Americas First | Page 123

‘On the Tightrope’: Britain Tries to Bridge a Widening Trans-Atlantic Gap

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March 15, 2025
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Five years after it left the European Union, Britain may have finally found a new role on the global stage — a gig that looks curiously like its old one.

In the frantic few weeks since President Trump upended the trans-Atlantic alliance with his overtures to Russia and rift with Ukraine, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has tried to act as a bridge between Europe and the United States.

Mr. Starmer and his top aides counseled President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in phone calls and face-to-face meetings about how to mend fences with Mr. Trump after their rancorous White House meeting. The prime minister has energetically lobbied the American president for security guarantees to deter President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from future aggression.

In his high-wire diplomacy, Mr. Starmer is reviving a role Britain routinely played before Brexit. He bears comparison to Tony Blair, a previous Labour prime minister, who tried to mediate between President George W. Bush and European leaders in the fraught lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003.

Mr. Blair’s bridge-building didn’t end well, of course: France and Germany refused to join Mr. Bush’s “coalition of the willing” against Iraq, and Britain’s lock-step alignment with the United States frayed its relations with its European neighbors.

Now, as Mr. Starmer puts together a new “coalition of the willing” to protect Ukraine, he faces a similarly tricky balancing act. He is sticking close to the United States while trying to marshal a European military deterrent formidable enough to persuade Mr. Trump to provide American air cover and intelligence support to peacekeeping troops.

On Saturday, Mr. Starmer is convening a virtual summit meeting of as many as 25 leaders, from Europe, NATO, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, to muster support for his coalition, which Britain is cosponsoring with France. He is expected to announce additional countries that will supply troops or logistical support to the coalition, which is designed to be a shield against Russia after a peace settlement with Ukraine.

After talking to the leaders by videoconference, Mr. Starmer is likely to continue his lobbying campaign with Mr. Trump for security guarantees — an effort that he shares with President Emmanuel Macron of France.

Whether Mr. Starmer and Mr. Macron will succeed is anybody’s guess, given that Mr. Trump has veered between bitter denouncements of Ukraine and threats to impose sanctions on a recalcitrant Russia. Mr. Putin reacted warily to an offer of a 30-day truce made by Ukraine and the United States this week, while rejecting all talk of a European peacekeeping force.

“Of course there’s a risk,” said Peter Ricketts, a British diplomat who served as national security adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. “But I think Starmer sees a greater risk of an avoidable catastrophe.”

Mr. Blair, he said, failed as a bridge because the divisions between European nations over Iraq were insurmountable. Mr. Starmer’s challenge is an erratic American president, who seems determined to reset relations with Russia and is openly hostile toward the European Union.

“Starmer’s going to do his very best not to have to choose between Europe and the U.S.,” Mr. Ricketts said. Dealing with Mr. Trump, he added, “makes him vulnerable to sudden lurches, but so far, he’s managed to stay on the tightrope.”

Mr. Starmer, he said, has been helped by his seasoned and widely respected national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who traveled to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to help lay the groundwork for Mr. Zelensky’s rapprochement with the White House, and to Washington this week to consult with Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz.

A onetime chief of staff to Mr. Blair, Mr. Powell served as Britain’s chief negotiator for the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. He was also on hand for Mr. Blair’s fruitless effort to bring France and Germany along in the military campaign against Iraq.

Even before the crisis over Ukraine erupted, Mr. Starmer’s government was seeking closer ties with the continent, not just on defense and security but also on trade and economic policy.

But thanks to Brexit, Mr. Trump appears to place Britain in a different category from the European Union, which may help make Mr. Starmer a more effective broker. The president has suggested, for example, that he may not target Britain with sweeping tariffs, though he did not exempt it from a global tariff on steel and aluminum.

“Having one foot in, one foot out is a good thing for the U.K. in the present context,” said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, “but only if we remain in the current state of phony war.”

“If it becomes a real trans-Atlantic rift,” Mr. Rahman continued, “then it is better to have the protecting power that the E.U. offers, at least in some areas. And in such a context, the U.K. would steer things better if it had two feet in.”

At first, Mr. Starmer’s re-engagement with the bloc was distinctly a half step. After coming to power last July, he set about patching up post-Brexit relations in various European capitals but ruled out two conspicuous measures that could significantly boost trade: rejoining the bloc’s giant single market and its customs union.

His cautious approach, analysts say, is rooted in a fear of angering Brexit-supporting voters and of giving ammunition to Nigel Farage, the Brexit champion and leader of the anti-immigration party, Reform U.K., which has surged in opinion polls.

But the shock waves caused by Mr. Trump’s recent pronouncements on Ukraine and Russia have swept away some of the roadblocks to a broader reset. They have given Mr. Starmer political cover, with even those on the right in Britain acknowledging the need for greater coordination on Europe’s defense.

“It changes the whole context and puts everything else in perspective,” said Mr. Ricketts, who served as ambassador to France.

Ivan Rogers, a former British ambassador to the European Union, said Mr. Starmer’s diplomatic heavy lifting had impressed other European leaders, who had become used to a Britain that was either absent or vaguely antagonistic.

“All of that has reminded people that the Brits have re-engaged, and they might be more serious,” Mr. Rogers said. “You are now facing such an existential crisis in the E.U. that the mood has changed a bit.”

That could open a path to more profound British re-engagement, especially if the Europeans decide to increase cooperation on military spending by creating a new initiative outside the existing structures of the European Union. Such an initiative could involve countries, including Britain, agreeing to common standards on issues like military subsidies and weapons procurement.

That would essentially “create a defense single market, which has never been there before,” Mr. Rogers said.

For all the potential upside, Mr. Rogers, who worked in Downing Street during the Iraq War, said he worried that Britain’s role as a trans-Atlantic bridge would be hampered by its efforts to use its post-Brexit status to avoid the tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump.

“My worry is that it could appear to others that the U.K. wants to have it both ways,” Mr. Rogers said. “We want to be a bridge, have the trans-Atlantic alliance, be central to it, while simultaneously making the argument that we are very different from the E.U., and the U.S. can exempt us from its tariff action.”

“It’s a little difficult,” he said, “to run both those arguments at once.”

From immigration to government spending, Hochul is picking her battles with Trump : NPR

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March 15, 2025
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Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., has tried to walk a fine political line in dealing with the Trump administration — choosing her battles, with immigration possibly emerging as the big one to come.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

New York’s democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, is trying to navigate tensions with President Trump. They met privately today in the White House a day after Trump called Hochul a, quote, “very nice woman.” They have also clashed on the issues facing New York. Jeongyoon Han of the New York Public News Network reports on the fine line Hochul’s walking.

JEONGYOON HAN, BYLINE: Governor Kathy Hochul requested the meeting this week, but at times, she has referenced the “Rambo” movies to describe her approach to President Donald Trump’s administration.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KATHY HOCHUL: Everybody watch “First Blood”? Someone draws first blood, you respond. I didn’t draw first blood. OK?

HAN: Hochul hasn’t confronted Trump quite like some other Democratic governors. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker compared the president’s first weeks in office to the end of democracy in prewar Germany. Maine Governor Janet Mills told Trump, see you in court, at a White House meeting.

GRANT REEHER: She’s playing the game a little bit differently.

HAN: That’s Grant Reeher. He’s a politics professor at Syracuse University.

REEHER: She doesn’t want to be seen to be an ally of Donald Trump and his administration. She also has to worry about her left flank and being seen as too liberal.

HAN: And he says Hochul has to worry about things like federal money. So she’s been choosing her battles. One fight she’s taken up is a congestion pricing law that charged tolls on drivers in lower Manhattan. Trump revoked federal approval for it after he came into office. That drew a lawsuit from the transport authority and Hochul’s criticism.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HOCHUL: New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years.

(CHEERING)

HOCHUL: And we are not – we sure as hell are not going to start now.

HAN: Hochul’s defense of the policy is building goodwill with environmentalists and transit advocates. She’s also said the tariffs that Trump says are needed to support U.S. business could cost the average New Yorker as much as $1,200 annually.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HOCHUL: This is literally just the beginning of what we’re going to be feeling as a result of this administration.

HAN: But she’s been cautious about confronting Trump on positions that might be more controversial, especially around immigration. She did not remove New York Mayor Eric Adams from office, despite corruption allegations and as some Democrats wanted. Adams has cooperated with Trump’s crackdown on immigration, which Reeher says strikes a chord on concerns over public safety.

REEHER: That fits exactly into that narrative where she has already seen she is politically vulnerable.

HAN: State Republicans are amplifying the public safety claims, though immigrant advocates say they’re not proven. Immigration advocates like Murad Awawdeh, the President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, want Hochul to stand up to Trump on immigration.

MURAD AWAWDEH: While it’s been great seeing Governor Hochul fight back against Donald Trump, we’d love for her to also support protecting our communities here across the State of New York, like supporting the New York for All Act.

HAN: The New York for All Act would prohibit state and local officials from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over deportations. The bill has been around for a couple years. In a written statement, Hochul’s office said the governor will consider the bill if it’s passed first by state lawmakers. For now, she says New York will work with ICE for migrants who’ve committed crimes.

Morgan Hook, who’s a Democratic strategist in New York, thinks immigration will be the biggest issue out of Washington that Hochul will have to address. The question then is, will she listen to progressive Democrats or voters who want more immigration enforcement?

MORGAN HOOK: I think that we’ve already seen Governor Hochul take action that demonstrates that she’s trying to align herself more with, I would say, middle-of-the-road voters, the swing voters, moderate voters.

HAN: Hochul is up for reelection next year, and she does have some leverage with Trump. Trump said he wanted to use the meeting with Hochul on Friday to talk about a natural gas pipeline he wants to run through the state. Hochul said she revisited the question of congestion pricing in New York City. A statement from her office called the meeting a productive conversation. For NPR News, I’m Jeongyoon Han in Albany, New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF DE LA SOUL, ESTELLE AND PETE ROCK SONG, “MEMORY OF… (US)”)

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Senior Islamic State Leader Killed in Joint Iraqi-U.S. Operation, Iraq Says

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March 15, 2025
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An airstrike killed a senior Islamic State leader believed to be the head of the group in Iraq and Syria on Friday, in a joint Iraqi and U.S. operation using intelligence from both countries, Iraq’s prime minister said.

A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed the strike and said that special operations forces from both countries were in Anbar Province, in Iraq, gathering material from the strike site.

The Islamic State leader, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i, who was also known as Abu Khadija, was “one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world,” the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said in a statement.

Iraqi forces have conducted an aggressive antiterrorism campaign over the last two years, disrupting, killing and detaining a number of the Islamic State cells operating in the country with backing from the United States.

The killing of a senior Islamic State leader in the Middle East comes as the group has been reconstituting in Syria, carrying out more attacks than at any time since it lost control of its territory nearly six years ago. There were more than 300 attacks in Syria alone in 2024, according to the United Nations.

Mr. Al-Rufay’i was thought to be one of the senior leaders in the Islamic State in the region and was believed to hold multiple jobs, according to the most recent report by the United Nations, including helping coordinate among fighters in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and elsewhere.

He is the third leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to be killed since 2019. In the past, new leaders have been appointed relatively quickly, although their identities may not be widely known for some time.

Since 2019, when the Islamic State was defeated in Iraq and Syria, where it once controlled nearly a third of the geographic area of both countries, it has reconstituted itself and its organization has changed. While it was already expanding into new countries before it lost its territory, the other branches were secondary to its center in Iraq and Syria.

Now, with affiliates in more than a dozen countries across three continents, the organization has evolved, according to Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, who has studied the Islamic State for many years. Some activities, such as media, are controlled in a more central way, while others are left to its branches.

The most deadly attacks in 2024 — in Russia and Iran — were carried out by Islamic State operatives believed to have been working with the affiliate known as IS-Khorasan, which is based in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

Eric Schmitt in Washington contributed reporting.

Turmoil at Columbia University as Trump admin demands changes : NPR

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March 15, 2025
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Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University in New York on Friday, March 14, 2025.

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The Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to leaders of Columbia University on Thursday, threatening to end a portion of its federal funding unless the school implements strong controls over an international studies department and makes significant changes to student discipline standards and other university policies.

In a letter obtained by NPR dated March 13, federal officials from the U.S. Education Department, Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years,” requiring them to create a full plan to do so by March 20. The letter didn’t explain why this department was targeted for an academic receivership, an unusual move in which the control of a program is placed in the hands of university administration.

Representatives from the Education Department, HHS and GSA didn’t respond to NPR’s questions about the letter’s demands.

A Columbia University spokesman said in an email to NPR that school officials are reviewing the letter. He added, “We are committed at all times to advancing our mission, supporting our students, and addressing all forms of discrimination and hatred on our campus.”

Leaders of Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s been a tumultuous week at Columbia as the Trump administration appears to have set its sights on the university. His administration has already canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the school, claiming that Columbia failed to police antisemitism on campus in the wake of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring. And the high-profile arrest of a former student involved in those protests continues to keep the school in the public eye.

Columbia is not the only university to face heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration recently: 52 universities are now under investigation as part of the president’s effort to rid institutions of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

This conflict over federal funding at Columbia is the latest flashpoint in a year full of controversy and discord at the university. Here’s a rundown on the recent developments.

Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 30, 2024, after the building was taken over by protesters earlier in the day.

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Craig Ruttle/AP

The Trump administration demands mask bans and new disciplinary rules

Much of the turmoil at Columbia began last spring after university leadership clashed with pro-Palestinian protests on campus, sparked by the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Columbia students, for their part, established encampments on school grounds and took over a university building as they called on university leaders to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Then-president Nemat Shafik stepped down over the summer after facing criticism for calling in police to break up the demonstrations; she’d also been grilled in Congressional hearings related to antisemitism on campus.

Nearly a year later, the university continues to face fallout from the protests. In its recent letter, Trump administration officials claim that Columbia “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

It continues, “U.S. taxpayers invest enormously in U.S. colleges and universities, including Columbia University, and it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all recipients are responsible stewards of federal funds.”

The letter also demands that Columbia expel or levy multi-year suspensions for students who participated in demonstrations and encampments last spring. Federal officials are also demanding the school establish a new, formal antisemitism definition and policy; reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions practices “to conform with federal law and policy” (though it didn’t specify which laws or policy); and to grant Columbia security officers “full law enforcement authority.”

The university also must ban masks on campus meant to hide the wearer’s identity “or intimidate others,” with an exception for religious and health reasons, the letter says. It also says that Columbia must closely scrutinize student groups that may be “operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized groups engaged in violations of University policy” and hold those organizations accountable if in violation.

Even after last week’s $400 million cuts, the government has said Columbia holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments. The Associated Press reports that last week’s cuts have already affected research studies at Columbia’s medical center, which relies on grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University in New York on Friday, March 14, 2025.

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Jason DeCrow/AP

The Trump administration continues to call these protests, which are largely peaceful, antisemitic. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups that organized the pro-Palestinian protests, include Jewish students and groups among its organizers and participants.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., called the the Trump administration’s targeting of higher education part of “an all-out assault on the norms of our democracy and against the very existence of critical institutions, programs and services across all sectors of our society.”

By taking this step, and justifying it as protecting Jewish students, the Trump administration is abusing real fears of Jewish Americans about rising antisemitism, Ben-Ami said in a press release.

“That is why it is so painful to see the very real fears of Jewish Americans about rising antisemitism being abused by the Trump Administration to advance a nefarious agenda that undercuts key pillars of the Jewish experience – from civil rights to immigration and higher education,” Ben-Ami said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said the students’ actions are “protected political speech.”

When last week’s funding cuts were first announced, the group’s executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement, “This move is the latest escalation by the Trump administration to coerce colleges and universities into censoring student speech and advocacy that isn’t MAGA-approved, like criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinian rights.”

Immigration agents called in, days after former student Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

On Thursday night, immigration agents from the Department of Homeland Security searched two student residences at Columbia. They left without making any arrests or seizing any evidence, Gothamist, an NPR affiliate, reported.

Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, wrote in a message to the school community confirming that the officers served the university with two warrants “to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms.”

“Columbia continues to make every effort to ensure that our campus, students, faculty, and staff are safe,” she wrote. “Columbia is committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same.”

It’s unclear if this search had anything to do with the arrest of pro-Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was detained by immigration officials last Saturday. Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident originally from Syria, was taken into custody by the authorities in front of his pregnant wife at their university apartment and told he would be deported. The incident has set off protests and a legal battle.

Khalil was one of the Columbia students who negotiated on behalf of the campus protesters who were pressing the school to divest from Israel last spring.

President Trump has long criticized pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Within days of taking office, he signed an executive order calling on the Department of Justice to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

The Trump administration has accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to” the terrorist group Hamas. However, Khalil has not been charged with any crime.

Civil rights groups and attorneys representing Khalil have lambasted the Trump administration for the arrest.

“This is a clear attempt by President Trump to make an example out of Mr. Khalil and silence dissent across the country. No matter what your views are on Israel & Palestine, we should all be terrified of a government incarcerating its residents for their political opinions,” Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Center for Democracy, said in a statement.

Hamas Says It’s Willing to Release U.S.-Israeli Hostage Edan Alexander

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March 15, 2025
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Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, later described Mr. Boehler’s meetings as a “one-off” that had yet to produce results.

But Hamas’s latest offer was similar to what Mr. Boehler proposed last week in Doha, which included a plan to jump-start negotiations for the second phase and bring home the remaining hostages, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. That proposal followed days of talks that Mr. Boehler conducted in close coordination with Mr. Witkoff, the official said.

Up to 24 living hostages and the bodies of more than 30 others are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas and other militant groups seized about 250 hostages during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. More than 100 have returned alive to Israel after deals with Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli soldiers retrieved the bodies of dozens of others during the ground invasion of Gaza.

In mid-January, Israel and Hamas signed off on the multiphase cease-fire, during which 30 hostages and the remains of eight others were exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners over the first six weeks of the truce. The release of others — like Mr. Alexander — was deferred until both sides concluded talks on the nebulous “second phase.”

Mr. Alexander grew up in Tenafly, N.J., with Israeli-born parents. After high school, he moved to Israel to enlist in the military; he was abducted from the post where he was stationed during the Hamas-led attack. Hamas published a hostage video in which he appeared last year.

The prospect that captives holding another nationality — like Mr. Alexander — might be prioritized has already prompted furious denunciation from the relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Many have called for a single agreement that frees all the remaining captives at once.

“If Israel insists on stopping in the middle and leaves its citizens behind — let every Israeli mother know that she must get her son a foreign passport, or else he’ll be abandoned,” the Hostage Families Forum, an advocacy group, said in a statement.

Block on Trump executive orders restricting DEI programs lifted : NPR

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March 15, 2025
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President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, March 14, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court on Friday lifted a block on executive orders seeking to end government support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, handing the Trump administration a win after a string of setbacks defending President Donald Trump’s agenda from dozens of lawsuits.

The decision from a three-judge panel allows the orders to be enforced as a lawsuit challenging them plays out. The appeals court judges halted a nationwide injunction from U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore.

Two of the judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that Trump’s anti-DEI push could eventually raise concerns about First Amendment rights but said the judge’s sweeping block went too far.

“My vote should not be understood as agreement with the orders’ attack on efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Judge Pamela Harris wrote. Two of the panel’s members were appointed by President Barack Obama, while the third was appointed by Trump.

Abelson had found the orders likely violated free-speech rights and are unconstitutionally vague since they don’t have a specific definition of DEI.

Trump signed an order his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI.

The city of Baltimore and other groups sued the Trump administration, arguing the executive orders are an unconstitutional overreach of presidential authority.

The Justice Department has argued that the president was targeting only DEI programs that violate federal civil rights laws. Government attorneys said the administration should be able to align federal spending with the president’s priorities.

Abelson, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, agreed with the plaintiffs that the executive orders discourage businesses, organizations and public entities from openly supporting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Efforts to increase diversity long have been under attack by Republicans who contend the measures threaten merit-based hiring, promotion and educational opportunities for white people. Supporters say the programs help institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse populations while addressing the lasting impacts of systemic racism.

Their purpose was to foster equitable environments in businesses and schools, especially for historically marginalized communities. Researchers say DEI initiatives date back to the 1960s but they expanded in 2020 during increased calls for racial justice.

In addition to the mayor and the Baltimore City Council, the plaintiffs include the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents restaurant workers across the country.

In Mexico, a Grisly Discovery of Piles of Shoes, Ovens and Human Remains

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March 15, 2025
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A group of volunteers searching for their missing relatives first received a tip last week about a mass grave hidden in western Mexico.

When they arrived at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela, a small rural village outside Guadalajara, they discovered three underground cremation ovens, burned human remains, hundreds of bone shards and discarded personal items, along with figurines of Santa Muerte — the Holy Death.

The Mexican authorities, who were notified of the grisly discovery, said in several statements that they later found 96 shell casings of various calibers and metal gripping rings at the ranch. By last Friday, the discovery was dominating local newspapers and TV reports, and the search group was referring to the site as an “extermination camp.”

It is unclear how many people died on the site, and none of remains have been identified. The authorities have yet to say who operated the camp, what crimes were committed there and for how long. But this week, the Attorney General’s Office took over the investigation at the request of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Photos taken by the authorities and by the volunteer group, Searching Warriors of Jalisco, at the abandoned ranch showed more than 200 shoes piled together and heaps of other personal items: a blue summer dress, a small pink backpack, notebooks, pieces of underwear. The more than 700 personal items were a chilling hint about the number of people who may have died there.

In a country seemingly inured to episodes of brutal violence from drug cartels, where clandestine graves emerge every month, the images shocked Mexicans and prompted outraged human rights groups to demand that the government put an end to the violence that has ravaged the nation for years.

“We immediately connected them with Nazi concentration camps,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst based in Mexico City. “The number of the victims that presumably could have been buried there is enormous, and it resurfaced the nightmarish reminder that Mexico is plagued with mass graves,” Mr. Guerrero added.

More than 120,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in Mexico since record-keeping began in 1962, according to official data. Human rights groups and collectives of volunteers in search of their missing relatives have warned that the number could be higher.

The discovery at the ranch comes at a time where Ms. Sheinbaum faces intense pressure from President Trump to crack down on organized crime in order to avoid tariffs on exports to the United States and even possible U.S. military intervention to hunt down cartel members.

Partly because of Mr. Trump’s threats, Ms. Sheinbaum has shifted security issues back to the center of her agenda and has taken a more aggressive approach to fighting crime than her predecessor, experts and analysts say. But her government faces significant challenges as she tackles the powerful criminal groups that control large areas of the country.

One of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which emerged in the early 2010s, is now a major producer and trafficker of synthetic drugs, particularly fentanyl and methamphetamine. The group, which operates in the state of Jalisco and across the country, has diversified into other criminal activities like illegal logging, human trafficking and extortion.

The authorities have said that the ranch could have been operated by the Jalisco cartel. The group’s dominance and its rapid expansion in recent years have coincided with a growing number of homicides, forced disappearances and discoveries of mass graves in Jalisco state.

Indira Navarro, leader of Searching Warriors of Jalisco, which found the site, said in interviews with local news media this week that several individuals had contacted the group to say that they had been recruited and trained at the site in the use of different weapons and torture techniques. But the ranch, they said, was also used as a killing site where criminals routinely disposed of their victims.

Ms. Navarro, who could not be reached for comment, told the news outlets that, according to the testimonies, young people from other states were recruited through false job offers posted on social media. Once they accepted the jobs, she said, they were summoned to a bus station in Guadalajara, the state capital, and from there they were taken to the ranch.

Ms. Navarro recounted that one young man had told her that the young recruits were at times forced to burn their victims as part of their training. If they objected to the orders of their trainers, the recruits were sometimes fed to wild animals, like lions, she said.

“This is not a horror film; this is our reality, and people should know about it,” Ms. Navarro, whose brother went missing nine years ago, said in an interview with a national radio show.

The New York Times could not independently verify the accounts.

The local authorities first located the ranch last September and found weapons, shell casings and bone fragments there, according to official reports, but further investigations were stopped for reasons that are unclear. During the same inspection, officials found and rescued two people who had been kidnapped and held at the ranch, and also discovered a body wrapped in plastic.

The state attorney general, Salvador González, has since told local news media that it had not been possible to search the entire ranch back in September “because there are a lot of hectares in the area.”

Ms. Sheinbaum suggested during a news conference this week that the local authorities might have been omissive in their initial investigation.

The attorney general “is correct in stating it is not credible that a situation of this nature would not have been known to the authorities of that municipality and the state,” she said. “But the first thing we have to do is investigate.”

Trump reclaims Justice Department reshaped in his wake : NPR

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March 15, 2025
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President Trump speaks at the Justice Department on Friday.

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In a winding speech given from the Department of Justice — a place not typically frequented by sitting presidents — President Trump blasted former officials and lawyers who investigated him, saying they turned the department into one of “injustice.”

The remarks were billed as an address on law and order by the White House. Trump did announce a new advertising campaign to curb fentanyl use. But he spent the majority of his time on stage going after the “hacks and radicals” in the U.S. government who he said eroded trust.

“They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people,” Trump said.

Trump called out former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Marc Elias, a lawyer who worked against Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Mark Pomerantz, a lawyer who investigated Trump’s business practices, calling them “really bad people.”

The president faced federal charges after he left office in 2021, including for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost — though the Justice Department dropped that case when Trump won reelection in November.

Trump’s speech Friday comes as his administration has spent the last several weeks trying to reconfigure the Justice Department, including demoting attorneys who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and firing officials who investigated the president himself.

“We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals, and we’re restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law,” Trump said to dozens of people gathered at the DOJ, including his Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Hands-off approach

Presidents typically have a more hands-off approach to the DOJ, in an effort to preserve the independence of the rule of law.

Trump was the first president to come to the Justice Department in person since President Barack Obama, who was there twice — once to talk about changes his administration was making to surveillance programs.

But Trump hasn’t hesitated to talk about the Justice Department, and it came up repeatedly on the campaign trail as he railed against the federal charges against him; Trump said he would use the DOJ to go after people he sees as disloyal.

In his speech on Friday, Trump boasted that his administration stripped security clearances from others who have investigated him, including Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump has also revoked security clearance and intelligence briefings for former President Joe Biden.

Trump also went after the press, and said coverage of Judge Aileen Cannon should have been “illegal.” Cannon, appointed by Trump, threw out the federal case that accused Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“The case against me was bull**** and she correctly dismissed it,” Trump said.

Trump said he has appointed “patriotic tough on crime warriors” to the DOJ. He said he would revive the 1033 program, which gives excess military equipment to state and local law enforcement.

Trump also said he will launch an anti-drug advertising campaign that shows the effects of fentanyl on the body.

“Everyone’s vain. They don’t want to lose their look. The look is so important. And I think when they see these things, they may say, you know what, I’m going to take a pass,” he said.

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