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Clashes sparked by suspected cartel gunmen in a northern Mexican town killed 20 people this weekend, authorities said, putting more pressure on Mexico’s president to curb gang violence after the United States vowed to label the gangs terrorists. Killings clouded celebrations marking Lopez Obrador’s first year in office, which were buffeted by a march in Mexico City by thousands of people protesting the violence.
Condemning the ambush killings of an American family in Mexico, President Donald Trump spoke Tuesday with the leader of Mexico after offering to help “wage war” on the kinds of drugs cartels accused in the attack. In a conversation with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Trump “made clear that the United States condemns these senseless acts of violence that took the lives of nine American citizens and offered Mexico assistance to ensure the perpetrators face justice.”
Nine members of a Mormon family – three mums and six children – were killed in a massacre in Mexico when they were allegedly caught in the crossfire of rival drug cartels. Seventeen members of the prominent Lebaron Mormon community were apparently travelling to a wedding in a convoy of SUVs when they were “ambushed” about 70 miles south of the US border.
An attack on a bar in Mexico’s Gulf coast city of Coatzacoalcos killed 25 people and injured about a dozen, officials said Wednesday, and they said it was apparently overseen by a man who had been recently arrested but released. “The criminals went in, closed the doors, the emergency exits, and set fire to the place,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily morning news conference.
A deluge of hail engulfed the outskirts of Guadalajara on Sunday, half-burying vehicles in ice and damaging nearly 200 homes. The freak hail storm in one of Mexico’s largest cities came as summer temperatures hovered around 31 degrees Centigrade (88 Fahrenheit) in recent days. At least six neighborhoods were covered in ice up to 2 meters (2 yards) deep. Civil Protection personnel and soldiers brought out machinery to clear the roads.
An infestation of a seaweed-like algae along some of Mexico’s most visited Caribbean beaches has pitted the local community against the president, who has described the problem as a “minor issue”. In a long-running issue attributed by many researchers to climate change, sargassum has covered the popular white sandbanks, turning the pristine waters brown and leaving a strong odor as it decomposes, alarming residents, businesses and tourists.
Luxurious properties seized from drug cartel leaders have been sold at auction in Mexico City. Houses with swimming pools and escape tunnels, a large ranch and an apartment where a cartel leader was killed were all up for sale. Mexico’s President Andres Manuel López Obrador had pledged that profits from the auction would go towards those affected by drug gang violence. But only nine of the 27 properties on offer actually sold.
The U.S.-Mexico migration agreement reached last week includes a regional asylum plan and Mexico’s commitment to examine and potentially change its laws, according to a copy held up to journalists by President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The deal lays out “a regional approach to burden-sharing in relation to the processing of refugee status claims to migrants,” the document said. A Reuters photograph of the folded document, taken as Trump held it up, allowed reporters to read parts of it.
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his administration’s deal with Mexico against criticism that there were no major new commitments to stem a flow of Central American migrants crossing into the United States, and said on Sunday more details would soon be released. The deal, announced on Friday after three days of talks in Washington, averted Trump’s threatened imposition of 5% import tariffs on all Mexican goods that had been due to start on Monday unless Mexico committed to do more to help reduce an increase in migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border.
Mexico is proposing to send national guard troops to its southern border with Guatemala as it seeks to stem the flow of undocumented migrants and reach a deal with the U.S., Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said. Mexican officials are in talks with U.S. cabinet members in Washington this week to prevent President Donald Trump from slapping a 5% tariff on all imports from Mexico on June 10. Trump said last month he’d scale up the duties incrementally until they reach 25% on Oct. 1 if Mexico doesn’t stop migrants from entering the U.S.