Hundreds of soldiers and federal police deployed on Saturday ahead of a North American leaders summit in western Mexico, which has been the scene of some of the country’s most vicious drug-related attacks in recent weeks.
US President Barack Obama was scheduled to arrive yesterday to take part in his first two-day summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in the city of Guadalajara.
In the run up to the summit, key issues — including trade and protectionism in the battered economy, climate change and swine flu, have been overshadowed by Mexico’s battle with its powerful drug cartels — which have spread their influence as far as Canada and beyond.
Dozens have died in suspected drug attacks in Mexico in recent days, including a soccer team hostess who was tortured and beheaded in the northern border city of Tijuana and at least 12 killed in a clash between suspected cartel members and police in central Mexico.
As many as 1,200 federal police officers were due to be deployed in security operations for the two-day summit starting yesterday, as well as about 1,000 Mexican presidential guards and other Mexican troops, officials said, declining to be named.
Thousands of extra troops were deployed to the neighboring western state of Michoacan last month in response to a wave of attacks on police by the powerful La Familia drug gang.
With the death toll from suspected drug attacks approaching 10,000 since the start of last year, Calderon is under pressure to demonstrate success amid growing criticism of alleged abuses committed by some of the tens of thousands of troops deployed in his nationwide crackdown on organized crime.
In Guadalajara, local advocacy groups planned demonstrations yesterday to raise awareness of issues including human rights and the environment.
In a peaceful demonstration on Saturday, Greenpeace activists climbed one of the city’s main fountains to push for concrete commitments on alternative energy use in the three giant nations ahead of a key climate change summit in December.
Some activists who were detained during a police crackdown on demonstrations during an international summit in Guadalajara five years ago remain in prison without trial, Mexican non-governmental organizations said.
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