'Mexico for Mexicans': Hundreds protest against mass tourism; tourists harassed, windows smashed
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The protest began peacefully in the capital's Roma and Condesa districts but turned violent when some masked demonstrators began smashing storefront windows, damaging restaurant furniture, and looting high-end businesses.
Several protesters chanted slogans like 'Gringo go home,' 'Mexico for Mexicans,' and 'Pay taxes, learn Spanish, respect my culture' to express their frustration with tourists, urging them to leave the city.
Graffiti was sprayed on shattered windows with messages such as 'Get out of Mexico,' and protesters held signs reading 'Gringos, stop stealing our home' and 'Housing is a right, not a commodity.' Demonstrators are demanding local legislation to regulate tourism and enforce stricter housing laws.
The march later moved to the US Embassy, where protesters continued chanting as police reinforcements arrived. Demonstrations also continued inside the city's metro system.
Mexico City's government secretary, César Cravioto, condemned the violence and described the protest as 'xenophobic expressions,' similar to what Mexican migrants have faced abroad. He reported that 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged during the protest.
He called for dialogue instead of violence, saying, 'We are a city of open arms… there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table.'
Local anger and resentment have been rising since 2020, when many Americans flocked to the Latin American city to escape Covid-19 lockdowns and take advantage of lower living costs.
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Since then, rents in many neighbourhoods have soared, forcing numerous Mexican residents to relocate to more affordable areas.
Michelle Castro, a 19-year-old student who joined the protest, said her working-class neighbourhood has seen apartment buildings converted into tourist housing. 'Many say it's xenophobia, but it's not. So many foreigners come here, rents are skyrocketing because of Airbnb. Some people can't even pay anymore,' she explained.
The protest in Mexico City is part of a broader global backlash against mass tourism and rising housing costs, with similar demonstrations taking place in European cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and Rome.
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Who is Vaibhav Taneja, the Indian-origin Tesla executive named treasurer of Elon Musk's new party?
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Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
Can Democrats find their way on immigration?
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Democrats onstage saw themselves as morally courageous. American voters, it turned out, saw a group of politicians hopelessly out of side by side at a primary debate in June 2019, 10 of the party's candidates for president were asked to raise their hand if they wanted to decriminalize illegal border crossings. Only one of them held years later, the party remains haunted by that tableau. It stands both as a vivid demonstration of a leftward policy shift on immigration that many prominent Democratic lawmakers and strategists now say they deeply regret, and as a marker of how sharply the country was moving in the other year, 55% of Americans told Gallup that they supported a decrease in immigration, nearly twice as many as in 2020, and the first time since 2005 that a majority had said so. The embrace of a more punitive approach to illegal immigration includes not only white voters but also working-class Latinos, whose support Democrats had long courted with liberal border policies."When you have the most Latino district in the country outside of Puerto Rico vote for Trump , that should be a wake-up call for the Democratic Party ," said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, who saw Trump win every county in his district along the border with Mexico. "This is a Democratic district that's been blue for over a century."How the Democrats reached this point, and their continued struggles on immigration, is a decades-long story of political failures, missteps, misreadings and misplaced bets -- and some shrewd Republican moves."We got led astray by the 2016 and the 2020 elections, and we just never moved back," said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who introduced an immigration and border security plan in May. 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The Trump administration is pursuing the harshest crackdown on immigrants since World War II. Raids and patrols by masked officers, detentions at courthouses and workplaces, the promises to arrest and deport millions, and the deployment of National Guard troops against protesters have immigrants who lack legal status and even some naturalized citizens running scared and lying low."We, and I include myself in this, created a vacuum on this issue that we allowed the current president to fill," said Cecilia Muñoz, who led the Obama administration's domestic policy council. "And the country is now living with the results. And the results are appalling."Some Democrats believe their party can find its path forward by looking to the was under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, that Congress broadly expanded the grounds for deportation and that border enforcement officers saw their ranks increase sharply. The next Democrat to win the White House , Barack Obama, promised to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, including a pathway to legal status for an estimated 12 million Republican support, Obama also pursued aggressive enforcement, deporting more immigrants in his first term than any president had since the 1950s. But his attempts to balance the two priorities ultimately failed: His plan to modernize the immigration system stalled in Congress, while his executive actions to aid students, workers and families who lacked legal residency status were challenged in the courts. Disillusioned advocates denounced him as the "deporter in chief."Then came Trump, who rode down the golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his presidential campaign with promises to build a "great wall" along what he described as an out-of-control southern border and to expel migrants he condemned as criminals, drug traffickers and Trump competed for his party's nomination, Hillary Clinton was under pressure in the Democratic primaries from Sen. Bernie Sanders on the left. Immigration activists persuaded her to break with Obama's approach -- not to mention her husband's -- and pledge not to deport illegal immigrants beyond violent criminals and terrorists. But that promise fueled Trump's candidacy more than it helped hers. 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A city known as a haven for immigrants since the 1800s was overwhelmed. Residents were losing patience, she when she worked on bipartisan legislation to expedite asylum cases at the border, Escobar said, fellow Democrats criticized the proposal as too restrictive."Living through what El Paso lived through, feeling how unsustainable all of this was, and frankly how challenging this was, I knew this would cause a massive shift in the perspective of Americans about immigration," she said. "There was a failure on the part of the Democratic Party altogether during the last administration in adequately recognizing what was happening."Democrats far from the border saw public opinion moving toward Republicans, Lightfoot, a former mayor of Chicago, recalled a homeless Black woman complaining that she could not get help finding an apartment because "they're giving everything to the migrants." The city's established Mexican American communities, Lightfoot said, were not thrilled to welcome busloads of Venezuelans."What we started to hear, which was also a little bit of a surprise to me, was, 'Hey, what about us? We've been here forever. Why are you paying attention to and giving resources to these newcomers who, by the way, you know' -- in soft voice -- 'are Venezuelans?'" she mayors and governors begged Biden to authorize emergency aid and work permits for the migrants. Some took their criticisms public in frustration with what they saw as White House Biden aides were locked in furious debates over how, and how fast, to dismantle Trump's policies and what should replace them. That infighting crippled the administration's ability to respond Democrats tried to step in, striking a compromise on a bipartisan border bill that would have made illegal entry more difficult while allowing admitted migrants to receive work permits more quickly. But Trump pressed Republicans to torpedo it, to deny Biden a victory and keep the issue inflamed heading into New York, immigration and border politics overtook a special House election in February 2024. Tom Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat, prevailed after adopting a hard-line approach, calling for a temporary shutdown of the border and for deporting migrants who assault the attributed his win to a willingness to take tough stands, as the Biden administration waited for legislation that would never happen.I don't think that the voters moved to the right," he said. "I think they voted more for the Republicans because they felt that they were not getting attention paid to their concerns."Biden finally responded to the crisis in June, issuing an executive order preventing migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when crossings surge -- the most restrictive border policy any modern Democrat has crossings plummeted. But it was too late to change voters' perceptions. Trump maintained his advantage on the issue when Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden on the campaigned in front of signs reading "Deport Illegals Now." He interpreted his victory as a mandate to push through an even more aggressive immigration agenda that would reach beyond the mass deportation of immigrants lacking legal residency status and into a broad swath of American school students are getting arrested at traffic stops. Children are being handcuffed outside courthouses. Restaurant workers are being hauled from kitchens during their shifts. And when protests erupted, the administration deployed the military in Los Angeles and arrested or manhandled many people, including high-profile Democratic as Democrats publicly oppose the president, they have privately traded recriminations over their failure at immigration civil rights organizations are busy with "listening tours" to understand how Democrats misunderstood voters. Party strategists are conducting surveys and focus groups on immigration and border security. Some immigration advocates are warning that unless Democrats determine how to go on the offensive, they will keep losing a private briefing for Democratic senators recently, Andrea R. Flores, a border official in the Biden White House who is the migration policy expert at a bipartisan advocacy group, blasted the party's failure to make the case for immigration and its benefits, according to people in the room. She urged Democrats to lay out a clear vision for how to fix the immigration system -- something she said the Biden administration had failed to trail Republicans by as many as 41 percentage points in whom voters trust more on immigration and border security, according to polling released in May by Third Way, a center-left think tank. Still, Trump's sinking approval ratings on immigration give some Democrats hope that voters will listen if the party has something new to say."The vast majority of Americans, including Republican voters, are appalled by Trump deporting a child who's recovering from brain cancer, or appalled by Trump deporting students simply for writing an opinion piece in a student newspaper," said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas. "Democrats can't be scared about talking about immigration. We have to recognize that Trump's overreach is also not popular with the American people."Casar and Pressley expect to reintroduce proposed curbs on mandatory detention and a ban on privately run, for-profit detention moderate Democrats say easing up on the border and fighting over incarceration won't win back working-class insists that what Americans want is simple: a secure border, deportation of dangerous criminals and a humane path to legal status for families already in the country. If Democrats fail to provide that, he argues, they will continue to pay a price."We have to be able to present an idea of what border security looks like that is not Donald Trump," he said. "And when we actually say what Donald Trump is doing wrong, we need to be able to point to what we would be doing right."
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
JNIM: How an al-Qaeda ally became Africa's most dangerous jihadist group and why the US should worry
Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has become one of Africa's most dangerous extremist groups, responsible for a surge in deadly attacks and growing instability across the Sahel (the vast region of western and north-central Africa, forming a transitional zone between the Sahara Desert to the north and the savannas to the south) and beyond. As armies in the region struggle to contain its advance, JNIM 's influence continues to expand, making it a central force in West Africa's security crisis. JNIM was formed in March 2017 in Mali, when several jihadist groups - including Ansar al-Din, al-Murabitun, the Macina Liberation Front, and the Sahara branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) - merged to unify their fight and resources. The group's leader, Iyad ag Ghali , a former Tuareg rebel and Malian diplomat, pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda's global leadership and the Taliban. This merger was inspired by al-Qaeda's push for unity among its affiliates, aiming to strengthen their operational capabilities and extend their reach across West Africa. In its most recent and deadliest operation to date, JNIM militants launched a coordinated assault in April 2025, targeting the West African nation of Benin's military positions at. Dozens of JNIM fighters attacked both static positions and a patrol, resulting in at least 54 Beninese soldiers killed, according to official figures—though JNIM claimed the toll was even higher, publishing videos of the aftermath. This attack surpassed a previous January 2025 assault, which killed 28 Beninese soldiers, and marked a dramatic escalation in both scale and lethality. So far in 2025, JNIM attacks in Benin have caused at least 157 fatalities—already exceeding the 103 deaths recorded in all of 2024. Notably, while the frequency of attacks has decreased (on track for 25% fewer attacks than last year), the scale and impact of each incident have grown, with Benin's military losses in 2025 already equivalent to 80% of all Beninese forces killed in action over the previous three years. Live Events Why should Americans care? Terrorism's Global Reach: JNIM's growing power is a reminder that terrorist threats can quickly spread beyond their home bases. U.S. officials have warned that instability in Africa can create safe havens for extremists, with ripple effects for global security. International Security : The U.S. and its allies have invested heavily in counterterrorism efforts in Africa. JNIM's rise has complicated these missions, especially as Western military presence in the region has decreased. Humanitarian Impact: The violence has displaced millions of people and triggered humanitarian crises, with ripple effects reaching Europe and potentially the U.S. through migration and security concerns. Where does it operate and why? JNIM is most active in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, but its attacks have spread into Benin, Togo, and Senegal. The group has exploited weak borders, local grievances, and the withdrawal of Western troops to expand its operations. In July 2025, JNIM claimed responsibility for a major coordinated attack on seven military sites in western Mali, underlining its ability to launch complex and deadly assaults. JNIM's main goal is to establish a Salafi-Islamist state in West Africa and expel Western influence. The group targets government forces, foreign troops, UN peacekeepers, and civilians. It funds itself through kidnapping for ransom, taxing and extorting local populations, and smuggling weapons and goods. The group is known for blending violence with local engagement - sometimes providing resources or signing agreements with communities to win support or at least tolerance. JNIM's leadership, especially Iyad ag Ghali and his deputy Amadou Kouffa, play a key role in directing local branches and maintaining the group's cohesion. JNIM's rise is linked to several factors: Mergers and Alliances: By uniting several experienced jihadist factions, JNIM pooled fighters, weapons, and local knowledge, making it more resilient and effective. Exploiting Weakness: The group takes advantage of poor governance, ethnic tensions, and economic hardship in the Sahel, recruiting young men who see few alternatives. Regional Instability: The violence unleashed by JNIM and similar groups has contributed to a string of military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, with both civilian and military governments struggling to contain the threat. The human cost JNIM's attacks have become increasingly deadly. In 2025, the group was behind Benin's worst-ever extremist attack, killing more than 50 soldiers in a single day. Across the region, thousands have died, and millions have been displaced, as violence spreads from the Sahel into previously stable coastal states. JNIM is officially designated as a terrorist organization by the US, Australia, and other governments. Its growing reach and ability to destabilize entire countries make it a significant concern for international security.
