It turns out Zoe Saldaña was more than just emotionally drained after tearfully accepting her supporting actress Oscar for “Emilia Pérez” at this year’s Academy Awards — she was also worn out physically.
The 46-year-old actor explained Wednesday on the ABC talk show “Live With Kelly and Mark” how she had been fighting a cold and felt fully exhausted immediately following one of her career-defining moments.
“I collapsed right after. I lost my voice within an hour after I won the award,” she said. “I couldn’t stand on those heels that I had. All I wanted to do was crawl in bed and maybe cry. I don’t know why, I just needed to cry.”
The “Avatar” star noted that up until that point her body was running on all cylinders for months on end during awards season.
“Your body is running on pure adrenaline so you know that your immune system is in optimal condition, but once you tell your body that it’s over, then everything sort of collapses,” Saldaña said.
The Oscar victory capped an impressive awards season run for the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor, having won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG and Critics’ Choice awards for her role as Mexico City attorney Rita Castro in “Emilia Pérez.”
While her performance was almost universally celebrated and well-regarded, the film as a whole was heavily criticized for its incomplete and offensive portrayals of transgender issues and the lack of consideration taken in depicting Mexico.
Although physically and emotionally exhausted, Saldaña managed to make some attention-grabbing statements in the Oscars press room after a Mexican journalist noted that the movie’s presentation of Mexico was “really hurtful for us Mexicans.”
“First of all, I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended,” Saldaña said in the defense of the film. “That was never our intention. We spoke and came from a place of love, and I will stand by that.”
She went on to further disagree with the Mexican journalist’s point of view regarding the centrality and importance of Mexico in the 13-time Oscar nominated movie.
“For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We were making a film about friendship. We were making a film about four women,” Saldaña explained. “And these women are still very universal women that are struggling every day, but trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find the most authentic voices.”
Outside of the issues within the film, much of the main cast and crew of the movie was bogged down by mostly self-inflicted negative press.
Actor Karla Sofía Gascón faced backlash in January after Canadian writer Sarah Hagi resurfaced tweets dating from 2016 to 2023 that spoke negatively of Muslims’ clothing, language and culture in her home country of Spain. Additionally, Gascón caught heat for resurfaced comments about the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the ensuing racial reckoning, the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19-era Academy Awards ceremony in 2021.
Gascón later apologized for her previous online remarks and deactivated her X account.
The film’s director Jacques Audiard spoke openly on record about how little he prepped to portray Mexico and denigrated the Spanish language during his press tour.
When asked by a Mexican journalist at a red carpet event about how much he had to study up on Mexico and Mexican culture to prepare for the movie, Audiard gave a telling answer.
“No, I didn’t study that much. What I needed to know, I already knew a little about,” the filmmaker said. “It was more about capturing the little details and we came a lot to Mexico to see actors, to see locations, to see the decorations and so on.”
Speaking with the French outlet Konbini, Audiard spoke down on the Spanish language, saying, “Spanish is a language of modest countries, of developing countries, of the poor and migrants.”
Audiard later apologized for his comments after the movie received backlash from Mexican audiences.
Selena Gomez, who played a pivotal supporting role in the film, was criticized for her proficiency in Spanish. Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez was among those who called out Gomez’s performance and Spanish language ability.
Gomez has previously said her Spanish fluency waned after she started working in television at age 7. She responded to the criticism on social media, saying, “I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.” Derbez later apologized.
The leaders of Canada and Mexico have criticised the latest hike in steel and aluminium tariffs under United States President Donald Trump, who increased import taxes on the metal from 25 to 50 percent.
The international condemnation came just hours after the latest tariff increase went into effect early on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the tariff increases were “unjustified”.
“They’re illegal. They’re bad for American workers, bad for American industry and, of course, for Canadian industry,” he said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meanwhile, pledged to pursue countermeasures if the Trump administration refuses to grant tariff relief. She warned that the tariffs would have a “huge impact” on Mexico’s steel and aluminium industries.
“This isn’t about an eye for an eye, but rather about protecting our industry and our jobs,” she added, without specifying what steps her government might take.
Canada calls for action
Wednesday’s tariff hike had been unveiled last Friday, when Trump held a rally with steelworkers outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
That region of the US is a part of the Rust Belt, an area that has been heavily affected by the decline in US manufacturing. Trump pledged to use tariffs and other measures to bring jobs and investments back to the area.
Previously, in March, Trump set tariffs on steel and aluminium at 25 percent. But he threatened to lift that rate to 50 percent specifically for Canadian imports of the metals, a plan he later appeared to walk back.
Those threats, however, roiled relations between the US and its northern neighbour in particular. Canada is the top supplier of steel to the US, followed by Brazil and then Mexico. South Korea and China also top the list.
Canada is also responsible for about 40 percent of aluminium imports to the US, followed by the UAE, Russia and Mexico. Carney’s government has pledged to pursue retaliatory measures so long as Trump’s tariffs remain in place.
On Wednesday, one of Canada’s largest labour unions, Unifor, called on Carney to take immediate action against the latest tariff hike, including by limiting the country’s exports of critical metals to the US.
“Unifor is urging the federal government to act without delay to defend Canada’s manufacturing sector and counter the escalating trade assault,” the union said in a statement.
Premier Doug Ford — who leads the top manufacturing province in Canada, Ontario — also called for Canada to respond in kind and “slap another 25 percent” on US steel imports.
“It’s tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar. We need to tariff the steel coming into Canada an additional 25 percent, totalling 50 percent,” Ford told reporters. “Everything’s on the table right now.”
Navigating global trade pacts
Both Canada and Mexico have been hard hit by Trump’s aggressive tariffs, which include a blanket 25-percent tax on all imports not subject to the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), as well as a separate 25-percent levy on automobile imports.
The three countries have highly integrated economies, with products like automobiles being built using supplies and factories from multiple locations.
The USMCA pact was agreed upon during Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021. But he has since signalled he hopes to renegotiate the free-trade deal to get more favourable terms for the US.
But the doubling of the US steel and aluminium tariffs is expected to have a global impact, well beyond North America.
The European Union is also bracing for the increase. The bloc’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, met US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of a meeting for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday.
“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace – and staying in close contact to maintain the momentum,” Sefcovic wrote on X afterwards.
UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also met with Greer, and he said steel and aluminium tariffs would remain at 25 percent for his country. The two countries have been in the process of forging a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement, announcing a “breakthrough” last month.
“We’re pleased that as a result of our agreement with the US, UK steel will not be subject to these additional tariffs,” a British government spokesperson said.
‘Extremely hard to make a deal’
Trump’s latest tariff hike comes days after a federal court ruled that his so-called reciprocal tariffs — which imposed customised taxes on nearly all US trading partners — were illegal.
Trump had imposed those tariffs in April, only to pause them for 90 days. The court’s ruling was quickly paused while legal proceedings continued, and Trump’s tariffs have been allowed to remain in place for now.
One of the hardest hit countries has been China, which saw US tariffs against its exports skyrocket to 145 percent earlier this year.
The Trump administration, however, has since sought to reach a deal with China to end the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The White House said on Monday that Trump would speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, raising hopes the duo could soothe tensions and speed up negotiations.
But on Wednesday, Trump appeared to dampen hopes for a quick deal.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
When asked about the remarks during a regular news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Beijing’s “principles and stance on developing Sino-US relations are consistent”.
Mexico says tariffs make ‘no sense’ as Canada seeks negotiations to remove the levies ongoing.
In a move that has reignited trade tensions with key allies, United States President Donald Trump has doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
The new rates, which came into effect early on Wednesday, raise duties from 25 percent to 50 percent. Trump says the measure is designed to bolster the struggling US metals sector.
“We started at 25 and then, after studying the data more, realised that it was a big help, but more help is needed. And so that is why the 50 [percent tariff] is starting tomorrow,” said White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett during a steel industry event in Washington on Tuesday.
The executive order applies to all trading partners except the United Kingdom, which has reached a provisional trade deal with Washington during a 90-day pause on broader tariffs.
British exports will continue to face a 25 percent rate until at least July 9.
Allies seek exemptions
The hike is expected to weigh heavily on Canada and Mexico, two of the US’s closest economic allies and among the largest suppliers of steel. Census Bureau data shows Canada alone exports more aluminium to the US than the rest of the top 10 countries combined. Almost half of the US aluminium consumption is imported.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office confirmed that “intensive and live negotiations” were ongoing to remove the tariffs.
Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard slammed the decision as irrational, noting the imbalance in steel trade between the two nations.
“It makes no sense for the United States to levy a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus,” he said, adding that Mexico would seek an exemption.
The European Union criticised the decision, saying it “strongly regrets” the move and warned it could take retaliatory action, accusing Washington of undermining attempts at a negotiated settlement.
OECD chief economist Alvaro Pereira told the AFP news agency that the tariffs have already dampened global trade, investment and consumption, and that the US will bear the brunt of the fallout.
While several of Trump’s tariff measures face legal scrutiny, they remain in force during the appeals process.
President Sheinbaum labels vote a ‘success’, but experts warn criminals could use it to infiltrate judiciary.
A landmark vote to select judges in Mexico has been labelled a “success” by the president despite a sparse turnout and widespread confusion.
Just 13 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s vote to overhaul the court system. President Claudia Sheinbaum proclaimed that the election would make Mexico more democratic, but critics accused her of seeking to take control of the judiciary, while analysts warned it could open the way for criminals to seize influence.
The vote, a cornerstone policy of Sheinbaum and predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, aimed to fill about 880 federal judicial positions, including Supreme Court justices, as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates.
But many voters said they struggled to make informed choices among a flood of largely unknown candidates, who were barred from openly disclosing party affiliations or engaging in widespread campaigning.
‘Largely empty’ polling stations
Al Jazeera’s John Holman reported from Mexico City that polling stations were “largely empty”.
“On what the government planned to be a historic day, the majority of Mexicans prefer to do something else,” he said.
Still, Sheinbaum hailed the election as “a complete success” that makes the country a democratic trailblazer.
“Mexico is a country that is only becoming more free, just and democratic because that is the will of the people,” the president said.
The reform, defended by supporters as necessary to cleanse a corrupt justice system, was originally championed by Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the old judiciary.
‘Painstaking process’
Experts had warned that turnout would be unusually low due to the sheer number of candidates and the unfamiliarity of judicial voting.
To be properly informed, voters “would have to spend hours and hours researching the track record and the profiles of each of the hundreds of candidates”, said David Shirk, a professor at the University of San Diego.
That concern was echoed by voters at the polls.
“We are not very prepared,” said Lucia Calderon, a 63-year-old university teacher. “I think we need more information.”
Francisco Torres de Leon, a 62-year-old retired teacher in southern Mexico, called the process “painstaking because there are too many candidates and positions that they’re going to fill”.
Beyond logistical challenges, analysts and rights groups raised fears that powerful criminal groups could use the elections to further infiltrate the judiciary.
While corruption already exists, “there is reason to believe that elections may be more easily infiltrated by organised crime than other methods of judicial selection”, said Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
Although all candidates were supposed to have legal experience, no criminal record and a “good reputation”, several have been linked to organised crime and corruption scandals.
Rights group Defensorxs identified about 20 candidates it considers “high risk”, including Silvia Delgado, a former lawyer for Sinaloa cartel cofounder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Another candidate, in Durango state, previously served nearly six years in a US prison for drug offences.
Election results are expected in the coming days. A second round of judicial elections is scheduled for 2027 to fill hundreds more positions.
The housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga has become a no-go area, with gang violence a regular feature of an abandoned project that is now crumbling into the ground
Tlajomulco de Zúñiga has become known as the ‘Mexican Chernobyl’(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A big ‘no entry’ sign hangs ominously above the entrance to an abandoned town known as the ‘MexicanChernobyl‘.
Unlike the Ukrainian town, which was evacuated following the nuclear meltdown of 1986, the housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga is not empty of almost all human life as a consequence of a futuristic energy solution gone wrong.
The housing complex was built with the people of the Guadalajara district in mind, designed to provide safe, spacious homes for families there. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, there are 70,000 homes in Tlajomulco. Just 12 years after they were built, all of them are empty.
It takes a brave soul to visit the abandoned town. The unfinished buildings tower ominously over the empty streets. Many have no windows and have been battered by the elements. Plants have broken through the cracks in the brickwork, upon which graffiti has been slapped.
The town has become a hotbed of crime(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Inside some, there are hundreds of scratches on the wall. In others, food and clothing have been scattered on the floor. The properties are occasionally frequented by homeless people looking for shelter for the night, although they have a long 20-mile journey from the bustling centre of Guadalajara over swaying fields of grass that seem to hold in the silence of the eerie settlement.
The area is under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), reports Info Bae, meaning the YouTubers, media outlets and tourists who venture to the housing complex for a poke around do so at no small risk to themselves.
In the last six years, the area has become a go-to place for those looking to get rid of a body. Officials found 54 bodies in clandestine graves in the area in December 2019, and a further 110 in July 2020, reports La Jornada.
Next to the unfinished buildings are apartment blocks that stand over them, both a legacy of the construction company that went bust in 2014. The Mexican Army set up one of its bases in one of these apartment towers.
Mexico has a huge number of abandoned homes, with some estimates putting the total nationwide into the millions. As in the case of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, housing estates are built on the outskirts of urban centres specifically for working people and their families.
Few people remain living there (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
During periods of wage stagnation and inflation, many have defaulted on unfavourable mortgages. At the same time, construction firms, including the one responsible for Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, have struggled to complete ambitious jobs. Some of the homes in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga are finished and ready for habitation, while other sections consist of half-built shells.
Some families still live in the housing complex, but it is a far cry from the brief period when a majority of the buildings were occupied. The remaining few live under a cloud of fear. “Those who stayed are living under a self-imposed curfew. At 6pm no one leaves their homes, and outside, only the wind and criminals roam the streets,” La Jornada adds.
Guillermina Sánchez is one of the limited number still living in estate, along with her husband. She adheres to the 6pm curfew after her partner was badly beaten while leaving their home, NMas reports.
I still remember the goal that made me feel lucky for living in Los Angeles during the era of Carlos Vela.
It was a cool Wednesday night in August 2019, and I was standing in the 200-level section of what is now known as BMO Stadium, trying to process what I had just seen. In the 41st minute of the match against the visiting San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Football Club winger Diego Rossi fed Vela the ball a few yards outside the opponent’s box. The Mexico-born player effortlessly avoided a sliding tackle from behind, dribbled past a helpless defender and juked the keeper out of position, who fell to the ground, leaving the goal wide open. Another Quakes defender tried desperately to prevent the inevitable, but Vela easily sidestepped him and casually tapped the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the night, and his 26th of the season.
Newsletter
You’re reading Latinx Files
Fidel Martinez delves into the latest stories that capture the multitudes within the American Latinx community.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
It was the textbook definition of a golazo.
LAFC would go on to win 4-0, another victory in the team’s historic run to clinch the Supporters’ Shield, the first ever piece of hardware for the expansion team. Vela would finish the 2019 season with 34 goals (a single-season Major League Soccer record that still stands), 15 assists and MVP honors, delivering what many consider to be the single greatest individual performance in a season in league history.
On Tuesday, Vela, 36, announced his retirement from professional soccer. After nearly two decades of playing in four different countries; after representing Mexico at the international level in 72 matches; and after helping LAFC win two Supporters’ Shields and an MLS Cup, Charlie Candle is hanging up his cleats and calling it quits.
“Helping to build LAFC and winning trophies for the club is a highlight of my career,” Vela said via a statement released by the team. “This club means so much to me and my family, and I am proud of everything we have accomplished together with the great fans of Los Angeles.”
LAFC also announced that Vela would remain with the team as a club ambassador.
Learning of Vela’s retirement made me reflect on the feeling of excitement I felt that evening. I remember pulling up the highlight on YouTube and watching it over and over again. He was a wizard on the pitch, making the impossible look so easy and effortless. With each viewing, my admiration gave way to appreciation. I was thankful that the most gifted footballer in Mexican history was playing in my city, and that I could witness his greatness firsthand.
I didn’t always feel this way.
When LAFC announced in 2017, months before its inaugural season, that Vela would be its first star player, I was disappointed. Like most fans of the Mexican men’s national team, I interpreted his decision to leave Spanish club Real Sociedad for a U.S. team with no legacy or history as strictly a business move. Since launching in 1996, MLS has frequently attracted some of the biggest Mexican soccer legends. Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Rafa Marquez, Jorge Campos, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Hermosillo, Hugo Sanchez all played for MLS clubs during the waning years of their careers.
Vela, who was 28 at the time, was still in his prime. His successful multiyear stint in La Liga proved that he could go toe to toe with the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I wanted him to stay where he was, or at least move to a bigger European club. I felt that it was his obligation to sharpen his skills against the world’s best so that he could give Mexico a better chance at winning the World Cup, or, at the very least, move past the Round of 16 stage of the tournament. Never mind that Vela had already opted out of playing at the 2014 World Cup because of a strained relationship with the Mexican federation for non-soccer reasons.
Vela was the chosen one. He was a key member of the Mexico squad that won the 2005 FIFA under-17 World Cup (Vela was the tournament’s top goalscorer), and was at one point signed to English Premier League club Arsenal, which saw the young striker/winger as a potential heir to French superstar Thierry Henry.
For many, Vela choosing to play in the U.S. felt like a betrayal, and it further legitimized the accusation that Vela was perfectly fine squandering his talent. The prevailing narrative was that he treated soccer as nothing more than a job. The enigmatic footballer didn’t help his case by telling the press that he would much rather “watch a basketball game than a soccer one.”
My very strong feelings about what Carlos Vela should do with his career and his life didn’t stop me from going to LAFC’s home opener months later. Did I think he was slumming it? Absolutely. But he was still in his prime! And it just so happened that the small pond Vela chose to be a big fish in was a few miles from my house.
As the season progressed, my curiosity turned into casual interest, which quickly morphed into fandom. I even bought merch, a line I told myself I would never cross. Vela single-handedly made someone who had always looked at MLS with suspicion all of a sudden care about what happened in the league. My biggest soccer loves will forever be Club América and Liga MX, but Vela forced me to make some room in my heart for the black and gold.
None of this would have been possible if Vela had mailed it in. In all the times I watched him play, whether in person or on television, I never got the impression that he was going through the motions. He always fought hard for the ball and constantly tried to be the best player on the pitch. It was as if Vela derived pleasure in being a human highlight reel.
Los Angeles FC’s Carlos Vela hoists the trophy alongside teammates after defeating the Philadelphia Union in a penalty-kick shootout to win the MLS Cup soccer match Nov. 5, 2022, in Los Angeles.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
When LAFC finally won the MLS Cup in 2022, defeating the Philadelphia Union in penalties, it was an overjoyed Vela who lifted the trophy. He didn’t look like someone who was just clocking in and out. Vela embraced living in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles immediately embraced him back. I imagine that living in a universe full of stars afforded him some reprieve from the media scrutiny he has been subjected to for two decades. I’m sure it made it easier to love the game.
MLS and LAFC are deeply indebted to Vela. His move to L.A. helped an expansion club become one of the best teams in the league, as well as the most valuable soccer franchise in North America. According to Sportico, a news outlet specializing in the intersection of sports and business, LAFC has a $1.2-billion valuation, making it the 16th most valuable soccer franchise in the world.
“From the beginning, Carlos has been more than just a player — he has been the heartbeat, the captain, and the face of LAFC,” John Thorrington, the team’s co-president and general manager, said via a statement. “Carlos arrived in Los Angeles with a shared vision of building something truly special, and he delivered on that promise in every way. From unforgettable goals to historic victories, Carlos helped make LAFC what it is today.”
Sounds like the club ought to build Vela a statue. They can certainly afford it.
Do I still wish that he had played more for Mexico, or tried to max out his potential in Europe? Absolutely.
But I also can’t begrudge another Mexican for finding his bliss in our fair city. That would make me a hypocrite.
Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber.
New music we’re vibing to: ‘Gorgeous,’ by Isabella Lovestory
Beginning this week, the Latinx Files will feature a section that highlights new releases that have caught our ear.
In fusing Y2K-era bubblegum with racy reggaetón coqueteo, Honduran singer-producer Isabella Lovestory has successfully captured the femme fatale spirit of the modern Latina baddie. She garnered ample buzz for her neo-perreo fusion in 2020’s “Mariposa,” and continues the momentum in her new single “Gorgeous,” a confidence-boosting track sung in Spanglish. Evoking the slinky pop-adjacent bounce of R&B legends like Aaliyah and Destiny’s Child, “Gorgeous” will appear on Lovestory’s upcoming album “Vanity,” out June 27.
— Suzy Exposito
Comic: Good immigrant, bad immigrant.
Periodically, the newsletter will feature a comic strip from a contributing artist. This week’s offering comes courtesy of Julio Salgado, a queer Mexicano-born artist who grew up in Long Beach, Calif. Through the use of art, Salgado has become a well-known activist within the DREAM Act movement. Salgado uses his art to empower undocumented and queer people by telling their story and putting a human face to the issue.
(Julio Salgado/For De Los)
Stories we read this week that we think you should read
An outpost for Chicano culture in Vietnam attracts community — and occasional concerns among older generations inclined to associate tattoos with gangs.
On the heels of his performance at Chicago’s Sueños Festival, the Mexican singer-songwriter talks about his upcoming album, his first headlining U.S. tour and the true meaning of his big hit, “Tu Boda.”
From the beginning, the reforms were controversial. Thousands of court workers went on strike to protest the constitutional amendment. Some protesters even stormed the Senate building.
Critics accused the Morena party of seeking to strengthen its grip on power by electing sympathetic judges. Already, the party holds majorities in both chambers of Congress, as well as the presidency.
Opponents also feared the elections would lead to unqualified candidates taking office.
Under the new regulations, candidates must have a law degree, experience in legal affairs, no criminal record and letters of recommendation.
Candidates also had to pass evaluation committees, comprised of representatives from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
And yet, some of the final candidates have nevertheless raised eyebrows. One was arrested for trafficking methamphetamine. Another is implicated in a murder investigation. Still more have been accused of sexual misconduct.
Arias suspects that some candidates slipped through the screening process due to the limited resources available to organise the election.
She noted that the National Election Institute had less than 10 months to arrange the elections, since the reforms were only passed in September.
“The timing is very rushed,” she said.
One of the most controversial hopefuls in Sunday’s election is Silvia Delgado, a lawyer who once defended the cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman.
She is now campaigning to be a judge in Ciudad Juarez, in the border state of Chihuahua.
Despite her high-profile client, Delgado told Al Jazeera that the scrutiny over her candidacy is misplaced: She maintains she was only doing her job as a lawyer.
“Having represented this or that person does not make you part of a criminal group,” she said.
Rather, she argues that it is Mexico’s incumbent judges who deserve to be under the microscope. She claimed many of them won their positions through personal connections.
“They got in through a recommendation or through a family member who got them into the judiciary,” she said.
President Sheinbaum has likewise framed the elections as part of the battle against nepotism and self-dealing in the judicial system.
“This is about fighting corruption,” Sheinbaum said in one of her morning news briefings. “This is the defence of the Mexican people for justice, for honesty, for integrity.”
Relatives of five members of the band Fugitivo, aged between 20 and 40, received ransom demands after their abduction.
Drug cartel members are suspected of murdering five Mexican band members, who went missing after being hired to perform a concert in a crime-ridden city in the northeast of the country.
The Diario de Mexico newspaper said on Thursday that the bodies of the five musicians had been discovered after they went missing on Sunday, and nine suspects were arrested in connection with their abduction and killing.
According to authorities, the nine suspects are part of the “Los Metros” faction of the Gulf Cartel, which operates in the city of Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, near the United States border.
“Law enforcement arrested nine individuals considered likely responsible for the events. They are known to be members of a criminal cell of the Gulf Cartel,” Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios told a news conference.
Tamaulipas is considered one of Mexico’s most dangerous states due to the presence of cartel members involved in drug and migrant trafficking, as well as other crimes, including extortion.
The announcement of the arrests came hours after officials said five bodies had been found in the search for the men, who were members of a local band called Fugitivo.
The musicians were hired to put on a concert on Sunday but arrived to find that the location of their proposed performance was a vacant lot, according to family members who had held a protest urging the authorities to act.
Relatives had reported receiving ransom demands for the musicians, who were aged between 20 and 40 years old.
Mexican musicians have been targeted previously by cartel members amid rivalry, as some receive payment to compose and perform songs that glorify the exploits of gang leaders.
Investigators used video surveillance footage and mobile phone tracking to establish the musicians’ last movements, Barrios said.
Nine firearms and two vehicles were seized, he said.
More than 480,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence and organised crime, and about 120,000 people have gone missing, in Mexico.
Initials of the Gulf Cartel (Cartel del Golfo) drug gang and a heart cover a wall at the entrance to an abandoned low-income housing complex in Ciudad Mier, Mexico, in 2010 [File: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP]
A look at the gang at the centre of US President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
Tren de Aragua was a little-known gang in Venezuela – until recently. US President Donald Trump’s focus on the group has thrust it into the spotlight, as hundreds of Venezuelans have been deported from the United States.
Today on The Stream: We dive into the space between cultural appropriation and appreciation.
Where’s the line between sharing a culture and stealing it? In a globalised world, borrowing is easy – but honoring is harder. We explore everything from re-branded recipes to re-imagined identities. What’s at stake when heritage becomes a trend?
Presenter: Stefanie Dekker
Guests: Fadi Kattan – Chef and author Richie Richardson – Professor at Cornell University Nikki Apostolou – Content creator
Federal prosecutors in the US will not seek the death sentence for Joaquin Guzman Lopez if he is found guilty at trial, court documents show.
Federal prosecutors in the United States said they will not seek the death penalty for the son of Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” if he is found guilty of multiple drug trafficking charges when he goes on trial.
According to media reports, federal prosecutors in Chicago filed a one-sentence notice on May 23, saying they would not seek the death penalty for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – the former leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa Cartel who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
The notice did not offer any explanation for the decision by the federal prosecutors, or further details.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 38, was indicted in 2023 along with three of his brothers – known as the “Chapitos”, or little Chapos – on US drug trafficking and money laundering charges after assuming leadership of their father’s drug cartel when “El Chapo” was extradited to the US in 2017.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that he was pleased with the federal prosecutors’ decision, “as it’s the correct one”.
“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.
Jeffrey Lichtman, lawyer for El Chapo’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, speaks to the media as his client is set to make his initial US court appearance in Chicago, Illinois, in July 2024 [Vincent Alban/Reuters]
Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to the five charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering against him, one of which carries the maximum sentence of death as it was allegedly carried out on US territory.
He was taken into US custody in a dramatic July 2024 arrest alongside alleged Sinaloa Cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on a New Mexico airfield.
Zambada has also pleaded not guilty. But his lawyer told the Reuters news agency that he would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to spare him the death penalty.
Another of the brothers, Ovidio Guzman, is expected to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges against him at a court hearing in Chicago on July 9, according to court records.
“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Deysi Vargas’ daughter was nearly 2½ when she took her first steps.
The girl was a year delayed because she had spent most of her short life in a hospital in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, tethered to feeding tubes 24 hours a day. She has short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that prevents her body from completely absorbing the nutrients of regular food.
Vargas and her husband were desperate to get their daughter, whom The Times is identifying by her initials, S.G.V., better medical care. In 2023, they received temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally through Tijuana.
Now in Bakersfield, the family received notice last month that their legal status had been terminated. The letter warned them: “It is in your best interest to avoid deportation and leave the United States of your own accord.”
But doing so would put S.G.V., now a bubbly 4-year-old, at immediate risk of death.
“This is a textbook example of medical need,” said the family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment.
S.G.V.’s medication is stored in a small refrigerator.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where the girl regularly receives treatment, declined to comment. But in a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Arsenault of CHLA wrote that he sees the girl every six weeks.
If there is an interruption in her daily nutrition system, called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), the doctor wrote, “this could be fatal within a matter of days.”
“As such, patients on home TPN are not allowed to leave the country because the infrastructure to provide TPN or provide immediate intervention if there is a problem with IV access depends on our program’s utilization of U.S.-based healthcare resources and does not transfer across borders,” Arsenault wrote.
Vargas, 28, is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca; her husband, 34, is from Colombia. They met in Cancun, where they were working. Just before S.G.V. was born, the couple moved to nearby Playa del Carmen so her husband could work as an Uber driver.
The girl was born a month premature and quickly taken to intensive care. After doctors discovered her condition, she underwent six surgeries to fix an intestinal blockage. But Vargas said the doctors cut out too much, and the girl was left with short bowels. She experienced repeated blood infections, including one that nearly killed her.
The girl’s weight fluctuated severely. One month, she would look emaciated, her tiny limbs and bulging stomach incongruous with the family’s relative access to resources. Another month, she was as round-cheeked as any other baby.
When S.G.V. was 7 months old, a doctor suggested that the family relocate to Mexico City, where pediatric care for short bowel syndrome was the best in the country. But although her condition initially improved, the blood infections continued.
Unable to work, Vargas spent all day, every day, at the hospital with her daughter. Some days, she said, nurses would mistakenly administer the wrong medication to S.G.V. Other days, Vargas would arrive to find that her daughter had thrown up on herself overnight and no one had cleaned her up.
As part of her daily routine, Deysi Vargas runs a saline solution through her daughter’s intravenous line.
Vargas tried to keep a watchful eye over her daughter. Even so, she said a nurse once mistakenly sped up S.G.V.’s nutrition system, causing her to quickly pee it out. The girl became dehydrated and her glucose levels skyrocketed before doctors whisked her to intensive care, where her condition stabilized.
S.G.V. as a baby, taken in Mexico before treatment for short bowel syndrome.
(Deysi Vargas)
Vargas had read about children similar to her daughter going on to have normal lives in other countries. In Mexico, her daughter was being kept alive — but at 2, her condition had not improved.
So when Vargas learned that the Biden administration had begun offering migrants appointments with border agents through a phone application called CBP One, she signed up. Those let in received two-year protection from deportation and work permits.
With the appointment set for July 31, 2023, Vargas and her family set out for Tijuana two days earlier. She carefully carried her daughter out of the hospital, her nutrition bags still connected intravenously.
Her husband told agents that he had once been kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico who extorted money and threatened to kill him. They also looked at the girl, whose vulnerable condition was obvious.
“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas said. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”
By that afternoon, the family had been whisked to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego.
S.G.V. quickly improved. Although she once was hooked up 24 hours a day to the feeding system that delivered nutrients directly into the bloodstream, doctors began weaning her off as her intestines got stronger.
The Trump administration has revoked the family’s humanitarian parole that they received in 2023 to treat the 4-year-old girl’s short bowel syndrome. Doctors say she could die within days without treatment.
A year later, doctors referred her to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the top-ranked gastroenterology programs in the country.
Both of her parents worked, holding down odd jobs, and by September 2024, the family had settled in Bakersfield and S.G.V. was discharged from the hospital.
For the first time, S.G.V. experienced the outside world. At Walmart, her eyes widened from the shopping cart and she and her mom strolled the aisles.
“It was incredible,” Vargas said. “I had waited so long for doctors to tell me, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is OK now. She can go home.’”
Now, the girl spends 14 hours each night hooked up to the intravenous feeding system. She wears a backpack to take it on the go.
Four times a day, for an hour, her mom administers a different type of nutrition that goes straight into her stomach through a gastric tube. When the girl goes to preschool, she takes a larger backpack containing the milky fluid, and the school nurse administers her noon feeding.
Before S.G.V. takes a shower, Vargas unplugs her IV tubes, flushes them with saline and tapes a plastic sheet over her chest to keep water from getting in and infecting the area.
On a recent morning, Vargas dressed the girl in pink leggings, a Hello Kitty T-shirt and black Puma sneakers. As they left hand-in-hand for preschool, S.G.V.’s curly black hair was still wet and the adult-size backpack dangled behind her knees as she walked.
S.G.V.’s care is covered through Medi-Cal. But life in the U.S. isn’t cheap.
Their modest living room contains little more than a hot plate on a folding table, a mini-fridge, a single chair and an IV bag stand. With no full kitchen, Vargas mostly makes sandwiches or soups. The fridge is filled with S.G.V.’s nutrition packs.
Vargas recently found steady work cleaning a restaurant. Finally, she thought, the family was achieving a sense of stability.
Then in April she received the notice from immigration authorities. This month, she received a notice terminating her employment authorization.
Vargas said she and her husband sometimes eat just once a day after paying rent and utilities, as well as for diapers and other necessities. Her husband is currently unemployed because of an injury, and she fears that losing her income could leave them homeless.
The thought of being forced by immigration agents to return to Mexico terrifies Vargas.
“I know the treatment they have there for her is not adequate, because we already lived it,” she said. “Those were bad times. Here she is living the most normal life possible.”
If not for her daughter’s medical condition, Vargas said, they probably would still be in Mexico. They want to stay only for as long as the girl needs treatment. Exactly how long that could be is unclear, but the couple are hopeful that their child’s condition will improve enough that she stops requiring supplemental nutrition.
Brown, their lawyer, submitted a petition for a continuation of their temporary humanitarian legal status based on S.G.V.’s medical condition. She believes the family’s legal status was prematurely terminated by mistake.
President Trump lambasted Biden over his broad expansion of programs allowing humanitarian entry, known as parole. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order to ensure that the discretionary authority be “exercised on only a case-by-case basis” for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.
Deysi Vargas and her daughter, S.G.V., walk about 15 minutes to the child’s preschool.
“This is the intended purpose — to help the most vulnerable who need attention here,” Brown said. “We can avoid having harmed the child and the family.”
Although Trump said on the campaign trail that he would target criminals for deportation, his administration quickly began revoking the legal status of immigrants who have no criminal history.
The Trump administration has stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. under various Biden-era programs. Thousands of people who similarly entered the country using the CBP One app received notices from the federal government around the same time Vargas did, ordering them to leave voluntarily or face criminal prosecution and other legal actions.
The same phone app that Vargas used to enter the country has since been turned into CBP Home, to help immigrants such as her self-deport. If not, it says, “the federal government will find you.”
Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun in Bakersfield contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — Asylum seekers under the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy whose cases were closed — many for reasons beyond their control, including kidnappings and court rulings against the government — will now be able to come into the U.S. to pursue asylum claims, the Biden administration said Tuesday.
The administration on Wednesday will begin to allow the first of thousands with closed cases to pursue their asylum claims within the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced. More than 30,000 migrants could potentially be eligible, according to government data.
“As part of our continued effort to restore safe, orderly, and humane processing at the Southwest Border, DHS will expand the pool” of asylum seekers eligible for processing, the department said in a statement, including those “who had their cases terminated or were ordered removed in absentia.”
But when President Biden took office and began winding down the policy that he sharply criticized, his administration allowed only asylum seekers under Remain in Mexico — formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols — whose immigration cases remained open to enter the United States.
Since February, the Biden administration has permitted entry to some 12,000 asylum seekers with pending Migrant Protection Protocols cases, according to the United Nations refugee agency, the primary organization processing them. At the same time, Biden officials have urged patience from those whose cases were closed, promising a second phase.
Advocates and experts welcomed the move to begin admitting those asylum seekers, but criticized the administration’s slowness on restoring access.
“A delay of that kind would have to be driven by political considerations, not legal or purely administrative ones,” said Austin Kocher, an assistant professor at Syracuse University. “It flags a larger question: Is the Biden administration serious about following its national and international obligations to asylum law?”
For many asylum seekers, it is too late. From January 2019, when the Trump administration first implemented the policy in Southern California, to when Biden froze the program on his first day in office, roughly 70,000 migrants were sent by U.S. officials to wait in some of the world’s most dangerous cities just south of the border.
More than 1,500 of them suffered rape, kidnapping and assault, according to Human Rights First. And those numbers have continued to rise during Biden’s presidency, through a combination of policies that have left tens of thousands stuck on the southern side of the border.
“Why it’s taken so long is obviously of concern, because those people who are still in Mexico are still suffering and in dangerous situations,” said Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued then-President Trump over the policy.
Biden administration officials have acknowledged this grim toll, even as they continue to send asylum seekers — some with Migrant Protection Protocols cases — to Mexico again, invoking a Trump-era coronavirus policy. Citing Title 42, an obscure 1944 public health law, border officials have summarily expelled more than 850,000 migrants, including asylum seekers, this time without a court date or due process.
“Having Title 42 still in place at the same time that the administration is claiming to try and fix cases in Remain in Mexico presents the administration with a fundamental contradiction between what they claim to be doing and the way that border control is actually working on the ground,” said Kocher.
Biden froze Migrant Protection Protocols on his first day in office, though it had already largely been supplanted by Trump’s coronavirus expulsions policy. But the Biden administration did not formally end Remain in Mexico until June 1.
In the memo ending the policy, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said it had further strained department resources and added to a record backlog in immigration court proceedings.
More than 25% of those subjected to the policy were apprehended by border officials when they attempted to enter again, Mayorkas said, and roughly 44% of cases were completed by judges’ orders to remove asylum seekers who missed their hearings.
That raised questions about whether the program provided them “adequate opportunity” to appear, he said, “and whether conditions faced by some MPP enrollees in Mexico, including the lack of stable access to housing, income, and safety, resulted in the abandonment of potentially meritorious protection claims.”
Advocates argue that migrants subjected to Migrant Protection Protocols who received final decisions from immigration judges denying their asylum claims also deserve to be given another opportunity to seek asylum in accordance with U.S. law.
On Tuesday, the Homeland Security Department statement reiterated that others who may be eligible to enter in the future “should stay where they are currently located and register online” through a system administered by the United Nations.
“This is what they wanted, and this is what they got: People couldn’t get asylum,” Rabinovitz said of Trump administration officials. Now with Biden in the White House, she continued, “we’re saying no — in order to unwind it, you need to give people a new opportunity to apply for asylum, free of that taint.”
U.S. border officials frequently committed errors while administering the Remain in Mexico policy, The Times found. That included serving asylum seekers paperwork in languages they did not speak, or writing the phrase “domicilio conocido” — “known address” — or simply “Tijuana” — a Mexican border city of some 2 million people — on their paperwork, instead of a legally required address. That made it nearly impossible for applicants to be notified of changes to their cases or court dates.
These missteps by U.S. border officials also fueled federal judges’ rulings against the policy.
In one ruling, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge said Homeland Security’s procedures for implementing the policy were “so ill-suited to achieving that stated goal as to render them arbitrary and capricious.”
But the Supreme Court never ultimately ruled on the legality of Migrant Protection Protocols. In early February, the Biden administration asked the nation’s highest court to cancel arguments on the policy. Opponents in several states sued, arguing that the Biden administration cannot end it.
On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected that effort, ordering: “The motion to intervene is dismissed as moot.”
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration late Friday to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man it deported to Mexico in spite of his fears of being harmed there.
The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge’s order at the time. But the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found probably “lacked any semblance of due process.”
Mexico has since returned him to Guatemala, where he is in hiding, according to court documents. An earlier court proceeding determined that the man, identified by the initials O.C.G., risked persecution or torture if returned to Guatemala, but said he also feared returning to Mexico. He presented evidence of being raped and held for ransom in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S.
“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,” Murphy wrote. “In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said O.C.G. was in the country illegally, was “granted withholding of removal to Guatemala” and was instead sent to Mexico, which she said was “a safe third option for him, pending his asylum claim.”
McLaughlin called the judge a “federal activist judge” and said the administration expects to be vindicated by a higher court.
Murphy’s order adds to a string of findings by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations. Those have included other deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran who had lived as a legal U.S. resident in Maryland for 14 years while working and raising a family.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. from a notorious prison in El Salvador, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. The White House and the Salvadoran president have said they are powerless to return him. The Trump administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege, arguing that releasing details in open court — or even to the judge in private — about returning Abrego Garcia to the United States would jeopardize national security.
In his Friday ruling, Murphy nodded to the dispute over the verb “facilitate” in that case and others, saying that returning O.C.G. to the U.S. is not complicated.
“The Court notes that ‘facilitate’ in this context should carry less baggage than in several other notable cases,” he wrote. “O.C.G. is not held by any foreign government. Defendants have declined to make any argument that facilitating his return would be costly, burdensome, or otherwise impede the government’s objectives.”
Genaro Garcia Luna, formerly a high-ranking government official, is serving a 38-year sentence for accepting bribes.
A Florida court has ordered Mexico’s former head of public security to pay more than $748m to his home country for his alleged involvement in government corruption.
Thursday’s ruling brought to a close a civil case first filed in September 2021 by the Mexican government.
The case centred on Genaro Garcia Luna, who served as Mexico’s security chief from 2006 to 2012. Garcia Luna is currently serving more than 38 years in a United States prison for allegedly accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
The Mexican government alleges that Garcia Luna also stole millions in taxpayer funds, and it has pledged to seek restitution, namely by filing a legal complaint in Miami, Florida, where it says some of the illegal activity took place.
On Thursday, Judge Lisa Walsh in Miami-Dade County not only required Garcia Luna to pay millions, but she also ordered his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, to pay $1.7bn. Altogether, the total neared $2.4bn.
In its initial 2021 complaint, the Mexican government – led at the time by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – accused Garcia Luna, his wife and their co-defendants of having “concealed funds stolen from the government” and smuggling the money to places like Barbados and the US.
“Under the direction of the Defendant GARCIA LUNA, the funds unlawfully taken from the government of MEXICO were used to build a money-laundering empire,” the complaint wrote.
It alleged those funds were used to finance “lavish lifestyles” for Garcia Luna and his co-conspirators, including real estate holdings, bank accounts and vintage cars, among them Mustangs from the 1960s and ’70s.
A demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Spanish, ‘Garcia Luna is guilty’, in New York on February 21, 2023 [John Minchillo/AP Photo]
Separately, Garcia Luna faced criminal charges for corruption, with US authorities accusing him of pocketing millions while in office for working on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel.
Through his work with Mexico’s federal police and as its security chief, US prosecutors say Garcia Luna accessed information that he later used to tip off the Sinaloa cartel, letting them know about investigations and the movements of rival criminal groups.
Garcia Luna was also accused of helping the cartel move its shipments of cocaine to destinations like the US, sometimes using Mexico’s federal police as bodyguards – and even allowing cartel members to wear official uniforms.
In exchange, prosecutors say the cartel left money for him in hiding places, one of which was a French restaurant across the street from the US embassy in Mexico City. Some bundles of cash – offered in $100 bills – totalled up to $10,000.
After leaving office in 2012, Garcia Luna moved to the US. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His defence lawyers have described him as a successful businessman living in Florida.
But in February 2023, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Garcia Luna on drug-related charges, including international cocaine conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. The following year, in October, he was sentenced to decades in prison.
The Mexican government, however, alleged in its civil lawsuit that Garcia Luna also led a “government-contracting scheme” that included bid-tampering and striking dubious deals as a form of money laundering.
Those contracts included deals for surveillance and communications equipment. The Associated Press news agency reported that one such contract was falsified, and others were inflated.
Garcia Luna is the highest-level Mexican government official to be convicted in the US.
Mexico’s femicide crisis is back in the headlines after beauty influencer Valeria Marquez was murdered on a live stream.
The world was shocked when a gunman shot and killed Mexican influencer Valeria Marquez while she livestreamed herself at a beauty salon. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government says it will investigate the murder as a possible case of femicide. Will it mark a turning point for a nation that has long struggled with staggering levels of gender-based violence?
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada pledges to continue ‘relentless fight against insecurity’.
Two top aides to the mayor of Mexico City have been shot dead in the latest attack against public officials in the Latin American country.
Private secretary Ximena Guzman and adviser Jose Munoz were shot dead on Tuesday in an early morning ambush in the central neighbourhood of Moderna, city authorities said.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada condemned the killings and pledged to continue her administration’s “relentless fight against insecurity”.
“Investigating, clarifying and ensuring there is no impunity is our commitment,” Brugada said during a news conference.
Mexico has one of the highest murder rates on the planet, largely due to violence driven by drug cartels, but the capital is known for its relative security compared with the rest of the country.
Reporting from Mexico City, Al Jazeera’s John Holman said there had been 50 political murders in the country in the first three months of the year alone, though political killings are relatively rare in the capital.
“The reasons for this one are still unknown. But there are powerful criminal groups in the capital fighting for territory and control of lucrative rackets,” Holman said.
“Politicians can get in the way, as elsewhere in the country.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a Brugada ally who previously served as the capital’s mayor, expressed condolences over the killings and said her government would ensure that “justice is served”.
“We express our solidarity and support for the families of these two individuals who have worked in our movement for a long time,” Sheinbaum said.
“We know them, we stand with their families, and we will give her [Brugada] all the support the city needs from the Mexican government.”
In 2020, Mexico City’s security chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch, survived an ambush by gunmen that killed two of his bodyguards and a bystander.
