Mexican congressmen called for a federal investigation of potential drug cartel ties to the nation’s beauty pageants on Friday after a 23-year-old beauty queen was arrested on suspicion of drug and weapons violations.
Congressional leaders warned that cartels may have infiltrated contests to launder money and said a full investigation was needed.
To many, former preschool teacher Laura Zuniga, named Miss Sinaloa in the drug-plagued northern state’s annual beauty contest, symbolizes declining ethics in Mexico.
PHOTO: EPA
“It is very sad. What we are seeing is a loss of values among young people,” said Representative Juan Francisco Rivera, who heads the congressional public safety committee. “There should be an investigation to get to the bottom of this and make sure it [the pageant] is not linked to some type of crime.”
Northern Mexico’s entertainment industry — including concerts, contests and musical groups — has been dogged by reports that powerful drug cartels have “adopted” performers or played a role in laundering drug money through ticket offices.
“There are certainly links to things like money laundering because of the large amounts of money that are spent on producing these types of contests,” Representative Armando Barreiro said.
A Sinaloa state official suggested that pageant organizers may have put Zuniga on a fast track to win the contest, though he did not say why she might have been selected, local media reported.
Investigators have said her boyfriend was a cartel leader.
Zuniga was arrested on Monday while riding in a truck filled with weapons. She and seven men arrested with her will be held for 40 days while police decide whether to charge them, the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Prosecutors on Friday said she would be held under house arrest pending an investigation into possible drug trafficking and gun charges.
Investigators say Zuniga was dating one of the detained men, Angel Orlando Garcia, alleged to be one of the leaders of the powerful Juarez drug cartel.
The couple was traveling with six alleged bodyguards in Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, when soldiers stopped their two trucks at a military checkpoint. Inside, authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and US$53,300 in US currency.
Zuniga told police they were planning to travel to Bolivia and Colombia to go shopping.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS