Lee Dozier recently received an expression of gratitude from the Mexican embassy in her home town of Washington DC for her role in reuniting the 1,200-to 1,800-year-old vase with its motherland.

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Deadly heat in Mexico and US made 35 times more likely by global heating

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Researchers find extreme heat four times more likely than at turn of millennium and urge reduction in fossil fuels

The deadly heatwave that scorched large swaths of Mexico, Central America and the southern US in recent weeks was made 35 times more likely due to human-induced global heating, according to research by leading climate scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA).

Tens of millions of people have endured dangerous day – and nighttime temperatures as a heat dome engulfed Mexico – a large and lingering zone of high pressure that stretched north to Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and south over Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

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US accuses Chinese ‘underground bankers’ of laundering $50m in cartel drug money

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Justice department charges 24 defendants and says long investigation reveals links between Mexico’s Sinaloa gang and China

The US justice department has accused Chinese “underground bankers” of helping Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel launder more than $50m in drug-trafficking proceeds.

An indictment unsealed in California charged 24 defendants with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and money-laundering offenses.

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US pauses avocado and mango inspections in Mexico after attack

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Two officials assaulted and held while inspecting avocados in Michoacán in incident ‘unconnected to industry’

An attack on two employees of the US agricultural department prompted a temporary suspension of safety inspections on avocados and mangoes in Mexico, potentially disrupting a $2.4bn industry between the two countries.

Ambassador Ken Salazar said in a statement that the two officials were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants while they were inspecting avocados in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

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US avocado inspectors stop work in Mexican state over ‘security situation’

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Mango inspections also suspended ‘until further notice’ in state troubled by gang violence, but USDA says produce already in transit not affected

The US paused safety inspections for avocados and mangos from the Mexican state of Michoacán due to a security incident involving US department of agriculture (USDA) staff, a spokesperson for the agency said.

The spokesperson said avocados and mangos already in transit from Michoacán would not be affected but further inspections were suspended “until further notice”.

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Weather tracker: Mexico and southern Texas brace for torrential rain

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Disturbance in south-west Gulf of Mexico has 60% chance of developing into a hurricane over next seven days

A weather system is set to move over southern Texas and Mexico through this week, bringing vast quantities of rain. The National Hurricane Center noted a tropical disturbance in the south-west Gulf of Mexico that has a 60% chance of developing into a tropical depression during the next seven days. This potential tropical depression, essentially an area of low pressure, may be in a spot where the environmental conditions are good for its gradual development, and could end up moving towards hurricane status.

But even if it does not turn into a hurricane, heavy rain is expected to affect southern Texas and Mexico. Southern Texas may experience up to 100mm (3.9in) of rainfall on Wednesday through to Friday, and some Mexican states bordering the gulf may have up to 150mm. Rainfall totals of this magnitude, especially within such a small time frame, can cause catastrophic, life-threatening flooding.

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