Seeking to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship.
08/05/2021
Source: InSight Crime
Families combing for clues about their vanished loved ones at recently discovered extermination sites in northern Mexico have turned to local cartel leaders for help – revealing their desperation to find any trace of the disappeared amid masses of incinerated bones.
At the end of July, families of those missing in Tamaulipas issued a letter to the Gulf Cartel faction operating in Matamoros, along the US-Mexico border.
07/27/2021
Source: AP News
Apparently, even the most bloodthirsty drug gangs can get tired of killing: Three of the warring factions of Mexico’s Gulf cartel announced Monday they have reached agreement on a truce.
Police in the state of Tamaulipas confirmed the professionally printed banners appeared in the border city of Reynosa and other cities Monday. Cartel gunmen randomly killed 15 bystanders last month in Reynosa, which is across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas.
06/23/2021
Source: AP
CIUDAD VICTORIA (AP) — The top prosecutor in Mexico’s border state of Tamaulipas said Tuesday that infighting between rival factions of the Gulf drug cartel was the motive behind a weekend shooting that killed 19 people, 15 of whom appeared to be innocent bystanders.
State prosecutor Irving Barrios told local station Radio Formula that apparently two gangs that operate just outside the border city of Reynosa launched the attack Saturday to weaken the rival Metros faction.
04/26/2021
Source: AP News
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A raging gun battle between rival Mexican drug gangs near the U.S. border left eight people dead and a string of burned-out armored trucks littering a roadway.
Residents of the northern border state of Tamaulipas said Monday the gun battles occurred Saturday and continued into Sunday in the hamlet of Santa Rosalia, located in the border township of Camargo. The residents asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
They said burned bodies were found lying in or near the burned out trucks, at least three of which had welded steel plates that served as improvised armor.
02/10/2021
Source: AP
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — When state police in northern Mexico allegedly shot 19 people, including at least 14 Guatemalan migrants, to death in late January near the border with Texas, it was a tragedy that critics say authorities had been warned could come.
In 2019, prosecutors charged that the same Tamaulipas state police unit, then operating under a different name, pulled eight people from their homes in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, posed them in clothing and vehicles to make them look like criminals, and shot them to death.
01/25/2021
Source: Reuters
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemalan Maya families said on Monday they feared relatives were among bodies found over the weekend in a remote part of northern Mexico along a route popular with migrant smugglers heading towards the U.S. border.
After receiving a tip off in the border state of Tamaulipas in northern Mexico, Mexican authorities recovered 19 bodies, many of which had gunshot wounds and were badly charred. So far, the dead have not been identified.
09/17/19 – AP News
By Maria Verza
Abel Oset was seized with panic. After an 11-country odyssey that began when he and his namesake son fled Cuba, and a brief moment on U.S. soil, he was crossing back into America.
But he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay.
The two were to plead their case in a court set up inside a tent in Laredo, beamed via video conference to a judge in another city — the latest attempt to clear a massive backlog of asylum cases.
5/7/2019 – Reuters
Authorities in the northern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas say they have detained 289 Central American migrants, including some children with measles and other illnesses.
The Tamaulipas state government says the migrants were found crammed into the freight compartments of two tractor-trailer trucks.
Authorities had to punch a hole in one of the freight containers to free the migrants, who had been transported from the Gulf coast state of Tabasco toward the U.S. border. Some of the children were also found to have chickenpox.
Week of March 10 – March 15, 2019
President Lopez Obrador reaches his 100th day in office
On Monday, President Lopez Obrador officially crossed the 100-day mark in office. He has been a powerful figure since he won the election on July 2, to say the least. Most Mexicans seem to agree, giving their folksy man-of-the-people president stratospheric approval ratings. Some recent surveys put his support above 80 percent.
BBC, El Economista, The New York Times
Salvadorian President-elect Bukele arrives in Mexico
El Salvador’s President-elect Nayib Bukele arrived in Mexico where he met with President Lopez Obrador and Secretary of Foreign Relations Ebrard. Through his Twitter account, Mr. Bukele said that he talked about migration and purposed a migratory policy designed to reduce forced migration.
El Heraldo de México, Milenio, El Heraldo de Honduras
Central American migrants go missing in Tamaulipas State
Mexican authorities created a special commission to search for 19 Central American migrants that went missing as they were traveling in an allegedly federal police-escorted bus northward to the U.S. border through Tamaulipas State. Reports hypothesize that this could be due to criminal organizations or hiring private migrant smugglers known as “polleros.”
Yasmin Esquivel Mossa is appointed Mexican Justice top officer
The Mexican Senate appointed Yasmin Esquivel Mossa as the Minister of the Nation’s Supreme Court of Justice for a period of 15 years after two voting rounds where the majority of votes came from Morena party legislators. There is vast controversy surrounding this appointment particularly due to Ms. Esquivel Mossa’s proximity to President Lopez Obrador.
La Jornada, SDP Noticias, Excelsior
President Lopez Obrador denounces “black campaign” against him
The Financial Intelligence Unit’s leader Santiago Nieto announced that the Government will present a series of accusations against the alleged financing third parties of the series “Populism in Latin America”, which was released when President Lopez Obrador was a candidate.
ABC Noticias, Animal Politico, El Sol de México
08/16/18 Reuters
Mexico’s Madero refinery has not been able to fully restart operations since it was halted in December due to planned maintenance, the chief executive of state-run Pemex said, citing technical problems at the facility.
Pemex’s domestic refineries have been operating this year at 40 percent of their total capacity of 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd) amid outages, maintenance work and low profitability at some facilities.
The Madero refinery, located in northeastern Tamaulipas state, is the smallest of Pemex’s six refineries with crude processing capacity of 190,000 bpd.
