Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino and a presidential adviser on security issues died when a small plane crashed in the Mexican capital, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said.
The crash left eight people dead and at least 40 injured, Ebrard said. However, he noted that the authorities could not immediately confirm whether all eight of the dead had been traveling on board the plane.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon expressed “enormous sorrow” over the death of his interior minister and close friend.
With his voice breaking, Calderon recalled that Mourino had been his companion in politics for several years and that they dreamed together of “a new homeland.”
Mourino, 37, regarded as Calderon’s right-hand man, and Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a former deputy attorney general and a current adviser to the government, were returning to the capital from San Luis Potosi on the aircraft that crashed.
It crashed in a luxury office area in western Mexico City.
Ebrard said 40 people who were on the ground were injured, at least five of them seriously, while more than 1,000 people were evacuated from the area because the crash caused a fire. He noted that 30 vehicles were damaged as a result of the accident — 10 of them were charred.
The mayor said the plane apparently tried to make an emergency landing on the street where it crashed.
Calderon praised Mourino’s ability to negotiate and his dedication to work in a short speech at the Mexico City airport after the president returned to the capital earlier than planned from a trip to the western city of Guadalajara.
The president said he would decide within a few hours who was to succeed Mourino as interior minister.
Ebrard, who arrived at the site of the accident shortly after it happened, said two pilots and at least four other people were traveling on board the plane — a Lear Jet 45 belonging to the Mexican government.
Mourino coordinated Calderon’s presidential campaign and headed the president’s office before becoming interior minister in January.
Mexico’s interior minister is in charge of the country when the president is abroad, and he is in charge of relations with the legislature and state governors.
The accident caused a commotion in Mexico, and both the Attorney General’s Office and civil aviation authorities were investigating the crash.
Mourino’s death reminded Mexicans of the death of Ramon Martin Huerta, public security minister under president Vicente Fox, who died in 2005 in a helicopter accident.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was