#border-showdown

#border-showdown

The world's first border wall, built by a Sumerian king, now lies buried beneath Iraq's desert sands, illustrating the futility of such constructions.

Border walls are located along imaginary geopolitical boundaries. They slice arbitrarily through critical ecosystems that know only natural boundaries, cutting wild animals off from the resources they need to live—food, water, a diverse selection of mates—and the ability to migrate for survival.

The Farias Laguna brothers were leading a criminal double life, accused of running a massive fuel smuggling network through the very ports they were tasked with securing.

This tragedy is a solemn reminder of the risks faced by those Mexican and US officials who are dedicated to protecting our communities, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, wrote on X.

In Mexico, and in Latin America in general, crime is no longer just drug trafficking. The old paradigm where cocaine, marijuana, and heroin fueled illicit industries, especially in rural areas, has given way to a different, much more complex reality. Any economy is fair game, from avocados and limes in Michoacan to street market stalls and transportation routes in Guerrero, to the theft of gasoline from the pipelines of the national oil company, Pemex.

The ability of criminal groups to exercise this type of power and exercise this type of violence is closely linked to firearms trafficking, said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an expert on Mexican organised crime. If we want to see less violence in Mexico, this is a very important conversation.

El Mezquital is neither a neighborhood nor a district. It started out as one, but now it's a motley patchwork of gray houses and corrugated metal roofs on the outskirts of Guatemala City. From here, the capital's buildings appear in the distance as tiny lights, as unattainable as green spaces, shopping malls, or health centers. Old yellow school buses burst noisily down the main street, belching smoke and carrying silent residents who travel with their cell phones hidden away.

It was not just another bombastic statement in the Republican's provocative style it was the first visible sign of a policy that once again places the region under U.S. oversight. Trump revived old interventionist instincts by interfering in Honduras's presidential election and threatening to cut aid to Central American governments as leverage to force them into agreements aimed at curbing migration.

The 1980s bring revolutionary wars, CIA-backed conflict and the violent birth of a new democratic era. Episode 2: Wars begins with Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution, which promised egalitarian transformation through literacy crusades. But civil war erupted as United States President Ronald Reagan's administration covertly backed the Contra rebels, plunging the nation into turmoil and suffering. Panama transitioned from Omar Torrijos's diplomatic triumphs over the Panama Canal to Manuel Noriega's sinister collaboration with both the CIA and drug cartels.

The Donald Trump administration has insisted their actions are lawful and in compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict, with justification centred around "the United States' inherent right of self-defence as a matter of international law." The occupants targeted in the operation have been designated as "narco-terrorists" or members of "designated terrorist organizations," as a justification for blowing them out of the water-except, to date, no evidence or intelligence to back up those claims has been presented by the US to the public.