Tag: mexico

Jessica Luna Aguilera, former PT candidate for mayor of Yanga, Veracruz, is murdered.

On Monday, October 6, 2025, the municipality of Yanga, Veracruz was shook by a tragic event: Jessica Luna Aguilera, a former mayoral candidate for the Labor Party (PT), was assassinated while driving to pick up her daughter from school.

This crime is not just another headline. It is a stark reminder of how violence is eroding the space for democratic participation in many parts of Mexico—particularly at the local level.

According to multiple English-language reports, Luna Aguilera was traveling in her vehicle in the community of Potrero Nuevo, in the municipality of Atoyac, when armed individuals intercepted her van and opened fire.

Her vehicle lost control and crashed into a wall near a school, and she succumbed to her injuries at the scene. At the time, she was en route to pick up her daughter, which intensifies the tragedy of the case.

The assailants fled without being apprehended, and authorities quickly cordoned off the area. The state prosecutor’s office in Veracruz has opened an investigation into the crime.

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Violent drug gang threatens US tourists and Kash Patel in terrifying message after raids and weapons seizures

Violent cartel members have threatened US tourists in Mexico in an effort to send a warning to FBI Director Kash Patel as the administration continues to crack down on drug and weapons trades.

Extraordinary banners have been erected in Baja California responding to recent raids and weapons seizures conducted by the FBI.

The messages claim that starting Sunday, cartel gunmen from the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel will begin targeting US citizens who are in Mexico with violence.

In particular, tourists and Americans living in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose have been warned they will be targeted.

Written in Spanish, the warnings state: ‘You will be the ones to blame. We’ll show how we’ll make this war starting 5/10/2025 on all Americans residing in areas where we have a presence… especially those living in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.

‘We are the ones who rule here and we’ll demonstrate what we are capable of if you don’t stop arresting our people and decommissioning our loads and weapons.’

Cartels are known to hang ‘narco banners’ from bridges and overpasses in an effort to deliver a message to governments or their rivals.

But Christian Agúndez Gómez, mayor of San Jose del Cabo maintained there is no credible proof of the existence of the banners.

‘It’s not true,’ he said. ‘We have investigated the information and determined the banners were never placed.’

He added: ‘There are necessary investigations that are still ongoing. We will monitor results issued by the attorney general.

‘Unfortunately, social media sometimes plays a role against people’s peace of mind, that’s why it’s important to verify the information with official sources before distributing it.’ 

Local news sources railed against the mayor’s comments, maintaining they had received images of the banners from multiple sources, according to Border Report. 

The banners were specifically addressed to Patel and Terry Cole, director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Mexico’s attorney general in Baja California Sur said there were instances in which banners had been falsely placed to spread fear in the community, despite having no known gang or cartel links.

The Trump administration earlier this month declared the United States is in an ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels amid recent strikes on boats in the Carribean trying to cross into US waters.

‘The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,’ a memo seen by AP states.

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Mexico Bill Proposes Prison for AI Memes Mocking Public Figures

Mexico’s Congress is once again at the center of a free speech storm.

This time, Deputy Armando Corona Arvizu from the ruling Morena party is proposing to make it a crime to create or share AI-generated memes or digital images that make fun of someone without their consent.

His initiative, filed in the Chamber of Deputies, sets out prison terms of three to six years and fines for anyone who “create, manipulate, transform, reproduce or disseminate images, videos, audios or digital representations” made with artificial intelligence for the purpose of “ridiculing, harassing, impersonating or damaging” a person’s “reputation or dignity.”

Read the bill here.

The punishment would increase by half if the person targeted is a public official, minor, or person with a disability, or if the content spreads widely online or causes personal, psychological, or professional harm.

The bill presents itself as protection against digital abuse but is, as always, a new attempt at censorship.

The initiative would insert Articles 211 Bis 8 and 211 Bis 9 into the Federal Penal Code, written in vague and sweeping terms that could cover almost any form of online expression.

It makes no distinction between a malicious deepfake and a harmless meme.

By criminalizing content intended to “ridicule,” the bill allows courts or public figures to decide what counts as ridicule. That opens the door to arbitrary enforcement.

There are no explicit protections for parody, satire, or public-interest criticism, all of which are essential to a free society.

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Agriculture Secretary Announces Update As Flesh-Eating Screwworm Comes Within 70 Miles Of US Border

More than 8,000 traps have been deployed across Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, targeting the New World screwworm (NWS) flies, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a Sept. 26 post on X, adding that no additional NWS infections have been detected since last Sunday.

On Sunday, Sept. 21, an announcement was made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which said that Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality had confirmed a new NWS infection in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nueva Leon state, less than 70 miles from America’s southern border. The infected animal was an 8-month-old cow.

Earlier in July, an NWS infection had been reported 370 miles south of the U.S.–Mexico border.

In her post, Rollins said that over 13,000 screening samples have been screened, and zero NWS flies have been identified thus far.

In addition, 750,000 sterilized NWS flies are being trucked in and dispersed in the Nueva Leon region twice a week, she said.

Mass-produced, sterile male NWS flies are often used to tackle the spread of wild NWS fly swarms. When these sterile flies are released into a swarm in large numbers, they mate with the wild female flies, which end up laying unfertilized eggs, thus lowering the swarm population.

Tackling NWS swarms is crucial since they pose a major threat to livestock. In an Aug. 15 statement, USDA called NWS a “devastating pest.”

“When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal. NWS can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people,” the agency said.

“It is not only a threat to our ranching community, but it is a threat to our food supply and our national security.”

Since May, U.S. ports have been closed to imports of cattle, horses, and bison from Mexico to prevent the spread of NWS flies into the United States.

Rollins accused Mexico of having “failed to enforce proper cattle movement controls and neglected to regularly maintain fly traps as agreed, undermining detection efforts.”

“This is unacceptable,” she said in the post on X. “Mexico must immediately implement agreed-upon protocols, expand surveillance, and restrict cattle movement in infected zones. For the foreseeable future the border will remain closed.”

In a Sept. 22 statement, Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the Sept. 21 detection was of an NWS fly in its larval stage, “meaning there is no possibility of the fly emerging.”

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Bodies found in Mexico may be missing Colombian musicians

Mexican authorities have recovered two bodies that match the description of the Colombian musicians reported missing a week ago in the country, the prosecutor’s office in the state of Mexico said on Monday.

Forensic tests were underway to obtain official confirmation of the identities of the deceased, the prosecutor’s office said.

Earlier on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that local authorities were investigating the whereabouts of reggaeton artist Bayron Sanchez, known as B-King, and Jorge Herrera, a DJ who performed under the name Regio Clown, after Colombian President Gustavo Petro requested Sheinbaum’s aid in locating them.

In a social media post on Monday afternoon, Petro appeared to confirm the musicians’ deaths by sharing a news article saying their bodies were found, blaming an “international mafia” that he said had been strengthened by the “war on drugs.”

“More young people killed by an anti-drug policy that is not an anti-drug policy,” Petro wrote.

On Sunday, the prosecutor’s office in Mexico City, which borders the state of Mexico, said the two artists were last seen on September 16 in Polanco, a high-end neighborhood in the Mexican capital.

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Indicted House Democrat BUSTED for Dirty Money—AGAIN

In South Texas, a growing scandal involving indicted Congressman Henry Cuellar is exposing just how deep the rot runs in America’s political institutions—and how little Democrats or the media care about election integrity.

Cuellar, who represents Texas’s 28th Congressional District, is under federal indictment for accepting more than $600,000 in foreign bribes from a Mexican bank and a state-run oil company in Azerbaijan. 

Prosecutors allege that Cuellar and his wife personally profited from years of secret deals, using their public positions to advance the interests of foreign entities. 

Adding to the gravity, three of Cuellar’s top aides are now cooperating with the Department of Justice.

Yet despite facing trial, Cuellar was not removed from the 2024 ballot. 

Instead, he ran for re-election and supposedly defeated Republican challenger Jay Furman in a district Donald Trump carried by seven points. 

Somehow, Cuellar won by five points—a shocking 12-point swing.

Furman submitted more than 80 affidavits from voters who said his name was missing from their ballots. 

The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals ordered a forensic review and instructed Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina to conduct it “immediately.” 

Judge Tijerina refused.

The situation quickly escalated from suspicious to outrageous. After blocking the ballot inspection, Judge Tijerina announced his own planned campaign for Congress—entering the same race he had just helped suppress. 

In any functioning democracy, such a conflict of interest would end careers. In South Texas, it simply became another chapter in a growing scandal.

Financial records make the picture worse. 

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Former Mexican President’s Sons Reportedly Tied to Cartel Fuel Investigations

A new controversy spread in Mexico as two sons of the country’s former President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) are allegedly being tied to a large-scale cartel-connected fuel theft and smuggling network.

The revelations came to light this week as the news outlet Latinus first reported on a series of “Amparos,” or legal protections similar to an injunction that had been filed on behalf of Andres Manuel “Andy” and Roberto “Bobby” Lopez Beltran, the two oldest sons of AMLO. The amparos were meant to protect the two brothers against arrest, even though it is not publicly known if they are under any investigations.

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Longtime head of Mexican megachurch is indicted in New York on federal sex trafficking charges

The longtime head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers has been charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for allegedly victimizing members of the church for decades, authorities said Wednesday.

A federal grand jury in New York returned the indictment alleging that Naasón Joaquín García, 56, and five others exploited the church for decades to enable the systemic sexual abuse of children and women for the sexual gratification of García and his father, who died in 2014.

The newly unsealed indictment said the criminal activity included the creation of photos and videos of child sexual abuse.

García was taken into federal custody early Wednesday in Chino, California, where he is serving a more than 16-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2022 to two state counts

His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

García is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. Believers consider him to be the “apostle” of Jesus Christ.

Prosecutors in California have said that he used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation – or damnation if they refused.

Besides García, one defendant charged in the case was taken into custody in Los Angeles while another was arrested in Chicago, authorities said. Three others were at large.

According to the indictment, two of the defendants and others tried to destroy evidence and prevent victims of the sexual abuse from speaking to law enforcement after García was arrested.

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Mexican cartel was taught drone warfare in Ukraine – media

A powerful Mexican drug cartel has acquired advanced drone warfare skills in Ukraine, the Milenio newspaper reported on Monday.

Moscow has long argued that the Ukraine conflict fuels global instability by spreading weapons and fostering reckless behavior by Kiev in pursuit of its war aims. Foreign fighters have become a key part of Ukraine’s military strategy as authorities face resistance to conscription at home.

Milenio examined propaganda materials released by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a major criminal group based in western Mexico, including footage showing a drone-armed hit squad operating with apparent military discipline and tactical expertise. Experts cited by the paper said the group’s methods and armaments bore similarities to battlefield practices in the Ukraine conflict.

Mexican intelligence believes CJNG members received training in drone and urban warfare tactics in Ukraine, sources in the Jalisco state government told Milenio.

The report highlighted the cartel’s use of specific equipment, including DJI Matrice 300 RTK drones commonly employed in the Ukraine conflict. The quadcopter aircraft, marketed for civilian use, can carry payloads of up to 3kg, operate at night, and fly long distances.

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Fentanyl Financiers: Treasury Links Mexican Banks and Chinese Networks to Cartel Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is stepping up its efforts to identify the ways that drug cartels move their funds. Most recently, Treasury officials identified the presence of Chinese money laundering networks that are working with Mexican drug cartels and other criminal entities to move large sums of cash.

In a series of notices from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, authorities warned financial institutions about the methods that criminal organizations are using to launder money. According to FinCEN, investigators reviewed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act reports from 2020 to 2024, identifying $312 billion in suspicious transactions tied to Chinese money laundering networks.

Of significant concern to FinCEN is the apparent ties between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese money laundering groups. The report comes just weeks after FinCEN and the U.S. Treasury sanctioned two Mexican banks and one brokerage firm that they alleged had been laundering money for various drug cartels and had also been helping funnel money into China to pay for fentanyl precursors, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

The ties between drug cartels and Chinese groups are fueled in part by currency laws in both Mexico and China, which limit the amount of U.S. dollars that can be deposited and moved in Mexico, as well as China’s control of international currency within its country. Treasury officials claim that money laundering groups from China buy U.S. dollars from drug cartels and then sell them further ahead to Chinese individuals or businesses who are trying to evade China’s cash control laws.

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