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Mexican police kill 4 gunmen, cross into Guatemala in dramatic border shootout

Mexican police kill 4 gunmen, cross into Guatemala in dramatic border shootout

Yahoo2 days ago

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican state police killed four gunmen near the border with Guatemala, then pursued more suspects into that country in three armored police vehicles, where they engaged in a shootout in the streets of a border town. Authorities in both countries said Monday they were investigating.
The rare case of Mexican law enforcement crossing the border into Guatemala on Sunday in La Mesilla was captured by onlookers in videos widely circulated online. With the border crossing a short distance in the background, armed men in ballistic vests and carrying rifles can be seen shouting at the open driver side door of a Chiapas state police armored vehicle.
Suddenly, another such vehicle comes speeding through the border crossing from behind scattering the armed men. The initial vehicle reverses back toward Mexico and a third armored police vehicle enters from a side street slamming a civilian vehicle into the side of the other armored police truck. Gunfire erupts with the police trucks and civilian vehicles getting hit by bullets.
All the while, a Guatemalan military truck with a soldier in the turret, sits in the middle of the melee.
It was the latest flare-up of violence along a section of the border that has become a flashpoint as rival Mexican drug cartels and their local affiliates battle for control of valuable smuggling routes for migrants, guns and drugs.
Asked about the events, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that everything appeared to show that Mexican authorities entered Guatemala.
'They are investigating it and it is not all right that has happened,' she said.
Chiapas state Gov. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar criticized what he suggested were Guatemalan authorities protecting members of organized crime. His security chief, Oscar Aparicio Avendaño, told The Associated Press on Monday that police had used a drone to detect armed men crossing the border into Mexico.
Police intercepted them, killing four, including a local gang leader.
'They try to cross (back to Guatemala) to evade justice and that's where we intercept them and there's the shooting,' Ramírez said. The police involved were part of a state police force called the Pakales, which have also been accused of wrongdoing.
Across the border in Guatemala, authorities were cautious in their initial response.
Guatemala Vice President Karin Herrera said Monday that the Guatemalan government was talking to Mexican authorities about what happened, 'but there are many things that must be confirmed.'
Guatemala Defense Minister Henry Sáenz said none of the Guatemalan soldiers present in La Mesilla fired their weapons and that it remained under investigation.
The stretch of the Mexico-Guatemala border has seen near continuous violence in the past two years as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels battle for control.
Last year, the violence spurred hundreds of Mexican residents to flee into Guatemala for safety. At other moments, towns have seen their power cut and cartel convoys parade through their communities.
___ Associated Press writers Sara Melini in Guatemala City and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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After images of unrest comes the political spin, distorting the reality on the ground in L.A.
After images of unrest comes the political spin, distorting the reality on the ground in L.A.

Yahoo

time23 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

After images of unrest comes the political spin, distorting the reality on the ground in L.A.

Driverless Waymo vehicles, coated with graffiti and engulfed in flames. Masked protesters, dancing and cavorting around burning American flags. Anonymous figures brazenly blocking streets and shutting down major freeways, raining bottles and rocks on the police, while their compatriots waved Mexican flags. The images flowing out of Los Angeles over nearly a week of protests against federal immigration raids have cast America's second most populous city as a terrifying hellscape, where lawbreakers rule the streets and regular citizens should fear to leave their homes. In the relentless fever loop of online and broadcast video, it does not matter that the vast majority of Los Angeles neighborhoods remain safe and secure. Digital images create their own reality and it's one that President Trump and his supporters have used to condemn L.A. as a place that is "out of control" and on the brink of total collapse. The images and their true meaning and context have become the subject of a furious debate in the media and among political partisans, centered on the true roots and victims of the protests, which erupted on Friday as the Trump administration moved aggressively to expand its arrests of undocumented immigrants. Read more: Newsom, in California address, says Trump purposely 'fanned the flames' of L.A. protests As the president and his supporters in conservative media tell it, he is the defender of law and order and American values. They cast their opponents as dangerous foreign-born criminals and their feckless enablers in the Democratic Party and mainstream media. The state's political leaders and journalists offer a compelling rebuttal: that Trump touched off several days of protest and disruption with raids that went far beyond targeting criminals, as he previously promised, then escalated the conflict by taking the highly unusual step of sending the National Guard and Marines to Southern California. Reaction to the raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the subsequent turmoil will divide Americans on what have become partisan lines that have become so predictable they are "calcified," said Lynn Vavreck, a political science professor at UCLA. "The parties want to build very different worlds, voters know it, and they know which world they want to live in," said Vavreck, who has focused on the country's extreme political polarization. "And because the parties are so evenly divided, and this issue is so personal to so many, the stakes are very high for people." As a curfew was imposed Tuesday, the sharpest street confrontations appeared to be fading and a national poll suggested Americans have mixed feelings about the events that have dominated the news. The YouGov survey of 4,231 people found that 50% disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of deportations, compared with 39% who approve. Pluralities of those sampled also disagreed with Trump's deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Southern California. But 45% of those surveyed by YouGov said they disapprove of the protests that began after recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. Another 36% approved of the protests, with the rest unsure how they feel. Faced with a middling public response to the ICE raids and subsequent protests, Trump continued to use extreme language to exaggerate the magnitude of the public safety threat and to take credit for the reduction in hostilities as the week progressed. In a post on his TruthSocial site, he suggested that, without his military intervention, 'Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost. Los Angeles right now would be on fire.' In reality, agitators set multiple spot fires in a few neighborhoods, including downtown Los Angeles and Paramount, but the blazes in recent days were tiny and quickly controlled, in contrast to the massive wildfires that devastated broad swaths of Southern California in January. Trump's hyperbole continued in a fundraising appeal to his supporters Tuesday. In it, he again praised his decision to deploy the National Guard (without the approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom), concluding: 'If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.' The Republican had assistance in fueling the sense of unease. His colleagues in Congress introduced a resolution to formally condemn the riots. 'Congress steps in amid 'out-of-control' Los Angeles riots as Democrats resist federal help,' Fox News reported on the resolution, being led by Rep. Young Kim of Orange County. A journalist based in New Delhi pronounced, based on unspecified evidence, that Los Angeles 'is descending into a full-blown warzone.' Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins suggested that the harm from the protesters was spreading; announcing in a social media post that a care center for vets in downtown L.A. had been temporarily closed. "To the violent mobs in Los Angeles rioting in support of illegal immigrants and against the rule of law,' his post on X said, 'your actions are interfering with Veterans' health care." A chyron running with a Fox News commentary suggested "Democrats have lost their mind," as proved by their attempts to downplay the anti-ICE riots. Many Angelenos mocked the claims of a widespread public safety crisis. One person on X posted a picture of a dog out for a walk along a neatly kept sidewalk in a serene neighborhood, with the caption: 'Los Angeles just an absolute warzone, as you can see.' In stark contrast to the photos of Waymo vehicles burning and police cars being pelted with rocks, a video on social media showed a group of protestors line dancing. 'Oh my God! They must be stopped before their peaceful and joy filled dance party spreads to a city near you!' the caption read. 'Please send in the Marines before they start doing the Cha Cha and the Macarena!' And many people noted on social media that Sunday's Pride parade in Hollywood for the LGBTQ+ community went off without incident, as reinforced by multiple videos of dancers and marchers celebrating along a sun-splashed parade route. But other activists and Democrats signaled that they understand how Trump's position can be strengthened if it appears they are condoning the more extreme episodes that emerged along with the protests — police being pelted with bottles, businesses being looted and buildings being defaced with graffiti. On Tuesday, an X post by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reiterated her earlier admonitions: "Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalized Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities,' the mayor wrote. "You will be held accountable." Read more: ICE expands immigration raids into California's agricultural heartland The activist group Occupy Democrats posted a message online urging protesters to show their disdain for the violence and property damage. 'The moment violence or property damage begins, EVERY OTHER PROTESTER must immediately sit on the floor or the ground in silence, with signs down,' the advisory suggested. 'The media needs to film this. This will reveal paid fake thugs posing as protesters becoming violent. ….The rest of us will demonstrate our non-violent innocence and retain our Constitutional right to peaceful protest.' Craig Silverman, a journalist and cofounder of Indicator, a site that investigates deception on digital platforms, said that reporting on the context and true scope of the protests would have a hard time competing with the visceral images broadcast into Americans' homes. 'It's inevitable that the most extreme and compelling imagery will win the battle for attention on social media and on TV,' Silverman said via email. 'It's particularly challenging to deliver context and facts when social platforms incentivize the most shocking videos and claims, federal and state authorities offer contradictory messages about what's happening.' Dan Schnur, who teaches political science at USC and UC Berkeley, agreed. 'The overwhelming majority of the protesters are peaceful,' Schnur said, 'but they don't do stories on all the planes that land safely at LAX, either.' Though it might be too early to assess the ultimate impact of the L.A. unrest, Schnur suggested that all of the most prominent politicians in the drama might have accomplished their messaging goals: Trump motivated his base and diverted attention from his nasty feud with his former top advisor, Elon Musk, and the lack of progress on peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. Newsom "effectively unified the state and elevated his national profile" by taking on Trump. And Bass, under tough scrutiny for her handling of the city's wildfire disaster, has also gotten a chance to use Trump as a foil. What was not disputed was that Trump's rapid deployment of the National Guard, without the approval of Newsom, had little precedent. And sending the Marines to L.A. was an even more extreme approach, with experts saying challenges to the deployment would test the limits of Trump's power. The federal Insurrection Act allows the deployment of the military for law enforcement purposes, but only under certain conditions, such as a national emergency. California leaders say Trump acted before a true emergency developed, thereby preempting standard protocols, including the institution of curfews and the mobilization of other local police departments in a true emergency. Even real estate developer Rick Caruso, Bass' opponent in the last election, suggested Trump acted too hastily. 'There is no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in Los Angeles,' Caruso wrote on X Sunday. 'And absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the streets of this or any other Southern California City.' 'We must call for calm in the streets,' Caruso added, 'and deployment of the National Guard may prompt just the opposite.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Senate rejects effort to block arms sales over Trump's dealings with Qatar and UAE
Senate rejects effort to block arms sales over Trump's dealings with Qatar and UAE

Hamilton Spectator

time26 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Senate rejects effort to block arms sales over Trump's dealings with Qatar and UAE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have blocked an effort by Democrats to temporarily block arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in response to President Donald Trump's dealings in the region. Democrats forced two procedural votes Wednesday to protest Qatar's donation of a $400 million plane to be used as Air Force One and a $2 billion investment by a UAE-backed company using a Trump family-linked stablecoin, a form of cryptocurrency. Sen. Chris Murphy, who led the Democratic effort, said the U.S. Senate should not 'grease the wheels' for Trump. 'We can do that by voting to block these two arms sales to Qatar and to the UAE — not permanently, but until both countries commit to deny Trump's requests for personal enrichment as part of the bilateral relationship,' Murphy said. Trump's administration is still sorting out the legal arrangement for accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family and how the plane would be modified so it is safe for the president, who has called the arrangement a 'no brainer' as a new Air Force One has faced delays at U.S.-based Boeing. Trump said he wouldn't fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends, but Democrats, and even some Republicans, have strongly questioned the ethics of the arrangement. At a hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to provide details on plans for his department to accept the jet. He said budgeting and schedules for security upgrades to turn the plane into the president's aircraft are classified. 'A memorandum of understanding remains to be signed,' Hegseth said. Democrats have also raised ethical questions about the Trump family's stake in World Liberty Financial , a cryptocurrency project that has launched its own stablecoin, USD1. Earlier this year, World Liberty announced an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Murphy forced the votes under a mechanism known as a joint resolution of disapproval that allows the Senate to reject arms sales. The procedural vote Wednesday blocked a Democratic motion to discharge the resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and move to an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. The effort was mostly symbolic, as the measures would have had to pass both chambers of Congress and withstand any presidential veto to become law. But Murphy said the Senate should exercise its powers to oversee arms sales around the world. 'We place immense trust in the president not to abuse these incredible authorities that are given to him,' he said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .

AP PHOTOS: Mexican flags at LA protests spark debate over symbolism
AP PHOTOS: Mexican flags at LA protests spark debate over symbolism

Hamilton Spectator

time26 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

AP PHOTOS: Mexican flags at LA protests spark debate over symbolism

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. ——— Over the last week, a sea of green, white and red Mexican flags have become a fixture of the Los Angeles protests against immigration raids. The use of Mexican and other Latin American flags during the protests are a form of symbolism many conservatives are calling anti-American — while others argue they're an expression of pride in one's homeland that could not be more American. Whether it be U.S., Mexican or Palestinian flags, the banners reflect a nation of immigrants whose stories have become intertwined with the story of America, experts say. Kris Hernández, an associate professor of history at Connecticut College, said the flying of foreign flags in the U.S. has always brought awareness to the plight of marginalized groups. Their appearance in the latest protests might symbolize solidarity with their native land or social movements that support Americans of Mexican descent, she said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that those flying Mexican flags at immigration protests were left-wing radicals that attacked law enforcement agents 'removing violent, criminal illegal aliens from the city.' And even fierce Trump critic Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Democrat, expressed his displeasure with the display of non-American flags at immigration protests that have spread to other states. 'Peaceful protests are fine. Violence is not and will only destroy your message,' Kinzinger wrote on X . 'American flags or nothing.' Amid the backlash, many Americans who support the right to protest are encouraging demonstrators to protest against immigration policies with the American flag instead of a foreign one, as way of reclaiming the U.S. flag for all who call the U.S. home. This underscores just how influential the American flag can be, Hernández said. 'What we are seeing ... is that people don't like to see some flags over others,' she said. Some Latino activists say the Mexican flag is being used by people who were in this land before it was part of the United States. California was part of Mexico until the 1800's. Many Mexican Americans are descendants of people who never crossed a border — instead the border crossed them. Still, their display of the Mexican flag at protests is being twisted into something it's not, said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Hector E. Sanchez, president and CEO of 'Mi Familia Vota,' a non-profit focused on mobilizing Latino voters, said Mexicans have been at the forefront of attacks when it comes to immigration — attacks heightened during both of Trump's campaigns. Sanchez said he wonders why it's not called anti-American when some Americans fly Confederate flags next to the U.S. flag. 'We see a lot of flags celebrating cultural history and heritage,' he said. 'Why is it that the Mexican community is constantly under attack?' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .

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