The Situation in Mexico

[Puma]

We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all." He's done the meme!

Trump may have used his secret weapon, called the "discombobulator" to take down El Mencho.

 

[mabar]

Trump right now can't have another criticism about intervening in another country specially in the midterms approaching.

What might means what Trump said yesterday?

TRUMP: 'Securing US dominance in Western Hemisphere

Including LARGE parts of Mexico

FENTANYL IS A METHOD OF MASS DESTRUCTION'

Then again a 'shoot first ask later' polic

As it happended in the so-called war on drugs during the presidency of Calderón years back.

 

[Puma]

Mexico sends second humanitarian aid package to Cuba with food

The Mexican Foreign Ministry announced the shipment of a second humanitarian aid package to Cuba, containing nearly 1,200 tons of food, amid the economic crisis on the island, which has been exacerbated by the US energy blockade.

Meanwhile Cuba fires on suspicious vessel

Cuban Embassy in US

Note from the Ministry of the Interior:

On the morning of February 25, 2026, a violating speedboat was detected within Cuban territorial waters. The vessel, registered in Florida, United States, with registration number FL7726SH, approached up to 1 nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, in Cayo Falcones, Corralillo municipality, Villa Clara province.

When a surface unit of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, carrying five service members, approached the vessel for identification, the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire on the Cuban personnel, resulting in the injury of the commander of the Cuban vessel.

As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured. The injured individuals were evacuated and received medical assistance.

In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region.

Investigations by the competent authorities continue in order to fully clarify the events.

 

[Ruth]

Are expat Americans being held hostage by an operation funded and supplied by their own Government as well as Israel? Only for these same two governments to complain about the very situation they create? My feeling is, yes! Of course! It has been that way for at least 1/2 a century. It's time the general public woke up to it!
(video 23.00 minutes approx)

 

[Puma]

Why is the Bukele model not applicable in Mexico?​

Following the killing of the CJNG leader in Jalisco, the Mexican right wing demanded that the authorities apply the Bukele model in Mexico and cited a statement by the President of El Salvador as justification.(Although calling him president is a bit much; he's more of a gangster, a dictator, a little dictator)

Bukele said and reposted on X, "There is no state incapable of fighting crime; if it does not do so, it is because it has ceased to exercise its authority."

One person who supported the idea was Eduardo Verástegui, a far-right Trump supporter, who posted the following on X along with a photo of gang members in prison.​

"If it were up to me, this would be the model for Mexico." -​

What is the Bukele Model? Grok summarizes it as follows:
​

Essentially, it combines several key elements:​

●Permanent state of emergency (or prolonged state of emergency): Since March 2022, following a wave of murders, constitutional guarantees such as the right to immediate defense, long-term detention without a warrant, collective trials, and other human rights restrictions have been suspended.​

● Mass arrests: More than 80,000–85,000 people (many linked to gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18) have been arrested in large-scale operations, often without clear individual evidence.​

● Militarization of security: Intensive use of the army and police on the streets, construction of mega-prisons such as the CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Center) to house thousands of detainees.​

●Drastic reduction in violence: Official homicide rates fell dramatically (from ~38 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019 to historic lows, around 2–3 in recent years), making El Salvador one of the safest countries in the region in terms of murders.​

●Concentration of power: Almost total control of the branches of government (legislative, judicial, and executive), including the removal of opposition judges and prosecutors and the enabling of presidential reelection (even indefinite in practice).​

● Highly effective digital communication: Bukele uses social media (especially X/Twitter) extensively and directly to communicate, ridicule opponents, showcase results, and maintain an image of a "cool dictator" or modern millennial leader. This generates very high popular approval ratings (often >80–90%).​

I asked journalist Eric Gutierrez , editor of "Sin Línea", for his opinion on the Bukele Model for Mexico:

​

The so-called Bukele method is not a security policy; it is a state of emergency turned into a form of government. It works by systematically suspending rights, carrying out mass arrests without due process, and concentrating power in a way that dismantles institutional checks and balances.​

In simple terms, it is an arbitrary, authoritarian, and openly anti-democratic model that replaces the law with the will of the executive branch.​

Comment: For Mexico, it would be like returning to the perfect dictatorship of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled the country for more than 70 years.
​

Yes, it has reduced homicides in El Salvador, but it has done so at the cost of imprisoning tens of thousands of people without sufficient evidence, criminalizing poverty, and normalizing the logic of "arrest first, investigate later." That is not justice; it is the administration of fear.​

A state that can imprison without controls is not strong, it is dangerous. Attempting to import this model to Mexico is technically and politically absurd. The scale is brutally different. Replicating this model would mean arresting more than a million people, the prison system would collapse immediately, prosecutors would be overwhelmed, and the margin for abuse would be enormous. Furthermore, here we are not dealing with local gangs but transnational cartels with territorial economic power and high-level weaponry.​

Comment: Brutally different

​

It is not the same to dismantle gangs as it is to try to contain criminal economies embedded in global chains. Worse still, applying a permanent state of emergency in Mexico would mean dynamiting the constitution, eroding fundamental rights, and opening the door to irreversible authoritarianism in a country with historical institutional weaknesses. That would not bring order but rather more corruption, more selective impunity, and more discretionary power.​

El Salvador's success is, at best, a short-term containment sustained by force. Mexico needs something else: intelligence, institutional strengthening, and a strategy that attacks the finances of crime. Anything else is punitive propaganda, and propaganda, by definition, does not build peace. Best regards.​

Bukele is not only a dictator, he is also a gangster and a Trumpist bootlicker, just like Milei in Argentina. Bukele has a long tail, and this is just one example:
​

THE DAY BUKELE WANTED TO PAY THE CJNG FOR KIDNAPPING A MARA SALVATRUCHA LEADER​

Before the 2024 elections, an investigation by El Faro uncovered a failed conspiracy by Nayib Bukele's (@nayibbukele) government to kidnap a Mara Salvatrucha leader in Mexico with the support of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in exchange for a payment of one million dollars.​

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026407627375497408

​

 

[Voyageur]

Clayton and Natali of Redacted interview

I've only caught a smidgen of the interview with a Canadian investigative journalist in Mexico who specializes in this subject.

The question circles back to the usual suspects - were they before, yes, are they now?

Most people think cartels are just ‘gangs with guns.’ That’s not what they are at all. In fact they're highly organized criminal business organizations with sophisticated intelligence-driven networks and they're deeply embedded in local politics and security forces.

Of course The big question that no one in the US really wants to confront is how deeply intwined is the CIA and intelligence community with these cartels and how do they really function inside of Mexico and beyond.

 

[Puma]

Interesting conspiracy theory.

One thing that was demonstrated with the CJNG issue in Jalisco is that panic can be generated through AI images. Such was the case at the Guadalajara airport, where an image of a burning plane was circulated. There were also fake images of stampedes inside the airport.

Sources mention that the far-right sphere in the United States spread false content using bots and AI, amplifying its reach.

EL PAIS mentions that "48 hours after the operation, between 200 and 500 posts containing false or unverified information were shared. Between 20 and 40 posts went viral, with several exceeding 50,000 reactions, 100,000 views, and at least 10,000 shares" (while the Mexican embassy's post garnered only a few hundred views)

● The Pentagon is testing weapons at the border.

On February 11, the closure of the Texas airport was announced due to the alleged incursion of a drug cartel drone. It was later revealed that it was a balloon. On Thursday, February 26, another incident occurred. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricted flights near Fort Hancock, Texas, after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drone was shot down by a laser system operated by the Pentagon.

An accident

The theory

At this point, the terrorists could be anyone they choose: the cartels, the Iranians, or both working together.
​

 

[mkrnhr]

On the subject of engineered panic, one simple "hack" is to burn car and truck tires simultaneously at different locations. From afar the black smoke looks impressive, which is why images have to be contextualized with facts in the field.

 

[mabar]

On the subject of engineered panic, one simple "hack" is to burn car and truck tires simultaneously at different locations. From afar the black smoke looks impressive, which is why images have to be contextualized with facts in the field.

And that's what happened, in Puerto Vallarta looks even more impressive, and they didn't just burn tires, cars, trucks, and businesses. Although the video cover is AI, the video itself is not, or at least I don't think it is. A friend who lives there saw them burn down an Oxxo (a small convenience store) in front of his house.

Contrary to this fake AI image that circulated.

One thing that was demonstrated with the CJNG issue in Jalisco is that panic can be generated through AI images. Such was the case at the Guadalajara airport, where an image of a burning plane was circulated. There were also fake images of stampedes inside the airport.

Although I believe that some people took advantage of the situation to generate or share alarmist content created with AI or using images taken out of context, most of what I saw was real or accompanied by testimonials from acquaintances, friends, and family.

Many people had to live through it, and the sea of confusion caused by fake images and videos doesn't help.

It also occurs to me that the narrative of fake images is needed to turn the page, like this video. The World Cup is coming up, and Mexico is calm and peaceful.

I also wonder if there was some kind of miscommunication, with all this false information about kidnapped tourists... There's this report about foreign senior tourists, being kidnapped is not the same as being taken off a bus at gunpoint and left in the middle of nowhere in the freeway.

 

[Puma]

Although I believe that some people took advantage of the situation to generate or share alarmist content created with AI or using images taken out of context, most of what I saw was real or accompanied by testimonials from acquaintances, friends, and family.

It will be difficult to separate which events were carried out by the CJNG and which events were carried out by other people with the aim of increasing the impact and panic... or other agendas such as that of Fox News.

Vallarta citizen confronts Fox News reporters for spreading false information about the destination

Through a citizen complaint, a Puerto Vallarta resident confronted a team of reporters from the US network Fox News at the International Airport, accusing them of spreading false news that damages the port's image. The Vallarta resident pointed out that the reporters claimed that the city is extremely dangerous and that there were direct attacks against tourists, a version that was denied on the spot.

The citizen clarified that, although there were incidents of violence and property damage beyond the control of the population, at no time were any injured tourists or civilian fatalities reported. After asking the international network to cease its negative and false promotion, the complainant publicly questioned Fox News' motives for alarming visitors with information that does not correspond to the reality of what happened in the Jalisco paradise.

What do you think?

Source: Citizen Complaint | © NoticiasPV Editorial Team

@FoxNews @GobiernoMX @ImagenTVMex @infobaemexico @SRE_mx
@SSPCMexico @OHarfuch
@Milenio @ElFinanciero_Mx @lajornadaonline

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026785382751195296