Foreign

Mexico Election Mounts Centre Stage As Two Women Vie For Presidency

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2 years ago

March 1, 2024

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Campaigning officially began Friday for elections likely to produce Mexico’s first woman president – a watershed for a nation with a long tradition of macho culture.

Opposition candidate, Xochitl Galvez, launched her campaign after the stroke of midnight in one of Mexico’s most dangerous states, seeking to tap into voter concerns about the country’s rampant violence.

Public opinion polls suggest that she faces a tough battle against ruling party candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and close ally of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known by his initials AMLO.

With three months to go before the June 2 vote, Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old scientist by training, enjoys a significant lead with 63 per cent support, according to an average of polls compiled by the Oraculus research firm.

Galvez, also 61, has 31 per cent support, while Jorge Alvarez, 38, of the Citizens’ Movement party is a distant third with just five per cent, polls show.

At stake is the future of Latin America’s second-largest economy, a country of 126 million people that is a key trading partner of the United States and a major tourist destination, but which faces huge challenges from illegal migration and drug-related violence.

Galvez, an outspoken businesswoman with Indigenous roots, sought to put the focus on the country’s insecurity with a night-time rally in the city of Fresnillo in the violence-wracked central state of Zacatecas.

She led a candle-lit march through the streets before sharing the stage with a relative of one of Mexico’s more than 100,000 missing persons, holding a minute’s silence for victims of violence.

“Here in Fresnillo, as in all of Mexico, people are afraid,” Galvez said, hitting out at Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy to tackle violent crime at its roots by combating poverty and inequality, rather than using military force.

“Hugs for criminals are over,” she said.

“To have a Mexico without fear, we’re going to restrain the most violent and aggressive criminal organizations in our country,” she added.

It was the first of several planned stops in cities considered by their residents to be among the most unsafe in Mexico, to highlight what Galvez says is the government’s failure to tackle spiraling violence.

Nearly 450,000 people have been murdered across Mexico since 2006 when then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial anti-drug military campaign, according to official figures.

‘Formidable party machinery’
Sheinbaum is a staunch supporter and confidant of Lopez Obrador, a leftwing populist who enjoys an approval rating of nearly 70 per cent according to Oraculus, but who is required by the constitution to leave office after one term.

The granddaughter of Bulgarian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants, Sheinbaum has vowed to continue Lopez Obrador’s policy agenda.

“Sheinbaum is in a very strong position, with a significant lead in the polls over Galvez,” analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington told AFP.

“Although nothing is impossible in politics, with just over three months to go before the election, it is highly unlikely that Galvez will be able to gain enough ground to make it a competitive race. AMLO is too popular, and the government and party machinery is too formidable,” he added.

Sheinbaum is due to address supporters on Friday afternoon in Mexico City’s main square, the heart of the city she governed from 2018 until last year when she stepped down to run for president.

On the eve of her campaign launch, Sheinbaum said that her opponents were “looking for a way to rise in the polls, but there is no way they can do it because we represent the future, and they represent the past.”

Galvez represents an opposition coalition made up of the Institutional Revolutionary Party – which ruled the country for more than 70 years until 2000 – the conservative National Action Party and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.

But her background sets her apart from the traditional conservative opposition – she wears Indigenous clothing, uses colloquial language peppered with swear words and is known for travelling around Mexico City by bicycle.

Foreign

Putin Says Russia Ready For War, Blames Europe For Sabotaging Peace

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2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was “ready” for war if Europe seeks one, accusing the continent’s leaders of trying to sabotage a deal on the Ukraine conflict before he met with US envoys.

The comments came as US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Moscow for high-stakes talks on ending the nearly four-year war, which were preceded by days of intense diplomacy.

“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin told reporters in Moscow.

“They have no peaceful agenda, they are on the side of war,” he added, repeating his claim that European leaders were hindering US attempts to broker peace in Ukraine.

He added that European changes to Trump’s latest plan to end the war “aimed solely at one thing — to completely block the entire peace process and put forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable for Russia”.

Washington has presented a 28-point draft to end the conflict, later amended after criticism from Kyiv and Europe, which viewed it as heeding to many of Russia’s maximalist demands.

The plan to end the war is championed by Trump, but European countries fear it risks forcing Kyiv to cave in to Russian demands, notably on territory.

Fearing further Russian aggression, Europe has repeatedly said an unfair peace should not be imposed on Ukraine.

The Trump envoys are now seeking to finalise the plan with the approval of Moscow and Kyiv.

AFP

Foreign

US Senator Proposes Bill To End Dual Citizenship

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2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

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A United States lawmaker has introduced a bill seeking to abolish dual citizenship for American nationals, a move that could affect thousands of Nigerians who hold both US and Nigerian passports.

Bernie Moreno, a Colombian-born US senator, announced the proposed legislation — titled the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 — arguing that the current system, which allows Americans to hold multiple nationalities, creates “conflicts of interest and divided loyalties.”

“One of the greatest honours of my life was when I became an American citizen at 18, the first opportunity I could do so.

“It was an honour to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America! Being an American citizen is an honour and a privilege—and if you want to be an American, it’s all or nothing. It’s time to end dual citizenship for good,” Moreno said.

Moreno, who has since renounced his Colombian citizenship, maintains that exclusive allegiance is essential to national integrity.

If passed, the bill could have far-reaching implications for prominent figures such as US First Lady Melania Trump, who holds both US and Slovenian citizenship. It would also significantly impact Nigerians with dual citizenship.

According to a July naturalisation flow report by the US Department of Homeland Security, 38,890 Nigerians became naturalised American citizens between 2021 and 2023. Nigeria ranked 13th among countries with the highest number of new US citizens and was the only African nation in the top 20.

Nigerian law allows citizens by birth to hold dual nationality without relinquishing their Nigerian citizenship.

This development comes months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at denying automatic US citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the country.

The order was immediately challenged by 18 states and multiple rights groups, who argued it violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. Ongoing legal battles have prevented the order from taking effect.

Foreign

Ousted Guinea-Bissau president arrives in Brazzaville

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2 weeks ago

November 30, 2025

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Guinea-Bissau’s ousted president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, arrived in the Republic of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, on Saturday, days after he was overthrown by the military, Congolese government sources told AFP.

Meanwhile, in the capital, Bissau, the West African country’s leading opposition party said its headquarters had been “invaded” by a “heavily armed militia” following the post-election coup that brought the army to power.

The military seized control of the Portuguese-speaking nation on Wednesday — a day before the provisional results of national elections were due to be announced — prompting Embalo to initially leave for neighbouring Senegal.

The true motives for the coup remain unclear, with speculation and conspiracy theories circulating, including claims that the takeover may have occurred with Embalo’s blessing.

“Embalo arrived in Brazzaville late in the morning on a private jet,” a source close to the Congolese government said on condition of anonymity.

A presidency source added that Embalo, who had claimed victory in the election, intended to remain in the country, also known as Congo-Brazzaville.

Embalo, 53, is rumoured to be close to Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso and has visited the Republic of Congo multiple times.

‘Narco-state’

After taking power on Wednesday, the officers in charge said they intervened to restore order, citing a plot by the country’s drug barons to destabilise Guinea-Bissau.

The opposition and some experts, however, suspect that Embalo, in power since 2020, orchestrated the takeover to halt the electoral process.

Those suspicions grew when the junta appointed General Horta N’Tam, considered a close ally of Embalo, to head a transitional administration expected to last a year.

On Saturday, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Guinea-Bissau’s powerful opposition party, said its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by heavily armed militia groups” in Bissau.

Elsewhere in the capital, minor clashes broke out between young people and law enforcement officers in a suburb near the headquarters of Fernando Dias, Embalo’s election rival, who was arrested on the day of the coup.

Some political researchers say a high-level turf war over illegal drug smuggling networks may also have contributed to Guinea-Bissau’s instability.

Crippling poverty, chaotic administration, and political turmoil have made Guinea-Bissau a fertile ground for corruption and drug smuggling. The country is a key transit point for Latin American cocaine destined for Europe, leading some analysts to describe it as a “narco-state.”

Senior politicians and military officials are suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coups and multiple attempted takeovers since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974.

Among the world’s poorest countries, it has now joined Burkina Faso, Mali, Madagascar, Niger, and Sudan on the list of states suspended from the African Union following coups.

AFP