#drug-cartels

#drug-cartels

The legal analysis rests on a premise for which there is no immediate public evidence that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments. As a result, according to the legal analysis, the strikes are targeting the cocaine, and the deaths of anyone on board should be treated as an enemy casualty or collateral damage if any civilians are killed, rather than murder.

By the numbers: 29% of Americans said they supported the military killings without the involvement of a judge or court. A majority (51%) said they were opposed. The rest were unsure. Approval was split among party lines: 58% of Republicans and 8% of Democrats said they supported the approach. The big picture: The Trump administration has killed at least 80 people in 20 drone strikes since early September. The president is reportedly considering expanding the strikes to land targets, the Washington Post reports.

The mayor of the Uruapan municipality, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodriguez, was gunned down Saturday night in the town's historic center. He was rushed to a hospital, where he later died, according to state prosecutor Carlos Torres Pina. A city council member and a bodyguard were also injured in the attack. The attacker was killed at the scene, Federal Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch told journalists Sunday.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is the most expensive warship in the world. It is more than 330 meters long, and cost $13 billion (11 billion) to build. The colossal ship and its escort vessels are currently bound for the Caribbean at the behest of US President Donald Trump. It has dozens of fighter jets and helicopters on board, and will provide support for the US ships and units already stationed in the region.

Senate Republicans have voted down a bill that would have curtailed President Donald Trump's use of force against drug cartels after he authorised strikes on boats suspected of engaging in drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela. The bill from Democratic Senators Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia had called for the United States military to withdraw from hostilities that had not been authorized by Congress.

At least 17 people have been killed in a prison riot in Ecuador, the second deadly prison brawl to hit the country this week. Thursday's fighting broke out in the coastal city of Esmeraldas near the Colombian border. Police reportedly found dead prisoners inside their cellblocks, and images shared on social media and verified by the AFP news agency show victims sprawled on the ground with bare, blood-stained torsos. At least two of them were decapitated.

Mexico's senate devolved into violence this week as two of the country's top politicians shoved, grabbed and shouted at each other after a heated discussion over the presence of foreign troops. Alejandro Alito Moreno, head of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary party (Pri), grabbed at Gerardo Fernandez Norona, the senate president from the ruling Morena party, after lawmakers finished singing the national anthem to mark the end of the day's session on Wednesday.

In his guilty plea, the veteran Mexican drug lord publicly acknowledged what was already widely known: that he bribed police officials, military personnel, and politicians to operate freely in the country. The allusion to that last group, elected representatives, has sent a chill through the entire Mexican political class. The statement is brief and general, so general that anyone could use it as a weapon, even at the risk of it coming back to haunt them.