International

Migrants at the border suffer post-traumatic stress after the violence in Mexico

Citizen associations warn of an increase in post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) in migrants stranded on the northern border of Mexico in the face of cases of kidnapping, abuse and exploitation they experience when crossing Mexican territory.

Migrants present this psychological disorder that arises in response to extremely stressful events, and is characterized by symptoms such as retrospective sequences or flashbacks, nightmares, intense anxiety and difficulties in sleeping or concentrating.

The biggest trigger is kidnappings, Sara Villegas Torres, a lawyer for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Ciudad Juárez, one of the epicenters of migration on the border of Mexico with the United States, told EFE.

“What we have mostly detected is the issue of kidnappings, not only here in the entity (Chihuahua) but throughout Mexico, it is inevitable to encounter these stories because it is something that happens to most of the people with whom we have contact,” he described.

In July alone, there were two massive kidnappings of a total of 36 migrants in Chihuahua, according to the organization Alto al Secuestro, which documented a total of 196 foreigners kidnapped in the seventh month of the year, a monthly increase of more than 20%.

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This organization reported 772 kidnappings of migrants in 2023, representing about a third of the total national victims of this crime.

This leaves sequelae in people like Cindy Vázquez, from Honduras, who told EFE how a crime cartel kidnapped the group with which she was traveling in Mexico.

“They told us ‘drem down’. But we thought it was the Police or Migration, because we had no problems with migration. But when they got us down and got us up, I lost all my belongings, I lost everything because I didn’t have time to take anything out of the lower part of the bus. And when they got us into a car, even then I knew we were kidnapped,” he said.

They were transferred to a warehouse, 15 minutes away before reaching the state of Chihuahua, where there were also many people kidnapped, according to him, and his family had to give a rescue.

“They told us that we were deprived of our freedom and that we were going to be there as long as our family paid a ransom. Our family had to pay a lot of money,” he said.

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He mentioned that the kidnappers were wearing a uniform, brown pants and a navy blue shirt with a shotgun on the back, but without official logos.

In the end they were able to leave with a payment of 10,000 dollars for her and her family, so she warned her compatriots that it is very dangerous to go through Mexico.

“We just wanted to get to a better place, that we could work, that we could start from scratch, but no, the truth is that I wouldn’t stay living in Mexico,” Cindy said.

Another case is that of Roxana Yamilet Velázquez, originally from El Salvador, who described the difficult road she and two other relatives, her cousins Diego José and Adriana Elizabeth, who died in the desert of the northern border of Mexico.

“It gave him like a heat respiratory arrest and from there we were transferred, well, Migration grabbed them and took us to a hospital because we were dehydrated,” he said.

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He said that the sand was very hot to the point of burning his skin, and the water they carried in bottles boiled after a short time due to temperatures that reached 40 degrees.

“It was boiling, already very hot, we couldn’t drink or anything and my cousin started fighting about halfway. Even me too, and she couldn’t resist, because she was the one who fought the most,” Roxana recalled about how her cousin’s life was going.

These events occur in the midst of a 193% year-on-year increase in irregular migration through Mexico in the first half of the year to over 712,000 people, according to the Government’s Migration Policy Unit.

International

MEPs Approve Plan That Could Fast-Track Rejection of Some Asylum Claims

With an overwhelming majority of 408 votes in favor, the European Parliament backed the creation of a list of safe countries of origin for asylum seekers.

People coming from Colombia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia who apply for asylum in the European Union could see their requests rejected on the grounds that the bloc’s 27 member states consider those nations safe. Applicants would have to prove their individual circumstances, showing evidence of persecution or specific risks if they were to return.

At the same time, while their applications are processed or their return is arranged, migrants could be transferred to third countries outside the EU if the bloc has an agreement with them, if the individuals previously transited through those nations, or if they have family or cultural ties there. The measure provides legal cover for the creation of processing centers beyond EU territory, similar to an initiative previously pursued by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Albania.

Tuesday’s vote reflects the tightening of European migration policy in recent years, despite asylum applications having fallen by more than 20% last year and the issue not ranking among citizens’ top concerns, according to recent surveys.

International

Chile Unveils Latam-GPT to Give Latin America Its Own AI Model

Chile on Tuesday launched Latam-GPT, an initiative aimed at providing Latin America with its own artificial intelligence model in a field largely dominated by U.S. companies, while seeking to reduce biases identified in existing systems.

The project is led by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), a private corporation funded with public resources.

Latam-GPT is backed by universities, foundations, libraries, government agencies and civil society organizations from across the region, including Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.

“Thanks to Latam-GPT we are positioning the region as an active and sovereign player in the economy of the future. We are at the table — we are not on the menu,” President Gabriel Boric said during the presentation of the initiative on national broadcaster Televisión Nacional.

The tool aims to break down prejudices and prevent Latin America from being portrayed as a single, uniform reality, Chile’s science minister, Aldo Valle, told AFP.

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The region, he added, “cannot be merely a user or passive recipient of artificial intelligence systems. That could result in losing a significant part of our traditions.”

Despite its name, the initiative is not an interactive chatbot. Instead, it is a large regional database trained on Latin American information that can be used to develop technological applications, the minister explained.

International

Mexico Rises Slightly to 141st in Global Corruption Perceptions Index 2025

Mexico improved by one point in its rating and climbed to 141st place in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published Tuesday by the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which gave the country a score of 27 out of 100.

The slight increase in score comes after Mexico recorded its lowest CPI result in history in 2024 during the final year of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term, also scoring 27 out of 100. The CPI is widely regarded as the main global measure of perceived public-sector corruption, where 0 represents high corruption and 100 denotes very low corruption.

Within the region, Mexico ranks above only Guatemala (26), Paraguay (24), Honduras (22), Haiti (16), Nicaragua (14) and Venezuela (10), but trails key economic peers such as Brazil (35) and Chile (63).

Among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mexico ranks last. In the G20 grouping, it sits in the penultimate position, ahead of only Russia. Experts say Mexico’s persistently low score reflects ongoing challenges in curbing corruption and protecting public funds.

Transparency International’s report also highlights structural corruption issues that have allowed organized crime to infiltrate politics and weaken governance, as well as risks to journalists covering corruption.