José Luis Granados Ceja

José Luis Granados Ceja is a writer and photojournalist based in Mexico City. He has previously written for outlets such as teleSUR and the Two Row Times and has also worked in radio as a host and producer. He specializes in contemporary political analysis and the role of media in influencing the public. He is particularly interested in covering the work of social movements and labor unions throughout Latin America.

Mexico’s AMLO Rejects Venezuela Coup and Becomes a Bulwark Against US Imperialism

“AMLO is trying to carve out an autonomous space for foreign policy that signals to the United States especially that Mexico will not be subserviently going along with the United States but also tries to make claims as to what democratic legitimacy looks like in Latin America.” — Christy Thornton, Johns Hopkins University

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

MEXICO CITY -- The night before Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence personally called him up and pledged the support of the U.S. government should he try to seize power. Sure enough, on January 23, before a large opposition demonstration, Guaidó declared himself interim

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Opponents of Mexico’s Leftist Presidential Frontrunner Turn to Assassination, Vote Buying and Intimidation

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could make history in Sunday’s presidential election in Mexico and his enemies are willing to stop him by any means necessary, including electoral fraud, but thousands of Mexicans are ready and willing to defend their vote.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico appears to be on the cusp of massive change. Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador has a very good shot at winning the upcoming election but the threat of fraud looms over the vote. This election has already been witness to political assassinations, vote buying, and voter intimidation. For several

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In Mexico, Resistance to Govt Collusion with Capitalists and Organized Crime Triggers Criminalization of Dissent

Desperate to contain unrest and rising social discontent, Mexican state officials are working to criminalize activists but are finding that repression can serve to bring more people into political struggle.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja
Members of the Mexicali Resiste Movement demonstrate against the theft of the local water supply by brewing Constellation Brewing. Screenshot | YouTube

MEXICO CITY -- Leon Fierro spent 20 days in a Mexican jail on trumped-up attempted-homicide charges he says came on orders from the government. Upon his release, the human rights activist returned to organizing Mexicans against efforts to privatize their water, visiting Mexico City to speak out against the government’s efforts to intimidate him and

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As Drug War Casualties Mount, Mexicans Take to the Streets Demanding Answers

Mexicans aren’t merely mourning the dead and disappeared; increasingly, they are mobilizing and taking to the streets to voice both their displeasure and their demands for accountability.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja
A woman holds an image of her husband who was detained and assassinated by the state during Mexico's dirty war against leftist social activists in the 1970's, the image reads 'As long as I'm alive, you will never be dead', Mexico City, May 10, 2018. (Photo: José Luis Granados Ceja)

MEXICO CITY -- Three film students in southwest Mexico go out to film a homework assignment; they are kidnapped and killed, their bodies dissolved in acid. Two tourists – one German, one Polish– are traveling through southern Mexico on their bicycles; pathologists say one man was beaten and the other shot in the head execution-style, their

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From Brazil to Ecuador to US, Mexico’s Labor Unions Learn Lessons of Trusting “Progressive” Presidents

Mexican teachers, organized through the National Coordinator of Education Workers, are preparing to fight for the interests of the working class, regardless of who wins the upcoming presidential election.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja
Delegates from across the country gathered in Mexico City to participate in the IV Extraordinary Congress of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) where education workers discussed the organization's strategy in light of looming presidential elections and the challenge of overturning neoliberal structural reforms in Mexico, March 15, 2018. (Photo: José Luis Granados Ceja)

MEXICO CITY, --  With a presidential election approaching, the crowds assembling here Tuesday for International Workers’ Day -- or May Day, as it’s know the world over -- were more animated than usual, the floats and rallies resembling performance art. Thousands poured into Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo, to hang in effigy the wage-killing

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The Indigenous Community that Rebelled Against Narcos, Thieves, and Politicians … and Won

Seven years ago, in the southern Mexican state of Michoacán, a community besieged by organized crime and the politicians that enabled it, rose up against those who would do away with their way of life — and through it all inspired a country.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja
crime in mexico

CHERAN, MEXICO (Report) -- On the road leading into this hardscrabble town in Mexico’s southwest corner, there stands a checkpoint staffed by heavily-armed guards, clad ominously in balaclavas, or ski masks. This scene is not particularly unusual for this violence-plagued country, but Cheran is no ordinary place: seven years ago this month, the

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Central American Migrants Tell MintPress Why They’re On The Move

The chickens have come home to roost. U.S. foreign policy in Central America has led to rampant crime and widespread poverty, giving millions no choice but to leave their homes in search of opportunity elsewhere.

José Luis Granados Ceja
By José Luis Granados Ceja

MEXICO CITY -- By the thousands they came, slowly spilling from the fleet of tour buses Tuesday afternoon like clumps of molasses, clutching babies and duffel bags, wearing baseball caps and bandanas, and chanting and cheering and raising their fists defiantly to the sky. Most of those traveling in the caravan were from Honduras; all were searching

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