The Mexican army on Sunday killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”

Oseguera headed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

What do we know about the raid that killed Oseguera?

Oseguera was wounded during a raid in the town of Tapalpa in western Jalisco state and died while being flown to Mexico City, the Mexican army said in a statement.

It said four members of the cartel were killed in the raid and three more, including Oseguera, died of their wounds while being transferred to the Mexican capital.

Two more people were arrested. Armored vehicles, rocket launchers and other arms were seized.

Earlier on Sunday, armed men set cars and trucks on fire in Jalisco state to block the advance of security forces during the operation.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the killing as a “great development for Mexico, ​US, Latin America, and the world.”

The US State Department warned US citizens in the states of Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Neuvo Leon to remain in safe places due to ongoing security operations.

The United States had offered a $15 million bounty for his capture.

Mexico’s Embassy in Washington, DC, said that the United States had provided information that aided in the raid that led to Oseguera’s death.

“In ‌addition to ​central military intelligence efforts, complementary information was ​provided by U.S. authorities within the ⁠framework ​of ​bilateral coordination and ​cooperation with the ‌United States,” it said in a post on X.

Airlines cancel dozens of flights to Mexico

The killing of Oseguera sparked several hours of roadblocks and burning vehicles in Jalisco and other states. Cartels commonly use such tactics to block military operations.

The state of Jalisco canceled school for Monday. Governor Pablo Lemus also urged residents to stay home and suspended public transportation. An outbreak of violence also led to the suspension of multiple football games.

Meanwhile, US and Canadian airlines canceled dozens of flights to parts of Mexico following the killing of Oseguera and the subsequent violence.

US airlines Alaska, United, and Southwest, as well as Canadian airlines WestJet and Air Canada, announced the suspension of flights to destinations including Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, and Manzanillo.

In a post on X, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged citizens to remain calm, stating that the central government was coordinating with state authorities in response to the violence.

Who are ‘El Mencho’ and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel?

The US Justice Department considers the cartel, which was founded in 2009, to be one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking organizations.

It is one of the main suppliers of cocaine to the United States and also produces fentanyl and methamphetamines.

Oseguera was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin by a California court in 1994 and served a prison sentence of nearly three years. After his release from prison, he returned to Mexico and continued to engage in cartel activity.

He has been indicted several times in a District of Columbia court, including a 2022 indictment for conspiracy and distribution of controlled substances and use of firearms in connection with drug trafficking offenses.

Sheinbaum under pressure to deal with cartel crime

While Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been critical of the “kingpin” strategy focused on killing cartel leaders in the past, she has been under increasing pressure to show results in the fight against drug trafficking since US President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January 2025.

Trump has vowed to “wage war” on Latin American drug cartels and has not ruled out carrying out US military strikes on targets in Mexico or deploying troops there.

Trump’s administration designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a terrorist organization in February. (DW)

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A train carrying 250 people has derailed partially in southern Mexico, killing at least 13 people and injuring 98, according to officials.

The Mexican Navy said that the Interoceanic Train linking the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz went off the rails on Sunday as it passed a curve near the town of Nizanda.

It said that 98 people were injured and that, “unfortunately, 13 people lost their lives”.

The train was carrying nine crew members and 241 passengers at the time of the accident. Of those on board, 139 were reported to be out of danger, while 36 of the 98 injured were still receiving medical assistance.

In a statement posted on X, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that at least five of those injured were in “serious” condition.

Sheinbaum said she has directed the secretary of the navy and other senior personnel to travel to the area and assist the families of those affected. She added that the Ministry of Interior is coordinating the response to the incident.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said it was opening an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

Uno Noticias Television, a Mexican channel, reported that emergency units were near the site of the accident but faced difficulty in accessing the area.

Images circulating on social media and posted by Mexican news outlets showed one of the carriages of the train on its side, while another was completely separated from the train tracks.

A passenger was quoted by Mexico’s La Razon newspaper as saying that before the derailment, the train “was coming very fast”.

“We don’t know if it lost its brakes,” the passenger told La Razon.

In a statement posted on X, Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara Cruz expressed his government’s “heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this unfortunate accident”.

The train runs between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, and carries both passengers and freight.

On December 20, a train on the same route collided with a cargo truck attempting to cross the tracks, although the incident did not result in any deaths.

The line was inaugurated in 2023 as a major infrastructure project under then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to develop southeast Mexico.

The initiative was designed to modernise the rail link across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a land bridge connecting Mexico’s Pacific port of Salina Cruz with Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf Coast.

The Mexican government has sought to develop the Isthmus into a strategic trade corridor, expanding ports, railways and industrial infrastructure with the goal of creating a route that could compete with the Panama Canal. (Al Jazeera)

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for sexual harassment to be made a crime nationwide after being groped on the street while greeting supporters near the presidential palace in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum, 63, said on Wednesday that she had pressed charges against the man and would review nationwide legislation on sexual harassment following the attack by a drunk man who put his arm around her shoulder, and with the other hand touched her hip and chest, while attempting to kiss her neck.

Mexico’s first woman president removed the man’s hands before a member of her staff stepped between them. The president’s security detail did not appear to be nearby at the moment of the attack, which was caught on camera.

The man was later arrested.

“My thinking is: If I don’t file a complaint, what becomes of other Mexican women? If this happens to the president, what will happen to all the women in our country?” Sheinbaum held her regular morning news conference on Wednesday.

In a post on social media, the president said the attack was “something that many women experience in the country and in the world”.

“I filed a complaint for the harassment episode that I experienced yesterday in Mexico City. It must be clear that, beyond being president, this is something that many women experience in the country and in the world; no one can violate our body and personal space. We will review the legislation so that this crime is punishable in all 32 states,”she said, addressing an event.

Sheinbaum explained that the incident occurred when she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to save time. She said they could walk the route in five minutes, rather than taking a 20-minute car ride. (Al Jazeera)

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has admitted that her old phone and email were hacked, as reported by Reuters on Monday.

In a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Sheinbaum claimed she didn’t know who told the hacker about her phone and email.

The New York Times, in its report on Sunday, stated that the president’s phone was hacked after Sheinbaum’s government took a bold step by extraditing 29 drug dealers to the United States on February 27.

Sheinbaum stated that Apple has communicated with Mexico’s digital transformation department, which is aware of the hacking, and measures have been taken to restore the hacked phone and email.

The president revealed that the phone was a gift from a former senator and Campeche Governor, Layda Sansores. Sheinbaum also said her phone number was circulated during the campaign as an expression of affection.

The Mexican president added that the hacked phone and email address are no longer used for personal communication and correspondence.

Sheinbaum used the phone as the Tlalpan environmental delegate in Mexico City long before she became a presidential candidate or head of the capital government.

The phone was widely circulated by the people of Mexico City and was published in local media last year, before the general election in June 2024. She said they are investigating the hacked phone. 

A New York Times article explained in detail the call between Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump, where they mediated a deal that saved Mexican goods from a 25 percent tariff for another month.

Trump reportedly praised Sheinbaum while admonishing Justin Trudeau, then the prime minister of Canada, for publicly opposing Trump’s tariff threats against his neighbor.

Sheinbaum affirmed that she doesn’t know who leaked the phone call with President Trump. She said the hacker was untraceable, which led to the press conference at the National Palace. (NYT)

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Mexico is planning to establish a “task force” to involve US companies in the process of reducing imports from China, the country’s economy minister told a group of auto suppliers at a private meeting Friday in Detroit.

Careful not to “speculate” about what would happen on Monday when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, minister Marcelo Ebrard said the government wanted to pitch a task force that would include the “most important companies” operating in Mexico to assess how to respond to Trump’s next moves, which could include tariffs of 25% if he makes good on his threats.

For “our main goal, which is reduce the imports from China, we are going to need to work very closely,” Ebrard told the company representatives, according to a recording of his remarks, obtained by Bloomberg News. “It’s not easy to replace such an important part of the components, but it can be done, if not 100%, almost in a portion — enough to reduce the growth in the imports from China.”

Mexico has been taking a variety of steps over the past weeks to crack down on cheap Asian — and particularly Chinese — imports. The move seeks to both strengthen local industry and send a clear signal of alliance to the incoming US administration.

The government on Monday announced a plan that would seek to replace imports from China with items made in North America, in a bid to align itself with its top trade partners.

The purpose of Ebrard’s visit was to “strengthen Mexico’s collaboration with the US automotive industry,” according to a statement from the Economy Ministry.

“The large US automotive companies require Mexico to be competitive against other blocs,” Ebrard said during the meeting, organized by the Detroit Regional Chamber, according to the statement.

Ebrard asked to wait for Trump’s inauguration on Monday to organize an appropriate reaction. “Let’s see Monday and then we organize the reaction properly,” he said in the recording. (Bloomberg)

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Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is set to become Mexico’s first female leader after preliminary results showed her on course to win an overwhelming victory in the Latin American nation’s election. 

After a polarising campaign scarred by violence, former Mexico City mayor Sheinbaum of the ruling leftwing Morena party was on track to win with between 58.3 and 60.7 per cent of the vote. 

That puts her at least 30 points clear of her centre-right opposition rival Xóchitl Gálvez on 26.6-28.6 per cent, according to a quick count of a representative sample of polling stations by electoral authority INE. A third candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, was on track to win 9.9-10.8 per cent. 

The ruling Morena party, founded a decade ago by López Obrador, is also set to control both houses of congress and with two allied parties appears to be close to the two-thirds majority needed to secure constitutional changes, the results showed. 

“We will respect business freedom and we will promote and facilitate with honesty private national and foreign investment,” Sheinbaum said after the preliminary results were announced. “My government will be honest, without influences or corruption, it will be a government with republican austerity.” 

She said her competitors had called her to concede the election. 

Mexico, which exports everything from cars and appliances to avocados and is the US’s number one trading partner, has a significant opportunity to attract investment amid trade tensions between the US and China. Mexico overtook China as the biggest exporter of goods to the US last year. 

To capitalise on this, experts say Sheinbaum must tackle a wave of violence, invest in infrastructure to overcome serious water and electricity shortages and guarantee the rule of law. She also faces Mexico’s worst budget deficit since the 1980s. 

On Sunday, violence broke out at some polling stations, with one set on fire, shots fired at two others and hours-long queues elsewhere. Dozens of polling stations were unable to operate because of threats. 

At least 36 candidates were killed during the campaign, amid increased criminal control of the country’s politics, underscoring a key challenge for the new president. 

Sheinbaum has promised to hew closely to the policies of López Obrador, a charismatic populist who won over the poor by doubling the minimum wage and boosting social programmes. But he also put forward constitutional changes that critics have said would weaken democracy. He was chastised by authorities for interfering in the election.

Sheinbaum has supported his expansion of military power and controversial proposals such as popular elections for supreme court judges and directors of the electoral institute, proposals that raised alarm among pro-democracy groups.

A former student activist of Jewish descent, Sheinbaum worked as a climate scientist and was a longtime party activist before following López Obrador into politics in the capital. (Financial Times)

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Mexico’s Congress saw an official event where two “alien corpses” were unveiled in Mexico City. 

The official “unveiling” of the two alleged “alien corpses” was carried out by ufologist Jaime Maussan.

The two small “corpses” were displayed for all observers. Organisers claimed that the small mummified specimen were a thousand years old and had been “retrieved” from Cusco, Peru.

Maussan told members of the Mexican government that “UFO specimen” were studied at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, where scientists, he stated were able to draw DNA evidence using radiocarbon dating.

He was quoted saying by Marca.com: “These specimen are not part of our terrestrial evolution… These aren’t beings that were found after a UFO wreckage. 

They were found in diatom (algae) mines, and were later fossilized.”

Jaime Maussan is a journalist, TV personality, and UFOlogist who was involved in the analysis of 5 mummies discovered in Nazca, Peru in 2017. The mummies were crouched humanoid figures with three fingers on their hands and feet, and dubbed ‘aliens’, a theory that was debunked. According to a report in Snopes.com, the discovery was hokum and the mummified corpse was believed to be that of a child.

The report adds: “The previous discovery of mummies with elongated skulls in Peru, like that shown in the Gaia video, has prompted similar wild speculation about alien species. But anthropologists have explained that elongated skulls are the result of an ancient practice of artificial cranial deformation, in which young children had their heads bound in cloth, rope, or even wooden boards, possibly as part of a religious ritual.”

The Nazca Mummy UFO Theory was also debunked by several other researchers. In fact, according to a report in LiveScience.com, the hands and feet seen on the mummy could’ve been manipulated by forgers, with white coating added afterwards to hide the manipulations.

In fact, a dozen Peruvian mummy researchers wrote a letter condemning the practice, saying it has “violated numerous national and international norms”.

UFOs have been in the talk of town for some time and even made an appearance during the GOP debate recently when Chris Christie was asked if he’d be honest about UFOs if he became the US President. The question was asked by moderator Martha MacCallum, also from New Jersey. This led Christie to observe: “Especially coming from a woman from New Jersey, I think it’s horrible that just because I’m from New Jersey, you asked me about unidentified flying objects and Martians. We’re different but we’re not that different.”

Refusing to take the bait further, Christie had said, that it was the POTUS’ job to be honest, whether it was about UFOs or education. He said: “The job of the president of the United States is to level with the American people about everything. The job of the president of the United States is to stand for truth.”

Whistleblower claims Uncle SAM lying about UFOs

A few months ago, a whistle-blower claimed that the U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified Wednesday to Congress. The Pentagon has denied his claims.

Retired Maj. David Grusch’s highly anticipated testimony before a House Oversight subcommittee was US Congress’ latest foray into the world of UAPs — or “unidentified aerial phenomena,” which is the official term the U.S. government uses instead of UFOs. While the study of mysterious aircraft or objects often evokes talk of aliens and “little green men,” Democrats and Republicans in recent years have pushed for more research as a national security matter due to concerns that sightings observed by pilots may be tied to U.S. adversaries.

Grusch said he was asked in 2019 by the head of a government task force on UAPs to identify all highly classified programs relating to the task force’s mission. 

At the time, Grusch was detailed to the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that operates U.S. spy satellites.

“I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access,” he said.

Asked whether the U.S. government had information about extraterrestrial life, Grusch said the U.S. likely has been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s. (Hindustan Times)

Mexico is unboxing aliens . pic.twitter.com/OrToUTjShX

— Davidi Ohmbra (@iohmbra) September 13, 2023

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A mayor in Mexico has married a female alligator-like animal in a traditional ceremony which is believed to bring good fortune to his people.

Victor Hugo Sosa wed the caiman reptile called Alicia Adriana as he re-enacted an ancestral ritual.

Local lore, or tradition, calls the creature the “princess girl” and the mayor said the pair “loved each other”.

Onlookers clapped and danced in San Pedro Huamelula, a town of indigenous Chontal people in Oaxaca state, southern Mexico, as they entered into holy matrimony.

Mr Sosa said during the ritual: “I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important.

“You can’t have a marriage without love… I yield to marriage with the princess girl.”

He was pictured kissing the animal on the head.

Marriage between a man and a female caiman has taken place there for 230 years to commemorate the peace between the Chontal and Huave indigenous groups.

The mayor, representing the Chontal king, marries the reptile, symbolising a Huave princess girl, in a union of the two communities.

Caimans live in marshes and are endemic in Mexico and central America.

Before the ceremony, the animal is carried from house to house so locals can hold her and dance.

The reptile wears a green skirt, a colourful hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins.

Her snout is bound shut so there aren’t any pre-marital mishaps.

She is later dressed in a white bride’s costume and taken to the local town hall for the wedding.

After the event, the mayor danced with his bride to the sounds of traditional music.

“We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content,” Mr Sosa told the AFP news agency. (Sky News)

Para cumplir con una de las costumbres más arraigadas en el pueblo de San Pedro Huamelula #Oaxaca, el alcalde de la localidad, Víctor Hugo Sosa, aceptó casarse con una lagarta viva y la ceremonia fue este viernes.

Rusvel Rasgado pic.twitter.com/A8VnhIFt5q

— Quadratín Oaxaca (@Quadratinoaxaca) July 1, 2023

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