International

Latina Republicans deploy tough border rhetoric in chase for Texas seats

Photo: Allison Dinner / AFP

| By AFP | Paula Ramon |

When Mayra Flores made history this June as the first Mexican-born member of the US Congress, the Republican seized her south Texas seat from the Democrats by courting Latinos with strident calls to close the border.

That apparent paradox has made the 36-year-old — whose campaign slogan is “God, family, country” — one of the faces of the Republican Party’s new push in the border region for the November midterm elections.

She is bidding to repeat her victory next month, when fellow Latina Republicans Monica de la Cruz, Cassy Garcia and Carmen Maria Montiel will also vie for nearby congressional seats that for decades have remained Democratic.

The group hope to appeal directly to a community made up largely of immigrants and children of immigrants, who are increasingly calling to expand the wall that separates their adopted home country from Latin America.

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Sara Rodriguez, a resident of Edinburg, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Mexico border, plans to vote for Flores because she “represents our views as far as immigration goes.”

“There’s an influx of a lot of people coming through the valley, especially here at the south border…. I feel like it’s very unsafe right now.”

Flores won her seat in a special poll this summer after the Democratic incumbent resigned.

Campaigning for re-election in the border city of McAllen, she won raucous applause from a crowd wearing boots and wide-brimmed hats during a speech peppered with fierce rhetoric on further tightening the border.

“Red wave! Red wave!” supporters chanted, referencing the Republican Party’s color, as a mariachi band played traditional Mexican music.

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“The Democratic Party has walked away from the Hispanic community. They just take us for granted every election year,” Flores told AFP after her rally.

‘My hard work’

Democrats in various US states have for years benefited from the traditional support of Latino voters, which in the 1990s played a key role in transforming California into a solidly blue state.

But in south Texas, where Hispanics or Latinos (40.2 percent) outnumbered non-Latino or Hispanic whites (39.4 percent) for the first time this year, the Democrats’ lead has gradually shrunk.

In 2020, Donald Trump’s hardline immigration stance was widely credited with helping to slash the Democratic lead over Republican voters along the Texas border to 17 percent, from 33 percent four years earlier.

While they rarely mention the former president by name in speeches, local Republican candidates have adopted his nationalist and pro-wall rhetoric, while highlighting their community roots.

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“It’s so important that you have people who live on the border, who understand the border, representing the border,” said de la Cruz, who hopes to win a seat held by Democrats for more than a century.

Jesus Contreras, a Mexican who became a naturalized US citizen in the 1990s, plans to vote for her after decades of supporting the Democrats.

“My parents, everybody, taught me, ‘Oh the Republicans are bad,’” he said, switching between English and Spanish. “But they’re not.”

Contreras blames the Democrats for the border situation, and for the rising cost of living.

“The folks that are coming across are helping the economy in which way? Do they pay taxes?” he asked.

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“As far as I know, I’ve been paying taxes all my life. But yeah, they come over here and… get to reap the benefits of my hard work.

“I don’t think so.”

‘Unacceptable’

Between last October and this September, US authorities reported more than 2.3 million “border encounters” — a record.

The figure does not directly translate into the number of migrants, as many people try several times to cross.

Many are seeking asylum, claiming to be fleeing dangerous situations in countries such as Guatemala, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

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Venezuela has seen an explosion in cases, with more than 180,000 of its citizens intercepted at the US southern border in one year.

For Montiel, a former beauty queen who is running in Houston to become the first Venezuelan-American in Congress, the situation is “unacceptable.”

“My constituents want the border to be closed, for there to be legal migration,” she told AFP.

“Even if they are Venezuelans, I do not agree with someone entering this country breaking the law,” she added, although her former country has no diplomatic relations with Washington and no functioning US embassy.

‘Coming from poverty’

Still, in the border city of Laredo, multiple Latino voters told AFP they defined themselves as Democrats because of the party’s humanitarian position on immigration.

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“It is not dangerous here — migrants come to work,” says Gustavo Hernandez, a taxi driver who arrived 25 years ago from Mexico.

“They are just coming from poverty,” he added.

Sandra Ibarra, who spoke to AFP on her way to attend noon Mass at Laredo’s cathedral, said it was “necessary for everyone to get out and vote.”

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, “has done a lot of good things and he is trying to do everything he can to help immigrants, but the governor (Republican Greg Abbott) puts a lot of restrictions on us,” she said.

“We are at a crossroads.”

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International

Three U.S. Executions Set for Same Day as Trump Pushes to Expand Death Penalty

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, while three others —California, Oregon and Pennsylvania— currently have moratoriums in place.

The United States is set to carry out three executions on the same day, a rare occurrence that has not happened since 2010, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

President Donald Trump has sought to expand the use of capital punishment for what he describes as “the most heinous crimes.” In April, the Department of Justice proposed expanding execution methods to include firing squads, lethal gas and electrocution.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, 66, on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of a woman, according to local media.

In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez, 70, is scheduled to be executed for a 2003 murder.

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Meanwhile, Alabama plans to execute Jeremy Williams, 42, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.

The United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, the highest number since 2009, when 52 executions were recorded.

Florida conducted the largest number of executions last year, with 19, followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, with five each.

Of the executions carried out in 2025, 39 were conducted by lethal injection. Three were carried out by firing squad and five through nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves forcing nitrogen gas into a face mask, depriving the prisoner of oxygen.

The United Nations has condemned nitrogen gas as a cruel and inhumane method of capital punishment.

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International

Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Reaches 265 as Rescue Teams Race Against Time

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday, the strongest to hit the country this century, has so far left 265 people dead and around 3,500 injured.

In Cali, Pereira and other cities in western Colombia, rescue teams are working around the clock as they search for survivors. The first 72 hours following the earthquake will be reached at 7:34 a.m. local time (12:34 GMT), a critical window for rescue efforts as the chances of finding survivors generally decline significantly after that point.

Among those anxiously awaiting news is Valeria Cardona, a 26-year-old student searching for two of her cousins in Cali.

“We have some suspicions about their location, but there are no signs of life,” she said. “Hope is the last thing you lose, but we are anxious about receiving news we don’t want to hear.”

A team of members from the Topos Aztecas, the renowned Mexican volunteer rescue group, has also arrived in Cali to join the search. The rescuers had been working in neighboring Venezuela, where a double earthquake on June 24 left more than 6,000 people dead.

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“We all came from Venezuela, from La Guaira. The 41 days we spent working there made us stronger because we overcame hunger, pain and sleepless nights,” said Héctor Méndez, 80, president of Topos Aztecas.

Méndez encouraged those affected by the disaster not to lose hope and emphasized the commitment required from rescue teams during an emergency.

“Do not feel like victims. This is not an office or workshop schedule. This is real life, where the best part of the human spirit emerges. These are things of nature that happen,” he said.

International

German Authorities Investigate More Than 100 New Cases Against Convicted Nurse

German authorities announced Monday that they are investigating more than 100 additional cases involving a nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in November for the murder of 10 patients.

The man, who was 44 at the time of his conviction, worked in palliative care at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen. He was also found guilty of 27 attempted murders.

Aachen prosecutors are now examining 121 new cases, a spokesperson for the office said.

Prosecutors leading the investigation are preparing a new indictment that could be filed next year. Nearly 40 bodies have so far been exhumed as part of the investigation, which covers alleged incidents dating back to September 2022.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the city of Cologne are investigating 18 additional cases. According to a spokesperson, the oldest case dates back to 2010.

Before working at the Würselen hospital, the nurse is believed to have worked at a clinic in eastern Cologne, according to local media reports.

At the time of his November conviction, the court ruled that the severity of his crimes was particularly serious, a finding that would make it difficult for him to obtain early release after 15 years in prison.

Between December 2023 and May 2024, the nurse administered overdoses of sedatives or painkillers to terminally ill patients, most of them elderly, according to the indictment in the original case.

His alleged motive was to sedate patients who required care so that he could minimize his workload during night shifts, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the nurse worked «without enthusiasm» and «without motivation». When faced with patients requiring extensive care, he allegedly became «irritated» and showed a lack of empathy.

The case has revived painful memories in Germany of Niels Högel, a former nurse and serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 for the murders of at least 85 patients.