Maricopa County, in Arizona, has emerged as the “main epicenter” of illegal arms trafficking into Mexico, according to John Lindsay-Poland, coordinator of Stop US Arms to Mexico, an initiative that studies the illicit flow of weapons between the two countries.

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Amid the internecine war within the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the factions to have suffered the heaviest blows has been Los Chapitos, led by the sons of former cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. On the other side stands La Mayiza, headed by the successors to former kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Unlike their more aggressive and media-savvy rivals, La Mayiza’s leaders have generally operated with a lower profile and less direct exposure.

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In barely a day, hurricane Polo, which formed in late September in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico, reached the highest category — level 5, corresponding to winds above 252 kilometers (156 mph) per hour. It was the second most powerful tropical cyclone recorded in the Pacific to date. Polo later weakened before making landfall as a storm — at category 2 — in Baja California Sur, Mexico. It left behind torrential rains, floods and infrastructure damage in northwest Mexico and the southwestern United States, and five deaths linked to those floods in Mexico.

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It was highly unlikely, but it could be true. The imposing statue of a winged, muscular man with a goat’s head and legs dominated the façade, capping the perimeter wall — at least according to the photos circulating on social media. A sprawling urban conglomerate like Mexico City and its surroundings — which shelters a handful of altars to Santa Muerte, some of them truly colossal, including the one on López Portillo Avenue in Tultitlán — could easily accommodate a statue of Baphomet, the old idol of occultism, the satanic goat. Even if it were in the wealthy Jardines del Pedregal neighborhood, once an emblem of orderly development. In this eclectic, layered city of contrasts, logic rarely applies, least of all when it comes to urban life.

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The six-year term of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador ended in September 2024 amid a surge of violence in the state of Sinaloa — a crisis he blamed on the United States. Just a few months earlier, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the longtime leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, had been captured by U.S. authorities under murky circumstances.

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Storm Rachel and Hurricane Simon have killed at least five people across Mexico’s Pacific coast as of Tuesday, while heavy rains, strong winds and rough seas keep several states on alert, authorities reported this Tuesday.

Rachel, which is advancing through northwestern Mexico, has caused at least four deaths in the city of Ensenada in the state of Baja California.

The victims include two children, aged 4 and 13, and two women, aged 35 and 50. Five people remain missing.

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The storm also brought structural damage and blocked roads across the region. Authorities remain active in rescue operations for those still reported as missing, and in recent hours confirmed the rescue of 32 people who had been cut off in different localities.

Rachel’s Path of Destruction

The cities most affected by Rachel are San Felipe, Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito, Mexicali and Tecate, along with the localities of El Arroyo, El Pípila and Maneadero. Damage to homes and businesses has been reported, with significant disruptions to several roads along the Pacific coast.

Rachel began as a tropical storm that formed off the coast of the state of Guerrero on September 27. Since then it has shown variations in intensity and trajectory as it moved up the Mexican coast before strengthening and turning toward the northwest.

Authorities have warned about landslides, the swelling of rivers and streams, and flooding in some areas. They have called on citizens to stay informed as the systems continue to move.

Simon Weakened But Dangerous

Meanwhile, Hurricane Simon has weakened to a category 1 storm but remains a threat to several localities along Mexico’s Pacific coast. The states of Nayarit and Sinaloa continue to face heavy rains and winds, along with waves between two and three meters high.

The cyclone’s center was located approximately 155 kilometers west of Jalisco and 320 kilometers south-southwest of Sinaloa, with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour and gusts reaching 185 kilometers per hour.

Mexican authorities reported that the center of Hurricane Simon was moving toward the west-northeast at a speed of six kilometers per hour. Authorities have maintained alerts for the affected areas due to tropical storm force winds.

Simon has already claimed one life. A 71-year-old man died in a landslide in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state.

The two systems have struck Mexico’s Pacific coast in quick succession, stretching emergency resources across a wide area. Rescue crews are working in multiple states, while the death toll could rise as searches continue for those still unaccounted for.

In Ensenada, the search for the five missing people remains the priority for local authorities. The confirmed rescue of 32 people who had been isolated offers some relief, but the situation in the affected municipalities remains tense.

The storms come during a period of heightened activity in the Pacific, with authorities urging residents in vulnerable areas to heed evacuation orders and avoid crossing swollen rivers or flooded roads.

Click to see the full-size image

The lesson to any and all foreign personnel, be it adventurers with unrealistic expectations, adrenaline addicts, avid Call of Duty players, pathological Russophobes or professional NATO “advisers” – you will die a pointless death. Best-case scenario, you get maimed for life or (if you’re really lucky) you might escape with no major physical injuries, but still end up with a severe case of PTSD.

Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

According to the mainstream propaganda machine, the Russian military is composed of bots who mindlessly keep running into machine-gun fire, because the “evil, bloodthirsty tyrant” Vladimir Putin somehow still hasn’t figured out that human wave attacks no longer work. Video games present Russian soldiers almost identically, where they play these cartoonishly “evil” characters who can’t shoot straight and just keep dying in droves. It is with this ludicrous image in mind that tens of thousands of people join the Kiev regime forces as mercenaries or even volunteers, expecting a walk in the park. Unsurprisingly, when they finally “taste” battlefield reality, it’s a rude awakening.

Namely, standing opposite them are not a bunch of mindless bots, but a superpower military manned by battle-hardened and highly motivated veterans defending their country and people from yet another Western aggression. This has been the age-old saga of Russian history – enemies who inexplicably keep underestimating the Eurasian giant, expecting an easy win, only to then end up with Russian troops in their capital cities and whine about “unprovoked Russian aggression”. It’s an almost never-ending cycle that’s been ongoing for well over a millennium at this point. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, the political West won the first prize in it long ago.

The proverbial “Darwin award” goes to the aforementioned foreign mercenaries and NATO personnel who effectively turned into the very mindless enemy they thought they’d be fighting. Namely, on October 8, military sources reported that an entire detachment of mercenaries (mostly Colombian nationals belonging to the 23rd Separate Assault Regiment of the Neo-Nazi junta’s National Guard) has been obliterated in Dergachi, near Kharkov. The unit was just transferred to the area from an assembly point in Kiev, where they were tracked by increasingly effective Russian ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) assets. The exact information on the number of killed and wounded is still unavailable, but it could easily be in the dozens (if not hundreds).

Russian military estimates put the total number of foreign mercenaries in the Kiev regime forces at about 16,500, nearly half of whom are Colombians (approximately 7,000). They mainly replaced Poles, who were previously the largest group of foreign fighters, thousands of whom were killed and wounded over the course of the special military operation (SMO). Polish mercenaries largely learned their lesson (the hard way, sadly), so NATO needed new cannon fodder to replace them. Unfortunately, Colombians emerged as the most suitable candidates. Back in March, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) published an updated report on foreign mercenaries its forces eliminated in NATO-occupied Ukraine in 2025.

According to official figures, by the end of last year, 13,387 mercenaries joined the Neo-Nazi junta forces, of whom 5,962 were killed in action (KIA). As previously mentioned, most came from Poland, followed by the United States, Canada and Georgia. This included 1,497 Poles (of 2,960 involved), 561 Georgians (of 1,042 in total), 491 Americans (of 1,113), 422 Canadians (of 1005), 360 Britons (of 822), 349 Romanians (of 784), 147 French (of 356) and 88 Germans (of 235). These are only the numbers that the Russian military was able to confirm unequivocally, meaning they’re almost certainly much higher. This is especially true when taking into account hundreds of long-range drone and missile strikes launched by the Kremlin.

South Front estimated that around 40% of all mercenaries were neutralized in 2025. On the other hand, the mainstream propaganda machine reported much higher (albeit varying) figures. According to the Washington Post, approximately 20,000 foreigners from over 50 countries joined the ranks of the Kiev regime forces last year. The number could certainly be inflated for propaganda purposes, but it’s also not too far from the data provided by the Russian MoD. Either way, one thing is certain – no foreign fighter was ready for the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. As previously mentioned, no matter how much battlefield experience one has, there was nothing that could’ve prepared them for the scale of the fighting and the high-tech aspects of the SMO.

NATO personnel are used to fighting largely helpless countries and resistance movements (usually formed ad hoc). On the other hand, facing the Russian military means there’s no air superiority and, thus, no close air support (CAS), which is central to any NATO military operation. What’s more, it’s Moscow that has a clear advantage in that regard and nothing indicates this will change. Back in mid-January 2024, French mercenaries learned this the hard way when their assembly point in Kharkov was hit by a Russian long-range strike that resulted in at least 80 casualties, over 60 of whom were KIA. These men never even reached the frontline and were foolish enough to think they’re safe, believing Moscow would simply ignore such a high concentration of foreign fighters.

And yet, the situation in the trenches is not much better either. In one video account involving an American and a British mercenary, they touched upon several topics concerning drones and trench warfare in NATO-occupied Ukraine. Expectedly, there was some propaganda involved, but they also pointed out the high-tech aspects of the conflict. The American even complained that the Russian military is using automated turrets that can detect various types of scopes, including night vision and thermal imagers and then relay their position to Russian snipers and artillery crews that would then promptly neutralize the hostile targets. Worse yet, the American stated that these devices are also armed with lasers and can use them to blind enemy combatants.

Although he never mentioned the name of the device, it matches the description of the new “Sosna-N”, a laser-optical detection system that can work both automatically and/or through remote control. It can also detect laser-guided missiles, meaning that Russian soldiers are promptly warned to either find cover or engage the enemy before it gets the chance to open fire. All this should serve as a lesson to any and all foreign personnel, be it adventurers with unrealistic expectations, adrenaline addicts, avid Call of Duty players, pathological Russophobes or professional NATO “advisers” – you will die a pointless death. Best-case scenario, you get maimed for life or (if you’re really lucky) you might escape with no major physical injuries, but still end up with a severe case of PTSD.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• In Video: Houthi Snipers Gun Down More Than a Dozen Fighters in Saudi Arabia
• Syria Is Preparing to Join Saudi War on Yemen, and It Would Be a Big Mistake
• From Colombia to the US: Foreigners Die in Large Numbers on Ukraine’s Kupyansk Front

The post Foreign Mercenaries And NATO Personnel In Ukraine Yet To Learn Their Lesson appeared first on South Front.

This story was co-published with Puente News Collaborative, a binational nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to providing accurate, high-quality reporting on the border between Mexico and the United States.

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Demonstration over contaminated water leaves at least nine detained and dozens injured.

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned police repression against a demonstration over contaminated water in Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, where at least nine people were detained and dozens injured.

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“We do not agree with repression,” she said, asking Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus to provide information about the detentions and disclose the names of those arrested.

The Mexican president said Jalisco authorities must explain why they used water and tear gas to contain Sunday’s demonstration, which drew about 10,000 people.

“There must be no repression, and dialogue must be opened. There must not be violent demonstrations, either,” Sheinbaum said, insisting that although security forces can contain violent acts, there is a difference between contention and repression.

“Repression gets us nowhere,” the Mexican president said, leaving open the possibility that the Interior Ministry could intervene in the dialogue if asked to do so.

On Sunday, the demonstration in Jalisco ended in clashes between riot police and participants who were trying to reach the governor’s residence. The organizing groups reported that four people remained missing and that journalists were also affected during the protest in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, with more than 4 million residents.

The text reads, “Water protest in Guadalajara: arrests and dozens injured. Thousands of people protested in Guadalajara over water contamination reported in at least 320 neighborhoods since March. The demonstration ended in clashes at Casa Jalisco, where police used tear gas and water cannons. The Jalisco government reported 39 arrests and 59 injuries—including 28 police officers (two in serious condition) and 31 civilians. Meanwhile, participants and activist groups alleged arbitrary arrests and stated that several people were beaten during the events. Those detained reportedly include a teacher and at least six students from the ITESO high school—officially known as the Jesuit University of Guadalajara—though no official figure has been confirmed. The protest reignited demands for information regarding water quality and for answers from the authorities. Do you consider the authorities’ actions during the demonstration to have been appropriate?”

Sheinbaum Rejects Privatization

The Mexican president expressed opposition to solutions for Guadalajara’s water supply that would involve privatizing the service, as proposed by Gov. Lemus, who belongs to the opposition Citizens’ Movement party.

“We do not agree with supporting the privatization of the water service,” the Mexican president said, explaining that the Jalisco government is proposing to finance infrastructure projects through a mechanism that could allow private-sector participation in operating the service. The National Water Commission (Conagua) will therefore review the project with state authorities.

The environmental crisis affects about 320 neighborhoods in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, where residents and organizations have been reporting the presence of fecal bacteria and heavy metals in the water delivered to their homes for months.

The contamination has sparked public protests, complaints about health problems and demands for a health alert, while authorities seek alternatives to ensure the supply of drinking water.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

It was all thanks to a small metal screw – an orthodontic mini-screw, to be precise – that was placed in the jawbone underneath José Antonio Jiménez’s gums. His wife, Priscila Murrieta, waited in the hallways of the Attorney General’s office in Mazatlán, a city in the south of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Meanwhile, the forensic dentist went in and out of a room. Of the bodies recovered from the mass graves in the small town of El Verde, Jiménez could be one of them. With moles and tattoos ruled out, only two bodies remained with similar characteristics. Both of the victims wore braces on their teeth.

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The economist Mariana Mazzucato believes in getting out into the field, rolling up her sleeves and seeing how her ideas are put into practice to improve people’s lives. She has just returned from Brazil and Mexico after several weeks working with local communities. She welcomes EL PAÍS into her London home, in the Camden neighborhood, with an energy that seems remarkable for someone who should still be battling jet lag.

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Édgar Vázquez Silva’s worst fears came true. His boss at the Stone County sheriff’s office in Mississippi called him and asked him to turn in his badge and uniform. The order was clear: all department officers had to be U.S. citizens or, at minimum, permanent residents.

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