The annual arrival of migratory grey whales at El Vizcaíno sanctuary in Mexico has aided the region’s tourism industry. The whales travel about 5,600 miles from their summer feeding grounds in Alaska to mate and give birth in the warmer waters off north-western Mexico
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The death truck: how a solution to Mexico’s morgue crisis created a new horror
How did a lorry carrying 273 dead bodies end up stranded on the outskirts of Guadalajara?
On the southern outskirts of Guadalajara, early in the morning of 15 September 2018, a large container, the type normally attached to a lorry, sank into the soupy ground beside a rutted country road. The refrigerated container could store up to 18 tonnes of material, cooled to -40C. Across its white exterior, a cartoon polar bear in a blue work shirt smiled and gave a thumbs up.
A container like this was a common enough sight in the neighbourhood of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. What attracted attention was the smell. Sitting there, slumped between cornfields on one side and dilapidated concrete houses on the other, it gave off a thick, cloying odour. Some said it reeked of rotting cabbage and fish, others mentioned putrid meat. But they all agreed: the container exuded death.
Continue reading...Mexican troops seized by villagers after Guatemalan man killed at a checkpoint
Soldiers, three vehicles and 17 guns released after Mexican officials agreed to economic reparations and legal proceedings
Fifteen Mexican troops were held for hours by angry villagers in a remote border zone and held captive for hours after one of the soldiers shot and killed a Guatemalan citizen at a checkpoint.
The Mexican defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, said on Tuesday that the events stemmed from “an erroneous reaction on the part of military personnel” who fired on a vehicle reversing away from a checkpoint on Monday.
Continue reading...Mexico: Tulum police accused of ‘murder’ over death of woman knelt on by officers
Four officers in Mexican resort city charged with femicide after autopsy concluded that Victoria Salazar’s neck was broken
Four police officers in the Mexican resort city of Tulum have been charged with femicide after a Salvadoran woman died while being restrained.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador flatly described the incident as “murder”, telling reporters on Monday. Mexico’s president said: “She was brutally treated and murdered … It is an event that fills us with pain and shame.”
Continue reading...Mexico bars candidate accused of rape from running on technical grounds
Decision drew the wrath of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has defended candidate Félix Salgado
Mexico’s elections agency has withdrawn ballot registration for a ruling-party state candidate who was nominated despite accusations of rape against him – but the move was made on technical grounds and not because of the allegations.
The decision drew the wrath of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has defended candidate Félix Salgado and criticized women’s groups who objected to his candidacy.
Continue reading...Joe Biden strikes new tone but Mexico remains US’s wall against migrants
As senior US officials arrive in Mexico for talks experts say deal to send Covid vaccine shows that migrants are still a bargaining chip
Joe Biden took office promising to put a friendlier face on US immigration policy. He put an end to a scheme requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico, promised to restore the US asylum system and pledged to spend $4bn on addressing the root causes of migration in Central America.
But as ever-increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors arrive at the US southern border and create a domestic political crisis for the US president, he is turning to a tactic used by his predecessors – including Donald Trump: outsourcing immigration enforcement to Mexico.
Continue reading...‘Blindsided’: Biden faces tough test in reversing Trump’s cruel border legacy
As unaccompanied children reach the US, Republicans seek political gain. The White House has a fight on its hands
Lauded for his human touch, Joe Biden is facing an early political and moral test over how his government treats thousands of migrant children who make the dangerous journey to America alone.
Related: Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it's 'political manipulation'
Continue reading...Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it’s ‘political manipulation’
The Texas governor has sent troops to fortify the border while advocates say the immigration numbers are being politicized
Along the winding road which follows the Rio Grande west from Mission, Texas, dozens of armed border patrol agents, state troopers, soldiers and state and local police are dotted about to catch undocumented migrants entering the country from Mexico.
This is a so-called hotspot for irregular migration – folks crossing the border river without permission to enter the US – in what the Republican party and anti-immigrant activists are calling a crisis at the border. During one afternoon this week, there were more law enforcement vehicles cruising along this dusty 15-mile stretch towards Los Ebanos, a tiny border community connected to Mexico by a hand-operated cable ferry, than there was local traffic.
Continue reading...Mexico ambush: 13 state police killed in attack on convoy
Attacks on police have become routine as the country fights drug cartels and organised crime
Thirteen Mexican police officers and investigators have been killed in an ambush as they travelled through a rural region – marking the latest attack on law enforcement by brazen criminal groups.
Eight state police officers and five members of the state’s investigative police force died in the ambush in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas, 125km (78 miles) south-west of Mexico City in Mexico state on Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
Continue reading...US to send 4m AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Mexico and Canada
Biden administration has come under pressure to share vaccine, which has been authorized in other countries but not yet in US
The United States plans to send roughly 4m doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries.
Mexico will receive 2.5m doses of the vaccine and Canada will receive 1.5m doses, the official said.
Continue reading...Lucha libre wrestlers enforce wearing of Covid masks at Mexican market – video
Mexico's famed masked wrestlers take the fight to Covid-19 at a wholesale market, the Central de Abastos in Mexico City. Stallholders and customers were encouraged to wear face masks and use sanitiser. Mexico has recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the fourth country to do so. It was the first country in Latin America to begin vaccinating its population
Continue reading...Mexico protests against attacks on women turn violent, as tension with president escalates
Protesters angry that López Obrador has supported politician accused of sexual assault are calling for greater protections for women
Women marching on International Women’s Day have clashed with police at barricades surrounding the National Palace in Mexico City, where officers fired pepper spray after the protesters attempted to tear down a metal wall.
Sixty-two officers and 19 civilians were injured, said Marcela Figueroa, an official of the city’s police agency. The Mexico City government “categorically denied” using any kind of gas against protesters.
Continue reading...‘Amlo made us public enemy No 1’: why feminists are Mexico’s voice of opposition
A president who claims to represent the dispossessed faces widespread backlash over his tacit support for a politician accused of rape
Mexico’s president had a confession to make. Women on social media were holding up signs reading, “President, break the pact” and Andrés Manuel López Obrador was confused.
He turned to his wife to set him straight. The women were describing the pact of the patriarchy, she told him.
Continue reading...Mexico’s president defends decision to barricade palace ahead of women’s march
Andrés Manuel López Obrado claims the measure is only intended to avoid provocation
The Mexican president has claimed that a metallic barrier to wall off the presidential palace ahead of a planned women’s march is intended to avoid provocation and protect historic buildings from vandalism.
In a country where femicides rose nearly 130% between 2015 and 2020, critics said the decision to erect the three-metre-high (10ft) barriers was symptomatic of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s apathy toward the crisis of violence against women.
Continue reading...Hong Kong activists and plight of the Uighurs: human rights this week in photos
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to the Sahara
Continue reading...Golden Trump statue turning heads at CPAC was made in … Mexico
Artist Tommy Zegan reveals figure was constructed in country the former president has assailed and demonized
A golden statue of Donald Trump that has caused a stir at the annual US gathering of conservatives was made in Mexico – a country the former president frequently demonized.
Related: Mitch McConnell says he'd 'absolutely' support Trump as 2024 nominee
Continue reading...‘A cause for worry’: Mexico’s monarch butterflies drop by 26% in year
Butterflies had bad year after four times as many trees were lost to illegal logging and extreme climate conditions
The number of monarch butterflies that reached their winter resting grounds in central Mexico decreased by about 26% this year, and four times as many trees were lost to illegal logging, drought and other causes, making 2020 a bad year for the butterflies.
The butterflies’ population covered only 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres) in 2020, compared to 2.8 hectares (6.9 acres) the previous year and about one-third of the 6.05 hectares (14.95 acres) detected in 2018, according to government figures.
Continue reading...Hunting the men who kill women: Mexico’s femicide detective
Although femicide is a recognised crime in Mexico, when a woman disappears, the authorities are notoriously slow to act. But there is someone who will take on their case
On the night of 30 October 2019, as many Mexicans were preparing to celebrate the Day of the Dead, the family of Jessica Jaramillo stood in the pouring rain watching two dozen police search a house on the outskirts of Toluca, the capital of Mexico State. At about 9pm, the authorities carried out a dead dog, followed by two live ones and a cat. Then they pulled out a woman’s body.
Jessi, a 23-year-old psychology student at a local university, had gone missing a week earlier. On 24 October, she hadn’t appeared at the spot where her parents usually picked her up after class. Within a few minutes, she called her mother to say she was going out, abruptly hung up, then texted to add, “Don’t worry, I’m with Óscar”.
Continue reading...Mexican president under fire for defending politician accused of rape
Amlo again clashes with women’s rights activists as he dismisses complaints against Félix Salgado Macedonio, candidate for governor
A growing row over a gubernatorial candidate facing accusations of rape has once again pitted Mexico’s populist president against women’s rights campaigners.
Félix Salgado Macedonio has registered to run for governor in southern Guerrero state with the ruling Morena party, despite accusations of sexual violence and rape by five women dating back as far as 1998.
Continue reading...El Chapo’s wife helped him run drug empire from jail, US court hears
Emma Coronel is ‘not a big fish’, experts say, but indictment accuses her of assisting dramatic jailbreak in 2015
The wife of the world’s most notorious drug cartel boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has appeared in court charged with helping him run his drug empire from jail, a day after she was arrested at Washington’s international airport.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, a 31-year-old Mexican-American who married the drug kingpin in 2007 after he spotted her in a beauty pageant, is also accused of helping organise her husband’s breathtaking jailbreak in 2015, which involved a mile-long tunnel leading from his prison shower and a motorbike adapted to run on rails from one end to the other.
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