Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Mexico surpassed 200,000 test-confirmed deaths from COVID-19 Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador framed ramped-up vaccination efforts as a race against time.

The president prepared to call out more military, state and local personnel to spur the vaccination effort as more doses arrive, including a shipment of 1.7 million AstraZeneca shots the United States has “loaned” Mexico.

MEXICO CITY, March 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Roberta Jacobson, the US coordinator for the southern border, had a message Tuesday for undocumented migrants heading across Mexico to the United States: please don’t come.

“Do not come to the border. The border is closed,” she said in an audio message issued by the US Embassy in Mexico City.

“People who intend to travel to the United States in an irregular fashion run the risk of becoming victims of crime and human smugglers,” Jacobson said.

CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico (AP) — The Mexican banks of the Suchiate river dawned Sunday with a heavy presence of immigration agents in place to enforce Mexico’s new limits on all but essential travel at its shared border with Guatemala.

Dozens of immigration agents lined the riverside asking those who landed on the giant innertube rafts that carry most of the cross-border traffic for documentation and turning many back.

Mexico City, Mar 19 (AP-PTI) Mexican officials said Thursday they have found an oil field with possible reserves of 500 million to 600 million barrels, but President Andr s Manuel L pez Obrador vowed not to pump more than 2 million barrels per day nationwide, the amount he says is needed to supply domestic demand.

This new policy means not pumping more oil than is needed to cover domestic demand for fuels, L pez Obrador said. In quantitative terms, this means that during our administration we will not pump out of the ground more than two million barrels per day.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a camp at the U.S.-Mexico border, some asylum seekers were told by officials that the U.S. government may reopen their cases and they would eventually be able to enter the U.S. to wait out the asylum process.

The new opening for people previously denied came as Mexican authorities worked to close the improvised camp along the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Brownsville, Texas, that has housed thousands of asylum seekers over the more than two years it existed.

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Despite her status as the wife of the world’s most notorious drug boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Emma Coronel Aispuro lived mostly in obscurity -- until her husband went to prison for life.

Then, suddenly, she was a presence on social media. There was talk of launching a fashion line. Even an appearance on a reality show dedicated to the families of drug traffickers.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that his country is doing better than the United States in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, even though Mexico’s per capita death rate is probably higher and the country has vaccinated less than 1% of its population.

López Obrador said Tuesday that comparing countries is in “bad taste,” but went on to say “the most powerful nation on earth, our neighbor, did worse than us.”

MEXICO CITY, Feb 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Mexican government said it had offered to cover the costs of repatriating the remains of Guatemalan migrants who were found murdered in the northern state of Tamaulipas last month.

The National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement that it offered Guatemalan ambassador Mario Bucaro “to cover the repatriation expenses of Guatemalan migrants killed in the municipality of Camargo, Tamaulipas.”

MEXICO CITY, Feb 18 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Mexico’s Minister of National Defence, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, said, he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will quarantine at home under medical supervision.

“I will continue my duties in quarantine from home, under medical treatment and relying on the officials of the National Defence Ministry, in keeping with the chain of command,” said the 61-year-old minister.

TENOSIQUE, Mexico (AP) — In the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, some 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel.

Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed.