Exclusive: Human rights group warns of ‘deep collusion’ between criminals and officials in some parts of country
State actors are involved in disappearances in Mexico at an “alarming” rate, according to a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The sweeping investigation, to which the Guardian was given exclusive access, presents a dire picture of the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, where more than 130,000 people have gone missing, mostly in the last 20 years since the government declared its war on drug cartels.
Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in Sinaloa state have temporarily stepped down after the US charged them with drug trafficking
Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in the north-western Sinaloa state said they would temporarily step down from their posts after the United States charged them and eight other politicians and security officers with drug trafficking.
The bombshell indictment against the 10 has shaken Mexico’s political establishment.
There is cautious optimism that ‘a majority of multilateralists’ may be able to enduringly reshape the world order
Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Brazil’s ambassador to London, had no difficulty joining the dystopians describing the modern world in a recent speech, a world suffering from “global warming and environmental degradation, multiple conflicts, rising military budgets, disregard for international law and international humanitarian law, disruptions to trade, erosion of democratic governance and technological developments that are met with excitement and fear”.
Yet beneath the surface, he said, “something is happening. Something is moving.”
The golden coffin of “El Mencho”, the late leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), had barely been lowered into the ground when the Mexican military dealt a second blow to the very top of the organisation this week.
As special forces descended on a ranch in the state of Nayarit, grainy drone footage showed El Mencho’s possible successor, Audias Flores, alias “El Jardinero”, being hauled from a drainage pipe he had tried to hide in, all without a shot being fired.
Indictment accuses high-level officials in Sinaloa of offences such as drug trafficking, weapons offences and kidnapping
The US justice department has charged the governor of Sinaloa and nine other current and former officials for alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel, accusing them of aiding in the massive importation of illicit narcotics into the United States .
Some officials were members of Mexico’s progressive ruling party, Morena, posing a political conundrum for Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum as she seeks to offset mounting pressures from the Trump administration.
Leaders from around the world have condemned the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night as an act of “political violence” and expressed relief that Donald Trump, officials and journalists were unharmed.
The president and his wife, Melania, as well as members of the US cabinet, were evacuated from the ballroom at the Washington Hilton on Saturday after gunshots were heard from the hotel lobby.
Government accused of removing loved ones from record after report says tens of thousands lack information to be found
Mothers search in the scrublands, poking the earth for signs of a corpse. Desperate pleas fill social media, crying out for clues that may bring relief. Tattered posters flutter in the wind, asking for help in the search. Often, all that is left of the missing are scattered bones bleached by the sun.
It is arguably Mexico’s greatest human rights crisis. More than 130,000 people have vanished since the state went to war against drug cartels a decade ago. Now, activists and human rights experts say the authorities are trying to erase their loved ones from the record.
Claudia Sheinbaum has responded to Donald Trump’s description of Mexico as the “epicenter of violence,” by calling on the US government to step up efforts to combat gun trafficking.
“There is something that the US can help us a lot with: stop the trafficking of illegal weapons from the US to Mexico,” the president of Mexico said. “If they stopped the entry of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico, then these groups wouldn’t have access to this type of high-powered weaponry to carry out their criminal activities.”
In Miami, president calls for regional cooperation to counter Chinese economic and political interests
Donald Trump changed the channel from Iran to the western hemisphere on Saturday, convening a gathering of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club to discuss regional interests and establishing what he called a “counter-cartel coalition”.
“Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate Isis, we now need a coalition to eradicate the cartels,” he told 12 regional leaders gathered at what the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit.
Mexiko schlittert seit ihrem Amtsantritt von einer Krise in die nächste. Aber die Präsidentin bleibt ihrer Devise treu, stets „einen kühlen Kopf zu bewahren“. Und hat Erfolg damit.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that there is “no risk” for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup games scheduled to be held in the country, after the death of a top cartel boss triggered a wave of retaliatory violence from gunmen who blocked roads and attacked security forces across the country.
Island country only has oil enough to last 15-20 days, and 12-hour blackouts have become commonplace
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has warned that Donald Trump’s move to slap new tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is already suffering from chronic fuel shortages and regular blackouts.
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency and laying the groundwork for such tariffs, ratcheting up the pressure to topple the communist government in Havana.
Claudia Sheinbaum denied move was response to pressure from the US, after Trump said ‘zero’ oil would go to Cuba
Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not a response to pressure from the US.
Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month.
Kolumbien, Kuba, Brasilien: US-Präsident Trump mischt sich in die inneren Angelegenheiten vieler lateinamerikanischer Staaten ein. Was ihn dabei antreibt – und warum er auch in Zukunft keine Ruhe geben wird.
Train accident in Oaxaca is likely to raise criticisms about public works projects from the previous administration
At least 13 people were killed when a train derailed in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, in an accident which is likely to revive opposition criticisms of the speed and dealings with which the country’s government builds its flagship public works projects.
The incident took place on the Interoceanic Train, which was built to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, creating an alternative rail cargo route to the Panama canal intended to drive development in the region.
Clashes erupt between protesters and riot police in the capital as rallies take place in cities across the country
At least 120 people were injured as thousands of gen Z protesters took to the streets of Mexico City and across the country to voice their anger at corruption and the drug violence that claims tens of thousands of Mexican lives each year.
Saturday’s rallies, which took place in dozens of cities from Tijuana in the north to Oaxaca in the south drew large crowds, with some demonstrators carrying the One Piece pirate flag that has become a global symbol of the youth movement.
After Claudia Sheinbaum was assaulted this week, her opponents claimed she staged it. From their own experiences, the women I met know she didn’t have to
“Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe,” said Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist, when I talked to her in Morelia, a city west of the Mexican capital this week. Succinct and to the point, it is a sentiment shared by many women in Mexico after watching the now viral video of a drunk man groping the country’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as she walked from the National Palace to the education ministry on Monday. Sheinbaum, who has pressed charges against the man, said much the same at her daily press briefing on Wednesday: “If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?”
Sheinbaum’s unprecedented position has made this a teaching moment in a country where women have long complained that sexual harassment and assault on streets and public transport were too often normalised and not taken seriously. The leftist Sheinbaum’s political opponents on the right have done just that by claiming her sexual assault was staged to distract from the assassination of a local mayor, Carlos Manzo, an outspoken critic of organised crime who had called on the government to do more to protect him and others. Most women here, on the other hand, know that sexual violence does not have to be set up – half of them have experienced it at some point in their lives.
Mona Eltahawy writes the Feminist Giant newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
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