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In modern minds, the term “human sacrifice” conjures up macabre satanic rituals performed by bloodthirsty barbarians. In the ancient Americas, however, cultures now considered to be highly influential and civilized saw human sacrifice as a necessary part of everyday life. Whether it was to appease the gods or ensure success in battle and agriculture, for the following peoples, the lines between sacrifice and simple survival were often blurred. The Mayans are mostly known for their contributions to astronomy, calendar-making, and mathematics, or for the impressive amount of architecture and artwork that they left behind. They are also believed to be...

At first, Mexico's government did its best to ignore Donald Trump. Then it likened him to Adolf Hitler. Now it has appointed a new ambassador to come up with a better plan. Fed up with the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination labeling Mexico as a cradle of drug-runners, job poachers and rapists, the government is sending in respected diplomat Carlos Sada to lead a fightback. Mexico's new ambassador in Washington, Sada acknowledges his country has neglected its image across the border and aims to fix that with PR and media campaigns, and by lobbying prominent U.S. companies, lawmakers and...

The drug cartel in the Mexican state of Guerrero demanded from Coca-Cola one million dollars to keep their distribution center in the region. Coca-Cola refused to pay the money. The cartel retaliated and began to burn down Coca-Cola trucks. The violence got so severe that Coca-Cola removed its distribution center. This story signifies just how powerful the narco state of Mexico is becoming, even to the point of driving out major American industries. To learn more about this story, and the political significance behind it, I spoke with Jorge Vazquez Valencia, the spokesperson for the Autodefensas, a self-defense group that...

<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 54,000 Mexicans have signed a petition calling on the United States to take further steps to combat weapons trafficking.</p> <p>Mexico says the majority of guns used by the country's violent drug cartels are smuggled over the border from the United States.</p>

The fellow Marine who was with Jon Hammar when Mexican customs officials arrested him for carrying an illegal shotgun said his friend made every effort to follow the law, but got bad information from officials on both sides of the border. Ian McDonough, 27, told FoxNews.com that four U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents told Hammar before he crossed into Mexico that as long as the required permit, which he completed, was submitted and he declared the gun to Mexican authorities, there would be no problem in bringing the vintage shotgun across the border. "Jon was told to fill out...

(CNN) -- A Mexican judge has ordered the detention of 12 federal police officers accused of opening fire on a U.S. diplomatic vehicle south of the capital last week. Under the judge's order, the officers will be held for 30 days, Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for the Mexican Attorney-General's Office, said Monday. They will be transferred to Mexico City from the state of Morelos, where they are being held, he said. The 12 officers are under investigation in relation to five charges, including attempted murder, according to one of their lawyers, Marco Aurelio Gonzalez. Following the shooting incident Friday,...

Obama seems determined to win re-election by any means necessary. His treason knows no bounds. Via Bay Area News Group The Mexican Embassy on Monday opened the doors to its San Jose, San Francisco and 48 other consular offices across the United States to undocumented immigrant youths seeking work permits and deportation relief through a new Obama administration directive. The U.S. government won't begin accepting deportation relief applications until Aug. 15, but the Mexican government will help eligible young people apply by giving them information and ensuring they have the proper documents, said Juan Carlos Lara-Armienta, the Mexican Embassy's head...

BROWNSVILLE — A global intelligence company Wednesday said the death of U.S. citizen David Michael Hartley on Falcon Lake was a case of mistaken identity in a turf war between rival drug cartels. Hartley, who was shot during a Sept. 30 sightseeing trip to the Mexican side of the binational reservoir, was shot by Zeta cartel enforcers because he was mistaken for a spy of the rival Gulf Cartel, according to the report by STRATFOR, and Austin-based think tank specializing in intelligence and international issues. The report goes on to say Hartley's body likely was destroyed as Los Zetas went...

A witness and blood evidence seem to corroborate Tiffany Hartley's story. But competing interests are driving competing views of what really happened on Falcon Lake. Over the past couple of days there have been several developments in the alleged Falcon Lake piracy attack and murder. First,  Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says that he has a witness who corroborates Tiffany Hartley’s story.  That witness, whose identity is being concealed out of safety concerns, claims that when Hartley came off the lake on her jet ski, she was being chased by men in a boat and that she was sobbing and...

The National Security spokesman in Mexico said violence in both countries "was fueled by the enormous demand for drugs in US".

More than two thousand people have been arrested on suspicion of their involvement with Mexican drug cartels. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that 2,266 people have been arrested as part of a 22-month investigation targeting Mexican drug traffickers. Holder called it the extensive and successful law enforcement effort targeting the cartels. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Called Project Deliverance, Holder announced the success of the inter-agency cross-border investigation. Holder says the operation resulted in the seizure of more than $150 million in U.S. currency, and large amounts of drugs, 2.5 tons of cocaine, 69 tons of marijuana,...

Democrats gave Mexican President Felipe Calderon a standing ovation after he bashed the Arizona immigration law on the House Floor. Attorney General Holder and Secretary Napolitano also stood and clapped as the Calderon attacked the law they didn’t read before casting their judgment. So have Holder and Napolitano read the law yet?

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama Wednesday deployed the full pomp of a White House state dinner for only the second time, honoring Mexico's President Felipe Calderon with a sumptuous menu and elaborate decor. The White House was also road testing unspecified extra security measures, after the inaugural Obama state dinner last year for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was marred when a socialite couple gatecrashed the festivities. Key members of the US-Mexico community were expected among 200 guests at the glamorous black-tie gala evening at the White House, as well as actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria, and Mexican...

The president of Mexico was furious. "Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomena, opens the door to intolerance, hate and discrimination," Felipe Calderon told a meeting of Mexican immigrant groups. The state of Arizona had gone too far. Jose Miguel Insulza, the head of the Organization of American States, was equally angry. "We consider the bill clearly discriminatory against immigrants, and especially against immigrants from Latin America." His point seemed to be that by treating illegal Mexican immigrants as a police matter, the new Arizona law is attacking their human rights. The new law that is causing such...

PHOENIX (AP) - Mexican Embassy officials are voicing concerns over what they call the potentially dire effects an immigration bill pending in the Arizona State Senate may have on the civil rights of Mexican nationals. Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday said initiatives that exclusively criminalize immigration create opportunities for an undue enforcement of the law through racial profiling.

EAGLE PASS — Fueled by growing fears of drug-resistant tuberculosis, health officials from Texas and Mexico said Wednesday they are launching new cooperative TB programs in the last two major sister cities along the border that lack them. New federal funds will add staff in Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras and Del Rio-Ciudad Acuña, where 6 million border crossings a year make it difficult to follow patients through months of treatment or track their contacts to offer preventive care. Similar programs exist in other sister cities from El Paso to Brownsville. Statistics released in recent days have shown a mixed record of...

Both suspects sought in the slaying of a Millard County sheriff's deputy were captured Wednesday morning in Beaver County. Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel confirmed that Roberto Miramontes Roman, the alleged killer of Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox, and a "person of interest," Ruben Chavez Reyes, were taken into custody without incident about 8:15 a.m. "We got a tip and found them asleep in a shed. Deputies and SWAT officers went in and removed them," Noel said. He said Millard County authorities were on the way to take the men into custody. Millard County sheriff's officials confirmed the capture, but were...

For years, many Americans have dismissed the battle between Mexico's government and drug cartels. * * * But this problem, funded largely by U.S. drug users, has rapidly transformed into a battle against a terrorist insurgency, and victory is every bit as important to Mexico's security as is America's battle against al-Qaeda. Defeat for Mexico means nothing less than a descent into chaos. This might sound alarmist, but the tactics being employed by Mexico's drug gangs, not to mention their spread into U.S. border cities, is truly cause for alarm. * * * Drug gangs are challenging the government for...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult. An advertisement for Burger King's Texican Whopper burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy almost twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors. "The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican," a narrator's voice says

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.