Ioan Grillo

Ioan Grillo has covered Mexico since 2001 for newspapers, magazines and TV stations in the United States, Britain and across the world. Grillo worked as a full-time Mexico correspondent for the...

Read Full Bio >

Ioan Grillo's Notebook:

June 30, 2009 11:23 ET | Updated: June 30, 2009 11:54 ET

Honduras: The shadow of curfew

As the countdown to the 9 p.m. curfew approaches, the rush begins in this sweltering Central American city.

People scurry down the sidewalks and speed in their cars to make sure they get indoors before the streets belong to the soldiers.

All the journalists are especially vigilant, especially after exchanging stories of being pushed around and threatened by the troops at the protests against Sunday’s coup.

I had to make a 10 p.m. live broadcast in a TV studio Monday night. It was only two blocks from the hotel, but why take the risk, so it was sleeping in the studio all night.

For some of the older Tegucigalpa residents all this brings back bad memories. The last curfew was 22 years ago, said a middle-aged storeowner.

That was back in the 1980s, in the bad old days of military dictators and civil wars tearing Central America apart.

But things have changed since then. Now leftist governments control most of South America and a liberal African American sits in the White House.

Surely, people can’t get away with a coup in this day and age, sighed the store owner. Or can they?

Click here to read about the view of the coup from Cuba.

April 24, 2009 12:52 ET | Updated: April 24, 2009 13:13 ET

Deadly flu virus hits Mexico hard

Panic is spreading through the Mexico City streets faster than the killer flu virus.

Every pharmacy in my neighborhood has already sold out of face masks — some say they are selling faster than 500 an hour.

People look suspiciously at everyone on the street — especially if they are coughing or sneezing — and keep a big distance.

The hard information is coming through fast and confused.

Last night, the Mexican government talked about 20 influenza deaths. This morning the World Health Organization was talking about 60.

All the authorities are saying it has spread from pigs, but no one is sure if it is the same virus that hit California and Texas.

And no one seems to be sure if the vaccines in the hospitals will work or not.

I guess keeping a distance from everyone seems the safest tactic now — perhaps soon people will be running for their lives …

April 16, 2009 20:01 ET | Updated: April 17, 2009 07:40 ET

Mucha seguridad, pocos fantaticos

While throngs of cheering crowds greeted President Barack Obama from Germany to Turkey, his visit to Mexico looked a little different.

Instead of the president being crowded by fans like a rock star, he was surrounded by police and soldiers — thousands of them.

Mexican army troops even guarded his hotel with machine gun turrets pointing rather menacingly at the sidewalk.

Furthermore, there were sharp shooters positioned on the rooftops near where he was scheduled to have dinner.

All of this was in addition to the usual entourage of secret service men bustling around speaking hurriedly into their microphones.

Mexico has had a rough time with drug violence in the last year, but is it really that dangerous? I guess the Mexican government was taking no chances.