By RICARDO CASTILLO José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro” or “The Sledgehammer,” rose up the ranks of Mexico’s crime hierarchy from a petty thief to leader and founder of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. El Marro was arrested on Sunday, Aug. 2, and is to be arraigned at the maximum-security prison at Almoloya de Juárez in the State
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Legal “Drug Cartel” Busted One day after a fast track bill altering a federal government law was approved by the Senate, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday, July 31, oversaw the signing between the United Nations Office for Projects and Services (UNOPS) and the Public Health Secretariat of a $6.5 billion contract for the purchase
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Revenant Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch reappeared in public this week at a press conference with Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum after surviving a June 26 attempt against his life in which his two bodyguards took approximately 40 bullets each. García Harfuch himself was shot several times in the elbow and knee and has been through
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Day in and day out, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) mentions the country’s ongoing ideological war between liberals and conservatives. Of course, he makes it a point of reminding people that he is a liberal who, he says, is now containing the conservative tide from returning to presidential power. On Wednesday, July 29, during his daily
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Curtain up, the “L” Show Is On Finally, Mexico’s Fiscal General of the Republic (FGR) ordered the start of the trial of former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya Austin on two separate charges. The charges will be dealt with in separate hearings. On Tuesday, July 28, Federal Judge José Artemio Zúñiga Mendoza opened the first of
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The collective memory in Mexico may be short these days, but it was a long haul until Wednesday, July 22, to pick the four new National Electoral Institute (INE) councilors that just took over their posts. Once the Chamber of Deputies approved the four from a choice of 20 pre-candidates, the storm was over and a political calm
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Salina Cruz Pier Expanded Notwithstanding a myriad of problems still left to be resolved in the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Train Corridor at the Tehuantepec Isthmus, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) inaugurated the first leg of the project, constituting an extension of the docking pier at the Salina Cruz port. AMLO said the dock would
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Jiménez Espriú Resigns After accepting the resignation of Communications and Transportation Secretary (SCT) Javier Jiménez Espriú, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced this week that the new secretary will be Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal. Jiménez Espriú turned in his resignation last week after AMLO announced that all customs houses were going to be managed by
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Upon turning over the care of the country’s customs service to the military on July 17 in Manzanillo port, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) finished his statement by saying that the times of “el que no transa, no avanza” (“he who does not double deal does not avance”) are over. The saying is a favorite
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Deputies to Vote on INE Councilors What is going to happen today, Wednesday, July 22, at Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies is anybody’s guess. Last week, a Technical Evaluation Committee selected 20 pre-candidates, out of long list of over 360, to compete for the Chamber of Deputies vote on the final four, who will become councilors at the
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