Category Archives: Mexico

Mexican drug lord El Chapo’s wife to be released from prison, say US authorities

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Emma Coronel was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to three counts of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel

Emma Coronel, the wife of the imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, will be freed in Los Angeles on Wednesday following her arrest in 2021 on drug trafficking charges, according to the US Bureau of Prisons.

The US-born 34-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to three counts of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel, including conspiracy to launder money and distribute illegal drugs and engaging in financial dealings.

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Sound of Freedom film producer plots long-shot bid for Mexican presidency

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Eduardo Verástegui, who also acts in movie embraced by QAnon followers, files paperwork for 2024 election

The producer of a surprise US box office hit widely embraced by followers of the extremist Q-Anon conspiracy theory is attempting a long-shot run for president in Mexico.

Shortly before a deadline late on Thursday, Eduardo Verástegui, producer of Sound of Freedom, filed paperwork to run as an independent candidate in the June 2024 election.

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Mexican activists hail abortion ruling but warn of lack of access to care

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Campaigners say many facilities and medical workers are likely to deny access since procedure is banned in many local jurisdictions

Human rights activists in Mexico have welcomed a historic ruling by the country’s supreme court that decriminalized abortion, but warned that the historic decision will not automatically make terminations accessible for all Mexican women.

Wednesday’s unanimous decision stripped away federal criminal penalties related to abortions – but not the many local laws banning the procedure, which remain on the books in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.

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Unicef sounds alarm as record numbers of children cross dangerous Darién Gap

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Children risking lives to migrate across Latin America and Caribbean, with aid groups warning they cannot cope

Record numbers of children are migrating across Latin America and the Caribbean with more than 60,000 children risking life and limb to cross the treacherous Darién Gap jungle pass this year, according to a new Unicef report.

Sounding the alarm over the rising number of youngsters on the move, the UN’s children’s agency said at least 92 migrant children had died or gone missing last year – more than any other year since 2014.

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Mexico set for first female president in 2024 election

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Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and senator Xóchitl Gálvez were selected as the candidates for the two major electoral groups

Mexico will almost certainly have its first female president in 2024, after the governing Morena party and the opposition coalition both chose women as their candidates.

Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was named Morena’s candidate on Wednesday, despite runner-up Marcelo Ebrard’s last-minute denouncement of the process and demand for it to be redone.

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Mexico supreme court decriminalizes abortion across country

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Decision to remove abortion from federal penal code comes amid trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on procedure

Mexico’s supreme court has unanimously ruled that state laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, in the latest in a series of victories for reproductive rights activists across Latin America.

Wednesday’s ruling came two years after the court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code, a decision which prompted a tortuous state-by-state process of legal battles. So far 12 of Mexico’s 31 states have decriminalized the procedure.

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Mexico City Marathon expels 11,000 runners for cutting sections of course

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  • Trackers suggest many participants did not run full course
  • Some athletes have said technology was not working properly

More than a third of runners at this year’s Mexico City Marathon have been expelled after organisers say they cut out sections of the 26.2 mile course.

An investigation was launched after complaints that runners had used cars, public transport and bikes to cheat during the race on 27 August. Tracking data then showed that thousands of participants had not passed some of the 5km checkpoints that monitor whether runners have completed the entire race.

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Growing number of countries consider making ecocide a crime

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Mexico latest country where government is considering passing new laws to criminalise environmental destruction

A growing number of countries are considering introducing laws to make ecocide a crime.

Mexico is the latest country where politicians are seeking to deter environmental damage – and to get justice for its victims – by criminalising it. Karina Marlen Barrón Perales, congresswoman for Nuevo León, has submitted a bill to the Mexican congress introducing a new crime of “ecocide”.

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Hurricane Hilary approaches California amid warnings of ‘serious threat’

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‘Catastrophic’ flooding expected despite weakening to category 1 cyclone after wildfires in Maui and Washington state

Hurricane Hilary was closing in on southern California on Sunday as federal emergency officials, stretched by deadly wildfires in Maui and Washington state, warned of a “serious impact and threat”.

Despite weakening to a category 1 cyclone, the storm was still packing winds of 80mph as it approached Mexico and the south-western US, with “catastrophic” flooding expected to follow landfall.

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Hurricane Hilary downgraded amid warnings of ‘catastrophic’ flooding

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Drowning reported in Baja California peninsula ahead of storm’s arrival on Saturday night before hitting southern California on Sunday

Hurricane Hilary was downgraded to a category 1 storm as it moved towards the Baja California region on Saturday evening, amid warnings of deadly flooding.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory on Saturday night that “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” was still likely and that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 90mph (145km/h).

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As Hurricane Hilary prepares to land, California and Mexico brace for impact

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Southern California gets first tropical storm warning as conditions could potentially affect Baja California peninsula late Friday

Hurricane Hilary, which quickly grew to category 4 strength off Mexico’s Pacific coast, whipping up 145mph winds, could become the first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years.

As the hurricane barrels northward, officials have issued the first ever tropical storm watch for the US west coast. Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings have also been issued for parts of Baja California and mainland Mexico, where fierce winds and rain could cause flooding and landslides.

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Hurricane Hilary heads towards Mexico after strengthening from tropical storm

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Storm moves toward Baja California and could bring high winds, surf and rain to southern California

A storm located about 300 miles off the coast of Mexico was upgraded to a hurricane overnight as it heads toward Baja California, potentially bringing heavy rain and winds to the region and the south-western United States this weekend.

Hurricane Hilary formed as a tropical storm about 470 miles off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico. It is currently about 320 miles (515km) south-west of Manzanillo and is moving about 13mph west-north-west. It is expected to turn north-west on Friday morning.

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‘Huge’ coral bleaching unfolding across the Americas prompts fears of global tragedy

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Scientists stunned by unprecedented heat-stress event say they can only hope it ‘motivates and unites people’

Corals across several countries are bleaching and dying en masse from unprecedented levels of heat stress, prompting fears that an unfolding tragedy in Central America, North America and the Caribbean could become a global event.

US government scientists have confirmed reefs in Panama, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and six countries in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas and Cuba, are suffering significant bleaching, alongside corals in Florida that began turning white almost a month ago.

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Mexico: outrage as Amlo suggests critics guilty of ‘gender-based violence’ against him

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Offhand remarks by Mexican president prompt condemnation in country with soaring levels of violence against women

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, has sparked ridicule and outrage after suggesting during a news conference that criticism leveled against him could be considered a form of gender-based violence.

The comments on Wednesday touched a nerve in Mexico, where the government of López Obrador has been unable to tackle soaring levels of violence against women, and where a resurgent feminist movement has become a thorn in the president’s side.

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Body caught in Rio Grande floating barrier, says Mexico

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Texas government installed barrier to deter migrants – Mexican and US governments want it removed as dangerous and illegal

A body has been found stuck in a floating barrier installed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande river on the US border, Mexico’s foreign ministry has said

Authorities were working to identify the body found in the river and determine the cause of death, said Mexico’s foreign ministry, as it reiterated safety concerns.

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Mexican city of Chihuahua bans misogynist lyrics in live music venues

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Fines of up to £55,000 could be imposed on musicians who sing songs deemed to promote violence against women

Authorities in the north-western Mexican state of Chihuahua have banned artists from singing misogynist lyrics in live music venues.

Chihuahua, the capital city of the state, which borders the US, has passed a measure to prohibit musicians from performing songs that promote violence against women.

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Mexican security forces were complicit in kidnapping of 43 student teachers, report reveals

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Report finds army, navy, police and intelligence agencies knew, minute by minute, where the student teachers were

Mexican security forces at local, state and federal level were complicit in the 2014 abduction of 43 student teachers and concealed documents which showed where some of them were taken, a report prepared by an independent investigatory panel has concluded.

The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) tasked with investigating the case said in their findings that the Army, Navy, police and intelligence agencies knew, minute by minute, where the students were.

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Mexico steps up rain-making project amid intense heatwave and drought

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Government claims 98% success rate for cloud seeding but critics urge improving irrigation and water supply systems

Amid a historic heatwave and months of drought, Mexico’s government has launched the latest phase of a cloud seeding project it hopes will increase rainfall.

The project, which began in July, involves planes flying into clouds to release silver iodide particles which then, in theory, will attract additional water droplets and increase rain or snowfall.

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Mexico: IEDs kill four police officers and two civilians in ‘brutal’ cartel ambush

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Another 14 wounded after seven improvised devices set off in attack by organized crime group in Tlajomulco, Jalisco state

Four police officers and two civilians have been killed by bombs planted in a road in western Mexico that officials said were an ambush set by a drug cartel.

The attack late on Tuesday appeared to mark the first time that Mexican criminals have successfully targeted law-enforcement personnel with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the latest example of the brazen military challenge posed by organized crime groups in the country.

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California man charged with femicide in deaths of three women in Mexico

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Mexican authorities will seek to extradite Bryant Rivera of the Los Angeles area for the death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores

US authorities have arrested a California man accused of killing three women in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and crossing back and forth across the international line after each of the deaths, which occurred over the course of nearly a year starting in 2021.

According to US court records, 30-year-old Bryant Rivera, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, was arrested on 6 July on a femicide charge in the strangulation death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a hotel room in Tijuana on 25 January 2022.

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