Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s immigration head will face criminal charges in a fire that killed 40 migrants in a detention center last month, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that he will not dismiss the official known for his hard line on northbound migration.

Obrador’s decision to keep Francisco Garduño as head of the Mexican Immigration Institute appeared to conflict with the federal Attorney General’s Office announcement late Tuesday to charge Garduño in connection with the blaze.

MEXICO CITY, April 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Gunmen have abducted a journalist in Mexico’s violent eastern state of Veracruz, prompting a search operation to locate him, authorities and his employer said.

Richard Villa was snatched in the city of Poza Rica on Monday while repairing his motorcycle, according to the Presente news website, where he covered police affairs.

Mexico is considered one of the world’s most dangerous places to work as a journalist.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican judge ordered that three Mexican immigration officials, a private security guard and a Venezuelan migrant be held for investigation in connection with a fire last week at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico that killed 40 migrants.

The four people responsible for security at the Ciudad Juarez facility will be held on charges of homicide by omission and causing injuries, while the migrant who allegedly set the fire faces charges of homicide and causing injuries, Mexico’s Federal Judiciary Council said after Tuesday’s hearing.

MEXICO CITY, April 4 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he had sent a letter to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping urging him to help control shipments of the synthetic opioid fentanyl sent across the Pacific.

Lopez Obrador read out the letter during a news conference in which he defended his country's efforts to curb trafficking of the lethal drug in the face of U.S. criticism.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday visited the border city where 39 migrants died in a fire at a detention center, expressing pain over the disaster though he was not expected to bring any changes in tough immigration policies.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was personally devastated by Monday’s tragedy in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas.

“I confess it hurt me a lot, it damaged me,” López Obrador said before starting out on his trip to Juarez. “It ripped my soul apart.”

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — When Irwing López made it to Ciudad Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border in January, the 35-year-old construction worker thought he had survived the worst and was steps away from his goal.

He’d traversed jungle and raging rivers, and evaded Mexico’s notorious cartels, traveling thousands of miles from his native Venezuela. But then he found himself in a purgatory between U.S. immigration policies that pushed him back to Mexico and the unrelenting pursuit of Mexican immigration agents.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Taiwan’s diplomatic partners dwindle and turn instead to rival China, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is aiming to shore up ties with the self-governing island’s remaining allies during a trip this week to Central America.

Tsai touched down in Guatemala on Friday afternoon, walking from the plane along a red carpet alongside Guatemala’s foreign minister.

In a speech addressed to leaders of Guatemala and Belize shortly before departing on her visit, Tsai framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values globally.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Taiwan’s diplomatic partners dwindle and turn instead to rival China, Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen is aiming to shore up ties with the self-governing island’s remaining allies during a trip this week to Central America.

In a speech addressed to leaders of Guatemala and Belize shortly before departing, Tsai framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values globally.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — When smoke began billowing out of a migrant detention center in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Venezuelan migrant Viangly Infante Padrón was terrified because she knew her husband was still inside.

The father of her three children had been picked up by immigration agents earlier in the day, part of a recent crackdown that netted 67 other migrants, many of whom were asking for handouts or washing car windows at stoplights in this city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

MEXICO CITY, March 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday denied that parts of his country are controlled by drug cartels, responding to recent comments from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday that it was "fair to say" that parts of the country were controlled by cartels instead of the government.

"That is false," Lopez Obrador said in a regular news conference. "There is no place in the country that does not have the presence of authorities."