International
Irregular migrants intercepted by Mexico triple in the first quarter
Irregular migration intercepted by Mexico has tripled in the first quarter of the year to almost 360,000 people in the midst of growing operations, although the Government affirms that the migratory flow has decreased.
The Mexican authorities detected 359,697 “people in irregular immigration status” between January and March 2024, an increase of 199.68% compared to 120,029 in the same period in 2023, according to the statistics available this Saturday from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.
In just three months, the Government of Mexico has intercepted almost half, 46%, of the record of 782,176 irregular migrants it detected in all of 2023, when this flow rose by 77% annually.
The main country of origin of migrants is Venezuela, with 89,718 registered, almost one in four of the total, 24.94%.
It is followed by Honduras (37,323), Ecuador (36,956), Guatemala (36,934), Colombia (21,534), Nicaragua (18,711), El Salvador (17,720), Haiti (16,791) and Cuba (10,464).
The figures are disseminated after a joint statement by the presidents of the United States, Joe Biden, and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who agreed to “work together to immediately implement concrete measures in order to significantly reduce irregular border crossings.”
As a achievement, López Obrador said last Thursday that the capture of undocumented people have fallen by more than 50% on the border with the United States, which reported about 12,000 daily in December and in April it fell to an average of 5,812.
The tension over migration has increased this year because the presidential elections of Mexico and the United States coincide, but the Mexican president denied that he tightens controls due to pressure from the United States.
“No, it’s just that I don’t let myself be pressured by anyone, Mexico is an independent country and the president of Mexico acts freely, he is not a scoundrel of any foreign government,” he said.
Tapachula, the largest city on the southern border of Mexico, still suffers from the phenomenon, although some activists point out that the number of migrants on the streets has decreased.
Gerver Bermúdez, administrator of the Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter in Tapachula, considered that the presence of foreigners has decreased, but they have not stopped arriving in the city, where they are four or five days and follow their route because the authorities are not giving them transit permits.
“The shelter is always full and the goal is to support everyone who comes as an immigrant. We have handled between 800 and 900 people of different nationalities such as Hondurans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Ecuadorians,” he told EFE.
On the other hand, Cecilia Izaguirre, human rights defender in Tapachula, stressed that the presence of so many foreigners is no longer very visible.
“People no longer stay in Tapachula, because they came to be here to do their Comar procedure (Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid), but now they are passing by, it has decreased a little, but it has not stopped or has not decreased by a large number,” the activist said.
The Cuban Felipe Martínez, who works informally parking vehicles, explained that now the migrants “walk” from the southern border in the face of the action of the Mexican authorities.
“They go by caravan because they delay the papers a little, they fall into a state of anxiety because they want to be established in one place with their relatives, they despair, emigrate and continue to look for new horizons,” said the migrant, who is waiting for the Comar to resolve his asylum application.
On the other hand, Jorge Cruz, a Honduran who is in the Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter, considered that migration remains normal because “a lot of them always arrive every day.”
“There is always, I see that there are more people who go up and up, it has not come down, a lot of people enter, a lot of people also enter the shelter, there are children and women, who are supported come and go,” he said.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links
A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”
The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
International
Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?
This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.
The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.
While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.
Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.
Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.
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