Mexico’s colonial-era city of Oaxaca choked by trash piles

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The mayor of Mexico’s most iconic and beloved colonial-era city, Oaxaca, has made a desperate public plea for federal authorities to declare a public health emergency over the mounds of uncollected garbage piling up in the city’s cobblestone streets. Normally awash with tourists and known for its green-tinged stone buildings and culinary plenty, Oaxaca was left hamstrung after a neighboring town closed down a garbage dump that had taken the city’s refuse for decades. With no place to take the trash, authorities in Oaxaca have desperately tried to find alternatives, including trucking vast amounts of garbage to a landfill in the neighboring state of Puebla.