By MARK LORENZANA Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies — whose majority bloc consists of members of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) — approved on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 14, a proposal to use the Armed Forces for public security tasks until 2028. Yolanda de la Torre, a deputy of the centralist Institutional
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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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By MARK LORENZANA The military has long been on the list of untouchables in Mexico. The Mexican National Guard (GN) might soon be added to that list. On Friday, Sept. 9, the Mexican Senate approved a legislation transferring control of the GN to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), a contentious move that has sparked outrage from human rights groups
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By KELIN DILLON On Monday, Sept. 5, members from both sides of the aisle of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies met to discuss expanding the presence of the Armed Forces on the streets of Mexico rather than their barracks from 2024 to 2028 – as proposed by Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Deputy Yolanda de la Torre – just as newly released
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By MARK LORENZANA According to the results of a survey released by Mexican daily newspaper El Universal, which was carried out from Aug. 18 to 23 of this year by the survey firm Buendía and Márquez, the majority of Mexicans support the move to use the armed forces in the fight against organized crime, despite the increased militarization of the
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By MARK LORENZANA Section 6 of the controversial Tren Maya, which will run from Tulum in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo to its capital city of Chetumal, will be the most destructive in environmental terms, and also the most expensive. The Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) for the 255-kilometer Section 6 of the Tren Maya — one of Mexican President
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OPINION By MARK LORENZANA There have been mostly negative reactions to the appointment by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Leticia Ramírez as head of Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), to replace Delfina Gómez Álvarez. Ramírez has not been in her position for more than a couple of days, and already the SEP had presented a “New
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PULSE NEWS MEXICO The cost of the construction of the still-abandoned, still-almost-impossible-to-get-to Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), one of the pet megaprojects of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López (AMLO), has doubled since work began on it in 2020. Originally slated to cost 12.479 billion pesos, the train, which is intended to provide travelers with affordable access to the AIFA, increased
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By KELIN DILLON Just days after Protestant Christian leader and president of the National Confraternity of Christian and Evangelical Churches (Confraternice) Arturo Farela Gutiérrez spoke out in defense of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) “hugs, not bullets” policy for addressing violence and publicly criticized the Catholic Church as “setting the country on fire,” members of the Mexican Catholic
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By MARK LORENZANA Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) reported on Thursday, Aug. 4, that 30 members of the Immediate Response and Disaster Team, along with six Special Forces divers, were deployed to Sabinas in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, to rescue 10 workers there who were trapped on Wednesday, Aug. 3, in a 60-meter-deep mine after a landslide. Laura Velázquez,
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