At least 16 migrants from Venezuela and Haiti died early Friday in a bus crash in southern Mexico, authorities said.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute originally reported 18 dead, but later lowered that figure. Prosecutors in the southern state of Oaxaca later said there had been an overcount due to some of the bodies being dismembered, and that the real death toll was 16.
Both sources said the dead include two women and three children, and that 29 people were injured. There was no immediate information on their condition.
Photos from the scene showed the bus rolled over onto its side on a curvy section of highway in the southern state of Oaxaca. The cause of the crash in the town of Tepelmeme, near the border with the neighboring state of Puebla, is under investigation.
The institute said a total of 55 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, were aboard the vehicle.
It was the latest in a series of migrant deaths in Mexico amid a surge in migrants traveling toward the U.S. border. Because migration agents often raid regular buses, migrants and smugglers often seek out risky forms of transportation, like unregulated buses, trains or freight trucks.
Last week, 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were seriously injured after a freight truck they were riding in crashed on a highway in the neighboring state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala.
The National Immigration Institute said all of the dead Cuban migrants were women, and one of them was under 18.
Rescue team work near the church, after the roof collapsed, in Ciudad Madero, in Tamaulipas state, Mexico, October 1, 2023. El Citadino via REUTERS/ File Photo
The death toll from the collapse of a church roof during a Sunday Mass in northern Mexico has risen to 11, with around 60 others injured, officials said on Monday, as local authorities began wrapping up search and rescue efforts.
Five women, two men and three children were among those killed at the church in the Gulf Coast city of Ciudad Madero in Tamaulipas state, state Governor Americo Villarreal said. The death toll rose to 11 later on Monday after another young women died, a local media report said, citing the state health minister.
Footage posted on social media showed the moment the church roof caved in, puffs of gray smoke billowing into the air, followed by the toppling of yellow brick outer walls.
Mexican media reported that several children were being baptized during the Mass.
All of the people attending the service are now believed to be accounted for, Villarreal said, as military personnel and emergency services used rescue dogs and heavy machinery to sift through the ruins.
Thousands of migrants from different countries travel across Mexico in buses, trailers and freight trains in bid to reach the US.
At least 10 migrants have been killed and 25 others injured after a cargo truck clandestinely carrying them overturned on a highway in southern Mexico.
The accident took place early on Sunday in the Mexican state of Chiapas near the border with Guatemala.
A source in the prosecutor’s office who spoke on grounds of anonymity told AFP news agency the victims were apparently from Cuba and all were women, including one minor.
The incident occurred on a stretch of highway along the Pacific coast between the towns of Pijijiapan and Tonala, where people often travel as they attempt to reach the United States.
The truck, whose body was partially built of wood, was destroyed, with the migrants’ clothes, bags and backpacks strewn around it.
Thousands of migrants from different countries travel across Mexico in buses, trailers and freight trains as they head for the US.
It was the second fatal crash in less than a week involving migrants in Mexico. On Thursday, two migrants died when a truck overturned in the municipality of Mezcalapa, also in Chiapas state.
In August, at least 15 people were killed when a crowded bus carrying primarily Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers collided with a trailer on a highway in Mexico that connects the states of Puebla and Oaxaca, a route known to be used by migrant smugglers.
In July, another bus in Oaxaca plunged off a steep road, killing as many as 27 people. Another 18 people were killed in a crash in April. And in February, migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, and Central America were involved in a bus crash, again between Oaxaca and Puebla, that left at least 17 dead.
Nine people are reported to have been killed and some 20 others trapped after a church roof collapsed in Mexico.
Local media said 49 people were taken to hospital, after the roof of Ciudad Madero’s Santa Cruz church fell in.
Police in the coastal state of Tamaulipas said around 100 people were at a mass at the time of the collapse. Local media reported it was a baptism.
A number of children are believed to be amongst those trapped and rescue efforts are ongoing.
Images on social media showed the church building in ruins as people crowded around the rubble, desperately searching for those who were trapped inside.
Local journalist Franc Contreras told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme that the collapse happened at a key moment in the church service.
“The church was packed with about a hundred people, and people were lined up to take the communion – of course that’s sort of the climax of the Catholic mass – and that’s when the roof came down on top of them; bricks, concrete, and of course steel support structures coming down on top of the people,” he said.
He added that according to Red Cross officials the roof came down on pews in the church, allowing the possibility that anyone trapped there could survive in air pockets.
People were said to be arriving with shovels and pickaxes to try to move the debris.
Later posts showed the emergency services were at the scene, following the collapse on Sunday afternoon.
Calls were made on social media for medical and rescue materials to help those searching for survivors.
The polls point to a historical first: Claudia Sheinbaum, currently the frontrunner, could become the country’s first Jewish and female president.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum gestures as she speaks on the day she is certified as presidential candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party during a ceremony, in Mexico City, Mexico September 10, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/HENRY ROMERO)
The way things stand now, Mexico is headed to elect its first woman president next year. The two leading candidates in the polls for the 2024 election are Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s former mayor, and Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator representing the center-right opposition bloc.
The polls point to another first: Sheinbaum, currently the frontrunner, could become the country’s first Jewish president, too.
Earlier this month, Sheinbaum, 61, was announced as the candidate for the left-wing Morena party, which has been led by the country’s outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Since then, her momentum has only grown — a poll taken by the El Pais newspaper has 47% of voters supporting her, while Gálvez, her closest competitor, notched 30%.
If elected, Sheinbaum would join the ranks of the few Jews outside Israel who have been elected to their country’s highest office, including Janet Jagan of Guyana, Ricardo Maduro of Honduras, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Here is a primer on Sheinbaum and how her Jewishness has become part of the campaign.
She is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and political liberal who has beaten back crime.
Born to two science professors in Mexico City, Sheinbaum herself studied physics and became an engineering professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her research focused on, among other things, energy usage in Mexico’s buildings and transportation system. Along with a group of other experts on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, she would go on to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
As Mexico City’s head of government, Obrador appointed Sheinbaum as his environmental secretary in 2000. She became a close ally and joined his new left-wing Morena party (named after the country’s Catholic patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe) in the early 2010s. In 2015, she was elected mayor of Tlalpan, Mexico City’s largest borough, before becoming mayor of the entire city in 2018. She stepped down as mayor this summer to enter the presidential race.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum gestures as she speaks on the day she is certified as presidential candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party during a ceremony, in Mexico City, Mexico September 10, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/HENRY ROMERO)
Like the term-limited Obrador — whose approval rating of over 60% has been one of the highest in the world — Sheinbaum’s platform includes fighting Mexico’s deeply rooted corruption, continuing cash transfers to Mexico’s most vulnerable populations and developing Mexico’s energy sovereignty. But Sheinbaum will likely be more pro-environment than Obrador — while the current president has bolstered Mexico’s oil industry, Sheinbaum has said most of the country’s future “has to be related to renewable energy.”
As mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum led the city through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Obrador appeared to minimize the threat of the virus, Sheinbaum advocated for masks and increased testing early on. And in a country plagued by violence, she has reduced her city’s murder rate by nearly half.
But some controversy also brewed during her time as mayor. Despite expanding public transport, there were at least a dozen accidents, some deadly, in the city’s subway system. Critics say she hasn’t done enough to fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure.
Sheinbaum also faced controversy involving infrastructure disaster as head of Tlalpan. In 2017, during an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in total, an elementary school collapsed in Sheinbaum’s district, killing 19 children and six adults. An apartment had been built on top of the school, destabilizing it, and some criticized her for allowing district officials to approve the construction permits. She apologized for what happened, but some parents of the deceased children still hold her accountable.
Her Jewish identity is more political than religious
Sheinbaum had Ashkenazi grandparents who immigrated from Lithuania in the 1920s and Sephardic grandparents who left Sofia, Bulgaria, in the 1940s to escape the Holocaust. She has said that she celebrated holidays at her grandparents’ houses, but at home, her family life was secular.
Sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2018 that Sheinbaum feels connected to the history of Jews in political activism, but not as much so to the religion or its traditions. Like many secular, leftist Jews in Mexico, her parents moved to the south of the city to be closer to the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a hotbed of political activism. She told a group of Jewish women voters during her mayoral campaign in 2018 that she was a proud Jewish woman.
She also hasn’t made any public pronouncement about Israel or spoken as a member of a minority, even though Jews make up less than 1% of the capital city’s population. It is not known if she belongs to any synagogue or other Jewish institution.
NASA’s highly anticipated briefing on Thursday unveiled findings from a year-long, $100,000 study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs. The briefing took an unexpected turn when questions arose regarding two purportedly “non-human” corpses that had been displayed in glass cases during an official unveiling at Mexico’s Congress, sparking excitement within the UFO enthusiast community.
NASA on Thursday (September 14) concluded its highly anticipated media briefing, revealing the results of a year-long, $100,000 study into Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), also known as UFOs. The primary goal of this report was to shed light on these puzzling phenomena and establish a scientific framework for understanding them.
The briefing took an unexpected turn when questions arose regarding two purportedly “non-human” corpses that had been displayed in glass cases during an official unveiling at Mexico’s Congress, sparking excitement within the UFO enthusiast community.
The mummified specimens were said to have been discovered in the city of Cusco, Peru, and were believed to be approximately 1,000 years old.David Spergel, chair of the NASA UAP study, weighed in on the matter, stating that he had only seen reports about the specimens on social media and did not possess detailed information about their nature.
“We don’t know the nature of those samples,” he said.
He urged the Mexican government to make the samples available to the global scientific community, emphasising the importance of data-driven investigations.
‘Alien’ bodies with three-fingered hands, ‘unknown DNA and eggs inside’ are presented by UFO expert at Mexican congress – with the ‘non-humans’ found in Peru said to be 1,000 years old
This is the moment a UFO investigator presented two allegedly ‘non human’ bodies to a congress full of astonished officials.
Jaime Maussan, who has led investigations into alien phenomena for decades, stood with scientists to unveil two corpses in what he called a ‘watershed’ event in front of Mexican Congress on Tuesday.
The researchers made the extraordinary claim that the corpses, presented in windowed boxes and supposedly recovered from Cusco in Peru, were not part of ‘our terrestrial evolution’, with 30 per cent of their genetic composition still ‘unknown’, according to Mexican media.
Carbon dating by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) found the bodies, pictured with three-fingered hands, no teeth and stereoscopic vision, were more than 1,000 years old, Maussan claimed.
The bizarre presentation has triggered a frenzy of excitement among conspiracy theorists online – but it has also drawn scepticism. Unusually for fossils that have been subjected to analysis, the specimens were coated in what appeared to be sand.
But Maussan – who has been associated with debunked alien theories in the past – insisted under oath on Tuesday: ‘These specimen are not part of our terrestrial evolution […] These aren’t beings that were found after a UFO wreckage. They were found in diatom [algae] mines, and were later fossilized.’
He later added: ‘Whether they are aliens or not, we don’t know, but they were intelligent and they lived with us. They should rewrite history.’
‘We are not alone in this vast universe, we should embrace this reality,’ he said at the event.
California is bracing for its first tropical storm in 84 years with almost 1,000 flights cancelled and the ongoing actors’ strike called off due to the impending extreme weather.
Storm Hilary was previously classed as a Category 4 hurricane but weakened as it approached the Mexican coast, from where it was due to head to California and other states in the southeastern US.
At least nine million people in southern California were under flood warnings as they faced “life-threatening” rain, mudslides, tornadoes, high winds and power outages.
People walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame during the tropical storm Hilary
Up to 10 inches of rain were set to fall as mud spilled onto highways, water overwhelmed drainage systems and tree branches fell in places from San Diego to Los Angeles. The storm sustained winds of up to 65mph.
Authorities also said there was a 5% risk of tornadoes in southern California – the first time there has been this level of risk since at least 2002.
Residents in some counties were ordered to evacuate while Governor Gavin Newsom declared southern California in a state of emergency.
Authorities ran out of sandbags and supermarket shelves were empty as residents stockpiled supplies.
Disneyland closed early, football games were rescheduled and some beaches were closed in anticipation of the storm.
Schools also were set to close on Monday – postponing the start of the new school year.
Long time resident of Long Beach, Gabriella Holt, prepares her home that sits on the strand for Hurricane Hilary’s arrivalA worker drags caution tape to block off Pico Boulevard after a tree fell in Los Angeles Pic: AP
Airports in Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles cancelled close to 1,000 flights on Sunday afternoon while two airlines, Southwest and Frontier, suspended all flights to Ontario International Airport in southern California. Dozens more flights across California were also delayed.
The Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, cancelled their scheduled pickets on Monday due to the storm.
Hollywood writers have been on strike since May, with the actors union joining them on strike last month in a row over pay and the impact of streaming and new technologies on the industry.
The unions plan to resume picketing on Tuesday.
Other states such as Nevada, Oregon and Idaho are also set to experience once-in-a-century rain as Storm Hilary moves east, with the Nevada governor declaring a state of emergency on Sunday afternoon.
Bad weather during summer is rare for California – the average rainfall for Los Angeles in August is 0 inches.
The city is predicted to have at least three to five inches, while hills not far away are predicted to get up to 10 inches.
Michael Brennan, director of the US National Hurricane Centre said some areas could get the amount of rain in hours that they typically get in an entire year.
“You do not want to be out driving around, trying to cross flooded roads on vehicle or on foot,” he said during a briefing from Miami.
“Rainfall flooding has been the biggest killer in tropical storms and hurricanes in the United States in the past 10 years and you don’t want to become a statistic.”
As preparations were under way, southern California got another surprise when an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck near Ojai, about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Los Angeles, according to the US Geological Survey.
No immediate reports of major damage or injury were issued.
It comes as one person died when deadly flooding from Storm Hilary made landfall in Mexico’s Baja California state.
Deadly floodwaters have left streets inundated along the length of the Baja California peninsula, reported AP.
Hurricane Hilary roared toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula late Saturday as a downgraded but still dangerous Category 1 hurricane likely to bring “catastrophic” flooding to the region and cross into the southwestern U.S. as a tropical storm.
The National Weather Center in Miami said in the most recent advisory at 9 p.m. that the maximum sustained wind speed is 90 mph and the storm was about 175 miles (281 kilometers) south of Punta Eugenia, Mexico, and 535 miles (855 kilometers) from San Diego, California.
Meteorologists warned that despite weakening, the storm remained treacherous.
One person drowned Saturday in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia, on the peninsula’s eastern coast, when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream. Rescue workers managed to save four other people, said Edith Aguilar Villavicencio, the mayor of Mulege township.
It was not immediately clear whether officials considered the fatality related to the hurricane, but video posted by local officials showed torrents of water coursing through the town’s streets.
Forecasters said the storm was still expected to enter the history books as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing flash floods, mudslides, isolated tornadoes, high winds and power outages. The forecast prompted authorities to issue an evacuation advisory for Santa Catalina Island, urging residents and beachgoers to leave the tourist destination 23 miles (37 kilometers) off the coast.
Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service San Diego office, said rain could fall up to 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) an hour across Southern California’s mountains and deserts, from late Sunday morning into the afternoon. The intense rainfall during those hours could cause widespread and life-threatening flash floods.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency, and officials had urged people to finish their preparations before sundown Saturday. It would be too late by Sunday, one expert said.
The hurricane is the latest major climate disaster to wreak havoc across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Hawaii’s island of Maui is still reeling from last week’s blaze that killed over 100 people and ravaged the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. In Canada, firefighters on Saturday continued to battle blazes during the nation’s worst fire season on record.
Hilary brought heavy rain and flooding to Mexico and the southwestern U.S. on Saturday, ahead of the storm’s expected Sunday border crossing. Forecasters warned it could dump up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) — a year’s worth of rain for some areas — in southern California and southern Nevada.
“This does not lessen the threat, especially the flood threat,” Jamie Rhome, the U.S. National Hurricane Center’s deputy director, said during a Saturday briefing to announce the storm’s downgraded status. “Don’t let the weakening trend and the intensity lower your guard.”
A couple walks along berms in Seal Beach, Calif., Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Officials in Southern California were also re-enforcing sand berms, built to protect low-lying coastal communities against winter surf. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Meteorologists also expected the storm to churn up “life-threatening” surf and rip currents, including waves up to 40 feet (12 meters) high, along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Dozens sought refuge at storm shelters in the twin resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula, and firefighters rescued a family in San Jose del Cabo after the resort was hit by driving rain and wind.
In Tijuana, fire department head Rafael Carrillo voiced the fear at the back of everyone’s mind in the border city of 1.9 million people, particularly residents who live in homes on steep hillsides.
”If you hear noises, or the ground cracking, it is important for you to check it and get out as fast as possible, because the ground can weaken and your home could collapse,” Carrillo said.
Tijuana ordered all beaches closed Saturday, and set up a half dozen storm shelters at sports complexes and government offices.
Mexico’s navy evacuated 850 people from islands off the Baja coast, and deployed almost 3,000 troops for emergency operations. In La Paz, the picturesque capital of Baja California Sur state on the Sea of Cortez, police patrolled closed beaches to keep swimmers out of the whipped-up surf.
Category 4 Hurricane Hilary hurtled towards Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Friday, a U.S. government agency said, as it issued its first ever tropical storm watch for California and warned of life-threatening and possibly catastrophic floods.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects the powerful storm to near Mexico’s popular Cabo San Lucas resort city by late on Friday, though it should weaken before hitting the U.S. West Coast this weekend, nevertheless bringing dangerous rains.
“Life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flooding are likely over much of Baja California and Southern California this weekend and early next week,” the Miami-based agency said in its latest advisory.
Mexico’s Baja California peninsula spans two states.
The northernmost one canceled non-essential public activities on Friday, including school classes through Monday, and authorities in Mexico’s second-largest city, Tijuana, urged people in high-risk zones to move to temporary shelters.
In the peninsula’s southern state, authorities postponed a local baseball match and said ports would be closed through late Friday.
“Without being alarmist, we must all take precautions and stock up on water and basic necessities at home, without resorting to panic buying,” the state’s governor said.
NHC Deputy Director Jamie Rhome warned of flood risks from San Diego to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, with particularly high risks around the Palm Springs area.
Waves break in a beach as the Category 4 Hurricane Hilary rushes toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico August 18, 2023. REUTERS/Monserrat Zavala
“If you’ve got weekend plans, it’s probably time to start altering those plans,” he said. Major League Baseball moved up a trio of Sunday games in Southern California to Saturday.
The Berlin skyline, April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi/File Photo
Police in Germany, reported on Saturday that they found the body of a 24-year-old Mexican woman who disappeared in Berlin at the end of July and whose case has caused garnered widespread attention in Mexico.
Authorities said the body of Maria Fernanda Sanchez, for whom Interpol had issued a yellow search notice, was found floating in a canal by a person walking along a bridge in Berlin’s Adlershof neighborhood.
“No third-party blame can be assumed,” police said in a statement, but added that “the police investigation continues.”
The Mexican Foreign Ministry communicated on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that German authorities reported the discovery of a deceased woman that fit Sanchez’s description.
Earlier in the week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he would ask the German president to bolster the search for Sanchez, who, according to local media, was a masters student in Germany.
