International

Arizona to remove shipping container wall on US-Mexico border

Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

| By AFP | Paula Ramon |

Arizona agreed Wednesday to dismantle a wall of shipping containers at the Mexican border that critics said was an expensive, ecologically damaging political stunt that did nothing to keep migrants out of the United States.

The state’s Republican Governor Doug Ducey spent $90 million of taxpayers’ money lining up rusting boxes in what he said was a bid to stem the flow of people crossing into the country.

The corrugated containers, which snake for four miles (seven kilometers) through federal lands like a huge stationary cargo train, divide an important conservation area that is home to vulnerable species, but which is so difficult to traverse that people traffickers routinely avoid it.

Now Ducey, who leaves office early next year, will have to get rid of the 915 containers from the Coronado National Forest.

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In an agreement reached Wednesday with the federal government, Ducey’s administration said it will “remove all previously installed shipping containers and associated equipment, materials, vehicles, and other objects from the United States’ properties on National Forest System lands within the Coronado National Forest.”

Biodiversity

From close up, the double-stacked container wall looks like the clumsy handiwork of a giant playing with building blocks.

Its presence is so jarring that, in addition to the federal court case, it was also the subject of two lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization that has been active in the area for three decades.

“The biodiversity of this region is off the charts,” Russ McSpadden, a member of the organization, told AFP.

“It’s one of the most important conservation areas in the entire United States.”

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Arizona shares around 370 miles (600 kilometers) of border with Mexico, including environmental preservation areas, national parks, military zones, and indigenous reservations.

Until the 2017 arrival in the White House of Donald Trump — who was propelled to power on his pledge to “Build That Wall” — there was very little in the way of a physical barrier separating it from Mexico.

Now vast stretches of the border have a fence that towers up to nine meters high.

Before the containers arrived in the Coronado National Forest — an area that can only be reached by dirt roads — the border here was demarcated by a wire fence.

That meager barrier was more than equal to the task of keeping people at bay, says McSpadden, whose cameras have picked up jaguars, and who has worked with teams collecting data on ocelots.

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“I’ve never captured migrant traffic on any of the remote cameras,” he said.

“It’s an incredibly wild valley. There’s no real urban population anywhere nearby. It’s a very difficult part of the border for migrants to cross.”

And even if this were a heavily trafficked route, a casual observer can see that the shipping containers would not be very effective.

In several places that AFP visited, the boxes do not line up because of the uneven terrain, leaving gaps easily large enough for a person to walk through.

Others have holes rusted in them, and in some spots, it appears to have been impossible for workers to find a place stable enough to put a container.

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A viral video shows a determined climber scaling the six-meter-high barrier in a matter of seconds, gaining easy purchase on the textured box walls.

But what the shipping containers do block is a waterway and the migration routes of the animals McSpadden studies.

“Jaguars know no borders,” he says.

“Southern Arizona, northern Mexico, it’s the same for them.”

With males known to range hundreds of miles, it’s easy for animals that came north to hunt to get trapped away from breeding populations south of the border.

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“Jaguars want to move back and forth freely,” he says.

“This is their range, and the border wall bisects the jaguars’ home.”

International

Authorities Say Teotihuacán Gunman Was Obsessed With Mass Shootings and Extremist Symbolism

Julio César Jasso Ramírez, identified by authorities as the gunman behind the armed attack at the archaeological site of Teotihuacán, had allegedly spent years building a personal narrative shaped by an obsession with historical mass shootings, extremist symbolism, and an increasing detachment from reality.

According to preliminary findings from the Fiscalía General de Justicia del Estado de México, the 27-year-old suspect, originally from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, acted alone and appeared to have carefully planned the attack.

Investigators also pointed to signs of a severe psychological or psychiatric disorder. One official involved in the case stated that the suspect seemed to live in “his own reality,” disconnected from the world around him.

“I would not speak of a motive; I would speak of psychopathy, a condition, an illness,” the official said while discussing the ongoing investigation.

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Authorities reported that Jasso Ramírez was allegedly fixated on mass violence incidents that occurred outside Mexico, particularly in the United States.

Among the items found in his possession were writings, images, and materials reportedly linked to the Columbine High School massacre, the school shooting that took place on April 20, 1999.

The investigation remains ongoing as authorities continue analyzing evidence connected to the suspect’s background and mental state.

International

Iran refuses to reopen strait of Hormuz amid ongoing U.S. Naval blockade

Iran reaffirmed on Wednesday that it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the United States maintains its naval blockade against Iranian ports and vessels, amid rising geopolitical tensions in the region.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf warned that reopening the crucial maritime route depends on Washington honoring the ceasefire agreement. According to Qalibaf, Iran considers the deal to be violated due to ongoing U.S. actions.

The Iranian official accused the United States of carrying out a “naval blockade and the hijacking of the global economy,” while also pointing to Israeli military operations in Lebanon as part of the broader conflict affecting the region.

Qalibaf stated that military and economic pressure would not force Iran to change its position. “The United States and Israel failed to achieve their goals through military aggression, and they will not succeed through intimidation. The only path forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation,” he said.

His remarks come amid stalled negotiations between Iran and the United States following direct talks held on April 11 and 12 in Islamabad.

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The discussions, led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian representatives, have shown little progress in recent days, increasing uncertainty over whether dialogue between the two sides will resume.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced an extension of the ceasefire but decided to keep the naval blockade in place, a move Tehran considers incompatible with ongoing negotiations.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intensified operations in the area by seizing two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, accusing them of operating without the required permits and escorting them into Iranian territory.

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical oil trade routes, and any prolonged disruption could have significant consequences for global energy markets.

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International

Maradona’s daughter accuses medical team of “horrible manipulation” in court

One of the daughters of Diego Maradona testified in court this Tuesday, breaking down in tears as she denounced what she described as “absolute and horrible manipulation” by her father’s medical team, during an emotional hearing in Argentina.

Gianinna Maradona stated that she and her siblings agreed to home hospitalization after doctors presented it as the best option following the neurosurgery Maradona underwent on November 3, 2020.

The football icon died on November 25 of that year, and the ongoing trial seeks to determine whether the conditions of his home care were appropriate.

According to Gianinna, what the family found at the residence where Maradona was recovering did not match what had been promised. She testified that there was no adequate medical equipment, constant monitoring, or even an ambulance available, despite assurances of continuous care.

“The manipulation was absolute and horrible,” she said during the hearing in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires.

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She accused members of the medical team, including neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, and psychologist Carlos Díaz, of misleading the family.

“I trusted these people, and all they did was manipulate us and leave my son without a grandfather,” she added.

Later in her testimony, recalling that six years have passed since her father’s death, she became emotional and said she struggled deeply with grief in the aftermath.