The jubilation unleashed by a World Cup leaves its mark on the host country. On June 11, Mexico will be able to say it is the only country in the world to have hosted the world’s premier football tournament three times, even four if we include the 1971 Women’s World Cup. However, unlike in 1970 and 1986, the business surrounding the game has exploded, and with it, everything has become more expensive. From jerseys to match tickets, which can reach prices of over 50,000 pesos ($2,869). Even to watch the matches on television, a fan must pay up to 1,000 pesos ($57) to follow all 104 games. Faced with these expenses, thousands of young Mexicans have chosen to be part of the World Cup frenzy through nearly 5,000 murals and all kinds of activities.

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Prosecutors say 43 people indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking

More than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown in southern California, federal authorities said on Thursday.

The FBI and other federal and local agencies executed search and arrest warrants at locations mostly in Orange county, south of Los Angeles, according to the US attorney’s office.

Key Points —Luisa María Alcalde accepted President Claudia Sheinbaum’s offer on Wednesday, April 22 to lead the Consejería Jurídica del Ejecutivo Federal, leaving her post as national president of the Morena party after 18 months. —The move fills the vacancy created by Esthela Damián Peralta, who resigned the Consejería Jurídica to seek the Morena gubernatorial […]

The post Sheinbaum Promotes Party Chief Alcalde to Top Legal Post in Mexico Cabinet Reshuffle appeared first on The Rio Times.

Bogotá, Colombia – Mexican authorities have said they will tighten security around tourist sites following a shooting on Monday that killed a Canadian tourist and injured twelve others.

The attack at the Teotihuacan pyramids by a lone gunman has renewed concerns about fan safety ahead of the 2026 World Cup Games, which will be co-hosted by Mexico. 

But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sought to re-assure visitors, maintaining that mass shootings are rare in the country and describing the incident as a one-off.

“Our obligation as a government is to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again,” said Sheinbaum on Tuesday morning.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch added that state security forces had been ordered to “immediately strengthen security” at tourist destinations across the country.  

The Teotihuacan pyramids are a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of Mexico’s most visited archaeological complexes.

But Sheinbaum was also careful to stress that attacks like the one on Monday are incredibly rare in Mexico: “Clearly, we all know — Mexicans know — that this is something that had not previously taken place.”

Unlike in the United States, guns are difficult to obtain legally in Mexico and mass shootings targeting members of the public are uncommon.

While Mexico has grappled for years with high homicide rates, shootings tend to happen in specific areas marked by cartel violence and rarely affect tourists.

Ideological motivations

Rather than a sign of broader security struggles, authorities maintain that Monday’s shooting was perpetrated by a ‘lone wolf’ actor driven by extremist views.

Sergio Ortiz Borbolla, head of campaigns and communications at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, maintained that Julio César Jasso Ramírez, 27, was a Nazi sympathizer inspired by other mass shootings. 

“Although the investigation is still ongoing, several factors point to an ideological motive,” said Ortiz.

He noted that Monday’s shooting happened on Adolf Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in the U.S., which killed 14. 

The perpetrator’s social media included posts where he performed a Nazi salute and a framed AI-generated photo of him side-by-side with the Columbine shooters was found at the scene of the attack, according to authorities. 

“The incident… highlights the growing influence of extremist online communities on acts of violence, a trend that transcends national borders,” noted Ortiz. 

Mexican Attorney-General Cervantes also described “a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places, at other times, and involving other individuals – this tendency can be referred to as copycat behaviour”.

Countdown to the games

Monday’s shooting is the latest headache for the Mexican government ahead of this summer’s soccer competition. 

A wave of cartel violence in February, including in World Cup host city Guadalajara, sparked concerns about the threat posed by organized crime in the country. 

But the government has been engaged in a push to assure visitors that the country is safe, announcing plans to mobilize 100,000 security forces this summer. It also said it will deploy an additional 2,100 military vehicles, 24 aircraft, and 33 drones.

But, as Ortiz noted, the type of violence seen in Mexico this week is “not common.” 

“There is no indication that this type of attack poses a widespread risk to tourists,” he concluded.

Featured image description: The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan – one of the largest in Mesoamerica, México.

Featured image credit: Marcelosan via WIkimedia Commons

The post Mexico boosts security after pyramid attack but plays down shooting risks appeared first on Latin America Reports.

Kevin persuaded his girlfriend, Yosselyn Guerrero, to leave Tapachula for Mexico City with a simple promise: a furnished room awaited them in the Mexican capital. They would finally have a bed — no more sleeping on the floor of a borrowed house. The 30‑year‑old Salvadoran woman hesitated. On the border she already had a job in a small restaurant, and heading farther north meant putting even more distance between herself and her family in Santa Ana, who kept begging her to come home. In the end, Kevin’s plan prevailed. He chose the coyotes and the route, which included a stretch by boat across the ocean.

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The deaths of two U.S. officials in a road accident early Sunday morning in a remote area of ​​the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the state of Chihuahua would have been nothing more than a tragic accident in a region full of steep canyons, where two Mexican agents also lost their lives. The magnitude of the matter changed when it was revealed that the Americans were agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). And it has escalated significantly in the last 48 hours, when President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that the four were “working together” on a mission of which the federal government was unaware. In addition to the state of Chihuahua, Sheinbaum has demanded explanations from the United States through a letter sent to its embassy.

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Key Points —Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies voted 334 to 127 on Tuesday, April 21, to install Arturo Manuel Chávez López, Frida Denisse Gómez Puga and Blanca Yassahara Cruz García as electoral councillors at the National Electoral Institute for a nine-year term running to 2035. —Chávez López served as regulation and public-policy adviser to Claudia Sheinbaum […]

The post Mexico’s Electoral Council Gets Three New Members as Sheinbaum Ally Arturo Chávez Joins the INE appeared first on The Rio Times.

It wasn’t the first time he’d stayed in a hotel near the ruins and spent the day planning something big and sinister at the pyramids, something that in his mind resembled those school or church shootings so common in the United States. Last Sunday he did it again. He arrived by bus from the north of Mexico City, rented a room in a nearby hotel, and on Monday morning entered the Teotihuacán archaeological site in the State of Mexico. For his big day, he chose to wear black pants and a plaid shirt. In his backpack, he put some sheets of paper on which he had handwritten what he was about to do with an old revolver and 42 rounds of .38 caliber ammunition.

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