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☆ Mexico president asks Biden to stop USAID funding opposition groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Sarah Morland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, May 3 (Reuters) - Mexico's president asked his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to stop the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from funding groups hostile to his government, according to a letter presented to journalists on Wednesday, echoing previous Mexican criticism of U.S. interventionism. The letter calls for Biden's intervention, saying the U.S. State Department in recent days announced that USAID would increase its funding toward such organizations. Mexico had in 2021 sent a similar letter asking USAID to withdraw funding allocated to non-governmental organizations critical of the government. The State Department, USAID, MCCI and Article 19 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department has said there are credible reports on restrictions on free expression and media in Mexico - the deadliest country for journalists last year.

☆ US to continue humanitarian program after Title 42 end date - joint statement
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, May 2 (Reuters) - The United States will continue to accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under a humanitarian program after May 11, when the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday. Mexico, for its part, will continue accepting back migrants returned to Mexico on humanitarian grounds, the two countries said in a joint statement. The statement also said the United States would accept some 100,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras under a family reunification program announced last week, but did not give a time frame for that number. The statement came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on Tuesday to discuss migration ahead Title 42's impending end. Tuesday's announcement indicates that a humanitarian parole program providing legal migration pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans will continue after Title 42's end.

☆ The Mexican government just sold its $218 million Boeing 787 private jet its president refused to use — see inside the plane
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

However, some experts say the move was just for political gain: "What matters to him is to say 'look at the luxuries and privileges of the past and instead I'm austere'," analyst and historian Jose Antonio Crespo told AFP in 2020. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the lottery in hopes of raising $142 million. Associated PressSource: France24

REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File PhotoWASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration will temporarily send 1,500 additional troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in preparation for a possible rise in illegal immigration when COVID-19 border restrictions lift later this month. Biden, a Democrat running for reelection in 2024, has grappled with record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since he took office in 2021. The 1,500 troops could arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border by May 10, Ryder said during a briefing. U.S. military troops have been used to help secure the border during previous presidential administrations, including Republican George W. Bush, Democrat Barack Obama and Trump, who deployed thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops. Immigration advocates have criticized previous efforts to send troops to the border.

☆ Head of Mexican migration authority charged over deadly Juarez fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 30 (Reuters) - A judge in northern Mexico has ordered the head of the national migration authority charged over a fire late last month that killed 40 migrants at a holding center in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said on Sunday. After a lengthy hearing, the court in Ciudad Juarez said there was sufficient evidence to charge Francisco Garduno, head of the National Migration Institute (INM), for unlawful exercise of public office, the Federal Judicial Council said. Garduno, an ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is not under arrest, but must report to authorities every two weeks. The fire, which authorities say began after one or more of the migrants set alight mattresses as a protest, killed 40 male migrants, most of them from Central America. Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Mexican Senate expeditiously approves set of laws, mining reform
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Raul Cortes | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - The Mexican Senate approved in an express session on Saturday a package of laws including two constitutional reforms and a new mining law rebuked by the mining chamber and Canada. The mining law shortens concessions in the mining sector to 30 years from 50, tightens water extraction permits, and requires some mining profits to be returned to local communities, among other modifications. Lopez Obrador has not granted any new mining concessions since he took office in the world's top silver producing country in late 2018. The national mining chamber Camimex has warned such reforms could cost the country some $9 billion in investments and up to 420,000 jobs. Mining giant Grupo México (GMEXICOB.MX) said on Thursday that the government's reforms to the sector did not represent a risk to its portfolio.

Five months later, on Nov. 24, the regulator approved the plan for the Quesqui field in the southern state of Tabasco. Interviews with eight sources with direct knowledge of the matter show Hernandez had been pressured by Lopez Obrador's government and Pemex to approve Quesqui and other plans, or resign. According to these people, at least three other senior officials at the regulator were also pressured by officials in government and at the regulator to help approve the plans. One of the officials who the sources said was pressured, the former technical head, Julio Trejo, resigned shortly before the Quesqui plan was approved. Guerrero also reiterated that the Quesqui field "is a strategic project" as defined by the government.

☆ Colombia's Gustavo Petro finds his opening in Washington
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Stefano Pozzebon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

So what was the most solid common ground President Biden, as host, could find for his guest? Leaders from the region tend to see the climate issue as their platform in international summits. Like many countries in Latin America, Colombia has received considerable investments from Chinese companies in recent years, mostly in the transport and mining sectors. “Petro has the aspiration of leading the new phase of Latin America’s geopolitics. And Biden can also tout a considerable concession from his meeting with Petro, who had always refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine – until now.

Solis, 64, lives on the banks of Mexico's Villa Victoria reservoir, which supplies water to the bustling capital hours away but does not reach her own faucets. Villa Victoria is part of the Cutzamala System, the source of water for about six million people in Mexico City and the surrounding state of Mexico. Climate change, chaotic urban growth and inefficient infrastructure have strained Mexico's water supplies, pushing the Cutzamala System's stores to their lowest level in 27 years. Mexico City is also tapping alternative sources of water outside the Cutzamala System, including by replacing wells in the Zumpango area in the state of Mexico. But for people like Israel, who lives just a few minutes' drive from the Cutzamala System's water treatment plant and asked not to use his last name, the constitution's promise is increasingly distant.

☆ Chile's lithium push emerges as test for Latin American resource nationalism
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Laborers work at a lithium plant on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama desert of northern Chile January 8, 2013. While the former student protest leader's proposal to give the government a majority stake in all future lithium projects faces an uncertain path in Congress, its mere introduction shook one of the mining industry's most lucrative corners. Lithium is in high demand for rechargeable batteries for future fleets of electric vehicles in the global transition to green energy. That leaves the exception to the trend, Argentina, as an increasingly likely Latin American destination for new private capital for lithium. A strong pipeline of lithium projects in Argentina, the world's No.

☆ Mexican president, with COVID, expected to resume activities this week -Interior Minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may return to normal activities as soon as this week as his COVID-19 symptoms improve, a top government official said Wednesday. Lopez Obrador on Sunday said he had tested positive for the virus, his third known infection, and would take a few days off. Speaking in the president's place at a regular news conference, Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez said Lopez Obrador's health was improving. "We think, and this is what the doctors say, that the president will be resuming his normal activities ... before the weekend," he said. Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013, reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.

[1/5] A Cuban tanker ship enters Havana's bay with a sign that reads in Spanish: "No more blockade", referring to the trade embargo on Cuba imposed by the U.S., Havana, Cuba, April 25, 2023. Venezuela's oil exports to Cuba so far this year have dropped to 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) from almost 80,000 in 2020. Cuba has also imported since November at least five cargoes from Russia, a long-time supplier, as well as fuel from Caribbean terminals and Europe, the data shows. Officials also blame U.S. sanctions, which complicate the financing and transport of fuel to Cuba, for the crisis. Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA and oil ministry, Pemex, and Mexico's foreign ministry did not reply to requests for comment.

☆ Mexico president self-isolating after catching COVID-19: minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is receiving medical treatment and self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, the country's Interior Minister Adan Augusto said Monday in a morning press conference. Augusto said that Lopez Obrador was at the presidential headquarters and that the president had shown cold-like symptoms since Saturday. He denied a media report that the president had suffered a heart attack. This is the third known COVID-19 diagnosis for Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013. He reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.

☆ Mexican president tests positive for COVID-19 for third time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 23 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the third known infection, adding that while he was not seriously ill he would take a few days off. Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013, reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic. Lopez Obrador said Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez would host his regular morning news conference. In January 2022, Lopez Obrador underwent cardiac catheterization and was found to be in good health. Back then, the government said the president has regular check ups that include lab tests, electrocardiograms, stress tests and CT scans.

SQM's lithium contract in Chile is set to expire in 2030 and Albemarle's in 2043, giving it more insulation from the potential move. Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year, and Indonesia banned exports of nickel ore, a key battery material, in 2020. SQM has a larger footprint in Chile, with 81,000 hectares (about 200,000 acres) for lithium extraction compared with Albemarle's 16,000 hectares. Argentine state energy firm YPF last year began exploring lithium, while Bolivia has long maintained strict control over its huge though largely untapped resources. Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Bolivia's Luis Arce have touted the idea of a regional lithium "OPEC" to coordinate on lithium policy and benefit local economies.

☆ Mexico's presidential jet sold to Tajikistan, in latest twist to political saga
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Mexico Presidency/Handout via REUTERSMEXICO CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential jet has been sold to the Tajikistan government, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday, marking a possible end to a long-running political saga that the Mexican leader used to assail past excesses. The populist leftist who has for years railed against corruption of political elites, had previously said he hoped to sell the aircraft for at least $150 million. Shortly after he took office in late 2018, he announced plans to sell the jet, which featured marble touches and official government seals emblazoned on the walls along with multiple flat-screen monitors. "They will be built by military engineers and will be inaugurated before my term ends," he added. ($1 = 17.9941 Mexican pesos)Reporting by Isabel Woodford and David Alire Garcia; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia-Ukraine War News: Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Anushka Patil | Juston Jones | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

“We are nine hours apart and over 10,000 kilometers apart,” Mr. Zelensky told Mexico’s lower house of congress — the Chamber of Deputies — in a virtual address shortly before 1 p.m. there. But speaking to Mexican lawmakers, Mr. Zelensky did not ask for military hardware or money. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has said little publicly since he condemned the war days after it started in February 2022. Mr. López Obrador, who leads the left-wing Morena Party, did not show up in the chamber where Mr. Zelensky spoke over a video link. “We recognize in you the struggle that you have been waging all this time in defense of your homeland and the dignity of your people,” he said, addressing Mr. Zelensky.

☆ Factbox: Chile lithium move latest in global resource nationalism trend
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Matthew Chye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 21 (Reuters) - Chile's President Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday he would nationalise the country's vast lithium industry to boost the economy and protect the environment. Chile is the world's second largest producer of lithium, a key component in batteries used in electric vehicles. Myanmar accounted for 77% of China's tin ore imports last year, Chinese customs data showed. INDONESIA* A resource powerhouse, Indonesia is tightening controls over various materials in a push to develop local downstream operations and extract greater value. More export bans will also be announced in the coming years in order to develop resource processing industry onshore, he said, speaking at an economic forum.

The move would see Chile, the world's second largest lithium producer, shift to a model with the state holding a controlling interest in all new lithium projects through a public company that would partner with private mining firms. Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year, and Indonesia banned exports of nickel ore, a key battery material, in 2020. In early trading on Friday, Chilean firm SQM's U.S.-listed shares slid 6.2%, while Albemarle was down 2.5%. SQM's lithium contract in Chile is set to expire in 2030 and Albemarle's in 2043, giving it more insulation from the potential move. Mining shares in London fell sharply too.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy urges Mexico to help deliver his peace plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Henry RomeroMEXICO CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday urged Mexico to help make the case in Latin America for his peace plan for Ukraine, even as tensions persist within the country's ruling party about offering support to Kyiv. The plan includes Russia withdrawing all of its troops from Ukraine's territory, and he set it out to world leaders last November. "I think with Mexico's help, this could be much quicker," Zelenskiy said via videolink, speaking through an interpreter. Zelenskiy has said he will only consider peace settlements once Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard met separately with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to discuss the peace plan at the U.N. General Assembly last year.

☆ Ukraine and Russia turn toward the Americas; Zelensky speaks to Mexican lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tara John | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday appealed to Mexico’s Congress for support in the war against Russia, as both Kyiv and Moscow seek to reinforce ties in the Americas. Zelensky’s appeal comes after many Latin American countries have adopted a policy of non-intervention over the war in Ukraine, rebuffing efforts led by United States President Joe Biden to unite the global community in opposition to Russia’s invasion. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has raised eyebrows among Ukraine supporters for criticizing Western arms shipments into Kyiv. Still, Mexico has voted alongside the United States in UN resolutions calling for Russia to leave Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, talks with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira as he leaves Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on Monday.

☆ Exclusive: Ukraine's Zelenskiy due to address Mexico's Congress Thursday -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, April 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to address Mexico's Congress on Thursday by video, according to two people familiar with the matter, as he seeks support in his country's ongoing war with Russia. Zelenskiy's address to the lower house of Congress came at the invitation of a congressional friendship group between Mexico and Ukraine, according to the sources. There are other similar groups in the Mexican Congress, including one for Russia. Attempts to sway public opinion in Mexico over the war in Ukraine have led to some notable spats in Congress. Last year, the Russian ambassador to Mexico told Mexican lawmakers that Mexico would never take orders from "Uncle Sam", prompting the U.S. ambassador to urge Mexico to support Ukraine.

☆ Mexican president likens top judges to disgraced ex-official after military setback
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled legislation promoted by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador mandating that the Army assume control of the National Guard was unconstitutional. Two of four justices nominated by the president voted against his plan. Eight of 11 justices voted it down in total. Lopez Obrador, who has suffered a number of setbacks at the hands of the court, will leave office at the end of September 2024 following general elections in June 2024. The next Congress will begin on Sept. 1, 2024, the day Lopez Obrador said he would present his initiative to reform the constitution to enshrine military control of the National Guard.

☆ Mexico Supreme Court strikes down law to put National Guard under Army control
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 18 (Reuters) - Mexico's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unconstitutional the transfer of control over the country's civilian-led National Guard to the Army, a move which had sparked fears from critics and activists of increasing militarization of public security. In a move backed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Congress last year passed a reform to put the Army in control of the National Guard. The reform gave the Army operational, financial and administrative control of the National Guard, which had previously been under Mexico's security ministry. The ruling passed with eight votes in favor and three against. Reporting by Raul Cortes; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Anthony EspositoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Mexican president accuses Pentagon of spying; vows to restrict military information
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, April 18 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday accused the Pentagon of spying on his government following leaks in U.S. media, and said he would begin classifying information from the armed forces to protect national security. His comments came several days after the Washington Post reported on apparent tensions between Mexico's Navy and the Army, citing a U.S. military briefing revealed in online leaks of secret U.S. military records. "We're now going to safeguard information from the Navy and the Defense Ministry, because we're being a target of spying by the Pentagon," Lopez Obrador told his daily news conference. The Washington Post story said there was no indication the cited document came from intercepted communications of Mexican officials. Lopez Obrador has come under pressure to hold the military accountable for years of alleged abuses, including reported disappearances and killings.

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