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.
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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.
Continue reading...‘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.”
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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