As she was driving out of party headquarters, five vans with dark‑tinted windows cut her off. She doesn’t remember how many men got out, but they were dressed in black, their faces covered with balaclavas, and they carried rifles. From that moment on, everything becomes hazier. They pushed her into the back seat of one of the vehicles, blindfolded her, and began driving in circles around Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state Sinaloa. There was no physical or verbal abuse, just veiled threats like “we’ve got half of Culiacán here” or “we can take you home whenever you want.” Nearly nine hours later, as the sun began to rise over the soft hills surrounding the city, Paola Gárate had her blindfold removed and was released near a supermarket. It was Sunday, and in just a few hours, the polls would open to choose Sinaloa’s next governor. Dazed but relieved, that was how the election day began for the president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Sinaloa.

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A major crack has appeared in the least expected place: the newly established foundation of the security relationship between Mexico and the United States, a sacred space during the 14 months that Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump have spent at the helm of their respective governments. The political crisis in Mexico stemming from the presence of CIA agents on the ground in Chihuahua, coupled with the U.S. indictment of a governor and a senator in Sinaloa on drug trafficking charges, are the backdrop for a rupture whose magnitude and consequences are yet to be fully realized. The political chess game is progressing; bishops and knights are getting ready. A false move by either side could further complicate the situation.

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Adrián Valdez rides his horse slowly into a clearing on the bank of the Rio Grande — or the Río Bravo, depending on which side of it you’re on. At 50, with a gray mustache and cowboy boots with spurs that mark the pace of his brown-and-white horse, he doesn’t seem to know what hurry is. Time bows to him and his animal. But that’s only because this Tuesday he has no job to be at. For virtually his entire adult life though, it has been two that have kept him and his family afloat.

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Photos and video:

Aggi Garduño

Design and layout:

Mónica Juárez Martín and Ángel Hernández

Visual editing:

Mónica González

The Voting Rights Act, one of the most enduring legacies of the civil rights era, prohibited racist politicians in the southern U.S. states from using underhanded tactics to suppress the votes of Black citizens. Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority completed the task of dismantling that law, which had already been severely weakened by two previous rulings. The new decision declares the design of Louisiana’s majority-Black 2nd District unconstitutional and opens the door to a potentially Republican-friendly change in democratic rules in other Southern states.

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On Christmas Day 2024, Angela Della Valle was at the Saint Thomas airport with her husband Carlos and their son Alessandro, waiting for their flight back to Pennsylvania after a few days of vacation. At one point, she turned around and Carlos was gone. A Customs and Border Protection agent had detained him for being undocumented. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) had prevented Carlos from legalizing his immigration status, despite his more than 20 years of marriage to Angela, who was born in the United States.

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