Category Archives: Mexico

Mexico activists celebrate abortion ruling as a sign of culture change

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Justices decision to decriminalise abortion was based on human rights arguments and will mean fewer criminal investigations

Activists in Mexico have hailed a supreme court decision to decriminalise abortion, saying it would stop the legal prosecution of women who terminate their pregnancies – and those reported to the authorities after suffering miscarriages.

The decision, handed down unanimously on Tuesday, declared that criminal sanctions for abortion in the northern state of Coahuila were unconstitutional. The decision sets precedent, according to lawyers involved in abortion cases, and will be applicable across the country.

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Mexico hit by powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake – video

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A powerful earthquake has struck south-west Mexico near the beach resort of Acapulco, killing at least one person who was crushed by a falling post and causing rockfalls and damaging buildings. The 7.0-magnitude quake shook the hillsides around the resort, downing trees and pitching large boulders on to the road

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Mexico hit by powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake, killing at least one

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A man was killed and buildings were damaged in the resort city of Acapulco, and the quake was also felt in Mexico City

A powerful earthquake has struck south-west Mexico near the beach resort of Acapulco, killing at least one man who was crushed by a falling post, and causing rock falls and damaging buildings.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a 7.0 magnitude quake struck 11 miles (18km) north-east of the resort of Acapulco, Guerrero, in the early hours of Wednesday sending people running into the street for safety.

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Mexico’s supreme court rules criminal penalties for abortion unconstitutional

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Court orders Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from criminal code, clearing a path to decriminalisation across Mexico

Mexico’s supreme court has struck down a state abortion law, ruling that criminal penalties for terminating pregnancies are unconstitutional, in a decision which advocates say provides a path to decriminalisation across the country.

In a unanimous 10-0 ruling, the top court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code – with several justices arguing the prohibitions on voluntarily interrupting a pregnancy violated women’s rights to control their own bodies.

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Forget the Alamo review: dark truths of the US south and its ‘secular Mecca’

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Three Texas authors expose the myth that the 1836 battle at a San Antonio mission was about freedom. It was about slavery

As the ancient American struggle over how much truth to tell about the traditional oppression of minorities bubbles over, with arguments over everything from the teaching of Critical Race Theory to the mention of anything gay in the presence of anyone under 18, this engaging new book about the history of the Alamo arrives at the perfect moment.

Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump

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Oxygen firms accused of intimidating Mexican hospitals during pandemic

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Hospitals received letters threatening large fines after they installed their own onsite O2 plants in response to shortages

In March 2020, Benjamin Espinoza Zavala saw an entire floor of his small hospital in Guanajuato, central Mexico, converted into Covid-19 wards. The hospital’s need for oxygen soared.

Deliveries from CryoInfra, part of the Grupo Infra group, occasionally slowed to once every couple of days, and he had to buy in extra to cover the sudden gaps in supply. Prices increased.

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Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

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  • Justices deny president’s effort to rescind Trump program
  • Blow to Biden as trio of liberal justices dissent in 6-3 ruling

The US supreme court on Tuesday denied Joe Biden’s bid to rescind an immigration policy implemented by his predecessor, Donald Trump, that forced thousands of asylum seekers to stay in Mexico awaiting US hearings.

Related: Breathing wildfire smoke during pregnancy raises risk of premature birth, study finds

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‘A focus on quality’: Mexico’s wine industry bears fruit in revival of tradition

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Vineyards are blooming in the desert of Coahuila state, but vintners must make do with increasingly scarce water

From the patio of his winery high in the north Mexican desert, David Mendel surveys vineyards spread across a bowl-shaped valley under a scorching afternoon sun.

Related: Salud! Spain’s female winemakers use their intuition to rise to the top

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Belarus repression and the Taliban advance: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A round-up of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Thailand to Mexico

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Britons in Mexico tell of dismay after country put on travel red list

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Some holidaymakers found about the change when they reconnected to wifi at their arrival airport

British holidaymakers in Mexico have told of their dismay after the country was abruptly put on the government’s red list of travel destinations.

The changes, which were announced on Wednesday night and will come into force at 4am on Sunday, mean that holidaymakers coming from Mexico and other red list countries – including Georgia, La Réunion and Mayotte - will either have to cut their holidays short to beat the restrictions or pay thousands of pounds to stay in a quarantine hotel when they return.

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Mexico sues US gunmakers in unprecedented bid to stop weapons crossing border

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  • Country seeking up to $10bn damages in Massachusetts lawsuit
  • US-made weapons used in cartel battles and attacks on civilians

The Mexican government has launched legal action against US gunmakers in an unprecedented attempt to halt the flow of guns across the border, where US-made weapons are routinely used in cartel gun-battles, terror attacks on civilians – and increasingly to challenge the state itself.

The Mexican government is suing six gunmakers in a Massachusetts court, alleging negligence in their failure to control their distributors and that the illegal market in Mexico “has been their economic lifeblood”.

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Mexico urges Israel to extradite former investigator in 43 missing students case

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Mexico wants Israel to arrest Tomás Zerón, accused of kidnapping, torturing suspects, manipulating evidence and embezzlement

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged Israel to cooperate in extraditing a former top investigator wanted in connection with the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.

Mexico wants Israel to arrest Tomás Zerón, who headed the Criminal Investigation Agency, over allegations of serious irregularities in the inquiry into one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies.

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Deadly heat: how rising temperatures threaten workers from Nicaragua to Nepal

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As scorching temperatures spread, the search for ways to protect against heat stress is becoming ever more urgent

William Martínez, who as a child worked on a sugarcane plantation in rural Nicaragua, learned the hard way what many in the US and Canada are now realising: that rising temperatures are costing lives and livelihoods.

Martínez, along with fellow villagers in La Isla, found himself getting sicker as he worked long, gruelling days in the fields under the beating Nicaraguan sun two decades ago. Workers at the nearby mill, which supplies molasses to alcohol companies, began to suffer kidney failure, and would be forced out of the workforce and into expensive and time-consuming dialysis. His father and uncles, addled with the same affliction, had died when Martínez was a boy, forcing him to join the workforce.

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Miss Mexico 2021 organisers press ahead with pageant despite Covid surge among contestants

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Some women had coughs or a fever but were reportedly told ‘not to complain’

Organisers pushed ahead with a Mexican beauty pageant in spite of a Covid-19 outbreak that infected almost half the contestants, it has emerged.

At least 15 of the 32 contestants in the Miss Mexico 2021 pageant tested positive for coronavirus. A pageant staff member also tested positive, according to the Chihuahua state health secretariat.

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‘Eye of fire’ after underwater gas leak in Gulf of Mexico – video

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An underwater gas leak caused a whirling vortex of fire to spew out of the ocean surface west of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula on 3 July. The fire began in an underwater pipeline connected to a platform owned by the state oil company Pemex. The fire took more than five hours to put out and no injuries were reported

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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‘Eye of fire’: Gas leak sparks huge blaze on ocean surface off Mexico

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Flames that raged near a Pemex oil platform took more than five hours to extinguish

A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.

Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media due to the blaze’s circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform early on Friday.

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Mexico supreme court strikes down laws that ban use of recreational marijuana

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Adults will be able to apply for permits to grow and consume cannabis after decision that moves country toward legalisation

Mexico’s supreme court has struck down laws prohibiting the use of recreational marijuana, moving the country toward cannabis legalisation even as the country’s congress drags its feet on a legalisation bill.

In an 8-3 decision on Monday, the court ruled that sections of the country’s general health law prohibiting personal consumption and home cultivation of marijuana were unconstitutional.

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