International
Mexico’s southern border becomes the most insecure area in the country
The main city on Mexico’s southern border, Tapachula, has become the municipality with the highest perception of insecurity in the country, in the midst of the organized crime dispute over the control of drug trafficking and people from South America, activists tell EFE.
Nine out of 10 inhabitants of this city, 91.9%, perceive that this city is unsafe, which places it in first national place in the National Survey of Urban Public Security (ENSU) published this week by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEgi).
Roberto Alejandro García, representative of the entrepreneurs of the Pedestrian Trail in Tapachula, assured EFE that the municipality is one of the most unsafe in the country for the last three years in the face of crime and the lack of control of migrants on the southern border.
The business leader said that “lately they kill people even in the center, either with bullets, machetes, stabs, and not only in the center, but in all the surroundings and colonies (neighborhos).”
“Now, currently, there are deaths every day in Tapachula, because the authorities are not able to cover Tapachula. We have 20 years with the same amount of elements that monitor, that is an irresponsibility of the state and federal government,” he said.
Between a ‘war’ and the high flow of migrants
Tapachula is the second largest city in Chiapas, a state on the southern border where the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) warned on Monday in a statement of a “civil war” scenario due to forced displacement, homicides and forced disappearances that occur in the face of organized crime disputes.
On the other hand, the mayor of Tapachula, Yamil Melgar Bravo, said last week that the municipality concentrates 60% of migrants in Mexico, where irregular migration rose by 193% year-on-year in the first half of the year to exceed 712,000 people nationwide, according to the Government’s Migration Policy Unit.
Teodoro Vázquez Castillo, general secretary of the Revolutionary Workers Federation of the State of Chiapas, regretted that all citizens are worried because they perceive “horrible” security.
“One of the factors is migration and the rest, I don’t know if with it, brings the boom of drugs, smuggling of women, of migrants who are extorted. All the northern gangs came to operate in Tapachula, I don’t know if there is no authority that marks a stop,” he said.
Promise of attention at the southern border of Mexico
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, denied on Tuesday that there is an atmosphere of “war” in Chiapas, where she said that her government is working so that “there are no displacements and pacify and avoid extortion and crimes that are occurring.”
But the director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), Luis Rey García Villagrán, pointed out that the southern border faces a crisis of insecurity and human rights, since citizens do not have confidence in any of the police corps, the streets are in dim and the surveillance cameras never work.
“The robberies of passers-by, extortion, executions, shootings, mass kidnappings, express kidnappings that did not exist, there are many canteens, drug sales,” he said.
The activist said that in Tapachula there is a fluctuating population of 70,000 unregistered people of more than 20 nationalities, so “corrupt” policemen, he denounced, take advantage of migrants.
The director of the ‘Belén’ shelter, César Augusto Cañaveral, asked for security for the migrant shelter, which also fears being a victim of organized crime.
International
Erin brings strong winds and storm surge despite weakening offshore
Hurricane Erin weakened to a Category 2 storm on Tuesday but continues to pose a threat to parts of the U.S. East Coast with potentially dangerous flooding, according to meteorologists.
Although the hurricane’s eye is expected to remain offshore, experts are concerned about Erin’s size, as strong winds extend hundreds of kilometers beyond the storm’s center.
In its 18:00 GMT bulletin, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) lifted tropical storm warnings for the Bahamasand Turks and Caicos Islands, but kept them in effect for parts of North Carolina.
Erin was located several hundred kilometers southeast of North Carolina and was moving northwestward.
“This means there is a risk of potentially life-threatening flooding of 60 to 120 centimeters above ground level,” said NHC Director Michael Brennan.
He also warned of the possibility of destructive waves, combined with storm surge, that could cause severe damage to beaches and coastal areas, making roads impassable.
International
Three U.S. Warships deploy near Venezuela to combat drug trafficking
Three U.S. naval vessels are moving toward the coasts of Venezuela, according to international media reports on Tuesday, after White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that President Donald Trump is ready to combat and curb international drug trafficking.
Reports indicate that the ships will reach Venezuelan waters within the next 36 hours as part of a recent U.S. deployment aimed at countering international narcotics operations.
The announcement coincides with Leavitt’s statement that Trump is prepared to “use the full extent of his power” to halt drug flows into the United States. The naval deployment involves approximately 4,000 military personnel.
“The President has been clear and consistent. He is ready to use every element of U.S. power to prevent drugs from flooding our country and to bring those responsible to justice. The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela—it is a narco-terror cartel,” the spokesperson said during a press conference.
International
Cuban authorities free salvadoran convicted in 1997 hotel bombing
Salvadoran national Otto René Rodríguez Llerena was released after serving a 30-year prison sentence for his involvement in a terrorist attack at a hotel in Cuba in 1997, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.
During his trial, Rodríguez Llerena admitted to placing an explosive device at the Meliá Cohiba Hotel under the orders of anti-Castro exile leaders. He was arrested the following year when he returned to Havana with another load of explosives that failed to detonate.
“The Cuban government reiterates its commitment to combating terrorism, respecting human rights, and the need for the international community to hold accountable those who promote such acts,” the statement read.
He was released on August 15 and is the second Salvadoran to complete his sentence. In December of last year, another Salvadoran, Ernesto Cruz León, was released after planting bombs at tourist centers, one of which killed an Italian tourist identified as Fabio Di Celmo.
A third Salvadoran, Francisco Chávez Abarca, also received a 30-year sentence from Cuban courts in 2010 after being extradited from Venezuela through Interpol for actions against Cuba.
Rodríguez Llerena had requested conditional release in 2016, arguing that his actions had not caused any direct fatalities, but no further information was released about his situation until now.
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