Theme: Mexico

The Texas government announced it has taken control of nine islands on the river border with Mexico, along the Rio Grande between Laredo and McAllen, according to El País. Mexico’s foreign ministry says ownership of the islands is the remit of the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The head of Mexico's National Electoral Institute (INE), Guadalupe Taddei, is set to present her resignation on Monday amid corruption allegations, a decision President Claudia Sheinbaum said she supports, according to Reuters, in text republished by Yahoo. Taddei is accused of favouring an INE contractor with whom she has a personal relationship, in contracts worth millions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors in Mexico charged former Chihuahua attorney general César Jáuregui Moreno with treason for allowing US agents to join a raid on a suspected drug lab in April without federal authorization, the BBC reported. Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said Jáuregui had allowed foreign agents to carry out activities reserved for Mexican authorities and had failed to share information; he denies the allegations and was arrested on the weekend, with a court hearing scheduled for Saturday. The case came to light after two US agents said to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) died in a car crash in Chihuahua along with two Mexican law enforcement officers, on April 19.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the country is investigating a viral video said to show mercenaries chanting drug cartel slogans in Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera.

A riot at a prison in Sinaloa, Mexico, left 10 dead and 16 injured during family visiting hours, with the Public Security Secretariat counting nine inmates and one family member killed and 16 inmates taken for treatment, according to the Hindustan Times. Al Jazeera notes the prison clash in Sinaloa with 10 dead.

The US goods and services deficit was $105.6 billion in August 2026, compared with $92.8 billion in July, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Census Bureau. The August deficit with Mexico, at $27 billion, was the highest on record.

Pemex halted fuel shipments to Cuba in the third quarter of 2026, after an average of 900 barrels per day in the first half, according to TASS, citing El Universal. Cuba received 19,200 barrels per day from Mexico in the first half of 2024 and 19,600 in the same period of 2025, against 900 in 2026. The decline reflects efforts to avoid US sanctions against those who supply crude oil to Havana, according to El Universal.

The US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, said US Coast Guardsmen came under fire in a border area. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico asked the United States for all the evidence because it has none. Some 500 US troops, along with helicopters, drones and anti-drone equipment, have been sent to the border since the alleged shooting. The Washington Post reported that the two countries deployed hundreds of troops to a border area where US officials said members of the US Coast Guard came under fire.

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said at the Zócalo that Mexicans do not want interference, interventionism or violation of our territoriality. On the eve of the 2027 midterm elections, she delivered a speech steeped in historical references to Mexico’s struggles for independence and sovereignty, with an allusion to growing pressures from the United States under the guise of fighting “narcoterrorism”. “No foreign power, no economic or political elite has the right to dictate the present and future of our homeland. That belongs only to the people of Mexico,” she told thousands of supporters gathered in the capital’s main square, according to Xinhua, in text republished by Mexico News Net.

Hurricane Polo intensified into a Category 5 storm in the Pacific off southwestern Mexico on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, with maximum winds of 180 mph, and is expected to remain “extremely dangerous” over the coming days, according to the National Hurricane Center, as cited by the Los Angeles Times. The center issued tropical storm warnings for portions of Mexico’s coast, with risks of heavy rainfall, flooding and mudslides through Thursday, September 24, 2026. Polo is the 16th named storm of the eastern Pacific season, in a year when El Niño is forecast to be the strongest in at least a generation; in California, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Monday, September 21, 2026, to prepare the state for high surf and winter storms, with the immediate concern being high tides coinciding with heavy swell next Monday, September 28, 2026, and the following day.

Mexico will restrict mobile phone use in elementary and middle schools from 3 November 2026, according to El País. The measure covers classrooms and playgrounds, and president Claudia Sheinbaum said the goal is to fight screen addiction in order to “protect their development and creativity”. The government cites support from 81% of the more than 565,000 teachers surveyed and from more than 70% of heads of household. Brazil removed phones from schools in January 2025; Chile has restricted them by law since February 2026, and Bogotá adopted a ban on 7 September 2026.