By El Latino Newsroom
redaccion@latinocc.com
An explosion outside a police station in the town of Coahuayana, Michoacán, killed five people and injured twelve others on Saturday, authorities confirmed Sunday.
The blast, which occurred around midday, came from a pickup truck parked near the station. Among the dead were three members of a local community police force and the truck’s driver, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. At least five of the injured were also community officers.
The explosion took place in the town center of Coahuayana, a small coastal community situated in a region long plagued by violence involving organized crime groups.
Officials say the attack took place in an area plagued by cartel violence, including activity from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, as are several other cartels and armed factions competing for territorial control.
The use of explosives has become more frequent in cartel conflicts, though vehicle bombs remain rare.
Community police commander Héctor Zepeda described the scene as “devastating,” with human remains scattered by the force of the blast.
The attack coincided with a high-profile event in Mexico City, where Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla and President Claudia Sheinbaum were attending a rally marking seven years since the founding of the ruling Morena party.
Neither official has issued a detailed public statement regarding the explosion.
Authorities are investigating the explosion and have not yet identified who was behind it. Michoacán has long been a hotspot for organized crime due to its access to drug trafficking routes and chemical precursors.
Saturday’s explosion is the latest in a series of violent incidents to hit Michoacán, a state where the Mexican federal government has recently launched intensified security operations.
Despite these efforts, regions like Coahuayana continue to suffer from instability, driven by persistent cartel activity and disputes over lucrative trafficking routes and extortion rackets.
At least three of the six Mexican cartels currently designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, United Cartels, and the New Michoacán Family, maintain a presence in the region.
Several smaller, homegrown splinter groups, some backed by the rival Sinaloa Cartel, also operate in the area, further complicating enforcement efforts.
BOLIVIA
A paleontological site in the heart of the Bolivian Andes has been confirmed as home to the world’s largest collection of theropod dinosaur footprints, with over 16,600 fossilized tracks discovered in Toro Toro National Park.
The findings, published in PLOS One, are the result of a six-year study led by Spanish paleontologist Raúl Esperante and a research team from California’s Loma Linda University.
The tracks, left by two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex, date back over 60 million years and are unusually well preserved.
“There’s no other place with this level of abundance,” said study co-author Roberto Biaggi. “We have all these world records at this site.”
The research also uncovered over 1,300 traces of swimming attempts made by the dinosaurs in what was once a system of shallow lakes.
The muddy lakebeds preserved the movements as water levels rose, sealing the prints in sediment.
Experts say the site offers an unparalleled look into dinosaur behavior at the end of the Cretaceous period.
“This is a remarkable window into the lives of dinosaurs,” said Richard Butler, a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham who was not involved in the study.
However, human activity has long threatened the preservation of the footprints. Farming, rock quarrying, and even road construction projects have previously disturbed or nearly destroyed some fossil sites.
In fact, while Toro Toro holds a vast number of tracks, it has yielded very few bones, eggs, or teeth — unlike nearby fossil-rich regions in Argentina and Brazil.
The researchers believe the area may have served as a migratory corridor rather than a settlement, noting the diversity in footprint size, from towering 33-foot creatures to theropods no taller than a chicken.
“These prints show everyday dinosaur life in motion,” said Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland.
The discovery reinforces the scientific value of Toro Toro and may further calls to better protect this unique natural archive.
ECUADOR
Thirteen inmates were killed Sunday inside the Machala Prison in Ecuador following the detonation of an explosive device outside the facility, the latest deadly incident in a country struggling to contain gang violence inside its prisons.
The prison authority confirmed the deaths Monday, stating that forensic teams were investigating the exact causes of death. Officials have not released the identities of the deceased.
Machala Prison has been the site of repeated violence. Just last month, 31 inmates were killed in a riot linked to the transfer of high-risk detainees. In September, another 14 were killed in gang-related fighting.
Ecuador’s prison system has been under military control since President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency earlier this year, labeling the crisis an “internal armed conflict” against drug cartels.
The decree came after a gang leader’s escape sparked nationwide chaos, including attacks on news outlets and the abduction of prison guards.
Despite these measures, conditions inside many prisons remain unstable. Gangs continue to operate from within, managing drug shipments and extortion schemes. Ecuador has seen its homicide rate triple over the past four years, much of it linked to organized crime.
On Monday, lawmakers from the ruling party proposed constitutional amendments aimed at limiting sentence reductions and other benefits for inmates involved in violent crimes.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has recorded nearly 600 prison deaths in Ecuador since 2020. It continues to call for independent investigations into conditions and violence in detention facilities.
The recent killings underscore the limitations of the current security strategy and raise questions about the state’s ability to reclaim control of its penitentiary system.
MEXICO 2
The death toll from a deadly explosion outside a police station in the coastal town of Coahuayana, in western Mexico’s Michoacán state, has risen to five, state prosecutors confirmed Sunday. The blast, which occurred midday Saturday, also left at least twelve people injured, including members of a community police force.
According to the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office, the explosion originated from a pickup truck parked near the police station. The remains of two individuals were recovered at the scene, including the body of the truck’s driver, who is believed to have died in the initial detonation. Authorities have not released the names of the victims, but confirmed that three of the deceased and five of the injured were affiliated with local self-defense forces.
The explosion took place in the town center of Coahuayana, a small coastal community situated in a region long plagued by violence involving organized crime groups.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, is known to be active in the area, as are several other cartels and armed factions competing for territorial control.
The attack coincided with a high-profile event in Mexico City, where Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla and President Claudia Sheinbaum were attending a rally marking seven years since the founding of the ruling Morena party.
Neither official has issued a detailed public statement regarding the explosion.
Community police commander Héctor Zepeda described the scene as “devastating,” noting that the blast was so powerful that human remains were scattered across a wide area. Investigators are still working to determine whether the vehicle was rigged with an improvised explosive device (IED) or if the explosion was triggered remotely.
While the use of explosives has become more common in cartel warfare — particularly aerial attacks via drones and roadside devices — vehicle-borne bombs remain relatively rare in Mexico.
Their deployment, however, marks a troubling evolution in the tactics employed by criminal groups, raising concerns about increased lethality in local confrontations.
Coahuayana, like many towns across Michoacán, has experienced years of conflict tied to drug trafficking, extortion, and turf wars. For over two decades, the state has been a flashpoint in Mexico’s broader battle against organized crime due to its strategic location and proximity to Pacific ports, which serve as key entry points for chemical precursors used in the production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Local self-defense groups, known as policías comunitarias, emerged in the early 2010s as a civilian response to cartel violence, with communities taking up arms to protect themselves where state and federal forces were absent or ineffective. Though some of these forces were later formalized by the state government, others have faced infiltration by criminal elements over the years, blurring the lines between community defense and armed militias.
Saturday’s explosion is the latest in a series of violent incidents to hit Michoacán, a state where the Mexican federal government has recently launched intensified security operations.
Despite these efforts, regions like Coahuayana continue to suffer from instability, driven by persistent cartel activity and disputes over lucrative trafficking routes and extortion rackets.
At least three of the six Mexican cartels currently designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, United Cartels, and the New Michoacán Family, maintain a presence in the region.
Several smaller, homegrown splinter groups, some backed by the rival Sinaloa Cartel, also operate in the area, further complicating enforcement efforts.
