Mexico

Mexico City, Dec 20 (AP-PTI) Mexican President Andr s Manuel L pez Obrador said he spoke with US President-elect Joe Biden by phone Saturday, five days after he sent a tardy and somewhat chilly letter of congratulations to Biden.

"We reaffirmed our commitment to work together for the good of our peoples and our countries," L pez Obrador wrote in his social media accounts.

Mexico City, Dec 11 (AP-PTI) The lower house of Mexico's congress has unanimously approved a law that would prohibit all forms of physical punishment of children by parents, caretakers, teachers or guardians.

Spanking is out, as is a long list of corporal punishments that speak to how deep-rooted the practice is in Mexico. Congress on Thursday said an estimated 63% of children between 1 and 14 had suffered physical punishment.

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is expected to begin before the end of the month, with priority given to healthcare professionals and the elderly, the government said on Tuesday.

Vaccination should begin "in the last days of the third week of December" and last until February 2021, starting in the capital Mexico City, home to some 20 million residents, and northern Coahuila state, according to Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell.

MEXICO, Dec 6 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – A Mexican federal judge sentenced two men to nine and 12 years in prison, respectively, for transporting 118 undocumented Central American migrants, via cargo truck, through south-eastern Mexico, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic said yesterday.

According to the Mexican prosecutor’s office, the judge, based in the state of Chiapas, ruled that the two individuals were guilty of the crime of transporting foreigners, in order to evade immigration procedures and obtain profits.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - It took Luis Salgado years of manual labor to save enough money to open a small fresh produce store, so when torrential floods swept away $1,500 worth of apples, bananas and other fruits, he decided there was no longer a future for him in Honduras.

Salgado had already been struggling to eke out a profit after measures to curb the novel coronavirus such as additional cleaning cut into his meager revenues. But the destruction of Hurricane Eta in early November left him in debt and unable to feed his three children.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said that “Mexico is in bad shape” with the pandemic and urged its leaders be serious about the coronavirus and set examples for its citizens.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s comments came Monday as Mexico’s death toll rose to 105,940 - the fourth highest in the world - with 1,113,543 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. The country’s actual numbers are believed to be much higher partly because of low testing levels.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico passed the 100,000 mark in COVID-19 deaths, becoming only the fourth country to do so amid concerns about the lingering physical and psychological scars on survivors.

José Luis Alomía Zegarra, Mexico’s director of epidemiology, announced late Thursday that Mexico had 100,104 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, behind only the United States, Brazil and India.

The milestone comes less than a week after Mexico topped 1 million registered coronavirus cases, though officials agree the number is probably much higher because of low levels of testing.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico on Saturday topped 1 million registered coronavirus cases and nearly 100,000 test-confirmed deaths, though officials agree the number is probably much higher.

How did Mexico get here? By marching resolutely, even defiantly, against many internationally accepted practices in pandemic management, from face mask wearing, to lockdowns, testing and contact tracing.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — There were two notable holdouts among the world leaders who rushed to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory in the U.S. elections: the leaders of Latin America’s two largest countries, both of whom have been seen as friendly to President Donald Trump.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s Health Ministry on Friday reported 5,931 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 551 additional fatalities, bringing the country’s total to 955,128 cases and 94,323 deaths.

The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.