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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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).
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified on Tuesday, becoming a category 4 storm with 140mph winds, on course to hammer south-eastern Mexico and the US Gulf coast.
Related: Top Pentagon leaders quarantine amid White House Covid outbreak – live
Continue reading...Exclusive: if discovery is confirmed it will have global implications as 90% of people breathe dirty air
Tiny air pollution particles have been revealed in the brain stems of young people and are intimately associated with molecular damage linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
If the groundbreaking discovery is confirmed by future research, it would have worldwide implications because 90% of the global population live with unsafe air. Medical experts are cautious about the findings and said that while the nanoparticles are a likely cause of the damage, whether this leads to disease later in life remains to be seen.
Continue reading...A vote is expected on Tuesday on a proposal to abolish 109 public trusts and divert about $3bn to other priorities such as the pandemic
Scientists, human rights defenders and artists in Mexico have warned that a plan to overhaul government funding structures threatens the future of activities as diverse as medical research, disaster response, film production and journalist protections in the country.
Mexico’s lower house of congress is expected to vote on Tuesday on a proposal to abolish 109 public trusts, diverting approximately $3bn to other priorities such as the Covid-19 pandemic response.
Continue reading...Country has one month to deliver outstanding 289m cubic metres and ensure water for 14 major cities and growers
Mexican farmers in the drought-stricken state of Chihuahua are pitted against riot squads from the national guard in an increasingly violent standoff over their government’s decision to ship scarce water supplies to the United States.
The confrontation has already led to bloodshed: earlier this month, a woman was shot dead and her husband was wounded after guardsmen opened fire on farmers wielding sticks and stones.
Continue reading...The region has seen some of the longest lockdowns in the world but experts are urging countries not to reopen too soon
The scene in Rio de Janeiro was as though much of 2020 had never happened.
The beaches at Ipanema and Copacabana heaved with visitors, the white sand obscured by bronzed bodies, sun loungers and parasols, as locals enjoyed the blistering 38C heat.
Continue reading...Feminists seize human rights office to force President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to tackle grim toll of rape and murder
As Mexicans prepared to mark Independence Day celebrations on 15 September, a different kind of commemoration was held at the headquarters of the country’s human rights commission (CNDH).
Under a fluttering purple anarchy flag, women in black balaclavas lined the upstairs balconies of the 19th-century building – and speaker after speaker expressed their fury at the country’s crisis of violence against women.
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