By MARK LORENZANA On Wednesday, Sept. 14, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a proposal to use the Armed Forces for public security tasks until 2028, but according to Ricardo Monreal, upper-house leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the proposal might hit a snag in the Mexican Senate. The initiative has been moved to the Senate, and is scheduled
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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 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 The arrival of Cuban doctors in Mexico will continue as long as there is a demand for specialists, said Zoé Robledo, director of Mexico’s Social Security Institute (IMSS), as more Cuban physicians were deployed in the country on Tuesday, Aug. 19 — this time in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Campeche. Around 50 Cuban doctors arrived
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By MARK LORENZANA Mexico’s Supreme Court (SCJN) is set to eliminate automatic preventive detention (jail without bail) in the country, arguing that it violates the human rights provided for in international treaties, in addition to the fact that it has been the reason for condemnation of Mexico by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The move by the SCJN
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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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By MARK LORENZANA A group of armed men subdued and interrogated what is presumed to be four police officers from the municipality of Concepción de Buenos Aires in the Mexican state of Jalisco, who they recorded and forced to confess alleged links with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The video, which has since been circulated on social media networks,
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