with the heaviest falling on 05 September when the city of Cadereyta Jiménez recorded 242.9 mm of rain in 24 hours Flash floods struck across several municipalities in the area Around 350 homes were damaged in several neighbourhoods in and around the state capital Monterrey including Cadereyta Jiménez and Juárez municipalities Civil Protection helped to evacuate around 200 residents from flooded homes in Cadereyta Jiménez Firefighters and Nuevo León Civil Protection rescued 8 adults and 2 children from flooded areas along the La Silla river in Guadalupe Flooding caused chaos on roads around the affected area and emergency teams helped to rescue the occupants of 95 vehicles trapped in flood waters State Civil Protection reported 4 people died when a vehicle was swept off the Allende-Cadereyta highway near the village of Barranquito in Cadereyta Jiménez municipality One person was also reported missing after a motorcycle was swept away in the Barrio del Prado neighbourhood in Monterrey The heavy rain helped replenish local reservoirs which had suffered after a year of drought in the state Restrictions on drinking water remained in place however Se reporta tres personas atrapadas en el interior de un camión de CFE en la carretera estatal de#Montemorelos Se aproximan unidades de Protección Civil Nuevo León y Protección Civil Montemorelos Actualizamos pic.twitter.com/YVy5qacZAN — Protección Civil NL (@PC_NuevoLeon) September 6, 2022 Evita cruzar por zonas inundadas ⚠️🌧 Cualquier situación de riesgo, llama al 9-1-1 ⛑ #TodosSomosProtecciónCivil pic.twitter.com/Fn91jB8ix6 — Protección Civil NL (@PC_NuevoLeon) September 5, 2022 #AlMomento Actualizamos pic.twitter.com/fplvtCLmB8 — Protección Civil NL (@PC_NuevoLeon) September 3, 2022 Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList Reporting by Jackie Botts; Editing by Stefanie Eschenbacher Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved Pemex Transformación Industrial (PTI), the processing arm of state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is investigating the cause of two gas explosions that occurred on Dec Lara Sosa refining complex in Cadereyta Jiménez The morning explosions—which stemmed from an accumulation of gas in the refinery and resulted in minor injuries to five contract workers at the site—were under control by 1:00 p.m the government of Nuevo León and  Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón said in a series of posts to their official Twitter accounts In a separate post to its official Twitter account Pemex said the incident—identified by the operator as a “roar” in a section of the refinery’s storm drainage system—did not cause any major personal injuries or material damages at the site The refinery is continuing to operate normally and an investigation into the root cause of the incident is under way Pemex said without disclosing additional details the Cadereyta refinery had completed 21 of 24 scheduled repairs under the rehabilitation program in projects that were budgeted for 2.4 billion pesos in 2019 and 2.1 billion pesos in 2020 Following completion of repairs planned for site during 2020—which were scheduled to run from August to October—the government said it expected crude processing at the Cadereyta refinery to increase to 160,000 b/d in November from 115,000 b/d in July 2020 Pemex said during 2020 it would rehabilitate 11 processing plants at Cadereyta—the only refinery in Mexico’s refining system whose entire gasoline and diesel production completely conforms to ultralow-sulfur standards—at a cost of 4.125 billion pesos with major repair works to be completed at a total of 26 of the Cadereyta refinery’s plants by yearend 2023 as part of the national rehabilitation program—to which Mexico has allocated an overall budget of 22.905 billion pesos for all six refineries By Azra Halilovic / CU-CitizenAccess.org / Hoy– It was 40 years ago that 7-year-old Herlinda Kauffman squeezed into a brown Chevy Impala in Mexico with nine other people and headed for Illinois “There were 10 people in a small car with all the things that we owned in the world,” said Kauffman who recalled piling on top of her brothers and sisters “The little ones had to sit in the floorboards Kauffman and her family drove nearly 1,400 miles in four days from Cadereyta Jiménez to Arcola “[My dad] didn’t feel comfortable enough to drive the whole way,” said Kauffman laughing as she recalled him nervously chain-smoking the entire trip “Dad had never learned to drive till he bought that car But I mean his friend was in the same boat — he had just learned to drive.” like others from Mexico that would arrive in Arcola over the years came because of the “broomcorn” – corn made into brooms in Arcola A small town of nearly 3,000 residents in Douglas County about three hours south of Chicago Arcola is known for the Amish community that settled in 1865 City Administrator Bill Wagoner says Arcola is like about any other small Midwestern town except for its broomcorn and sizeable Latino population “Our roots are in the broom and household product industry They grew broomcorn here and that kind of brought in the manufacturing of brooms.” Population growth in Arcola has increased slightly – from about 2,270 in 1970 to 2,916 in 2010 But over time the town is about 30 percent Latino-a figure that doesn’t include the waves of seasonal Latino migrant workers who come during summer and fall From the 1880s to the 1950s Arcola was known as the broomcorn capital of the world the planting of broomcorn in Arcola itself diminished but the Libman factory where the material is produced has continued Arcolans for generations threw themselves into that difficult labor remembers harvesting the crop more than a half century ago with his father the ethnic background of those doing the work has changed In the 1940s, Cadereyta Jiménez in the state of Nuevo León was considered the broomcorn capital of Mexico, and many residents knew how to harvest the corn and manufacture goods. Because Arcola started importing Cadereyta’s broomcorn, families began moving to Illinois to carry out the arduous task of cutting, laying out and preparing the plants that can grow as high as 12 to 14 feet. There are some Tejanos, like Irazema Galyiz of Farr, Texas, and families from places in Southern Mexico like Chiapas. But the majority of the town’s Mexican residents hail from Cadereyta Jiménez. Cristobal Gonzalez has lived in the town for 20 years and watched the migration of Mexican workers who came to town with the expertise in broomcorn. “Everyone already knows what to do,” he said. But after arriving, Gonzalez said some workers branch into other jobs in the area. Kauffman’s father was among the many Mexican immigrants in Arcola who had been a broom maker by trade but came to the U.S. to make more money doing the same job. Her parents, like many from Cadereyta, picked up work at the Libman broom company. Kauffman, 48, is now a community liaison and organizer who has been helping Latino families transition to life in the Midwest since 1986. Wagoner says not only the work, but the culture are why the town has experienced a Latino boom. “There’s a lot of large classes in the grade school,” said Wagoner about the shift in Arcola’s schools. Indeed, Latino students made up nearly 39 percent of Arcola’s classrooms for the 2011-2012 school year. In the 2002-2003 school year, there were just under 200 Latino students. By the 2011-2012 school year, there were just over 300 Latino students, a 57 percent increase from the earlier time. Language barriers are a big concern for Latino adults, said Kauffman, and most turn to the local Latino community center, Mi Raza. Operating out of a former garage storage bay, the center provides childcare for parents in English classes. It also offers resources for legal help, youth community engagement and a computer lab open to the community. “We are health department tbased but have connections to mental health and just kind of what the community needs,” said Director Tim Flavin, who has been running the center for five years. “We tend to really use our observation more or more instead of what they tell us they want.” Flavin says he advocates a philosophy of holistic wellness and believes the center has been integral in helping Arcola’s Latinos. He said Mi Raza prides itself especially for educating young people about the possibility of college through a program called “College is Possible.” “We had some students who didn’t know they could attend college in Illinois,” Flavin said. He said they considered going back to Mexico, where they hadn’t been since childhood. The program introduced many adolescents to the possibility of legally going to college through the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM). The DREAM Act grants residency to undocumented youth if they meet certain conditions, such as graduating high school or getting a GED and going to college. Meanwhile, to celebrate the growth of ethnic diversity in Arcola, a group of artists known as the Walldogs came to Arcola in June. They were invited by Arcola’s beautification committee, which was impressed by the murals the artists painted in Danville, Ill. The Walldogs painted 15 colorful murals in downtown Arcola, each one telling a different story that characterizes the town. Some depict Amish families, while others depict Latino immigrants and broomcorn. Other Arcola businesses are responding to the changing demographics. IGA, the local grocery store, has begun carrying Mexican and Central American foods to cater to the Latino population in town, said Manager David Rauch, who has lived in Arcola since the 1980s. “Somewhat similar to like what Champaign’s doing the Asian kind of thing and Arthur doing an Amish kind of need,” said Rauch. “We tend to the need of the Latino people because that’s our biggest buyers of in this store.” He said there is a Mexican grocery store in town, but many Latinos still stop in at the IGA for goods. Rauch said it is the type of place where everybody knows everybody and will help one another out. The broomcorn industry brought a lot of Mexicans to Arcola, he said, but that the corn isn’t what it used to be. “Broomcorn is something that you don’t see much anymore around in this area,” said Rauch. He said most of the so-called broomcorn is now broom grass with filler. “It costs so much to harvest it (because) it’s got to be harvested by hand, there’s no machine to actually harvest broomcorn, and it’s a nasty job,” he said. But he said it brought in a new demographic of people that has changed the town for the better. “They’re very good, honest people,” said Rauch. “They don’t want to create any waves or anything like that. As far as community goes, I think they’ve kind of been a plus to it.” The streets may not yet be filled with Mexican eateries and groceries, but businesses like El Taco Tako are popping up. Owners Arturo and Maria Zendeja are the only employees. They see a variety of customers, from local whites and Latinos to passersby and migrant workers. “Fifteen or 20 years ago, the Latino community here kept to its own culture and wasn’t really assimilating,” said real estate agent Wilmer Otto. But Otto said the Amish are the only group that really keeps to itself now, for religious reasons. “But as the kids went through school, there was more and more acceptance. There are still some conservative bigots who push ‘go back to Mexico,’ but I think the Latinos here are generally recognized as a good labor force,” he said. — (Hoy Chicago Editor Jeff Kelly Lowenstein contributed to this report.) MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican police found nine bodies hanging from an overpass Thursday alongside a drug cartel banner threatening rivals, and seven more corpses hacked up and dumped by the road nearby. Just down the road were three more bodies, for a total of 19. The killing spree reported by prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan marked a return to the grisly massacres carried out by drug cartels at the height of Mexico's 2006-2012 drug war, when piles of bodies were dumped on roadways as a message to authorities and rival gangs. Two of the bodies hung by ropes from the overpass by their necks, half naked, and one of the dismembered bodies were women, Michoacan Attorney General Adrián López Solís said at a news conference. The victims in the city of Uruapan had been shot to death. Some were hung with their hands bound, some with their pants pulled down. While the banner was not completely legible, it bore the initials of the notoriously violent Jalisco drug cartel, and mentioned the Viagras, a rival gang. "Be a patriot, kill a Viagra," the banner read in part. "This kind of public, theatrical violence, where you don't just kill, but you brag about killing, is meant to intimidate rivals and send a message to the authorities," said Mexico security analyst Alejandro Hope. "This kind of cynical impunity has been increasing in Michoacan," Hope added. In one particularly brazen attack in May, a convoy of pickups and SUVs openly marked with the letters "CJNG" — the Spanish initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — drove through the Michoacan city of Zamora at night, shooting up police vehicles and killing or wounding several officers. Uruapan is where Mexico's drug war first erupted in 2006, when members of the now-diminished La Familia cartel rolled five severed heads onto the floor of a dance hall. What followed were eight years of terror in Michoacan, until farmers and ranchers rose up in an armed vigilante movement to drive La Familia and its successor cartel, the Caballero's Templarios, out of the state. Hipólito Mora, one of the original founders of the vigilante movement, said the violence is worse than ever and he wants the army to come back to Michoacan to help battle the cartels. "We're worse off now than we were then," Mora said. The state attorney general said the killings discovered Thursday appeared to be part of a turf war. "Certain criminal gangs are fighting over territory, to control activities related to drug production distribution and consumption," López Solís said. "Unfortunately, this conflict results in these kinds of acts that justifiably alarm the public." Meanwhile, in another part of Mexico, an angry crowd beat and hanged seven suspected kidnappers, leaving some of their bodies dangling from trees, the national Human Rights Commission said Thursday night. The Puebla state government said police and soldiers were sent to the area to try to stop the attack, but villagers from the hamlets of Tepexco and Cohuecan kept them from intervening. Late Thursday, authorities in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz reported that four dismembered male bodies had been found in 15 bags left along highways near the state's border with Puebla. Veracruz is another battleground between the Jalisco cartel and other criminal groups. For years, Mexican cartels had seemed loath to draw attention to themselves with mass public displays of bodies. Instead, the gangs went to great lengths to hide bodies, by creating clandestine burial pits or dissolving corpses in caustic chemicals. But the Jalisco gang, which has gained a reputation for directly challenging authorities, appears to have returned to showy killings as a way to intimidate rivals. In 2011, the then-smaller Jalisco cartel dumped 35 bodies on an expressway in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. In 2012, the Zetas cartel left 49 decapitated bodies on a highway in northern Mexico, and later in the same year they strung nine bodies from an overpass and left 14 severed heads near the city hall. Still, homicides dropped for a few years between 2012 and 2015, and many thought Mexico's drug war was winding down. But homicides surged again last year and Mexico now has more murders than it did during the peak year of killings in 2011. In the first half of 2019, Mexico set a record for homicides, with 17,608, up 5.3% compared to the same period of 2018. The country of almost 125 million people now sees as many as 100 killings a day nationwide. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug gang killers dumped the mutilated bodies of more than 40 people on a highway near the northern city of Monterrey in one of the worst atrocities to hit Mexico in recent years.The mutilated corpses were found stuffed into bags in the early hours of Sunday on a highway in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez officials from the state of Nuevo Leon said.There were more than 40 victims A state police official said the death toll may have been as high as 49.It was not immediately clear who the victims were A forensic investigator at the scene said some of the bodies showed signs of decay indicating that they may have been dead for days.It was the latest in a string of mass slayings that have convulsed Mexico over the past few months many of them concentrated in the north of the country where the brutal Zetas drug gang has waged a bloody war for control of smuggling routes.President Felipe Calderon staked his reputation on bringing Mexico's drug gangs to heel sending in the army to fight them shortly after taking office in December 2006.Since then and more than 50,000 people have fallen victim to the conflict.The violence has eroded support for Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) which looks likely to lose power when Mexico elects a new president on July 1 The constitution prevents Calderon from seeking a second term in office.The Nuevo Leon government official said the killings appeared to be the work of drug cartels and that a message of the kind often favored by the gangs had been left at the scene But it was not clear who was responsible.The Zetas have been locked in a bloody conflict with other gangs 18 people who were found decapitated and dismembered near Mexico's second-largest city the bodies of nine people were found hanging from a bridge and 14 others found dismembered in the city of Nuevo Laredo border from Laredo in Texas.Late last year several mass killings took place in the eastern state of Veracruz which has been ravaged by the Zetas.Reporting By Michael O'Boyle Dave Graham and Ioan Grillo; Editing by Kieran Murray Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug cartel killers in Mexico dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near the northern city of Monterrey a sickening atrocity that prompted the government to condemn the "inhuman" violence plaguing the country.The corpses of 43 men and six women whose hands and feet had also been cut off were found in a pile on a highway in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez early on Sunday officials from the state of Nuevo Leon said.The Nuevo Leon government said the notorious Zetas drug gang had claimed responsibility for the bloodbath one of the worst to hit Mexico during its struggle against the powerful cartels.The massacre follows several other mass slayings in Mexico where the Zetas have waged a war against rival groups for control of smuggling routes into the United States the biggest market for illicit drugs.The Mexican government said in a statement the evidence suggested turf wars between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman were behind the surge in bloodshed.Condemning the "inhuman episodes of irrational violence" the warring gangs had caused the government pledged to uphold justice in Mexico with "all of its force and might."The Zetas gang was founded by deserters from the Mexican army who became enforcers for the Gulf cartel which once dominated the drug trade in northeastern Mexico Leaders of the Zetas later split from their employers and the two gangs have since fought for control of trafficking routes.The Zetas have also been at war with the Sinaloa cartel headed by Guzman the country's most wanted man.President Felipe Calderon has staked his reputation on bringing Mexico's drug gangs to heel sending in the army to fight them shortly after taking power in December 2006.But the violence has spiraled since and more than 50,000 people have fallen victim to the conflict eroding support for Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) which looks likely to lose power in presidential elections on July 1.A poll published on Sunday showed PAN presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota trailing front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) by 19 points with just seven weeks to go.The commercial hub of Monterrey was long a bastion of the PAN and the local business community has been "livid" about the violence engulfing the city a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Virginia."This puts the final nail in the coffin of the PAN in the presidential contest," he said after the latest atrocity.Surveys show voters think that the PRI which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000 Its long rule was tainted by corruption and critics have accused the PRI of making deals with cartels to maintain order.Vazquez Mota took a swipe at the PRI after the headless bodies were discovered suggesting regions governed by the centrist party - which include Nuevo Leon and nearly two-thirds of Mexico's states - had allowed crime to flourish."What happened in Cadereyta must be investigated is the kind of permissiveness seen in these states towards organized crime," she told Reuters in the eastern port of Veracruz on Sunday.TATTOOED VICTIMSThe headless victims have not been identified.The bodies showed signs of decay indicating they may have been dead for days Nuevo Leon Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said He noted there had been no mass disappearances reported in the state so the victims could have died elsewhere.De la Garza said many of the bodies were tattooed which could offer a clue to their identities The dead may have been migrants passing through Mexico to the United States Migrants have been targeted by criminal gangs in the past.Violent street gangs in Central America like the Maras have distinctive tattoos though Nuevo Leon public security spokesman Jorge Domene said the victims did not show these markings.Domene said some had tattoos of Santa Muerte or "Holy Death" a female skeletal grim reaper venerated by both gangs and some broader non-criminal sections of Mexican society.The corpses were taken to Monterrey and authorities said they would perform DNA tests Thousands of Mexico's drug war victims have never been identified.SPIRAL OF VIOLENCEThe bloody killings in Nuevo Leon were the worst there since 52 people died in an arson attack on a casino in Monterrey in August That attack was also blamed on the Zetas.Monterrey is Mexico's most affluent city and was long seen as a model of economic development in Latin America But it has been ravaged by the drug war over the last three years.The horrifying conflict has been marked by an escalation of mass slaughter in recent weeks.Last Wednesday 18 people were found decapitated and dismembered near Mexico's second-largest city border from Laredo in Texas.Security analyst Alberto Islas said much of the recent spike in violence was the result of fighting over cocaine supplies from South America between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel.Increased pressure on Guzman's operations in Colombia this year had prompted the Sinaloa cartel to buy up a bigger share of cocaine from Peru and Ecuador squeezing the Zetas' supply and sparking tit-for-tat attacks among the gangs Islas added.The fact that state and federal authorities had repeatedly failed to capture and prosecute those responsible for the brutality meant the attacks were only getting worse he said."They're fighting across the whole country with complete impunity," he said "The government has to send out a very clear signal they will stop the violence and find those responsible."Late last year which has been ravaged by the Zetas.Reporting by Michael O'Boyle Mica Rosenberg and Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Kieran Murray and Stacey Joyce