International
Thousands of Mexicans protest against electoral reform promoted by Lopez Obrador
February 27 |
The Mexican opposition took to the streets this Sunday in several cities of the country to protest against a controversial electoral reform promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador which, they allege, puts the 2024 general elections at risk.
On Wednesday, the Senate, dominated by the ruling Morena party and its allies, culminated the approval of a reform to the National Electoral Institute (INE) that, among other things, cuts its budget and competencies by closing offices and dismissing officials for millionaire savings.
In Mexico City, thousands of demonstrators filled the capital’s emblematic Zócalo square, the center of Mexican power, and surrounding streets, many of them dressed in pink, the color of the electoral institution that the protests have taken as a symbol.
Among the participants was Alejandro Moreno, president and deputy of one of the main opposition groups, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
“We Mexicans are on the side of democracy, together we make ourselves heard so that the country’s democratic institutions are not destroyed!” said Moreno in a tweet accompanied by a photo of himself in the middle of the protests.
Veronica Echevarria, a 58-year-old psychologist from Mexico City who was participating in the protest, said she was concerned that the INE reform is an attempt by Lopez Obrador to take control of the electoral authority so he can stay in power.
“We are fighting to defend our democracy,” she said, decked out in a cap that read “INE is not touched.”
Late last year, thousands of people also came out to protest against the reform. Once it enters into force, the opposition will appeal the modifications before the Supreme Court of Justice.
The changes have been seen by analysts as an attempt by the president to weaken INE and generate a democratic step backwards. But the president has defended his initiative by assuring that it will strengthen democracy and reduce the influence of economic interests in politics.
“Normally, presidents seek to have governability and stability for their succession. But the president (Lopez Obrador) is generating uncertainty,” said Fernando Belaunzaran, an opposition politician who helped organize the protest.
This Sunday Belaunzarán announced on his social networks that there would be marches in more than 100 cities.
In June next year Mexicans will elect the successor to Lopez Obrador, a 69-year-old leftist who claims he was robbed of the presidency twice before he finally won a landslide victory in the 2018 election.
While the changes approved this week are less ambitious than the original constitutional reform sought by the president, they significantly modify the composition of INE and eliminate 85% of its professional service positions, a mechanism that guarantees equal opportunity in access to public administration based on merit.
According to INE’s own analysis, the reform puts at risk the preparation of the electoral roll, the installation of polling stations, the vote computations and the auditing of political parties and electoral campaigns.
López Obrador said this week that the institution is one of the most expensive electoral bodies, besides having an “anti-democratic” role, and described this Sunday’s protests as “a demonstration to defend the old corrupt regime”.
For many political analysts, INE and its predecessor, IFE, played a key role in helping to create a pluralist democracy that in 2000 ended decades of rule by the once all-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Polls show that Morena is the heavy favorite to win the 2024 elections. However, critics argue that López Obrador is not so confident that his party can retain power without interfering in the electoral process.
“(The reform) significantly affects INE’s operational capacity, as well as the organization of Election Day, which would be subject to multiple risks, given the weakening of the highest electoral body,” said Senator Gina Cruz, of the opposition National Action Party (PAN). “The ultimate and real purpose of the president is to steal the 2024 elections”.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
International
Seven inmates dead, 11 injured after violent riot in Veracruz prison
Seven inmates were killed and eleven others injured in a violent riot and clash inside a penitentiary in the Mexican state of Veracruz, local authorities reported on Sunday.
The disturbance began on Saturday afternoon at the Social Reintegration Center in the port city of Tuxpan, in northern Veracruz, when inmates staged a protest over extortion and assaults allegedly carried out by members of the criminal group known as Grupo Sombra.
The protesting prisoners clashed with another group of inmates and set fires inside and outside the facility, seizing control of the prison for more than 12 hours.
During the takeover, the rioters released several videos, including one showing four prisoners —believed to be members of Grupo Sombra— accusing them of being behind the violence and extortion inside the prison.
It wasn’t until Sunday morning that elements of the Mexican Army, the National Guard, and local police forces managed to enter the prison and regain control. The state’s Public Security Secretariat confirmed that around 9:00 a.m. local time a coordinated operation restored full order and reestablished control of the facility.
Authorities also reported that the fires set by inmates were fully extinguished.
Official figures confirmed the “tragic” deaths of seven inmates and injuries to eleven people, who are now receiving medical treatment in various regional hospitals.
This is the second deadliest riot in Veracruz in the past eight years. In 2018, a violent uprising at the La Toma medium-security prison left seven people dead (six police officers and one unidentified man) and at least 22 injured (15 officers and seven inmates).
The riot follows the kidnapping and killing of retired teacher and taxi driver Irma Hernández, a case that shocked the entire country and was attributed to Grupo Sombra. Images of Hernández kneeling, surrounded by armed men in the municipality of Álamo, sparked nationwide outrage. She was murdered after refusing to pay extortion demands from the criminal organization.
Despite these incidents, Veracruz has not seen a spike in the daily homicide average. In fact, there has been a 1.6% decrease in homicides in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
In 2023, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported 3,094 incidents in Mexican prisons —an 18.5% increase from the previous year— resulting in 100 deaths and 892 injuries.
International
Study finds COVID-19 vaccines prevented 2.5 million deaths worldwide
COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 2,533,000 deaths worldwide between 2020 and 2024, according to an international study led by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy and Stanford University in the United States, published in the journal JAMA Health Forum. Researchers calculated that one death was prevented for every 5,400 doses administered.
The analysis also found that the vaccines saved 14.8 million years of life, equivalent to one year of life gained for every 900 doses given.
The study, coordinated by Professor Stefania Boccia, revealed that 82% of the lives saved were people vaccinated before becoming infected with the virus, and 57% of deaths avoided occurred during the Omicron wave. In addition, 90% of the beneficiaries were adults over 60 years old.
“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date, based on global data and fewer assumptions about the evolution of the pandemic,” explained Boccia and researcher Angelo Maria Pezzullo.
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