Category Archives: Mexico

Is it wrong to look at the harrowing photo of a drowned father and daughter? | Peter Beaumont

Posted on by

In an age when social media has undermined our ability to engage with pictures, Julia le Duc’s tragic image raises tough questions

Warning: graphic images

Julia le Duc’s image of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, lying drowned on a muddy shoreline after an attempted crossing of Rio Grande into the US appears like a summation of all the arguments about the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies.

The pair look as though they could be locked in a sleeping embrace, the child’s head tucked inside her father’s T-shirt, where she’d been placed by him for safety as he swam, protecting their last dignity.

Continue reading...

‘The river is treacherous’: the migrant tragedy one photo can’t capture

Posted on by

The father and his toddler daughter pictured face down in the river were two of dozens who drowned this year while crossing the border to seek asylum

Under a hot sun beating down on the US border, a family of five can be seen mid-river, struggling against a cruel current of greenish-grey water threatening to sweep them off their feet. It appears to be a couple and their three children, risking their lives in the treacherous Rio Grande that divides Mexico from Texas.

The father clutches a black backpack in his hand, the family’s only luggage. On his back he’s carrying a small boy wearing a rainbow-striped T-shirt. A little girl is on the woman’s back, small arms clasped tightly around her mother’s neck.

Continue reading...

US border: photo of drowned father and daughter highlights migrants’ peril – video report

Posted on by

Searing photographs showing a man and his 23-month-old daughter lying face down in shallow water along the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande near the US border highlight the perils of the latest migration crisis involving mostly Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty.

Continue reading...

‘They wanted the American dream’: reporter reveals story behind tragic photo

Posted on by

Julia Le Duc gives details of the father and his toddler daughter who died trying to cross the Rio Grande Warning: graphic images

Julia Le Duc is a reporter for La Jornada in Matamoros, the Mexican city directly across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.

Her shocking photographs showing the bodies of Salvadoran migrant Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria cast a fresh spotlight on the migration crisis at America’s southern border. Here she describes how the images came into being.

Continue reading...

Shocking photo of drowned father and daughter highlights migrants’ border peril

Posted on by

The toddler’s arm was still draped around her father’s neck after bodies were found in the Rio Grande as they sought asylum

  • Warning: contains graphic images

The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding on America’s southern border has been captured in photographs showing the lifeless bodies of a Salvadoran father and his daughter who drowned as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande into Texas.

The images, taken on Monday , show Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 26, and his daughter Valeria, lying face down in shallow water. The 23-month-old toddler’s arm is draped around her father’s neck, suggesting that she was clinging to him in her final moments.

Continue reading...

Mexico immigration chief vows to cut number of people migrating by 60%

Posted on by

Newly appointed chief, Francisco Garduño, said he hoped to prevent hundreds of thousands of migrants entering the country each year

Mexico’s immigration chief has vowed to slash the number of migrants entering his country by 60% and prevent Mexico from being used as “a trampoline” to the United States, as the Mexican government scrambles to satisfy Donald Trump’s demands to curb migration.

Trump has given Mexico a 45-day deadline – which ends on 22 July – to reduce the flow of undocumented Central American migrants to the United States’ southern border, leaving the Mexican government racing to meet those demands and avert the threat of tariffs.

Continue reading...

‘I’ll never have another child’: the mothers failed by Mexico’s hospitals

Posted on by

In one of Mexico’s poorest states, women from minority backgrounds are increasingly at risk of abusive treatment during pregnancy and childbirth

Nancy Martínez was 17 when she went into labour. Though her age meant she was considered a high-risk pregnancy, she was left alone for several hours without monitoring or pain medication.

Nurses told Martínez to be quiet and put up with the pain, while doctors mocked her mother, Nancy Ceron Diaz, denying her information about her daughter’s condition.

Continue reading...

Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America’s dirty secret

Posted on by

A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations

What happens to your plastic after you drop it in a recycling bin?

According to promotional materials from America’s plastics industry, it is whisked off to a factory where it is seamlessly transformed into something new.

Continue reading...

Up to four avocado trucks stolen in Mexican state every day

Posted on by

Packers and exporters took out newspaper adverts to decry situation in Michoacán, a battleground for warring crime factions

Up to four trucks carrying avocados are stolen every day in the violent Mexican state of Michoacán, as organized crime groups seek to take advantage of consumers’ seemingly insatiable appetite for the fruit.

Avocado packers and exporters took out newspaper adverts on Friday to decry a worsening security situation in the state, which has long been a battle ground for warring crime factions.

Continue reading...

UK rights advocate co-owns firm whose spyware is ‘used to target dissidents’

Posted on by

Exclusive: Yana Peel co-owns NSO Group that licensed Pegasus software to authoritarian regimes

A leading human rights campaigner and head of a prestigious London art gallery is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents, the Guardian can reveal.

Yana Peel, the chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries and a self-proclaimed champion of free speech, co-owns NSO Group, a $1bn (£790m) Israeli tech firm, according to corporate records in the US and Luxembourg.

Continue reading...

Mexico: Amlo says sale of presidential plane will fund migrant crackdown

Posted on by

Funds from sale of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s jet will be put toward the deployment of the newly formed national guard

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to fund a crackdown on migrants to Mexico from Central America with proceeds from the sale of his office’s aircraft, a 787 Dreamliner which has been on offer since shortly after the Mexican president took office in December.

Funds from the sale would be put toward the deployment of the newly formed national guard which has the power to detain migrants without correct papers, López Obrador said on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump teases ‘secret’ Mexico agreement – video

Posted on by

The US president, Donald Trump, gave reporters a glimpse of what he said was a deal with Mexico on Tuesday, but offered few details on what was in the document. Trump was speaking to reporters before departing for Iowa when he took a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, held it up and said it was the deal with Mexico. He said it was 'a very good agreement' for both countries, but said he would let Mexico announce it

Continue reading...

‘I’m about to have my baby’: migrants stuck in Mexico face more uncertainty

Posted on by

Tariff deal calls for expansion of policy forcing Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases wind through US courts

In a cramped San Diego courtroom, immigrant mothers cradled restless babies and toddlers as they waited to go before a judge. After a quick exchange, they were whisked back to Mexico where they face months, or possibly years, before their cases play out in the US.

Hundreds of miles away, a judge in El Paso, Texas, noticed that an infant was fussing and let the child’s mother stand up and burp the baby before shipping her and about a dozen others, including six pregnant women, back to the Mexican border city of Juarez.

Continue reading...

‘All I have done, no credit!’ Enraged Trump defends US-Mexico migrant deal

Posted on by

President tweets ire at New York Times and opponents as agreement to avoid tariffs comes under scrutiny

The Trump administration was forced to defend its immigration agreement with Mexico on Sunday, amid reports that key provisions in the deal, forged under the threat of trade tariffs, were mostly old commitments agreed to months ago.

Related: Mexican president leads 'celebration' rally after US tariffs dropped

Continue reading...

Mexican president leads ‘celebration’ rally after US tariffs dropped

Posted on by

Andrés Manuel López Obrador tells crowd in Tijuana he is raising an ‘open hand’, not a closed fist, to Donald Trump

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, travelled to the border city of Tijuana to rally the country in “defence of national dignity”, but to also reaffirm friendship with the US people – barely a day after the US cancelled the threat of tariffs.

López Obrador called the rally, which was convened prior to the tariffs being cancelled, a “celebration” of both countries brokering a deal.

Continue reading...

Trump’s Mexico deal is victory for ‘hostage-taking’, ex-WTO head says

Posted on by

Pascal Lamy said Trump’s actions went against the spirit of diplomacy after Mexico agreed to expand asylum program

The immigration deal imposed on Mexico by Donald Trump under the threat of punitive tariffs is a victory for “hostage-taking” over international rules, a former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Saturday.

Related: Trump calls off tariffs after US-Mexico deal but Mnuchin says threat remains

Continue reading...

Trump calls off tariffs as US and Mexico reach deal on immigration

Posted on by

Mexico agrees to host more migrants seeking asylum in US and increase enforcement on southern border

The US and Mexico have reached an agreement to stave off import tariffs on Mexican goods, officials confirmed on Friday evening.

President Trump had threatened to impose 5% import tariffs on all Mexican goods if the country did not agree to new measures to stem migration across the US-Mexico border. The tariffs were set to go in effect on Monday, but the president tweeted late on Friday that both governments had reached a deal and the tariffs had been “indefinitely suspended”.

Continue reading...

Mexico tightens southern border security as another day passes with no tariff deal

Posted on by

Under pressure from Trump, Mexico has launched a crackdown on the Guatemala border, arresting activists and holding migrants

As Donald Trump’s deadline for new tariffs on Mexican imports draws near, Mexico has stepped up security along its porous border with Guatemala – deploying police and soldiers to its southern frontier and arresting prominent migration activists.

Trump last week pledged to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican products on 10 June unless Mexico stops Central American migrants from travelling through its territory.

Continue reading...

Trump cancels key services for unaccompanied child migrants – live

Posted on by

Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’

Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with top Mexican officials who are seeking to head off the administration’s threatened tariffs, the Hill reports.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is representing his country at the talks and expected to argue Mexico is already taking steps to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Paul Manafort should not be held in solitary confinement, and nor should anyone else. Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, is reportedly heading for Rikers Island where he’s likely to be held in solitary while awaiting trial on New York state charges.

Yes - released from solitary.

NYT used the term solitary confinement, & that’s what I am commenting on.

“Protective custody” IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.

Continue reading...