By MARK LORENZANA The criminal group Los Tequileros claimed responsibility for the attacks on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the Mexican coastal state of Guerrero’s municipality of San Miguel Totolapan, where its mayor — Conrado Mendoza of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) — and at least 17 other people were killed. Through a video shared on social
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By MARK LORENZANA Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) confirmed on Thursday, Sept. 29, the disappearance of two elements of Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) since March of this year in Acapulco, Guerrero. AMLO, however, denied that the sailors had been assigned as permanent bodyguards of José Narro Céspedes, a senator from López Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena). During his daily morning press
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By MARK LORENZANA Six police officers from the municipality of Calera in the north-central Mexican state of Zacatecas were killed on Wednesday, September 28, after gunmen opened fire on them while they were exercising at a sports center. Zacatecas Governor David Monreal condemned what he called a “cowardly attack,” and offered his condolences to the family, loved ones and colleagues
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By MARK LORENZANA In the last year, complaints for the crime of extortion increased in most of the boroughs in Mexico City. In 2020 there were 54 complaints filed at the Cuauhtémoc Mayor’s Office, but by 2021 the complaints grew to 73. According to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), from January to
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By MARK LORENZANA Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday, Sept. 21, issued an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. He likewise instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to “take immediate action” to “keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis.” At the roundtable discussion and news conference, Abbott likewise sent a letter to U.S.
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By MARK LORENZANA A shootout that lasted more than an hour on Monday, Sept. 12, forced the residents of Orizaba, in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, to run for cover in a day of violence that left an armed civilian dead. According to police reports, the shooting took place at 4 p.m. in the city center, where armed individuals
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OPINION By SILVIO CANTO, JR. Down in Mexico, the word is “homicides.” Unfortunately, there are too many of them. This is from Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas Morning News: “As of Thursday, Aug. 18, 128,923 homicides had been registered under (President Andrés Manuel) López Obrador (AMLO), with more than two years left in his term, which ends in December 2024. This
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PULSE NEWS MEXICO Yet another Mexican state, Colima, in the central western part of the country, fell under a barrage of violence and vehicle burnings late Thursday, Aug. 18, following the arrest in Mexico City of José “La Vaca” Bernabé Brizuela, the alleged head of the Los Mezcales criminal group. According to police reports, vehicles were burned in both the municipalities
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By KELIN DILLON On Thursday, Aug. 18, the daily American newspaper Dallas Morning News released an in-depth editorial critiquing the controversial “hugs, not bullets” policy against violence that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has adopted throughout his administration. AMLO’s approach toward Mexico’s enduring violence crisis was only further thrust into the spotlight on Thursday, Aug. 11, when a
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Just two days after cartel violence wreaked mayhem in Mexico’s central states of Jalisco and Guanajuato, similar attacks gripped the country’s border city of Ciudad Juárez late Thursday, Aug. 11, leaving at least 11 people dead and six arrested, and Tijuana, on Friday, Aug. 12. Violence was also reported in the northern border towns of Mexicali, Rosarito
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