<![CDATA[EL PAÍS]]>

<![CDATA[EL PAÍS]]>https://english.elpais.comSat, 16 May 2026 21:42:49 +0000en1hourly1<![CDATA[A new crime map for Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-15/a-new-crime-map-for-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-15/a-new-crime-map-for-mexico.htmlSun, 15 Mar 2026 04:30:00 +0000First, César Sepúlveda, “El Bótox,” fell in late January in Michoacán, and just a day later, Ryan Wedding followed suit, supposedly surrendering in Mexico City. In the following weeks, authorities focused on southern Sinaloa, besieged by the brutality of a cell linked to Los Chapitos, while the army, in Jalisco, orchestrated its major operation: the capture of the elusive leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — the vast criminal network spanning the Americas — Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho.” His death in a shootout with the military confirms the Mexican authorities’ intensified fight against crime. But the disappearance of various figures from the criminal chess board leaves the cartels without leadership and ushers in a period of uncertainty, in which violence looms as a menacing possibility.

]]>Jose Luis Gonzalez<![CDATA[What Mexico has gained and lost from its economic relationship with Chavista Venezuela]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-02-21/what-mexico-has-gained-and-lost-from-its-economic-relationship-with-chavista-venezuela.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-02-21/what-mexico-has-gained-and-lost-from-its-economic-relationship-with-chavista-venezuela.htmlSat, 21 Feb 2026 04:30:00 +0000Venezuela went from being one of Mexico’s commercial partners in the early 2000s to now representing just 0.005% of national imports. The collapse of the Venezuelan economy — which worsened after 2013 with severe contractions of its GDP — has strained bilateral trade in recent years, during which Mexican companies operating in the country withdrew due to the risk of non‑payment and the lack of legal certainty. Today, exchanges between the two countries have seen an uptick in foreign direct investment flowing into Mexico and in the remittances migrants send to their families in Venezuela, while political signs of closeness continue.

]]><![CDATA[Mexico’s crusade against fentanyl reduces trafficking to the US and overdose deaths]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-01-20/mexicos-crusade-against-fentanyl-reduces-trafficking-to-the-us-and-overdose-deaths.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-01-20/mexicos-crusade-against-fentanyl-reduces-trafficking-to-the-us-and-overdose-deaths.htmlTue, 20 Jan 2026 14:22:21 +0000In 2020, during the final stretch of Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president, Washington was already sounding the alarm about the fentanyl epidemic among its population and the phenomenon’s connection to Mexican cartels. At that time, the U.S. indicated that criminal organizations were manufacturing the synthetic opioid from precursors shipped from China and demanded stronger action from Mexico to contain the problem. The Mexican government’s campaign against the drug began during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency, but the results were not immediately tangible as the number of overdose deaths in the United States multiplied, reaching almost 74,000 in 2022. It wasn’t until 2024-2025, between López Obrador’s departure and the first year of Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, that the government campaign intensified and managed to reverse the tragic trend. For the first time in years, the trafficking of fentanyl into the U.S., and overdose deaths related to the drug, have decreased.

]]><![CDATA[Mexico’s Generation Z is growing up with precariousness, uncertainty and political distrust. And social media is their primary source of information]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-13/mexicos-generation-z-is-growing-up-with-precariousness-uncertainty-and-political-distrust-and-social-media-is-their-primary-source-of-information.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-13/mexicos-generation-z-is-growing-up-with-precariousness-uncertainty-and-political-distrust-and-social-media-is-their-primary-source-of-information.htmlSat, 13 Dec 2025 04:30:00 +0000The flag of the Straw Hat Pirates, from the Japanese anime series One Piece, is waved at Generation Z demonstrations. It symbolizes, in the words of the show’s fans, “freedom and justice.”

]]>Ginnette Riquelme Quezada<![CDATA[Organized crime is strangling Latin America ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-06/organized-crime-is-strangling-latin-america.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-06/organized-crime-is-strangling-latin-america.htmlSat, 06 Dec 2025 04:45:00 +0000A small green piece of paper, with a phrase written in capital letters, summed up the crime problems plaguing Latin America. It appeared in Guerrero, on Mexico’s battered southern Pacific coast, but it could just as easily have been in Santiago, Chile, in Medellín, Colombia, or in any area of Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was a warning, a sheet pasted on corners and lampposts, a threat to merchants in a handful of neighborhoods, announcing that starting in December they would have to begin paying a “fee.” “This neighborhood has an owner,” the anonymous notice concluded.

]]>José Betanzos Zárate <![CDATA[Truck drivers in Mexico are exposed to 21 robberies a day, and in 80% of cases they are violent ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-06/truck-drivers-in-mexico-are-exposed-to-21-robberies-a-day-and-in-80-of-cases-they-are-violent.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-06/truck-drivers-in-mexico-are-exposed-to-21-robberies-a-day-and-in-80-of-cases-they-are-violent.htmlSat, 06 Dec 2025 04:45:00 +0000Four truck drivers left the Mexican city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, bound for Oaxaca on November 18. Their families say they were traveling together and that the last time they spoke with them was two days later, when they were in the municipality of Matías Romero, on their way to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. They have been unaccounted for ever since. Authorities have issued missing persons alerts. To date, only the whereabouts of the trucks are known, but the drivers have not been found. The State Search Commission and the Attorney General’s Office are working to locate Aldher Moreno, 38, Fernando Castro, 41, Andrés Ramos, 28, and Juan Pérez, 37. This incident is yet another example of the insecurity faced by truckers traveling throughout Mexico, who are exposed to violent crime in 80% of cases.

]]>Julio Cesar AGUILAR<![CDATA[Venezuelans deported to Bukele’s mega-prison reveal torture and other abuses: ‘They said we would only leave in a black bag’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-12/venezuelans-deported-to-bukeles-mega-prison-reveal-torture-and-other-abuses-they-said-we-would-only-leave-in-a-black-bag.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-12/venezuelans-deported-to-bukeles-mega-prison-reveal-torture-and-other-abuses-they-said-we-would-only-leave-in-a-black-bag.htmlWed, 12 Nov 2025 11:18:31 +0000Photos of Luis missing a front tooth and Daniel’s nose with a visibly deviated septum are among the evidence included in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report “You Have Arrived in Hell,” released Wednesday. The report reveals torture and other abuses against Venezuelans at the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), President Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison in El Salvador. Also included are images of the scars on Mateo’s hand and Carlos’s chest, the result of being shot at close range with rubber bullets while detained in cells at this prison.

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]]>PRESIDENCIA DE EL SALVADOR<![CDATA[Claudia Sheinbaum has higher approval ratings than López Obrador after first year in office ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-10-01/claudia-sheinbaum-has-higher-approval-rating-than-lopez-obrador-after-first-year-in-office.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-10-01/claudia-sheinbaum-has-higher-approval-rating-than-lopez-obrador-after-first-year-in-office.htmlWed, 01 Oct 2025 20:46:30 +0000Claudia Sheinbaum shines in her own right as president of Mexico. The first woman to hold the executive office enjoys strong approval after her first year in office, surpassing her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with a 78% rating. By comparison, López Obrador had a 72% approval rating in his first year and reached 77% when leaving office, according to an Enkoll survey for EL PAÍS and W Radio.

]]>Jesica Ramírez/Presidencia<![CDATA[More deportations, but far from the ‘largest in history’: Nine months of Trump’s immigration crusade in charts ]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-09-22/more-deportations-but-far-from-the-largest-in-history-nine-months-of-trumps-immigration-crusade-in-charts.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-09-22/more-deportations-but-far-from-the-largest-in-history-nine-months-of-trumps-immigration-crusade-in-charts.htmlMon, 22 Sep 2025 09:26:46 +0000Donald Trump triumphantly returned to the Oval Office on January 20, 2025, with the mission of inaugurating a “new golden age” for the United States. And transforming immigration was always a central component of that grand vision that began with an avalanche of executive orders signed on his first day in office. The promise was to carry out the “largest deportation in history” and expel all undocumented immigrants from the country. This goal is elusive, both because the exact number of undocumented immigrants is unknown, and because records of all deportations in U.S. history are lacking.

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]]><![CDATA[‘My 600-lb Life’: When losing weight is a collective challenge ]]>https://english.elpais.com/lifestyle/2025-08-08/my-600-lb-life-when-losing-weight-is-a-collective-challenge.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/lifestyle/2025-08-08/my-600-lb-life-when-losing-weight-is-a-collective-challenge.htmlFri, 08 Aug 2025 16:11:22 +0000HBO Max’s My 600-lb Life: Mexico has been as successful as the original series on which it is based: the American reality show My 600-lb Life. Viewers tune in to the daily life of people who weigh more than 250 kilos (550 pounds) several days before they go to a doctor specializing in obesity. They then accompany the participants on their path to a different life. The doctor on the Mexican version of the show is different from My 600-lb Life’s Younan Nowzaradan, the blunt Houston-based practician who rarely shows emotion. The approach is different but still participants are pushed to change their routine. The initial challenge is to lose between 10 and 25 kilos of their current weight to show that they are committed and can be consistent. The reward is surgery to shrink the stomach.

]]><![CDATA[Mexico’s futile fight against arms trafficking: ‘Trump is reducing the ability to stop illicit weapons reaching the cartels’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-07-15/mexicos-futile-fight-against-arms-trafficking-trump-is-reducing-the-ability-to-stop-illicit-weapons-reaching-the-cartels.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-07-15/mexicos-futile-fight-against-arms-trafficking-trump-is-reducing-the-ability-to-stop-illicit-weapons-reaching-the-cartels.htmlTue, 15 Jul 2025 11:37:16 +0000The security tensions between Mexico and the United States marking the second Trump era appear to stem from Mexico’s failings, according to the logic of the rarely self-reflective northern neighbor. Fentanyl and migration are a problem, but arms trafficking is not. The U.S. sends around 200,000 weapons to Mexico each year, according to analysts’ estimates, a figure that demonstrates the lack of interest in combating illegal arms sales, much of which are destined for the drug cartels that have been classified as terrorist organizations by the Republican president himself.

]]>CUARTOSCURO<![CDATA[The march against gentrification in Mexico brings political tension with the US to the streets ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-07-08/the-march-against-gentrification-in-mexico-brings-political-tension-with-the-us-to-the-streets.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-07-08/the-march-against-gentrification-in-mexico-brings-political-tension-with-the-us-to-the-streets.htmlTue, 08 Jul 2025 12:00:36 +0000The political tug-of-war between the Mexican and U.S. governments has finally spilled onto the streets of Mexico City, where hundreds of youths gathered this Friday for a march against gentrification. The protest against a trend that is affecting urban centers and driving a large portion of the poor and local population out to the periphery was imbued with the added tensions that have been a hallmark of the bilateral relationship lately. The suspicious truce that both countries maintained last week ran into the anti-American slogans raised by some of the protesters, and which met with a swift response north of the Rio Grande. The Department of Homeland Security poured all its irony into its reply on its official X account: “If you are in the United States illegally and wish to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home app to facilitate your departure,” a reference to the digital platform used by irregular migrants to prepare for self-deportation from the country.

]]>Emiliano Molina<![CDATA[The US, the country with which Mexico has co-produced the most films in the last year]]>https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-05-18/the-us-the-country-with-which-mexico-has-co-produced-the-most-films-in-the-last-year.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-05-18/the-us-the-country-with-which-mexico-has-co-produced-the-most-films-in-the-last-year.htmlSun, 18 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000Scenes filmed in Mexico aren’t always detected in the United States. Sometimes, audiences see Mexican landscapes without suspecting they’re Mexican, as was the case in Zoë Kravitz’s recent film, Blink Twice (2024). The psychological thriller – set on a paradise island – was filmed entirely in the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo.

]]><![CDATA[Donald Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariff’ chart]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-04-02/donald-trumps-reciprocal-tariff-chart.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-04-02/donald-trumps-reciprocal-tariff-chart.htmlWed, 02 Apr 2025 21:46:50 +0000More than 100 countries are facing new tariff measures announced Tuesday by U.S. President Donald Trump. What is now being called a trade war came with an announcement of a universal 10% tariff on dozens of nations, with major punishments to its main trading partners. They are the highest import taxes seen in a century.

]]>Associated Press/LaPresse<![CDATA[Americans, the migrants with the largest presence in Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-03-02/americans-the-migrants-with-the-largest-presence-in-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-03-02/americans-the-migrants-with-the-largest-presence-in-mexico.htmlSun, 02 Mar 2025 04:30:00 +0000Mexico is the favorite destination for its northern neighbors. And not only as a tourist spot, but also as a residence. Americans are the largest group of migrants in Mexico. This is a decades-old phenomenon.

]]>Emilio Espejel<![CDATA[Sinaloa, flooded with fentanyl: Mexico hits Los Chapitos in its drug stronghold ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-03-02/sinaloa-flooded-with-fentanyl-mexico-hits-los-chapitos-in-its-drug-stronghold.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-03-02/sinaloa-flooded-with-fentanyl-mexico-hits-los-chapitos-in-its-drug-stronghold.htmlSun, 02 Mar 2025 04:30:00 +0000The Mexican government is stifling the Sinaloa Cartel. The organization founded by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has suffered severe blows to its most lucrative business in the last five years: the trafficking of fentanyl to the United States, controlled by the sons and heirs of the historic capo, Los Chapitos. Mexican security agencies, led by the army, have staged a strategic campaign of fentanyl seizures in Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California, Pacific states under the control of the cartel and which make up the production and transit chain of the opioid until it is trafficked to the U.S., mainly through the border at San Diego and Tucson. The seizure statistics demonstrate not only the rapid growth in the production and trafficking of the synthetic drug, especially in Sinaloa, but also the efforts of the Mexican government, at least since the middle of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term, and even more so now, under the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, to suffocate the cartel, particularly the heirs of El Chapo, who have also been waging a bloody internal war for months with another faction of the criminal organization loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

]]>SECRETARÍA DE SEGURIDAD PÚBLICA Y PROTECCIÓN CIUDADANA<![CDATA[‘What I need the most are AK-47s’: How the United States floods Mexico with weapons ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-02-12/what-i-need-the-most-are-ak-47s-how-the-united-states-floods-mexico-with-weapons.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-02-12/what-i-need-the-most-are-ak-47s-how-the-united-states-floods-mexico-with-weapons.htmlWed, 12 Feb 2025 07:38:27 +0000“What I need most are chivitos… and peanuts for the chivitos.”

]]><![CDATA[The end of Mexico’s ‘hugs, not bullets’ paradigm: A visual history]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-02-02/the-end-of-mexicos-hugs-not-bullets-paradigm-a-visual-history.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-02-02/the-end-of-mexicos-hugs-not-bullets-paradigm-a-visual-history.htmlSun, 02 Feb 2025 04:30:00 +0000Although Claudia Sheinbaum’s first 100 days as Mexico’s president are too short to draw definitive conclusions, they provide a basis for an initial assessment of her administration’s progress on security — one of the country’s most pressing issues. The challenge is immense, as it’s not only the staggering murder rate but also the entrenched criminal regimes in vast regions where extortion has become a normalized form of coexistence, and organized crime wields significant influence over politics and the economy.

]]>Nayeli Cruz<![CDATA[The USMCA in graphs: More exports, more foreign investment but weak economic growth ]]>https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2024-12-21/the-usmca-in-graphs-more-exports-more-foreign-investment-but-weak-economic-growth.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2024-12-21/the-usmca-in-graphs-more-exports-more-foreign-investment-but-weak-economic-growth.htmlSat, 21 Dec 2024 04:30:00 +0000By the end of the 1990s, then-Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had successfully concluded the renegotiation of the foreign debt and already had his sights set on his next goal: signing a free trade agreement with the United States to boost the country’s economic growth. With a postgraduate degree from Harvard, Salinas de Gortari considered this a chance to boost Mexico’s economic conditions. As the 1990s dawned, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was born.

]]>Mauricio Palos<![CDATA[How the Argentine economy would change with dollarization, explained in five graphs]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-19/how-the-argentine-economy-would-change-with-dollarization-explained-in-five-graphs.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-19/how-the-argentine-economy-would-change-with-dollarization-explained-in-five-graphs.htmlMon, 19 Feb 2024 19:26:51 +0000Argentina’s President Javier Milei has put the prospect of dollarizing his country’s economy back on the table. The Argentine mint would stop issuing its national currency, and U.S. dollars would be adopted in a process that is already a reality in Panama, Ecuador, and El Salvador. The economies of these three countries could act as an example of the situation facing the South American country.

]]>Tomas Cuesta