Mexican authorities accuse Adidas of cultural appropriation over new sandal design
The controversy has fueled accusations of cultural appropriation by the footwear brand, with authorities saying this is not the first time traditional Mexican handicrafts have been copied. Citing these concerns, local authorities have asked Adidas to withdraw the shoe model.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that Adidas was already in talks with authorities in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to provide 'compensation for the people who were plagiarized', and that her government was preparing legal reforms to prevent the copying of Mexican handicrafts.
Adidas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The design at the center of the controversy is the 'Oaxaca Slip-On,' a sandal created by U.S. designer Willy Chavarría for Adidas Originals. The sandals feature thin leather straps braided in a style that is unmistakably similar to the traditional Mexican huaraches. Instead of flat leather soles, the Adidas shoes tout a more chunky, sports shoe sole.
According to Mexican authorities, Adidas' design contains elements that are part of the cultural heritage of the Zapotec Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, particularly in the town of Villa Hidalgo de Yalálag. Handicrafts are a crucial economic lifeline in Mexico, providing jobs for around half a million people across the country. The industry accounts for around 10 per cent of the gross domestic product of states like Oaxaca, Jalisco, Michoacán and Guerrero.
Authorities in Oaxaca have called for the 'Oaxaca Slip-On' to be withdrawn and demanded a public apology from Adidas, with officials describing the design as 'cultural appropriation' that may violate Mexican law.
In a public letter to Adidas leadership, Oaxaca state governor Salomón Jara Cruz criticized the company's design, saying that 'creative inspiration' is not a valid justification for using cultural expressions that 'provide identity to communities.'
'Culture isn't sold, it's respected,' he added.
The controversy follows years of efforts by Mexico's government and artisans to push back on major global clothing brands who they say copy traditional designs.
In 2021, the federal government asked manufacturers including Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl to provide a public explanation for why they copied clothing designs from Oaxaca's Indigenous communities to sell in their stores.
Now, Mexican authorities say they're trying to work out stricter regulations in an effort to protect artists. But Marina Núñez, Mexico's undersecretary of cultural development, noted that they also want to establish guidelines to not deprive artists of 'the opportunity to trade or collaborate with several of these companies that have very broad commercial reach.'
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Fabiola Sánchez, The Associated Press
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The Market Online
5 hours ago
- The Market Online
Tariffs Bite, Gold Shines, and Cannabis Rebounds on The Market This Month
TRANSCRIPT BELOW The Canadian Securities Exchange presents your go-to source for trends in junior and small cap markets. Each month, join host Anna Serin and financial expert Bruce Campbell, in partnership with Stockhouse. This article is being disseminated on behalf of the Canadian Securities Exchange, a third-party issuer, and is intended for informational purposes only. ANNA Hi, my name is Anna Serin. I am director of listings development with the Canadian Securities Exchange. You are joining us for another Market This Month in August of 2025. I am, of course, joined today by my wonderful co-host, Bruce Campbell, with StoneCastle Investment Management. In this month's episode, we are diving into how August has been shaped by trade tensions, a shift in commodities, and renewed momentum in the cannabis sector. Canadian employment numbers are down, and while tariffs keep piling up, economists say the economy is holding together better than we expected, though cracks are beginning to show. In response, the government has rolled out programs to support tariff-affected workers and is accelerating both defense and infrastructure spending. It is worth noting that 85% of Canada's trade with the US remains tariff-free, though. However, in July, President Trump raised tariffs to 35% on Canadian goods that are not compliant with the Canada-US-Mexico agreement. Meanwhile, cannabis stocks are sparking renewed interest after Trump said on August 11th that his administration is considering reclassifying marijuana to a less dangerous Schedule III drug. Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I substance, classified alongside heroin as highly dangerous, addictive, and without medical use, where it has been since the Controlled Substance Act was signed in 1970. Although 45 states have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, federal law still treats it as a top-tier controlled substance. If reclassified, marijuana would be regulated more like Tylenol with codeine or anabolic steroids, prescription-only, but available through licensed healthcare providers and pharmacies. This would mark the most significant shift in federal marijuana policy in over 50 years in the United States. Reclassification would not legalize recreational use nationwide, but it would reshape the regulation and taxation. For example, businesses currently barred from claiming federal tax deductions under Section 280E would gain access to significant tax savings, boosting profitability for licensed operators. It could also unlock easier access for clinical research, long stifled under Schedule I restrictions. However, banking and payment barriers would likely persist. Most banks avoid businesses due to federal penalties. According to a Congressional Research Service report, scheduling a loan is unlikely to change that. We will break down what all of this means for the markets, check in on gold, copper, and oil, and explore why cannabis could be on the verge of another major revelation. Let's dive in. BRUCE Yeah. Thanks for having me, Anna. We were talking in the green room there about how I can't believe summer is almost over. It is kind of sad how fast it has flown by. ANNA It has flown by. And, you know, Bruce, I think we will talk about this today, but the markets have been quite busy for the summertime. Normally, there is not as much to talk about, but it has been a busy summer in the markets, hasn't it? BRUCE It sure has. Between financings and activity, it has not given us much time to put our feet up and relax. ANNA Absolutely. We are going to get into some of those numbers this episode. It is pretty exciting stuff. So let's let's dive into it. You know, we are going to talk about tariffs again, because that is just a part of our reality these days. But, you know, I think one thing that you wanted to touch on is kind of, what is the ripple effect that is happening on tariffs? What are the economics of what is happening with the tariff life in Canada? BRUCE We have seen some real mixed numbers, right? If you look at employment numbers, they were certainly weaker than what the consensus was expecting when they just recently came out here in the early part of August, which is clearly disappointing. That has had an impact. There are a lot of companies that still are in that holding pattern. They do not know what to do, because, you know, the tariffs are reduced, and then they are back up. And it really it really kind of jams up businesses, for sure. I know that in the US though, the interesting thing is that the small business sentiment has increased over the last month. And it has increased now above the kind of long-term average, which is good to see. Because, if that is out, a lot of hesitancy because of, and, and sort of negative sentiment, because of the fact that the tariffs were imposed. And most businesspeople did not know what that meant. And now, as we are starting to get a little bit more clarity in the US, that has started to help business sentiment. And then hopefully we can get some clarity in Canada. And then, once businesses have a framework for which they can work in, then it is just a function of, you know, that is the new operating manual that they have to run with. And most people are quite good at adapting from a business perspective. It is just the uncertainty of not knowing like, 'Are they on and how much? And, you know, where are they coming from?' And things like that. It will be nice to get that uncertainty dealt with. And hopefully that can happen over the next few months here. ANNA Look, I think on a global level, you know, we all sit and watch, and we are never really sure what Trump is going to do next. And that that creates a lot of uncertainty, right? BRUCE Yeah, 100%. And day-to-day… you kind of never know what is going to come and what direction that is going to come from. Not just tariffs, but there are so many other things. There has been lots of criticism of the Fed. There has been, obviously, political, geopolitical items that come out. There has been these different events as far as getting taxes on chip sales to China. It just never seems to end, and it is quite the flurry of activity. And you have to really be paying attention to know, you know, what today's news is versus what it was two days ago. ANNA That is right. There was one economist that works for one of the big banks that came out recently and said, 'Well, we are not dealing with the worst case scenario,' which I thought was very warming thoughts. We are not in Canada dealing with the worst case scenario of the fallout of these tariffs. And hopefully we continue to not see the worst case scenario. All right. Well, we will keep watching that. I think the markets generally are always, they are always going to do a little bit of a reawakening in September when everyone goes back to reality. We will see what happens in the fall. Okay, let's talk about commodities again. This is a monthly thing we talk about. Gold has been holding strong. It has been quite a fantastic year to watch gold. And I know copper and oil, they are not holding some of the levels that they were. So, let's dive into that. BRUCE Yeah, for sure. The overlying theme is that the US dollar continues to still be relatively weak, right? It hit a top for the year back in kind of the February timeframe and has since declined. And that certainly helps risk assets. It also helps gold because there has historically been an inverse correlation between the two. And, you know, the one thing that is a little bit kind of puzzling is the move in oil for sure. In that, you know, we saw oil kind of moving up, and then it has recently pulled back. And what most investors would like to see for sure is that, not oil spike up, but that it see a kind of steady incline. Because that is indicating that there is economic activity that is using up that oil that is out there. At the same time, we have seen OPEC increasing their supply. And I think that that is certainly a political pressure that they are getting, I would imagine, from the US to keep oil within range. Just because everyone is so focused still on inflation. And that is a fairly big impact on inflation as it directly impacts, but also trickles through. That is kind of been important. And we are watching it from a number of different perspectives, both from an investment perspective, but also from an economic perspective. And then copper is kind of the same, right? It had a fairly strong move up during the year. And then, you know, some of the news out from President Trump. And it had probably, I think, it might have been, if it was not the biggest drop in one day history or two days, it was certainly right up there. And it has settled back down. And it is going to be interesting to see, you know, kind of where it goes from a record high to being down over 20%. So it has been challenging for sure in the commodity markets. ANNA Again, you know, it will be interesting to see what happens in September. Sometimes we… It is an odd one this summer, because normally we see some of these depressed levels that happen naturally in the summertime. But it is also been such a busy summer, it is hard to tell how much this is going to stick. Do you think that we are going to see some more strength in the fall? BRUCE Well, certainly that would be the way things have been trending as of right now. And, you know, we saw the April lows in the markets and also several of the commodities. And then as the tariffs have walked back, things have continued to improve. And the latest, which we will touch on in a second is the interest rates, and kind of what the expectation is there. July and August can be a little bit wild cards. They tend to have lower volume. And so markets tend to sort of drift in the direction that they have been going. And they have gone up in both July and now to where we are in August. September and October tend to be weaker months. That is looking at it from a historical perspective. And that is going to be the really interesting tell, is like when the majority of investors get back to their desks after being away for summer. Do they look at things, and are they assessing whether or not there is going to be some type of economic slowdown or other type of event that is going to cause earnings to be depressed and the market to go down? And so that is going to be really interesting to see. Certainly we are not seeing that tell right now, but it is something you always have got to be keeping your eye on. ANNA Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, let's hop into… Why do not we actually talk about rates next, just to dive into that, because you mentioned it. What are the expectations for rates? Are they going up? Are they going down? When are we going to see that happen? BRUCE Yeah. The expectation in the US for sure is that rates are going to drop. And it is now a fairly high probability. There are multiple different surveys that are done to try to determine what investors' perceptions are on rate increases or decreases and what the probability of that is. And just recently, that has gone to almost a 90… I think it is 96% probability as of today that interest rates are going to be lowered in the September Fed meeting. And there are a couple of factors that sort of go into that. But one of them has been inflation. In that, the inflation numbers that were released earlier this week for July were actually up. But they were a little bit tamer than what the market expected, which allows the Fed some room to lower rates. At the same time, there has been a tremendous amount of political pressure on Jerome Powell to lower rates. President Trump has been all over him. And even this morning, I saw an interview with Scott Besson, who is the Treasury Secretary. And he was talking about how they should be 150 to 175 basis points or 1.5 to 1.75% lower than where they are right now. ANNA Wow. BRUCE He is getting a lot of pressure to put rates down. And there is a lot of name-calling that is going on. He is being referred to as Jerome 'Too Late' Powell and things like that. And so he is getting a lot of political pressure. At the same time, you know, he has to monitor and he has got his own mandate as far as inflation and employment goes. And so he has got to balance those two because he knows if he starts lowering rates too fast, it could mean that we get inflation back. And nobody wants to see that, especially after what we went through, you know, kind of going back three years ago. ANNA I was just actually going to bring that up. On that note is, there was a time in market recap where we talked about inflation, you know, weekly, you and I. It is not something we have talked about a lot. Obviously, both in the US and Canada, there has been some correction in inflation. Is that right? BRUCE When we were talking about it all the time, it went to 9% and then has slowly worked its way back down. And now it is sub 3%. It is like, you know, kind of in the 2.5, 2.7% annualized rate. ANNA That is like the sweet spot, right? BRUCE Yes, that is like the historical rate of inflation from one year to the next. It is not like it is, it has dropped down or anything like that. What we are basically paying is up around 2.7% from where it was. What we are going to see though probably in the next few months is that that starts to inch its way back up to around 3%. 3% is not too bad, of course. It is kind of that historical rate. It is kind of like that 2 to 3% range. But of course, we all have probably a little bit of scar tissue from the hyper, high inflation that we saw at 9%. And in some goods, they were doubled in price. And nobody wants to go back to that because it just erodes purchasing power for everyone and is difficult for everybody to keep up with. And so there is a balance between full employment, which requires lower rates and keeping rates at a certain level so that we do not get too much inflation. ANNA Okay. Well, it feels like it is a bit of a yo-yo. It felt like rates really were, they were at a certain level without much movement for quite some time. And it is definitely been an interesting few years with the rates going up and down. So, it will be interesting to see if they do get cut. And then, of course, if they come down in the US, typically what we see after that is that the Canadian rates go down as well. Is that right? BRUCE Not always. Our Bank of Canada acts completely independently of the Federal Reserve in the US. And of course, they have to look at what is happening here domestically. They are looking, and again, trying to balance inflation with employment and economic growth. And there is a strong chance that they could be lowering rates in the future as well because we are not seeing the strong economy and inflation is actually probably been a little bit lower here in Canada than it has been in the US. It probably gives them a little bit of room to lower rates. The one thing about most central bankers is they tend to be conservative in what they do. They do not… Unless it is almost a crisis where, you know… So when we had the high inflation, they raised rates really quickly. Or if we were to see some type of, you know, massive economic decline where they lower rates, in a rapid fashion to try to spur on things. Generally, they move in a very slow and methodical way. ANNA Yeah. Okay, okay. Well, we will see what happens there, in September. Okay, let's talk about cannabis. We do not talk about cannabis a lot anymore. There was a period of time where, again, like inflation, it was something that we talked about weekly. Trump came out on August 11th and said that he is looking at, who knows what that means, potentially changing the schedule of cannabis at a federal level in the United States. Tell us your thoughts there. BRUCE Yeah. This has been off-again, on-again sector for a number of years. And the challenge with the sector is that we know the market itself is massive and we know that the product is… The demand for the product is certainly there both from a legal perspective and from a black market perspective. The challenge has been for many of these companies is access to capital so that they can grow their businesses. But also the taxation that they pay. There is a tax in the US called 280E which refers to illegal substances. There was a court case where there was a drug trafficker who filed his taxes as if he was just a regular business but he was writing off all his expenses. And when they eventually caught up to what he was doing, they said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't write off your business expenses, this is an illegal product'. And so they imposed this 280E, which means that the normal cost of business activities that most businesses have that are able to write off, they can't do that with 280E. So it just means that their costs are really depressed, though they have to pay for those costs. And their taxes are a lot higher than what another business that was outside of cannabis would be. And so this would, if they reclassified it, would actually allow those two things. One is that they would no longer have to pay the 280E, at least for sure on the medical side. There is still some uncertainty as to whether or not there would be the recreational side. And then the second thing is, it would most likely open up access to capital because now you are going to have banks that would look at it from a different perspective. It is not an illegal controlled substance, it is now a legal controlled substance. And so they would be able to lend money perhaps to some of these cannabis companies. And then they would be able to grow and increase their market share, so it would be profitable and at the same time, they would be able to raise money. ANNA And to just touch on that too, you know, the CSC has obviously seen over the years, a wonderful cannabis space evolve on our marketplace. One of the reasons that it has evolved so much and so big is because also US cannabis companies that touch the plant are not allowed to list on a US stock exchange, which is why we have seen so many of them come to the CSC. That would change that as well potentially, would not it? BRUCE It could, yeah, for sure. There is some talk that if it was reclassified then at that point in time, they could get banking. And with the banking, that would allow them to list on a US stock exchange. It is a bit of a gray area. It is not 100% defined that if this happens, that happens. But certainly that is the interpretation that a lot of market watchers have when they look at this and they sort of look at the politics of it all. ANNA If that happens, I, you know, I think people maybe do not completely understand the exact scope and size of the US capital pools. But I believe the numbers are somewhere around, on a global level, the US equity capital is somewhere just over 60% and Canada is somewhere between three and four. It really would open up massive pools of capital for the cannabis space, do not you think? BRUCE It would for sure, yeah. You would get bigger institutional ownership then in the sector because what has happened is a lot of custodians do not allow investors to hold cannabis stocks in their accounts at those custodians because it is deemed to be federally illegal. And also a schedule one substance. And so as a result, they do not want to go near it. They can't bank it, and it is just really challenging. That could also be a change that happens. ANNA Yep. The other thing is, when we started this conversation years ago, you and I, Bruce, I was actually surprised to see, I believe it is now 45 states, it is either recreational or medicinal, it is legal. Which is pretty much the United States of America. So at some point, it seems like it may just have to go there. It does also seem like from a political perspective, this is something that gets thrown into the ring and pulled out of the ring on a regular basis at the whim of political parties, to be used for whatever reason. So my hopes are up, but who knows what that means? BRUCE Yeah, it has certainly been challenging for investors. The amount of political swing that the industry can have is immense. Just as the view that it is going to be regulated or change the regulations in some way, the optimism builds, and then what has happened is the rug gets pulled and then the sector crashes. Many people now have just completely said like, 'It is a non-investible sector,' and are completely staying away. That is where eventually the opportunity will lie is that, you know, when it does actually change and it will at some point in time, we just do not know if that is a year from now or 10 years from now or more. But when it does eventually change, there will, it will really revolutionize the industry and allow for big changes. ANNA Yeah, I was going to say, the smart money has been the ones jumping in there every time this this gets thrown into the ring, because when it does go through, it will be a massive shift within that sector. People are maybe getting a little tired of the, you know, the step in, step out situation but there is a reason for it and it will definitely change the sector. It is so wonderful that CSC gets to be such a big participant of it. We have such wonderful companies that have grown, raised capital for years now, and done some really fantastic work as far as the sector goes. So, excited for them when that does happen. Okay, so let's talk about the small cap space. It has been a great summer for the small caps. Tell us, tell us more. BRUCE Yeah, one of the things that we have talked about in the past is that, you know, when we came through the pandemic and then this inflation happened to the degree that it did, a couple of things that happened were that we saw the interest rates increase at one of the fastest rates in history, certainly in most people who have invested or being investors' history. And then the second thing is that we saw the money supply go negative as far as a rate of change goes. It was not meaning that the money supply was negative, but just the rate of change was negative. There was less money being created and in the system, from a rate of change perspective. And that is something that no one who is investing on the planet right now has ever experienced. Certainly if you were well into your 100s, you would have experienced it in life but not… You would not have been an investor back then. And so what that means is that… Most small caps were in a really challenging environment for their business, and then at the same time, for their access to capital. And that is now really started to change. We have seen rates starting to trickle their way down. We have seen a few rate decreases, and then we have seen the rate of change of money supply going positive. And so what that means is that now investors are starting to look for earnings, and the earnings that we saw in the smaller sectors, small cap sectors and sort of medium and small cap companies, was we really saw a recession in that, in that area over the last few years, and that is now started to change. And we have seen earnings starting to ramp up and starting to increase as they have, you know, increased in their businesses, increased access to capital, and investors take note of that. And of course, they are following and watching earnings, and they go to where those earnings are accelerating, and that is been the small cap area as well. In Canada, our small caps tend to be led by commodities with the fact that gold has done so well. You are starting to see some trickle down now into other commodities. Lithium has started to certainly come off the canvas and is now starting to move back up. And so those are a lot of constituents in the small cap indices in Canada. And so you are starting to see that, that start to really move. The TSX Venture Exchange is considerably off its highs. So is the CSE Composite. It is considerably off its highs. But they have both made fairly significant moves off the bottom for sure. ANNA Yeah, which is fantastic. And quite often you need that initial jump off the bottom to really kind of get the market moving. Just to touch on what we saw this summer at the CSE, in June, there was 101 financings, that totaled 132 million in capital that was raised for CSE listed issuers. In July, we saw 91 financings that totaled 595 million in financings. It was a busy summer for CSE issuers. You put those two numbers together, that is about 200 issuers, out of the 745 that we have listed. That is a busy summer for CSE issuers. That is pretty amazing. BRUCE Yeah, and a fair bit of money that was raised as well. ANNA Absolutely. I think, I was actually doing a presentation this week, and I believe that over the past 12 months, I think the number is somewhere around 940 financings have been closed in 12 months. We have 745 companies. Our companies are very active right now, which is really great to see. I know it has been a very difficult market. Probably a lot of these financings are smaller financings, you know, for the company to deal with their corporate governance needs and to kind of keep afloat. Some are going to be for some smaller work programs, but it is still activity. You know, it is not Zombie Land that we are dealing with. I have good faith that there will be some great activity in the fall. What do you think? BRUCE Certainly that is a trend, and when you see the summer this strong, it tends to lead into, activity in the fall that is going to be stronger because a lot of financings are often held in the summer just because they are concerned about the lack of access to investors because they are not at their desks. And so, I would not be surprised if you saw that trend continue through the fall. ANNA We also do not typically see a lot of these financings occur in June and July in the resource sector because they are actively up at the property doing work programs. So, you do not see it as often. You normally see it in the spring where they get their money for the work program. They are busy in the summer, and then in the fall, we get the results from those programs, and then they are out there raising capital again. So, I think it is all good news, and hopefully we continue to see that trend as we go into the fall season. Just to touch on some CSE issuer news, we had a few new issuers that joined us over the past month, so welcome Trimera Metals Corp, Rush Gold Corp, and Goldcanna Resources. As you can tell from those names, these are all resource sector companies. I mean, Bruce, we have talked about it so much. The resource sector continues to be the front-runner in what is happening in the markets. One thing I did want to ask you though is that we have had a flurry of activity in the crypto space. What are your thoughts there? What are you seeing? BRUCE We continue to see more adoption of crypto into a number of different vehicles. There are a lot of ETFs that have been created that are now holders of crypto, but now, you have also seen a lot of companies where they are holding crypto on their balance sheet or that is what they have turned their business plan into, which is also kind of interesting. It is interesting and I also find it a little bit on the cautious side. I am just watching to see how this trend continues. Certainly, there was a number of front-runners that were doing this, and now, a lot of people are jumping in, and you kind of have to wonder like, is it a longer term strategy or not? Certainly, if crypto continues to appreciate, then having crypto assets on your balance sheet is going to help you. But if that is your sole business, you do have to really be careful that everyone is doing it the right way and that you are paying the proper valuation for them holding it on their balance sheet. ANNA It seems to make sense to me that we are seeing kind of in a, in what is percolating as a decent resource sector is to see kind of crypto percolating as well. Because I think what we have seen in the crypto space is traditionally people are hedging with having both of those on their balance sheets. So, welcome to the new companies that joined in the resource sector. And I think we will continue to see both continue to develop. One financing thing I wanted to mention. We actually talked about this company in the spring. But I thought it was quite a wonderful financing. DragonFly Inc., we talked about them in May, closed a $25 million US registered direct offering on their NASDAQ listing. They raised 3.6 in May. They are a pioneer in drone solutions, AI-driven software, and robotics delivering innovative technology for public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections, security mapping, and surveying for over 25 years. You know, I thought this was… First of all, congratulations to them. It is great financing, especially after they just did, you know, a decent size one in the spring. But it is also nice to see our issuers that are successfully raising these kind of numbers in the US. Because I think with all of this tariff talk and with the cross-border stuff where we had such an open relationship between our two markets specifically, you know, there is obviously been some concern of Canadian issuers being able to raise capital down in the US. What are your thoughts on that? BRUCE It never hurts when you see that type of activity, especially when Canadian companies can access US capital and vice versa. It is, you know, the flow of capital is what you want to see. The bigger and the broader markets are, then generally the best opportunities are found by investors. ANNA Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Bruce, on that note, as we, as we go into our last weeks of summer, what are you going to leave us with? What should we think about before you and I can connect next month? BRUCE Yeah, the big thing is going to be, you know, watching what happens from an economic and tariff standpoint and then interest rates, what, what we see there and how that impacts the markets and the perception in the economy. ANNA Absolutely. Well, Bruce, it is always so great to see you. I am hoping next month that I can get you to Vancouver here in person and we can do this face-to-face. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of those sunny days out in Kelowna. BRUCE Yeah. Thanks so much. ANNA Thank you. We will see you next month.
CTV News
19 hours ago
- CTV News
Guatemala grants temporary status to 161 Mexicans fleeing organized crime
The letters "CJNG" for the group's formal name, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covers the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico, Oct. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File) GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala on Wednesday granted temporary humanitarian status to 161 Mexicans who fled their country last week seeking refuge from organized crime, even as Mexican officials denied that anyone had been displaced. The Guatemalan Immigration Institute said that 39 families, including 69 children, from the Mexican municipality of Frontera Comalapa would be allowed temporarily to remain legally in the country. The families were staying in rented homes, with relatives or in temporary shelters in the Guatemalan border town of La Mesilla. But Eduardo Ramírez, governor of the Mexican border state of Chiapas, said Wednesday on X that those who went to Guatemala have relatives who have been arrested and are facing charges in Mexico, a claim he made without providing evidence. 'The organized crime that operates in the neighboring country of Guatemala wants to discredit our public safety strategy that has given tranquility and social peace in Chiapas' by saying people have been forcibly displaced by crime, Ramírez wrote. 'I categorically deny that fact.' It was not the first time that Mexicans crossed the border to escape violence. In July of last year, nearly 600 crossed at another point on the border. Two of Mexico's most powerful cartels from the northern states of Sinaloa and Jalisco have been battling for control of smuggling routes in the area of southern Mexico in recent years causing multiple displacements. In June, Chiapas state police pursued suspects into Guatemala and engaged in a shootout. ____ The Associated Press
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Kristi Noem says entire southern border wall to be painted black to stop people from climbing it
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with a reporter on her plane while in the air en route from Quito, Ecuador to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool) WASHINGTON — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire border wall along the southern border with Mexico is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration — and she credited President Trump with the idea. Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting. She touted the height of the wall as well as the depth as ways to deter people seeking to go over or under the walls. And then Noem said Homeland Security was going to be trying black paint to make the metal hotter. 'That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb. So we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally,' Noem said. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who attended the event with Noem, said the paint would also help deter rust. During Trump's first term, building the wall was a central focus of his hardline immigration policy. During his second term, his mass deportation agenda with arrests in the interior of the country has been the main focus, but Homeland Security will be getting about US$46 billion to complete the wall as part of new funding passed by Congress this summer. Noem said they have been building about a half mile of barrier every day. 'The border wall will look very different based on the topography and the geography of where it is built,' she said. She said that in addition to barriers like the one she visited Tuesday, the department is also working on 'water-borne infrastructure.' Long sections of the roughly 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico sit along the Rio Grande River in Texas. The Trump administration is pushing forward with completing the wall at the same time that the number of people crossing the border illegally has plummeted. ___ Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press
