Staff and tourists near the Mexican resort city of Cancún have been sent rushing for shelter after a group of armed men entered the beach outside a luxury hotel and opened fire. Two men were killed on Thursday in what state officials described as a confrontation between drug dealers at the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancún
Continue reading...Category Archives: Mexico
Ancient Maya canoe found in Mexico could be more than 1,000 years old
Boat was discovered in freshwater pool during construction of a tourist train to the ruins of Maya city
A wooden canoe used by the ancient Maya and believed to be more than 1,000 years old has turned up in southern Mexico almost completely intact, officials have said.
The extremely rare canoe was found submerged in a freshwater pool known as a cenote, thousands of which dot Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, near the ruins of Chichén Itzá, once a major Maya city featuring elaborately carved temples and towering pyramids.
Continue reading...Holy bikini-clad Batwoman! Archive saves Mexico’s scorned popular films
Permanencia Voluntaria has rescued hundreds of films and is seeking to challenge attitudes towards its legacy
From demons, ghosts and vampires to Martians, mad scientists and spurned lovers, the heroes and heroines of 20th-century Mexican popular cinema faced more than their share of enemies.
Few foes, however, have proved quite as formidable as the combined adversaries of time, critical snottiness and oblivion – not to mention the odd earthquake.
Continue reading...Regulating indigenous medicine in Mexico ‘could violate rights’
Academics and traditional medical groups warn against proposed legislation to grant state authority to control practice
Proposed legislation that would grant the Mexican state authority to regulate and control the practice of indigenous medicine could violate the country’s constitution and international conventions on the rights of ancestral communities, academics and traditional medical groups have warned.
The bill, introduced by the governing Morena party and unanimously voted through by the lower house in April, sets out to regulate and standardise traditional and complementary healthcare.
Continue reading...Californian blogger among two tourists killed in shootout at Mexico’s Tulum
The two women killed and three tourists injured were believed to have been caught in crossfire of clash between drug gangs
A Californian travel blogger was one of two foreign tourists killed at a restaurant in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resort of Tulum during a shootout between suspected gang members.
The two women killed were identified as Anjali Ryot, an Indian national who lived in San Jose, and German national Jennifer Henzold, though no hometown was immediately available for her. Two German men and a Dutch woman were also injured during the shootout late on Wednesday, the district attorney’s office in Quintana Roo state said.
Continue reading...The Wardrobe of Gabriel García Márquez – in pictures
Four hundred items of clothing and accessories which belonged to García Márquez and his wife, Mercedes Barcha, go on sale this Wednesday to raise funds for a charity helping children of indigenous communities in Mexico
Continue reading...US to reopen land borders with Canada and Mexico in November
The United States’ neighbours have been pressing it to ease restrictions on nonessential travel that have separated families during the pandemic
The US will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel in November, ending a 19-month freeze due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the US and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential travel, such as trade, since the earliest days of the pandemic.
Continue reading...Mexico City to replace Columbus statue with pre-Hispanic sculpture of woman
The statue is a replica of a mysterious carving of an Indigenous figure unearthed in January known as the Young Woman of Amajac
A replica of a mysterious pre-Hispanic sculpture of an Indigenous woman has been chosen to replace a statue of Christopher Columbus on Mexico City’s most prominent boulevard.
The statue was unearthed in January in the Huasteca region, near Mexico’s Gulf coast. It’s known as the Young Woman of Amajac, after the village where she was found buried in a field. But nobody really knows who the stone sculpture was supposed to depict.
Continue reading...Mexico police intercept 652 Central American migrants in three cargo trucks
Discovery is one of biggest of US-bound migrants, with 90% Guatemalans and nearly 200 unaccompanied minors
Police in northern Mexico have discovered more than 600 Central American migrants hiding in three long cargo trucks headed to the United States, in one of the biggest roundups of US-bound migrants by Mexican authorities in years.
Video released by police showed officers prying off a lock from a truck’s rear door late on Thursday, and opening it to find migrants in heavy coats and hoods huddled close together on the floor, nearly all of them wearing face masks.
Continue reading...‘We are fearful’: Indigenous Mexicans dread new military buildup on ancestral land
As the Tzeltal people resist huge infrastructure projects across Chiapas state, the new national guard barracks springing up are alarming many
Micaela* always stops to kiss a cross at the base of three hills, a lush swath of land in the indigenous ejido of San Sebastián Bachajón, Chiapas. Her ejido, meaning communal land, is shared among more than 5,000 Tzeltal inhabitants. But soon, they will also have to share it with Mexico’s national guard.
The national guard has built 165 barracks in Mexico since it was created only two years ago by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to replace the federal police, which he said was corrupt. Micaela’s community is leading the first lawsuit against one of 500 or so barracks planned across the country.
Continue reading...Madrid leader takes issue with pope’s apology for ‘painful errors’ in Mexico
Spain brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Americas, says Isabel Díaz Ayuso
The rightwing president of the Madrid region has taken issue with the pope’s recent apology for the church’s “very painful errors” in Mexico, and said Spanish conquistadors brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Latin America.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, touted as a possible future leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party, has a history of provocative pronouncements.
Continue reading...Biden is treating migrants little better than Trump did. That’s shameful | Xochitl Oseguera
We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong
We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong.
Most of us were shaken and horrified, and the country rightfully embarrassed, by images of US border patrol agents on horseback attacking asylum seekers, including at least one child, in Texas. Thankfully, that has been stopped and an investigation is now underway. We need more than an investigation, though: we need to know that nothing like that will ever happen again.
Continue reading...Haiti deportations justified because of Covid, Biden homeland secretary says
- Alejandro Mayorkas vows investigation of horseback roundups
- ‘They treated us like animals’: deported Haitians despair
The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send thousands of Haitians to a home country they fled because of natural disasters and political turmoil.
Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback
Continue reading...Haitians fleeing and Hotel Rwanda case: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany
Continue reading...Prosecutors in Mexico seeking arrest warrants for more than 30 scientists
Scientific community is outraged, saying charges of organised crime are an attempt by Mexico’s president to silence them
Mexico’s scientific community has reacted with outrage after the country’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for 31 scientists, researchers and academics on accusations of organised crime, money laundering and embezzlement – charges that could land them alongside drug cartel kingpins in one of the country’s most notorious lockups.
A judge at the maximum security Altiplano prison – from which Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped in 2015 – denied granting the arrest warrants on Wednesday. But the federal prosecutor immediately announced plans to pursue arrest warrants for the third time.
Continue reading...Global climate strike: thousands join coordinated action across world
Rally to demand government action on climate crisis is first worldwide since start of pandemic
Hundreds of thousands of people in 99 countries have taken part in a coordinated global climate strike demanding urgent action to tackle the ecological crisis.
The strike on Friday, the first worldwide climate action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, is taking place weeks before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK.
Continue reading...Haitian migrants and refugees cross the Rio Grande – in pictures
In the past few weeks more than 12,000 Haitians have arrived in Del Rio, Texas, gathering in a huge makeshift camp. Many have to cross the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña to seek food and supplies in Mexico to bring back to family members waiting in the US. Others are crossing back into Mexico to avoid deportation flights
Continue reading...Ten women and girls killed every day in Mexico, Amnesty report says
Families often left to do their investigations into killings amid widespread indifference by authorities, report claims
At least 10 women and girls are murdered every day in Mexico, according to a new report that says victims’ families are often left to carry out their own homicide investigations.
The scathing report, released on Monday by Amnesty International, documents both the scale of the violence and the disturbing lack of interest on the part of Mexican authorities to prevent or solve the murders.
Continue reading...Texas anti-abortion law shows ‘terrifying’ fragility of women’s rights, say activists
Campaigners fear ban emboldens anti-choice governments as more aggressive opposition, better organised and funded, spreads from US
The new anti-abortion law in Texas is a “terrifying” reminder of the fragility of hard-won rights, pro-choice activists have said, as they warn of a “more aggressive, much better organised [and] better funded” global opposition movement.
Pro-choice campaigners have seen several victories in recent years, including in Ireland, Argentina and, most recently, Mexico, where the supreme court ruled last week that criminalising abortion was unconstitutional. Another is hoped for later this month when the tiny enclave of San Marino, landlocked within Italy, holds a highly charged referendum.
Continue reading...The disappeared in Mexico, Afghan female footballers and a giant puppet: human rights this fortnight in pictures
A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms from Thailand to Texas
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