MEXICAN drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is “the world’s most powerful drug trafficker”, according to the US Treasury Department.

The mysterious disappearance of a former Mexican presidential candidate has sparked fear that nobody is safe from relentless kidnapping and rampant drug violence.

FEDERAL forces have detained 10 mayors and 18 other officials for allegedly protecting one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels in an unprecedented anti-corruption sweep in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan.

MEXICO CITY lawmakers voted to legalise abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court battle.

SOME 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists yesterday marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas. This is seen as a direct challenge to the new president’s market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.

Mexico’s newly sworn-in president sent more than 6,500 soldiers, sailors and federal police to violence-plagued Michoacan state to crack down on drug turf wars that have left hundreds dead in a wave of execution-style killings and beheadings.

MEXICO’S top electoral court began a marathon session yesterday to rule on challenges to the July 2 presidential election, which have sparked weeks of protests and threatened the country’s stability.

Leftist activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the ballots from Mexico’s disputed presidential election.

Mexico’s main leftist candidate plans to challenge the presidential vote tally at tens of thousands of polling places, and also will allege that attack ads by the apparently victorious conservative were illegally harsh, a top adviser said today.

Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon declared victory in Mexico’s closest presidential race ever, saying today that his 370,000-vote lead was insurmountable.

Mexico’s presidential election was too close to call today, with voters bitterly divided between a left-wing offering himself as a saviour to the poor and a conservative free-trader both declaring themselves the winner.

A cardinal mentioned as a possible future pope is being investigated for possible money laundering, Mexico’s justice department has confirmed.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was urged yesterday to press the president of Mexico on his government’s human rights record during his visit.