North America
Tohono O'odham

GOP lawmaker threatens new Indian war

In a little-noted interview on the right-wing online video show “In The Trenches with Teddy Daniels,” Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar suggested that his party’s gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, could order the state’s National Guard to surround and blockade the Tohono O’odham Nation, a Native American reservation that borders Mexico, ensuring that “no one passes.” Gosar also offered the notion that Lake could go to the US Supreme Court to seek state authority over the reservation. The Tohono O’odham tribal government cooperates with the Border Patrol, but has long opposed plans for a border wall that would cut through their traditional territory. (Map via Google)

Mexico
Yaqui

Mexico creates justice commission for Yaqui people

Mexican President AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador signed a decree that sets up a Justice Commission for the Yaqui People, seeking to resolve problems of land, water, health, education and infrastructure faced by the indigenous group. The decree was signed during a visit by LĂłpez Obrador to the Yaqui community of VĂ­cam, in Sonora state. The decree seeks to redress a long history of oppression, massacres, slavery and land theft faced by the Yaqui. LĂłpez Obrador said that the Yaqui are Mexico’s most persecuted indigenous group, stating, “All the original inhabitants suffered robbery, but no people suffered as much as the Yaqui.” The president also said that he had agreed to modify the route of the planned Guaymas-El Oro gas pipeline that was supposed to run through Yaqui territory. (Photo via Articulo 19)

Mexico
guardianacional

Mexico: narco-dystopia amid Trump-AMLO schmooze

Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador met with Trump at the White House to inaugurate the new trade treaty that replaces NAFTA. Embarrassingly, the meeting was punctuated by horrific new outbursts of narco-violence in Mexico. And the country’s promised cannabis legalization—mandated by the high court and looked to as a de-escalation of the dystopian drug war—is stalled by a paralyzed Congress. (Photo: SecretarĂ­a de Seguridad y ProtecciĂłn Ciudadana)

Mexico

Mexico: AMLO declares drug war ‘over’ —but is it?

Already officially studying the possibility of cannabis legalization, Mexico's new populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has now announced a formal end to the "war on drugs" that has only seemed to fuel the narco-violence over the past 10 years. However, military troops are still being mobilized for narcotics enforcement from Chiapas to Chihuahua—including marijuana eradication. (Photo: Sexenio)

Mexico

Mexico: one dead as Yaqui protest pipeline

Yaqui indigenous communities on opposite sides over a proposed gas pipeline through Mexico's Sonora state clashed at the construction site, leaving at least one dead.

Mexico

Mexico: Cananea toxic spills continue

Long favored by the Mexican government, Grupo México is becoming a major embarrassment as its biggest mine persists in polluting the Sonora River.

Mexico

Sonora: mining threatens disappearing waters

Water was cut off to the capital of Mexico's Sonora state after a toxic spill at a mine turned a river orange—as Yaqui Indians protest theft of their waters by a new aqueduct.