Category Archives: Mexico

Mexican photojournalist killed after taking photos of bodies along a road

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Jaime Castaño Zacarías is ninth journalist killed in Mexico this year after he was pursued by gunmen

A Mexican photojournalist has been killed after taking pictures of dead bodies left alongside a road, bringing Mexico’s death toll of journalists to nine this year.

Jaime Castaño Zacarías happened upon the dead bodies with their hands bound in northern Zacatecas state on Wednesday morning, following a clash between drug cartels in the city of Jerez, according to media reports.

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‘They’re culpable’: the countries supplying the guns that kill Mexico’s journalists

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Many of the weapons used in the murders of 119 journalists were imported – and Mexico’s laws and culture make tracing them impossible

It was around daybreak when Mexican crime reporter Luis Vallejo received a call from a local police officer telling him that a bag of human remains had been found in the city of Salamanca where he lives.

Vallejo had become accustomed to calls like this: in recent years, violence in Guanajuato, the surrounding region, has spiraled to unprecedented levels amid bloody turf wars between rival cartels.

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Revealed: how Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel has created a global network to rule the fentanyl trade

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Drugs bust in India sheds light on how adaptable cartels have come to dominate the lucrative trade in the powerful synthetic opioid

Carlos is a Mexican businessman employed by an import-export company that specializes in the trade of tequila and agricultural and chemical products. But in January 2016, he was a long way from his home in Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa state.

Two associates accompanied him as he travelled from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Japan, and finally, India.

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Murder in Mexico: journalists caught in the crosshairs

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The 2012 killing of Regina Martínez, who was investigating links between organised crime and politics, began a wave of violence in the most dangerous country to be a reporter

Regina Martínez Pérez was considered an enemy of the state. The 48-year-old journalist had made powerful foes investigating allegations of collusion between political leaders, security forces and narcotraffickers in the Mexican region of Veracruz.

She was a source of irritation for four consecutive state governors, highlighting violence, abuses of power and cover-ups in the pages of Mexico’s foremost investigative news magazine, Proceso.

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Owner of French restaurant in Mexico City murdered ‘while delivering fine wine’

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Police investigating claims killers of Baptiste Lormand stole bottles worth £20,000

The grisly killing of a prominent French restaurateur has shaken Mexico City’s foreign community and raised fresh questions over a nationwide murder crisis that has already claimed more than 29,000 lives this year.

Baptiste Lormand, a 45-year-old Parisian, disappeared last Thursday evening in Polanco, an upmarket corner of Mexico’s capital that is home to many of its best eateries as well as many foreign diplomats, businesspeople and journalists.

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Surprise at US move to drop drug charges against ex-Mexican minister

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Decision seen as reward from Trump to Mexican counterpart for election support

A shock US decision to drop charges against a former Mexican defence minister accused of drug trafficking and money laundering has sparked celebration, consternation and bewilderment.

Gen Salvador Cienfuegos was arrested at Los Angeles airport last month and accused of being at the heart of a multimillion dollar conspiracy to smuggle huge shipments of drugs into the US.

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Guerrero at war: chronicling southern Mexico’s forgotten conflict – photo essay

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Alfredo Bosco came to Guerrero on assignment to document southern Mexican villages emptied out by conflict. Over repeated visits he documents the region’s story

Life in Guerrero seems to hover at the edge of violence. The threat is pervasive: in the armed men at roadblocks, the empty nighttime streets, the kindling of street protests. Then it erupts, in a brief convulsion. What endures is the wreckage left behind.

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Killing of reporter adds to grim toll of violence against Mexican journalists

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Israel Vázquez became the third journalist to be murdered in two weeks – and the eighth this year – while reporting on Monday

Early on Monday morning, Israel Vázquez, a crime reporter in the Mexican city of Salamanca, received a tip that a plastic bag full of human remains had been dumped at the side of a street.

He reached the scene before the police, but as he prepared to broadcast on Facebook live, gunmen opened fire from a passing car, and shot him eight times. He died of his injuries later in the day.

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End of Trump era deals heavy blow to rightwing populist leaders worldwide

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As Biden’s victory sinks in across Brazil, Hungary and elsewhere, dreams of a rightwing global crusade appear to be fading

As the Donald Trump era draws to a close, many world leaders are breathing a sigh of relief. But Trump’s ideological kindred spirits – rightwing populists in office in Brazil, Hungary, Slovenia and elsewhere – are instead taking a sharp breath.

The end of the Trump presidency may not mean the beginning of their demise, but it certainly strips them of a powerful motivational factor, and also alters the global political atmosphere, which in recent years had seemed to be slowly tilting in their favour, at least until the onset of coronavirus. The momentous US election result is further evidence that the much-talked-about “populist wave” of recent years may be subsiding.

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Mexico police open fire on femicide protest in Cancún

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  • Four journalists injured in clashes in Caribbean city
  • Murder of 20-year-old woman was latest gender-based killing

Human rights activists in Mexico have expressed indignation after police opened fire on protesters who tried to force their way into Cancún city hall during a demonstration against the country’s femicide crisis.

Four journalists were injured in the incident late on Monday, including two who suffered bullet wounds. Eight protesters were reportedly detained after the shooting.

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Mexico’s president won’t congratulate Biden on election win until legal challenges over

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador will wait for courts to rule on Trump lawsuits in bid to avoid friction

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the US presidential election until legal challenges are concluded, in an apparent bid to avoid friction with Washington during the transition.

Democrat Joe Biden won the election on Saturday after a victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 electoral college votes.

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Mexicans celebrate restricted Day of the Dead amid coronavirus upheaval

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With tens of thousands dead, the commemoration of lost family members has rarely been more relevant as rituals of mourning have been disrupted

José Porfirio Martínez Castro and his wife Nery Urioles Nájera were tidying up their family tomb at the municipal graveyard in Morelia. They built a small altar for two of José’s siblings and adorned it with marigolds, sugar skulls and tiny bottles of Coca-Cola – his sister’s favourite drink.

Normally, they would spend the night of 1 November here, lighting candles and remembering their loved ones. But this year the cemetery will be closed because of Covid-19 restrictions, so they made their visit a few days early.

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Hurricane Zeta kills at least six as 100mph winds race through south

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More than 2.6 million without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with life-threatening weather to continue

More than 2.6 million customers were without power on Thursday morning across several southern states and at least six people had been killed after Hurricane Zeta howled ashore in Louisiana with winds over 100mph then weakened to a tropical storm and raced through the region.

According to the website PowerOutage.us, shortly after dawn at least 2 million were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, and the number grew from there. Georgia has the most outages, with more than 800,000 people in the dark.

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Almost 60 bodies found in pits at property in Mexican town

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Search teams believe locals must have known about site in Salvatierra, Guanajuato state

Search teams are excavating a site in the central Mexico state of Guanajuato where 59 bodies have been found in clandestine graves in the past week.

The striking aspect of the discovery is that the site is not a desolate area far out in the countryside, but the town of Salvatierra.

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Storm Zeta strengthens into hurricane as it approaches Mexico and US

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Zeta, the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season, is expected to head to Gulf of Mexico and then the US by Wednesday

Storm Zeta has strengthened into a hurricane as it churned towards beach resorts on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which it is expected to rake with strong winds and heavy rain before making possible landfall in the US later this week.

Zeta – the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season – was centered about 90 miles (145km) south-east of Cozumel island Monday afternoon, the US National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 80mph (130kph).

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Global report: Merkel says Germany faces ‘difficult months ahead’ in Covid fight

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Chancellor says country is on verge of losing control as Europe death toll passes 250k

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said her country is on the verge of losing control of its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, telling colleagues from her Christian Democratic Union party “the situation is threatening” and “every day counts”.

In leaked comments to an internal party meeting, she told those attending of “very, very difficult months ahead” and added that “every day [would] count” in tackling the virus’s spread.

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Mexico admits Covid death toll much higher than official number

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Disease now suspected of killing at least 139,153 people compared with official toll of 88,924

Mexico’s government has admitted its Covid-19 death toll is dramatically higher than official figures have suggested, with the disease now suspected of killing at least 139,153 people.

The official coronavirus death toll of Latin America’s second largest economy stands at 88,924 – the fourth highest number in the world after the US, Brazil and India. But on Sunday night officials conceded the true number of Covid-19 deaths was likely to be at least 50,000 higher.

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Ricardo’s ark: Mexican man opens his home to 300 dogs in path of hurricane

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Ricardo Pimentel’s menagerie also included cats, rabbits, chicks, sheep and a hedgehog evacuated from his animal shelter

As Hurricane Delta closed in on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, Ricardo Pimentel opened his home – to about 300 dogs.

Related: Tens of thousands flee as Hurricane Delta lashes Mexico's Yucatán peninsula

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Mexico asks Pope Francis for apology for church’s role in Spanish conquest

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Mexico’s president says the Vatican should apologise for ‘reprehensible atrocities’ in colonisation 500 years ago

Mexico’s president has written to Pope Francis to ask for an apology for the Catholic church’s role in the oppression of indigenous people in the Spanish conquest 500 years ago.

The request was made in a two-page letter that also asked the Vatican to temporarily return several ancient indigenous manuscripts held in its library, ahead of next year’s 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

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Tens of thousands flee as Hurricane Delta lashes Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula

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  • Category 2 storm hits Puerto Morelos in early morning
  • Louisiana braced for Delta’s arrival later in the week

Tens of thousands of residents and holiday-makers were evacuated and sought refuge in emergency shelters on Wednesday as Hurricane Delta made landfall on the coast of northeastern Mexico in the early hours of the morning, lashing popular tourist resorts.

Related: Mexico’s scientists, activists and artists oppose president’s funding overhaul

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