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June 2 2010..

..the heartbeat of the Riviera Nayarit

 

The Sol, the English Language source of News for the Riviera Nayarit Mexico, including La Penita de Jaltemba, Rincon de Guayabitos, Lo de Marcos. Los Ayala, Lo de Marcos, and San Pancho

 

Reminder: The Sol continues to change daily. Major changes and delivery will now be weekly - arriving at your inbox every Wednesday.

The Horton Clan celebrate Jaime's Birthday ay Lima

Felipe Calderon: The Man Who Took On the Drug Cartels
Marina Jimenez - Globe and Mail
go to original
May 29, 2010

 


 
Calderon says casualties are an unfortunate part of the drug war.
The Mexican President spoke with The Globe's editorial board on Friday: Listen to the Story
Nearly four years into Mexico’s war on drugs, more than 22,700 people have ben killed. The bloodshed continues unabated, and the citizenry remains terrorized by the cartels’ macabre acts of violence.

But the man who unleashed this all-out assault on the drug syndicates says he has no regrets about being the first Mexican President to make this the centrepiece of his sexenio, six-year term. He says he had no choice.

“What was the option? If we ignored the criminals, we allow them to take over towns and communities and that’s not fair to Mexican people,” said Felipe Calderon, 47, in an interview with the editorial board of The Globe and Mail on Friday, the final day of his three-day visit to Canada.

“When I took office, I said this will be a battle that implies costs, huge costs … in terms of time, economic resources and, unfortunately, costs in terms of human lives. But it is a battle in which our children’s future is at stake and it is a battle that we will win.”

Mr. Calderon, a Harvard-educated lawyer and conservative Catholic, doesn’t wear cowboy boots and lacks the tall swagger of former president Vicente Fox, but he is a decisive, confident speaker. The President makes a compelling case for Canada to support Mexico’s drug war and its “transformation,” as the government enacts reforms of the judiciary, police, and pension, tax and energy sectors. U.S. President Barack Obama has called the bespectacled technocrat Mexico’s Eliot Ness.

In the past, Mexican authorities turned a blind eye to the activities of the drug cartels, allowing them to extend their power and infiltrate local police forces and political circles. Mr. Calderon said that if his predecessors had only acted sooner, organized criminal groups wouldn’t be so entrenched in society, now selling drugs to a domestic market as well as smuggling them north for sale in the United States and Canada.

“If you let them [the cartels] do whatever they want, they will take control of the population,” he said. “You can see this in other parts of the world. … In Jamaica … the criminals took control of Kingston and now the government is trying to enforce the law and that’s impossible because the criminals are the real authorities.”

This week, Jamaica had to declare a state of emergency as pitched battles broke out between security forces trying to arrest a suspected leader of a gang who is wanted in the United States on drug charges, and his supporters.

Since taking office in 2006, Mr. Calderon has sent in 45,000 troops and 5,000 federal police to 18 states. More than 300 suspects have been extradited to the U.S. for drug offences, and a number of drug lords have been arrested or killed, including kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva, shot by Mexican marines in December, 2009. Security forces have seized 100 tons of cocaine, 6,500 tons of marijuana and 950 kilograms of heroin – and 70,000 arms.

While media headlines present an image of Mexico as a country besieged by violence, much of the bloodshed is confined to members of the cartels themselves, operating mostly along the northern border in cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Officials estimate that 90 per cent of those who have died are gang members, their hit men and security forces. Many are killed in disputes between rival gangs, as they battle one another for control over narcotics routes, and territorial influence, often beheading their victims and dumping their bodies on sidewalks, in discos, and even in schoolyards.

Mexico’s overall homicide rate remains well below the region’s average, and is lower than in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Jamaica.

But there are troubling signs the violence is spreading. In Monterrey, the country’s wealthiest city and business capital, drug syndicates are now active, demanding protection money. Traffickers block streets and have recently engaged in gun battles in the Holiday Inn hotel, and even on the campus of a prestigious university – an incident that left two graduate students dead. Earlier this month, a former presidential candidate from the ruling party, and close friend of Mr. Calderon’s, disappeared without a trace from his ranch in Queretaro. He is presumed to have been kidnapped.

There are fears that the drug cartels could seek to infiltrate politics directly and control the July 4 local elections in 10 states by supporting candidates who co-operated with organized crime, and killing those who don’t.

The war on the cartels has been politically costly, too. As the casualties mount, Mr. Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) has slipped in the polls, although his personal popularity remains at 50 per cent. Polls show that most Mexicans support the President’s war, though they think the drug lords are winning.

Born in Michoacan state, Mr. Calderon comes from a political family. As a boy, he put up election posters and campaigned for his father, who helped found the PAN and, after six attempts, went on to win a congressional seat. At 33, Mr. Calderon became the PAN’s youngest leader, and later served in Mr. Fox’s cabinet. Considered an unlikely presidential candidate, Mr. Calderon won by less than one-half per cent of the vote against Mexico City’s popular, leftist former mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

However, the President has proven to be a likeable, politically astute leader – as well as a determined fighter. He acknowledged Friday that the drug trade is inevitably located in Mexico, because “we live beside the largest consumer market in the world. Everyone tries to sell drugs through my windows and doors.”

The United States is also the source of illicit weapons flowing south, and during his recent visit to Washington, Mr. Calderon pressed the U.S. to re-introduce a ban on assault weapons. He would like the U.S. to reduce further its domestic consumption of illicit drugs: “This is not just Mexico’s problem.”

He thanked Canada for sending eight Spanish-speaking RCMP officers to train Mexican police, and hailed Thursday’s announcement in Ottawa of $4-million in initiatives to help Mexico strengthen its judicial system.

The need to establish a professional, national police force, and to enact judicial reform, is pressing. The Mexican government is now dealing with complaints of human-rights abuses committed by the army, sent into cities such as Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana to re-establish order. The country’s official National Human Rights Commission has received nearly 4,000 complaints since 2006.

Mr. Calderon has pledged to act quickly in cases where civilians are killed, and send in teams of civilian prosecutors, instead of allowing the military to investigate complaints itself. His government succeeded in passing a reform allowing states to overhaul courts and move to an adversarial, oral system of hearings, which would improve both policing and the judiciary. However, only a handful of states have implemented the changes.

The war on drugs has prompted thousands of Mexicans to flee to both the United States and Canada, seeking asylum from drug violence, and prompting Ottawa to introduce a visitor’s visa for Mexicans. Mr. Calderon wants Ottawa to remove this visa, which has led to an 80-per-cent reduction in Mexican refugee claims from a high of 9,309 last year.

But the President emphasized that his trip to Canada isn’t just aimed at lobbying for the removal of the visa – but has a much broader purpose, aimed at re-establishing and strengthening bilateral relations on all fronts, including investment and tourism. Already, 1.2 million Canadians visit Mexico every year – a number that is expected to increase by 15 per cent this year.

“The relationship between Mexico and Canada is much more than the visa problem. I am not coming only to talk about that. I believe that Canada and Mexico are natural partners and friends.”

A NAFTA partner, Mexico is also Canada’s third-largest trading partner and fourth-largest export market. While its economy shrank in 2009 as a result of the U.S. recession and a decrease in remittances, 4 per cent economic growth is projected for this year. The local financial system is solid, inflation remains low, and public and private debt are under control. The country of 110 million has a young population, an expanding middle class and an average GDP per capita of $10,000 a year – three times that of China.

When asked about his legacy, Mr. Calderon declared: “I want to finish the task of building a strong, reliable, federal police force for Mexico and establishing a new judicial system.”

Even he knows it is impossible to wipe out a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. But if the President can succeed in turning a national security problem into one that can be handled by law enforcement, and bring about a cultural change in a country long accustomed to looking the other way, then that is a measure of success.
 

 

Los Ayala’s Town Plaza
 How Our Beautiful Town Plaza Came to Be

               

Town plazas are very important to the Mexican culture and families, as they serve as a gathering place for all the community to enjoy. Traditional Mexican towns embrace town plazas, otherwise known as zocalos; a place where children play; locals gather to chat and relax; and the site of lively fiestas, civic and cultural events. Until most recently one square block of earth and sand served as the town plaza for Los Ayala.

There is a government program called the “3 for 1 Program” which is available to help small towns in Mexico, such as Los Ayala make improvements. The program was started by a group of Mexican immigrants living in California who formed a formal society to raise money to help small communities in Mexico.

The Mexican government recognized the donations from this society and in recognition of the society’s efforts and to show their appreciation they set up the “3 for 1 Program” program, and agreed to match any funds raised - three fold. It was created to acknowledge the fact that tourists and immigrants do contribute to the small towns they visit and reside in. In the municipality of Compostela, the federal government and the state of Nayarit, will match the amount donated by tourists and immigrants.

Here is the link for the web site which contains more detailed information about the program

http://microrregiones.sedesol.gob.mx

            In  March of 2009, Romy Mora “Juez of Los Ayala” learned of the “3 for 1 Program and, approached the government representatives and demonstrated the true need for a town plaza for Los Ayala. She established that the town had already raised some monies for this project, requesting an extension of the deadline date and a revision to the program process which would allow the Mexican people in our community to donate directly to the fund in Los Ayala, instead of through the society in California.  She worked very hard to demonstrate the great need for a town plaza for the community of Los Ayala, and in recognition of her efforts the coordinators for the “3 for 1 program” in Compostela found a loop hole which would allow the local Mexican people to contribute funds straight, and granted a three week extension to Romy to allow her more time to raise funds for the Town Square project.

The projected cost of building the Town Plaza which was to include a gazebo, seating areas and decorative plants was $100,000 CAD. The town’s goal was to raise $25,000 CAD. A traditional Mexican Fiesta was organized as a fund raiser for the Town Plaza; and this event combined with donations from community businesses and personal donations from the community raised $28,200.00 CAD. Each dollar raised was matched by the government will threefold, and the result is the beautiful Town Plaza you see in Los Ayala today.

Thank you from the community of Los Ayala!

By Christina Stobbs 
www.LosAyalaLife.com

 

 

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    Mexico judge OKs producer's arrest in Cancun death

    CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - A judge in Mexico issued an arrest warrant Monday for a former "Survivor" producer suspected in the killing of his wife while on vacation with their children at a Cancun resort, the state attorney general said.

    Francisco Alor, the state attorney general in Quintana Roo state, said prosecutors would initiate extradition proceedings soon seeking to return TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman from the United States…..go to original article

     

    Immigrant in Run for Mayor, Back Home in Mexico

    It was the picture of a classic New York campaign: The candidate dashed around the city where he had pulled himself up from poverty to business success and now a run for elected office. He met constituents, gave interviews and, at a private celebration in a Midtown Manhattan restaurant, thanked supporters. But the recent flurry of campaigning was no ordinary political tour. The candidate, Juan Navarro, is a Mexican immigrant with homes in Queens and New Jersey, and his electoral goal is an office 2,200 miles away: the mayoralty of the small city of Serdan, Mexico. …go to original document

     

    Arizona immigration law prompts Mexico to extend repatriation aid program

    In response to the controversial Arizona immigration law, Mexico extended a repatriation program to help ease the transition of illegal migrants back home. The governments says the Arizona law could lead to a flood of returnees when it goes into effect, but most Mexicans are skeptical. …go to original article

     

     

    Mexico cuts top young player from World Cup roster

    Mexico trimmed its roster to the World Cup limit of 23 players Monday, cutting a top young player it may now lose for the future.

    Midfielder Jonathan dos Santos, a precocious 20-year-old who seemed assured of a place in South Africa before being slowed the last month by a torn muscle, was sent home after meeting with Coach Javier Aguirre and Nestor de la Torre, executive director of the Mexican soccer federation….go to original article

     

    Retirement in La Paz v.s. Affordable U.S. Cities

    While retirement even the most affordable cities in the U.S. is beginning to look pricy, La Paz real estate in Mexico offers a large variety of retirement options for many different budgets. When planning retirement, more and more Americans are considering inexpensive home options; however, a comparison between homes some of the most affordable cities in the U.S. and La Paz Real Estate will show that some pleasant Mexico Homes near a beautiful beachfront actually provide an attractive option for retirees….go to original article

     

    Mexico's Big Cellular Problem: Carlos Slim

    The billionaire's wireless unit stays on top after latest spectrum auction

    Mexico is dead last among Latin America's five largest economies in cell phone use per capita. The problem, government officials say, is billionaire Carlos Slim. His company, America Móvil controls 71 percent of Mexican cellular traffic. For years, the government and mobile industry have tried to reduce that dominance. Yet when the results came in from a May 25 auction of new radio spectrum intended to break open the market, it looked like Slim had further tightened his grip. ..go to original article

     

    Olivia Newton-John's ex-boyfriend Patrick McDermott offers DNA sample to prove he's alive

    Olivia Newton-John's ex-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, has reportedly offered to provide a DNA sample to prove to the world he is still alive.

    E-mails obtained from a Los Angeles police source by The Daily Telegraph reveal private investigators want a saliva swab from McDermott's teenage son to help verify the promised DNA sample from McDermott….go to original article

     

    Long-unseen Kahlo tops Latin America art auction

    A Frida Kahlo portrait of a pre-Hispanic warrior was the top selling work in a sale of Latin American art, which also set five auction records, including one for Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco.

    The evening auction at Christie's on Wednesday fetched $16.8 million, its strongest Latin American sale in two years.

    "It was a sale full of excitement and surprises with world auction records for key Latin American modern and contemporary artists," said Virgilio Garza, Christie's Latin America art chief….go to original article

     

     

    Obama to Send Up to 1,200 Troops to Mexico Border

    President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.

    The decision was disclosed by a Democratic lawmaker and confirmed by administration officials after Mr. Obama met on Tuesday with Republican senators, several of whom have demanded that troops be placed at the border. The lawmakers learned of the plan after the meeting. …go to original article

     

    US to offer second round of anti-drug aid

    Mexico's top diplomat says the United States and Mexico have agreed on a second round of U.S. anti-drug aid for Mexico. She says it will include increased focus on training and social programs. Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa says the amount of money, time frame and name of the new round have yet to be determined…..go to original article

     

    Mexican Government Aims To Attract 11 Million Visitors To Riviera Maya

    In the 1990s, Playa del Carmen was a small beach village 45 miles down the coast from Cancun (on a road full of potholes). There was but a handful of streets…and these were of packed sand—$10,000 bought you a building plot in the village center. How things have changed…
    Today Playa is a hip beach town. Rock stars come here to chill and sometimes to work…shooting videos on the picture-perfect beach spots. The streets are paved or cobbled now, and the stores more up market. The main street, 5th Avenue , is a cool place to hang out in the evenings. The restaurants and cafes serve everything from traditional Mexican to Thai food. You can listen to live jazz over brunch at one of the beachfront restaurants. The shops sell a mix of luxury goods, handcrafts, jewelry, and textiles….    go to original article

     

    A stronger Mexico is good for Canada

    Calderon looks to revive the relationship between the two countries

    Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to this country this week comes at a crucial time both for Mexico and for the bilateral relationship with Canada.

    At home, Mr. Calderon faces enormous challenges in his war on the drug cartels, an opposition-dominated Congress that is blocking or watering down much of his ambitious liberal reform agenda, falling popularity in the opinion polls and the prospect that his party, the Partido de Acción Nacional, will lose the presidential elections in 2012. …go to original article

     

    Mexico to dust off and examine war hero bones

    Mexico is dusting off urns containing skulls and bones of the country's Independence War heroes to try to confirm their identities decades after the remains were stored in a Mexico City monument.

    Soldiers will remove the urns from a mausoleum within the monument on May 30 and carry them through the Mexican capital in a procession before handing the bones over to forensic anthropologists.Historians have long questioned the listed identities of eight Independence War fighters whose remains were locked away along with those of the war's most famous hero, Miguel Hidalgo and three other decorated heroes….go to original article

     

    Mexico's President Has Some Nerve Lecturing His U.S. 'Amigos'

    The fact that an American administration would invite and incite a head of state to disrespect our nation is unconscionable. The Democrats thought that if they invited Mexican President Calderon to address a Joint Meeting of Congress this week that they could encourage him to use that solemn opportunity to take a swipe at Arizona's new immigration law. Well it backfired.
    The fact that an American administration would invite and incite a head of state to disrespect our nation is unconscionable. This is what the President of Mexico said about an American law from the podium of the United States House of Representatives:,,,    go to original article

     

    Early retirement as a low-cost adventure

    Moments after opening the Skype video connection, Billy and Akaisha Kaderli smile at me from Chapala, a small town on Lake Chapala just outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. They live there much of the time, enjoying a near-perfect climate close to what may be the largest expat colony in the world.They smile a lot, and for good reason.In their book, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement, they smile at you from photos taken in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, New Zealand, America and Puerto Vallarta, plus many other places and pages throughout the book. They share the story of their travels on their website as well….go to original article

     

    Oldest Pyramid Tomb Ever Discovered in Mexico

    Archaeologists in southern Mexico announced Monday they have discovered a 2,700-year-old tomb of a dignitary inside a pyramid that may be the oldest such burial documented in Mesoamerica The tomb held a man aged around 50, who was buried with jade collars, pyrite and obsidian artifacts and ceramic vessels. Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga said the tomb dates to between 500 and 700 B.C….go to original artcle

     

    Mexico not worried about Obama campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA

    Remember when Barack Obama vowed to voters in the industrial Midwest that he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement to make it more advantageous to U.S. workers? His promise, made to appeal to Democratic primary voters in his battle with Hillary Clinton, set off alarm bells among free-trade advocates, worried that he would yank the country toward protectionism. ….go to original article

     

    Mexico arrests 2 suspects with 5,830 sea turtle eggs

    Authorities on Mexico's western Pacific coast say they have detained two suspects who were allegedly transporting 5,830 sea turtle eggs recently extracted from local beaches.

    The office of the Attorney General for Environmental Protection says the eggs were so fresh that they have been taken to a local facility to be reburied in hopes they still could hatch.

    Sea turtles are protected species in Mexico and extraction of their eggs is punishable by up to 9 years in prison….go to original article

     

    Monterrey, Mexico, finally feeling the effects of the drug war

    The wealthy city is perhaps paying the price for tolerating the presence of drug traffickers for so many years. Now, 'security is collapsing,' an official says.

    With its superhighways, gleaming skyscrapers, fancy art museums and leafy plazas, Monterrey has always been safe — so safe, in fact, that drug lords chose to park their families here. Life in Monterrey represented another Mexico, cozily above the national fray of violence and disintegration.
    No scruffy border city or remote, drug-infested outpost, Monterrey is Mexico's wealthiest city, its economic engine, the center of textile, food-processing, beer and construction industries — a modern, sophisticated metropolis where per-capita GDP is twice the national average. …go to original article

     

    Fountain-type system in Maya city may be first in New World

    The Mayas may have developed a pressurized water system hundreds of years before it was believed to have been brought by the Spanish. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest pressurized water system in the New World, an aqueduct-tunnel system in the southern Mexico site of Palenque that probably powered a fountain or a waste water system.

    Such pressurized water systems appeared in the Old World at least as long ago as 1400 BC: The remains of such a system have been found in a Minoan palace in Crete. But the apparent lack of similar remains in the Americas led most archaeologists to assume that they did not appear here until they were brought by the Spanish in the 16th century….go to original article

     

    Most Popular Soccer Team in the U.S.: Mexico?

    In late 1993, buoyed by having qualified for the World Cup in the United States the next year, Mexico stepped outside its usual sites — Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and New York — to play an exhibition game in San Diego. Promoters, who had never attracted more than 20,000 fans to a soccer game unaccompanied by a concert, would have been thrilled to hit that mark on a midweek night game against China. But when the game arrived, they were overwhelmed. Traffic heading north from the border on Interstate 805 was backed up for miles, and as kickoff approached, people began to park on the side of the road. They walked down embankments and through a creek and dashed across streets to reach Jack Murphy Stadium. Once there, long lines snaked from ticket windows. When the crowd finally settled in, shortly after halftime, nearly 50,000 people filled the stadium. …..go to original article

     

     

     

     

    Thank you from Diane and Francisco

    I  want  to  put  out  a  big  thank you  for  the  generous  contributions,  and  the  great  party.  Francisco  is  still weak,, and  my  problem  is  keeping  him  home  and  resting...  he  just  cant  stay  calm.   Thanks  to  the  donations  he  paid  off  the  hospital, and  we  have  some  left  for  medications.  

    Sincerely:

      Diane  and Francisco  Prado.

    Happy Birthday Jaime!

    Jaimie Horton birthday picture

    Jaime Horton Happy BirthdayJaime Horton Happy BirthdayJaime Horton Happy BirthdayJaime Horton Happy Birthday

    Jaime Horton of Hinde and Jaimes Restaurant in La Penita de Jaltemba celebrates his 80th birthday to day!

     

     

     

     

     

    Scam Alert!

    Friends - I just received various, suspicious e-mails from a person posing as my friend, from his e-mail address, requesting emergency money to get back home. The person posing as my friend, Terry...stated that he and his family had just been mugged in Cardiff, Wales and had nothing except his passport and needed 1,980.00 U.S. to pay their hotel bill; that the hotel manager would not let them check-out, without first paying the bill; and, that they had to be at the airport to catch their plane back home in a few hours. He wanted me to wire them the money immediately by Western Union to the hotel's address, or the nearest Western Union. My suspicions deepened. I asked for the hotel's phone number, telling the poser that I would simply pay the bill with my credit card.  The poser e-mailed what supposely was the hotel's number and it was, indeed, a British number. But that didn't satisfy me. I called my friend at his home in California. No answer. I became more concerned. I told the poser over the internet to call me collect and gave our home phone number. No call. I then e-mailed back to the poser, requesting the answer to a personal question. The person posing as my friend wrote back, suggesting that I was trying to back out of sending him the money, suggesting that our friendship was on the line. My suspicions multiplied. I asked him to answer two more questions, in addition to the one he had not answered. I waited on the internet for the answers (we were also connected to "Chat"). None came. After fifteeen minutes I called a local mexican operator to verify the type of number given me over the internet. As I suspected, it was a British cell phone number. At that point all doubt vanished. But in order to warn my friend, I  called his California number again. This time I got an answer. It was his niece. She told me that Terry and his wife were in Wyoming and, that they had received similar complaints from other friends, that the pleas for help from Britain were fraudulent, and that they didn't know how anyone could have entered Terry's e-mail address to send the fraudulent messages. Is this a new angel in internet fraud? I trust my friend. We've been good buddies since our college days. Besides that, he's got too much money to pull this shit. But, how in the hell did they get into his internet to send the fraudulent messages? Weird. Be careful folks!

    Your Friend,

    Charlie
    Editor's Note!

    This is the second report of this type of scam using real friends emails.


    Upcoming Events Los Ayala


         On Saturday, June 5th there will be a special dual     celebration of Mothers & Fathers Day in the Town Square! Dance the night away; take in some colourful fireworks! Everyone welcome! Complimentary snacks and refreshments will be served...

         In celebration of the “Sacred Heart of Jesus”, thirty runners from Talpa are scheduled to arrive Los Ayala at 12 Noon, on Friday June 11th, coinciding with Mass.   A lively night of  entertainment is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Town Plaza and includes; Folkloric Dancing, Belly Dancing, a Running Bull ablaze with fireworks; dancing to a live band; and some extraordinary fireworks!

    For further details please see

    http://losayalalife.com/upcoming_events.html

     

    Views from My Tropical Garden    ©Tara A. Spears

    Warm climate gardening tips

    jacaranda3.jpgA sure sign of spring is the full flowering of the lovely lilac-blue  tree, Jacaranda mimosifolia, that adorns the Riviera Nayarit jungle and roadways. The blue jacaranda tree, which is native to Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, and Africa, is a beautiful flowering tree with a profusion of tubular, trumpet-shaped flowers that grow in dense clusters 8 to 12 inches long. Of the many Jacaranda species, the most popular is the blue jacaranda tree, left photo.  The flowers begin to bud in late March and will continue blooming until late May. While spectacular to look at, some people can be allergic to the shedding petals and leaves that fall off individually to carpet the ground beneath the trees. The large seed pods are a flat and puffy irregular shape that is about two inches wide and a half inch thick that contains winged seeds.

    To read the entire Tara Story click here

     

    What a show! May 20th Celebration includes fabulous ballet folklorico in La Penita de Jaltemba Zocolo, Rafael photography

    Click here to view more Rafael Ballet Folklorico photography

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Perez Brothers Donate CD Sales to Cancer de Mama in Ja'qui's Name

    On March 11th, a memorial evening, to remember Ja'qui, was held at Vista Guayabitos Restaurant.   The restaurant was filled to capacity with many of Ja'qui's friends, who have known her for the years that she lived in the Guayabitos Bay area.  A  video clip was shown of Ja'qui which was beautifully done by Nadia, manager of the restaurant.  Ja'qui & Mario's CD played in the background for the video clip.  The Perez Brothers entertained while people danced to some of Ja'qui's favorite songs.  Sarah, Ja'qui's dear friend, etched an amazing replica of Ja'qui on a large sheet of glass which was unveiled and will continue to hang at the restaurant in Ja'qui's memory.  If you haven't already seen it, you should drop by the restaurant the next time you are in the area and have a look.  It is a real piece of art. 

    Mario, of the Perez Brothers, sold several of Mario & Ja'qui's CD's that were made a few years ago and people bought them up at a "steal of a deal" price to keep as keepsakes or to give as gifts.  All the money raised from the sale of the CD's was donated to Cancer de Mama, in Ja'qui's name.   The $1400.00 pesos was presented to Maruca Dinsmore, representing the Cancer de Mama group.  She will see that the money is given to the Foundation in Ja'qui's memory. 

    Thank you to all that attended the evening and to all those that purchased the CD's.  The money will be used to further help women in this area who have and are survivors of cancer.  Currently, the Cancer de Mama group is trying to arrange for the mammogram van to make a stop in this area to have women tested for breast cancer.  Let's all hope that they will be able to make this happen.

     

    (Reported by Master of Ceremonies for the evening Linda & Bob Gibbs)

    Cancun Mayor's Arrest Fuels Fears of Drug Politics
    Alexandra Olson - Associated Press
    go to original
    May 26, 2010
    A billboard depicting Gregorio Sanchez, mayor of the resort city of Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, May 26, 2010. (AP/Israel Leal)
    Mexico City — The arrest of Cancun's mayor on suspicion of protecting two violent drug gangs as he campaigned for governor has heightened fears that cartels are muscling their way into Mexican politics. There are also worries the gangs are tightening control over the country's most important tourist resort.

    Gregorio Sanchez faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges a year after his police chief and other close collaborators were arrested for allegedly protecting cartels, said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for the federal Attorney General's Office.

    Sanchez is suspected of tipping off and protecting the Beltran Leyva and Zetas drug cartels - gangs known for brutal tactics including beheading rivals. He had taken a leave of absence as Cancun mayor to run for governor of Quintana Roo state, known for turquoise Caribbean waters and white-sand beaches marketed as the Mayan Riviera.

    The mayor is the first candidate in the July 4 elections formally linked to cartels, but fears have been rising that drug gangs are infiltrating the vote in several states through intimidation and bribes.

    On May 13, gunmen killed a mayoral candidate in a town near the border with Texas after he ignored warnings to quit the race. Several other candidates have received threats, and in some towns near the U.S. border, some parties couldn't find anyone to run for mayor.

    High-level corruption remains one of the biggest impediments in the fight against drug trafficking in Western Hemisphere countries that have become key smuggling corridors. In Jamaica, security forces are fighting supporters of a major drug trafficking suspect who has ties to the ruling party and is resisting extradition to the U.S. In Guatemala, the national anti-drug czar and police chief are under arrest in a case involving cocaine and slain police.

    The Sanchez case will be another tough test for Mexico's judicial system and its ability to successfully prosecute high-profile drug and corruption cases.

    The last effort largely fizzled: A year ago Wednesday, 10 mayors from the western state of Michoacan were arrested in an unprecedented sweep against elected officials accused of protecting drug gangs. All but two have been released for lack of evidence, undercutting Calderon's efforts to show politicians are not immune in his U.S.-backed campaign to wipe out cartels and those who protect them.

    "Mexico is very much infiltrated by these gangs and they reach very high levels," said Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "Calderon has show extraordinary bravery but the question is whether he succeeds. And if he doesn't, things will fall back into a viscous normalcy. Eventually, the government has to demonstrate that it can exercise authority."

    Cancun, the most popular destination in Mexico for foreign tourists, has long been a major transshipment point where bundles of cocaine wash ashore after smugglers drop drugs from boats or small plans for gangs to retrieve and move on to the U.S.

    The resort city is also a hotbed of corruption. Former Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva was extradited last month to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine through Cancun. Last year, Cancun police chief Francisco Velasco was arrested on suspicion of protecting the Zetas. He was also questioned in the assassination of an army brigadier general hired to root out police corruption in the city, although he was never charged in that crime.

    Tourism officials can do little beyond holding their breath as the conflict unfolds.

    "We regret that that Cancun's image is once again in the middle of a problem that affects us all," said Rodrigo de la Pena Segura, president of the Cancun Association of Hotels.

    Sanchez's leftist Democratic Revolution Party called the charges against him politically motivated. The party's national leader, Jesus Ortega, predicted the case would fall apart like most of the investigation against the Michoacan mayors, whose arrests two months before congressional elections also drew allegations of political maneuvering.

    "Just like the case of Michoacan, it's a political ploy using the resources of institutions that are supposed to be imparting justice," Ortega said.

    Najera denied any political motivation behind Sanchez's arrest and said the evidence includes several protected witnesses and documents from the finance secretary showing that Sanchez lived well beyond his means.

    He said the mayor had bank withdrawals amounting to more than $2 million, a sum that does not correspond to his declared income. That was more detail than authorities ever revealed in the case of the Michoacan mayors.

    One of more than a dozen siblings born into a family of humble means, Sanchez led a real estate business before venturing into politics for the first time in 2006. Ortega said the success in real estate helps explain Sanchez's wealth.

    A Twitter account linked to Sanchez's website asked supporters to protest his arrest and vote for him anyway. The mayor pledged to bring services to the poor living on the outskirts of the glittering Cancun resort.

    After his police chief was arrested, Sanchez insisted he was continuing the fight against city corruption. Last year, he fired 30 police officers allegedly in the pay of criminal gangs.


    Sunsets Jaltemba
    Jaltemba sunset, Christina Stobbs

    A couple of photos of recent Los Ayala sunsets.. These colourful skies
    seem to occur just once a year; this year May; last year it was April

    Christina Stobbs
     www.losayalalife.com

    Jaltemba Bay Animal Rescue

     

    Advocating humane and healthy practices for animals in the Jaltemba Bay area by promoting health, education, sterilization,

    adoptions, foster care and positive relationships with animals and their owners.

     

    December 2006 to March 2010:  Four years and a half years, 8 clinics and more than 1,545 animals spayed or neutered in the Jaltemba Bay area!

     

    JBAR UPDATE:

     

    Many thanks to Heather from the Sunshine Coast who is

    Adopting Isablle!  Also thanks to Janice Jacobson-Vye for all her help!

     

     

     

    Poisoning with Painkillers
    

A vet Jeff Grognet, from Mid Island Animal hospital on Vancouver Island
    is the author of the following article of interest. Thanks to Hans and
    Elisabeth for sending it to me.
     
    Acetaminophen
    Several people, over the years, have given acetaminophen tablets to their
    cats to help bring down fevers. Acetaminophen is commonly sold as Tylenol®.
    This is dangerous. It causes liver damage and methemoglobinemia (damage to
    the red blood cells). A single tablet given to a cat can cause death within
    forty eight hours.

    For dogs, it can be used, but overdosing is an issue. A regular strength tablet (325 mg) can seriously harm a 14 pound dog. Intensive treatment and specialized medications are required to counteract the toxic effects of this drug.

    Go here for full story and more of the JBAR Update

    Mexico's Big Cellular Problem: Carlos Slim
    Crayton Harrison - Bloomberg News
    go to original
    May 28, 2010

     

     
     
    Mexico is dead last among Latin America's five largest economies in cell phone use per capita. The problem, government officials say, is billionaire Carlos Slim. His company, America Móvil (AMX), controls 71 percent of Mexican cellular traffic.

    For years, the government and mobile industry have tried to reduce that dominance. Yet when the results came in from a May 25 auction of new radio spectrum intended to break open the market, it looked like Slim had further tightened his grip.

    Slim's spectrum gains in the auction moves his company closer to offering 4G service. If he does, America Móvil's network would move data up to four times faster than the 3G service that an investment group including Spain's Telefónica, NII Holdings (NIHD), and Mexican broadcaster Televisa (TV) hope to launch with the spectrum they won in the bidding.

    Mexican regulators had hoped the added spectrum capacity would bolster Slim's rivals. One goal: To raise the 77 percent of Mexicans who have a wireless device closer to the 90 percent average of big Latin American nations. However, some foreign investors declined to enter the bidding. "What worried [potential competitors] the most was the regulation in Mexico," said Gonzalo Martínez Pous, a member of the country's Federal Telecommunications Commission.

    President Felipe Calderón's government had invited foreign bidders. Deutsche Telekom, China Mobile, and Mumbai's Reliance Communications declined to participate. "It's a disappointment for the government," says Christopher King, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.

    Potential competitors voiced concerns about high payments to connect to Slim's mobile network and unclear rules on how companies could share infrastructure, said Martínez Pous.

    Mexicans pay extra fees to call people on different cell networks. That makes America Móvil the best option for many Mexicans because it is by far the biggest. The government has tried to force Slim's company to levy lower interconnection fees. America Móvil sued to block the plan; the case is now tied up in court. In a statement, Móvil said Mexico is very competitive, that the company leads the market because of its superior coverage, and interconnection fees are negotiated between companies.

    The status quo is good news for Slim, who is worth an estimated $14.6 billion. Profit margins for wireless service in Mexico at his company are the highest among Latin America's seven largest countries and ranks fifth among carriers in 50 countries worldwide, reports Merrill Lynch (BAC).

    The bottom line: Cellular phone service is a profitable business in Mexico

    Opinion

     Bill Bell

     

    Optimism and Unease as Census Begins
    Emilio Godoy - Inter Press Service
    go to original
    May 27, 2010
    Mexico City - The 100,000 pollsters who will begin knocking on doors throughout Mexico Sunday for the national census will likely face a population hesitant to provide personal information. They may also run into the drug violence that plagues some areas of the country.

    The task of the census workers as they fan out across the nation includes gathering information such as age, sex, education and birthplace, in a mission encompassing 25 million households in 2,456 municipalities.

    "The biggest challenge is to raise people's awareness so that they provide the information, taking into account that many will be distrustful in giving information because of the insecurity and violence in this country," said Rodolfo Rubio, a demographer from the public College of the Northern Border, in the city of Tijuana, which borders the western U.S. state of California.

    Several areas, such as in the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua in the north, Tamaulipas in the east, Michoacán in the west, and Guerrero in the south, are centres of drug trafficking activity, with different groups vying for power to control the distribution routes to the U.S. market.

    After taking office in December 2006, conservative President Felipe Calderón ordered the deployment of thousands of soldiers and police to fight the narcotraffickers. To date, more than 22,000 people have been killed in drug- related violence in Mexico, according to government figures.

    The 2010 Population and Housing Census, which will cost about 460 million dollars, consists of 29 basic questions, plus an additional 75 for the 2.7 million households located in the country's poorest municipalities.

    "Our goal is to reach all corners of the country, every block in every community. However, in the past there have been circumstances in which some towns were not counted, usually very small, that were not considered significant from the perspective of national information," Eduardo Sojo, president of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), told a press conference.

    Sojo recognised that a big concern "is the safety of our pollsters... We hope there is trust and respect for the institute's work and that we can reach the entire country."

    The preliminary results of the census, with fieldwork ending Jun. 25, will be ready in December, and the final data will be published in the first quarter of 2011.

    To plan the census, 10 years after the last one, INEGI used the National Geostrategic Framework, a system that allows the geographic referencing of statistical data from the surveys, collating population with location.

    The census questionnaire itself has stirred up controversy. The Mexican Bishops Conference (the national Roman Catholic Church hierarchy) had threatened to boycott the effort, arguing that the census question about religious beliefs was biased. The Conference decided against the boycott once Sojo clarified some aspects of the questionnaire.

    One of the questions is "What is the religion of each member of the household?" There are 12 options for the answer in reference to the Catholic faith alone. The Bishops Conference only recognises "Roman Catholics."

    For the 2000 census, the question about religion had just three possible answers: None, Catholic, and Other.

    There is also disappointment in the census among the Afro-Mexican community. Their identity is ignored by the survey, which has racial references only for Amerindian origins.

    "We wanted the INEGI to perform its duty to include the black population, but they told us that, due to limited time and resources, the modifications necessary to add the question would be impossible," Israel Reyes, director of the Alliance for the Empowerment of Indigenous Regions and Afro-Mexican Communities, told IPS.

    The basic survey asks if the person speaks an indigenous language, and then inquires specifically which one. In the expanded version, the individual is also asked if he or she self-identifies as indigenous.

    The census is used to create a demographic and socioeconomic profile of each area of the country, information necessary to develop appropriate public policies, especially for the poorest populations, and to determine the needs for infrastructure, both urban and rural.

    With the aggregate data, "we can define social programmes for different socioeconomic or sociodemographic structures, we can identify the location of the people at the rural or urban level, and determine where more schools or hospitals are needed," said Rubio.

    This census has some new aspects, with Jun. 16 set aside for a survey of all people who live in indigence. Also, the polltakers will ask everyone about their use of mobile telephones and the Internet.

    Technological advances will make the 2010 census much faster than the 2000 census in terms of collecting, categorising and processing the data, and produce information that is easier to use, say the experts.

     

    Police Chiefs Pan Arizona Immigration Law: Federal Lawsuit Coming?
    Peter Grier - Christian Science Monitor
    go to original
    May 27, 2010

    Laws like this will actually increase crime, not decrease crime.
    - Chief Charlie Beck
    US Attorney General Eric Holder met Wednesday with a group of police chiefs, who bolstered Mr. Holder's own criticisms of the Arizona immigration law.

    Is US Attorney General Eric Holder going to sue Arizona over its new immigration law? It sure seems as if the Obama administration is preparing the way for such an action.

    On Wednesday, a group of police chiefs from around the nation paid a very public visit to Attorney General Holder and said that forcing local law enforcement to check whether a person is in the United States legally could raise a wall of mistrust between police and immigrant groups. The new Arizona immigration law would require police to carry out such checks.

    If that happens, their jobs will become more difficult, said the chiefs.

    "Laws like this will actually increase crime, not decrease crime," said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

    That is an argument against the Arizona law that Holder himself has already made.

    At a House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, Holder said he was considering whether to challenge the Arizona statute in court. He made two specific objections to the law: that it might be a usurpation of federal prerogatives, and that it could lead to racial profiling.

    Checking someone's immigration status due to the color of their skin or other racial cues may be a violation of US civil rights statutes, said Holder. It could also drive a wedge between police and groups they are supposed to protect, he said.

    "People have to understand that racial profiling is not good law enforcement," Holder said at the House Judiciary hearing on May 13.

    Holder added that his department was working with the Department of Homeland Security to review the law.

    The police chiefs who visited with Holder Wednesday came from Philadelphia, Houston, Minneapolis, San Jose, and Salt Lake City, among other places. They said that during their hour-long meeting with the attorney general the subject of his review of the Arizona law did not come up.

    The Obama administration has tried to walk a fine line in regards to immigration.

    White House officials have criticized the Arizona law and said that a comprehensive immigration reform bill will be a top priority for President Obama in the weeks ahead.

    At the same time, they have acknowledged that many Americans, particularly in the Southwest, feel that the nation has lost control of its borders, and that control of illegal immigration should precede any general action on immigration.

    On Wednesday White House officials announced that the president would order 1,200 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border to support Border Patrol efforts. Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona said this was a step in the right direction but that the troop deployment needed to be much larger to have a real effect.

    Mexico: Another Triqui Leader Slain in Oaxaca
    Nancy Davies - Upside Down World
    go to original
    May 27, 2010
    Less than a month after the deaths of two activists in the ambush of a humanitarian caravan headed to San Juan Copala, an armed group assassinated the indigenous leader Timoteo Alejandro Ramirez, a member of the Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui-Independiente (MULT-I) and a founder of the autonomous community now under siege.

    The armed group entered the home of Ramirez in the community of Yosoyuxi, which has been giving shelter to those who fled San Juan Copala. The shooters also murdered Ramirez' wife. At the same hour another armed group fired weapons in the surroundings of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala as a warning to the townspeople.

    The spokesperson and human rights representative of San Juan Copala, Jorge Albino Ortiz said that the murderers, according to neighbors in Yosoyuxi, arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 in the afternoon in a three ton truck to supposedly offer the sale of beer, soda and maize. The pushed their way into Ramirez' dwelling and began to shoot.

    After killing Ramirez and his wife they escaped on the truck and left Yosoyuxi. The group was composed of mestizos dressed in civilian clothing and wearing white Texas-style hats; they appeared to be from the neighboring town of Putla Villa de Guerrero.

    The spokesperson held responsible the Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui (MULT) because, he said, "all the assassins of Putla are linked with this organization and also with Unididad de Bienestar Social de Region Triqui (Ubisort). It was the MULT; it (the assassination) was paid for by the MULT. "

    Albino Ortiz described Ramirez as a natural leader of the Triqui people and the "political brain" of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala. A “natural leader” is someone whom the community selects as a leader, through usos y costumbres

    It seems, Ortiz added, we're talking about a concerted action to maintain panic among the defenders of the autonomous municipality. This latest aggression will not stop the next peace and aid caravan scheduled for June 8, Albino Ortiz declared.

    At the same time, the Secretary General of Government Evencio Nicolas Martinez Ramirez said that the murder of the director of MULT-I and his wife was not officially confirmed but that he would give instructions to the attorney general for Justice and to the commission of Public Security, to investigate The attorney for the Triqui region seated in Huajuapan de Leon, Wilfrido Almaraz, said he had received the order to send officials and medical experts to Yosoyuxi.

    News appeared in the press with denunciations of events by the United Nations human rights committees among others, causing Ulises Ruiz, who had made no statement, to initiate procedures three days after the event.

    On the evening of Friday, May 21, the Oaxaca group known as VOCAL sponsored a fiesta celebrating the lives of the slain caravaners, Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola. The fiesta included music from the 2006 movement with APPO songs, and the production of the traditional sand tapete, with Bety’s image on the left side and Jyri’s on the other. The altar, as these memorials are called, was surrounded by flowers and candles.

    Amid the reading of letters and poems celebrating the lives of the dead, VOCAL activist David Venegas, one of the riders on the caravan, presented his memorial speech. In it, he said:

    We are now living in a state of exception, a fascist war. Never before has a group of foreigners been deliberately shot at in Mexico. Some people, Venegas continued, thought the sounds of bullets were rain. But it was bullets, a rain of bullets, it keeps on raining bullets, it’s war. It is a war for the entire nation… We are prisoners of war, and now we respond with a declaration of war, with words and music but also with barbed wire in the streets. The events of April 26 represent the ultimate we can tolerate. Those who want to vote will do so [referring to the upcoming July 4 election]. They are killing us, if they made clear their goals so do we, it’s the only thing we can do. They want the moment when nothing remains…We are not discouraged. We are a brave people. The entire country of Mexico wants what we want.

    Venegas called for a demonstration on May 27 at 4:00 PM; a group will march from Siete Regiones Fountain to the zócalo.

    The Oaxaca government assures the public that an investigation will go forward and that crimes in the Triqui region including the murders of the MULTI leader Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez, 46 years old, and and his wife Tleriberta Castro Aguilar, aged 36, will be punished. Four spent shells of a 9 millimeter were picked up at the home of the leader as well as two pieces of the projectiles and a machete were retrieved as evidence.

    No crime by paramilitaries has ever been punished, or even prosecuted, in Oaxaca, including the murders of 26 during the social movement of 2006, along with hundreds of imprisoned, tortured and disappeared.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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     Mexico Offers Rewards for 33 Drug Gang Suspects
    E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
    go to original
    May 29, 2010

     

     
     
    Mexico City – Mexico's government unveiled a list of 33 wanted drug suspects Friday, including three men allegedly tied to a cartel responsible for much of the bloodshed in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.

    The Attorney General's Office did not specify the criminal bands affiliated with each suspect.

    However, a security official in the northern state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, said the three at the top of the list belong to La Linea, a gang tied to the Juarez cartel. Rewards of $1.1 million (15 million pesos) were offered for each.

    One of the three, Juan Pablo Ledezma, is believed to be the head of La Linea, said the official, who is with the joint army and police operation in charge of security in Chihuahua. He agreed to discuss the list only on condition of not being quoted by name, because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

    A turf battle between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels has turned Ciudad Juarez into one of the world's deadliest cities. More than 4,300 people have been killed over the past three years in the city, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas.

    Five men were killed in a Ciudad Juarez shooting Friday, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office.

    The five were riding in a car when gunmen drove up beside them and opened fire, Sandoval said. Two of the five were killed inside the car. The others tried to flee into a restaurant but were gunned down in front of panicked customers.

    The Attorney General's Office offered rewards of $387,000 (5 million pesos) each for five other suspects on the list. The other 25 had $232,000 (3 million peso) bounties on their heads.

    Officials at the Attorney General's Office did not responded to requests for more information on the suspects.

    Last year, the government issued a list of its most-wanted drug traffickers. It offered rewards of $2 million for the leaders of Mexico's six major cartels and $1 million for their lieutenants.

    Ledezma also appeared on last year's list, described as a lieutenant of the Juarez cartel. It was unclear if the Attorney General's Office is offering an additional $1 million reward for Ledezma because of his inclusion in both lists.

    Several kingpins named on the list released last year have been caught or killed, including Arturo Beltran Leyva, who died in a gunbattle with marines in December.

    Beltran Leyva, the head of the Beltran Leyva gang, was the highest-ranking drug trafficker brought down since President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country in late 2006 to fight the cartels.

    Authorities have not said whether rewards were given for any of the drug lords captured or killed.

    Drug gang violence has surged since Calderon's troop deployment, claiming more than 22,700 lives.

    On Friday, police found the bullet-ridden bodies of two men inside black bags in Tecpan de Galeana, a town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.

    State police in the northern state of Sonora said Friday that seven bodies had been found on a ranch on the outskirts of the border city of Nogales and that a drug dispute was suspected as the motive.

    Six of the men whose bodies were found Thursday had been linked to the drug trade, most as "mules" or drug carriers. Some were identified as drug couriers by their relatives. The other victim was the ranch manager.

    And in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of La Condesa, two men were shot death and a third seriously wounded by gunmen. That part of the nation's capital has largely been spared the violence affecting many other parts of the country.

    City prosecutors said in a preliminary report the two dead men were shot in the head by two assailants dressed in black and traveling in another car.

    Meanwhile, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna announced that armored vehicles seized from drug gangs will be used to provide protection for police and government security officials, who have increasingly come under attack from the cartels.

    The government also will introduce a law that would assign permanent bodyguards to top officials involved in the fight against drug trafficking. Their families would also be assigned bodyguards.

     

      

    Giant Aztec Earth Goddess on Show in Mexico City
    Agence France-Presse
    go to original
    May 19, 2010

     

     
    Photo issued by the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology shows a monolith of the Aztec goddess "Tlaltecuhtli" in Mexico City on May 17. The largest stone scuplture of its kind will go on show for the first time next month in the Mexican capital, the National Institute of Anthropology and History has said. (AFP/INAH)
    Mexico – The largest known monolith of Aztec earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli will go on show for the first time next month in Mexico City, the National Institute of Anthropology and History has said.

    The giant stone was found during renovations almost four years ago on a house near the Templo Mayor, the most famous Aztec temple in the heart of the Mexican capital, an INAH statement said.

    Weighing 12 metric tonnes and measuring 4.19 meters (13.7 feet) by 3.62 meters (11.8 feet), the monolith is "the only Mexican sculptural piece that conserves its original colors," the statement said.

    Tlaltecuhtli is represented as an ocher-colored female figure with curly hair, a stream of blood spouting from her mouth and her arms reaching upward, it said.

    Modern cranes and some 20 specialists spent more than 30 hours moving the monolith to the nearby Templo Mayor museum.

    The piece is due to star in an exhibition on Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, opening mid-June.

     

     

     
    President Calderón Leads Launching of Routes of Mexico
    Suzanne Stephens Waller - Presidencia de la República
    go to original
    May 24, 2010

    (Presidencia de la República)
    Mexico City.- President Calderón led the luncheon to launch "Routes of Mexico" in La Hondonada at the official Los Pinos residence.

    "Routes of Mexico" is designed to promote the enormous variety of tourist destinations in Mexico, on the basis of ten conceptual tours that will enable tourists to gain access to the cultural and historical diversity as well as the enormous natural wealth that distinguishes Mexico.

    These ten routes include the 31 states and the Federal District.

    During the initial stage, the groups that will go on the tours will include tour operators and representatives of the national and international media.

    The persons that go on these tours will have the opportunity to enjoy archaeological zones, magical towns, colonial cities, large ecological reserves and sustainable areas on the same trip, before visiting sun and beach destinations.

    "Routes of Mexico" includes: From the World's Wine and Aquarium, The Age-old Tarahumara, The Magic of Traditions and Nature, The Cradle of History and Romanticism, The Art of Tequila and Music under the Sun, Beautiful Huastec Sites, A Thousand Mole Flavors, The Mystery and Origin of the Maya, A Viceregal Experience and the Fascinating Encounter between History and Modernity.

    Mexico to Dust Off and Examine War Hero Bones
    Miguel Angel Gutierrez – Reuters
    go to original
    May 22, 2010

    Miguel Hidalgo
    Mexico City – Mexico is dusting off urns containing skulls and bones of the country's Independence War heroes to try to confirm their identities decades after the remains were stored in a Mexico City monument.

    Soldiers will remove the urns from a mausoleum within the monument on May 30 and carry them through the Mexican capital in a procession before handing the bones over to forensic anthropologists.

    Historians have long questioned the listed identities of eight Independence War fighters whose remains were locked away along with those of the war's most famous hero, Miguel Hidalgo and three other decorated heroes.

    As Mexico celebrates the bicentennial of its independence from Spain, the government has agreed to let anthropologists examine the bones so they can be properly labelled, briefly put on display to the public, and returned to the mausoleum.

    Fed up with Spain dumping its financial burdens on Mexico, including its use of the colony to cover its debts from a war with Napoleonic France, Mexicans began a revolt that turned into a bloody 11-year struggle for independence.

    The remains of 12 fighters named as war heroes - Hidalgo among them - were quickly buried in poorly constructed tombs in Mexico City's giant Metropolitan Cathedral in 1823.

    HEADS HUNG OFF HOOKS

    Decades later, following Mexico's 1910-20 Revolution, the bones were moved to the towering Angel of Independence monument that commemorates Mexico's liberation from Spanish colonial rule and have remained there ever since.

    "We are simply going to determine who they really are," historian Jose Manuel Villalpando told Reuters. "We know the remains were truly in a mess when they were found in the cathedral."

    Hidalgo famously rallied Mexicans to topple Spanish colonial rule in his "Cry of Dolores" call to arms in the village of Dolores in September 1810, igniting the 11-year independence struggle.

    The skulls of Hidalgo and three other independence leaders are entombed in the monument, their identities confirmed.

    The four men were captured and beheaded in 1811 by Spanish forces who put their severed heads in steel cages, hung them off hooks on four corners of a granary in Guanajuato and left them there for 10 years as a warning to other fighters.

    Specialists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History plan to compare the bones with historical records on the heroes' heights and bullet wounds to confirm the identities of the other eight men.

    "This is something pending in our history," said Villalpando, who is coordinating ceremonies for the bicentennial of the War of Independence and 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.

    The remains will be displayed in the National Palace, the official seat of the Mexican government, from August for a year before they are returned to the Angel of Independence with correctly labelled plaques.

         

     

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    Mexico Oil Exec Investigated in $13 Million Fraud
    Patrick Rucker - Reuters
    go to original
    May 24, 2010

    Mexico City, May 23 (Reuters) - A senior official at Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, improperly traded discount fuel to her husband's company in transactions that cost the oil monopoly $13 million, local prosecutors said on Sunday.

    Investigators said the Pemex official improperly traded discount fuel using several transactions between August and December 2008. One firm that benefited from the trades, Blu Trading, was founded by the Pemex executive's spouse three years ago, officials said.

    The Pemex official, identified in local media as Maria Karen Miyasaki Hara, has been suspended but not yet been charged, federal investors said in a statement. In a statement published by local media late on Sunday, Miyasaki Hara denied wrongdoing and said she had not been properly notified about any charges.

    "The modus operandi involved buying and selling loads of ultra-low sulfur diesel, with apparent economic benefit for foreign companies at the expense of Pemex," Mexico's public service watchdog said in a statement.

    Pemex could not immediately be reached for comment.

    (Editing by Doina Chiacu)

     

     

         We Need to Dump the Word "Illegal"
    Kung Li - t r u t h o u t
    go to original

    (Fifth_Business)
    The owner of Mulligans, a watering hole popular with middle-aged white men in Cobb County, Georgia, regularly updates his marquee to comment on current events. Here is what's up today:

    HELL YEH, ARIZONA. SEND THEM WETBACKS HOME! ANCHOR BABIES & ALL! IF U CAN'T FEED UM DON'T BREED UM!

    The local news station reporting on the sign bleeped out the offensive term. As they should have, wetback being an ugly racial slur.

    But there is a word more commonly used and much more damaging to immigrants and Latinos: illegal. We need to stop using it ourselves, and demand that media outlets retire the word as well.

    Every few months, another listserv circulates What Part of 'Illegal' Don't You Understand?, the excellent 2008 New York Times piece by Lawrence Downs, to remind us that until we get rid of the phrase illegal immigrant, we have little hope of opening up pathways for the people thus maligned to come into legal status.

    We know this phrase is crushing us, yet we have done nothing to deliberately and conscientiously fight this battle.

    Gays and lesbians have long understood that language is a weapon, and so have actively defended against it. It is not the harshest words - fag, homo, dyke - that have done the most damage. The most damaging term was the word homosexual, which managed to be both sensational and clinical. With most gay people still hidden in the shadows in the 1980's, Average Straight Jane's reading about a homosexual could not see past the sex at the heart of the word. The alpha and omega of a homosexual was sex; he or she was not anyone's son or daughter, a teacher or a mail carrier, a friend or a neighbor. At the same time, the clinical ring of the term made the person sound psychologically deviant in some fundamental way. Until the late 1980's, it was the term unthinkingly used by every mainstream news outlet.

    In 1987, the New York Times changed its editorial policy to using "gay and lesbian" rather than "homosexual" in writing about, well, gays and lesbians. Once the venerable Times changed its policy, most other news outlets followed suit.

    The change did not materialize out of thin air. The switch from homosexual to gay and lesbian came after a yearlong campaign by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), formed in the mid-1980's to counter the mainstream media's viscous - and dangerous - coverage of the AIDS crisis. After this huge win, GLAAD stuck around and bird-dogged other damaging terminology: sexual preference got the boot, replaced by sexual orientation; admitted homosexual became openly gay; and the right wing extremists' favorite term, special rights, never made the leap from right wing propaganda to mainstream reporting.

    GLAAD can be irritating, tipping over to whining at times. But goodness, are they effective. Gays and lesbians may not be loved by all, but we would certainly not be the face of CoverGirl if we were still homosexuals.

    So what's the lesson for immigration? It's time to stop kidding ourselves. As long as illegal immigrant remains an acceptable term, we lose. We certainly lose so long as our side continues to use the term. The Center for American Progress uses illegal immigrant interchangeably with undocumented immigrant. Contributors to the Huffington Post have no problems with the term. Even the t-shirts and signs protesting Arizona's SB1070 by asking "Do I look illegal?" are acquiescing to a right-wing semantic ploy. It's time we stopped.

    But even if we get disciplined and stop using the term ourselves, we will still need a deliberate campaign to retire the phrase. A decision by progressive and liberals to stick with out of status or unauthorized is fine, but without more, an overly passive strategy.

    Last year, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists asked media outlets to stop using the term illegals as a noun. Even that somewhat meek request was generally ignored, and the NAHJ has not followed up.

    What does a media campaign to have mainstream media talk right look like? It starts with a history lesson, to remind media outlets that illegals and illegal immigrant are terms that were created and deliberately propagated by right wing hacks. And it explains that, whether as a noun or as an adjective modifying a person, the terms are inaccurate and un-American: one of the fundamental principles of American jurisprudence is that it is the act that is illegal, not the person.

    A campaign to rid us of this flawed term would also point out that the range of terms used to demean and dehumanize people - illegal alien, illegals, aliens - are simply defamatory. They are intended to not only insult, but to vilify. Which is, of course, why it is so brutally effective for the right wing's purposes. By implying criminality where there is none, no further argument is needed by those who wish to maintain the status quo, and no further argument is possible for those who see the need for immigration reform.

    There is an opening right now to dramatically change the conversation. Earlier this month, 21-year old student Jessica Colotl caught people's attention after she was shot into deportation proceedings after being stopped for driving without a license. Pleas from her sorority sisters prompted ICE to give Jessica a one-year deferment and release her from detention, which in turn produced howls of protest from anti-immigrant extremists. The Sheriff of Cobb County responded to his constituents - including the owner and patrons of Mulligan's bar - and issued an arrest warrant and sent out a posse of deputies to haul her in. She has become, in the words of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a new face on an old debate.

    Jessica and other young people brought here as children, who have no pathway to legalization and are now facing deportation, have disrupted people's cozy, simplistic ideas of what it means to be out of status in this country. That opens the way for new thinking.

    The majority of people in Cobb County reject the sentiments on the Mulligans marquee, but support the Cobb County Sheriff's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Jessica. We will not win meaningful immigration reform until ordinary Cobb residents see the Sheriff's actions for what they were: an overly aggressive act by a bully against Jessica, a young woman we very much want to remain in the United States. That shift will not come until Jessica stops being an illegal immigrant and becomes a college student, her mother's daughter, and our friend and neighbor. Adelante!

    Kung Li is an Open Society Fellow writing out of Atlanta, GA. A civil right attorney by trade, Kung Li is the former Executive Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights and can be reached at kung.li.atl(at)gmail.com.

     

     
     

    Bay of conception  Photograph by Bill Bell


    Arizona Border Businesses Lose Key Mexican Clients
    Tim Gaynor - Reuters
    go to original
    May 24, 2010
    The United States, Mexico and Canada created the world's largest free trade block with the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, although the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship has been jarred by job losses and charges of protectionism.
    Nogales, Ariz. - Adalberto Lopez' family-run musical instrument shop in the bustling Arizona border city of Nogales sells guitars and accordions to foot-stomping banda musicians and mariachis who cross up from Mexico to shop.

    But in mid-May, the music stopped in the store. Mexican customers who account for almost all its sales stayed away as part of a two-day boycott to repudiate Arizona's tough new immigration law.

    "The street and my shop were empty," said Lopez, of the "Day Without a Mexican" protest on May 14 and 15.

    The law may make life more difficult for border retailers already hobbled by the recession and long border crossing waits, and Arizona's economy could take a hit from lost business.

    But on a larger scale, experts believe the overall trade between the United States and Mexico, valued at around $1 billion a day, is unlikely to suffer from this latest wrinkle in the often strained U.S.-Mexico relations.

    Passed last month, the law requires state and local police to check the immigration status of those they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. Opponents on both sides of the border say it is a mandate for racial profiling.

    Mexico President Felipe Calderon sharply criticized it during a visit to Washington last week. Standing beside U.S. President Barack Obama, Calderon said Mexican immigrants make a "significant contribution to the economy and society of the United States" but many face discrimination "as in Arizona."

    The measure has triggered legal challenges, convention cancellations, and, most recently, snubs by some of the 65,000 Mexicans who cross into the desert state each day to work, visit family and shop, spending $7.4 million, according to a recent University of Arizona study.

    "The people in Mexico have been fairly insulted by this legislation, as have most Latinos in the state of Arizona," said Bruce Bracker, president of the Downtown Merchants Association in Nogales, who said local shops' sales fell 40 percent to 60 percent as Mexicans stayed home during the boycott.

    NO TRADE SLOWDOWN

    Obama has spoken out against the law, which is backed by a majority of Americans.

    The United States, Mexico and Canada created the world's largest free trade block with the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, although the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship has been jarred by job losses and charges of protectionism.

    Trade between the two neighbors is already ruffled by a trucking row. Mexico is waiting for the United States to let its trucks circulate again on U.S. roads, ending a spat that led it to slap duties on $2.4 billion in U.S. goods.

    But analysts and customs brokers say the furor over the state law is unlikely to disrupt the $21 billion annual flow in goods over the Arizona-Mexico border, between clients scattered across northwest Mexico and the United States.

    "Once you work so hard to get a business enterprise up and operating, how much are you willing to reverse that based upon something that someone relatively remote from you does?" said Rick Van Schoik, director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

    "Life goes on regardless of the newsy political conversation that's going on," he added.

    Customs brokers in Nogales, meanwhile, who clear goods ranging from semi-conductor chips to fresh produce headed over the border by truck and freight train, said their clients were more concerned about the sputtering economic recovery than the migrant law, which is due to come into effect on July 29.

    "The economy is one thing, but that's an ongoing situation for everyone," said Nogales customs broker Terry Shannon Jr.

    "But I have not had any dialogue with my clients at this point where they have called me up and point-blank (asked) 'What do you think of the law? Where are we going with this?'"

    'ONE MORE OBSTACLE'

    But in cross-border retail, where sentiment plays a role in shaping Mexican shoppers' spending, the outlook is more vexed, business groups say.

    Informal Mexican boycotts in protest at the measure have taken hold in other cities bordering Arizona, among them San Luis Rio Colorado, south of Yuma, where some traders are opting to head to California and Nevada to buy appliances and cars.

    "They're looking for other options," said Juan Manuel Villarreal, president of the city's chamber of commerce, adding that it is still too early to quantify the impact.

    Authorities in Nogales - the state's principal trade gateway to Mexico - were unable to place a dollar value on the recent boycott by Mexican shoppers, whose spending accounts for nearly a quarter of all jobs in surrounding Santa Cruz County, and almost half of taxable sales.

    But Olivia Ainza-Kramer, president of the Nogales-Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce said a backlash from the law piled pressure on local shops, restaurants and hotels already hurt by the recession and delays of up to two hours for customers crossing up from Mexico.

    "This is one more obstacle that's getting in the way," she said.

    (Additional reporting by Leslie Josephs in Mexico City; Editing by Mary Milliken and Xavier Briand)

     

     

         President Urges State Governments to Promote Security Reform
    Suzanne Stephens Waller - Presidencia de la República
    go to original
    May 25, 2010
    President Calderón inaugurates Second Political Forum on Security and Justice. (Presidencia de la República)
    Mexico City - During the inauguration of the Second Political Forum: Security and Justice, President Felipe Calderón urged state governments to redouble efforts and implement the Reform of the Penal Justice System, "So that as soon as possible, all Mexicans will have access to a transparent, expeditious system of justice."

    "Local authorities must redouble their efforts to ensure that oral trials come into effect and are implemented as soon as possible and to prevent the risks associated with faulty implementation, such as the phenomenon of revolving force. In this situation, the criminal takes longer to reach the door than to leave through it precisely because of the shortcomings or faulty implementations of the reform," he explained.

    He said that the Board of Coordination for the Implementation of Penal Justice provides advice as well as study programs for government officials responsible for implementing the reform at the local level.

    "At the same time, we are also strengthening and professionalizing our own security and justice institutions. To this end, we are evaluating, training and providing better equipment for the Federal Police and helping local authorities to make the same effort within the sphere of their competence," he added.

    In the cupola of the Archivo General de la Nación, the President stressed that security and justice are matters that involve not only Federal Government but all Mexicans, which is why the implementation of this reform requires the surveillance, proposal and demands of citizens to make it successful.

    "Although a quality government requires quality institutions, it also requires citizens that participate, think, organize and demand and express themselves through the channels established by the law and the Constitution."

    "I am convinced that institutions only improve when citizens appropriate and make them their own," he added.

    Accompanied by the Security Cabinet, the President explained that the reform will be useless unless the corps responsible for securing and administering it are transformed. If corruption continues to exist in prosecution, police or judicial corps, it will be pointless to change the justice system, because, "Justice will be continue to be provided for the highest bidder, as happens in many cases."

    President Calderón urged Congress to pass the penal reform bills he will submit to to classify the crimes that have been commented on and have yet to be properly configured.

    “We want to close the legal loopholes that permit impunity in order to prevent dangerous criminals from walking out of prisons because of the shortcomings in penal typology,” he explained.

    Lastly, he made it quite clear that Federal Government will not cease its struggle against organized crime, since the aim is to restore the security and tranquility of Mexican families. That is why, he said, we must work together, because everyone's future is at stake.

    "And I do not have the slightest doubt that it should be done. We must continue because this fight is worth it because it is naive to assume that if Federal Government withdraws, criminals will desist from their aim of taking over communities and the lives of every citizen, meaning that we must do so."

    "And we must do so increasingly accurately and intensely. But we must do so and not cross our arms in this long-term struggle for Mexicans' safety."

     

     
    Mexican Senators to Listen, not Protest in Arizona
    Associated Press
    go to original
    May 25, 2010
    Mexico City — A delegation of Mexican senators plans to go to Arizona to listen to opinions about the U.S. state's immigration law, but it will not take part in any protests against the controversial measure.

    The Mexican Senate has already voiced its opposition to the Arizona law, which will make it a state crime to be in Arizona without documents. Mexico's government says the law is discriminatory and raises the risk of racial profiling.

    Sen. Luis Alberto Villarreal says "we are not going to demonstrate," adding that the senators have respect for a nation's laws.

    Sen. Claudia Corichi said Monday the delegation will meet with Mexican consuls to plan what actions to take if the law goes into effect July 29.


     

    Driving Safely in Mexico

    Driving safely in Mexico tips by Bill and Dot Bell

    Click here to read more

    See  Tom at Oasis Trailer Park – Phone 322-116-6072

  • Speak Spanish - That Should be Your Goal!Free Spanish Lessons

    Learn Spanish Today   Make 2009 the year that you learn Spanish

    Can you Speak Spanish? How long have you been studying Spanish? Between high school classes, college classes and you own efforts you could easily have a couple years already under your belt. During this time you have likely built up a good Spanish vocabulary, along with a basic understanding of Spanish verb conjugation. But can you speak Spanish?

    Why is speaking Spanish so hard? Would you feel comfortable approaching a native Spanish speaker and starting a conversation? Why not? Why is it so hard to speak Spanish even Beginning high school and college Spanish classes, as well as most self study Spanish courses start off by teaching vocabulary and verb conjugation. You practice speaking, but the focus is on the individual word or phrase. Lists of words are memorized and tests are given on verb conjugation. So when it comes time to speak, the words and phrases are separate in your mind. It becomes a matter of trying to pull all the pieces together and form them all into a sensible sentence, not just speaking.

    The key to becoming more comfortable in speaking situations is to practice and learn the sentences as a whole, not in separate pieces. This way when you are trying to remember what to say, the whole sentence pops in your mind, not just one word. You will speak Spanish more correctly, more fluently and more confidently than ever before.

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    New with travel guide information added!

    Pacific Coast Road, Driving and Travel Guide Log 2010

    Driving in Mexico just got a little safer with the release of México Road Logs - A comprehensive compilation of road logs of the Mexican Highway system researched and created by Bill and Dot Bell (www.ontheroadin.com).  They have just released the updated version of their successful Nogales to Puerto Vallarta road Log and Travel Guide.

    The Mexico Road Log and Driving Guides give details of what to expect along major travel routes when visiting different areas of Mexico. "Far more than a simple map, these road logs detail intersections, driving directions, points of interest, and provide important information on driving hazards that even current GPS systems do not track" said Dot Bell. "The Road Logs are a must for those who are driving throughout the Baja, Pacific, Gulf Coast, and the Interior of Mexico." 

    According to Insurance Guru Jim Labelle President of Mexpro (the largest insurance supplier to Canadians and Americans entering Mexico ) the Road Logs will make car and RV travel in Mexico less intimidating. "For years, our clients have asked us for updated road logs of Mexico," Labelle said.

    "The Mexico Road Logs provide our customers with additional peace of mind and will allow them to have a more enjoyable Mexico travel experience. They may even prevent U-turns and collisions! By using the Mexico Road Logs, our clients will experience less stress and have a more relaxed driving experience, which should also help Mexpro with reduced claims that in the past have resulted from customers getting lost or losing their composure," Labelle said.

    The Mexico Road Logs are updated, simple to read, easy to use, and offer the perfect solution to people who want to drive and enjoy Mexico.

    The Bell's originally designed the Mexico Road Log for a Caravan they were leading down Mexico's West Coast. "We wanted to list every individual gas station and identifier so folks wouldn't get lost. We wanted to warn them of every turn and hazard along the way," says Bell. "They were such a hit and even the people who have driven Mexican Roads for years were asking for them. They wanted to be reminded where the next gas station was, if it sold diesel or where the next Military checkpoint was likely to be."

    The Bell's are experts in Mexico Travel and have led conferences, seminars and special classes about driving and travel in Mexico throughout Canada and the USA. They have the most comprehensive travel website on Mexico Driving, RVing and Camping and are now working with Mexpro to distribute Mexico Road Logs in an easy-to-use interactive download.

    Available at http://www.ontheroadin.com.

    How to download and buy the Road Log

    Click on the buy now button and you will be directed to a merchants page.  Once you pay for the road log you will redirected to an easy to use download page where you will be able to receive your product immediately.  Now only $9.99

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