Tag: Mexico

In Mexico’s election, candidates grapple with the search for the missing | Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador News

Mexico City, Mexico – Mother’s Day on Friday was a sombre occasion for Joanna Alvear of Toluca, Mexico.

She began her day with hundreds of other women in the shadow of the towering Mother’s Monument, a stone obelisk in the centre of Mexico City.

Most of the women wore the same grim expression: furrowed brows, tightly clenched jaws and piercing eyes, some brimming with tears. Like many of them, Alvear clutched a homemade poster to her chest, its cheery yellow colour belying its heart-breaking plea: “I’m still searching for you. Lilith, I love you.”

She represents one of the estimated 111,000 missing persons in Mexico today.

Every year on Mother’s Day, the families of the “disappeared” join with activists and concerned citizens to march through the streets of the capital, demanding answers in the tens of thousands of unsolved cases.

This year’s protest, however, held special significance. It comes in lead-up to pivotal nationwide elections on June 2, when every seat in Mexico’s Congress will be up for grabs, as well as the presidency.

But as the tenure of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador draws to a close, some question whether his administration has done enough to address the widespread disappearances — and whether his successor can improve upon his track record.

Family members like Alvear said they have had to spearhead their own searches, relying on personal resources in the absence of government support.

In Alvear’s case, her daughter Lilith Saori Arreola Alvear, a 21-year-old transgender woman, went missing while on vacation with friends in Playa Zicatela, Oaxaca, on January 2, 2023.

Months passed, and in desperation, Alvear read Mexico’s Standardised Protocol for Searching for Missing Persons to better understand the investigation. That’s when she started to notice the shortfalls in how her daughter’s case was being handled.

“When I read the approved protocol for searching for missing persons, I realised that, in reality, the protocols that had to be done were not done,” Alvear said.

“So I am a mom who has searched for Lilith with her own resources.”

At the Mother’s Monument in Mexico City, Joanna Alvear holds up a poster of her missing daughter Lilith [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

A president’s promise

Lopez Obrador was voted into office six years ago, in July 2018, after campaigning on the promise of seeking justice for missing persons.

One of the most pressing issues of that election cycle was the case of the Ayotzinapa 43, the mass disappearance four years prior of 43 students from a rural teacher’s college.

The case had plunged the popularity of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto to new lows, as his government oversaw a flawed investigation riddled with alleged cover-ups, inconsistencies and accusations of torture and forced confessions.

But Lopez Obrador promised justice for the Ayotzinapa 43 and other victims — and transparency in any future investigations.

“We will find out where these young men are and punish those responsible,” he said in 2018, standing with the students’ families.

Lopez Obrador ultimately won in a historic landslide: His election marked a blistering defeat for the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as he notched one of the largest margins of victory in decades.

Once in office, the left-wing leader sought to make good on his campaign promises. Just two days after being sworn in, Lopez Obrador announced the creation of a truth commission dedicated to investigating the Ayotzinapa 43.

A man in a knitted full-face mask beats a drum as he marches. His homemade T-shirt reads: Ayotzinapa 43.
A demonstrator at the annual Mother’s Day march wears a T-shirt raising awareness for the missing ‘Ayotzinapa 43’, a group of student-teachers who disappeared in 2014 [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

A legacy in question

But in the years since, sentiment has soured among the families of the missing. Justice remains elusive, and some have accused Lopez Obrador of focusing more on burnishing his own image than producing substantial results.

Under Lopez Obrador’s leadership, the number of disappearances has also continued to climb, surpassing 100,000 in 2022.

An estimated 111,540 people were registered as “disappeared” from January 1962 to September 2023, according to the United Nations, citing Mexico’s own statistics. The vast majority of cases, however, were recorded after 2006, a fact often credited to Mexico’s “war on drugs“.

But critics say Lopez Obrador has tried to cast doubt on those statistics, by conducting a new government census to suss out “false” disappearances.

By December, the new census could only confirm 12,377 cases — a number that families and advocates say fails to represent the true scale of the problem.

“The figures are less, because he [the president] says they are less. Where are our children?” asked Nora Torres, who participated in the Mother’s Day march as part of the group Buscando Nuestros Desaparecidos en Tamaulipas, which searches for the disappeared.

“Most of our relatives do not appear on the registry. Where are they? We want them to tell us where they are.”

The human rights group Amnesty International also pointed out that the new census categorised 80,000 people “ambiguously” to arrive at the new, lower total. It called on the Mexican government “to ensure transparency” and involve the relatives of the disappeared in any further census processes.

Later, in mid-March, Interior Minister Luisa Maria Alcalde said that there are officially 99,729 people missing.

But the government has framed the backlash as part of an opposition smear campaign, and tensions have been running high.

In February, a group protesting the lack of progress in the Ayotzinapa case used a pickup truck to smash a door to the presidential palace. Then, on Monday, protesters threw firecrackers at the palace after eight soldiers accused of involvement in the students’ disappearance were released from pre-trial detention. Twenty-six police officers were injured.

For his part, Lopez Obrador accused reporters and volunteer searchers last week of suffering from a “a delirium of necrophilia” in their search for the missing and presumed dead.

The families of the disappeared mark Mother’s Day with an annual march through Mexico City [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

New election, new promises

Many of the women at this year’s Mother’s Day march expressed scepticism that the situation will change under a new administration.

“We do not believe anything. They are pure promises — pure promises for us mothers,” said Torres, who travelled from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in northern Mexico, to participate.

Presidents in Mexico are limited to a single six-year term at a time. That means Lopez Obrador cannot run for a second consecutive stint as president.

So his protegee, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, has stepped forward to represent his party, Morena, instead.

Polls show her maintaining a healthy lead over Xochitl Galvez, a senator running on behalf of the conservative National Action Party.

Both candidates have attempted to address public concern about the disappearances — as well as systemic issues like the government corruption used to cover up crimes.

“We must address the causes. We must reduce the crime of disappearance, and we must attend to the victims,” Sheinbaum said on March 19, during a news conference in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

Both she and Galvez have campaigned on improving public security as part of the solution.

Sheinbaum has largely focused on tackling poverty as a means of lowering crime. But Galvez has taken a stiffer approach, promising to build a high-security prison and use “the necessary bullets” to subdue criminal networks.

On Mother’s Day, Galvez met with the mothers of the missing in the northeastern city of Ciudad Victoria to discuss their concerns.

“There are women who today have nothing to celebrate,” she said at the campaign stop. “There are women who suffer the absence of their children.”

But critics point out that Galvez’s political coalition, Strength and Heart, includes the PRI — the same party that faced criticism for mishandling the Ayotzinapa case before Lopez Obrador’s term.

Critics have accused the government of casting doubt on the number of missing people in Mexico [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

Families push for ‘empathy’

Many families have called for this year’s candidates to restore the government bodies once tasked with searching for their missing loved ones.

Within the last year, for instance, the National Search Commission saw its staff reduced by half. The National Centre for Human Identification (CNIH), meanwhile, was dismantled after less than two years in existence.

The centre had been charged with examining the estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies discovered in Mexico since 2006.

But many relatives of those who have disappeared told Al Jazeera they care little which candidate takes power — so long as action is taken to find their loved ones.

“We are neither with one party nor with another. The only thing we want is for whoever is going to be in the government to really do something for us,” said Lourdes Romero Diaz, whose brother-in-law went missing in Mexico City in 2019 along with two co-workers.

Romero explained that the process of filing police reports can be traumatising for the families involved — and the stalled, sputtering nature of the investigations can increase the stress they feel.

“It is quite exhausting,” said Romero. “The worst thing is that our president and our leaders turn a blind eye and say that nothing is happening here, both in Mexico City and in the country.”

But when politicians do pay attention to cases like hers, Romero added that she sometimes questions their motives. She expressed concern that politicians could use the disappearances — and the outrage they arouse — to curry public favour.

“We do not agree that our relatives are used as political loot. They are not an object that they can use to monetise or use in their policies,” she said.

Ana María Velázquez remembers her missing son, Carlos Eduardo Monroy Velázquez, with a message pinned to her T-shirt [Chantal Flores/Al Jazeera]

Another mother in Friday’s march, Ana Maria Velazquez, told Al Jazeera her 20-year-old son Carlos Eduardo Monroy Velazquez disappeared two years ago while trying to cross the border into the United States.

She hopes this year’s candidates will deliver what she and other family members have been longing for: understanding — and answers.

“I would like them to have more empathy because the truth is, we haven’t had any support,” she said. “The state has not given us any response.”

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Mexico City is sinking, running out of water: How can it be saved? | Sustainability

Mexico City, Mexico – Walking through Mexico City’s historic Zocalo district, Dario Solano-Rojas points to signs of a subterranean catastrophe that is under way.

The roads are uneven in the city’s central plaza, the streets and walkways are sloped and twisting. Many building foundations have sunk dramatically while others have a visible lean, resulting in cracks in the surrounding pavement. Two of the city’s most iconic structures – The Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Metropolitan Cathedral (built from the stones of the Aztec temple that once stood there) – seem to be disappearing into the earth.

Inside the cathedral, Solano-Rojas, a professor of geological engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, points to a glass-encased box connected to the ceiling by a taut wire. At the centre of the nave hangs a heavily-weighted point, which charts a line indicating how the cathedral has shifted unevenly over the centuries, with the worst-impacted section dropping by some 2.5 metres (8.2 feet).

At the centre of the Metropolitan Cathedral’s nave hangs a weight that tracks the cathedral’s motion across the centuries [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

Mexico City is sinking, as are its greatest monuments. Parts of the city of nearly 9 million people are descending into the earth by as much as 40cm (15 inches) annually – all driven by a deepening water crisis with roots that go back 500 years, and that reveals itself today in stunning ironies.

One of Mexico City’s most renowned attractions, the canals of Xochimilco, with their lush lagoons and colourfully decorated boats, date back to the precolonial lake that once satiated the city’s thirst. Today, its adjacent neighbourhoods have run out of water.

To its north is Iztapalapa, one of the city’s most notoriously impoverished, dangerous colonias (neighbourhoods), where the water supply has been inconsistent for years. It frequently slows to a trickle or stops entirely for days and even weeks.

While it is, sadly, not surprising that a disenfranchised district would experience breakdowns in essential services, perhaps more unanticipated are the water shortages in the adjacent region of Coyoacan, an upper-crust neighbourhood best known as the once-home of painting power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

A boy carries home buckets filled from barrels of drinking water loaded from tanker trucks in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa [Yuri Cortez/AFP]

At the heart of the city’s struggle – and its sinking – is its reliance on underground water. As the underground aquifer drains and the ground above it settles, the city sinks deeper and deeper. “There’s one solution: Stop taking water from underground,” says Solano-Rojas. “But that’s not going to happen.”

The situation in Mexico City shows how the rich and the poor are both ill-prepared for when water supplies run dry – and money can only go so far.

A problem for the ages

“I was born with this problem existing,” says Solano-Rojas. “I thought it was normal everywhere, but it’s not.”

To understand the “subsidence” of the city and the water shortage causing it, it is necessary to look back half a millennium. The Aztecs had already erected a civilisation atop and amid the local network of lakes, most notably the capital of Tenochtitlan, which stood on the site of Mexico City’s present-day central district.

Had the penultimate Aztec ruler Moctezuma’s empire been allowed to continue expanding, it is possible that it would have eventually run into similar water supply issues. But the arrival of the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his colonial forces disrupted all that – they levelled Tenochtitlan and built their own city in its place.

“It’s a historical problem,” explains Elena Tudela Rivadeneyra, a professor of architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the co-founder of the Office of Urban Resilience, which develops strategies to help cities weather climate change. “Ever since we decided to dry out the lake system that we had here – and that started [shortly after the Spanish arrived] around 1608 – we started having a difficult relationship with water.”

Draining the lakes and building over them created two major issues. First, it diminished the local water supply, requiring the city to import much of its fresh water – a significant portion of which must be pumped at great expense more than 100 metres (328 feet) up the sierra where the city perches. Second, as the city grew and consumed what water remained, the subsidence began. Problems snowballed from there.

The camera is level but the buildings in the Zocalo are not. Riot police stand at the bottom behind the barriers – the building to the right is the National Palace where protests are frequent [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

A sinking city

One of the first things you notice as you land in Mexico City is that the airport runway is unusually bumpy. The increasingly uneven tarmac is a consequence of subsidence.

Listing buildings and uneven roads may be the most obvious impact of the subsidence, but bigger problems lurk out of view.

A recent study found that the integrity of the metro is progressively compromised – and there is more, “It also breaks the pipes,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra.

When Mexico City began modernising its municipal water supply during the 1940s – an event that Diego Rivera celebrated with the creation of stunning underwater murals you can visit at the Cárcamo Museum in Chapultepec Park – its population was only a few million. As that number exploded to the 22.5 million living there today, the water infrastructure not only failed to keep up with the rising demand, but was continually torn apart by subsidence.

Now, the city is losing some 40 percent of its water due to leaks in broken pipes.

The murals of Deigo Rivera commemorating the construction of the municipal water system at the Cárcamo Museum in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

“The leakages are quite difficult to deal with,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “Even if you replace them with new materials and more elastic and technical and technological solutions, you still have quite an issue.”

Water infrastructure has become a top consideration among voters in the city’s upcoming mayoral elections, and while candidates have made bold claims about fast fixes, Tudela Rivadeneyra says these are unrealistic. She notes that even if the city had the money for it – and it does not – the sheer amount of construction required for a rapid infrastructure rebuild is untenable in a city where people are forced to commute sometimes for hours each day. The increase in the city’s already notorious traffic would grind it to a standstill.

As Mexico City runs out of water, for many, the taps are already running dry.

The stones around Bellas Artes are cracking and require frequent repair [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

Day Zero is already here

In the discussion of the city’s water crisis, the term “Day Zero” is frequently thrown around to describe the presumed date when wells will run dry. Many have set it for late June. But the situation is complicated.

“I don’t think a Day Zero is going to come,” says Solano-Rojas. “Day Zero has already happened.”

While popular central districts like Condesa and Roma are still relatively unscathed by the situation – though many of their once-majestic fountains now stand dry – residents in areas like Iztapalapa and Coyoacan will tell you that the concept of Day Zero is practically meaningless.

“Day Zero has been here for a lot of people around the whole metropolitan area,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “Twenty-five percent of the population does not receive enough water. Technically speaking, 98 percent of the population has the infrastructure to get it, but that doesn’t mean that you open up the tap and there’s water.”

The issue extends beyond Mexico City proper.

“We don’t have water at home on Saturdays and Sundays,” says Israel, a resident of the nearby town of Toluca. “Monday to Friday, the situation is irregular. There may be a day or two with water and the rest of the weekdays, we only get a very small amount.”

And in Cuernavaca, roughly an hour south of Mexico City, residents have blocked the highway to protest water shortages.

Standing at the high rear of the Church of San Francisco, it is clear that the nave floor is sinking [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

The situation has forced the use of stopgap solutions that can only go so far. “People can ask for trucks with water in those areas in which the situation is critical,” says Israel. “But the common solution with some people and local businesses I’ve talked with is that they are paying for private trucks to deliver them water.”

These water trucks – frequently accompanied by armed guards – are becoming ubiquitous throughout the city. Unsurprisingly, there has been talk about the cartel moving into the private water racket. In Mexico, if something can be commodified, the cartel runs it.

So, Day Zero has already come for many in the city, and for those who have not yet experienced it, the issue is more complicated than a date on a calendar.

This theoretical timeline refers specifically to the depletion of the Cutzamala Water System, which draws from neighbouring basins that are currently at approximately 30 percent capacity and provide about 30 percent of the city’s water. But that represents less than a third of the water supply: The rest is in the aquifer directly beneath the city.

“What’s really scary is the possibility of Day Zero for the aquifer, because it provides 70 percent of the water we consume,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “That is catastrophe. Right now, people are suffering and it’s not something to take lightly. Thirty percent is like 5 million people – a quarter of the population of the metropolitan area – not having enough water”, she says, adding that “the aquifer is not replaceable. That is not something you can pull off with water trucks”.

Experts disagree on how much longer the aquifer can last at current consumption rates, placing the number anywhere between five to 20 years. What is certain is that dramatic action must be taken to avoid a total water disaster.

“It’s like a glass where you sip water every day,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “Eventually, it will run out.”

The iconic Bellas Artes Palace is sinking to its left. Here, the camera is level and flat but the ground is not [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

The need for long-term solutions

While the city scrambles for quick solutions like water rationing, water trucks, individual conservation advocacy and rain-collecting (collection setups have been distributed to many businesses and homes but only recently, Mexico City saw its first drizzle in months), the crisis has been a long time in the making and solutions cannot happen overnight.

“There’s not much that can be done in the short term,” Tudela Rivadeneyra admits, “because there’s not enough time or money for it”. She is more hopeful about longer-term solutions but does not “think politicians are being practical about them or investing in them enough”.

Many significant changes must occur, but according to Solano-Rojas, one of the key adjustments is mental. “We’re using water thinking it’s a renewable resource,” he says. “We had this big push against single-use plastic like straws but we still have single-use water.”

In addition to pumping in tremendous quantities of fresh water, Mexico City also pumps out the vast majority of its used water as sewage to the nearby state of Hidalgo. This pipeline – a huge infrastructure undertaking called the Tunel Emisor Oriente – required substantial resources to build, and critics argue that it exacerbates rather than palliates the water crisis by evacuating water from the city rather than retaining it.

“We only treat 15 percent of the water,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “That’s a very low percentage, and almost all of the water we use goes to the sewage. So we’re just importing water and exporting all of the problems without dealing with it locally.”

Soldiers place a water treatment plant in San Lorenzo Park in Mexico City, on April 11, 2024. The inhabitants of a sector of Mexico City have been affected by the contamination of a water well with an oily substance, in the midst of an extreme drought that affects several parts of the country [Alfredo Estrella/AFP]

With a presidential election looming, the incumbent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) party, Morena, is desperate to appear to be addressing the growing water emergency. One of its primary proposals involves establishing new water wells in the hardest affected areas, but Tudela Rivadeneyra is doubtful, agreeing that in order to construct actual solutions, there must first be a major shift in mindset.

“If we do end up getting all of the water wells, bringing water trucks from wherever we can, from other basins – people will suffer anyways. The demand is too high,” she explains. “What we should be focusing on is what to do next and how to change the way we understand water in the city, and the way that water relates to urban development.”

Privatisation and climate change

One oft-cited contributor to the dearth of water is privatisation. Beer, soft drink, paper and chemical manufacturers have significant operations throughout Mexico City and the adjacent State of Mexico, and are granted enormous water concessions. What water regulations they do face are lax in enforcement or circumvented by corruption.

Experts note that these water rights can be revoked legally and that a precedent has been set by similar actions taken in the past.

“What they should be doing is what they did with the fossil fuel industry,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra. “Just make them go out of the city, because there’s not enough water for them here. They should move to other parts of the country where they have more opportunities to obtain water without drying out the few resources we have.”

She’s referring to a plan established by López Obrador to decentralise the government by relocating Mexico City-based agencies to less populated areas across the country in an effort to ease pollution and infrastructure strain in the megalopolis. While critics have pointed out that this goal was only partially met, it did move the state-owned Pemex petroleum company from its 51-storey tower in the city to the more sparsely populated coast of the state of Campeche, where most of Mexico’s fossil fuels are produced.

This sort of decentralisation, emphasises both Solano-Rojas and Tudela Rivadeneyra, is essential to solving the water crisis. Unfortunately, says the latter, relocating water-intensive industry will require prodigious political capital, but there is little willingness to expend it.

She notes that while the government has engaged in campaigns to raise awareness for the need for individual responsibility – shorter showers and the like – these efforts are not sufficient.

“But even if we all did that, it wouldn’t be enough if we still have these concessions,” she says.

And then, of course, there is climate change. On April 15, Mexico City saw its hottest day on record, amid a historic drought.

Rain is essential for renewing the aquifer and leveraging the city’s catchment strategies. In recent years, Mexico City has received less rain but more intense bursts of it. This complicates harvesting because sudden, short-lived eruptions of precipitation require larger gathering surfaces.

At the same time, it makes the city more prone to flooding, exacerbated by a lack of open and green spaces that would otherwise allow moisture to seep into the earth.

“We should be removing asphalt from parts of the city that don’t really need it, like peripheries,” says Tudela Rivadeneyra.

Asphalt blocks water seepage, which not only drives flooding but prevents rain from reaching the aquifer. The removal of asphalt is especially important in areas like Iztapalapa, which rests on porous basalt rather than an impervious lake bed like the rest of the city, and may prove vital to replenishing the underground reservoir.

“We need to be recharging the aquifer in order to not have a general Day Zero,” Tudela Rivadeneyra emphasises.

On the right of the Metropolitan Cathedral, it is evident that its foundation is sinking [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

Collective action

Recently, it rained in Mexico City for the first time in a long while. This correspondent watched a tiny, very wrinkled elderly woman gaze up at the sky with unguarded delight that verged on relief, her arms spread towards the heavens.

If Mexico City is going to overcome this crisis, she and everyone else who lives there – industrial inhabitants in particular – will have to change how water is considered.

According to Tudela Rivadeneyra, that means “focusing on solutions that have more to do with collectivity. So, instead of having a building just demanding water because it exists, it’s like, what kind of water is it producing? How can we connect it to another building or area that requires that type of water?”

She encourages understanding where water originates and where it goeswhy streets become rivers.

“Know what’s going on below your feet,” she urges, “because water is very invisible. Making it visible changes the way we relate to it. Dealing with water in different ways that are more circular makes a lot of sense, and it’s not that tough.”

Can Mexico City achieve the ecosystemic circularity necessary to surmount its water emergency? With the worst yet to come, it seems it is not a matter of can but must.

Viewed from above, it is difficult to tell, but the iconic Bellas Artes Palace is sinking to its left [Nick Hilden/Al Jazeera]

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Mexicans protest and pay tribute to murdered foreign surfers | Water

NewsFeed

The surfing community in Mexico has paid tribute to the American and two Australian tourists who were killed while on vacation in Baja California. They also held a protest to demand safety and accountability.

Published On 6 May 2024

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Bodies of murdered Australian, US surfers identified in Mexico | Crime News

The three men were killed during a camping and surfing trip along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Mexican authorities have confirmed the deaths of an American and two Australians who went missing in northern Mexico last week after the tourists’ parents identified their bodies.

The bodies of Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson as well as their friend, United States citizen Carter Rhoad, were found at the bottom of a well in the state of Baja California after a days-long search.

All three were in their early 30s and had been shot in the head.

“The victims’ relatives were able to identify them without the need for genetic tests,” a statement from the state prosecutor’s office said.

The three men went missing while on a surfing holiday near the popular tourist town of Ensenada, about 90 minutes south of the US-Mexico border on the Pacific coast.

They are believed to have been killed after resisting an attempt to steal their pick-up truck, state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramírez said at a news conference.

The vehicle, which had been set on fire, was found nearby.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers expressed sympathy for the Robinson family. “I think the whole country’s heart goes out to all of their loved ones. It has been an absolutely horrendous, absolutely horrific ordeal and our thoughts are with all of them today,” he said.

Three suspects, two men and one woman, have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the case.

One of those arrested has a history of violence, drug dealing and robbery, officials said.

Investigators said earlier that the bodies were recovered from a well about 50 feet (15 metres) deep in an “advanced state of decomposition.”

Another corpse found at the site had been there longer and was unconnected to the others, officials said.

The three surfers were last seen on April 27 and reported missing a couple of days later, when authorities launched a multi-day search with the help from the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Baja California, one of Mexico’s most violent states because of organised crime gangs, is also known for its inviting beaches and the Ensenada area is considered among its safer parts.

At the news conference, Andrade Ramírez was questioned by one reporter who expressed approval that such a massive and rapid search was mounted for the foreigners, but asked why, when local people disappear in the area, it took weeks, months, or even years for action to be taken.

“Do you have to be a foreigner in Baja California in order for there to be an investigation if something happens to you?′ asked the reporter, who did not identify herself by name. ”Every investigation is different,” Andrade Ramírez replied.

As if to underscore that point, dozens of mourners, surfers and demonstrators gathered on Sunday in Ensenada to pay their respects to the surfers and voice their anger over the deaths.

“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read one placard carried by protesters.

Many marched with their boards scrawled with messages, including “beaches, security, freedom, peace”, “no more deaths” and “Australia, we are with you”.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Alvarez vs Munguia: Canelo retains boxing titles with unanimous victory | Boxing News

Mexico’s Alvarez successfully defended his WBC, WBO, IBF and WBA super middleweight titles against compatriot Munguia.

Mexico’s undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has retained his titles with a unanimous victory over compatriot Jaime Munguia in Las Vegas.

Alvarez, who received scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 from the three judges to seal the win, sent his opponent to the canvas in the fourth round, the first knockdown of Munguia’s career.

“Jaime Munguia is a great fighter. He’s strong, he’s smart. But I take my time. I have 12 rounds to win the fight and I did. I did really good and I feel proud about it,” Alvarez said after handing Munguia the first defeat of his professional career.

“He’s strong but I think he’s a little slow. I could see every punch… That’s why I’m the best. I’m the best fighter right now, for sure.”

Saturday’s fight, which bettered Alvarez’s record to 61-2-2, was the 33-year-old’s first since beating American Jermell Charlo last year.

It was Alvarez’s fourth time defending his WBC, WBO, IBF and WBA super middleweight titles.

Munguia, whose 34 knockouts included victories inside the distance in four of his previous five fights, came out on the attack against the vastly experienced Alvarez, pushing him back with his jab and rattling the champion in the third round with a right to the jaw.

But Alvarez responded in the fourth. After Munguia connected with a pair of solid rights Alvarez followed a left hook with a massive uppercut that sent Munguia to the canvas.

The fifth round opened to chants of “Canelo!” ringing in the T-Mobile Arena, where support was evenly divided between the Mexican combatants in a fight coinciding with Mexico’s Cinco de Mayo festivities.

An Alvarez jab popped Munguia’s head back and, in the sixth, an Alvarez left hook had Munguia’s knees buckling briefly.

In a fight billed as a possible changing of the guard, Munguia – who has honed his aggressive style under the tutelage of longtime Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach – continued to press.

But his vaunted power rarely bothered Alvarez, who repeatedly found a way past Munguia’s guard to land the more damaging blows.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Two Mexican mayoral contenders found dead on same day | Elections News

Killing of Noe Ramos Ferretiz in Tamaulipas and of Alberto Garcia in Oaxaca bring to 17 the number of slain candidates ahead of June 2 polls.

Two mayoral contenders have been found dead in a single day in Mexico, adding to the toll of slain candidates in what is shaping up to be the country’s most violent election on record.

The deaths reported in different parts of the country on Friday bring to 17 the number of candidates killed in the lead-up to the presidential, congressional and local polls on June 2.

In the northern state of Tamaulipas, authorities said they had launched a manhunt for the person who killed candidate Noe Ramos Ferretiz. He was seeking re-election as mayor of Ciudad Mante for a coalition of the opposition National Action Party and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Local media reported he had been stabbed and posted photos showing a bloodied body lying on a sidewalk.

“We will not allow violence to decide these elections,” PRI party leader Alejandro Moreno wrote on social media, where he confirmed the “cowardly assassination” of Ramos Ferretiz.

The second slain candidate, Alberto Garcia, was found dead a day after he was reported missing. He was running for mayor of San Jose Independencia in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The state electoral board condemned the death of Garcia, who went missing along with his wife, the current mayor of San Jose Independencia and and who was found alive. The board called Garcia’s death a “killing”, and said such crimes “should not occur during elections”.

Bodyguards for candidates

Violence linked to organised crime in Mexico has long killed politicians from various parties, especially those who hold or are seeking regional positions.

Drug cartels have often carried out such assassination attempts in a bid to control local police or extort money from municipal governments.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador acknowledged in early April that the cartels often seek to determine who will serve as mayor – either by running their own candidates or eliminating potential rivals.

“They make an agreement and say, ‘this person is going to be mayor; we don’t want anyone else to register to run’, and anybody who does, well, they know [what to expect],” he said.

The recent slayings have prompted the government to provide bodyguards for about 250 candidates, while those running for municipal positions – the most endangered – are the last in line for security.

Earlier this month, candidate Bertha Gaytan was shot dead on the first day of her campaign. She was running for mayor of Celaya, a city in the north-central state of Guanajuato.

Also in April, the mayor of Churumuco, a town in the western state of Michoacan, was shot dead at a taco restaurant in the state capital, Morelia.

In late February, in another town in Michoacan, two mayoral hopefuls were shot dead within hours of each other.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Ecuadorian tribunal deems arrest of former Vice President Glas illegal | Courts News

But the three-member panel also upheld his ongoing imprisonment, arguing it could not ‘modify’ his sentence.

The defence team for former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas has hailed a decision declaring his arrest inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito illegal.

Still, on Friday, lawyer Sonia Vera Garcia pledged to appeal the ruling, which upheld her client’s continued detention.

“We thank the international community,” she wrote on the social media platform X. “Its support led to the detention being declared arbitrary, a step forward.”

“However, Jorge remains detained. We will appeal until we achieve his freedom.”

The ruling comes after Francisco Hidalgo — a member of Glas’s left-wing political party, Citizen Revolution — submitted a writ of habeas corpus earlier this week on the former vice president’s behalf, arguing he had been unlawfully detained.

Protesters call for the release of former Vice President Jorge Glas in Quito, Ecuador, on April 12 [Karen Toro/Reuters]

Glas’s arrest had been the subject of ongoing international tensions. On April 5, Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy, scaling its fence and pointing a gun at a top diplomat who sought to bar their entrance.

In its ruling on Friday, a three-member tribunal in Ecuador found that the arrest on embassy grounds had indeed been “illegal and arbitrary”.

Judge Monica Heredia wrote that “without authorisation from the head of the Foreign Ministry and political affairs at the Mexican embassy in Ecuador, the detention became illegal”.

International law protects embassies and consulates from the interference of local law enforcement. This “rule of inviolability” theoretically allows diplomats to conduct sensitive work without fear of reprisal from their host country.

But embattled public figures like Glas have also turned to embassies to seek temporary refuge from arrest, knowing that local police are not supposed to enter without permission.

Glas was twice convicted on corruption-related charges. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 and eight years in 2020.

In the hours before his arrest, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry announced it had granted political asylum to Glas, who had been sheltering in its embassy in Quito since December.

Demonstrators show support for former Vice President Jorge Glas on April 12 [Karen Toro/Reuters]

But the embassy raid ignited a full-blown spat between Mexico and Ecuador.

In its wake, Mexico severed diplomatic ties and recalled its embassy staff from Ecuador. Countries around Latin America, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), have also denounced the police raid.

But the government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has sought to defend the raid as authorised by executive decree.

In addition, it argued that Glas should not be eligible for political asylum, as his convictions were not the result of persecution.

But the three-member tribunal on Friday said the government’s defence of the raid “lacks legal basis”.

Still, while the tribunal ruled that the arrest itself was illegal, it decided Glas should remain behind bars, given his prior convictions.

“This tribunal cannot modify the sentence,” Judge Heredia said.

Glas is currently serving his prison term in Guayaquil, where he is conducting a hunger strike in protest. He was hospitalised earlier this week.

On Thursday, Mexico filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice to expel Ecuador from the United Nations over the embassy raid — at least until the country delivers a formal apology for its violations of international law.



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Mexico calls on the International Court of Justice to expel Ecuador from UN | Courts News

Mexico has appealed to the International Court of Justice to boot Ecuador from the United Nations, following a late night police raid on its embassy in Quito.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico filed a complaint with the court on Thursday, calling Ecuador’s actions a violation of international law.

“The court, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, should approve the expulsion, and there should be no veto,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference.

On social media, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena echoed the president’s statement, saying Ecuador should be held “to account for flagrant violation of the inviolability of our embassy and attacks on our staff”.

“The letter and spirit of international law is the guide for our steps,” she wrote.

Mexico’s case centres on a controversial police raid that resulted in the capture of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been sheltering in the Mexican embassy in Quito to avoid arrest.

Embassies are considered protected spaces. Although they are not “foreign soil” — a common misconception — international law places them off limits to local police.

That, in turn, allows embassy employees to carry out their work without fear of arrest or harassment from local authorities.

The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, for example, says: “The premises of the [diplomatic] mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.”

However, this “rule of inviolability” has also been used by political dissidents and other figures to avoid arrest by taking shelter in a foreign embassy.

Glas, for instance, has been twice convicted on bribery and corruption charges. He was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison and again in 2020 to an eight-year sentence.

Since December, Glas had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy, and shortly before his arrest on Friday, President Lopez Obrador had offered him political asylum in Mexico.

But late on Friday night, Ecuadorian police scaled the wall of the Mexican embassy, bursting through its doors and pointing a gun at one of its chief diplomatic officers.

Video released by the Mexican government on Wednesday shows that officer, diplomat Roberto Canseco, being thrown to the ground as he tried to block police vehicles leaving the embassy with Glas inside.

Mexico has since called for Ecuador’s suspension from the UN. It said the suspension should only be lifted once Ecuador issues “a public apology recognising its violations to the fundamental principles and norms of international law”.

The administration of President Lopez Obrador also severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador as a result of Glas’s arrest.

Other countries and international organisations have likewise expressed concern and outrage over the police raid, calling it a violation of international laws.

On Tuesday, United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, based on security footage of the police raid, his government believes “these actions were wrong”.

The Organization of American States (OAS) also released a statement saying that “strict compliance” with the international law governing diplomatic relations is “essential”.

In addition, OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro suggested the situation with Glas should have been handled differently.

Neither “the use of force, the illegal incursion into a diplomatic mission, nor the detention of an asylee are the peaceful way toward resolution of this situation”, he said.

Ecuador has defended its decision to storm Mexico’s embassy, though. The government of President Daniel Noboa has questioned whether Glas met the requirements to receive political asylum, and it reaffirmed its commitment to fighting corruption within its borders.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld also said that a public apology “is not something that is under discussion at this moment”.

Glas, meanwhile, has been on a hunger strike in his prison in Guayaquil. He was briefly hospitalised on Monday.

Rafael Correa, the former president in whose administration Glas served, said the ex-vice president had attempted suicide after his arrest.

Correa himself lives in exile in Belgium and faces a prison sentence in his native Ecuador, likewise on corruption-related charges.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Mexico releases footage of Ecuador police storming its embassy in Quito | Politics News

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released footage of the police raid on its embassy in Quito, Ecuador, calling the law enforcement action an “unauthorised and violent break-in”.

In an accompanying statement on Tuesday, published both in Spanish and English, the ministry blasted Ecuador for violating international accords protecting embassies from law enforcement interference.

“The world witnessed the violence, abuse and mistreatment of our Mexican personnel at the hands of the Ecuadorian police and the violation of the immunity of our embassy in Ecuador,” the statement said.

“Mexico will bring these violations of international law to the international courts and tribunals with the support of friendly countries.”

The video captured Friday’s successful attempt to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had sought refuge within the embassy walls after being convicted on corruption-related charges.

Clips show Ecuadorian police gathering outside the walls of the embassy late at night, with one officer scaling the barrier, gun in hand.

Then the footage cuts to security cameras inside the embassy, where police burst in through the door and point a gun at Mexican diplomat Roberto Canseco, who attempts to block their path.

Canseco is later shown being thrown to the ground outside the embassy, as he tries to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving the property with Glas.

During his daily news conference on Tuesday, outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressed the footage. He reiterated the foreign ministry’s warning that the storming of the embassy would have consequences in international court.

“Mexico is an independent and sovereign country, and we will not allow anyone’s meddling in it,” he told reporters.

Tense relations

The police raid ruptured the already tenuous relationship between Ecuador and Mexico.

On Friday night, in the wake of the raid, Mexico officially severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador, recalling its diplomatic staff from Quito.

Over the weekend, Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations Alicia Barcena said the employees came home “with their heads held high”, posting pictures and praising “the defence they made of our sovereignty”.

Tensions between the two countries started to simmer last week after President Lopez Obrador commented on Ecuador’s recent presidential elections.

He suggested that media scrutiny over the assassination of an Ecuadorian presidential candidate helped tip the outcome of the race last year.

Those comments led to Ecuador naming Mexico’s ambassador, Raquel Serur Smeke, a “persona non grata” in the country. In her absence, Canseco became the highest-ranking official at the Mexican Embassy.

While the spat over the election comments was unfolding, the Mexican Foreign Ministry issued a statement offering political asylum to Glas, who had been sheltering in the embassy since December.

Glas was one of the many Latin American politicians caught up in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, named for a Brazilian construction company.

He and other officials across the region were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for inking favourable government contracts with the company. Glas, for example, faced allegations of pocketing $13.5m in bribes.

He was convicted twice in relation to the corruption scandal: once in 2017, for which he was sentenced to six years in prison, and once in 2020, resulting in an additional eight-year sentence.

But Glas, who served in the left-wing government of former President Rafael Correa, has repeatedly alleged he is a victim of political persecution.

Before Friday’s police raid, the Mexican Foreign Ministry warned that police had started to gather outside its embassy walls in Ecuador. Police in the country have long sought to enter the embassy and arrest Glas.

Protesters in Mexico City demonstrate outside of the Ecuadorian Embassy, condemning Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa as a ‘fascist’ [Luis Cortes/Reuters]

International outcry

International law, like the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, protects embassies and consulates as spaces off limits to local law enforcement.

That principle — often known as the “rule of inviolability” — allows for diplomatic affairs to be conducted without police or military interference.

But it has also been used to protect figures seeking to dodge prosecution or other threats they might face in a given country.

On Tuesday, United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan joined in the international condemnation of the Quito embassy raid, referencing the newly released footage from a White House podium.

“We’ve reviewed the security camera footage from the Mexican embassy and believe these actions were wrong,” he said.

“The Ecuadorian government disregarded its obligations under international law as a host state to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions and jeopardised the foundation of basic diplomatic norms and relationships.”

He added that the US has “asked Ecuador to work with Mexico to find a resolution to this diplomatic dispute”.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) is scheduled to hold a meeting on the embassy raid on Wednesday in Washington, DC, something Sullivan said the White House welcomed.

But on Tuesday, Mexican President Obrador expressed frustration with the US, as well as Canada, calling their statements on the matter lukewarm and “ambiguous”.

“We are neighbours. But their position was very undefined,” he said.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, meanwhile, has defended his country’s actions.

“Ecuador is a country of peace and justice, which respects all nations and international law,” he wrote in a statement posted on social media on Monday.

For his part, Glas returned to prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Tuesday after a brief hospital stay: He had reportedly been refusing to eat after his arrest.



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Residents in North America look to the sky for a rare total solar eclipse | Space

A major golf tournament ground to a halt. Schools emptied of students. And thousands of people across North America turned their eyes to the sky to watch a rare celestial event.

On Monday, parts of Canada, Mexico and the United States were treated to a total solar eclipse, a phenomenon that will not arise for another two decades.

Full total eclipses are not uncommon, exactly: They happen once every 18 months or so, when the moon passes in front of the sun, blotting out its light.

But most solar eclipses happen where people cannot see them – in isolated stretches of the ocean, for instance. Monday’s total solar eclipse, therefore, offered a relatively rare chance for scientists and star-gazers alike to bask in the shadow cast by the moon.

The last time a total solar eclipse happened in North America was in 2017. The next opportunity for North Americans will come in 2044 and 2045, though other regions around the world will get their chance sooner.

In 2026, for instance, a total solar eclipse is expected to sweep south from the Arctic, appearing over Greenland, Iceland and parts of Spain.

Monday’s celestial spectacle began at about 11am local time (18:00 GMT) on the west coast of Mexico where the resort city of Mazatlan saw tourists crowd its beaches to watch.

The path of totality – the stretch of land where the total solar eclipse was visible – swept from northern Mexico to the central US state of Texas, where the prospect of severe weather forced the cancellation of a local eclipse festival.

The Texas Eclipse Festival in Burnet cited “risks of high winds, tornadic activity, large hail, and thunderstorms” as reasons for scrapping the four-day event.

The path of totality continued north through the southern US and into the northeast, tracing the border with Canada.

Schools in US states like New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana cancelled classes and shuttered for the day, partly to let the students enjoy the event – and partly out of safety concerns.

The Pine-Richland School District in Pennsylvania, for instance, noted that the eclipse was slated to happen at the same time as classes would otherwise be dismissed.

“The potential is significant for students to be tempted to view it without proper safety precautions while exiting the school building or while getting off of the school bus,” the district wrote on its website.

Even outside of the path of totality, thousands of people gathered in open spaces to catch a glimpse as the moon seemingly took a bite out of the sun.

In Washington, DC, where the moon covered more than 87 percent of the surface of the sun by peak time at 3:20pm local time (19:20 GMT), people gathered on rooftops and at the National Mall to witness the eclipse.

Even at the height of the eclipse, it remained bright outside on the cloudless Monday.

Meanwhile, at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia – a major US golf championship – players briefly looked up from the green to contemplate an orb much bigger than a golf ball.

The last time the tournament had been interrupted by an eclipse was in 1940. Organisers passed out tournament-branded glasses specially designed for the eclipse, which was only partially visible from the southern state.

Speaking to the PGA Tour website, professional golfer Brian Harman winked at some of the conspiracy theories and folktales circulating about the eclipse.

“This is timed up pretty good,” he joked. “Get to watch the end of the world at Augusta National, right?”

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version