Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The nine women and children killed by drug cartel gunmen in northern Mexico lived in a remote farming community where residents call themselves Mormon — descendants of former members of The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints who fled the U.S. to escape the church’s 19th century polygamy ban.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Drug cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road, slaughtering six children and three women — all U.S. citizens living in northern Mexico — in a grisly attack that left one vehicle a burned-out, bullet-riddled hulk, authorities said Tuesday.

The dead included 8-month-old twins. Eight youngsters were found alive after escaping from the vehicles and hiding in the brush. But at least five had gunshot wounds or other injuries and were being treated in the U.S., where they were listed as stable, officials and relatives said.

5 Nov 2019; AFP: At least three women and six children from an American Mormon community based in northern Mexico have been killed in an ambush, a relative of the victims said on Monday.

Julian Lebaron said his cousin was on her way to the airport when she was attacked and shot in her car along with her four children in Rancho de la Mora, an area notorious for drug traffickers and bandits of all kinds.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A sloppy operation that failed to nab Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s son followed by days of changing explanations has revealed not so much that Mexico has a failing security strategy, but no real strategy at all, experts say.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his security Cabinet have defined their strategy thus far by stating what it is not, according to experts, saying that Mexico is no longer waging a war on drugs or seeking to capture or kill cartel kingpins, like previous governments did.

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — A dozen or so charred vehicles sit in a government impound lot outside this northwestern city including a patrol car, a military pickup and a tractor-trailer, casualties of a recent terrifying shootout between drug gang henchmen and Mexican security forces.

In a central district where the worst of the violence took place, blown-out windows have been replaced and bullet holes are plastered over on restaurants, convenience stores and a home where the son of Mexico’s notorious drug lord was believed to have been holed up.

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is at the threshold of its final ratification and there would be little chance of a reversal, a Mexican official said Friday.

"The end of this complex story is approaching, and we will soon see the United States starting the formal process for the approval of the treaty," said Jesus Seade, undersecretary for North America of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's daily press conference.

EL AGUAJE, Mexico (AP) — The Mexican city of Culiacan lived under drug cartel terror for 12 hours as gang members forced the government to free a drug lord’s son, but in many parts of Mexico, the government ceded the battle to the gangs long ago.

The massive, rolling gunbattle in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, was shocking for the openness of the government’s capitulation and the brazenness of gunmen who drove machine-gun mounted armored trucks through the streets.

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday said that he supported the decision to back off from an attempt to capture a son of imprisoned kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, to prevent the loss of lives.

The decision was jointly made by the Security Cabinet, which is made up by the ministers of defense, navy and security and civilian protection, said Lopez Obrador at a press conference in the city of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Lizbeth Garcia tended to her 3-year-old son outside a tent pitched on a sidewalk, their temporary home while they wait for their number to be called to claim asylum in the United States.

The 33-year-old fled Mexico’s western state of Michoacan a few weeks ago with her husband and five children — ages 3 to 12 — when her husband, a truck driver, couldn’t pay fees that criminal gangs demanded for each trailer load. The family decided it was time to go when gangs came to their house to collect.

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican security forces aborted an attempt to capture a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after finding themselves outgunned in a ferocious shootout with cartel henchmen that left at least eight people dead and more than 20 wounded, authorities said Friday.

The gunbattle Thursday paralyzed the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, Culiacan, and left the streets littered with burning vehicles. Residents took cover indoors as automatic gunfire raged outside.