Last week, a truth commission determined that military personnel bore responsibility, either directly or through negligence, in the disappearance of students.
"Their actions, omissions or participation allowed the disappearance and execution of the students, as well as the murder of six other people," said the commission's head, deputy interior minister Alejandro Encinas, on Thursday. Mexico's top human rights official, Alejandro Encinas, has said that government involvement in the disappearance –– including local, state and federal officials –– constituted a "state crime." In the aftermath, the last government "concealed the truth of the facts, altered crime scenes, covered up the links between authorities with a criminal group."
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in March that navy members were under investigation for allegedly tampering with evidence, notably at a garbage dump where human remains were found, including those of the only three students identified so far.
He denied an accusation by independent experts that Mexican authorities were withholding important information about the case, which shocked the country and drew international condemnation. Source: Reuters
Mexico arrests ex-attorney general Jesus Murillo, who oversaw highly criticised investigation into 2014 disappearance and execution of 43 students – local media pic.twitter.com/4pNMPQMB0f
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 19, 2022
Mexico has arrested a former attorney general who led a controversial investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014 –– one of the country's worst human rights tragedies.
Jesus Murillo Karam, a former heavyweight of the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was arrested for the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and perverting justice, the attorney general's office said on Friday.
Murillo Karam is the highest-ranking official detained so far in connection with the case, which shocked the nation and generated international condemnation.
He is considered the architect of the so-called "historical truth" version of events presented in 2015 by the government of then-president Enrique Pena Nieto that was widely rejected, including by relatives.
The teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City before they went missing.
Investigators say they were detained by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel that mistook them for members of a rival gang, but exactly what happened to them has been hotly disputed.
According to the official report presented in 2015, cartel members killed the students and incinerated their remains at a garbage dump.
Those conclusions were rejected by independent experts and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the families.
'State crime'
On Thursday, a truth commission investigating the atrocity branded the case a "state crime" involving agents of various institutions.
It said that military personnel bore at least partial responsibility, either directly or through negligence.
"Their actions, omissions or participation allowed the disappearance and execution of the students, as well as the murder of six other people," said the commission's head, deputy interior minister Alejandro Encinas.
Further investigations were necessary to establish the extent to which members of the armed forces participated, he said.
"An action of an institutional nature was not proven, but there was clear responsibility of members" of the armed forces, Encinas added.
The "historical truth" did not attribute any responsibility to military personnel.
Lopez Obrador promises justice
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that any soldiers and officials involved in the disappearance must face justice.
"Publicising this atrocious, inhuman situation, and at the same time punishing those responsible, helps to prevent these deplorable events ever happening again" and "strengthens institutions," Lopez Obrador said.
"We said from the beginning that we were going to speak the truth, no matter how painful it was," he told reporters during a visit to the northwestern border city of Tijuana.
Lopez Obrador said in March that navy members were under investigation for allegedly tampering with evidence, notably at a garbage dump where human remains were found, including those of the only three students identified so far.
He denied an accusation by independent experts that Mexican authorities were withholding important information about the case.
Source: AFP
Some western US states and Mexico must cut water usage to avoid a "catastrophic collapse" of the Colorado River, Washington officials have said as a historic drought bites.
Despite years of warnings, states that depend on the river have not managed to reduce their demands enough, and on Tuesday, the federal government said it was imposing cuts.
"Water use in the Basin must be reduced," said Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Interior Department.
Arizona's allocation from the river will fall by 21 percent in 2023, while Nevada will get eight percent less. Mexico's allotment will drop by seven percent.
Negotiations over further reductions are creating tension among the states, especially as California, the largest user, has so far avoided cuts triggered by low reservoir levels.
California, the biggest user of the river's water and the most populous of the western states, will not be affected next year.
More than two decades of well below-average rainfall have left the river, the lifeblood of the western United States, at critically low levels, as the human-caused climate crisis worsens the natural drought cycle.
READ MORE: Californians use more water as drought worsens in US state
Reduced rain and higher temperatures
The Colorado River rises in the Rocky Mountains and snakes its way through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, where it empties into the Gulf of California.
It is fed mainly by snow caps on mountains at high altitudes, which melts slowly throughout the warmer months.
Scorching temperatures and reduced melting snow in the spring have lowered the water volume flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before it snakes 2,334 kilometres southwest and into the Gulf of California.
As a consequence, there is not as much water in the river which supplies tens of millions of people and countless acres of farmland.
Federal officials asked for reduced usage of 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water per year, a reduction of 15 percent to 30 percent in the coming year.
Because the states failed to respond to a federal ultimatum to figure out how to cut their water use, they could face even deeper cuts that the government has said are needed to prevent reservoirs from falling so low they cannot be pumped.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said the additional 15 percent reduction is necessary to ensure that water deliveries and hydroelectric power are not disrupted.
She emphasised the partnership between federal officials and their counterparts in the seven states and Mexico but repeatedly declined to say how much time the states will have to reach the deal she requested in June.
Hydrodams at risk
For years, cities and farms have consumed more water from the river than what flows through it, depleting its reservoirs and raising questions about how it will be divided as water becomes more scarce.
The water level at Lake Mead, the nation's largest man-made reservoir, has plummeted so low that it's currently less than a quarter full and getting dangerously close to a point where not enough water would flow to produce hydropower at the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border.
Already, extraordinary steps have been taken this year to keep water in Lake Powell, the other large Colorado River reservoir, which sits upstream of Lake Mead and straddles the Arizona-Utah border. Water from the lake runs through Glen Canyon Dam, which produces enough electricity to power between 1 million and 1.5 million homes each year.
After water levels at Lake Powell reached levels low enough to threaten hydropower production, federal officials said they would hold back some water to ensure the dam could still produce energy. That water would normally flow to Lake Mead.
READ MORE: California warns of water cuts as drought worsens in western US
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Mexican authorities have said they are finally in a position to begin searching a flooded coal mine, where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week, offering fresh hope to anguished relatives.
"We have all the conditions to go down there today... to search for and rescue the miners," civil defence national coordinator Laura Velazquez said on Friday.
Velazquez said the rescue operation would become possible once "97 percent of the water" has been extracted from the nearly 60-metre deep mine in the town of Agujita in the northern state of Coahuila.
Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners missing since August 3.
On Thursday, rescuers had made several attempts to go into the main tunnels but found debris blocking their way that needed to be removed.
The water level in one of the three vertical shafts that rescuers will try to enter has been reduced to 70 centimetres, from more than 30 meters initially, Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said.
The other two shafts still have 3.9 and 4.7 metres of water. Authorities consider 1.5 metres to be an acceptable water level to gain access to the crudely constructed El Pinabete mine.
Clinging for hope
The government's latest announcement provided a new glimmer of hope for families that have become increasingly frustrated with the pace of the rescue operation.
"With that level (of water) you can already enter –– God willing," David Huerta, the brother-in-law of one of the trapped workers, told the AFP news agency.
The 35-year-old said that he himself had dug for coal in small artisanal mines like El Pinabete for nearly 13 years before abandoning the dangerous, gruelling work.
At the bottom of the vertical shafts rescuers will reach the underground tunnels where the digging takes place, and where the missing miners are probably located, Huerta said.
"Crews can go in there and search faster," he added.
Coahuila, Mexico's main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining incidents over the years.
The worst accident was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.
Last year, seven died when they were trapped in a mine in the region.
Source: AFP
Falling water levels have raised hopes that rescuers will be able to enter a flooded Mexican mine to look for 10 trapped workers.
By Wednesday or Thursday, the water level is expected to drop to around five feet, so "divers and rescuers will be able to enter," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told media on Tuesday.
Authorities using an underwater drone equipped with a camera on Monday decided it was still too dangerous to enter the mine in Agujita in the northern state of Coahuila.
Images gathered by the drone showed obstructions and water turbulence, making it too risky to go inside, civil defence national coordinator Laura Velazquez said.
The focus so far has been on pumping out water from the 200 foot deep mine.
The water level in the shafts has fallen significantly, from more than 98 feet initially, but was still at least 32 feet deep, officials said.
READ MORE: 'Time against' Mexico in bid to rescue trapped miners
Past mining incidents
Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners, whose relatives were increasingly anxious nearly a week after the accident.
According to authorities, the miners were carrying out excavation work when they hit an adjoining area full of water.
Five workers managed to escape from the crudely constructed mine in the initial aftermath of the accident on August 3, but there has been no contact with the others.
Coahuila, Mexico's main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining accidents over the years.
The worst accident was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.
Last year, seven miners died when they were trapped in the region.
READ MORE: Relatives pray for miracle as Mexico miners remain trapped in coal mine
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ended a Trump-era policy requiring migrants and asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court.
The programme will be unwound in a “quick, and orderly manner,” DHS said in a statement on Monday, hours after a judge lifted an order in effect since December that it be reinstated.
Informally known as "remain in Mexico", the policy pushed non-Mexican migrants and asylum-seekers back to Mexico to await resolution of their US cases, which sometimes took months or years.
The policy "has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” the department said on Monday.
The announcement comes after the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of President Joe Biden in his administration's bid to end the programme on June 30.
The Biden administration will no longer enrol migrants in the programme and those currently waiting in Mexico will be allowed to enter the United States as they return for their next scheduled court dates, DHS said in the statement.
READ MORE: Mexico caravan migrants get visas as they trek toward US
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYNBc_oaIo[/embed]
'Migrant Protection Protocols'
Many questions remain, including whether those whose claims have been denied or dismissed will get a second chance or if those whose next court dates are months away will be allowed to return to the US sooner.
Homeland Security said it will provide additional information “in the coming days.”
About 70,000 migrants were subject to the policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” from when President Donald Trump introduced it in January 2019 until Biden suspended it on his first day in office in January 2021, fulfilling a campaign promise.
Many were allowed to return to the US to pursue their cases during the early months of Biden’s presidency.
Nearly 5,800 people were subject to the policy from December through June, a modest number. Nicaraguans account for the largest number, with others from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.
Trump made the policy a centrepiece of border enforcement, which critics said was inhumane for exposing migrants to extreme violence in Mexico and making access to attorneys far more difficult.
READ MORE: Texas migrant tragedy revives debate on Trump policies
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOoArIzOio[/embed]
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Families have grown increasingly anxious as they awaited word from rescue teams tasked with descending a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico to rescue 10 workers nearly 24 hours after an accident confined the crew deep underground.
The miners became trapped on Wednesday after their excavation work caused a tunnel wall to collapse, triggering flooding in three wells.
Mexico's Civil Protection agency did not immediately respond on Thursday when asked about efforts to pump out the water, and if levels were rising.
Its director, Laura Velazquez, said earlier on Thursday that time was everything, and several hundred officials were "working day and night" to assist with the rescue.
Soldiers, emergency workers and rescue dogs were deployed after the latest disaster to strike Mexico's main coal-producing region in Coahuila state, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
"What I want with all my soul is that we rescue the miners," he told reporters.
"We must not lose faith. We must not lose hope," he added.
'I want my husband to come out all right'
Families keeping vigil remained on edge.
Erika Escobedo, the wife of one of the trapped miners, 29-year-old Hugo Tijerina, told the Reuters news agency she spent all night watching rescue efforts at the site in the northern border state of Coahuila.
"They say the water is rising," she said, describing bigger water extraction pumps she saw hauled to the site.
"I want my husband to come out all right," said Escobedo, her voice breaking in a phone interview from the site, as she watched rescuers bore another tunnel to try to reach the miners.
For now, she has told her three children not to worry about their father and that he will come home okay.
"Unfortunately, there's not much hope," Jose Luis Amaya, whose cousin and brother-in-law was among those trapped, told Milenio TV on Wednesday night.
Five other miners escaped the accident. They all received medical treatment, and two have been discharged from the hospital.
Still, Elizabeth Vielma, the mother of three men who work at the site but were not involved in Wednesday's accident, said she worried about conditions there.
"They just give them the drills and send them down," she said.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Nearly 100 migrants traveling in a truck were found abandoned in Mexico, officials said, a month after dozens of people died in similar conditions in the United States.
The migrants were discovered on Wednesday night on a highway in the eastern state of Veracruz, according to authorities, who said the vehicle was headed for the US border.
"They indicated that they were abandoned by the driver," a police report said, without specifying the migrants' nationalities.
Civil protection authorities said that 98 undocumented foreigners were found at the site, including several children.
Around 100 more were believed to have fled, witnesses told Mexican media.
About a dozen people were reported to have been taken to hospital due to bruises and symptoms of asphyxiation.
Illegal migration
Transporting migrants in overcrowded trucks is one of the most dangerous methods used by people smugglers in Mexico.
In June, more than 50 migrants died after they were abandoned in a scorching hot tractor-trailer truck in San Antonio, Texas.
In December, 56 US-bound migrants from Central America were killed and dozens injured when the truck they were traveling in overturned in southern Mexico.
Around 6,430 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Of those, 850 were the result of vehicle accidents or linked to hazardous transport, the United Nations agency says.
Source: AFP
Fast News
Mexico City authorities said they have seized 1.6 tonnes of cocaine believed to be from Colombia, describing it as the largest such discovery in the capital.
Police found the drugs in hidden compartments in two trailers on a highway on the edge of the city, the capital's security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch said.
It was "the largest seizure of cocaine in Mexico City by far," he told reporters.
According to initial investigations, the shipment arrived by sea from Colombia to Mexico's Pacific port of Puerto Escondido.
Some of the cocaine was believed to be destined for distribution in the capital and some of it in the United States, Garcia Harfuch said.
Four suspected gang members from northwestern Mexico were arrested, he added.
READ MORE: Mexico captures FBI's 'most wanted' drug leader Rafael Caro Quintero
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZFt_LI9Unc[/embed]
Tackling drug cartels
It is the second major operation targeting drug cartels in Mexico City in July.
Two weeks ago, police arrested 14 suspects and seized weapons and drugs in the south of the capital.
Most of those detained are being held on suspicion of belonging to the infamous Sinaloa cartel.
READ MORE: Colombia extradites 'world's most wanted' drug trafficker to US
Source: AFP
