Category Archives: Mexico

Mexico’s secret churches: invitation-only Catholic masses defy Covid-19 rules

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‘They call you and tell you the place and the date’ – but there are risks, with about 20 praying elderly women busted in one police raid

The invitations arrive via text message or social media. “They ask you for a kind of password to let you in,” said Jesús Preciado, whose father has attended the secretive gatherings in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Diego Martínez, whose mother has attended the backstairs events, said they were off-limits to anyone not in the know. “It’s invitation-only,” he said. “They call you and tell you the place and the date.”

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Death of young footballer shot by police sparks outrage in Mexico – video

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Hundreds of people bade farewell to a 16-year-old Mexican-American boy who was shot dead by police in southern Mexico. Alexander Martínez was laid to rest in a funeral that reflected his passion for football – friends brought his coffin to a local football pitch so that he could 'score' a final goal. 

Martínez was shot in the head by police on Tuesday night and another teenager was also wounded in the incident and later died in hospital. The case, which is still under investigation, has sparked outrage in Mexico with protests planned in Acatlán de Pérez Figueroa, Martínez's home town 

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Global report: India reports surge in Covid-19 cases as lockdown eased

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Almost 10,000 new cases in India on Thursday as WHO warns situation outside Europe deteriorating

India reported almost 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with hospitals swamped in the worst-hit cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, and predictions that the infection rate will not peak before the end of next month.

The country of 1.3bn people now has the fifth highest number of confirmed cases in the world, at 286,579. Over the last 24 hours 357 people have died from the virus, bringing the official toll to 8,102.

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Mexico: US teenager shot dead by police in Oaxaca

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  • Boy, 16, identified only as Alexander, killed on Tuesday night
  • Details unclear but cousin says teenager was buying soda

A US teenager has been shot dead by local police in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in yet another shocking case of police abuse and brutality.

The 16-year-old victim – identified only as Alexander – was killed on Tuesday night after he went out to buy soda, according to media reports. 

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‘We’ll disappear you’: Mexican protesters recount terror of police abduction

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Five friends were seized en route to a rally against police brutality, which followed the death of a man arrested for not wearing a face mask

Jésus* and four friends were heading to a protest against police brutality when they were seized by a group of plain-clothes officers and forced into an unmarked pickup truck.

They had planned to join a demonstration in Guadalajara, prompted by the case of Giovanni López, a construction worker who was found dead after he was arrested for not wearing a face-mask.

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#NiUnaMenos five years on: Latin America as deadly as ever for women, say activists

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Campaigners say coronavirus is compounding problem of domestic and gender violence

It has been five years since pent-up fury over staggering levels of violence against women erupted in a wave of public protest across Argentina under the slogan Ni Una Menos (Not One Less).

What started as a hashtag quickly grew into a movement, pushing women’s rights to the top of the agenda in Argentina, before quickly spreading across South America as millions of women took a stand against gender violence. 

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Oldest and largest Maya structure discovered in southern Mexico

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  • Site at Aguada Fénix found using lidar aerial laser technology
  • Vast earth platform exceeds volume of Great Pyramid of Giza

Scientists using an aerial remote-sensing method have discovered the largest and oldest-known structure built by the ancient Maya civilization – a colossal rectangular elevated platform built between 1000 and 800BC in Mexico’s Tabasco state.

Related: Into the light: how lidar is replacing radar as the archaeologist’s map tool of choice

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Voice of defiance: the Mexican radio journalist who refused to be silenced

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Carmen Arestegui’s battle to stay on the airwaves is the subject of a film highlighting the risks of exposing corruption and crime

When Mexican news anchor Carmen Aristegui was fired from a popular radio show after revealing a presidential scandal on air, it sparked an outpouring of anger and protests.

For millions of listeners Aristegui is a trusted voice cutting through government spin and corruption, and her absence left a void.

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Cemeteries braced for surge in Covid-19 dead as Mexico readies to reopen

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The president says the pandemic has been tamed but experts, and those who must bury the dead, fear an alarming rise in cases

Four generations of Enrique Ruvalcaba’s family have worked at the Mezquitán cemetery in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. None of them ever saw anything like this. 

Before the coronavirus, the burial ground was open to the public, and the deceased were honoured by flower-carrying mourners and mariachis. Now the dead arrive in silence and alone.

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Mexico City records thousands more deaths than usual, amid doubt over official Covid-19 toll

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Research found 8,000 more death certificates have been issued so far this year than the four-year average

This year, Mexico City has issued 8,072 more death certificates than the average for the same period in the past four years, according to a new study that suggests the country’s coronavirus death toll could be significantly higher than the official figure of nearly 7,400.

Research published in the Mexican magazine Nexos on Monday used information from the capital’s 52 civil registries to estimate the number of death certificates created between 1 January and 20 May.

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‘There are too many’: bones of 60 mammoths found in Mexico

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Archaeologists face surfeit of mammoths after bones found at airport under construction north of Mexico City

Archaeologists have found the bones of about 60 mammoths at an airport under construction just north of Mexico City, near human-built “traps” where more than a dozen mammoths were found last year.

Both discoveries reveal how appealing the area – once a shallow lake – was for the mammoths, and how erroneous was the classic vision of groups of fur-clad hunters with spears chasing mammoths across a plain.

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‘Planes spray the city at night’: Covid-19 conspiracy theories in Mexico’s motor town

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In San Luis Potosí, cases of Covid-19 are rising, but not everyone is taking lockdown seriously. Photographer Mauricio Palos looks at how the outbreak has affected his home town

In San Luis Potosí, a city in central Mexico, some people believe the coronavirus is an invention by the government. They are sharing memes, videos and recordings with misinformation, in which people tell you that in the hospitals they drain the fluid from your knees and planes spray the city with the virus at night.

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Covid-19 cases in Brazil surpass Italy as virus surges in Latin America

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Mexico and Peru struggle to contain outbreaks while deaths in Spain fall to two-month low

Confirmed Covid-19 cases in Brazil have surpassed the total in Italy and are surging in Mexico and Peru as Latin America struggles to contain its fast-growing coronavirus outbreak.

Spain announced that 87 people had died there in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, the first time the figure has been below 100 in more than two months and a sign the virus is being contained in western Europe as it continues to spread aggressively in Russia, India and parts of Africa.

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‘Hubs of infection’: how Covid-19 spread through Latin America’s markets

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Authorities have struggled to enforce social distancing at the trading centres. At one Lima market, 79% of vendors had coronavirus

Four out of five merchants at a major fruit market in Peru have tested positive for coronavirus, revealing shocking levels of infection – and prompting fears that Latin America’s traditional trading centres may have helped spread Covid-19 across the region.

Seventy-nine per cent of stall-holders in Lima’s wholesale fruit market tested positive for Covid-19, while spot tests at five other large fresh food markets in the city revealed at least half were carrying the virus.

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Mexico: adulterated alcohol deaths rise to over 100 amid ban on official sales

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  • Methanol believed to involved in incidents across country
  • Sale of liquor banned during Covid-19 pandemic

More than 100 Mexicans have died from drinking adulterated alcohol over the past month in a string of mass poisonings which followed a ban on the sale of liquor during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deaths from unsafe alcohol have been reported in at least four states. On Thursday, health officials in the central state of Puebla said the death toll there had reached 51 after a batch of moonshine was tainted with methanol – a wood alcohol which can cause blindness and kidney damage.

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Global report: Trump threat to cut trade ties over Covid-19 branded ‘lunacy’ by Chinese media

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President says he doesn’t want to speak to counterpart Xi; Brazil passes 200,000 infections; Baltic travel ‘bubble’ begins

An escalation of rhetoric between Donald Trump and China over the coronavirus pandemic has sparked concerns that a trade deal between the nations is in peril, as Chinese state media dismissed as “lunacy” a suggestion by the US president that he could “cut off relations” with Beijing.

The US president said he was very disappointed with China’s failure to contain Covid-19 in an interview with Fox Business news. Trump said the pandemic had cast a pall over his January trade deal with Beijing and that he had no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping at the moment.

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Mexico: at least 35 people die in mass bad-alcohol poisoning

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It is unclear if poisonings were related to coronavirus lockdowns as beer production was halted more than a month ago

At least 35 people have died in Mexico after drinking methanol, the latest in a series of mass bad-alcohol poisonings since the country banned beer sales and many towns banned the sale of liquor.

At least 20 people died of presumed methanol poisoning in the town of Chiconcuautla in the central state of Puebla. State authorities said they had closed the stores where the suspect liquor had been sold, and seized about 50 gallons (200 liters) of it.

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Covid-19 spreads to every African country – as it happened

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Coronavirus may never be eradicated, warns WHO as Spanish study reveals 5% of the population has antibodies

We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump 'surprised' by Fauci's reopening warnings as WHO says Covid-19 may never go

Donald Trump has ratcheted up his “Obamagate” conspiracy theory to implicate Joe Biden and other former White House officials in what critics say is a desperate attempt to distract from the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Trump deepens 'Obamagate' conspiracy theory with Biden unmasking move

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López Obrador accused of militarizing Mexico with new security decree

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Human rights groups concerned over expanding the role of the armed forces as the country’s homicide rate reaches new high

Human rights groups in Mexico have expressed disquiet over a presidential decree expanding the role of the armed forces in public security – a reflection of the country’s worsening violence and the failure to properly prepare and equip a police force able to take on powerful criminal organisations.

The decree, published on Monday by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, demonstrates an ongoing dependency on the army and navy for public security work – even though soldiers and marines have been frequently accused of human rights violations.

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