The week at a glance...Americas
Americas
Reynosa, Mexico
Unhappy birthday for kingpin: Mexican police captured a leading member of the Gulf drug cartel last week at his 41st birthday party. Gilberto Barragan Balderas is on the DEA’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives. Also known as El Tocayo or Heriberto, Barragan Balderas was allegedly responsible for enforcing Gulf cartel rules and protecting smuggling routes from the rival Los Zetas cartel. The DEA says he was also responsible for obtaining advance notice of Mexican military and police patrols. Barragan Balderas is suspected of ordering and overseeing executions, kidnappings, and torture, and he is alleged to have signed a note that accompanied a gruesome heap of dismembered corpses.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Cholera everywhere: An outbreak of cholera that began in Haiti last year has spread to nearly every province in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Officials said there have been 1,143 cases of cholera and 14 deaths since the outbreak began, in November. Heavy rains this week increased the risk that the disease would spread, as waste waters from contaminated creeks and saturated septic tanks flooded villages. Cholera broke out last fall in Haitian refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of victims of the January 2010 earthquake are still living; more than 250,000 Haitians have contracted the disease, and nearly 5,000 have died.
São Paulo, Brazil
U.S. pilots found guilty: A Brazilian judge has convicted two American pilots in absentia for their role in a 2006 airline crash that killed 154 people in one of Brazil’s worst air disasters. Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino were flying a small private business jet when their wing clipped the wing of a commercial Boeing 737, which caused it to crash, killing everyone on board. All seven people on the business jet survived. The court found that the two were negligent for turning off the device that would have alerted controllers to their location. The judge sentenced Lepore and Paladino to four years of community service, to be served in the U.S. It is unlikely that U.S. authorities will enforce the ruling.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'
The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists – a 'riveting' exhibition
The Week Recommends Pallant House exhibition offers fascinating instances of painterly reciprocity
-
Geoff Dyer shares his favourite books on war
The Week Recommends Out of Sheer Rage author chooses works by Martha Gellhorn, Michael Herr and Dexter Filkins
-
The news at a glance...International
feature International
-
The bottom line
feature Youthful startup founders; High salaries for anesthesiologists; The myth of too much homework; More mothers stay a home; Audiences are down, but box office revenue rises
-
The week at a glance...Americas
feature Americas
-
The news at a glance...United States
feature United States
-
The news at a glance
feature Comcast defends planned TWC merger; Toyota recalls 6.39 million vehicles; Takeda faces $6 billion in damages; American updates loyalty program; Regulators hike leverage ratio
-
The bottom line
feature The rising cost of graduate degrees; NSA surveillance affects tech profits; A glass ceiling for female chefs?; Bonding to a brand name; Generous Wall Street bonuses
-
The news at a glance
feature GM chief faces Congress; FBI targets high-frequency trading; Yellen confirms continued low rates; BofA settles mortgage claims for $9.3B; Apple and Samsung duke it out
-
The week at a glance...International
feature International