General News

Keen-eyed observers of the annual passion play in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, will have spotted a small historical inaccuracy in this year’s reenactment. The organizers may have asked for a “Roman flag” to adorn the palace of Pontius Pilate but instead a Romanian flag was shown fluttering in the wind at the event.

The six-month anniversary of the forced disappearance of 43 student protesters in Guerrero was marked by protests throughout Mexico and abroad. In Guadalajara, some 1,000 people marched on the Plaza Liberacion bearing banners calling for the safe return of the students and the resignation of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Similar demonstrations were held in Guerrero and Mexico City.

North Korea has accused Mexico of illegally detaining one its ships and threatened to take “necessary measures” to recover the vessel. According to U.N. sanctions monitors, the Mu Du Bong ship belongs to the blacklisted Ocean Maritime Management Company. The firm has broken U.N. sanctions by working with countries, like North Korea, that have illegal nuclear programs. “In the case of the Mu Du Bong, the evidence is overwhelming,” the coordinator of the U.N. panel, Hugh Griffiths, wrote in an email.

The Mexico Red Cross’ annual collection, Colecta Annual 2015,  kicked off in Jalisco on Monday, March 23, with the state government kicking in a hefty donation of eight million pesos. This year’s fund-raising drive hopes to raise 105 million pesos for Jalisco’s delegations. 

So far this year, the Red Cross has received 16 million pesos in donations, one-quarter of which has come from voluntary 40-peso donations made by car owners renewing their annual registrations.

The Jalisco Red Cross collection runs in tandem with the March 19 to April 31 national program.

Official donations boxes will be marked with the institution’s distinctive red logo.

According to the federal Health Ministry, Red Cross units respond to seven out of every ten emergency calls.

Following Mexico’s upcoming legislative ban on using animals in the circus, the country is now facing the challenge of finding homes for more than 2,000 exotic creatures, including tigers, elephants, bears, zebras and camels, among other species.

The Mexican government has issued a stark warning to foreign nationals thinking of bringing a weapon into the country by passing a reform that will see unlicensed gun owners receiving hefty fines and sentences of between 3 to 10 years in prison. 

The crackdown on the private ownership of weapons is designed to reduce the black market in guns, which has fueled the drug-war violence that has risen in Mexico since 2007. 

A recent high-profile case brought Mexico’s strict gun laws into light, when U.S. reserve marine Andrew Tahmooressi was held for seven months in Tijuana on weapons charges. Several guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in Tahmooressi’s vehicle, although the marine insisted he had crossed the border by mistake, not to sell the weapons. His mother, Jill, campaigned on his behalf and several Republican politicians publicly called for his release. Mexican authorities dropped the charges against him on October 31 last year. 

Guadalajara has been selected to host next year’s Tianguis Turistico trade fair, the largest platform for promoting and marketing tourism products and services in the country.

State tourism officials celebrated the announcement at this year’s fair, held this week in Acapulco.  The 2016 fair will be held at Expo Guadalajara and draw tourism sector representatives from all over the world.

Labor unions and civic organizations protested Mexico’s energy reforms on the 77th anniversary of the nationalization of Mexico’s oil industry, Wednesday, March 18.