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By STEPHANIE CONDON May 3, 2013 Obama Tells Mexico: We Are "Equal Partners" Amid attempts in the U.S. to pass immigration reform and build a stronger North American economy, President Obama on Friday sought to put the United States' relationship with Mexico on stronger footing, saying that the two nations are "equal partners." "Just as Mexico is being transformed, so too are the ties between our two countries," he said before an enthusiastic crowd at Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. "As president, I've been guided by a basic proposition -- in this relationship there is no senior partner or junior...

CANCUN, Mexico — Two masked men armed opened fire in a bar on the outskirts of the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun on Thursday, killing six people and wounding five, the office of the state's attorney general said. Public Safety Secretary Jesus Aiza says most of the victims belonged to a taxi drivers union. Aiza says the assailants arrived at "The Mermaid" bar in a poor area far from Cancun's hotel zone in two cars Thursday afternoon. He says two gunmen using automatic rifles went inside and began shooting.

Three U.S. Marines were injured in a shooting south of Mexico City on Friday morning, a Mexican military official told CNN Mexico.The motive behind the attack on the American servicemen, who were on a diplomatic mission, was not immediately known.

Mexico is the deadliest country on earth for journalists. Almost 50 have been killed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels six years ago.

A drug cartel lieutenant has been arrested over a series of firebomb attacks on Mexican potato-chip company Sabritas, a subsidiary of U.S. food giant PepsiCo. The gang-related bombings are believed to be the first time a multinational company has been targeted in Mexico's 5½-year-long drug war. Experts suggested that the attack may be linked to the company's apparent refusal to hand over protection money to the gangs which have terrorised local residents and businesses.

Police found the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 15 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico Wednesday in an apparent revenge killing between powerful drug gangs. Police initially counted 12 bodies dumped in the car on a road between Mexico's second city of Guadalajara and the lakeside city of Chapala, known for its North American expatriate community. An anonymous call alerted police to the abandoned vehicles, and the bodies were taken to forensic services in Guadalajara, a police official said. Jalisco state attorney general Tomas Coronado Olmos called an urgent meeting with the state governor and said the killings appeared...

President Barack Obama's 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her spring break in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents. The young tourists will be in a downtown hotel in the city known for its colonial architecture and native traditions, reported a state police official. President Barack Obama’s 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her springbreak in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents. "We are here to block access to the hotel by other people and escort the vehicles that are carrying the...

NEAR ALTON — A man detained for operating a stash house claims a brutal prison gang forced him to “babysit” the 33 immigrants discovered there last week. U.S. Border Patrol agents detained an illegal immigrant near Falfurrias in late February who said she could lead investigators back to the stash house where she’d been kept. Agents began conducting undercover surveillance on the house at 10120 N. Mayberry Road — just south of Highway 107 — on Feb. 29, a criminal complaint states. Agents say they found the man there they would later arrest for harboring illegal aliens. Border Patrol alongside...

I have been wondering if the worst President ever would try something like this. Presidents have the power to pardon...if issued millions of full pardons, could the illegals then register them to vote. Thoughts?

SAN ANTONIO -- Private security bodyguards (PSBs) are a silent majority guarding Mexican nationals seeking asylum in San Antonio and other parts of South Texas. The nationals come to the US legally, hoping to escape drug cartel threats. But once they get here they realize they're still not safe from the ruthless cartels. "They're vigilant about getting their drugs into the United States," said Philip Klein, a private security officer and CEO of Klein Investigations and Consultation. "You either cooperate with them or you die." It's a harsh reality our neighbors to the south deal with on a daily basis....

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - A woman pushing her child in a stroller in downtown El Paso, Texas, was struck by an assault rifle bullet fired from across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Tuesday, mayor John Cook said. After Juarez police responded to a carjacking about half a mile from the border, a gunfight broke out between police and the carjackers, Cook said. A bullet -- a type used in assault weapons such as M16s -- penetrated and exited the woman's calf, he said. The unidentified woman, 48, who was shopping, was treated at a hospital and released...

A former state trooper who was seeking election to the Precinct 1 constable’s seat was arrested Monday on money laundering charges after law enforcement officers found more than $1 million packed inside suitcases stored in his car’s trunk.

Travel Warning U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major...

(CNN) -- Two bodies dangling from a pedestrian bridge in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, created an image as gruesome as any in the four years of the country's offensive against the drug cartels. A man and a woman, both in their early 20s, were left hanging like cuts of meat. The woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. She was then hung from the bridge by her feet and hands, topless. The bloodied man was suspended next to her by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply you...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in southern California have arrested 60 people and broken up an Iraqi criminal ring accused of selling drugs, machine guns and improvised bombs out of an immigrant social club, authorities said on Thursday. The swoop by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local police targeted a network operating out of El Cajon, which is near San Diego and close to the border with Mexico.

Life has come to a standstill in Matamoros after a series of shootouts and blockades left residents trapped inside stores and buildings. It all started in the Colonia Puerto Rico in the city's southwest side shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday. Residents reported gunfire and city officials quickly confirmed a "situation of danger" in the area. The embattled neighborhood is adjacent to the Plaza Sendero Mall, a busy shopping center. Officials confirmed blockades on the Sendero Nacional Highway and Avenida Rigo Tovar, both on the city's westside. But residents reported being trapped in numerous blockades in other areas of the city....

LAREDO, July 2 - U.S. residents are being advised not to visit Nuevo Laredo this Fourth of July Weekend. The advisory comes from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Webb County Sheriff’s Office. Both agencies say they have received credible intelligence from multiple sources indicating that the Zetas Cartel is planning to target U.S. citizens who travel to Nuevo Laredo this weekend. “According to the information we have received, the Zetas are planning a possible surge in criminal activity, such as robberies, extortions, car-jackings and vehicle theft, specifically against U.S. citizens,” said DPS Director Steven C. McCraw. “We...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican federal police said Saturday they discovered a basement arsenal hidden behind the mirrors of a home gym that included three anti-aircraft guns, dozens of grenades, a grenade launcher, AK-47s and other high-powered weapons. The neatly ordered stockpile found in an upscale neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, also contained several makes of machine guns, rifles, a shotgun and more than 26,000 ammunition cartridges, according to Raul Avila Ibarra, the federal police commissioner in charge of the city. Police say they discovered the weapons Friday while searching a house near the...

From mass graves to mass kidnappings, the situation in parts of Mexico continues to look grim. Mexico's federal police rescued 51 people, including six Chinese and 18 Central American migrants, who were captive in the same border city where more than five dozen people were freed last week, authorities said Monday night. Police investigators were led to the latest group while following up on last week's rescue of 68 people in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, federal officials said. Authorities gave no motives or identified the kidnappers or drug gang involved, but drug cartels have been accused of pulling people...

National Security: The Defense Department warns that the cartels making Mexico a war zone are operating easily here too. And a secret U.S. report leaked in Mexico warns of even worse. So why isn't anyone talking about it? To hear Janet Napolitano tell it, as she did March 25 at El Paso's Bridge of the Americas, security at the U.S.-Mexican border "is better now than it ever has been." The secretary of homeland security has since denounced those warning of Mexico's war spilling into the U.S. as "simply inaccurate" and dismissed warnings from state leaders from Texas to California as...