Hoodlums shoot wrestler in Mexico "after extortion failed"

A young wrestler or boxer was shot dead in Mexico City on 25 January, in an incident police provisionally pinned on a local extortion racket, the daily La Jornada reported. Christian David López, who fought with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) México, was shot from a passing motorcycle as he approached a street stand in the Nextenco district of the Azcapotzalco municipality in the capital. Police found that days before, he had refused to pay extortion money to one of the city's gangs, Los Malportados (the 'Badly Behaved'). La Jornada separately reported on 26 January that extortion continued to plague the capital's businesses in spite of the authorities' putative success in reducing violent crime. It stated there were 381 complaints by businesses to the police between June and November 2025, though it is commonly believed most such threats are never reported, out of fear. 

Venezuelan officials, critics differ over release of opponents..

Venezuela's interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, stated on 26 January that 808 detainees, presumably including regime opponents, had been freed since December 2025 as a gesture of national reconciliation, amid continued skepticism over how many, and which detainees, were really being released. The regime vowed on 8 January to free a considerable number, though the process has been laborious and even conditional. The country's socialist regime, working in an interim capacity, has insisted opponents were not being released under pressure from the United States, but on the orders of the last president, Nicolás Maduro, given in December before his arrest this month in a surprise U.S. operation. The rights group Foro Penal believed the authorities had freed just 266 politicial detainees since January 8, according to CNN. Cabello said in Caracas that UN officials could check on the releases, as "we have nothing to hide," CNN reported. Separately, U.S. President Donald J. Trump wrote online on 26 January that he was pleased Venezuela was "releasing its Political Prisoners at a rapid rate, which rate will be increasing over the coming short period of time," without giving details. One hundred or 104 dissidents were reportedly freed on 25 January.