Kevin Sieff
@ksieff
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Washington Post foreign correspondent covering sports and the world. Former bureau chief in Mexico, Africa and Afghanistan. Florida man. SieffK @washpost .com
Mexico City, Mexico
Joined October 2008
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For years, from his parents' apartment in Brussels, a man known as The Maestro built the biggest match-fixing network in tennis history. Here is his story -- and an investigation into how the explosion of gambling has corrupted the sport.
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Hey Tomi, Washington Post shithole bureau chief here. Love your foreign affairs reporting. Did you know there are 8.7 million Americans living overseas? Can’t imagine why they would leave home.
If they aren’t shithole countries, why don’t their citizens stay there? Let’s be honest. Call it like it is.
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The average undocumented immigrant in the United States pays more federal income taxes than the president.
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It is shockingly difficult for immigration attorneys to locate children separated from their parents at the border. Today I spoke to lawyers who represent more than 400 parents. They've located two children.
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They served in the army, the border patrol and the police. They have official US birth certificates. But the government is denying their passport applications and telling them they aren't American citizens.
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This photo. A father deported to El Salvador without his daughter talks to her over the phone. She's calling from a shelter somewhere in the United States.
“Papa,” she said. “When are you going to take me out of here?”
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How can you prove that you're a US citizen? Your birth certificate? Your voter registration card? Your military ID? Your social security number? Here's what I learned: none of that is enough any more.
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Tweeting photos of the children whose visas you deny is a new kind of diplomacy.
In the visa line yesterday I met this fine young boy and girl. They are Kenya Chess Champions! Although a trip to the US was not possible this time I reminded them that They Are Champions & we are friends! This is the future of Kenya.
#USAmarafiki
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Mexico is building a 950-mile tourist train through one of the greatest concentrations of antiquities in the world -- the epicenter of Maya civilization. We've been documenting what is soon to be lost. 1/x
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Dear America, get ready to pay more for pretty much everything until Mexico solves a problem that no country in the world has ever been able to fix.
On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,..
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Guatemala just became the first country in the world to ban Americans in order to limit the spread of Coronavirus.
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Remarkable to watch, in real-time, as the Mexican government proves that it doesn't have the firepower or willingness to take on organized crime. What an incredible glimpse into the failure of the state.
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Hello from southern Mexico, where no one covering the caravan has met anyone from the Middle East, and there is no way to discern anyone’s criminal history.
Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!
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México está construyendo un tren turístico de 1.500 Kms a través de una de las mayores concentraciones de antigüedades del mundo: el epicentro de la civilización Maya. Hemos documentando lo que pronto se perderá. 1/x
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When Trump visits McAllen tomorrow, he'll be promoting a $5.7 billion border wall in a community where nearly half of all children live below the poverty line, where 30 percent of kids are food insecure. That's the backdrop for his sales pitch.
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Adding to the absurdity: the caravan is heading to Tijuana, 1,500 miles from where this unit is deployed.
With little electricity, no combat pay and a holiday away from home, the 5,600 U.S. troops on the southwest border wait for the migrant caravan
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The girl had a temperature of 105.7 degrees. She hadn't eaten or consumed water for several days. But she was detained for eight hours before emergency responders arrived.
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Here's the story we just published. It's clear to me that there is no plan to reunify these families.
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As the migrant caravan arrives in southern Mexico, a man calls out to me in perfect English. He was deported from Ohio last year. His wife and two daughters are still there. "What would you do?" he asks.
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There are 13,000 Afghans and Iraqis who worked for the United States, risking their lives in our wars, who are still waiting for US visas.
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Gloria Irma Márquez spent years trying to get her daughter a US visa. The government denied their requests. They spent 13 years apart. Márquez was killed in the El Paso shooting. Her daughter's first American visa came through this week, in time to attend her mother's funeral.
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We just learned that El Chapo's son was to be extradited to the United States -- before he was released back to the cartel. The morning meeting b/w the DEA and Mexican government is going to be a lot of fun this morning.
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More than 300 people were killed by a truck bomb in Mogadishu on Saturday. President Trump never called Somalia's president to express condolences, never tweeted or spoke publicly about the attack.
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Another man working at Mexico’s largest butterfly sanctuary has been found dead — the second in a week.
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I just flew from Mexico City to Miami and as soon as we landed, a bunch of undercover agents rushed at a guy in business class and arrested him. One said, “Welcome home, asshole.” And then everyone disembarked like nothing happened.
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Much of the government's information about the child's parent -- necessary for reunification -- comes directly from the child. What kind of information can a toddler provide? And what if that toddler speaks an obscure indigenous language?
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Some of the bureaucratic failures are remarkable: Border Patrol agents who forgot to note that a child crossed the border with a parent. Mothers who were never given the toll-free phone number where they can ask about their kids.
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Either Mexico has fewer coronavirus cases than Indiana, or there's a problem with testing that is leaving millions of people in the dark.
Panorama en México 25 de marzo 2020: 475 casos confirmados, 1,656 casos sospechosos, 2,445 casos negativos y 6 defunciones. El 90% han sido no graves y solo el 10% ha requerido hospitalización.
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I have a month left covering Africa for the
@washingtonpost
, and these guys aren’t making it any easier to leave.
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Feyisa Lilesa just won a silver medal for Ethiopia. Then he protested his government's killing of the Oromo people.
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Who is supporting the caravan? Soros? The Democrats? The Venezuelans? No, it's generous, small-town Mexicans offering whatever they have.
Here’s the list of what the town of Pijijiapan gave to the
#caravan
: 14 tubs of mayonnaise, 28 liters of cream, 170 kilos of ham, 10 kilos of salt, 28 packages of napkins. Also, 7,000 eggs.
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“These are some bad people coming through, these aren’t babies, these aren’t little angels coming into our country.”
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In other cases, children are transferred from one shelter to another, and the new facilities don't make note that the child was separated from a parent. Meaning they could be mistakenly considered an unaccompanied minor.
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Also, shout out to the father one row behind the arrest who whispered to his daughter, “At least they weren’t coming for you.”
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US officials often don't answer that toll-free number. When attorneys get through, officials respond that their client's child is "in the United States."
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King Leopold II in 1876: “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”
Trump to African leaders: "Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich."
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Germán Silva, one of the best athletes in Mexico's history, is running the entire length of his country, from Tijuana to Tulum. More than a marathon a day over 3,100 miles. I joined him for a while, and it ended up becoming one of my favorite stories ever.
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"You have some very, very bad people in the caravan. You have some very tough criminal elements within the caravan.”
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Imagine what it would take to prompt you to migrate 10,000 miles with your child.
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector apprehended a large group of 116 individuals—from Angola, Cameroon and Congo—after they illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the U.S. on Thursday:
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For those keeping score, in a 15 minute statement at the White House, the president of Mexico just compared President Trump to both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
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Children are freezing in the biggest refugee camp on the US-Mexico border, while they await their asylum hearings. Dozens of parents are making an impossible choice — sending their kids across the Rio Grande alone to save them.
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I've heard this before. In Congo.
52% of Republicans say they'd support postponing 2020 elections if Trump said it were necessary to stop voter fraud.
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Everything is going great here in Mexico where a tiger escaped in the streets of Jalisco and its owner is chasing it with a tiny lasso.
Un tigre que se paseaba por las calles de Jalisco fue atrapado por un hombre con sombrero y camisa blanca, que traía un lazo.
📹: CarlosWME
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The video of the migrant 10-year-old searching for help? He and his mother had been expelled from the U.S. after seeking asylum days earlier. They were then kidnapped in Mexico. His mom is still being held.
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39 percent of African immigrants to the United States have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 31 percent of the U.S.-born population.
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Not a single one of these outlets is here on the ground in southern Mexico.
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"In many cases these are hardened criminals. And I don't want them in our country."
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Hi Tomi, so glad you’ve taken an interest in the economics of remittances! There’s actually some really good data on where migrants spend their money. The vast majority invest in food, medical care and education for their families. ¡Órale!
No wonder Mexico & Central American countries are run by cartel and criminal organizations- they have a steady stream of funds coming in from illegals! They are funding the very problem they are seeking refuge from!
#BuildThatWall
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I don’t have any takes, but I’ve been hearing from some of the migrant parents still separated from their children, watching the election and trying to figure out what it means for their chances of reunification. A harrowing thing.
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Here's our story on what's lost when a government decides to build a railway through a pre-Hispanic civilization -- and the debate between heritage and development that goes back as far as the Maya.
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A few yards from the path of the train, archeologists stumbled upon an unexplored cenote. They sent divers to explore its caverns, and found a 1,000-year-old Maya canoe. Since then, the discoveries – underwater and above ground -- have been nonstop. 2/x
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In any other country, this feels like the moment the State Department would issue a warning about the possibility of post-election violence. Maybe order diplomats not to leave the embassy for a few days.
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Every year, hundreds of American fugitives flee to Mexico. What they don't know: An undercover Mexican police unit now hunts exclusively for gringo criminals. I followed the team as they chased a murderer from California. It didn't end the way I expected.
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It's hard to convey just how much of Maya civilization remains hidden under the jungle canopy, now endangered by construction. This is what archeologists saw using laser imaging just under the path of the railway: an entire buried Maya settlement.
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The irony is rich: to shepherd tourists into the cradle of Maya civilization, engineers are demolishing relics of that very culture. Archeologists have found 26,000 Maya structures in the path of the train; 600,000 ancient ceramics.
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El gobierno de México tiene un increíble equipo de arqueólogos y antropólogos (
@INAHmx
). Están tratando de adelantarse a la construcción del ferrocarril, excavando todo lo que pueden antes de que las antigüedades sean arrasadas. Todo este sitio maya será desmantelado:
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Days after Mexico launched its immigration crackdown, a truck full of migrants came under fire. A 19-year-old Salvadoran was killed. Now, it looks like the assailants were police.
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Just interviewed a Somali refugee whose resettlement application was paused so US officials could vet his newborn baby. Sounds, uh, extreme.
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The author of the Breitbart story that likely inspired Trump's wiretapping tweets is rumored to be the next US ambassador to South Africa.
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The full video is here and it's perfect:
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Covering the migrant caravan, I kept meeting people who spent years building American houses and working American farms. Then they were deported. Now they’re heading back towards their old lives and families.
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A pocos metros de la ruta del tren, los arqueólogos se toparon con un cenote inexplorado. Enviaron buzos a explorar y encontraron una canoa maya de 1.000 años de antigüedad. Desde entonces, los descubrimientos, bajo el agua y en la superficie, han sido continuos. 2/x
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I’ve spent much of my career covering refugee camps in Africa and Asia. This was one of the grimmest camps I’ve ever seen, 20 yards from American soil.
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The construction is barreling over Pleistocene-era sites, where human remains are being unearthed and studied, including some of the earliest residents of the Americas. This skull was found on the path of the train, between Palenque and Escárcega.
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My colleagues have gotten credentials to cover despots around the world. But we've been barred from covering a candidate in our own country.
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It’s been 50 years since Britain left. Why are so many African judges still wearing wigs and colonial-era robes?
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Guatemala's health minister says between 50 and 75 percent of deportees from the US have tested positive for Coronavirus.
Según el ministro de Salud, Hugo Monroy, entre el 50 y 75% de deportados ha dado positivo a covid-19. Solicitaron a EE. UU. enviarlos con un certificado médico.
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NEW: Not only is the United States planning to send Central American asylum seekers to Guatemala, they are preparing to send them to one of the most remote, dangerous parts of the country, hundreds of miles from the capital. w/ the great
@NickMiroff
:
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One story from this week that will stick with me: A lawyer meets with a five-year-old girl separated from her family. The lawyer asks for details about the girl's life in Central America. The girl looks at her and says, "I don't want to scare you."
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Es difícil transmitir cuánto de la civilización maya permanece oculta bajo el dosel de la selva, ahora en peligro por la construcción. Esto es lo que los arqueólogos vieron usando imágenes láser justo debajo del camino del ferrocarril: todo un asentamiento maya enterrado.
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A large number of Guatemalan migrants arriving at the border were coffee farmers for Starbucks and other big companies. Why did they leave? Because the price of coffee crashed.
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La ironía es rica: para llevar a los turistas a la cuna de la civilización maya, los ingenieros están demoliendo reliquias de esa misma cultura. Los arqueólogos han encontrado 26.000 estructuras mayas en el camino del tren; 600.000 cerámicas antiguas.
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According to Mexico's foreign ministry, one of the children separated from their parents at the border was a little girl with Down syndrome.
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Trump just said that the migrant caravan forming in Honduras is "bigger than anything we’ve ever seen." It literally does not exist yet beyond a flyer circulating on Facebook.
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Hey Tomi, me again. So glad you’ve taken an interest in African politics! Your story seems to have left out the word “apartheid.” Might help explain why comparing a black child to a monkey would offend some in South Africa.
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The US is shipping Honduran and Salvadoran asylum seekers to Guatemala without first telling them where the planes are headed. When they arrive, they are given almost no explanation of their asylum rights and told to leave the country in 72 hours.
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La construcción se extiende sobre sitios de la era del Pleistoceno, donde se están desenterrando y estudiando restos humanos, incluidos algunos de los primeros residentes de las Américas. Este cráneo fue encontrado en la vía del tren, entre Palenque y Escárcega.
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There is a Robert Mugabe element to this whole thing. The grim intersection of violence and vanity and theater.
Trump holds up a bible, literally shushes reporters trying to ask him about his threat to use the military against citizens, poses for a photo, and leaves.
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The world isn't interpreting this as a joke.
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Our journalism would not have been possible without these colleagues. Some of us might not be alive if not for them. Please help us get them out.
Washington Post publisher emails Biden national security adviser
@JakeSullivan46
: “Urgent request on behalf of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post” to help get “204 journalists, support staff and families” to safety
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This story isn't getting the attention it deserves. Trump's nominee to head the International Organization for Migration (
@UNmigration
) has a history of making anti-Muslim, anti-refugee comments.
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What a team effort at
@washingtonpost
to make this story happen. An honor to work with
@reemakkad
,
@shikha_sub
,
@wleaming
,
@matthewhaybrown
,
@JoeMoore1984
,
@luoach
,
@AnaVHerrero
,
@AngelaMecca2
,
@jennapirog
,
@juledurg
and others.
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The world is a messy place, but at least it has given us this photo of Hamid Karzai and a panda.
http://t.co/C5xu1WyW3j
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Also, cool timing: Mexico's president sent the USMCA to be ratified in the senate today, but the vote hasn't been held yet.
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Weirdly, while we were in the air, my story on Mexico’s shifting cartel landscape, and traffickers’ US connections, was published:
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Trump put tariffs on Mexico's steel industry. What he didn't seem to know: Mexican steel companies employ hundreds of Americans. Now, those workers are losing their jobs. With
@ericawerner
.
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Just interviewed
@RailaOdinga
ahead of tmrw's election -- confident, but unwilling to discourage violence among supporters if he loses.
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These are the kinds of emails I’ve been receiving while covering the caravan. More threats and insults than at any other time in my career.
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I’ve always felt that there was an unspoken kinship between Mexico City and Miami and this felt like the distillation of that thought. Two cities that are surprised by literally nothing.
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