Secretive leader of Jalisco New Generation cartel, who seeks treatment for kidney disease, currently seen as ‘public enemy No 1’
One of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords, El Mencho, is reported to have built his own private hospital in the western state of Jalisco.
Related: 'The only two powerful cartels left': rivals clash in Mexico's murder capital
Continue reading...More than 160,000 people have died but from Mexico to Brazil, social networks are awash with quack cures and conspiracies
For months Gustavo Andrade has been battling to convince his parishioners to take Covid-19 seriously.
Related: Desperate Bolivians seek out toxic bleach falsely touted as Covid-19 cure
Continue reading...The country performs just three tests per 100,000 people, with explanations ranging from cost-cutting to a push for herd immunity
Before travelling to Washington to meet Donald Trump earlier this month, the Mexican president took a coronavirus test.
Until then, Andrés Manuel López Obrador had never been tested, arguing that there was no need for it – even though several cabinet members had become infected with Covid-19.
Continue reading...Artefacts from central Mexico cave are strong evidence humans lived on continent 15,000 years earlier than previously thought
Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said on Wednesday.
The artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite cave over a 20,000-year period, they reported in two studies published in the journal Nature.
Continue reading...New figures reflect surge in violence against women during pandemic while government implements austerity measures
Violence against women has surged in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s president has downplayed the problem and slashed the budgets of agencies charged with addressing women’s issues.
Figures released this week show that crimes such as femicides climbed 7.7% in the first half of 2020, when compared with the same period last year, and shelters have reported a sharp rise in the number of women attempting to flee domestic violence.
Continue reading...More than 300 towns free of Covid-19 were allowed to reopen in May to mitigate the pandemic’s economic cost. With cases surging, most have been forced to close
As the coronavirus pandemic advances across Mexico, leaving thousands dead in its wake, Tepango de Rodríguez has – so far – remained untouched.
The town of about 4,000 people sits high in the mountains of the Sierra Norte in Puebla state, and was quick to apply strict preventive measures, closing its food market and installing health checkpoints.
Continue reading...President made remark hours after his Mexican counterpart thanked him for not bringing subject up in public
Donald Trump has claimed that the US would be “inundated” with coronavirus, were it not for new sections of the border wall – mere hours after his Mexican counterpart thanked him for avoiding the thorny subject during a summit meeting this week.
Related: Amlo unscathed after Trump meeting but snags cameo role in US election
Continue reading...Tuckman, a ‘sensitive and tenacious reporter’ who loved Mexico, had been undergoing cancer treatment
Jo Tuckman, who for many years reported for the Guardian in Mexico, has died aged 53.
Jo had been undergoing treatment for cancer since falling ill last year, and died at her home in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon, surrounded by close friends.
Continue reading...Nearly six years after 43 Mexican students were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, a new forensic science study has identified the remains of a second member of the missing group.
Omar Gómez Trejo, head of the special unit of the attorney general’s office charged with reinvestigating the case, said on Tuesday that remains found in November were subjected to DNA analysis this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Continue reading...The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has declined an invitation to visit the White House this week to celebrate a new North American free trade deal, amid worsening coronavirus figures in the US and lingering tensions with Donald Trump.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obradoris due to meet Trump in Washington on Wednesday, and had urged Trudeau to attend the meeting.
Continue reading...The mariachi musicians of Mexico City are struggling to eke out a living during the pandemic. Photojournalist Rubén Salgado has been documenting the community
The Mariachi musician is one of Mexico’s most best-known symbols and Plaza Garibaldi their home in Mexico City’s historic downtown, known as the Mariachi Mecca. Normally the plaza will have hundreds of tourists and locals present to see them perform. With the new government restrictions in place due to Covid-19, there are hundreds of jobless musicians vying for the work that may allow them to feed themselves and their families that day. Dozens of men wait on the main avenue stepping in front of traffic looking for clients.
Continue reading...Mexico and Brazil have been hit hard by the pandemic, but so too have countries that were quicker to respond
Coronavirus arrived in Latin America later than in Europe, but it has taken firm hold. A quarter of global confirmed cases are in the region, and researchers have warned the death toll is likely to triple by October to nearly 400,000.
The two countries with the deadliest outbreaks share populist leaders, Brazil’s rightwing Jair Bolsonaro and Mexico’s leftwing Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Continue reading...Years of social progress could be reversed by the virus, amid accusations that politicians have been fatally inept
As coronavirus galloped through Latin America in late April, the mayor of Manaus was in despair. “The outlook is dismal,” Arthur Virgílio admitted as gravediggers in the Amazon’s largest city piled coffins into muddy trenches, Brazil’s death toll hit 5,500, and its president, Jair Bolsonaro, responded with a shrug. “It’s obvious this won’t end well.”
Two months later, Virgílio’s nightmare has come true. Brazil’s death toll has risen to more than 60,000 – the second highest in the world after the United States – with some now predicting it could overtake the US, where 130,000 have died, by the end of July.
Continue reading...Donald Trump describes ‘victory’ over virus as cases rise; Mexico death toll becomes 5th highest; Australia’s toughest lockdown begins
The World Health Organization has reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases with 212,326 being recorded in just 24 hours, amid a surge in the United States, Brazil and India.
The WHO’s situation report showed that just under 130,000 of those new cases were in the Americas, including the US, Brazil and Mexico, but the WHO said South-East Asia, including India stood at just under new 28,000 new cases on Saturday.
Continue reading...Advocates have long worried about potential for an outbreak at Matamoros camp, where an estimated 2,000 migrants live
Three asylum seekers have tested positive for coronavirus in a sprawling border encampment, marking the first cases in a settlement that advocates have long viewed as vulnerable amid the pandemic.
Since confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mexico began rising in March, advocates and government officials have worried about the potential for an outbreak in the Matamoros camp, where an estimated 2,000 migrants live in tents on the banks of the Rio Grande river.
Continue reading...Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, scientists are developing alternative sustainable solutions to the golden tide of Sargassum
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, first detected by Nasa observation satellites in 2011 and now known to be the world’s largest bloom of seaweed, stretches for 5,500 miles (8,850km) from the Gulf of Mexico to the western coast of Africa.
Millions of tonnes of floating Sargassum seaweed in coastal waters smother fragile seagrass habitats, suffocate coral reefs and harm fisheries. And once washed ashore on Mexican and Caribbean beaches, this foul-smelling, rotting seaweed goes on to devastate the tourist industry, prevent turtles from nesting and damage coastal ecosystems, while releasing hydrogen sulphide and other toxic gases as it decomposes.
Continue reading...Two bodyguards and passerby shot dead by assassins disguised as road workers
At least three people have been killed after assassins disguised as road workers launched an early morning attack on Mexico City’s police chief on the capital’s most famous street.
Omar García Harfuch was reportedly driving to work through the tree-lined Lomas de Chapultepec neighbourhood, home to several foreign embassies, when he was ambushed by heavily armed gunmen shortly after 6.30am.
Continue reading...A strong earthquake hit southern Mexico on Tuesday, shaking buildings in the centre of the capital Mexico City hundreds of miles away, and sending people fleeing their homes into the streets. Situated at the intersection of three tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. The capital is seen as particularly vulnerable as it is located on top of an ancient lake bed.
Continue reading...Investigations under way into the reasons behind deaths of 13 men and two women
At least 15 people have been bludgeoned to death with stones and cement blocks, and some bodies partly burned, in an indigenous village in southern Mexico plagued by a dispute over windpower.
The municipal government of the Pacific coast community of San Mateo del Mar in Oaxaca state said 13 men and two women were killed at the weekend by what it described as a group of six people with the support of a local crime boss. Activists who successfully opposed windpower projects say the mayor’s followers ambushed them at a coronavirus checkpoint.
Continue reading...Ovidio Guzmán was briefly captured in October only to be let go hours later as security was overwhelmed by cartel forces
Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Friday said he personally ordered the release of one of the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after his brief detention during a military operation.
Scenes of mayhem during the operation caused López Obrador’s government considerable embarrassment in October as security forces briefly captured Ovidio Guzmán only to let him go hours later as the security forces were overwhelmed by cartel forces.
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