Viva México Episode 7: That F***ing Wall
Former Coca-Cola executive Vicente Fox made history in Mexico when he ended seven decades of one-party rule by defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the year 2000. But the euphoria did not last long as Fox struggled to implement major changes and the PRI reclaimed power in 2012. Fox has since reinvented himself as a vocal critic of Donald Trump, constantly trolling him on Twitter, and slamming his planned border wall.
In an exclusive interview Fox tells us why he’s taken on the self-appointed role of Trump’s “shadow” and calls for the legalisation of all drugs. He also defends his vast state pension and admits to making a pact with Mexico’s current president Enrique Peña Nieto against his own party’s candidate in the 2012 election. Watch the full video of our interview below.
Mexico has experienced a surge in drug-related violence this year
Infamous drug lords rarely hand themselves over to the U.S. government voluntarily. But that’s precisely what Dámaso López Serrano, the godson of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, did after walking through the border crossing at Calexico, California, last Wednesday morning.
The U.S. government has not commented on his arrest or what charges he might face following his surrender, but the timing isn’t entirely surprising, say security analysts familiar with Mexico’s violent drug war.
ópez Serrano’s sudden surrender comes three months after the capture of his father, Dámaso López Nuñez, and amid a series of high-profile losses in the father-son duo’s bloody war with Guzmán’s sons for control of his criminal empire. Having grown increasingly isolated after his father’s arrest, analysts believe López Serrano likely cut a deal to help prosecutors convict his godfather Guzmán, who faces trial in New York’s Eastern District court in April.
Nicknamed “Mini Lic,” López Serrano is known throughout Mexico as a flamboyant playboy who led a group of young cartel assassins called the Anthrax squad. He is famed for flaunting his exotic pets and gold-plated firearms on Instagram and is the subject of a narcocorrido anthem that has been viewed over 213 million times on YouTube…
Mexican soldiers and federal police patrol the streets of Guadalajara.
Alejandro Pesqueda was driving home from a party at 3 a.m. on Saturday when a corpse nearly crashed through his windshield.
At first, Pesqueda didn’t realize the large green plastic bag that thumped onto the ground next to him contained a body. But after he stopped his car, he looked up and saw another human-shaped bag hanging from the overpass under which he had just driven.
“If I’d been driving two meters to the right, it would have hit me,” the 29-year-old radio host said of the falling body. “You see this kind of thing in movies or on the news… but this scene made my blood turn cold.”
May was the most violent month in Mexico since records began in 1997.
When he saw police lights approaching, Pesqueda parked across the road. “Two police officers came over with their pistols raised,” he said. “I held my hands up and they asked me what I was doing here. They checked my ID and told me to get out of there because the situation could be misinterpreted. I left feeling really scared.”
Click here to read this article in full at VICE News
The Tequila Files 