Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico, North America
Mexico Demands Investigation Into Cross-Border Shooting
July 10, 2012 By Staff
Top Story — The Mexican Foreign Ministry said Sunday that a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a Mexican citizen on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, demanding an investigation into the incident. The shooting occurred Saturday on near a bridge between Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Though few details were released, the victim was apparently standing on the Mexican side of the river when a border patrol agent opened fire. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not confirm the death, but acknowledged that border patrol agents opened fire on Saturday during two “dangerous encounters”, one involving a person throwing stones, and another involving a person who was allegedly aiming a gun from the Mexican side. The FBI is expected to investigate the incident. In 2010, a U.S. border patrol agent shot and killed a 15 year-old boy on the Mexican side of the river who was throwing rocks, but the FBI closed the investigation in April, citing a lack of evidence.
Read more from CNN.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel allegedly funneled $1 million a month for two years through two separate Bank of America accounts, according to an FBI investigation.
- Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that he will challenge Mexico’s July 1 elections results in court, alleging that vote-buying allowed PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto to win the election.
- A U.S. district judge in South Carolina said he would revisit a December ruling in which he blocked parts of the state’s immigration law, due to the Supreme Court decision upholding part of a similar law in Arizona.
Caribbean
- Cuban officials announced that a cholera outbreak is spreading in the country for the first time in a century, citing 53 cases and three deaths.
- A Haitian judge on Friday ordered the release of two American citizens locked up since May 18 for participating in a pro-army demonstration, citing a lack of evidence.
- Maroon settlements founded by escaped slaves in the Caribbean are hoping that tourism will provide an economic boost for their communities as interest in their culture and traditions grows.
Central America
- Guatemala’s finance minister said Monday that the country will not expropriate stakes in mining and natural resources, despite proposed changes that would give the government a 40 percent stake in natural resource companies.
- Inmates in a Costa Rican prison suspected of ties to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel set fire to mattresses and forced an evacuation and transfer of 30 prisoners on Saturday.
Andes
- Jaime García Márquez, brother of Colombian Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez, says the writer is suffering from dementia and is no longer able to write.
- A copper mining project in Peru has won community support for its water plan and is awaiting permits from the government to move forward with the $3 billion project.
- Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says that he may stay holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for months.
Southern Cone
- Sixteen homeless people have been found dead in Chile since a cold snap hit the central and southern part of the country.
- The Uruguayan government will attempt to auction off its grounded Bombardier Inc. jets after flights were suspended indefinitely on July 5.
- A homeless Brazilian couple discovered a bag containing $10,000 on a street in São Paulo and handed the money over to a security guard.
Image: Nuevo Anden @ Flickr.
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