Author Archives: Stephen Woodman
Prospects for health in Mexico after the presidential election
The country’s president-elect faces a tough challenge to redress the health system, but his stance on corruption might help. Read the article at The Lancet (login required)
The cartel’s deadly grip on Mexico’s elections
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — There is no escaping the fact that Chapultepec Avenue has changed since the Jalisco New Generation cartel tried to kill the former state prosecutor. Despite enjoying a reputation as one of Mexico’s trendiest locations, business has slowed in the … Continue reading
LBC Radio interview about Mexico’s 2018 elections
Central Americans are more afraid of their home countries than Trump
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Like most migrants stopping in Guadalajara on their way to the United States, Ricardo made it here by riding on top of the trans-Mexico freight train commonly known as “The Beast.” The 22-year-old Honduran arrived at the … Continue reading
Spraying bullets not sunscreen: Violence in Baja California Sur
Baja California Sur – popular with tourists – and drug cartels. You don’t want to be a reporter caught in the middle. Read the article at Index on Censorship (subscription required)
How former Mexican president Vicente Fox became a drug legalization trailblazer
The tiny Mexican village of San Cristóbal is not somewhere you would immediately associate with North America’s cannabis revolution. Smoking weed is still illegal there and there are no headshops in town, just a sleepy plaza ringed by narrow, cobblestone … Continue reading
Index on Censorship podcast interview about violence against journalists in Baja California Sur
I spoke to Index on Censorship about press freedom and violence in Baja California Sur ahead of their forthcoming issue.
Murky business: A hunt for answers as children fall sick around Mexico lake
AGUA CALIENTE, Mexico (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Eduardo Baltazar is the youngest person in the tiny Mexican village of Agua Caliente to have a kidney transplant, undergoing the life-saving surgery a month shy of his 13th birthday. The boy is … Continue reading
Mexican church seizes on St. Jude to counter Santa Muerte cult
GUADALAJARA, MEXICO — A few days after a group of armed men kidnapped her 27-year-old son, María set up a shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus at her home in Guadalajara, western Mexico. “I keep photos, candles and holy water at the … Continue reading
High-tech manufacturers fear robots and Nafta renegotiations
Had Leonardo Castro been born two decades earlier, he would almost certainly have migrated north to the US in search of better opportunities, he says. Instead, the 31-year-old was able to build a career as an aircraft test engineer in … Continue reading
The Mexican Labyrinth 