<![CDATA[EL PAÍS]]>https://english.elpais.comSat, 06 Jun 2026 01:07:33 +0000en1hourly1<![CDATA[ICE arrests one of the soldiers linked to Mexico’s Ayotzinapa case in California]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-06-05/ice-arrests-one-of-the-soldiers-linked-to-mexicos-ayotzinapa-case-in-california.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-06-05/ice-arrests-one-of-the-soldiers-linked-to-mexicos-ayotzinapa-case-in-california.htmlFri, 05 Jun 2026 06:49:30 +0000U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Enrique Martínez Chávez on Wednesday in Los Angeles, California, according to a statement the agency released Thursday on social media. The 32‑year‑old detainee is one of the military officers linked to the disappearance of 43 student teachers in the Mexican municipality of Iguala, Guerrero, in 2014. Martínez Chávez is wanted in Mexico for the alleged crime of enforced disappearance and has been a fugitive from justice for years. ICE says he will remain in its custody “until he can be sent home” to Mexico.

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]]><![CDATA[United States revokes visas of two Mexican governors ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-06-03/united-states-revokes-visas-of-two-mexican-governors.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-06-03/united-states-revokes-visas-of-two-mexican-governors.htmlLos Angeles Times]]>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:22:01 +0000The United States government has revoked the visas of two governors from Mexico’s ruling Morena party — Sonora’s Alfonso Durazo and Tamaulipas’s Américo Villarreal — according to an exclusive report by the Los Angeles Times, based on multiple sources familiar with the cases. The same report states that both politicians have entered the country under a “special parole typically reserved for cooperating witnesses.” Durazo and Villarreal are being investigated for alleged links to organized crime, according to the newspaper.

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]]><![CDATA[Ángel Ortiz, the restless mariachi who innovates in the genre with anime and video games]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-04-11/angel-ortiz-the-restless-mariachi-who-innovates-in-the-genre-with-anime-and-video-games.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-04-11/angel-ortiz-the-restless-mariachi-who-innovates-in-the-genre-with-anime-and-video-games.htmlSun, 12 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000Ángel Ortiz remembers sitting down at his computer to record when he was about 15 years old. “With the little I knew, I made recordings. I intended to share them […] I’m talking about 20 years ago; social media wasn’t so common in Mexico,” he says on the other side of the screen. Those early attempts led him to share banda and English-language versions of songs on his social media, a drive that has led him to expand the — sometimes immovable — boundaries of the mariachi genre. Memories of the arcade machines he played as a child inspired him to adapt the sounds of video games and anime to mariachi, an experiment that has been very well received online years later. Ortiz (State of Mexico, 35 years old) already has more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, 100,000 on Facebook, and 50,000 on Instagram.

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]]>CEDIDA<![CDATA[The new life of hand-painted signs in Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-03-21/the-new-life-of-hand-painted-signs-in-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-03-21/the-new-life-of-hand-painted-signs-in-mexico.htmlSat, 21 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000Alina Kiliwa’s studio in northern Mexico City is a haven amidst the capital’s hustle and bustle. She opens a can of blue paint, picks up one of her brushes and delicately begins to paint five letters on one of the taco shop-shaped piggy banks scattered across her table: “SIGNS.”

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]]>Eva Lepiz<![CDATA[One of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives is arrested in Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-12/one-of-the-fbis-10-most-wanted-fugitives-is-arrested-in-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-12/one-of-the-fbis-10-most-wanted-fugitives-is-arrested-in-mexico.htmlThu, 12 Mar 2026 19:10:57 +0000In a new gesture from Claudia Sheinbaum’s government toward the United States, Mexican authorities have captured Samuel Ramírez Jr., one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives, in Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa. The arrest was made on Thursday, as confirmed by Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch in a brief statement on social media. Ramírez Jr. had been a fugitive for nearly three years, wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two women in late May 2023.

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]]><![CDATA[The Mexican hackers hunting pedophiles on the internet: ‘It’s becoming much easier to perpetrate this type of violence’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-05/the-mexican-hackers-hunting-pedophiles-on-the-internet-its-becoming-much-easier-to-perpetrate-this-type-of-violence.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-05/the-mexican-hackers-hunting-pedophiles-on-the-internet-its-becoming-much-easier-to-perpetrate-this-type-of-violence.htmlFri, 05 Dec 2025 12:01:50 +0000The notification pops up. One of the 350 members of the Telegram group has just sent a photo of a young student from Oaxaca, who had just returned home from school, wearing a skirt. A cascade of messages begins in the chat: “It’s impossible not to look at how her skirt adjusts,” “lift it up more,” “what’s she wearing, a thong?” “she’s so hot.” The disturbing conversation takes a sinister turn when one of the participants reveals who sent the image: “I think he said up there that it was his daughter or stepdaughter.” These are some of the messages revealed at the end of November by the DLR Collective, a small team of hackers fighting against digital violence. The Telegram group included adults, but also minors. The publication of the conversation on social media led to an investigation by the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office, which began interviewing students from the two high schools in the capital where the victims study. Despite the seriousness of the issue, it is just one of the hundreds of complaints that the DLR Collective says it receives daily.

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]]>COLECTIVO DLR<![CDATA[Salón Tenampa, the emblem of mariachi in Mexico City, celebrates its 100th anniversary ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-11-30/salon-tenampa-the-emblem-of-mariachi-in-mexico-city-celebrates-its-100th-anniversary.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-11-30/salon-tenampa-the-emblem-of-mariachi-in-mexico-city-celebrates-its-100th-anniversary.htmlSun, 30 Nov 2025 04:00:00 +0000The legend goes that the singer Chavela Vargas and the actor José Alfredo Jiménez locked themselves away for three nights in Salón Tenampa, in northern Mexico City, drinking tequila and singing along to the musicians, who mingled with the patrons of the grand cantina.

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]]>Nayeli Cruz<![CDATA[Trapped by the ‘incel’ algorithm in Mexico: ‘I thought I would always live miserably’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-10-12/trapped-by-the-incel-algorithm-in-mexico-i-thought-i-would-always-live-miserably.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-10-12/trapped-by-the-incel-algorithm-in-mexico-i-thought-i-would-always-live-miserably.htmlSun, 12 Oct 2025 16:59:05 +0000William believed his life was a failure when he was just 16. It was 2021, and he was going through a personal crisis, comparing himself to other people. “I’d never had a girlfriend, and my classmates made fun of me for being a virgin,” he confesses. He felt like everyone had failed him. He went online looking for answers, and the algorithm guided him into incel forums, a digital universe filled with hate speech and threats that operates unchecked. Something similar happened to Javier, who fell into these blogs during the pandemic. He wanted to take advantage of the lockdown to get in shape by looking for exercise routines, but other suggestions popped up instead. “Little by little, without realizing it, incel content appeared,” he confesses. This movement, which is growing globally, conceals radicalized followers like Lex Ashton, the 19-year-old student who murdered a classmate at his school in Mexico City last week. EL PAÍS spoke with three young incels who described the frustration and loneliness that led two of them to consider committing violent acts.

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]]>Fernanda Castro<![CDATA[MoMA welcomes Mexican artist Sandra Blow: ‘I add salsa to the photos. Salsa that’s spicy’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-08-10/moma-welcomes-mexican-artist-sandra-blow-i-add-salsa-to-the-photos-salsa-thats-spicy.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-08-10/moma-welcomes-mexican-artist-sandra-blow-i-add-salsa-to-the-photos-salsa-thats-spicy.htmlSun, 10 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000Sandra Blow uses her long gel nails to brush back her hair, which constantly obscures her gaze. The Mexican photographer says that, when she started taking pictures, what was considered “beautiful” followed a normative pattern. “They were very blond models, with blue eyes. You didn’t see Latin models; you didn’t see brown skin.”

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]]>Nayeli Cruz<![CDATA[How three drug ballads helped put a Mexican drug trafficker behind bars ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-10/how-three-drug-ballads-helped-put-a-mexican-drug-trafficker-behind-bars.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-10/how-three-drug-ballads-helped-put-a-mexican-drug-trafficker-behind-bars.htmlTue, 10 Jun 2025 09:46:39 +0000Narcocorridos — a subgenre of corrido (a type of Mexican ballad) that glorify or narrate the lives of drug traffickers and organized crime figures — say that Marco Ramírez Chávez was a young student and worker, until he was lured by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). “There was no progress, I had to get involved.” He soon began to climb the ranks of the organization, becoming one of its criminal leaders in Irapuato, Guanajuato, under the alias “El Chacorta.”

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]]><![CDATA[Los Tigres del Norte: ‘We’re going to have to change the word ‘corrido’ to avoid getting in trouble’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-10/los-tigres-del-norte-were-going-to-have-to-change-the-word-corrido-to-avoid-getting-in-trouble.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-10/los-tigres-del-norte-were-going-to-have-to-change-the-word-corrido-to-avoid-getting-in-trouble.htmlSat, 10 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000Chihuahua, May 17, 2014. The northern Mexican city is experiencing a spike in violence. Thirty minutes before Los Tigres del Norte are due to begin their performance at the local arena, a man enters the dressing room to ask them not to sing songs with violent lyrics. The band’s leader, Jorge Hernández, pulls out the set list.

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]]>Mariano Regidor<![CDATA[Los Buitres de Culiacán, forefathers of the narcocorrido: ‘Imagine Peso Pluma singing purely romantic songs... that’s not him’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-26/los-buitres-de-culiacan-forefathers-of-the-narcocorrido-imagine-peso-pluma-singing-purely-romantic-songs-thats-not-him.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-26/los-buitres-de-culiacan-forefathers-of-the-narcocorrido-imagine-peso-pluma-singing-purely-romantic-songs-thats-not-him.htmlSat, 26 Apr 2025 04:00:00 +0000It all started in a typical way: four guys in their twenties gathered in a Culiacán garage in the early 2000s, forming a small band. They gave their first concerts at small parties, playing for family and friends. They always dressed in black, which is why they became known as Los Buitres (“The Vultures”).

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]]><![CDATA[The cult of El Mencho’s image and the power of narcoculture in Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-08/the-cult-of-el-menchos-image-and-the-power-of-narcoculture-in-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-08/the-cult-of-el-menchos-image-and-the-power-of-narcoculture-in-mexico.htmlTue, 08 Apr 2025 09:22:55 +0000The sound of an accordion in Guadalajara covers the silence that has enveloped a ranch in Teuchitlán for weeks, the scene of horrors where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) allegedly tortured and murdered young people. It’s Saturday, around 10 p.m., and Los Alegres del Barranco are projecting images of Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho,” leader of the CJNG, on the stage of the Telmex Auditorium, one of the main venues in Mexico’s second-largest city, just an hour’s drive from Teuchitlán. No one seems to remember that grim discovery. The images celebrating the cartel kingpin are the latest chapter in the long-running controversy over the reach of narcoculture in Mexican society.

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]]><![CDATA[Ariel Camacho, the shooting star who inspired the modern corrido]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-03-09/ariel-camacho-the-shooting-star-who-inspired-the-modern-corrido.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-03-09/ariel-camacho-the-shooting-star-who-inspired-the-modern-corrido.htmlSun, 09 Mar 2025 04:40:00 +0000They almost had to force Ariel Camacho to wear a cowboy hat. It was 2012 and the singer had a meeting in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, with manager and producer Jaime González, the father of today’s música norteña heartthrob Christian Nodal. “He was with two other guys, and they sang for me a corrido and a [romantic] song and that was enough for me,” González said in a Billboard interview published a few days ago. He signed the performer to his team and that humble young man, who’d shown up dressed in huaraches, a baseball cap and Levi’s jeans, would soon take Mexican regional music by storm. Camacho’s musical career ended just three years later on February 25, 2015, when he died in a car accident in the town of Angostura, Sinaloa. He was 22 years old. But his impact was far from over. Ten years later, the shooting star has become a major influence cited by today’s artists, who see in him the seed from which sprang several modern variations on the corrido.

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]]><![CDATA[Do corrido lyrics help capture drug traffickers? Deciphering an urban legend]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-30/do-corrido-lyrics-help-capture-drug-traffickers-deciphering-an-urban-legend.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-30/do-corrido-lyrics-help-capture-drug-traffickers-deciphering-an-urban-legend.htmlMon, 30 Sep 2024 15:10:56 +0000Mexican authorities arrested Mario Alexander Gámez, “El Piyi,” one of the top hitmen for La Chapiza — as the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel is known — last Thursday in the Jardines de Santa Fe, north of Culiacán. He is a white-skinned man with a beard, and about 1.75 meters tall. This vague information that the police released after his arrest was important to decipher the identity of the criminal. The aura of mystery surrounding El Piyi sparked the interest of narcocorrido composers years ago. Federal sources have told the media in recent days that the songs that made mention of the cartel hitman helped direct the investigations to track him down. This newspaper has spoken with experts in the musical genre, who hold a more skeptical view of the weight that corridos can have in an intelligence operation.

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]]>Miguel Sierra<![CDATA[When the criminal legend of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada becomes a ballad: ‘The big M has fallen, over there in El Paso, Texas’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-08-26/when-the-criminal-legend-of-el-mayo-zambada-becomes-a-ballad-the-big-m-has-fallen-over-there-in-el-paso-texas.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2024-08-26/when-the-criminal-legend-of-el-mayo-zambada-becomes-a-ballad-the-big-m-has-fallen-over-there-in-el-paso-texas.htmlMon, 26 Aug 2024 18:41:05 +0000Ismael ‘Mayo’ Zambada, the great Mexican drug lord and founder of the Sinaloa Cartel who never set foot in prison, arrested in Texas. That was the headline with which this newspaper opened its front page on July 25. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was arrested at a private airport in El Paso, Texas, where authorities also took Joaquín Guzmán López, one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons, into custody. Before 48 hours had passed since news of the detention of the Sinaloa Cartel kingpins, the machinery of the corrida was already at work. José Heredia, known artistically as El As de la Sierra, released Pacífico triste, a corrido in which he recounted in detail the historic arrest, using controversial lyrics: The big M has fallen [referring to the drug trafficker] / over there in El Paso, Texas / the titan of the business falls / right now he’s behind bars. El Mayo has been a recurring theme of inspiration for artists of the controversial genre, where stories about the capo are recounted as exploits. That way of narrating, added to the idiosyncrasy of corridos, has for decades led to a debate about the limit between telling a story and glorifying crime.

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]]><![CDATA[The return of the altered corridos, the musical movement that made Mexico dance (and tremble) ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-07-21/the-return-of-the-altered-corridos-the-musical-movement-that-made-mexico-dance-and-tremble.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-07-21/the-return-of-the-altered-corridos-the-musical-movement-that-made-mexico-dance-and-tremble.htmlSun, 21 Jul 2024 04:05:00 +0000More than a decade has passed since a group of bands from the Mexican state of Sinaloa turned hats and jackets — studded with glitter and sequins — into a fashionable look on stage. From there, they told stories of violence, drug trafficking and excess, which were applauded by the public but disapproved of by the authorities. The songs ended up converging into a new musical subgenre and, eventually, into a cultural movement that exalted consumption: the so-called “altered corrido” movement, the Spanish word corrido referring to narrative ballads.

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]]>Luis Ortiz<![CDATA[For Daddy Yankee, faith triumphs over reggaeton ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-12-19/for-daddy-yankee-faith-triumphs-over-reggaeton.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-12-19/for-daddy-yankee-faith-triumphs-over-reggaeton.htmlTue, 19 Dec 2023 19:54:12 +0000On December 3, Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, famously known as Daddy Yankee, declared that it was the most important day of his life. In front of a crowd of over 18,000 at the Puerto Rico Coliseum, the singer announced his definitive exit from the world of reggaeton to dedicate his life to Christ. “Tonight, I recognize, and I am not ashamed to tell the whole world that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him.” Ayala’s declaration highlighted a recent trend among reggaeton performers — blending successful careers with living out their Christian faith. These performers find serenity and purpose through faith, much like musicians that came before them — Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Juan Luis Guerra and Peret.

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]]>Thais Llorca<![CDATA[Bad Bunny attacks viral AI song: ‘If you like that shit, you don’t deserve to be my friends’]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-11-08/bad-bunny-attacks-viral-ai-song-if-you-like-that-shit-you-dont-deserve-to-be-my-friends.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-11-08/bad-bunny-attacks-viral-ai-song-if-you-like-that-shit-you-dont-deserve-to-be-my-friends.htmlWed, 08 Nov 2023 09:58:41 +0000Bad Bunny has entered the turbulent controversy over the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The Puerto Rican singer — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — lashed out on Tuesday against a viral reggaeton song that uses AI to emulate his voice. “If you guys like that shitty song that’s viral on TikTok, get out of this group right now. You do not deserve to be my friends,” he wrote in a message in his WhatsApp channel. The song called NostalgIA (a play on words, as IA means AI in Spanish) has been seen more half a million times on TikTok and has nearly a million streams on Spotify.

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]]>Harry How<![CDATA[Before assassination, Fernando Villavicencio denounced threats from criminal group linked to Sinaloa Cartel]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-10/before-assassination-fernando-villavicencio-denounced-threats-from-criminal-group-linked-to-sinaloa-cartel.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-10/before-assassination-fernando-villavicencio-denounced-threats-from-criminal-group-linked-to-sinaloa-cartel.htmlThu, 10 Aug 2023 08:55:54 +0000Fernando Villavicencio, the Ecuadorian presidential candidate shot dead on Wednesday, had denounced threats from a criminal group a few weeks before his murder. The Ecuadorian politician told the media that Los Choneros, a local armed wing of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, had warned him that they would attack him and his campaign group if they continued to speak about them. “What this confirms is that our campaign proposal does indeed seriously affect these criminal structures. And here I am, showing my face. I’m not afraid of them. For 20 years, I have gambled in this country against these criminal structures, and I repeat: I am not afraid of them,” he said in footage shared online.

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]]>KAREN TORO<![CDATA[From Vinyl to USB: The evolution of Mexico City’s ‘sonideros’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-08-05/from-vinyl-to-usb-the-evolution-of-mexico-citys-sonideros.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-08-05/from-vinyl-to-usb-the-evolution-of-mexico-citys-sonideros.htmlSat, 05 Aug 2023 22:20:00 +0000As 30 people dance to the rhythm of a cumbia in the patio of a bookstore in the center of Mexico City, the sonidero Discos Morelos (José Ortega) studies the atmosphere. A few seconds later, he bends down and drags a box with dozens of vinyl records towards him. “I play with the music and the music plays with me,” he says. He pulls out one album, looks at it and gets ready to put it on the turntable. Next to him, Sonido Continental (Miguel Cruz), livens up the crowd. “Here’s a shout-out to Jorge and to all the people of San Luis Potosi…” This is the phenomenon of the sonideros, the pop-up street DJs that the government of Mexico City seeks to have declared as intangible cultural heritage.

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]]>SILVANA FLORES<![CDATA[Mexico’s undersecretary of health calls for calm in the face of rising Covid cases: ‘We must not exaggerate’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-01/mexicos-undersecretary-of-health-calls-for-calm-in-the-face-of-rising-covid-cases-we-must-not-exaggerate.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-01/mexicos-undersecretary-of-health-calls-for-calm-in-the-face-of-rising-covid-cases-we-must-not-exaggerate.htmlTue, 01 Aug 2023 22:45:33 +0000Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell tried to calm the public on Tuesday, after alerts were issued by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) about the increase in Covid-19 cases across the country.

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]]>Galo Cañas<![CDATA[Tainy, Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee’s producer, on Mexican music: ‘People also said that reggaeton was “not music” and that “it’s a fad”’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-07-22/tainy-bad-bunny-and-daddy-yankees-producer-on-mexican-music-people-also-said-that-reggaeton-was-not-music-and-that-its-a-fad.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-07-22/tainy-bad-bunny-and-daddy-yankees-producer-on-mexican-music-people-also-said-that-reggaeton-was-not-music-and-that-its-a-fad.htmlSat, 22 Jul 2023 01:27:23 +0000A few vinyl records, several speakers and an anime drawing decorate the room where Puerto Rican music producer Tainy, 33, meets EL PAÍS. The space reflects his passion for music. “Many people know of me because of my work in the reggaeton genre and because of what I have been able to contribute to music in that genre. But I’m also a fan of music in general,” he says. Born Marcos Efraín Malís, Tainy was a key player in helping modern reggaetón come to dominate the international music scene; he has worked with renowned artists such as Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee and Rosalía. He achieved all of this after starting his career when he was only 14 years old. A few days ago, alongside some of the genre’s greats, he released his debut album Data, with which he seeks to show the sounds that have supported him, as well as other styles that have expanded his musical horizons. From a small room in downtown Mexico City, Tainy talks to this newspaper about his successful album, the future of Latin music and the success of regional Mexican music.

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]]>Nadya Murillo<![CDATA[Tim Shaddock, the Australian castaway: ‘I was a man in a suit and tie and realized I needed to change my life’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-24/tim-shaddock-the-australian-castaway-i-was-a-man-in-a-suit-and-tie-and-realized-i-needed-to-change-my-life.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-24/tim-shaddock-the-australian-castaway-i-was-a-man-in-a-suit-and-tie-and-realized-i-needed-to-change-my-life.htmlMon, 24 Jul 2023 20:01:07 +0000Tim Shaddock used to spend his days working for a large tech company. “I was a very different man, wearing a big suit and tie, and it was not right for me. I realized I needed to change my life,” he says. So, one day he took his computer and went into the depths of nature, in the mountains and remote places in Asia. Then he turned to the sea — a sea that would come close to ending his life. In 2020, his path led this Australian to Mexico, where he decided to sail from La Paz, in the state of Baja California Sur, to French Polynesia. Nearly 1,200 miles away from land and without communication, a storm tore off his sail, killed his engine and left him adrift in the widest part of the Pacific. A tuna boat found him on July 12 and rescued him along with his dog, Bella. Now, at the coast of the Mexican state of Colima, he looks back on the 90 days he survived between the sky and the water, eating raw fish and the occasional duck that landed on his catamaran.

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]]>cesar rodriguez<![CDATA[A helicopter, a harpoon and a ‘bohemian’ adrift: the rescue of Australian castaway Tim Shaddock]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-19/a-helicopter-a-harpoon-and-a-bohemian-adrift-the-rescue-of-australian-castaway-tim-shaddock.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-19/a-helicopter-a-harpoon-and-a-bohemian-adrift-the-rescue-of-australian-castaway-tim-shaddock.htmlWed, 19 Jul 2023 12:48:41 +0000A helicopter flies over the waters of the Eastern Pacific. It scans the blue surface of the ocean, on the trail of a moving black spot that reveals the position of a school of tuna. The operation follows the same roadmap of the past two months: the aircraft finds the fish, alerts the crew of the María Delia and the vessel sets course for the location. On July 12, however, something unusual happened. From the air, the pilots spotted a small white catamaran, with a mast but no sails. There was no movement on deck. A man looked up at the sky, covering his face, dazzled by the sun, signaling for help.

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]]><![CDATA[Australian castaway Tim Shaddock: ‘I’m just so grateful. I’m alive and I didn’t really think I’d make it’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-19/australian-castaway-tim-shaddock-im-just-so-grateful-im-alive-and-i-didnt-really-think-id-make-it.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-19/australian-castaway-tim-shaddock-im-just-so-grateful-im-alive-and-i-didnt-really-think-id-make-it.htmlWed, 19 Jul 2023 09:30:21 +0000It has been three months since Tim Shaddock, a 54-year-old Australian sailor, and his dog Bella last set foot on dry land. Shaddock had set sail from La Paz, in Baja California Sur in Mexico, bound for French Polynesia, a journey of more than 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles). However, a storm damaged his boat. Weeks later, a tuna vessel came across the catamaran, adrift in the Pacific Ocean. On Tuesday, after months of eating raw fish and drinking rainwater to survive, Shaddock made landfall again in the port of Manzanillo, in the Mexican state of Colima. “I’m feeling all right. I’m feeling a lot better than I was, I tell ya,” he told the media as he stepped off the boat.

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]]>Grupomar<![CDATA[American bison reintroduced to northern Mexico helping to fight climate change]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-06-27/american-bison-reintroduced-to-northern-mexico-helping-to-fight-climate-change.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-06-27/american-bison-reintroduced-to-northern-mexico-helping-to-fight-climate-change.htmlTue, 27 Jun 2023 13:08:16 +0000Dozens of American bison graze in the wide-open fields of El Carmen (Coahuila), a reserve of 140,000 hectares, roughly the same size as Mexico City. The country’s northern plains had not played host to the bison in 100 years, after decades of indiscriminate hunting and habitat destruction eradicated the animals. In 2021, following an initiative led by the Mexican multinational cement company Cemex, bison returned to the grasslands, where the soil stores huge amounts of carbon, making the region key to the fight against climate change. Initially, 19 bison were introduced at the reserve; today there are almost 100. The mammal’s daily routine makes it a perfect vehicle for regenerating grassland vegetation and sustaining hundreds of species that coexist with it.

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]]><![CDATA[Peso Pluma launches ‘Génesis’ in a move to cement global stardom ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-23/peso-pluma-launches-genesis-in-a-move-to-cement-global-stardom.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-23/peso-pluma-launches-genesis-in-a-move-to-cement-global-stardom.htmlFri, 23 Jun 2023 10:40:14 +0000The most trumpeted Mexican singer in recent months, Peso Pluma, on Thursday released Génesis, an album containing 14 songs with which he hopes to cement the global recognition that has seen him surpass artists such as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny in the music charts in a short period of time. On this album, the singer has once again assembled some of the most iconic figures from the corridos tumbados — the most modern variant of the traditional corridos, which is a subgenre of regional Mexican and urban music — and regular collaborators, like Natanael Cano, Junior H and Gabito Ballesteros.

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]]>John Locher<![CDATA[Peso Pluma bolsters boom in Mexican music with Bizarrap]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-01/peso-pluma-bolsters-boom-in-mexican-music-with-bizarrap.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-01/peso-pluma-bolsters-boom-in-mexican-music-with-bizarrap.htmlThu, 01 Jun 2023 13:46:02 +0000Bizarrap, the Argentine producer who everybody wants to work with, is used to laying down his electronic rhythms behind successful urban artists from different corners of the world. And on Wednesday, he trained his focus on Mexico for the third time. For his BZRP Music Sessions #55, the producer collaborated with Peso Pluma, the current doyen of the Mexican corridos tumbados music subgenre. The track is the latest in his musical sessions, in which he lays the musical foundations and guest singers deliver their lyrics. This time, the Mexican rhythms have subsumed Bizarrap’s electronic classics, which remain in the background for much of the song’s three-minute playtime.

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]]><![CDATA[Angela Aguilar and Steve Aoki play an electronic take on the classic ballad ‘La gata bajo la lluvia’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-16/angela-aguilar-and-steve-aoki-play-an-electronic-take-on-the-classic-ballad-la-gata-bajo-la-lluvia.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-16/angela-aguilar-and-steve-aoki-play-an-electronic-take-on-the-classic-ballad-la-gata-bajo-la-lluvia.htmlFri, 16 Jun 2023 19:38:43 +0000The mixes of the North American DJ Steve Aoki and the voice of the Mexican singer Ángela Aguilar have combined this Thursday to release Invítame A Un Café, a song that reinvents the lyrics of Rocío Dúrcal’s classic ballad La Gata Bajo La Lluvia. In the song, Aguilar makes a foray into the electronica music that characterizes Aoki’s style for the first time. Both of them have been teasing the collaboration for the last two months.

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]]><![CDATA[Tijuana mayor to live in military barracks after receiving threats]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-13/tijuana-mayor-to-live-in-military-barracks-after-receiving-threats.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-13/tijuana-mayor-to-live-in-military-barracks-after-receiving-threats.htmlTue, 13 Jun 2023 14:25:48 +0000The mayor of Tijuana (Mexico), Montserrat Caballero, said on Monday that she will temporarily live in the 28th Infantry Battalion military barracks, located south of the city, after having received threats. The local leader has linked such intimidation to “the overwhelming results” of the public safety work carried out during her administration, such as the seizures of weapons and arrests related to organized crime. “Why do I get threats? Because we deliver results,” she said at a press conference.

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]]><![CDATA[A new chapter in the Latin boom: Mexican music takes over from reggaeton]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-13/a-new-chapter-in-the-latin-boom-mexican-music-takes-over-from-reggaeton.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-13/a-new-chapter-in-the-latin-boom-mexican-music-takes-over-from-reggaeton.htmlTue, 13 Jun 2023 00:59:56 +0000Less than a year ago, hardly anyone had heard of Peso Pluma beyond the bars of his native state of Jalisco, in Mexico. Today, this slender young Mexican with an Al Capone tattoo on his arm and a bowl cut is one of Jimmy Fallon’s star guests, has the blessing of star producer Bizarrap and has more visits than Bad Bunny, the reggaeton superstar who last April joined the Chicanos of Grupo Frontera to sing a cumbia grupera – a genre that Christian Nodal, a mariachi with face tattoos who plays sold-out concerts in Europe and the Americas, knows well. Trumpets, guitars, accordions. The headphones of millions resonate with the rhythms of regional Mexican music, a booming genre that is surpassing reggaeton on the global charts.

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]]>Scott Dudelson<![CDATA[Natanael Cano, the young man who wanted to change the course of Mexican music, and succeeded]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-06/natanael-cano-the-young-man-who-wanted-to-change-the-course-of-mexican-music-and-succeeded.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-06/natanael-cano-the-young-man-who-wanted-to-change-the-course-of-mexican-music-and-succeeded.htmlTue, 06 Jun 2023 17:21:45 +0000Natanael Cano’s melodious voice comes out of a small dressing room in Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional. He sings No volveré, by Antonio Aguilar, while his musicians, huddled next to him, cover the rhythms of the ranchero classic. There are still a few minutes to go before the 10,000 people that fill the iconic venue hear his songs. During the afternoon, the area surrounding the auditorium has been filled with young people dressed in the same fashion: urban clothes with the occasional detail of the initials CT, in reference to the corridos tumbados, a variety of Mexican music. In 2019, Cano kicked off the subgenre with Corridos Tumbados, the album that has solidified Mexican music’s position on the current global scene. Cano was 18 years old at the time. It was the domino effect of a young man who covered traditional corridos in the hallways of his school.

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]]><![CDATA[‘My son was everything to me and he’s gone:’ How social media is used to sell fentanyl in the US]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-22/my-son-was-everything-to-me-and-hes-gone-how-social-media-is-used-to-sell-fentanyl-in-the-us.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-22/my-son-was-everything-to-me-and-hes-gone-how-social-media-is-used-to-sell-fentanyl-in-the-us.htmlMon, 22 May 2023 08:58:44 +0000Jaime Puerta, a native of Colombia who is now a U.S. citizen, remains silent for a few moments, then takes a deep breath before talking about his son, José Daniel. “He had a lot of friends, he was a very sensitive person and he had a big heart [...] He was my only son, he was everything to me, he was absolutely everything to me,” he says, speaking by telephone from his home in California.

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]]><![CDATA[Canadian tourist shot dead in Mexican resort town Puerto Escondido]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-17/canadian-tourist-shot-dead-in-mexican-resort-town-puerto-escondido.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-17/canadian-tourist-shot-dead-in-mexican-resort-town-puerto-escondido.htmlWed, 17 May 2023 09:06:22 +0000A 27-year-old Canadian tourist named Victor Masson died Monday after being shot in the back in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Escondido. His body was found inside a car in the coastal town, which is located in the state of Oaxaca. Masson is the second foreigner to be violently murdered in Oaxaca this week: two days earlier, Benjamin Gamond, a 23-year-old Argentine traveler, died after receiving several machete blows.

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]]><![CDATA[US issues warning over meningitis cases linked to surgical procedures in Mexico]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-05-17/us-issues-warning-over-meningitis-cases-linked-to-surgical-procedures-in-mexico.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-05-17/us-issues-warning-over-meningitis-cases-linked-to-surgical-procedures-in-mexico.htmlWed, 17 May 2023 09:16:22 +0000The U.S. government issued an alert Tuesday after U.S. residents returning from Matamoros, Mexico, were diagnosed with suspected fungal meningitis infections. According to the health notice, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the infected travelers had undergone “medical or surgical procedures (including liposuction) that involved injection of an anesthetic into the area around the spinal column.”

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]]><![CDATA[The second life of Chalino Sánchez, the king of ‘corrido’]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-05-07/the-second-life-of-chalino-sanchez-the-king-of-corrido.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-05-07/the-second-life-of-chalino-sanchez-the-king-of-corrido.htmlSun, 07 May 2023 00:30:57 +0000The body of Chalino Sánchez, 31, was found lying next to a road in Culiacán, Sinaloa, with two bullet holes in his head. It was May 16, 1992. Just one day before he was murdered, in the middle of a concert, he received a letter from someone in the audience. Chalino read the paper carefully. His face turned yellow; he wiped sweat away from his forehead with one hand and began singing Soul in Love, as if nothing had happened.

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]]><![CDATA[Corridos and banda sweep the global charts: Is Mexican music the new reggaeton?]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-25/corridos-and-banda-sweep-the-global-charts-is-mexican-music-the-new-reggaeton.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-25/corridos-and-banda-sweep-the-global-charts-is-mexican-music-the-new-reggaeton.htmlTue, 25 Apr 2023 16:43:14 +0000Mexican regional music has carved a niche for itself in the global charts, stepping up and flexing its muscles to break down the barriers that have kept the musical macro-genre confined to the country where it was born. Seven regional songs have entered the Global Top 50 on Spotify: six corridos and one song with grupero overtones. The experts we interviewed argue that this is a historic boom, supported by the success of streaming platforms and the reinvention of traditional rhythms by new artists. The return to traditional Mexican tastes traces a positive trend that is, for the moment, continuing to grow.

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]]><![CDATA[Bad Bunny joins Regional Mexican music boom with Grupo Frontera ]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-18/bad-bunny-joins-regional-mexican-music-boom-with-grupo-frontera.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-18/bad-bunny-joins-regional-mexican-music-boom-with-grupo-frontera.htmlTue, 18 Apr 2023 12:12:10 +0000Puerto Rican singer Benito Martínez Ocasio — better known by his stage name Bad Bunny — has jumped on the rise of the Regional Mexican genre, a category that includes styles from different parts of rural Mexico and the southwestern United States. On Monday, Bad Bunny released a collaboration with Grupo Frontera — a group originally from the United States that has made a name for itself in the Regional Mexican genre. The song, called Un x100to, is a Mexican-style cumbia, similar to the music of Mexican band Bronco and Tejano star Selena.

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]]><![CDATA[A major winter storm in Mexico leaves thousands of travelers stranded ]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-12-29/a-major-winter-storm-in-mexico-leaves-thousands-of-travelers-stranded.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-12-29/a-major-winter-storm-in-mexico-leaves-thousands-of-travelers-stranded.htmlThu, 29 Dec 2022 04:21:01 +0000Christian Martínez had a direct flight from Tijuana to Guadalajara. But due to extreme weather conditions – the excuse given by the airlines and airport authorities – his three-hour-long flight was either delayed indefinitely or canceled.

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]]>Omar Martínez Noyola<![CDATA[Dog mutilated by Mexican drug cartel could become America’s favorite pet]]>https://english.elpais.com/society/2023-02-21/dog-mutilated-by-mexican-drug-cartel-could-become-americas-favorite-pet.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/society/2023-02-21/dog-mutilated-by-mexican-drug-cartel-could-become-americas-favorite-pet.htmlTue, 21 Feb 2023 11:32:34 +0000Pay de Limón (Lemon Pie) was found in 2011 in a dump in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, the town with the highest perception of insecurity in Mexico. Members of Los Zetas, one of the most violent cartels in the country, had preyed on the dog, who was barely a year old at the time. They cut off the toes of its front paws, which were finally amputated. Twelve years after being rescued from this horror by the owner of the animal shelter Milagros Caninos (Canine Miracles), the story of Pay de Limón has taken a remarkable turn. Three days after the closing of the America’s Favorite Pet contest, it is positioned as the first of the finalists, the one preferred by the voters.

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]]>ALFREDO ESTRELLA<![CDATA[The number of Americans residing in Mexico has surged in the last three years]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-02-08/the-number-of-americans-residing-in-mexico-has-surged-in-the-last-three-years.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-02-08/the-number-of-americans-residing-in-mexico-has-surged-in-the-last-three-years.htmlWed, 08 Feb 2023 11:53:11 +0000The number of Americans residing in Mexico on a temporary or permanent basis increased by 69.9% in 2022 compared to 2019, the year before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Immigration Policy Unit of the Secretariat for Home Affairs (SEGOB). The figures have jumped from 11,594 to 19,122, a difference of 7,528 people who have been granted one of the residence permits that allow them to live in the country.

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]]>Quetzalli Nicte Ha<![CDATA[‘Prison! Sacrifice!’: Angry crowd berates tourist who climbed protected pyramid in Chichén Itzá]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-11-22/prison-sacrifice-angry-crowd-berates-tourist-who-climbed-protected-pyramid-in-chichen-itza.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-11-22/prison-sacrifice-angry-crowd-berates-tourist-who-climbed-protected-pyramid-in-chichen-itza.htmlTue, 22 Nov 2022 15:48:01 +0000A tourist climbed the more than 90 steps of the Temple of Kukulcán, a landmark monument located in the world-famous archaeological site of Chichén Itzá, a former Maya city in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. During her ascent of the structure, which is off-limits to visitors, the crowd below began to berate her, with some people yelling “prison!” and other suggesting she should be offered up as a sacrifice to the gods.

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]]>RR. SS.<![CDATA[Badiraguato, the land of ‘El Chapo,’ wants to build a drug museum to attract tourism]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-11-04/badiraguato-the-land-of-el-chapo-wants-to-build-a-drug-museum-to-attract-tourism.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-11-04/badiraguato-the-land-of-el-chapo-wants-to-build-a-drug-museum-to-attract-tourism.htmlFri, 04 Nov 2022 11:12:05 +0000The mayor of Badiraguato, José Paz López, is proposing to build a drug trafficking museum in order to attract tourism. The town is already known for being the birthplace of notorious drug lords such as Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Rafael Caro Quintero, among others. The mayor says that the idea of putting together a collection for public display “should not scare anyone” and he is asking people to look at “the positive side” of the project.

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]]>SAÚL RUIZ<![CDATA[Millionaire burns Frida Kahlo drawing to sell it as NFT]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-09-30/a-millionaire-burned-a-drawing-by-frida-kahlo.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-09-30/a-millionaire-burned-a-drawing-by-frida-kahlo.htmlFri, 30 Sep 2022 00:30:03 +0000This past summer, millionaire Martín Mobarak burned an untitled drawing by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. He plans on selling 10,000 copies of the original in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT) – digital certificates or cryptographic tokens used to record the value of tangible assets. The artwork – in which the words “sinister ghosts” can be read – was valued at $10 million. Mobarak says that his act will transform the world of digital art.

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]]><![CDATA[Greasy, but satisfying: Three Mexican street foods among the 50 worst in the world]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-09-27/greasy-but-satisfying-three-mexican-street-foods-among-the-50-worst-in-the-world.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-09-27/greasy-but-satisfying-three-mexican-street-foods-among-the-50-worst-in-the-world.htmlTue, 27 Sep 2022 17:38:21 +0000As he hands a client a freshly made torta de chilaquiles (a bread roll stuffed with salsa-coated fried tortilla chips), Giovanni Aguilar says, affably: “The fact that Mexican food can be bad for you because it’s so greasy is nothing new, but the way it tastes, you just have to have it.” This is the food vendor’s response to a ranking published by the gastronomic website Taste Atlas, which placed three Mexican street foods among the worst in the world.

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