Latest news with #ClaudiaSheinbaum
TimesLIVE
5 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
How Mexico's cartels recruit children and groom them to become killers
Sol remembers her first kill for a Mexican cartel: a kidnapping she committed with a handful of other young recruits that twisted into torture and bled into murder. She was 12 years old. She joined the drug cartel a few months earlier, recruited by someone she knew when she sold roses on the sidewalk outside a local bar. She started as a lookout, but rose quickly. The cartel liked her childish enthusiasm for learning new skills, her unquestioning loyalty and perhaps most importantly, her status as a minor protected her from severe punishment if police caught her. 'I obeyed the boss blindly,' Sol, now 20 years old, told Reuters, speaking from the rehabilitation centre in central Mexico where she is trying to patch her life back together. 'I thought they loved me.' Sol declined to say how many people she killed during her time in the cartel. She said she'd been addicted to methamphetamine from the age of nine. When she was 16 she was arrested for kidnapping, her only criminal conviction, and spent three years in juvenile detention, according to her lawyer. Reuters is withholding Sol's full name, and the names of the city where she worked and the cartel she joined, to protect her. The news agency was unable to independently verify the details of Sol's account, though psychologists at the centre and her lawyer said they believed it was accurate. Security experts said children like Sol are a casualty of a deliberate strategy by Mexican organised crime groups to recruit minors into their ranks by preying on their hunger for status and camaraderie. In cartel slang they are known as 'pollitos de colores' or 'colourful chicks' after the fluffy baby chicks sprayed with lurid toxic colours and sold at Mexican fairgrounds. They're cheap, burn bright and don't live long. Reuters spoke to 10 current and six former child assassins, and four senior cartel operatives, who said cartels are increasingly recruiting and grooming young killers. Their experiences reveal the growing brutalisation of Mexican society and the failure of President Claudia Sheinbaum and past governments to address not only the expanding territorial influence of the cartels but also their extensive cultural holds. Mexico's presidency and interior ministry did not reply to requests for comment. The news agency contacted active cartel members through Facebook and TikTok. Many shared pictures of themselves holding rifles. One had a cap emblazoned with a cartoon chicken firing automatic rounds, a reference to the 'colourful chicks'. They were aged between 14 and 17. Most said they had been recruited by relatives or friends, joining principally out of a desire to belong to something. They usually came from homes wrecked by violence and drugs. Many were battling addictions to drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine. 'You join with your death sentence signed,' said one 14-year-old child killer who has worked for a cartel for eight months, requesting anonymity to protect themselves. 'But it's worth it,' they said. They're no longer hungry and have a sense of family. Though 15 security experts and those within the cartels said child recruitment is becoming more common, a lack of hard data makes the issue difficult to track. The US government's bureau of international labour affairs estimated about 30,000 children have joined criminal groups in Mexico. Advocacy groups said the number of vulnerable children prone to being recruited is as high as 200,000. It is not clear how the numbers have changed over time, though experts said child recruits are getting younger. A Mexican government report into the cartel recruitment of children published last year found minors as young as six have joined organised crime and also highlighted the growing use of technology, such as video games and social media, to draw in young recruits. The report said 70% of adolescents pulled into the cartels grew up surrounded by high levels of extreme violence. In 2021, Mexican authorities intercepted three boys between the ages of 11 and 14 in the state of Oaxaca who they said were about to join a cartel after being recruited through the violent multiplayer game Free Fire. Mexico's national guard has since issued guidelines on the safe use of video games, while a legislative proposal is before the lower house seeking to criminalise the cultural glorification of crime in music, on TV and in video games. 'We see more and more criminal groups co-opting ever younger children,' said Dulce Leal, a director at Reinserta, an advocacy group focused on children who have been victims of organised crime. She said the trend has grown alongside the use of new technologies such as video games with integrated chat messaging systems. At the rehabilitation centre in central Mexico, another former child killer, Isabel, 19, who is being treated for extreme trauma and depression, said her uncle recruited her when she was 14. The uncle helped her murder a former teacher who had raped her, she said, and they became a couple despite him being 20 years her senior. He got her pregnant but she miscarried, she thinks because of her heavy drug use. Reuters was unable to corroborate all of Isabel's account, but her arrest as an unnamed child cartel member was published in news reports at the time. Isabel had tattoos with her uncle's name removed, but she bears a stencil of his faceless silhouette. While the youngest children might only be useful for simpler tasks, such as delivering messages or working as lookouts, their loyalty and malleability quickly make them an asset. They're also cheap and easily replaceable. By the time they're eight, they can usually handle a gun and kill, one cartel member said. There are some parallels with child soldiers fighting in places such as Sudan and Syria, but Mexican cartels differ in their for-profit nature and arguably in the cultural sway they exert. Cases of child killers have emerged in other places too, including Sweden. 'The children are disposable, they can be used, but in the end, all they await is death,' said Gabriela Ruiz, a specialist in youth issues at Mexico's National Autonomous University. In 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on Mexico to combat the forced recruitment of minors after reports of children in the state of Guerrero joining a community defence force to fight criminal groups in the area. Despite a government focus under former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and under Sheinbaum, on combating the social roots of cartel violence — including programmes aimed at keeping children away from drugs and crime — little measurable progress appears to have been made, the 15 experts who spoke with Reuters said. There are no specific government programmes aimed at rescuing recruited children, they said. One problem is a lack of clear criminal law banning the recruitment of minors into organised crime. Another is the broader problem of child labour in Mexico. In 2022, the most recent official data available, 3.7-million children aged between five and 17 were working, about 13% of that total age group in Mexico. By law, children in Mexico can work from the age of 15 if they meet certain criteria, including signed parental approval. Daniel was 16 when he joined a cartel in a state on Mexico's Pacific coast in 2021. The group turned up to a party he was at and forced the children to join at gunpoint. For the next three years Daniel worked for the cartel, starting as a lookout, becoming an enforcer collecting protection money, and eventually a cartel killer. Many of his friends died along the way, some at the hands of rivals, some by his own cartel, murdered to set an example because they refused to follow orders or because they were manoeuvring to rise up the ranks. Last November, he fled the cartel, leaving his partner and three-year-old son behind, and escaped to Mexico's north, applying for a US asylum appointment through the president Joe Biden-era government app CBP One. The programme was dismantled when President Donald Trump took office. He is hiding near the border. Afraid for his life and more scared his old cartel will come after his partner and child, he's saving to pay a smuggler to get him to the US. 'I have no choice, I'm scared to die,' he said at the migrant shelter where he was staying. For Sol, her focus is on starting her life over in Mexico. She is studying for a law degree and wants to build a career and stable life away from the death and violence she wrought and suffered as a child. She hopes to specialise in juvenile law and serve as a mentor for younger children tempted by a life of crime. 'I never thought I would make it to 20. I always thought I would die before,' she said, fighting back tears.
United News of India
12 hours ago
- Politics
- United News of India
Mexico demands explanation on U.S. deal with Mexican drug trafficker
Mexico City, May 30 (UNI) Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday questioned the U.S. government for striking plea deals with Damaso Lopez Serrano, a member of a cartel the United States itself has labelled as "Foreign Terrorist Organisation." At a daily morning press conference, Sheinbaum spoke of the apparent contradiction and demanded an explanation. "The United States government recently issued a decree calling some organised crime organisations terrorists. They have said on several occasions that they do not negotiate with these organisations," she said. "They need to explain why agreements are reached in these cases." U.S. authorities has reached a plea agreement with Damaso Lopez Serrano, alias "El Mini Lic," who pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to drug trafficking charges. He is considered a former high-ranking figure within the Sinaloa Cartel, according to Mexican media. In February, the United States has designated Sinaloa Cartel, along with several other international cartels and transnational organisations, as "Foreign Terrorist Organisations" and "Specially Designated Global Terrorists." Lopez Serrano was arrested in 2017 on charges of trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. He was arrested again last year, pleading guilty to new drug trafficking-related charges. UNI XINHUA ARN
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Mexico's judicial reform is now in the hands of confused voters
MEXICO CITY - It's an election unlike any other in Mexico. No sports stadiums packed with the party faithful. The smiling faces of normally omnipresent candidates almost completely absent on TV or glitzy posters. But the stakes couldn't be higher. On Sunday, Mexicans will begin electing judges from among thousands of largely unknown candidates in a vote critics slam as a radical experiment that will mark the end of an independent judiciary. But Mexico's popular President Claudia Sheinbaum, a staunch defender of the election, dismisses the naysayers. She argues the first-of-its-kind election will deepen democracy by transforming the country's courts with jurists trusted by ordinary Mexicans. She insists it will root out corruption and nepotism. The sheer complexity of the vote - featuring at least six color-coded ballots presenting each voter with around 200 hopefuls to consider - promises a more politicized federal judiciary. Skeptics fear it will tilt the courts toward Sheinbaum's populist Morena Party, or in some cases install judges beholden to powerful drug cartels. Companies fret it will make investments much riskier. Nationwide, there are more than 3,000 candidates competing for 881 positions. Last year, as it became clear Morena would enact the judicial overhaul, Mexican assets and the peso currency nosedived. The revamped system will see Mexico join Bolivia as the only other country in the Americas that elects its federal judges, including Supreme Court justices. In the U.S., only some state and local judges are chosen by voters. By law, the sea of candidates can't finance their campaigns with private or public funds, or buy television or radio spots. Parties are also banned from formally backing their favorites and candidates can't hold traditional rallies. Instead, they're limited to social media posts and paying out-of-pocket for travel. It's led to an extremely low-information election. "I didn't know there was an election and I don't know the candidates. I still don't know if I'll participate," said Rocio Catalina, a 64-year-old in Iztapalapa, Mexico City's most populous district. She described the looming election as "very complicated." In a normal election, her neighborhood would have been hit by a tidal wave of campaign posters and brochures doled out by party workers. Not this time. Still, many would-be judges have made the most of limited means to reach voters. Walk to a local market, and you might find a future Supreme Court justice with a megaphone touting her experience. Log on to X or TikTok, and you can watch other aspiring judges dancing in the street. Until recently, you could even find a candidate sweet-talking you on Tinder. Designed by Sheinbaum's party as a way to rid the courts of judges it accused of improperly blocking major initiatives, the imminent upheaval was muscled through Congress late last year thanks to the congressional super-majorities that were swept to power along with her. With just days to go before the election, voters say they have never heard of most of the 3,000-plus hopefuls. 'Justice Chicharrón' If politicians are trained in the art of winning over hearts, judges usually aren't. Campaign strategists offered package deals to promote the ambitions of aspiring judges. Discounts were available for those who accepted multitasking managers juggling a dozen campaigns at once. One candidate compares himself to a crunchy street snack resembling fried pork in a pun-filled video touting his qualifications, and was later dubbed "Justice Chicharrón" online. Another named herself "Dora the Transformer," after the Nickelodeon heroine but also a nod to the political project Sheinbaum inherited from her likeminded predecessor, who hailed his movement as Mexico's fourth historic transformation. Such campaign gimmicks have been embraced in a bid to stand out from the crowd in an election seen attracting only a small fraction of some 100 million eligible voters. José Manuel Urquijo, who heads the consultancy Sentido Común Latinoamérica expects at most a paltry 20% turnout but possibly as low as single-digits. He points to recent referendums that attracted similar participation while citing the lack of well-funded campaigns or voter mobilization efforts. By comparison, around 61% of voters turned out in last year's presidential election. In Mexico, unlike other countries in Latin America, voting is not mandatory. Urquijo, who was also hired to work on a Supreme Court campaign, stresses the novelty of lawyers forced to morph into politicians in short order. "They're unknown people going around and asking for your vote," he said. "And voters are saying, 'Who are you?'" On a recent Sunday, "Justice Chicharrón" Arístides Rodrigo Guerrero walked down a crowded row in the the Mexican capital's biggest fruit and vegetable market, handing out cartoon-decorated pamphlets. He's one of more than 60 registered Supreme Court candidates, and since voters might not remember his name, he had the number 48 emblazoned on his shirt. Using a foam board as a prop, he showed how ballots won't include the logos of any political parties, which in other elections appear next to candidate names. "This time around, you're going to vote by number. And I'm number 48 on the purple ballot," he said. He explained where to write his number and pitched ideas to modernize the courts with artificial intelligence while bringing justice closer to "those who have the least" by holding sessions outside stuffy court chambers. Overall, voters will elect nine Supreme Court justices, five members of the new judicial discipline court in charge of supervising the judiciary, two judges on the top court tasked with resolving election disputes, plus more than 800 other federal judges. Further complicating matters, 19 Mexican states - more than half - will also hold parallel elections for local judges, adding still more pages of ballots to sort through. A fresh start Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum's predecessor and longtime patron, proposed the election early last year as his six-year term was drawing to a close. His presidency was marked with constant clashes with judges, who he often derided as corrupt and out-of-touch. He was especially angered by Supreme Court rulings that sought to block some of his key priorities, including a push to fast-track the construction of a major tourist train as well as an electricity law that gave dispatch preferences to the state-owned utility. AMLO, as López Obrador is widely known, claimed he was the victim of fraud when he lost earlier presidential bids in 2006 and 2012, but the top electoral court denied his challenges. Its members will now be up for election. The constitutional reforms were enacted in September during AMLO'S final month in office, just as Sheinbaum was gearing up to take over. As the year came to a close, Mexico's peso currency had shed nearly a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar, its weakest performance since the 2008 financial crisis. Markets worried that more politicized courts would heap additional uncertainty onto Latin America's second-biggest economy. But to its supporters, electing all federal judges simply ensured a fresh start, with half to be voted in on Sunday, the other half in 2027. In general terms, the reform upended a merit-based system marked by exams and evaluations that allowed for a career path within the judiciary, dating back to an earlier reform enacted in the 1990s. The new elections-based system lowers experience and minimum age requirements. Many hopefuls on the ballot have little experience working inside the courts. In the past, the president nominated Supreme Court candidates who then needed a two-thirds Senate vote to be confirmed, a process that required negotiation but by definition was run by political elites. Earlier this month, Fabiana Estrada Tena, another Supreme Court contender, gathered a dozen potential voters in a professor's home, part of her efforts to sway voters. She had previously advised a pair of Supreme Court justices, but now she lamented what she described as rot within the system. "When we talk about the election being a change to democratize justice, it's real," she said. "The Supreme Court has failed the people of Mexico." She argued that the justices have failed to hold authorities accountable, pointing to mishandled cases of criminal negligence and abuse of power. The ballots voters will mark on Sunday also feature gender parity requirements, part of a longstanding push by Mexico's INE electoral authority to ensure equal numbers of men and women in elected office that has led to a dramatic surge of female representation across Mexican politics. 'I hope they deliver' But even the possibility of better representation and more accountability hasn't seemed to break through to most voters. According to poll published by El Financiero earlier this week, 52% say they are little or not at all aware of the election. The same survey also found that the top-ranked candidates include three sitting Supreme Court justices appointed by AMLO, Lenia Batres, Yasmín Esquivel and Loretta Ortiz. They have all signaled some support for Morena priorities. Other polling points to the desire for change. Impunity and corruption are considered the third most important problem in the country by about 27% of the people interviewed for LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News. Amrit Singh, executive director of the Rule of Law Impact Lab at Stanford Law School in California, speculates that the election could secure a strategic advantage for Morena if it can mobilize its voters. But it remains an open question to what degree political parties or unofficially affiliated unions will effectively amp up turnout machines. Morena's top senators have started a nationwide tour to get out the vote. In northern Nuevo León state, home to the industrial capital of Monterrey, the governor's Movimiento Ciudadano party has signaled its support for several Morena-backed Supreme Court hopefuls, according to a report last week by newspaper Reforma after one of its reporters infiltrated a training meeting for state bureaucrats. Sheinbaum has herself praised the trio of AMLO-nominated Supreme Court justices who are running to remain in their posts, citing their defense of positions her government has taken. Even the ambiguous pamphleteers who follow some candidates around resemble party activists who typically turn out for elections. Non-partisan efforts to juice turnout include a push by conglomerate FEMSA, which has announced it will give a free coffee to voters in its Oxxo corner convenience stores on Sunday. Some who do plan to vote, like Irma Garcia Paniagua, 63, a business owner in the capital, mostly want to see results once the new judges take office. "I hope they deliver what they promise," she said. "Because many times they promise the sun and the stars but when they get in, they completely forget who elected them." Sheinbaum has directed voters to an INE webpage featuring candidate biographies. But wading through all them takes hours. The president posted a how-to-vote video aiming to demystify the process. Roberto Omar Paredes, an aspirant to be a criminal court judge, acknowledges how cumbersome voting will be during an recent hours-long campaign swing on foot that eventually took him to a small restaurant where he touted his credentials to the manager. "I was the best student in my class," he boasted. "So if I kill someone could you help me?" the woman who runs the restaurant asked him with a wry smile. "No," he replied. "But I can help with drug trafficking problems." Both burst out laughing. ______ (With assistance from Kyle Kim.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
6 soldiers killed, 2 wounded by bomb explosion in cartel bastion
An explosive device killed six soldiers and wounded two others in a western Mexican region wracked by drug cartel violence, an official military report seen by AFP on Wednesday said. The blast late Tuesday near a town in Michoacan state destroyed the armored vehicle in which the troops were traveling, according to the internal document. Military planes and helicopters were deployed to help the casualties, it said. President Claudia Sheinbaum described the deaths as "deplorable" and expressed solidarity with the victims. Warring criminals in the region have a history of planting improvised landmines and attacking security forces with explosive-laden drones. Several soldiers have been killed in similar explosions in the past. Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing. U.S. President Donald Trump has designated six Mexican drug trafficking groups terrorist organizations, fueling speculation that he might order military strikes against them. Michoacan, where the deadly bombing took place, has been plagued by violence as a turf war rages between the influential Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and local criminal groups. Last month, gunmen seized cargo trucks and set them on fire on a highway connecting Mexico City to Guadalajara, before police reported at least 18 similar cases in the neighboring states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. A Michoacan police source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the attacks were a reaction by Jalisco New Generation to a military operation in the area. Last August, Michoacan's chief prosecutor confirmed that gunmen linked to drug cartels shot to death seven members of the community police force in the town of Coahuayana. The influence of cartels has also infiltrated communities in the area. In December, a sign in a town in Michoacan was posted thanking a cartel leader — who has a $15 million bounty on his head in the U.S. — for holiday season presents for children. The message at a Christmas fair thanked Jalisco cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera — better known by his nickname "El Mencho" — for the gifts. SpaceX loses contact with its Starship, spins out of control Videos show man assaulting TSA agents, passenger at Miami International Airport 4-year-old girl fighting for her life at California hospital faces deportation order
CBS News
a day ago
- General
- CBS News
6 soldiers killed, 2 wounded by bomb explosion in Mexico cartel bastion
Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico to help fight cartels Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico Why Trump is pushing military help for Mexico An explosive device killed six soldiers and wounded two others in a western Mexican region wracked by drug cartel violence, an official military report seen by AFP on Wednesday said. The blast late Tuesday near a town in Michoacan state destroyed the armored vehicle in which the troops were traveling, according to the internal document. Military planes and helicopters were deployed to help the casualties, it said. President Claudia Sheinbaum described the deaths as "deplorable" and expressed solidarity with the victims. Warring criminals in the region have a history of planting improvised landmines and attacking security forces with explosive-laden drones. Several soldiers have been killed in similar explosions in the past. Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing. U.S. President Donald Trump has designated six Mexican drug trafficking groups terrorist organizations, fueling speculation that he might order military strikes against them. Michoacan, where the deadly bombing took place, has been plagued by violence as a turf war rages between the influential Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and local criminal groups. Last month, gunmen seized cargo trucks and set them on fire on a highway connecting Mexico City to Guadalajara, before police reported at least 18 similar cases in the neighboring states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. A Michoacan police source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the attacks were a reaction by Jalisco New Generation to a military operation in the area. Last August, Michoacan's chief prosecutor confirmed that gunmen linked to drug cartels shot to death seven members of the community police force in the town of Coahuayana. The influence of cartels has also infiltrated communities in the area. In December, a sign in a town in Michoacan was posted thanking a cartel leader — who has a $15 million bounty on his head in the U.S. — for holiday season presents for children. The message at a Christmas fair thanked Jalisco cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera — better known by his nickname "El Mencho" — for the gifts.
