Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As hopes faded of rescuing 10 men trapped in a flooded Mexican coal mine, evidence mounted that the current administration’s populist policies have driven the revival of the dangerous, primitive mines that continue claiming lives.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador enacted a plan two years ago to revive coal-fired power plants in northern Mexico and give preference to buying coal from the smallest mines. The purchases were part of the president’s policies to give more income to the poorest Mexicans.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday switched his strategy to put the military in charge of the National Guard to crack down on violence fueled by organized crime.

Noting he did not have the votes for a two-thirds majority in Congress needed for constitutional changes, he said he would on Sept. 1 submit a fast-tracked bill to make the National Guard a branch of the Army. This would require only a simple majority to achieve his goal.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Family members of 10 miners who have been trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico for three weeks said on Thursday they rejected a government plan to find the miners that they said officials described as lasting from six to 11 months.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said earlier in the day that officials would run a proposal by the miners' relatives to seek their approval before publicly announcing it.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday rebuked Israel's government for what he called its protection of a top former official wanted in Mexico on accusations he manipulated a probe into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students.

Mexico last year urged Israel to facilitate the extradition of Tomas Zeron, the former head of Mexico's criminal investigation agency, who Mexican officials say fled to Israel in 2020 to evade a probe into his handling of the missing students case. 

MEXICO CITY, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday deflected calls to investigate his predecessor over the 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers, after officials arrested a top official in the prior administration over the crime.

Mexican officials on Friday arrested Jesus Murillo, the former attorney general of ex-president Enrique Pena Nieto, on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice linked to the probe into what became of the students.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico’s previous administration on charges he committed abuses in the investigation of the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Prosecutors also announced they had issued arrest warrants in the case against 20 army soldiers and officers, five local officials, 33 local police officers and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has begun exploring plans to sidestep congress to hand formal control of the National Guard to the army, a move that could extend the military’s control over policing in a country with high levels of violence.

That has raised concerns because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won approval for creating the force in 2019 by pledging in the constitution that it would be under nominal civilian control and that the army would be off the streets by 2024.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Mexican soldiers were sent to the border city of Juarez Friday after a prison face-off between members of two rival cartels caused a riot and shootouts that killed 11 people, most of them civilians, authorities said.

Los Chapos, members of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel formerly led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and local group Los Mexicles clashed in a prison Thursday afternoon, Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejia said.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rescue divers’ first attempts to reach 10 miners trapped inside a flooded coal mine since last week were stopped by debris-filled shafts and poor visibility, Mexican authorities said Thursday.

They made four attempts Wednesday and managed to remove more than a dozen pieces of wood and some 15 yards of hose, but were not able to go far.

“They found they didn’t have space to advance,” said Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval. “With the lights they carry they don’t have the visibility they need to identify what they find.”

MEXICO CITY (AP) — When fugitive 1980s Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Mexico last week, it stirred up old, terrible memories for Lannie Walker, the daughter of American writer John Clay Walker.

While Caro Quintero was only ever sentenced in Mexico for the killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in 1985, his gang apparently killed as many as six U.S. citizens in the western city of Guadalajara around the same time.