By MARK LORENZANA Mexico City police seized around 1.8 tons of cocaine on Tuesday, July 26, in what was considered to be the biggest drug bust in the Mexican capital so far. Authorities estimated that the seized cocaine, which was being smuggled in two freight trucks, has a street value of 400 million pesos, and could even reach twice that
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By MARK LORENZANA A shootout on Saturday, July 23, in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, has left at least three people injured, according to local reports. Surveillance cameras at a hotel captured the moment of the shooting, which caused tourists traversing Fifth Avenue — a popular street in Playa del Carmen filled with souvenir shops, restaurants
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By MARK LORENZANA From 2020 to date, several factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, identified with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Ovidio “El Ratón” Guzmán — son of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — as well as recently re-arrested Rafael Caro Quintero, have been fighting for territory in Mexico City for distribution and sale of cocaine. This information was
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By KELIN DILLON While work on the fifth section of Mexico’s controversial Tren Maya project was purportedly suspended by a Mexican federal judge last April after the project failed to acquire proper Environmental Impact Statements (MIA) ahead of its construction, building on the Tren Maya’s fifth section has reportedly continued on in spite of the judge’s ruling – and with
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By MARK LORENZANA Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) has requested 13.9 billion pesos in a bid to upgrade its military service vehicles. According to Sedena, in recent years it has faced problems mobilizing military personnel on a national scale because of obsolete vehicles. In April of this year, the General Directorate of Military Transportation requested tax authorities to approve
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By MARK LORENZANA Since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office nearly four years ago, the Mexican Armed Forces have not only increased their presence on the streets, but have also embarked on a new mission: to become successful entrepreneurs. On April 13 of this year, Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) announced the creation of a
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By MARK LORENZANA The soil of the fourth section of Mexico City’s Chapultepec Forest, which is currently being developed as a new tourist area with a number of added attractions, was found to be contaminated with high levels of mercury and arsenic, exceeding the limits allowed by the Official Mexican Standard (NOM) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Chapultepec Forest’s
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By KELIN DILLON After an unexpected friendship blossomed between Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and former U.S. President Donald Trump during the leaders’ administrative overlap as a bond over baseball brought the ideologically opposed self-professed socialist and staunch Republican conservative together, Trump’s post-administration speaking engagements have brought fresh commentary on his perspective of the relationship between the two
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By KELIN DILLON On Wednesday, Dec. 1, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) formalized his appointment of Pedro Mario Zenteno Santaella to the head of Mexico’s Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), leaving his former position as the head of the state-owned drug distributor Biological and Reagent Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex) available to be filled
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By KELIN DILLON As Mexico’s National Guard (GN), created by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), has received a higher and higher budget every year since its inception — 922 million pesos in 2019, 4.82 billion pesos that was grew to 21.73 billion pesos in 2020, and 35.67 billion pesos in 2021 — many have raised concerned about the
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