Tag: Familia Michoacana

Mexico: specter of US strikes amid cartel terror

UruapanMayor Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez was assassinated during a Day of the Dead celebration in the main square of Uruapan, in the violence-torn Mexican state of Michoacán. He had been an outspoken opponent of the drug cartels and their reign of terror in the state, and his death sparked protests across Michoacán. The US State Department said in response to the killing that the United States is ready to "deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border." But this comes as the specter of unilateral US intervention has been raised. NBC News reports that the White House has started planning a "potential mission" involving US troops and intelligence officers to target the cartels on Mexican soil. (Photo: Juan José Estrada Serafín/Cuartoscuro.com via Mexico News Daily)

Mexico

‘Blood avocados’ in the news amid Michoacán violence

MichoacanThe US Department of Agriculture suspended inspections of avocados in the Mexican state of Michoacán due to security concerns, halting the top source of US imports. The move was taken after two agents of the USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) were accosted during a protest in the town of Paracho, beaten and briefly detained. Michoacán is Mexico's heartland of avocado production, but the trade has been notoriously co-opted by the local warring drug cartels to launder narco-profits, leading to charges of "blood avocados" in the violence-torn state. (Map: Google)

Mexico
Mexico army

Mexico: drug war dystopia unabated

ApureSo-called "dissident" FARC factions that have refused to accept the Colombian peace accords and taken refuge across the border in Venezuela now appear to be waging a local insurgency against the Nicolás Maduro regime. A group calling itself the Martin Villa 10th Front announced last month that it had captured eight Venezuelan soldiers during a battle in Apure state, near the Colombian border. Venezuela's National Bolivarian Armed Forces later announced that the soldiers had been freed in a rescue operation. But independent media in Venezuela report that the eight were actually released under terms of a deal negotiated in Cuba. The deal was said to have been brokered with the help of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a second Colombia guerilla group which remains in arms and whose leadership is based in Havana. (Photo of captive soldiers being released via FANB)

Mexico

Mexico: Zapatistas host Ayotzinapa families

The Zapatista rebels in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas marked the anniversary of their 1994 New Years Day uprising by hosting a national activist gathering in their territory.

Mexico

Michoacán cartel boss ‘killed’ —again!

For the second time in four years, Mexican authorities announced the death of Michoacán's top drug lord Nazario Moreno AKA "El Chayo" in a shoot-out with federal police.

Mexico

Mexico: Michoacán tipping into war

Several were killed in confrontations across Mexico’s violence-torn Michoacán state—including when gunmen fired on crowds commemorating  the death of Emiliano Zapata.

Mexico

Wave of barroom balaceras across Mexico

Gunmen shot up nightclubs in Chihuahua, Oaxaca and Guerrero, killing 11 and kidnapping one—the latest in a surge of violence since the change of government in Mexico.