Mexican Navy cadets América Yamilet Sánchez, Adal Jair Marcos ID'd as fatal victims in Brooklyn Bridge crash
One of the young Mexican Navy cadets killed in the Brooklyn Bridge ship crash was ID'd Sunday as an award-winning swimmer who posted a beaming photo of herself in front of the boat hours before the tragedy.
The other tragic dead Mexican maritime cadet was described by friends as a beloved world traveler.
The doomed mariners — America Yamilet Sanchez of Xalapa in the state of Veracruz and Adal Jair Marcos of Oaxaca — were up on the masts of Mexico's 147-foot training ship Cuauhtemoc when it lost its steering ability and smashed into the bridge shortly before 8:30 p.m.
'I deeply regret the passing of Veracruz cadet América Yamilet Sánchez,'' Veracruz Gov. Rocío Nahle García wrote on X. 'My love, support, and solidarity go out to her family.
Sanchez, a 20-year-old talented athlete from Veracruz's capital city, posted a photo of herself smiling broadly in front of the doomed vessel earlier Saturday.
She was a renowned swimmer who had won several medals in the sport, according to a report from local outlet e-Consulta Veracruz.
Harrowing footage shows Mexican sailors clinging to rigging for dear life after Brooklyn Bridge crash
Mexican Navy tall ship lost power before Brooklyn Bridge crash that killed 2, injured 17: NYPD
Night of joy for pals of Mexican Navy ship crew turns into tragedy as vessel strikes Brooklyn Bridge: 'We were very scared'
Here's why Mexican Navy tall ship that struck Brooklyn Bridge — killing at least 2 — was in NYC
Mexican navy cadet América Yamilet Sánchez, 20, ID'd as first victim in Brooklyn Bridge crash
She is thought to have arrived in New York on May 13 as part of Cuauhtémoc's international tour.
Meanwhile, Marcos, known to his friends as 'Tyson' or simply 'Marcos,' had been aboard the ship for the past nine months and had traveled the world on the high seas — from Hawaii and Tokyo to New Zealand and Australia, the Mexican outlet El Universal reported.
He was originally from Salina Cruz in Oaxaca, the outlet said.
'Two months ago you gave me a shirt from the barque team you loved the most, and now you're no longer with us,' a grieving friend wrote online. 'God bless you up there, and I hope I see you again and share lockers with you again.'
Another friend wrote that Marcos was 'more than a friend. A brother.'
The ship was taking part in a training cruise to mark the so-called 'Bicentennial of the Consolidation of the Independence of the Seas,' or the 200th anniversary of the Mexican Navy expelling the last of the Spanish strongholds from Mexico.
It had departed from the Mexican island of Cozumel off the Yucatan Peninsula on May 4 as it set off on its 170-day planned voyage set to take in 22 ports in 15 countries.
Sánchez and Marcos were among the 277 crew members on board — 213 men and 64 women who were mostly young naval cadets from the Heroica Escuela Naval Militar, the Mexican Navy's officer training academy based in the Veracruz fishing town of Antón Lizardo.
Mexico's Navy has promised to return their bodies to their loved ones as soon as possible.
More than 20 people also were injured in the accident, with as many as 11 of them in critical or serious condition, media outlets reported.
-Additional reporting by Joe Marino
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Atlantic
27 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
The last time President Donald Trump tried to send military forces into American streets to put down civil unrest, in June 2020, Pete Hegseth was positioned outside the White House with a Kevlar helmet and riot shield. Major Hegseth's mobilization as part of a District of Columbia National Guard unit summoned to restore order in the nation's capital, where protests had erupted following the police murder of George Floyd, occurred as Pentagon leaders scrambled to avert what they feared could be a confrontation between active-duty U.S. forces and their fellow Americans. Today, Hegseth is second only to the president in directing the administration's use of the National Guard and active-duty Marines to respond to unrest over immigration raids in Los Angeles. And this time, the military's civilian leadership isn't acting as a brake on Trump's impulse to escalate the confrontation. The Hegseth-led Pentagon is an accelerant. The administration's decision to federalize 4,000 California National Guard forces, contrary to Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes, and to dispatch 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area, marks a break with decades of tradition under which presidents have limited their use of the military on American soil. If there are any internal misgivings about busting through yet another democratic norm, they haven't surfaced publicly. Indeed, officials at the White House told us they are satisfied with the way the L.A. confrontation has unfolded. They believe that it highlights their focus on immigration and law and order, and places Democrats on the wrong side of both. One widely circulated photo—showing a masked protester standing in front of a burning car, waving a Mexican flag—has been embraced by Trump supporters as a distillation of the conflict: a president unafraid to use force to defend an American city from those he deems foreign invaders. 'We couldn't have scripted this better,' said a senior White House aide granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. 'It's like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.' Democrats, of course, take a different view, and say the administration's actions have only risked triggering further violence. Retired officers who study how the armed forces have been used in democracies told us they share those concerns. They point to the damage that Trump's orders could do to the military's relationship with the citizens it serves. 'We should be very careful, cautious, and even reluctant to use the military inside our country,' Bradley Bowman, a former Army officer who heads the defense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told us. Conor Friedersdorf: Averting a worst-case scenario in Los Angeles State and local authorities typically use law-enforcement personnel as a first response to civil disturbances or riots, followed by National Guard forces if needed. Retired Major General Randy Manner, who served as acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau during the Obama administration, said the federalizing of California Guard forces—putting them under presidential rather than state control, a move allowed with certain limits—pulls those service members away from their civilian jobs and makes it harder to complete planned training or exercises. 'Basically, the risk does not justify the investment of these forces, and it will negatively impact on readiness,' Manner told us. Retired officers we spoke with also drew a distinction between the involvement of National Guard and active-duty forces. Whereas National Guard troops assist citizens after natural disasters and have the advantage of knowing the communities they serve, active-duty forces are primarily trained to 'see the enemy and neutralize the enemy,' said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'When you're dealing with U.S. citizens, no matter what they're doing, that's not the right mindset.' 'This is not Fallujah,' Bowman added. 'This is Los Angeles.' Juliette Kayyem: Trump's gross misuse of the National Guard This morning, Hegseth made his first congressional appearance since his bruising confirmation process, appearing before a House committee. His tone with Democrats was at times combative. When Representative Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, asked the defense secretary what the cost of the California deployment would be, he declined to provide a figure and instead pivoted to criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the state's response to the violence that followed Floyd's killing in 2020. (Military officials said later they expected the Los Angeles deployment, as envisioned, to cost roughly $134 million.) 'If you've got millions of illegals, you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers, that's a problem,' Hegseth told lawmakers. Trump, for his part, told reporters that anyone who tries to protest at the Saturday parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army will 'be met with very big force.' He also said that he wouldn't hesitate to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would permit him to employ the military for law enforcement or to suppress a rebellion, if he believed that circumstances required. Speaking to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina later in the day, the president promised to stop the 'anarchy' in California. ' We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,' he said. 'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' Some Republicans have privately expressed worry that Trump may overplay a winning hand. Even in the West Wing, two people we spoke with tried to downplay the incendiary rhetoric from Trump and Hegseth. They stressed that, to this point, National Guard forces have been in a defensive posture, protecting federal buildings. Although they believe that Trump has the political advantage at the moment, they acknowledged there would be real risks if U.S. troops got involved in violence. 'We don't know who would get blamed but no one wins if that happens,' one senior aide told us. 'No one wants to see that.' Hegseth's support for using active-duty troops in Los Angeles stands in contrast to what his predecessor did in 2020. At that time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, scrambled to block Trump's desire to employ active-duty forces against the demonstrators protesting racial violence. The president had mused about shooting protesters in the legs, Esper wrote later. To satisfy his boss while also avoiding a dangerous confrontation, the defense chief called active-duty forces from Fort Bragg to Northern Virginia but sought to keep them out of the fray. Tom Nichols: Trump is using the National Guard as bait In his 2024 book The War on Warrior s, Hegseth described how his experience as a D.C. Guardsman in 2020 crystallized his views about the divide between military personnel and what he saw as the degenerate protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles of urine at the citizen soldiers. When the D.C. Guard was again summoned seven months later, to help secure the 2021 inauguration following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Hegseth was told to stand down because fellow Guardsmen suspected that one of his tattoos was a sign of extremism. (Hegseth has maintained it is part of his Christian faith.) Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: 'My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.'
Los Angeles Times
28 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Protesters gather at Santa Ana federal building: ‘This is the healthiest thing to do'
In Santa Ana, about 120 protesters gathered outside a federal building near City Hall on Monday afternoon. Multiple raids had been conducted across Santa Ana that morning, including at Home Depots and restaurants and in industrial areas of the city. 'I feel enraged,' said Councilmember Jessie Lopez, standing with the crowd. 'If [U.S. Atty.] Bill Essayli cares about criminals, he should start at the White house.' Essayli last week sent a letter to Santa Ana, warning the sanctuary city about its proposal to pass a resolution that would require the Santa Ana Police Department to inform residents whenever they received a courtesy call from Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerting them about upcoming raids. Bethany Anderson was with a group of friends from Fullerton, where they had been receiving calls Monday. They were standing in front of a driveway that led to a small gated garage where unmarked white vans had been driving in and out all day. 'I knew they would bring people here' to the federal building, said Anderson, who is accredited by the Department of Justice as a legal representative. 'This is not a jail, so we have no idea about the quality of conditions inside, so that's very worrisome. Suddenly, she saw movement in the driveway and grabbed the bullhorn hanging from her shoulder. 'We see you!' Anderson shouted as protesters screamed, 'Shame!' and rushed to see what was going on. 'We see you, private security guards! You don't have to do this!' The Orange County Rapid Response Network posted addresses and photos of locations where ICE had conducted raids in Fountain Valley. The group's co-director, Casey Conway, said he was happy to see so many people show up in Santa Ana. 'But this isn't just today. This has been every day for three weeks. We're super overwhelmed right now.' The crowd held pro-immigrant and anti-Trump signs and waved Mexican flags. Someone passed around bottled waters and masks as a young woman chanted on a bullhorn, 'Move ICE, get out the way!' to artist Ludacris' song 'Move.' Federal police stood by the building's entrance, where some took photos of the crowd. When they went back inside, the crowd started chanting, '¡Quiere llorar!' — 'He wants to cry,' a common insult among Mexican soccer and rock fans. Alicia Rojas looked on from the edge of a sidewalk. The Colombian native had her amnesty application denied in the federal building as a child. 'This is all triggering,' said the 48-year-old artist. Now a U.S. citizen, Rojas grew up in Mission Viejo during the era of Prop. 187 and remembered all the racism against people like her at the time. Seeing so many young people out to protest made her 'hopeful, but I'm also worried. I've seen how the response has been to these peaceful protests. This administration has no capacity to be American.' She looked on. 'I feel rage inside, but this is the healthiest thing to do. More than anything. I'm here to look after the kids.' As the vans came in and out throughout the afternoon, activists at first blocked them but later backed down when federal agents shot pepper balls into the ground. Among those hit was Conway, who rushed to the side to have their reddened eyes washed out with water. 'I need someone to be on deescalation,' Conway gasped. The task fell to Tui Dashark. Dressed in neon green Doc Martens, an olive hat and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt, he led the crowd through chants including 'No firman nada' (Don't sign anything). 'Please stop throwing water bottles,' Dashark said at one point. 'They're just water bottles to us. But to them, it's assault with a deadly weapon.' The crowd calmed down. 'I'm proud of you guys for not escalating,' Dashark said. 'You're the f— real ones.' He turned to the gate driveway, where federal agents had quietly returned. 'You're so cool man,' Dashark said in a sarcastic voice as the crowd laughed. ' I wonder, what kind of person is up thinking, 'I want to lock up kids as a career?' As the day continued, the situation eventually evolved into the old children's game of Red Rover: Protesters would get too close and throw water bottles, federal agents would shoot pepper balls and eventually escalate to flash-bang grenades and tear gas. After a couple of hours, the crowd moved a couple of hundred feet to the east to Sasscer Park, named after a Santa Ana police officer killed in the 1960s by a member of the Black Panther Party. Local activists call it Black Panther Park. By 5 p.m., the protesters numbered at least 500. T-shirts emblazoned with logos of beloved Santa Ana Chicano institutions colored the scene: Suavecito. Gunthers. Funk Freaks. Santa Ana High. El Centro Cultural de México. People took turns on bullhorns to urge calm and to unite. But then another protester saw federal agents gathering at the federal building again. 'We gotta make them work overtime!' a young woman proclaimed on a bullhorn. 'They don't make enough money. let's go back!' The crowd rushed back to the federal building. Eventually, Santa Ana police officers arrived to create a line and declare an unlawful assembly. For the next four hours, the scene was akin to a party broken up occasionally by tear gas and less-than-lethal projectiles. Cars cruised on nearby streets blasting Rage against the Machine, sierreño music and the tunes of Panteón Rococó, a socialism-tinged Mexican ska group. Someone used AutoTune to shout profanities against the police, drawing giggles from the overwhelmingly Gen Z crowd. A Latina woman who gave her name only as Flor arrived with her teenage daughter. It was their first protest. 'We live in a MAGA-ass town and saw this on television,' Flor said. 'I grew up just down the street from here. No way can we let this happen here.' Nearby, Giovanni Lopez blew on a loud plastic horn. It was his first protest as well. 'I'm all for them deporting the criminals,' said the Santa Ana resident. He wore a white poncho bearing the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. 'But that's not what they're doing. My wife is Honduran and she's not a citizen. She's scared to go to her work now even though she's legal. I told her not to be afraid.' The Santa Ana police slowly pushed the protesters out of Sasscer Park. Some, like Brayn Nestor, bore bloody welts from the rubber bullets that had hit them. 'Does someone have a cigarette?' he asked out loud in Spanish. The Mexico City native said he was there to 'support the raza, güey.' He was in obvious pain, but the trademarks arachidonic humor of his native city still bubbled through. 'It's chido [cool] that they hit me,' he proclaimed to anyone who would listen. 'Es perro, güey [it's cool, dog]. So the world knows what jerks those pigs are.'
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago protesters march against Trump's immigration crackdown as demonstrations pop up across the country
A mostly calm demonstration by thousands who marched through Chicago's Loop in protest of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown briefly snarled Tuesday evening traffic as crowds surged into downtown streets and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Marchers briefly blocked honking traffic on several main arteries, including DuSable Lake Shore, as they walked among stopped cars and buses. At least one CTA bus could be seen with anti-CPD, anti-ICE graffiti. Police helicopters hovered overhead as marchers wove between vehicles. Police detained two people at the intersection of South State and East Monroe Streets as protesters yelled in the intersection. As officers detained people and cars waited in traffic, a woman told to drive west on Monroe had a brief, shouted exchange with an officer. After making a noise of apparent frustration, she drove across the intersection down a street filled with marchers. People screamed and scattered. A few moments later, an officer knelt in front of a woman seated on the sidewalk, holding a little girl in her lap, shaking her head. No one appeared to be injured. It was unclear whether police made any arrests. Protests that sprang up in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement raids and prompted President Donald Trump to mobilize National Guard troops and Marines have begun to spread across the country, with more planned into the weekend. From Seattle to Austin and Washington, D.C., marchers have chanted slogans, carried signs against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and snarled traffic through downtown avenues and outside federal offices. While many were peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been a loud opponent of Trump's enforcement campaign. And Chicago has long been a 'sanctuary city' that prohibits its law enforcement from inquiring about residents' immigration status or cooperating with federal immigration officials. Trump's 'Border czar' Tom Homan pledged just before the new administration took office that sanctuary cities like Chicago would be epicenters for Trump's promised crackdown on undocumented immigrants. But the city hasn't seen major unrest related to the raids so far, besides a June 4 clash between immigration authorities and advocates and some City Council members outside an ICE field office in the South Loop. About 40 people gathered with signs and drums Tuesday afternoon outside a different ICE office, located at 55 E. Monroe St. 'ICE belongs in our coffee, not in our communities,' one person's sign read. The group expanded to about 200 protesters, and briefly blocked traffic outside the office before marching down to a second ICE outpost, at the intersection of Ida B. Wells Drive and South Clark Street, but found the intersection taped off by the Chicago Police Department. They turned to march north and east through the Loop, carrying Mexican and Palestinian flags. 'No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,' they chanted. Benjamin Milford commuted to the city from Wheaton to voice his opposition to deportations of families, particularly children of undocumented immigrants who were U.S. citizens and in need of medical care. Around 3:30 p.m., he was sitting on the sidewalk outside immigration court adjusting the rollerblades he'd worn to give him easier movement around the march. 'With ICE raids happening every day across the country, it needs to end,' said Milford, 30. 'I hope this sends a message to Trump and his administration that we won't put up with this in Chicago or across the country.' Then he got back on his feet and skated off into the chanting crowd.
