Mexico to investigate alleged human rights abuses by military after spying claims

Move follows reports alleging that the army used Pegasus spyware software to hack the phone of a prominent rights activist

Lawmakers in Mexico this week will launch a federal commission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the country’s military, including the use of powerful spyware technology, the head of the governing Morena party in the senate has said.

The commission, made up of lawmakers from both Mexico’s upper and lower houses of congress, will request a report from the army in the wake of recent media reports alleging that it used Israeli software known as Pegasus to hack the phone of a prominent human rights activist.

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‘Mexico is safer than the US,’ Amlo says after attack on four Americans

Mexico’s president pushes back against US critics of his security record after kidnapping near the border that left two dead

Mexico’s president has asserted that his country is safer than the United States, pushing back against US critics of his security record following a deadly kidnapping near the border that claimed the lives of two Americans.

The 3 March attack on four Americans in the Mexican city of Matamoros and their subsequent abduction was covered closely by US media and sparked recriminations from politicians in the US, particularly Republicans.

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US border patrol closes bridge to Juárez after rumor causes migrant rush

Hundreds of migrants tried to race across the Paso del Norte bridge to El Paso after false internet post said the border was open

Hundreds of people near an El Paso, Texas, border crossing who tried to enter the US from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Sunday were met with physical barricades erected by shield-wielding authorities, according to reports on what is the latest episode to pit US immigration officials against a group of migrants.

Many of the migrants, who were largely Venezuelan, had gone to the center of the Paso del Norte international bridge to determine whether a rumor that the border had been temporarily opened to them was true, the Texas Tribune reported. Many trying to flee lives in Mexico, where they cannot legally work and are often confronted by police, had hurried through toll booths on the Mexican side of the bridge and arrived at the center.

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How a trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery turned deadly for US quartet

Deaths of two of four Americans kidnapped in Matamoros place spotlight on cartels’ impunity – and on medical tourism

Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee had scheduled an abdominal operation that many mothers have, and she chose to have the operation done in Mexico, where medical costs are cheaper – and where she had previously gone for other cosmetic procedures.

A cousin and a couple of friends joined her to share the 1,400-mile drive from her home town of Lake City, South Carolina, to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, just south of the US-Mexico frontier.

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Alleged perpetrators of attack on four Americans dumped on Mexican street

Five men found bound with note apparently from drug cartel alluding to ‘mistakes caused by lack of discipline’

Five men who purportedly carried out the attack on four Americans last week have been found dumped on a street in the city of Matamoros, with an apology note claiming to be from the fearsome cartel that controls much of Tamaulipas state.

The five men were discovered with their hands tied, shirts pulled over their heads and bare chests to the pavement. Nearby, a note in black marker read: “We’ve decided to hand over those involved and directly responsible in the events who acted at all times under their own free will.”

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Two Americans kidnapped in Mexico found dead, officials say

Two killed, third person injured and fourth unharmed after quartet traveling for cosmetic surgery were seized in Tamaulipas

Two of four Americans kidnapped in northern Mexico have been found dead, authorities said on Tuesday, while their two compatriots were found alive, bringing to an end the frantic search that had captivated media attention on both sides of the border.

The governor for Mexico’s northern Tamaulipas state, Américo Villarreal, confirmed the news at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, adding that one person who had been found watching over the victims was in custody.

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Gunmen kidnap US citizens who crossed into Mexico to buy medicine

Gunmen opened fire on vehicle in northern city of Matamoros, and FBI is offering $50,000 reward for return of victims

Gunmen kidnapped four US citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas last week to buy medicine and got caught in a shootout that killed at least one Mexican citizen, officials said on Monday.

The four were in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire on Friday shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast, the FBI San Antonio division office said in a statement on Sunday.

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Mexican president posts photo of what he claims is a Maya elf

Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the photo appeared to show an alux, a creature from Yucatán folklore

Mexico’s president posted a photo on his social media accounts on Saturday showing what he said appeared to be a mythological woodland spirit similar to an elf.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not seem to be joking when he posted the photo of an alux, a mischievous woodland spirit in Maya folklore.

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Biden’s proposal denying asylum at border would cause ‘unnecessary suffering’, say critics

Proposal prompted comparisons to Trump’s policies to limit asylum for migrants, which Biden had pledged to reverse

Democrats and immigration advocates harshly criticized Joe Biden over a new proposal that could stop migrants claiming asylum when they arrive at the US-Mexico border. One advocate said the move would cause “unnecessary human suffering”.

The pushback came after the Biden administration unveiled a proposal that would deny asylum to migrants who arrive without first seeking it in one of the countries they passed through.

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Mexico’s former drugs tsar Genaro Garcia Luna convicted for aiding El Chapo cartel

Garcia Luna took millions in bribes from Sinaloa gang, Brooklyn corruption trial told

A former Mexican law enforcement official once in charge of the fight against drug traffickers has been convicted at a US corruption trial over his ties to the Sinaloa cartel.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Genaro Garcia Luna accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the cartel once run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in exchange for protection from arrest, safe passage for cocaine shipments and tipoffs about forthcoming law enforcement operations.

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Frida Kahlo’s husband may have helped her die, reveals Diego Rivera’s grandson

The revered Mexican artist’s suffering was so great, she ‘probably’ asked her soulmate to assist in ending her life, documentary is told

People’s love of Frida Kahlo’s vibrant art is matched by fascination with her colourful private life. Now the battle to win greater attention for her talent – above and beyond her extraordinary, painful personal story – faces another potential knock.

A documentary about the Mexican artist is to reveal a secret suspicion that endures within the family of her husband and great love, the renowned muralist Diego Rivera.

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Mexican actor sentenced to five years for fatally punching man in Miami

Pablo Lyle, a telenovela star, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in October after 2019 road rage incident

A Mexican telenovela star and Netflix series actor received a five-year prison sentence Friday after punching a man to death during a road rage confrontation in Miami in 2019.

Pablo Lyle’s sentence came four years after he was charged with murder in the death of a man he struck during an encounter in traffic. A jury ultimately found Lyle guilty in October of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernández.

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Mexico zoo chief accused of ordering pygmy goats to be killed and cooked for party

Authorities claim animals in the zoo in city of Chilpancingo were sold, traded or eaten under orders of former director

The former director of a zoo in southern Mexico killed four of the zoo’s pygmy goats and served them up at a Christmas-season party, authorities have alleged.

“These four animals [were] slaughtered and cooked on the zoo’s premises, and were served as food at the year-end party,” said Fernando Ruiz Gutierrez, the state environment department’s director of wildlife, blaming the zoo’s director at the time, José Rubén Nava. “This put the health of the people who ate them at risk, because these animals were not fit for human consumption.”

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Mexico City’s crumbling metro system casts shadow on mayor’s 2024 ambitions

String of mishaps on cantankerous subway system could throw a wrench in Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidential aspirations

Smoke filled the subway station, the tunnel turning gray in the choking haze as hundreds of passengers were evacuated from the train. More than a dozen were treated for smoke inhalation, the authorities said, after a short circuit apparently caused the wafting fumes.

The incident on Monday, which soon billowed across Mexican social media, is just the latest in a string of mishaps on Mexico City’s cantankerous subway system which have left more than two dozen people dead – and potentially thrown a major wrench into the presidential aspirations of the capital’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.

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More journalists killed in Latin America and Caribbean than Ukraine in 2022

Committee to Protect Journalist reports region accounted for almost half of the 67 deaths worldwide

More journalists were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean than in any other part of the world last year, including the Ukraine war zone, the press watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

In a report released on Tuesday, the group said that, globally, at least 67 journalists and media workers had been killed in 2022, nearly double the 2021 figure of 45.

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Mexico’s ex-security chief took ‘millions in bribes’ from cartel, US court hears

Trial begins in Brooklyn court for Genaro García Luna, who is accused of protecting the violent Sinaloa cartel

The trial of a former top Mexican law enforcement official got under way in a Brooklyn court on Monday, one of the most significant drug trafficking cases since the prosecution of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán more than four years ago.

Genaro García Luna, who ran Mexico’s version of the FBI before being appointed to lead the country’s security ministry – and therefore its war on drug trafficking groups – is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for granting protection to the violent Sinaloa cartel.

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Elizabeth Holmes tried to ‘flee’ US with one-way Mexico ticket, prosecutors say

New court filing says ex-Theranos founder booked flight departing 26 January last year, shortly after fraud conviction

The disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, made an “attempt to flee the country” by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico after she was found guilty on four counts of fraud last January, according to prosecutors.

In the new filing on Thursday, prosecutors said that “contrary to defendant’s assertion that she has a ‘flawless record with US Pretrial Services’ and claim that no evidence suggests she will flee while she pursues her appeal … the incentive to flee has never been higher and defendant has the means to act on that incentive.”

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Missing Mexican environmentalists’ families accuse mining company

Relatives denounce transnational Ternium over case of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and Indigenous leader Antonio Díaz Valencia

Relatives of two missing Mexican environmentalists are pointing the finger at a transnational mining company which they claim is responsible for environmental destruction and violence in the rural community, and may have links to the criminals who abducted their loved ones.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a renowned human rights lawyer, and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in the state of Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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Fears mount over safety of two missing Mexican environmental activists

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia’s bullet hole-riddled vehicle was found after an anti-mining meeting

Fears are mounting for the safety of two missing Mexican land rights activists after their vehicle was found ridden with bullet holes.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer and environmentalist and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening travelling toward the neighbouring state of Colima after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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Ex-Mexico security chief’s trial poised to lift lid on US and Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’

Genaro García Luna, accused of accepting millions in bribes from cartels, in trial that could implicate officials on both sides of border

One of Mexico’s most powerful former officials will stand trial in the US this week, charged with accepting million-dollar bribes from a violent cartel in a case with profound political implications that could expose the inner workings of the “war on drugs” on both sides of the border.

Genaro García Luna, a former head of Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI who went on to lead the country’s security ministry, was arrested in Texas in 2019, charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine and lying to the US government.

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