El Chapo paid $100m bribe to former Mexican president Peña Nieto, witness says

Alex Cifuentes, a close associate of the cartel chief, testified that he told US authorities about the alleged bribe in 2016

A witness at the US trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has testified that he told US authorities the accused Mexican drug lord once paid a $100m bribe to former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.

Alex Cifuentes, who has said he was a close associate of the Sinaloa cartel chief for years, discussed the alleged bribe under cross-examination by one of Guzman’s lawyers in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday. Asked if he told authorities in 2016 that Guzman arranged the bribe, he answered: “That’s right.”

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What is life really like in border country, where Trump wants his wall?

The Guardian travelled to five border locations to discover how Trump’s rhetoric jars with the reality on the ground

Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” has become the trademark of his presidency. It is the promise that more than any other has energized his base, and riled his opponents, and his dogged attachment to it has now brought a large part of the US government to a historic 25 days of partial shutdown.

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Mexico investigates battle between drug gangs that left at least 20 dead

The bodies, some burned, found in the northern border town of Tamaulipas that’s convulsed by fighting to control drug trafficking

Mexican authorities are investigating a battle between two suspected gangs that left at least 20 bodies, 17 of them burned, in a border town near where Donald Trump will visit on Thursday to win support for his plan to build a wall.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily morning news conference that initial information pointed to a “battle between two groups”, and that security officials would later provide further information.

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Inside the office of missing migrant children – an animated video

More than 2,600 children were taken from their parents at the US border under the Trump administration's policy of family separation.

Travelling from Guatemala, Tonita and her six-year-old son, Wilson, were separated at the border and Wilson held at a office building in Phoenix, Arizona.

An animated film about the story of this family who was just one of many thousands having to live apart in a foreign and unknown country. As of today, 130 kids are still separated from their parents.

This video is from Reveal and you can find more of their reporting on family separation and immigration here

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El Chapo trial: cartel boss spied on wives and mistresses as FBI eavesdropped

Guzmán’s electronic life was revealed thanks to evidence from an undercover FBI agent and the IT fixer he recruited

The recorded, wiretapped life of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has dominated this week’s evidence at his trial for allegedly running the world’s biggest narco-traffic organisation.

Related: Behind the El Chapo trial: what's been left unsaid in a New York courtroom

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‘How much more American blood must we shed?’ says Trump in Oval speech – video

US president Donald Trump uses a primetime address on Tuesday to tell Americans he needs billions of dollars from Congress for his long-promised border wall to keep out drugs, gangs and human traffickers. In an Oval Office address, he says there is a 'growing humanitarian and security crisis' at the US-Mexico border, though crossings have fallen in recent years. He claims the wall will pay for itself via a new trade deal with Mexico and asks: 'How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?'

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‘The US can’t dump people in Mexico’: Trump asylum policy in doubt

Head of immigration authority says Mexico has ‘asked for answers’ on ‘catch and return’ – but shutdown isn’t helping

When she announced last month that tens of thousands of asylum seekers would be returned to Mexico while their cases are considered, the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, described the move as a “historic” overhaul of US immigration policy.

But more than two weeks later, the new strategy has yet to begin and it remains unclear how the plan would work – or even if Mexico is willing to enforce it.

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Mexican president Amlo reveals $23,000 in savings – and no credit card

  • Leftwing president cut his own pay to $65,000 a year
  • Amlo to sell presidential plane and travel in Volkswagen Jetta

Despite spending his adult life in a political system where public service is seen as a route to self-enrichment, Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has revealed that he has a little less than $23,00 in savings.

Related: 'It's a comfy plane': Mexico's Amlo seeks buyer for presidential jet

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El Chapo v El Vicentillo: son of cartel’s co-founder testifies against drug lord

Vicente Zambada Niebla, son of the Joaquín Guzmán’s longtime partner, had been groomed to take over Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel

One of the greatest betrayals in mafia history emerged into open court this week at the New York trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, as the former heir-apparent to Guzmán’s Sinaloa federation turned against his own boss, the cartel – and apparently even his own father.

Related: Behind the El Chapo trial: what's been left unsaid in a New York courtroom

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Mexican experts discover first temple of god depicted as skinned human corpse

Two skull-like stone carvings and a stone trunk depicting the Flayed Lord were found during excavation in Puebla state

Mexican experts say they have found the first temple of the Flayed Lord, a pre-Hispanic fertility god depicted as a skinned human corpse.

Related: Conquistadors sacrificed and eaten by Aztec-era people, archaeologists say

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US authorities fire tear gas across border to repel Central Americans

Women, children and members of the press were affected by gas as authorities said it was aimed at rock throwers on Mexican side

US authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 Central Americans who they claimed were trying to breach the border fence in Tijuana.

Related: 'I don't want to go back': what's next for the Central American migrant caravan?

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Beto O’Rourke sharpens Cruz critiques at McAllen rally

U.S. Rep.Joe Kennedy III embraces Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke during a campaign rally at the McAllen Convention Center on Saturday ,Oct. 13, 2018, in McAllen. McALLEN - Before Beto O'Rourke sharpened his critique of Ted Cruz at the least-intimate rally he has held in the Rio Grande Valley, a nurse handed the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate a light saber.

Indians top the list of illegal ‘aliens’ entering US, most pay up to $50,000 at borders

The number of Indians arrested for illegally entering the United States has nearly tripled so far in 2018, making them one of the largest groups of illegal aliens apprehended, US Customs and Border Protection said on Friday. Paying smuggling rings between $25,000-$50,000 per person, a growing number of Indians are illegally crossing the US-Mexico border and claiming asylum for persecution, CBP spokesman Salvador Zamora said.

Indians arrested for illegally entering US triples

Paying smuggling rings between $25,000-$50,000 per person, a growing number of Indians are illegally crossing the US-Mexico border and claiming asylum for persecution. has nearly tripled so far in 2018, making them one of the largest groups of illegal aliens apprehended, US Customs and Border Protection said on Friday.

Mexican president elect introduces civilian head of security

Mexico's president-elect kicked off a nationwide tour Sunday with his new head of security in tow: a restaurant owner named Daniel Asaf who will coordinate a civilian brigade in lieu of the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, introduced Asaf to reporters at Mexico City's international airport before departing for Tepic, capital of the western state of Nayarit.

Kootenai County deputies respond to possible home invasion

At around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, deputies from the Kootenai County Sheriff's office responded to the 7900 block of W. Cougar Gultch Rd. for a report of a possible home invasion robbery. It was reported that an 18-year-old woman had walked outside of her house to let her dog out of a nearby kennel.

Mon Laferte and Gaby Moreno to Pay Tribute to Selena and Immigrants With ‘Sanctuary’ Concert

Mon Laferte performs on stage during the MTV MIAW Awards 2018 at Arena Ciudad de Mexico on June 2, 2018 in Mexico City, Mexico. The music of Selena will be used to entertain and educate during a free concert that is in part designed to raise awareness about the plight of undocumented immigrants facing deportation.