Category Archives: Mexico

Migrant deaths at Mexican detention centre investigated as suspected homicide

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Several arrest warrants requested after video emerges which appears to show guards leaving as fire engulfs a cell with migrants locked inside

The deaths of at least 39 migrants in a fire at a Mexican detention centre are being investigated as suspected homicides, a prosecutor has said, accusing those in charge of doing nothing to evacuate the victims.

Authorities faced mounting scrutiny of their handling of the disaster after video surveillance footage appeared to show guards leaving as flames engulfed a cell with migrants locked inside.

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‘They’re killing us’: anger grows after deadly fire at Mexican migrant center

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Protesters call for justice as blaze at detention facility in Ciudad Juárez highlights tough US immigration policies

A loud voice cut through the thick quiet of the night: “¡Justicia! ¡Justicia! ¡Justicia!” Frark Martín Pérez Pérez, 32, chanted angrily, and hundreds followed.

Justice is what the crowd of about 400 migrants from Latin America gathered to protest about on Tuesday outside the migrant processing centre in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city on the US border, where at least 40 were killed in a fire on Monday night.

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At least 40 dead in Mexico migrant centre fire as rights groups blame overcrowding

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Mexico’s president says fire was caused by migrants lighting mattresses in protest at planned deportations

Rights groups have blamed poor conditions and overcrowding for a fire that killed at least 40 migrants from Central and South America at a migrant detention centre in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city on the US border.

The fire, which broke out late on Monday, was caused by migrants setting fire to mattresses in protest after discovering they would be deported, Mexico’s president said. “They didn’t think that would cause this terrible tragedy,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador told a news conference. He did not provide more details about how so many died.

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At least 39 dead after fire at Mexican migrant facility on US border

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Mexican president says protests to blame for fire in Ciudad Juárez, the latest example of dangers facing those taking route to US

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has blamed protesting migrants for causing a fire at an immigration detention centre that has killed at least 39 people in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city on the US border.

Images of the aftermath showed dozens of lifeless bodies on the ground, some covered by silver thermal blankets. Television footage showed emergency workers attending to stunned survivors, who sat on white sheets gasping for breath.

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Mexican children’s entertainer Chabelo dies aged 88

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Comic, real name Xavier López, fronted children’s TV show that ran from 1967 to 2015

The Mexican children’s entertainer Xavier López, better known by his stage name Chabelo, has died at 88, Mexico’s president has said.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that his eldest son “woke up early to see him [on television] more than 40 years ago”.

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Puerto Rico 4-5 Mexico: World Baseball Classic quarter-finals – as it happened

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  • Mexico defeat Puerto Rico to reach WBC semi-finals

Puerto Rico 0-0 Mexico, top 1st inning

Lindor is in the box against Urías and takes ball one to start the game. Urías gets ahead of Lindor 1-2, Lindor fouls off a pitch and then strikes out. Urías begins his outing with a k.

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Mexican president blames US fentanyl crisis on ‘lack of hugs’ among families

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador cites a lack ‘of hugs and embraces’ for 70,000 annual overdose deaths attributed to synthetic opioid

Mexico’s president has said that US families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they don’t hug their kids enough.

The comment by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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