Free Republic

Rubén Rocha Moya, the Mexican governor indicted by the United States this week, said Friday night that he would temporarily step down from his post, expanding the political fallout from accusations that he aided a powerful drug cartel for years. Mr. Rocha, 76, said in a two-minute recorded statement late Friday that he was innocent but would take “a temporary leave of absence” as governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa to focus on defending himself from the accusations.

The Mexican government says two US agents who died last weekend in a car crash had not been authorised to operate in the country.The officials, who reportedly worked for the CIA, had taken part in a raid on suspected drug labs in the northern state of Chihuahua before their vehicle skidded off a mountain road and exploded.Following an investigation ordered by President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's security ministry said that "neither had formal accreditation to participate in operational activities" and that federal authorities had not been informed of their presence.The incident comes amid at-times fraught relations between Mexico and the US...

Bone-chilling new video captures the moment a former Mexican beauty queen is gunned down in front of her baby — allegedly by her jealous mother-in-law. SNIP “Nothing,” Herrera answered. “She made me angry.” “What’s wrong with you? She’s my family,” the son responds. “You’re mine and she stole you,” his mother said. SNIP The dead woman’s mother, Reyna Gomez Molina, told Univision News that Gomez delayed reporting the incident due to concern over the couple’s young baby.

California’s petroleum market watchdog is warning about price gouging at some gas stations charging over $7 or even $8 a gallon as the Iran war sends oil prices soaring. The average price of gas in California is currently $5.66, but as of Friday, a Chevron station in Essex is charging $9.69, another in Los Angeles’ Chinatown is charging $8.71, and one in Vidal Junction is charging $7.79, according to GasBuddy, which tracks prices across the country. “Our team is vigilantly monitoring the retail, wholesale, and spot markets,” said Tai Milder, director of the California Energy Commission Division of Petroleum Market...

Pope Leo just wrapped his tour of oppressed Christian communities in Islamist dominated nations like Turkey and Lebanon. Rather than directly address the persecution of Christians, he praised the local regimes, met with Muslim leaders, took off his shoes at a mosque and took refuge in vague generalities. In Lebanon, Pope Leo offered no direct criticism of Hezbollah or Islam. He visited and prayed at the Port of Beirut, where a Hezbollah weapons explosion killed over 200 people, many of them Christians, and the blast damaged churches and devastated families. Pope Leo avoided placing blame, claiming instead that it’s natural...

Imagine a fire chief who refused to fight fires because it would violate the flames’ right to burn. You’d think such absurd logic could only exist in satire, yet Mexico’s new president has just offered us something remarkably similar—except the flames in question are drug cartels, and the houses burning are filled with real people on both sides of the border. Every day, roughly 200 Americans die from drug overdoses, with the vast majority of fentanyl flowing through Mexico’s cartel-controlled territories. Just last week, these same criminal organizations gunned down a mayor at a Day of the Dead celebration in...

On the chutzpah front, it's hard to top Mexico's rulers.Here's the latest from la presidenta, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has advice for President Trump, the leader is getting rid of her country's cartel problem for her.According to CBS News:Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday said she would ask the United States to share the $15 billion it expects to extract from convicted Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada with her country's poor.Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Zambada pleaded guilty in a New York court on Monday to murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic responsible for tens...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum just said fighting a war against drug cartels is unlawful because it would violate the rights of drug traffickers and it would be "fascist." "Returning to the war against the narco is not an option. First, because it is outside the framework of the law." "I said or have said on several occasions, it is permission to kill without any trial." She must be drinking from the same cup as Kamala Harris because what the heck is she saying?

FinCEN says Chinese networks moving billions for Mexican cartels also push illicit cash through U.S. real estate, elder care centers, and human trafficking schemes. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a stark warning Thursday that Chinese money laundering networks have become a primary engine driving Mexico-based drug cartels’ expansion into the United States, flagging $312 billion in cartel-linked suspicious transactions and a further $53.7 billion in illicit real estate activity over the past four years. Officials underscored the systemic risks posed by what they described as a sprawling global underground economy.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday said she would ask the United States to share the $15 billion it expects to extract from convicted Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada with her country's poor. Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Zambada pleaded guilty in a New York court on Monday to murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of US overdose deaths annually. In pleading guilty, the 77-year-old avoided the possibility of the death penalty but still faces life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing due at a later date. As part of...

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum filed a controversial series of changes to the country’s constitution that would essentially block any investigation or action by foreign law enforcement agencies without their permission. The provisions could enable Mexico to criminally pursue anyone involved in those investigations. The changes come after the United States designated six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and announced the intent to eradicate them. This week, Sheinbaum filed a series of changes to the country’s constitution that, if approved by the legislative branch, would change Articles 40 and 19 of Mexico’s constitution. “What we want to make clear...

VIDEOThe mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, pleaded with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for help in his fight against the cartel which was extorting and killing people in his area. She denied him such help and on the important Mexican holiday of El Dia De Los Muertos he was brutally assassinated by the cartel in front of his family and his fellow citizens. In response, President Sheinbaum has declared herself completely helpless to fight the cartels. Really? Perhaps she should have informed the people of Mexico about her self-declared incompetence last year BEFORE she became President.

Mexico’s president is threatening to “mobilize” the country against a Republican proposal to tax remittances, which advocates say would choke off cash flow to Mexican drug cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum raged against the proposal in a speech against the law, which imposes a tax on money sent out of the United States by foreign nationals. “If necessary, we’ll mobilize,” Sheinbaum said. “We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen. From the U.S. to Mexico.” President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” includes a 3.5 percent tax on remittances, a policy that experts told The Daily Wire is...

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — A pack of veterinarians clambered over hefty metal crates on Tuesday morning, loading them one by one onto a fleet of semi-trucks. Among the cargo: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions – all fleeing the latest wave of cartel violence eclipsing the northern Mexican city of Culiacan. For years, exotic pets of cartel members and circus animals have been living in a small refuge on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital. However, a bloody power struggle erupted last year between rival Sinaloa cartel factions, plunging the region into crippling levels of violence and leaving the leaders of...

Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez of the governing Morena party was gunned down while she was greeting supporters in the small town of Texistepec in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz on Sunday, where she was running for election. As she walks through the smiling and chanting crowd, gunfire suddenly rings out off camera. Some 20 gunshots can be heard in the video, which was still up on Gutiérrez’s Facebook page until the following day. Gutiérrez’s daughter was also killed in the shooting along with two others, while three more were wounded, Veracruz Governor Rocío Nahle García, also from the Morena party...

For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is considering adjusting certain policies in response to the anticipated challenges posed by President-elect Trump’s return to office, seeking to safeguard Mexico’s economic interests, and manage immigration effectively. Fearing that measures from the coming Trump administration might be harmful to Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum and other officials have expressed a commitment to maintaining a positive bilateral relationship while emphasizing Mexico’s sovereignty. At a recent press conference, she reassured Mexicans that there is "no reason for concern" regarding the election outcome, indicating confidence in the stability of bilateral relations. "We will work with dialogue and respect for our...

President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for the recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, reaffirming Mexico's longstanding position on the matter. In a statement on Saturday, reported by Revista Proceso, she declared, "We condemn the aggressions that are being experienced and also consider that the State of Palestine must be recognized in its entirety just like the State of Israel. This has been Mexico's position for many years, and that is the position we have and the search for peace above all. War will never lead to a good outcome." Sheinbaum, known for her leftist political stance and European Jewish...

Several cities throughout Mexico have been forced to cancel their traditional Independence Day celebration due to widespread cartel violence. Historically, every September 15 at night, the president, each governor, and each mayor hold a celebration at their Plaza Square where they remember the start of Mexico’s Independence. During that celebration, they ring a bell while shouting a call to arms, death to a bad government, and the traditional “Viva Mexico.” The party is meant to commemorate the same call to arms known as “Grito de Dolores” given by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla on September 15, 1810, when he called on...

A Muslim mob stormed a police station and destroyed parked police vehicles in northwestern Pakistan, Madyan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. As reported by AP, the mob seized a man detained there and lynched him on accusations of desecrating the Quran on Thursday, according to local police official Rahim Ullah. Mohammad Ismail, a tourist staying at a hotel in Madyan town, became the target of locals who accused him of blasphemy. Police officers reportedly took Ismail to the station to safeguard him, but a growing mob pursued them. The mob proceeded to storm the station, seize Ismail, brutally assault him to death,...