Page 3 - Mexico

Mexico puts ties with US, Canada embassies 'on pause' over overhaul plan

Mexico's president told reporters Tuesday he has put relations with the United States and Canadian embassies on pause after the two countries voiced concerns over a proposed judicial overhaul that critics say could undermine the independence of the judiciary. President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador didn't elaborate on what a pause would mean. It's not a term used in formal diplomatic codes, and Mexico's foreign ministry did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment about what it would entail. The judicial overhaul proposal, suggested by the Mexican president during his final weeks in office, includes having judges elected to office, something analysts, judges and international observers fear would stack courts with politically biased judges with little experience. It has spurred major protests and strikes and wide criticism from investors and financial institutions. Last week, American ambassador Ken Salazar called the proposal a risk to democracy that would endanger Mexico

Protesters against overhaul plan urge Mexican prez to 'respect democracy'

Thousands demonstrated in Mexico's capital Sunday in the latest opposition to President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador's proposed judicial overhaul and other moves by the governing party that critics say will weaken democratic checks and balances. Throngs of people, many of them striking federal court workers and judges, ended their march outside the Supreme Court building in the heart of the capital, waving flags reading Judicial independence and Respect democracy." Right now, we're protesting the reforms, but it's not just the reforms, said lawyer Mauricio Espinosa. Its all of these attacks against the judicial branch and other autonomous bodies. What it does is end up strengthening the executive, the next president. Following big electoral victories in June by the president's Morena party and its allies, the government has pushed for sweeping changes to Mexico's judicial system, long at odds with Lpez Obrador, a populist who has openly attacked judges and ignored court orders. His ..

US expands area in Mexico to apply for border asylum appointments

As soon as she stepped onto Mexican soil this week, Venezuelan migrant Yuri Carolina Melndez downloaded the US government's app to apply for asylum appointments. The CBP One app has been around, but as of Friday migrants in Mexico's southernmost states bordering Guatemala will be able to apply for appointments. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico. I have to wait to see if it really works, the woman said while resting under a tree with her 16- and 18-year-old daughters along a border highway leading to the city of Tapachula this week. Mexico has been asking the US to expand the app's access to the south in an attempt to relieve the pressure migrants feel to continue north to at least Mexico City. In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to contain migrants in the south farther from the US border, but the lack of work opportunities and housing in southern cities like Tapachula have pushed migrants north. Mexico hopes that if migrants can wait for their .

Mexico's planned judicial reform is major risk to democracy: US ambassador

"Direct elections would also make it easier for cartels and other bad actors to take advantage of politically motivated and inexperienced judges," he said

US envoy warns of drug cartel risks to Mexican judiciary from AMLO Bill

Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has said the election of judges by popular vote would cut corruption in the judiciary, and prevent it from prioritizing business interests over the public good

Canadian freight rail halt likely to roil North American supply chains

Canadian National Railway Co and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have said their rail networks south of border will continue to operate, but industry groups fear work stop would have far-reaching effects

Chinese EV maker BYD eyes state incentives for Mexico manufacturing plant

Mexico's federal government, under pressure from the US, is keeping Chinese automakers at arm's length

Mexico invites Putin to Oct 1 presidential inauguration of Sheinbaum

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin in 2023, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine

Real-life Narcos busted: US authorities capture top Sinaloa Cartel leaders

Two top leaders of Mexican drug cartel known as El Mayo and El Chapo were arrested by US authorities in a major operation involving the FBI, DEA, and Homeland Security investigations

Accused of drug trafficking, US arrests leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel

Ismael El Mayo Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, and Joaqun Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas on Thursday, the US Justice Department said. A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn, Zambada is one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world and known for running the cartel's smuggling operations while keeping a lower profile. The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada's capture. The Justice Department said the men were arrested in El Paso but didn't immediately provide details about how they were taken into custody. Zambada and Guzmn Lpez, who have eluded authorities for decades, oversaw the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, adding that now they will "face justice in the United States. Fentan

Mexican prez calls Trump 'a friend', says he'll warn against closing border

Mexico's president called Donald Trump a friend on Friday and said he would write to the former US president to warn him against pledging to close the border or blaming migrants for bringing drugs into the United States. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Trump, president from 2017 to 2021 and again the Republican nominee for this fall's presidential election, a man of intelligence and vision, despite Trump's repeated calls to close the two countries' border. Mexicans were offended in 2015 when then-candidate Trump claimed that, in many cases, immigrants arriving in the US illegally included criminals, drug dealers, rapists". And Mexico was shocked in 2019 when Trump as president threatened to close the border for a long time unless Mexican authorities stopped migrants from crossing. Lpez Obrador said the two countries' economies were so intertwined that they couldn't bear a closure for even a month. Lopez Obrador said that in a letter he planned to send next week, I am .

As Beryl expected to regain hurricane strength, Texas braces for impact

Texas officials Saturday were urging coastal residents to brace for a potential hit by Beryl as the storm is expected to regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We're expecting the storm to make landfall somewhere on the Texas coast sometime Monday, if the current forecast is correct, said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Should that happen, it'll most likely be a Category 1 hurricane. The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula. Texas officials warned the state's entire coastline to brace for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind as they wait for a more defined path of the storm. The hurricane centre ha

Beryl batters Mexico as Texas officials urge coastal residents to prepare

Beryl battered Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday after hitting near the resort town of Tulum, whipping trees and knocking out power, while officials in Texas urged coastal residents to prepare as the storm moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Beryl hit Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane but weakened to a tropical storm as it moved across the peninsula. The US National Hurricane Center expects Beryl to regain hurricane strength once it emerges into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is forecast to head toward northeastern Mexico and southern Texas, an area soaked by Tropical Storm Alberto just a couple of weeks ago. Beryl spread destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados this week after becoming the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Three people have been reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica, officials said. Mexican authorities had moved some ..

Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Mexico's top tourist destinations

Hurricane Beryl, the first of the 2024 Atlantic season, was at one point a Category 5 storm, making it the earliest Category 5 storm on record

Mexico on 'red alert' as Category 3 Hurricane Beryl nears landfall

US National Hurricane Centre said Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, now had winds of 115 mph (185 kph ) after weakening earlier

World UFO Day feted amid surge in sightings, government denials

Aliens? Or just balloons and crash test dummies? World UFO Day has its roots in the so-called Roswell Incident on July 2, 1947

Low-priced Chinese EVs reaching US from Mexico pose a threat to automakers

It's a scenario that terrifies America's auto industry. Chinese carmakers set up shop in Mexico to exploit North American trade rules. Once in place, they send ultra-low-priced electric vehicles streaming into the United States. As the Chinese EVs go on sale across the country, America's homegrown EVs costing an average of $55,000, roughly double the price of their Chinese counterparts struggle to compete. Factories close. Workers lose jobs across America's industrial heartland. Ultimately, it could all become a painful replay of how government-subsidized Chinese competition devastated American industries from steel to solar equipment over the past quarter-century. This time, it would be electric vehicles, which America's automakers envision as the core of their business in the coming decades. Time and again, we have seen the Chinese government dump highly subsidized goods into markets for the purpose of undermining domestic manufacturing,' Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, .

Biden's asylum halt falls hardest on Mexicans and other nationalities

Ana Ruiz was dismayed seeing migrants from some countries released in the United States with orders to appear in immigration court while she and other Mexicans were deported on a one-hour bus ride to the nearest border crossing. They're giving priority to other countries, Ruiz, 35, after a tearful phone call to family in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas at the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter. The shelter's director says it is receiving about 100 deportees a day, more than double what it saw before President Joe Biden issued an executive order that suspends asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border when arrests for illegal crossings reach 2,500 a day. The asylum halt, which took effect June 5 and has led to a 40% decline in arrests for illegal crossings, applies to all nationalities. But it falls hardest on those most susceptible to deportation specifically, Mexicans and others Mexico agrees to take (Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans). Lack of money for charter flights, .

Crews battle deadly New Mexico wildfires as clouds, flooding loom

Fire crews braced for flooding, lightning and cooling weather as they battled a pair of growing fires Thursday that have killed at least two people while tearing through an evacuated mountain village in southern New Mexico. Residents of the village of Ruidoso fled the larger fire with little notice as it swept into neighbourhoods on Tuesday. The National Weather Service reported overcast skies with temperatures in the 60s (16-21 degrees Celsius) on Thursday morning at an small airport 15 miles (22 kilometers) northeast of Ruidoso. The fires advanced along the mountain headwaters of Eagle Creek and the Rio Ruidoso with 0% containment Thursday, with crews using heavy equipment to build fire lines while water and retardant dropped from the air. The big concern right now is flooding, Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford told the KWMW W105 radio on Thursday. We got less than two-tenths of an inch of rain yesterday but because of all the burn scar, there's nothing holding it up. We had flooding ..

Indian debt expensive but rate cut clarity to trigger more buying: Pictet

Pictet, one of Europe's largest fund managers, manages debt worth around $2.67 billion in its local currency emerging market fund