Mexiconews

Hurricane John, which made landfall in Mexico twice last week, claimed 29 lives in three Pacific coast states, including more than 20 in Guerrero, according to news reports. The EFE news agency and other media outlets reported that the death toll from John rose to 29 on Sunday after authorities confirmed four additional hurricane-related fatalities in Guerrero. Guerrero’s capital of Chilpancingo, located about two hours north of Acapulco, also saw major flooding that caused dozens of homes to collapse. (Dassaev Téllez Adame/Cuartoscuro) The hurricane made landfall for the first time last Monday as a powerful Category 3 storm, slamming into the coast of southern Guerrero near the state’s border with Oaxaca. After weakening and drifting offshore, John regained strength in the Pacific Ocean before making landfall for a second time last Friday as a tropical storm on the coast of the neighboring state of Michoacán.  According to reports, 23 of the 29 fatalities linked to Hurric...

The violence in the northwestern state of Sinaloa flared up again as authorities reported that shootouts on Wednesday and Thursday left at least nine dead. Authorities on Thursday also found a badly injured man, kidnapped three weeks ago, near a clandestine grave in Culiacán. The newspaper El Financiero reported that the death toll since Sept. 9 is approaching 100 while more than 100 people have been kidnapped. A Wednesday night gun battle in Concordia municipality in the southern part of the state left seven dead and two wounded. Then on Thursday, gunmen attacked a National Guard contingent in the town of Siqueros in Mazatlán municipality. The Guard repelled the aggression, killing two of the attackers. Also Thursday, authorities responded to reports of two separate shootouts, in rural areas north of Mazatlán and south of the state capital of Culiacán.One in the municipality of Elota and the other, on the southern side of Culiacán municipality. Officials did not provide informatio...

Tropical Storm John made landfall near Aquila, Michoacán just before noon (CST) on Friday. The National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned residents of four Pacific coast states to take extreme precautions against flash-flooding and mudslides as Tropical Storm John moves along the coast of southwestern Mexico today and tonight. Tropical Storm John is forecast to reach Manzanillo, Colima, this evening. (Conagua) The SMN warned of “extraordinary” rainfall in Colima , Michoacán and Guerrero, and torrential rains in the state of Jalisco which could prompt catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides. The federal government ordered 25,000 additional soldiers, sailors and members of the National Guard to the affected areas, while officials on the ground have been rescuing people trapped in flooded areas. After making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Monday in Punta Maldonado, Guerrero, John drifted west and regained strength in the Pacific Ocean. It re-entered mainland Mexico on Fr...

A shootout on Wednesday in the northern state of Nuevo León left at least 11 suspected gang members dead, according to state authorities. Army, National Guard and state police agents were summoned before dawn to the municipality of General Terán after suspects fired upon municipal police headquarters. According to the newspaper Infobae, the local police chief, Felipe Barush, said his men were able to repel the attack which occurred around 4:30 a.m., with no casualties reported. The gunmen fled northeast in a white pick-up truck on federal highway 35 in the direction of the municipality of China, perhaps trying to draw the police into an ambush. The attackers apparently tossed spike strips along the highway behind them with at least one tractor-trailer seen along the side of the road with punctured tires. Soldiers and National Guard members, joined by state police officials, soon gave chase. The authorities expanded their search to the neighboring municipalities of Los Herreras and ...

A series of nine small tremors rattled Mexico City starting early Thursday morning, worrying residents and rupturing a pipe in the Benito Juárez borough. Five small earthquakes shook the northwestern portion of the city before dawn Thursday. Officials reported that the “microseisms” — faint earth tremors — caused no damage. A sixth micro-quake was felt at 10:26 a.m., unnerving residents of the capital who are all too familiar with traumatic September earthquakes. It was followed by smaller tremors at 11:41 a.m. and 11:50 a.m. The newspaper Excelsior reported that the quakes broke a pipe in a building in the Nápoles neighborhood of Benito Juárez borough, flooding the building. Then at 1:03 p.m., a 5.2-magnitude earthquake with its epicenter in Guerrero set off a national seismic alert . The Mexican Seismic Alert System reported alerts in Chilpancingo and Acapulco, Guerrero, as well as in Cuernavaca, Morelos, and Morelia, Michoacán. No alert was reported for Mexico City, though s...

Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane, has moved away from the region and is now heading to Florida’s Gulf Coast. However, weather authorities predict that heavy rain may continue to fall in the Yucatán for the next two days.  In the past week, Mexico has seen two hurricanes on two of its coasts — John on the Pacific coast and Helene on the Atlantic coast.  #HuracanHelene #helene en #Cancun #mexico pic.twitter.com/gcX3Ratnan — 🅼🅼 🆁🅸 🆂 (@MMariposa31) September 26, 2024 A user on the social media platform X recorded Helene in Cancún as it bore down on the Yucatán Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night. Although the overall impact of Helene on the Yucatán Peninsula was mild, its passage left fallen trees, flooded streets, power outages and canceled flights in its wake. Helene, the fifth cyclone of 2024’s Atlantic hurricane season , brought heavy rains to the state of Yucatán from Tuesday night ...

More than three months have passed since Mexicans elected not only their first female president but also the head of state with the most formal background in climate change and environmental sciences out of all current world leaders.  Claudia Sheinbaum, who is an energy engineer by training and served as the Environmental Secretary of Mexico City from 2000 until 2006, will be sworn in as president on Oct. 1. But what can the world expect when it comes to Sheinbaum’s green policies, and will she live up to her billing as an environmentalist? After pursuing her career in Physics and a master’s degree in Energy Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she moved to California to work on her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where she focused on analyzing energy consumption in Mexico’s construction and transportation sector.  Sheinbaum’s green credentials have been oft-touted by supporters, but what has she actually promised to do about Mexico’s desperate water ...

After battering the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca earlier this week, Tropical Storm John strengthened back into a hurricane early Thursday after drifting out over the Pacific a day earlier.  John is now poised to slam into the Mexican mainland again, threatening communities along the Pacific coast after causing floods and landslides that killed at least five people. As of Thursday morning, the national weather agency expects Hurricane John to make landfall later in the day near Manzanillo, Colima. (SMN) A U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) advisory published at 9 a.m. CST (and updated at 12 p.m.) cautioned that “Hurricane John is producing catastrophic life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides over portions of southern Mexico.” The NHC forecast John’s center will approach and move along the coast of southwestern Mexico and head inland later Thursday. As of Thursday morning at 10 a.m., Mexico’s national weather agency (SMN) forecast Hurricane John will make landfall ...

Demonstrators marked the 10th anniversary of Mexico’s Ayotzinapa 43 kidnappings and massacre with multipronged protests across Mexico City this week, which included throwing firecrackers in the Senate courtyard and spray-painting the building in response to a constitutional reform vote to place the National Guard under control of the Defense Ministry. While the kidnappings on Sept. 26, 2014, of 43 male teaching students in Iguala, Guerrero, has never been solved to nearly anyone’s satisfaction, some investigations have alleged that members of Mexico’s military were involved at some point. Demonstrators protesting the 10th anniversary of the Ayotzinapa 43 kidnapping case without resolution protesting outside the Interior Ministry offices in Mexico City on Monday. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro) The 43 kidnapped students at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in the state of Guerrero, had commandeered three public buses for transportation to a demonstration. They were abducted i...

Drought conditions across Mexico have declined following unusually high levels of rainfall throughout the summer. In May, nearly 76% of the national territory was experiencing some degree of drought conditions, with the most severely impacted regions being the northwest, central-west and east. Now, thanks to the rainy season, drought levels have dropped considerably in most areas of Mexico. MÉXICO REVERDECE En imágenes satelitales compartidas por NOAA, el reverdecimiento de México es muy visible En mayo, el país afrontaba una sequía que afectaba a casi el 75% del territorio. Ahora, el verano ha sido más lluvioso de lo habitual y la flora está recuperándose pic.twitter.com/hWgvn2DJWK — La Jornada Baja California (@LaJornadaBC) September 19, 2024 Satellite images of Mexico show that several areas of the country have flourished following the summer rain. How much of Mexico’s territory is currently affected by drought? According to the latest drought monitor from the National ...

Helene strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday morning, as it moved past the Quintana Roo coast toward the Gulf of Mexico. At 9 a.m. CST, the eye of the hurricane was centered 70 km northeast of Cancún and 135 km north-northeast of Cozumel, moving north-northeast at 17 km/h, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN). Helene has sustained winds of 130 km/h with gusts of up to 155 km/h. Streets were flooded and power outages were reported in many areas of Cancún on Tuesday as Hurricane Helene gained strength in the Caribbean Sea. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro) A hurricane warning is in effect from Cabo Catoche to Tulum, Quintana Roo, including Cozumel. Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning is active from Lagartos, Yucatán, to Cabo Catoche, Quintana Roo. The SMN warned of wind gusts of up to 110 km/h on the eastern coast of Yucatán and Quintana Roo, waves of three to five meters high and the possible formation of waterspouts. The coast of Campeche could experie...

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Yucatán Peninsula as Tropical Storm Helene barrels toward Mexico’s southeastern coast.  The warning zone goes from Río Lagartos, Yucatán, to Tulum, Quintana Roo.  A hurricane surveillance zone is in effect from Cabo Catoche to Tulum, both located in Quintana Roo. The red GPS pin indicates Helene’s location in the Caribbean Sea as of noon. Helene formed in the northwestern Caribbean Sea Tuesday morning. According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), Helene was located 280 kilometers east-southeast of Cozumel and 310 kilometers southeast of Cancún as of noon, with sustained winds of 75 km/h (47 mph) and gusts as high as 90 km/h (about 56 mph).  According to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), at about the same time, Helene was traveling toward Mexico at a speed of about 19 km/h (12 mph). The NHC predicts Helene could reach near-hurricane strength in the Caribbean Sea at times but will remain a ...