Gunmen opened fire on a bar in "one of the safer cities in Mexico" and shot 17 people

CBS:

Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006

FWIW:

Also probably a warning for what could come to Mexico City, where extortion is widespread and out of any livable proportions. https://t.co/PAImeIosJw

— Luis Chaparro (@LuisKuryaki) November 10, 2024

What Luis says here is very true. I spoke a few years ago for @americamag with a social worker who tries to re-integrate (former) gang members in society in Querétaro - he warned that the social fabric in one of Mexico's fastest growing cities is tearing. https://t.co/sWr64vuEf3 https://t.co/daLQINZYEK

— Jan-Albert Hootsen (@jahootsen) November 10, 2024

Reportedly, cartel members stole a fortune in precious metals from the Peñasquito Mine in Mexico earlier this week

Cartel Insider:

The notorious Los Cabreras cartel, hailing from Durango, delivered a significant blow by seizing a fortune in precious metals from Peñasquito Mine, operated by U.S. multinational Newmont. The cartel took six loaded containers filled with gold, silver, zinc, and copper . . . .

The heist unfolded in the hard-to-reach territory of Mazapil, a municipality in the arid northern stretches of Zacatecas.

Another report asserts that some of the stolen goods were recovered:

the level of sophistication of the operation, which involved neutralizing the security system and hooking up the cabins to other trailers to avoid being located via satellite, "says a lot about the group's logistical and organizational capacity."

"PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident"

BBC:

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US.

It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique which fires thousands of laser pulses from a plane and maps objects below using the time the signal takes to return.

But when Mr Auld-Thomas processed the data with methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had missed - a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD.

Guardian:

the team’s findings show just how many undiscovered treasures the area could yet yield.

“We didn’t just find rural areas and smaller settlements,” he said. “We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area’s only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years. The government never knew about it, the scientific community never knew about it. That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that no, we have not found everything, and yes, there’s a lot more to be discovered.”

"Mexican mayor killed less than a week after taking office"

CNN: 

Chilpancingo is the capital of Guerrero, a state with a reputation for violent crime which is also home to the tourist hot spot Acapulco

...

During campaign season, at least 34 political candidates were assassinated by criminal organizations

NYPost has the graphic details on the murder. Also: 

The city’s previous mayor . . . was videotaped allegedly holding a meeting with leaders of the gangs at a restaurant. She was subsequently expelled from her party, which gave [her just-killed replacement] the opening to run.

Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to become Mexico’s next president

AP:

Her four grandparents were Jews who immigrated from Lithuania and Bulgaria. She was born in Mexico City and her parents did not raise her under any religion. According to her campaign team, Sheinbaum considers herself a woman of faith, but she is not religiously affiliated.

...

In mid-2023, former Mexican president Vicente Fox wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Sheinbaum was “Jewish and foreigner at the same time.”

That comment — denounced as “antisemitic, racist and xenophobic” — was not isolated. 

The LA Times goes "Inside the world of the ultra-wealthy Mexicans who own exotic animals"

An article by Kate Linthicum (much of the article focuses on a veterinarian who never asks the owners what they do for a living):

They walk tigers on leashes down city streets and parade them in the backs of luxury cars. Socialites have formed private “monkey clubs,” gathering for extravagant Christmas posadas and pool parties. 

...

“So many people here have them,” ... “It’s fashionable. It says: ‘I have the money to have a monkey.’”

3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire

The 3d reconstruction.

Wikipedia on the city:

The city was connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways leading to the north, south, and west. The causeways were interrupted by bridges that allowed canoes and other water traffic to pass freely. The bridges could be pulled away, if necessary, to protect the city. The city was interlaced with a series of canals, so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe

...

The city was divided into four zones, or camps; each camp was divided into 20 districts ; and each calpulli, or 'big house', was crossed by streets or tlaxilcalli. There were three main streets that crossed the city, each leading to one of the three causeways to the mainland of Tepeyac, Iztapalapa, and Tlacopan. [An expert] reported that they were wide enough for ten horses. Surrounding the raised causeways were artificial floating gardens with canal waterways and gardens of plants, shrubs, and trees. The calpullis were divided by channels used for transportation, with wood bridges that were removed at night.

...

In the center of the city were the public buildings, temples, and palaces. Inside a walled square, 500 meters (1,600 ft) to a side, was the ceremonial center. There were about 45 public buildings, including: the Templo Mayor, which was dedicated to the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli and the Rain God Tlaloc; the temple of Quetzalcoatl; the tlachtli (ball game court) with the tzompantli or rack of skulls; the Sun Temple, which was dedicated to Tonatiuh; the Eagle's House, which was associated with warriors and the ancient power of rulers; the platforms for the gladiatorial sacrifice; and some minor temples.

Mexican police reportedly killed after being lured into driving down a bomb-laden road

ABC:

For years, police have been unable to locate the more than 110,000 missing people in Mexico, but they accompany volunteer search groups that look for such hidden graves. The volunteers, usually the mothers of missing people, often get anonymous tips about where their relatives may be buried.

...

the governor of Jalisco state, said an anonymous caller who gave a volunteer search group a tip about a clandestine burial site near the roadway set “a trap” for the officers.

...

a total of eight “improvised explosive devices” were planted on the roadway.

Adam Schefter "panicked" when he became convinced the chauffeured car he got into in Mexico was actually kidnapping him

Summarized here, from the story he tells in the last few minutes of the embedded podcast. 

(Coincidentally, in a recent podcast, Brian Widhorst and Marc Spears discussed possible NBA expansion to Mexico, including safety concerns.) 

Here's one write-up on the recent violence in Mexico

LATaco: 

The rumor is that the Mexican government was sitting down with the New Generation cartel to hash out a meeting, and the government arrested one of the main guys. As a result of this, the cartel showed its force. 

...

The warning issued by the New Generation cartel that they were going to kill people if they were out after 10 p.m. did work. Many people did not go out at night. It was a show of force to show disruption and mostly psychological. 

...

People carrying out the attacks weren’t cartel members .... That’s not what happened. They were [mostly under age 19]. They were paid several hundred dollars to steal and burn cars in the middle of the street. It was an organized effort.

...

The cartel does not need to send 260 people with AKs to Tijuana to have a shootout with the government. They can just send money, burn a bunch of cars, and disrupt one of Mexico’s biggest economies for the weekend.

CBS:

The spark that set off the chaos in Jalisco and Guanajuato last week was apparently the military coming upon a meeting involving a boss from the Jalisco cartel, which the Department of Justice considers to be "one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world." The cartel's leader ... is among the most sought by Mexican and U.S. authorities.

[Mexico's Defense Secretary] said the soldiers hadn't known about it and were just trying to intercept a cartel convoy.

"The narco terrorism of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is a reaction to the president's change in strategy," [an analyst] said. "If the Mexican president continues with this strategy of capturing high-ranking members of the Jalisco cartel, the Jalisco cartel is going to respond with acts of narcoterrorism in the states it controls as part of its vast empire." 

Massive violence in Mexico demonstrated "the ability of crime gangs to wreak havoc and shatter the semblance of normality almost anywhere in the country without warning"

The LAT has an attempt to describe the violence.

Intense narco-bloqueo activity in major cities of #Baja today, ongoing. Developing... #Tijuana https://t.co/2bGYl7YDln

— Daniel Hernandez ✍🏽🌞 (@longdrivesouth) August 13, 2022

Ataque simultáneo en Tijuana, Mexicali y Tecate. Unidades del transporte público incendiadas.
A estos ineptos se les está incendiando el país.
(Pero el presidente va muy bien en las encuestas).
👇 pic.twitter.com/diPOASQpEr

— Héctor de Mauleón (@hdemauleon) August 13, 2022

After a day of violence in Tijuana, the city's mayor tells organized crime to only take revenge against those who didn't pay "their bills" and not against all citizens. 👀👀👀 https://t.co/XSvDknoA6Z

— José Díaz Briseño (@diazbriseno) August 13, 2022

They've surrounded the town with fire blockades to catch a kidnapper?

I’m trapped with thousands of people (seems like a million people?) on the México-Puebla highway, blocked in both directions. A 9 year old boy was kidnapped and his community in Río Frío put up fire blockades along all roads through town until they find him. I hope he’s safe!🤞 pic.twitter.com/JR77vhxRsT

— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) May 6, 2022

Some people have been in gridlock for 10+ hours. There’s people without food, broken down cars, and people who need medical attention. Some sections of the road (along a narrow mountain highway) are especially scary. Damn, government support really messed up here. https://t.co/gJyLqfAmlC

— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) May 6, 2022

Here's a news summary.

Archaeologists have excavated 119 more skulls in the Aztec tower of human skulls under the center of Mexico City

BBC:

The tower was discovered in 2015 during the restoration of a building in the Mexican capital.

It is believed to be part of a skull rack from the temple to the Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice.

Known as the Huey Tzompantli, the skull rack stood on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, the patron of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

...

Archaeologists have identified three construction phases of the tower, which dates back to between 1486 and 1502.

Mexican farmers seized a dam to stop water payments to the United States

WaPo:

Unrest has simmered for months over U.S. demands that Mexico pay off a shortfall of more than 100 billion gallons by Oct. 24 to meet its five-year water-delivery quota. Local farmers say the extra payments are emptying reservoirs that store water they need.

The crisis erupted in violence this month when about 2,000 protesters swarmed over La Boquilla dam on the Conchas River and a national guard unit was sent in to stop them. One woman was shot dead in the chaotic confrontation last week, but about 200 protesters, armed with sticks and rocks, were able to repel the security forces and retain control of the century-old hydroelectric facility.

... 

The treaty requires the United States to send far more water to Mexico than it receives, but those payments flow elsewhere on the 2,000-mile border, far from dry Chihuahua, which provides more than half of Mexico’s share. Every year, Mexico pipes about 114 billion gallons of water north from the Rio Grande and Conchas rivers; the United States sends almost 489 billion gallons south from the Colorado River.

"Mexican president says police 'did right' to free drug lord's son"

BBC:

When Ovidio Guzmán López was seized at a house on a judge's warrant in the city of Culiacán, cartel gunmen fought street battles with security forces.

At least eight people were killed and 16 wounded, the authorities say, with vehicles left burning in the streets.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the decision to cancel the arrest on Thursday had saved lives.

Senior security officials had decided on his release, the president said at a news conference. "The officials who took this decision did well," he said.

"The capture of a criminal is not worth more than people's lives."

...

Mr López Obrador was elected on a platform of cracking down on Mexico's drug cartels, and has tasked the National Guard, a new security force, with fighting the dealers.

Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US, officials say.

The kingpin was jailed earlier this year, and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez is one of several brothers with a hand in running the cartel.

Thought to be in his twenties, he is accused of drug trafficking in the US.

"With the upsurge in fentanyl use, the demand for Mexican heroin has fallen sharply, by an estimated 7 billion pesos ($364 million dollars)"

Wilson Center:

The authors estimate that the opium economy channeled around 19 billion pesos ($1 billion dollars) to some of the poorest communities in Mexico in 2017. This is a vast amount, nearly three times the total legal agricultural output of the entire state of Guerrero.

...

These losses have caused farmers’ profits to disappear, village economies to dry up; and out-migration to increase.

For more, a recent NBC report.

"Mexican farmers claims Volkswagen 'hail cannons' caused drought"

Telegraph:

Volkswagen, which has a major plant in Puebla, has been using "hail cannons" - sonic devises that purport to disrupt the formation of hail in the atmosphere - to disperse storm clouds menacing the thousands of new cars parked on its lots.

But farmers in Cuautlancingo, the rural municipality where the plant is located, say the controversial technique is causing a drought that has made them lose 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of crops.

Scientists are skeptical over whether hail cannons actually work.

...

Volkswagen tried to defuse the conflict this week by announcing it was taking the cannons off automatic mode and would only fire them when potential hail storms approached.

"113 Politicians Have Been Killed Ahead Of Mexico’s Election. There Are Still Two Weeks To Go"

BF:

The attacks have been brazen. Last month, several commandos went around Ignacio Zaragoza, a town of less than 7,000 people about 200 miles southwest of El Paso, Texas, burning houses and cars belonging to several local candidates.

"A New Clue to the Mystery Disease That Once Killed Most of Mexico"

Atl:

In the decades after Hernán Cortés invaded Mexico, one of the worst epidemics in human history swept through the new Spanish colony. A mysterious disease called “cocolitzli” appeared first in 1545 and then again in 1576

...

In less than a century, the number of people living in Mexico fell from an estimated 20 million to 2 million.

"Mexico promised affordable housing for all. Instead it created many rapidly decaying slums"

LAT:

Sixteen years ago, Mexico embarked on a monumental campaign to elevate living standards for its working-class masses.

The government teamed with private developers to launch the largest residential construction boom in Latin American history. Global investors — the World Bank, big foundations, Wall Street firms — poured billions of dollars into the effort.

Vast housing tracts sprang up across cow pastures, farms and old haciendas. From 2001 to 2012, an estimated 20 million people — one-sixth of Mexico’s population — left cities, shantytowns and rural ranchos for the promise of a better life.

...

The program has devolved into a slow-motion social and financial catastrophe

...

It is believed to be the largest fraud in Mexican history.