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March 7th 2010
..the heartbeat of the Riviera Nayarit
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Headline News
Cancun, Mexico's spring break king, recovers from swine
flu, drug violence
CANCUN,
Mexico - Mexico's spring break king - Cancun - is rebounding quickly
from last year's triple blow to its tourism industry caused by the
country's swine flu epidemic, drug violence and a global economic
crisis.
Those worries couldn't compete this year
against Mexico's cheap airfare from the United States and Canada and
phenomenal package deals that include popular all-you-can-drink
enticements. ….Go
to original article
Who’s creating US jobs? Mexicans.
Fed up with
violence in Mexico, entrepreneurs are moving north. That means the US is
seeing the benefit from the businesses they start.
For Pierre Gama, the fourth kidnapping was
the final straw. Armed carjackers made him drive his car in circles
until he gave them the numbers to his credit cards. With two small
children and a wife – who was with him during one such secuestro
express – the security entrepreneur wanted out of Mexico City.……Go
to original article
Mariachi's hometown, Guadalajara, echoes with joyful
music, heritage
Walking across Plaza Tapatia toward the
Instituto Cultural Cabañas, my group of chatty friends stopped short. We
whipped out cameras in an attempt to preserve a whirl of color, dance
and music, as a mariachi group burst into performance, instantly bold
and wonderfully graceful, taking our breath away. The moment proved to
be just one of dozens of compelling images we would try to capture
inside the historic district of Mexico's second-largest city. On this
occasion, it came as we prepared to enter the Cabañas Institute, an
ornate, 1820s building converted to a museum housing murals by revered
artist Jose Clemente Orozco. We sensed that the artistry of the
mariachis on the plaza would rival what we'd see painted on the former
orphanage's interior walls and ceilings. ……Go
to original article
Retreat highlights Baja's wild side
WHAT SORT
of person would subject her 7-year-old grandson to a vacation in the
Sonoran Desert, where visitors may encounter scorpions, rattlesnakes and
stingrays while risking dehydration?
That person would be me. Las Animas
Wilderness Retreat in Baja, Mexico, sounded like an ideal family
vacation spot, an off-the-grid camp where Sam, his dad and I could have
a more meaningful time than we would at previous haunts such as Disney
World or Sea World.……Go
to original article
German prince competes for Mexico at age 51
On a day
when an Italian was crowned king of the Olympic slalom, a flamboyant
German prince who competes for Mexico may have made his royal exit.
At 51 years
old, Hubertus Von Hohenlohe probably skied his last Olympic race
Saturday.
"I had a lot of fun," said Von Hohenlohe,
an heir of Germany's Von Hohenlohe family who was born in Mexico City.
"This could be it." ……Go
to original article
Mexico City enters gay marriage, adoption fray
Capital
takes lead in Latin America despite outcry from church, president
The Mexican
wedding may never be the same.
On
Thursday, this sprawling megalopolis will catapult to the front lines of
gay rights in Latin America when a city law legalizing same-sex marriage
and adoption goes into effect.
The prospect of gay marriage has sent
tremors through the Catholic Church, drawn the opposition of President
Felipe Calderón and his conservative National Action Party (PAN), and
spotlighted the power of Mexico City's center-left Democratic Revolution
Party (PRD) leaders to advance a liberal agenda that contrasts with
provincial traditionalism. ……Go
to original article
Marijuana cultivation in Mexico rises
Marijuana
cultivation in Mexico increased 35 percent in 2008 and continues to
grow, even as authorities there push forward with a large offensive
against drug cartels that smuggle the product into the United States,
according to a State Department report released this week.
The 2010 International Narcotics Control
Strategy Report (INCSR), is a yearly report that assess anti-drug
efforts around the world. The part of the report dealing with Mexico is
illuminating because most of the illegal drugs in the United States are
transported and smuggled through there.……Go
to original article
Mexican warm-up could leave NZ soccer burned
There is an
ominous feel to the All Whites' clash against Mexico and it will be no
surprise should Ricki Herbert's men roll over like the Poseidon when
they take centre stage in Hollywood's backyard tomorrow night.
Playing Mexico seemed like a good idea at
the time of the game's announcement, but the way events have panned out
- namely Ryan Nelsen's knee injury and the Phoenix's run at the A-league
title - I'm not so sure.……Go
to original article
Tsunami alert is canceled
Tsunami
warnings were canceled for all countries Sunday, a
day after a deadly 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck
Chile, forecasters said.
However,
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in its
cancellation alert it was only advising governments,
and "only national and local government agencies
have the authority to make decisions regarding the
official state of alert in their area and any
actions to be taken in response." ....Go
to original article
Pre-Hispanic relics found in Mexico
Mexican archeologists have found at least
500 stone and ceramic pieces of the pre-Hispanic colonial era in the
Chichimeca region of San Luis Potosi and Guanajuato states in central
Mexico, local press reported on Thursday.
The relics, which date from 1000 A.D. to
1800 A.D., were found in 37 camps distributed in five areas….. Go to original article
Mexico oil output rises to 9-month high in January
Mexican oil output rose in January to its
highest level in nine months as production at the country's aging
Cantarell field and troubled Chicontepec project edged higher, state oil
monopoly Pemex [PEMX.UL] said on Thursday. ….Go
to original article
Tlacaxipehualitzi: second month
of the Aztec calendar
Dancers dressed in traditional costume
celebrated Tlacaxipehualitzi the second month of the Aztec calendar and
popularly attributed to the god Totec-Xipe ….Go
to original article
Small earthquake hits US-Mexico border near SoCal city
A magnitude-3.9 earthquake has rattled the
California-Mexico border, but there are no immediate reports of damage
or injuries. ….Go
to original article
U.S. Closes Consulate After Mexico Border Gunfights
— The United States has temporarily
closed its consular office in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across
from McAllen, Texas, after gunbattles with drug gangs rocked the area
this week.
Four suspected cartel gunmen were killed
Thursday outside the nearby city of Matamoros after they attacked an
army patrol on a highway, Mexico's Defense Department reported. ….Go
to original article
Mexico puts its drug suspects on parade
Critics of the media events say human
rights are also on the line, along with the country's efforts to
establish the rule of law. But Mexico wants to show victories in its
drug war.….Go
to original article
Mexico drug lord apologizes for a lifetime of
‘mistakes’
As Mexican drug kingpin Osiel Cardenas
Guillen — whose ruthless Gulf Cartel took hundreds of lives while
smuggling tons of cocaine — stood before a federal judge in Houston, he
made his first public statement in years, saying he was sorry for his
“mistakes,” according to a transcript obtained by the Houston Chronicle
on Thursday.
“I apologize to my country, Mexico, to the
United States of America, to my wife, especially my children, for all
the mistakes I have made,” a shackled Cardenas said, according to the
transcript.….Go
to original article
Mexico's First Lady Meets With Michelle Obama
Mexico Says First Lady Met With Michelle
Obama, Discussed Obesity, Migrants, Addictions. The Mexican government
says first lady Margarita Zavala has met with Michelle Obama during a
visit to the White House. ….Go
to original article
Venus Williams retains Mexico Open title
Venus Williams fought back from a set down
to retain her Mexican Open title with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in
Acapulco on Saturday over Polona Hercog of Slovenia.
It was Williams' second consecutive WTA title after her successful
defence of Dubai champion. She has won a total of 43 WTA titles in her
career.
Mexico to apply new passport mandate
Beginning March 1, Americans and Canadians
will be required to present passports to authorities in Mexico when
traveling to that country by airplane or ship or when driving into the
interior.
The requirement will not apply to those
going no farther south than Mexican border cities such as San Luis Rio
Colorado, Son., or Los Algodones, Baja Calif., or to the nearby popular
Sonora tourist destinations of El Golfo de Santa Clara and Rocky Point.
…..Click
here to go to the original article
Medium earthquakes shake southeast of Mexico
Two earthquakes measuring 5.2 and 5.4
magnitude on Richter scale, shook the state of Chiapas in the southeast
of Mexico, without report of victims or material damages, the National
Seismological Service (SSN) said Tuesday.
One of the earthquakes measuring 5.4 magnitude was registered at 9:16
a.m. local time (1516 GMT). The epicenter was located 90 km southeast to
Las Margaritas municipality with a depth of 25 km…..Click
here to go to the original article
The
International Margarita Challenge
Needs
your Photos
We
are building a Hall of Fame
for the Margarita Challenge
If
you have any photos of the Challenge, especially those 2007 and earlier,
please send them to
editor@jaltembasol.com
Mateja's Rock n roll Party
Inauguration of Las Cabras Kindergarten
The kindergarten in Las Cabras was inaugurated
yesterday March 2.
It was an emotional event well attended by well
over a hundred.There was a
good mix of foreigners and locals.Rotary was particularly well represented since they contributed
the majority of the funds.
There were Rotarians from Banderas Bay, Ladysmith B.C., Sunshine Coast,
B.C., Westerly Rhode Island USA as well as our local club.
It is a collaborative project between Rotary andLos Amigos.
Donations came from all over including substantial donations from the La
Peñita trailer park, friends of Roger Ulliac and Bold Developments and
local businesses too numerous to mention.
Both Rotary and Los Amigos are looking for more
members and volunteers.
Next meeting of Rotary is Wednesday at 7:30 for breakfast at Piña Colada
(actually every Wednesday).
Next meeting of Los Amigos is Monday 8th at Guty's(every
second and fourth Monday).
It is through the efforts of volunteers and donations from the community
that this type of work is accomplished.
At the event an anonymous donor contributed a well
to the project.
The kindergarten La Patria in La Colmena is well
under way.We have a work
day there this Saturday. Details and pictures here:
A big thanks to all our supporter and volunteers.Without your help this is not possible.....Johan
Call for donation of items for Gran Bazaar
El Gran Bazaar -- Garage Sale
I am once again asked by those hard working mothers of the Education
Committee of Los Amigos to solicit donations of items to sell at their
garage sale which will be held April 24th. As you are packing up to head
back please keep in mind that “what is one person's garbage is another's
treasure”.
Your donations help raise funds for projects like the kindergarten
the committee is building.
Last year's event in Ecopark raised about 18,000 pesos and was
attended by about 1,000 people..
Email me and I can arrange pickup or drop off your donation at:
my house Mazatlan #66 (just leave it by the door) or
in Guayabitis with Gail Dafuki #14 Colibri just one block from the
bridge of life
Also remember the regular meeting of los Amigos is this Monday at Guty's:
5:00 display of children art contest winners.
6:30 socializing
7:00 business
Thanks to all our supporters and safe travels.......Johan
A quick note to thank you for the publicity on the Kindergarten
inauguration yesterday in Las Cabras in La Colonia.
It is such a worthwhile project and the coverage you give it will let
people know that their contribution makes a difference in this community
and helps many of these young children by providing a better learning
environment and giving them more of a chance to succeed as young adults
in the future.
Gracias,
Eddie Dominguez
Never smile at a crocodile in Guayabitos
Hi All
Mark and I watched a 10 foot crocodile walking down Gaviotas street;
just across from our casa this morning at 12:30 a.m. We were at the
upstairs bedroom. The dog alerted Mark of a problem and when he checked
it out, he woke me up so that I could also see it.
We did not see where it came from nor where it was going; only that he
was heading North. Mark went out this morning to see if he could tell
where the crocodile went, but could not see any signs.
Madeleine (Mattie) and Mark Boznar
Retired and enjoying it.
We're Number 1
Patty & Javier pull off another fantastic win. This time
in Tequila
La Peñita Wins the Tequila Challenge Claims rights to
Margaretville
Tequila Challenge
Approximately 30 supporters from Hinde and Jaime’s Restaurant travelled
to City of Tequila to support Patty and Javier in 1st Annual
Tequila Challenge. The contest, modeled after the Margarita
Challenge in the Jaltemba Bay area, was hosted by the School Centro
Technological, the only school that trains in the art of tequila making.
They have an onsite distillery and process the beverage from beginning
to end with all natural ingredients.
Judges and organizers were greeted with BIG HUGS from the children of
Emiliano Zapata (Elementary School) All the proceeds of the Challenge
will go towards a Lunch Program for the school.
The
event’s entertainment began with various traditional Mexican
performances. The children sang songs and the crowd applauded
enthusiastically. A fine charro rider with a dancing horse
entertained the group; the rider seemed to effortlessly lead the horse
in an intricate dance. The horse bowed, lowering his body to the ground
while propped on his knees.
Check back Wednesday for coverage of the Casa de los Ninos Golf tourney
Ana's House finished thanks to some very special people
and an entire community
Jane Kelly, Roger Ulliac and Jane Fellows turn the keys over to Ana's two daughters this
Sunday.
Ana who recently passed away dues to a heart ailment
was one of the first Mexicans that Roger Ulliac of Bold Developments met
here and befriended a couple of years ago. Ana showed him around
the La Penita area and introduced him to many other local people.
After her death, when he became aware of the situation with the
kid's he immediately pledged his support.
However, despite tremendous community participation led by Jane
Kelly and Jane Fellows not much progress was being made on the
actual building of the house. After a couple of months he took the
bull by the horns and jumped right in and began finishing the
house.
Roger has also raised some funds of his own from his friends and
business associates but most of the money spent was his along with
the generous support of patrons of many restaurants in town
including Petra's, Crazy Nelly's and Matejas.
Bold Developments has also been able to obtain various donations of
materials and labor from the many vendors it uses for its own
projects. Bold Developments crew has been working on the house for
about 6 weeks. the crew was paid but they also donated many "free"
hours to the project.
Roger has gone above and beyond on this project
because he wants the girls to have a comfortable and safe home to
live in. The Jaltemba Foundation is helping with some funds (raised
through various fund raising projects) that have been used for basic
construction needs such as cement, rebar, mortar, brick and block,
etc. Roger has added many amenities for added comfort and safety at
his own expense. One thing he has said throughout this project - is
"If you are going to do then do it right!"
Roger and Bold Developments is a great example of the generosity and
kindness that this community gives to the community. Roger is
a make it happen kind of guy with a generous and kind heart.
A very special thank you to Roger and his Bold Developments
employees, Jane Kelly and Jane Fellows , the many volunteers who
helped fund raise and pitched in to help fix the house, the
restaurant owners who held events and contests and you the community
for giving.
CHILI FUNDRAISER FOR ANA'S GIRLS - A HUGE
SUCCESS !! $8,000 pesos raised!!
A good time was had by all and all for a good cause! Thank you
to everyone who attended and gave so generously.
All funds go directly towards building supplies only : cement,
bricks, plumbing, electric etc.
On behalf of Ana's Girls, Jane Kelly and Jane Fellows would like to
thank the following people:
ANA'S GIRLS' CASA....HOW DID THEY DO IT? ...
WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM FRIENDS
!
The Girls and the fundraising committee (Jane & Jane) would like to
thank:
Larry & Bellemarie Sutherland, Ken & Kim Wiebe, George & Donna
Steensma, Hidzer & Faye Sietzema, Sylvie Gatien & Michel Gagnon and Doug
and Lorraine O'Neil who donated 2000 pesos for labour.
Whitecourt, Alberta Friends including:
Ken & Kim Weibe, Tom & Lynn Pritchard, Stacy & Laura howard, Eugene &
va Derksen, Rudy & Wanda Snyder and other anonymous persons, who donated
44,000 pesos which bought:
washer & dryer
fridge, stove, microwave
2 single beds
a double bed
toilet
propane tank
table with 6 chairs
counter tiles
floor tiles
3 bar stools
paint
PAINTERS AND CLEANERS:
Larry & Bellemarie Sutherland, Ken (plumbing too)& Kim Weibe, Tom &
Lynn Pritchard, Jeff & Holly Trujillo, Gayle & Jim Betzing, Karen
Decker, Jane Fellows
We want to thank all of you who shared with us
our 50th Wedding Anniversary.
Thanks to all of you who brought food, helped
set up or donated money. If it wasn’t for you our 50th
wouldn’t have been such a success.
Thank you again. Love all of you
Byron & Ginger
Local Author Announces New Book on Sale
Susan J. Cobb, author of the newly published
memoir
Virgin Territory: How I Found My Inner Guadalupe.
The book tells of a leap of faith, a less
than soft landing, and an ultimate grace-filled
recovery.
In early 2006, while on vacation near Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, Susan and her husband bought a
house near the shore of the Pacific and at the
foot of the mountains. They returned to Southern
California, sold practically everything they
owned, and six months later were installed in
the seaside village of
Rincón de Guayabitos. The move represented
not only a radical change of place, but a whole
new perspective. They had entered Virgin
Territory.
A few words from Susan –
Hey Amigos!
It's DONE, finished,
all wrapped up!
Virgin Territory:
How I Found My Inner Guadalupe
is now on sale.
Now the hard work
begins -- getting the word out without my email program telling me I'm
spamming.
I should have a
supply of printed copies here in Mexico before the end of March. I'll be
sure and let you know about book signing and sales sites. But if you
plan on heading north before then, order a copy to be waiting for you.
In the meantime, have
a look at my website, and if you feel inclined, pass the link along to
those friends of yours shivering and longing for spring.
Mexico
Starts Requiring Passports for Travel Devlin Houser - The Arizona Daily Star
go to original
March 01, 2010
U.S. tourists have needed a passport to return from Mexico since June,
but now they'll need one to get into Mexico as well.
Under new rules taking effect today, every U.S. or Canadian citizen
traveling into the interior of Mexico will need to present a valid
passport or passport card, said Julian Etienne, a spokesman for the
Mexican Consulate in Tucson.
Visitors traveling into Mexico through Nogales must present their
passports at the Kilometer 21 checkpoint.
Tourists who stay in Nogales won't be affected by the new rules, and
those traveling into Mexico's interior shouldn't experience increased
waiting times, he said.
"It is going to have minimal repercussions to the tourist and business
flows," Etienne said. "Ninety-nine percent of Canadians and almost 100
percent of Americans who travel to Mexico already have a passport."
U.S. residents who aren't citizens can enter with other documents,
including a green card or a refugee travel permit.
For more information, pamphlets outlining the new rules are available at
travel agencies or at
inm.gob.mx/EN/index.php Devlin Houser is a University of Arizona journalism student who is
apprenticing at the Star. Contact him at starapprentice(at)azstarnet.com
Mexico
Tourism Declared a Federal Priority Mexico Insight
go to original
March 05, 2010
There are no political flies on one Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, Mexico’s
Minister of Tourism.
Last year, when his boss, President Felipe Calderon, publicly announced
the abolishment of his department (Tourism was to be folded into the
Ministry for the Economy) Torres rallied the support of some
heavy-weight state governors across the country and together they were
able to demonstrate that the idea to do-away with the Ministry harbored
serious misgivings. The announcement remained just that, and the
Ministry of Tourism lives to see at least another year under Rodolfo
Elizondo’s stewardship.
Elizondo was right to defend his department, and not just for selfish
reasons. Tourism is a tremendously important industry for Mexico, one
that - directly and indirectly - puts bread on the table for over ten
million Mexicans. After oil and (more recently) foreign receipts from
Mexicans working abroad, tourism is the country’s third largest source
of foreign currency. Furthermore, although foreign tourism generates the
considerable sum of US$7bn annually, domestic tourism is slightly
larger, generating some US$8bn worth of trade each year.
Mexico’s oil reserves have, in all probability, peaked - and the country
cannot rely indefinitely upon its people working in foreign lands to
send money home. Tourism thus remains a golden-egg of Mexico’s economic
fortunes and funding the presence of a Ministry to direct its affairs is
a sensible choice.
Recently, the Tourism Ministry held a press conference during which
Elizondo declared that tourism was now a ‘federal priority’ for the
government, and that he and his team will be working to increase the
‘attraction and competitiveness’ of its offerings, with states and
academia funded to undertake the studies necessary to better define the
future of Mexican tourism. The underlying message of the announcement
was that the Mexicans recognize world-wide tourism is becoming more
competitive and so countries participating in this sector need to better
understand the changing needs and expectations of travelers and develop
services to suit them.
The era of ultra-cheap travel is over and hard-earned dollars destined
for leisure activities will be spent with more care. Logic dictates that
when prices rise, customers seek quality instead of volume. Mexico has,
traditionally, serviced an ample range of markets, from the ‘pile-em-high-sell-em-cheap’
variety to the most exclusive vacations money can buy. That range will
alter in the years ahead, and today’s announcement is simply another
step on the path to reforming the way Mexico markets and runs its
tourism business.
Xaltemba
is open every night for dinner
including
Mondays
Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Saturday and
Sundays too
Last
Daughter of Mexican Revolutionary Zapata Dies Associated Press
go to original
March 02, 2010
Ana Maria Zapata Portillo (aporrea.org)
Mexico City — The last surviving child of Mexican revolutionary hero
Emiliano Zapata has died at 94.
A local government spokesman says Ana Maria Zapata Portillo died in
Cuautla, the town in the central state of Morelos where she lived
most of her life.
Spokesman Ivan Meneses says Zapata was buried in Cuautla on Monday,
a day after she died of kidney failure.
He says she was one of three children recognized by Emiliano Zapata,
who led his peasant army in a fight for land rights before he was
killed in an ambush on April 10, 1919.
Zapapta's two other children, Diego and Mateo, died previously.
Ana Maria Zapata had worked for the Morelos state government and
served as a lawmaker in the state legislature.
Foreign
Investment Plunges 50 Percent in Mexico Agence France-Presse
go to original
February 26, 2010
Mexico City – Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico fell by 50.7
percent to 11.417 billion dollars in 2009, its lowest level in 10 years,
chiefly due to the global financial crisis, the government said.
In 2008, total direct foreign investment reached 23.17 billion dollars,
the Secretariat of Economy said.
Top foreign investors in Mexico last year included the United States,
with 5.8 billion dollars, the Netherlands (1.46 billion), the US
territory of Puerto Rico (1.16 billion) and Canada (one billion), it
added.
Mexico's economy, Latin America's second largest, after Brazil,
contracted by 6.5 percent during last year's global financial crisis,
its biggest slide since the 1929 Great Depression.
Remodeling Continues in Downtown Vallarta virtualmex.com go to
original
March 01, 2010
The downtown area of Puerto Vallarta is the
site of the original village and often referred to as 'Old Town'
or 'El Centro'. (photos by
PromoVision)
Puerto Vallarta's Municipal Tourism Department, under the orders of its
new director, Jose Luis Diaz Borioli, has been undertaking the
much-needed facade improvements in some of our town's most popular
through ways, thanks to a federal and state investment of up to $25
million pesos.
This ambitious remodeling and beautification plan also includes the
regulation of public transportation, sale of alcohol in permitted
establishments only, and standardized bar and nightclub schedules.
According to Diaz Borioli, the marketing of Puerto Vallarta's downtown
has to be reinvented to cope with the increasingly popular destinations
in neighboring Nayarit state such as Bucerias and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.
Diaz Borioli expects that not only the downtown area will benefit during
his three-year period of government. The tourism director said that he
will also work to further progress in expanding the new Rio Pitillal
park, the city's entrance avenue, and the necessary infrastructure in
areas surrounding Puerto Vallarta's new convention center.
Jose Luis Diaz Borioli was in charge of this same department three years
ago for a period of one year and eight months. He has also chaired the
Hotel and Motel Association. "I have the necessary experience and
understand the importance of tourism in Puerto Vallarta," he stated.
Vallarta
Jewish Community Passover Seder Mel Bornstein - PVNN
February 26, 2010
If you plan to attend RSVP to Mel Bornstein at
(322) 221-5659 or barmelsouth(at)pvnet.com.mx.
The Puerto Vallarta Jewish Community is having a Passover Seder Dinner
at The
River Cafe on March 29th at 6 pm - and you and your family and
friends are invited. A full course dinner of typical Seder food and wine
will be served for $450 pesos per person (children half price).
This will be a complete dinner, including wine, gefilte fish with chrain,
matzoh ball soup and brisket, veggies and dessert, including coffee.
We are ALL looking forward to sharing this Holiday together.
Reservations are necessary to insure that you will be included,
especially if you have a group that wants to be seated together, so if
you plan to attend, please send an email to me at barmelsouth(at)pvnet.com.mx
or melbornstein(at)hotmail.com, or call me on my U.S. cell at (847)
209-1448 or in Puerto Vallarta at (322) 221-5659.
Get
Shorty: Mexico Still Searching for ‘El Chapo’ Hannah Strange & Ruth MacLean - Times Online UK
go to original
March 02, 2010
Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, head of the
powerful Sinaloa cartel
In the remote, rough terrain of the Sierra Madre mountains in the
state of Sinaloa, Mexico’s most wanted, most feared and most elusive
drug lord is hiding.
Protected by a sophisticated reconnaissance operation with deep
roots in the local population, he has been evading Mexican and US
authorities since his escape from prison in 2001. Those who watch
out for him are known as “rats”: taxi drivers, street sellers, shoe
shiners, delivery men — “anyone equipped with a phone who wants to
earn a few dollars” by informing on military or police activity,
says José Ramón Salinas Frias, chief spokesman for the Public
Security Secretariat.
The mountains are beautiful but nearly impossible to navigate. The
forests are quickly disappearing into the mills of illegal loggers,
and with them disappear the wild boar that the local people hunt.
Many of them have become drug farmers, growing marijuana or opium.
They are well armed and they do not like outsiders.
Trying to capture the narco-king has been likened to the pursuit of
left-wing guerrillas in the Colombian jungle — and certainly he has
acquired an element of the renegade’s mystique. Immortalised in the
ballads of the narco-corridos — musicians who specialise in the
exploits of drug gangsters — he has become embedded in popular
legend as a 5ft 6in Houdini with guns.
Amid the fury and violence of President Calderón’s war on the
cartels, some mighty kingpins have been toppled, but one man stands
out as the scourge of pursuing forces: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,
head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
Occasionally he is sighted. Local rumour has it that he once went to
a restaurant, confiscated all the diners’ mobile phones while he
enjoyed a steak and then left after returning each phone to its
correct owner. The diners later discovered that their bills had been
paid.
In 2007 he married his third wife, a local beauty queen called Emma
Coronel Aispuro, on her 18th birthday, in a lavish wedding that
could have graced the pages of the glossiest society magazine.
Despite the high levels of security and protection, local
politicians and police officers were reported to have attended.
Since then his wife has often been seen in beauty salons in Culiacán,
surrounded by high security. But, as the fervour to catch El Chapo
increases, he becomes an ever rarer sight — perhaps, in part, as he
is said to have had substantial facial reconstruction surgery.
Despite a $5 million (£3.3 million) bounty offered by the United
States and another $2 million by Mexico, El Chapo — or Shorty — has
given agents from both sides of the border the slip for nine years,
since his escape in a laundry basket from the maximum-security
Puente Grande jail.
As a child he sold oranges to get enough money to eat. Now, at 52,
Guzmán is No 701 on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires,
with an estimated $1.1 billion fortune garnered from running
Mexico’s most brutal and profitable business. In addition to the
drugs that made his name, Guzmán specialises in human trafficking,
money laundering and several other types of crime, with
international networks spreading their tentacles throughout the
world.
He goes about his business with impunity, afforded by a potent
mixture of money, ruthlessness and trickery. Protected by foot
soldiers who behead or torture anyone who might pose a threat, and
with almost limitless financial power, Guzmán operates with relative
freedom in his home state of Sinaloa.
US drug officials believe that corruption within the Mexican
authorities is a key factor in his ability to evade capture.
Last March, in an interview with the respected Proceso magazine,
Anthony P. Placido, intelligence chief for the Drugs Enforcement
Agency, said that “none of the kingpins of the drug cartels” felt
seriously threatened by Mr Calderón “because they have broad powers
of corruption that give them a kind of immunity, we say,
guaranteed”.
He raised specific concerns over rumoured links between close
associates of Genaro García Luna, the Public Security Secretary, and
criminal groups.
A senior US law enforcement official in Mexico, speaking to The
Times on condition of anonymity, acknowledged concerns that Guzmán
often slipped through the authorities’ hands because of tip-offs
from corrupt officials.
“There is public corruption and they will utilise it, whether it’s
bribery, intimidation or the threat of killing people,” he said. The
Public Security Secretariat had had cases of corruption, the
official acknowledged — but it was difficult to say that it was
“worse than anyone else ... it’s a concern everywhere”.
An orchestrated balance of fear and respect also plays its part. On
the one hand, terrorising rivals with kidnapping, killings and
tortures — the cartel is said to dissolve victims’ bodies in acid —
and on the other building loyalty in his communities by funding new
schools and churches, Guzmán has become part-monster, part-hero; a
powerful combination that keeps his whereabouts shrouded in silence.
In March last year Archbishop Hector González Martínez of Durango,
the state bordering Sinaloa, claimed to know Guzmán’s location. “El
Chapo lives a bit beyond the town of Guanaceví. Everyone knows that
— well, everyone except the authorities,” he said. Four days later
the bodies of two dead lieutenants were found outside Guanaceví with
a note: “Nobody can catch El Chapo — not the authorities, not the
priests.” The Archbishop later retracted his statement, saying that
he had just been repeating rumours.
“Guzmán is the only drug boss that has built his company like a
government,” said Raúl Benítez Manaut, a national security and drug
trafficking expert at the National University of Mexico.
“He has military protection, an army of administrators, many legal
companies to launder money and many houses in and outside Mexico —
apparently he has property in Central America. In Sinaloa he
controls a lot of the economic activity.” He is a symbol of the
growth of organised crime in Mexico and the Government’s failure to
contain it — so, as with Osama bin Laden, another mountain fugitive,
Guzmán’s capture would be a glorious victory for either US or
Mexican forces.
But while it would send an important message, some say that it would
do nothing to dismantle the Sinaloa cartel. “You won’t destroy them
just by incarcerating El Chapo Guzmán,” said Edgardo Buscaglia, an
organised crime expert at ITAM University. “The Sinaloa cartel is a
business. It has a board of twelve members — only four of whom are
well known — and all 12 are equal in power. Guzmán could be replaced
in a few weeks.”
US investigators take a different view. They agree with the Mexican
analysis that power is concentrated in the hands of Guzmán and his
partner-in-crime, Ismael Zambada García, and that Zambada could
still run the cartel, but the symbolism of Guzmán’s arrest should
not be underestimated.
In Mexico there was a public perception that men such as Guzmán had
the type of reach that would always allow him to beat the system.
“If El Chapo fell out [of the drugs business] it would be huge,”
said the US official.
He gave the example of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a former Sinaloa leader
who formed a breakaway cartel. His death in December at the hands of
Mexican agents dispelled the illusion of invincibility surrounding
such figures, he said, demonstrating that “Calderón is not messing
around”.
Mexican and US forces believe that they are gradually closing the
net. There have been other recent successes: last week José
Velázquez Villagrana, an important trafficker within the Sinaloa
cartel, was arrested; the notorious hitman Teodoro García Simental,
known as “El Teo”, was captured last month. “The arrest of each of
these principal pieces will at some point lead to the arrest of its
head,” said Mr Salinas Frias.
As Mexico’s drug war drags on, however, Mr Calderón faces critics
who say that his deployment of the army has been disastrous — 18,000
people across Mexico have been killed in drug-related violence since
late 2006 — and some who allege that the Government protects the
Sinaloa leadership.
More have died recently as Guzmán fights a turf war with Vicente
Carrillo Fuentes, leader of the Juárez cartel, in Ciudad Juárez,
where more than 4,600 people have been killed over the past two
years.
For most Mexicans, drugs are everywhere, sold not-so-secretly in
markets, by taxi drivers and random moustachioed men in Hawaiian
shirts. It means drivers and bus passengers being stopped and
searched and always being surrounded by police and soldiers in the
streets, leaning out of big trucks or looming from helicopters with
guns pointing, “preventing drug crime”.
Up in the Sierra Madre — home to the “narco-corridor” or “corridor
of impunity” — are 9,000 Mexican troops. Despite their aircraft,
helicopters and hunting dogs they have little success navigating the
mountains; much of the narco-corridor, the main drug route from
Latin America to the US, is thick jungle. The indigenous people
traditionally lived in caves and El Chapo is often said to be living
in one himself.
American and Mexican officials are predicting Guzmán’s imminent
capture. One recently retired head of the DEA has given him until
April. “We are hopeful,” said the US official in Mexico — “sooner or
later”.
Ballad of a short man Del infierno se escapa
Y se persigna en la iglesia
Y aveces las residencias aveces casa campaña los raídos y las
metrallas durmiendo al piso en la cama
de techo aveces las cuevas
Joaquín el chapo le llaman
Song by The Vultures of Culicán
• • •
He escaped from hell
And crossed himself in church
Sleeping sometimes in homes
Sometimes in tents
Radios and rifles
At the foot of the bed
As a roof sometimes caves
Joaquín the Short they call him
Mexico’s
Expateurs Sean Goforth - Foreign Policy Blogs go to
original
March 04, 2010
Photo of the Market Square in San Antonio,
from the Fairmount Hotel.
United States immigration policy may not be very keen on welcoming
Mexico’s huddled masses, but it has few qualms with Mexican
entrepreneurs. E- and L-series visas offer a relatively quick path to
legal immigration for Mexicans - provided they are willing to front the
cash to open their own businesses. Capital investments of several
hundred thousand dollars, and possibly requirements to hire a given
number of workers, are usually sufficient to procure a visa.
This path to residence has proven increasingly popular as Mexico’s
business community has become mired in the country’s escalating drug
violence. Kidnapping for ransom has spiked over the last decade and
targeting the wealthy has been supplanted by another strategy: targeting
those with known relatives in the US. Hence, the exodus north is now
considered more of a one-time move for families.
Exacerbating the trend is President Felipe Calderón’s war on drugs,
which has notched large seizures and disrupted transit routes. Faced
with lower revenues, Mexico’s drug gangs are diversifying their
activities - extorting money from business owners is helping to fill the
void.
From 1998-2008 the number of E-1 or E-2 visas awarded to Mexican
entrepreneurs almost tripled. The State Department hasn’t disclosed last
year’s figures for visas issued to Mexican investor-immigrants but the
number likely passed the 2008 tally, and was perhaps more than 2,000
visas. (In 2008, a wealthy Mexican businessman had his son kidnapped and
then killed, even after paying a significant ransom, adding to the sense
of insecurity among the business class.)
San Antonio, Texas, is situating itself as the unofficial capital of
Mexican expateurs in the States. It is far enough away from the border
cities to buffer against the bleeding violence and creeping reach of the
drug gangs, but in other respects it is, “Very Mexican, very friendly.
Quiet,” says Ricardo del Rio, an insurance agent who got an E-2 visas
for himself and family in 2006.
In fact, the City of San Antonio runs an international affairs agency
that seeks out Mexican entrepreneurs for relocation.
Luckily for the expateurs - and the US economy - many Mexican business
enterprises deftly negotiated the recession. Some are looking to expand.
The headline of a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor:
“Who’s Creating U.S. Jobs? Mexicans.” Sounds like they are the true San
Antonio Spurs.
Mexico
Banks, Hungry for Growth, Push New Accounts Patrick Rucker & Noel Randewich - Reuters
go to original
March 04, 2010
Mexico City - With buzz-building ads, low-cost services and even home
visits, Mexican banks are spending millions of dollars to get wary
consumers accustomed to parking their money for savings or retirement.
Dutch bank ING (ING.AS) in recent weeks joined Citigroup (C.N) in
plastering Mexico City billboards and bus stops with hundreds of
advertisements coaxing consumers to go online to check out new savings
and retirement accounts.
Meanwhile, the Mexican offshoot of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) says it
will soon expand its small but growing bare-bones bank to offer
all-purpose credit cards so that customers will make the mega-retailer
their bank of choice.
"We're beginning with some very basic services like savings and checking
accounts to create a bit of pickup," Wal-Mart de Mexico (WALMEXV.MX)
Chief Executive Scot Rank told reporters recently. "Our own Walmart
credit card will be launched in a massive way from March."
In a country where a quarter of workers earn their living in the
informal economy and millions live in desperate poverty, saving money is
a luxury for many Mexicans. And before they can build customer trust,
banks must erase suspicion about profiteering and the memory of past
financial crisis.
"They took our dollars and changed them to another currency. The peso
was worthless," said Virgilio Morales, a jeweler, recalling the 1982
bank nationalization that was reversed in the early '90s. "They stole
from the little vendors, the little businessmen. We can't put money
there."
BUILDING FAITH BEFORE SAVINGS
Half of Mexicans have little or no faith in finance firms according to a
recent government survey - a number that has climbed during the recent
global financial crisis.
Another challenge is that roughly 40 percent of Mexicans believe
'long-term savings' means planning for the next one to five years, said
Lourdes Arana, head of ING wealth management in Mexico.
"The awareness about savings in Mexico simply does not exist," she said,
calling the Latin American country a "virgin market" worthy of big
up-front investments.
Banks here are willing to fund big marketing efforts with hopes that
they can convince Mexicans to simply open a savings account and lift
that rate to something above the 25 percent today.
ING, which runs Mexico's third-largest private pension fund, is hoping
to corral new customers into pensions while Citi's new online service
Blink! lets clients transfer cash, pay bills and buy stock from a
personal computer.
Both campaigns take a step away from the traditional brick and mortar
financial services since neither will operate branches and ING plans to
reach clients with an army of 2,000 investment advisers making house
calls.
Only a fraction of Mexicans have regular access to the Internet so that
gateway will likely only be appealing to middle class Mexicans while
Blink! requires a minimum balance that is likely to draw consumers who
already have a savings history.
Citi executives say the Blink! account, which integrates links to
Facebook, Twitter and music downloads, is a long-term strategy meant to
attract young, upwardly mobile clients and show them the benefits of
investing in mutual funds or even stocks.
Wal-Mart, though, is aiming for the much larger market of millions of
middle and lower class Mexicans who shop for bargains and pass through
their doors each day.
"Many times our (shoppers) have not had access to banking services at a
reasonable price," said Rank. "Little by little, we are going to be
offering more."
Mexico's financial industry is mostly in the hands of foreign banks like
BBVA (BBVA.MC), Santander (SAN.MC) and Scotiabank (BNS.TO) that have
handed out millions of credit cards to new clients over the past decade
but have also been blamed for gouging clients with costly fees.
In February, lawmakers approved a proposal to let the central bank curb
hefty credit card interest rates and fees.
(Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Calderón: My
Goal is to Transform Mexico Washington Post
go to original
March 04, 2010
President Felipe Calderón
President Felipe Calderón is a busy man – battling drug lords, coping
with an economic downturn and, as always, pondering his country’s
relationship with the United States. He sat down recently with
Newsweek-Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth to offer a progress report.
Excerpts:
You have been fighting a war against the drug cartels in your country,
and many Mexican soldiers have been killed. How do you feel it’s going?
What would you like to see the United States do to help?
From the very beginning I told the people that this was going to be a
long-term battle, that there will be casualties and a high cost in terms
of money and of time. We should fight this battle and must win the
battle. It’s not only a question of narco-trafficking alone – my goal is
to establish the rule of law. My goal is to transform Mexico to a safe
place where people and children could be really free. We are moving
ahead according to the plan to attack organized crime, and we are
kicking them really hard. There are a lot of casualties and people have
died, but let me tell you: Probably about 90 percent of those people are
linked with organized crime in one way or another.
The problem is not only a criminal problem but also a social problem, in
the sense that we have young people without opportunities who are
(hired) by criminals as distributors of drugs. Finally, they die in the
streets. I have serious concerns about that. The only way to defeat
crime is to combat it with a comprehensive strategy; one part is to use
all the power of the state in order to fight the criminals, to preserve
or in some cases to recover the authority of the state. ... The second
part (requires) renovating all the police corps in the country. I want
to deliver to my people, when I finish my presidency, a new and cleaner
police corps at the federal level.
There is a lot of discussion about weapons from the United States
flowing into Mexico. Is that a big problem for you?
It is a big problem for us. Most of the weapons we seize – in the last
three years, we have seized about 45,000 weapons – come from the United
States. There are about 12,000 stores that sell weapons on the border
with Mexico. I recognize the American government is improving its
actions (in) stopping the flow to Mexico.
What is the most damaging weapon that is sold from the United States?
Since four years ago, every day any single trader of weapons is able to
sell armor-piercing bullets, which do a lot of damage against our police
corps. We are working with the American government in order to stem the
flow, but we have a very large border and it is very difficult.
The U.S. government aided Colombia in President Álvaro Uribe’s fight
against the drug lords. Do you feel the U.S. is helping you enough?
The U.S. has been very helpful to us, and we are improving and getting
better results. For instance, some of the most important drug lords were
either captured or died in action. Sharing intelligence has been very
useful. We are improving the cooperation and I think the initiative is
starting to work, and I hope that will provide very good results for us.
No country in Latin America has been worse hit by the economic crisis
than yours, and this is largely due to Mexico being so closely tied to
the U.S. Should you diversify, and are you coming out of this recession?
There’s an expression, “when the United States catches a cold, Mexico
gets pneumonia,” and that was exactly the case last year. Eighty-four
percent of our exports go to the United States, so if American consumers
reduce their consumption, we suffer a lot. By the third quarter (of
2009), the export of automotives in Mexico went down by almost 50
percent due to the economic crisis in the United States. The crisis was
more oriented toward the manufacturing sector, and Mexico is very dense
in manufacturing, particularly automotive manufacturing. And there was
another factor that worsened the situation in Mexico, and that was H1N1.
It was terrible for tourism.
Is oil production key to Mexico’s survival?
Yes, it’s the key issue for the industry and for the country as well.
Because we started to lose a lot of production and revenue: Forty
percent of the total revenue of Mexico’s government came from oil until
2008, when it went down to 32 percent. That is the reason why I needed
to propose to the Congress to raise some taxes, which wasn’t very
popular, but, at the end of the day, we preserved the macroeconomic
equilibrium. Today we are running a deficit probably lower than 2
percent in total.
How do you get your oil sector to be productive? Do you get foreign
investment into oil production?
The contracts are incentive-laden contracts, which are more flexible
contracts that allow specialized global companies to help PEMEX to
transfer technology and to explore and produce oil and natural gas in a
lot of places that PEMEX was not able to reach before. PEMEX will have a
very good opportunity to increase its production.
During your campaign, you spoke out against monopolies in Mexico. Is
this still one of your main concerns?
Very important. Actually we are preparing a reform bill to submit to
Congress to increase the power of regulatory institutions, antitrust
commissions. I do believe that what Mexico needs is more competition and
more fair play in several sectors.
What’s your view of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his effect on
Latin America?
We live in a very complicated neighborhood. There are some tough guys
around us. What we need to do is try to find an equilibrium in the area.
It is probably time to re-establish some basic principles related to
democracy, human rights and freedom of speech that are universal values.
I have some concerns about what is happening in the region.
Why is the PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party) gaining momentum
in Mexico?
Several factors. Probably the main factor is the midterm elections last
year. As you can imagine, the Mexican economy was going down by 10
percent in the second quarter of the year, and that was exactly in the
moment of the midterm election. So the result for PAN (National Action
Party) – my party – was not a good one. PRI won the midterm election,
and probably that explains the expectation that they are gaining ground.
Let me tell you, when I started to run for president of Mexico,
according to the opinion polls, I was in 17th place. I had no chance to
win, even inside my own party. Finally, I won. So nothing is written in
elections. Not in Mexico, not in any other country.
Seeing the
Promise in Mexico Linda Valdez - Arizona Republic
go to original
March 05, 2010
Mexicans who cross the border
legally into Arizona spent $2.69 billion from July 2007 through
June 2008.
When you hear someone speaking Spanish at the mall, do you think of a
cash register ringing?
Probably not.
When you think of the Arizona-Mexico border, do you think of vast
economic opportunity?
Probably not.
Arizonans tend to see Mexico as the source of problems, not
possibilities. That attitude limits our economic horizons.
The problems created by illegal immigration, criminal smugglers and drug
cartels are serious. They demand solutions.
But it is in Arizona's best economic interest to take a wider view of
Mexico and consider the advantages geography offers.
Arizona shares a border with a nation that has a young and increasingly
middle-class population, a fondness for American products and plans to
develop an ocean port that will rival the best California has to offer.
That represents old-fashioned, free-enterprise opportunity.
Other states see it.
Mexicans who cross the border legally into Arizona spent $2.69 billion
here from July 2007 through June 2008, according to research by the
University of Arizona's Eller College of Management. Mexican shoppers
are wealthier today, and they have choices.
While Arizona has been building a reputation south of the border for its
strident anti-immigrant approach, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors
Authority has been actively courting Mexican tourists.
Mexico is Arizona's largest trading partner, with $5.9 billion in
exports in 2008. Yet, experts say, Arizona has done far less than other
border states to build on this.
California, with $20.5 billion in exports to Mexico in 2008, and Texas,
with $62 billion in exports that year, are the border powerhouses. A
recent conference in Texas on global markets discussed ways to
"leverage" proximity to Mexico for increased regional competitiveness.
When was the last time you heard somebody talk like that in Arizona?
New Mexico, long the baby sister in the international-trade arena, has
increased trade with Mexico by 250 percent since 2001. Fred Mondragón,
New Mexico's economic-developments secretary, talks about "capitalizing
on our state's shared culture and language with Mexico."
Talk like that isn't cheap. It's priceless. You don't hear it in
Arizona.
Both California and New Mexico will vie with Arizona to carry the rail
lines that will run from a huge port that Mexico plans to build on the
Pacific coast south of Tijuana.
There are more than 240 maquiladoras, or foreign-owned factories, in
Sonora alone. They buy supplies of everything from paper products to
machine tools. Yet Wendy Vittori, president of the Arizona Sonora
Manufacturing Initiative, says there is little interest by Arizona
businesses in meeting those needs.
Her group is launching a pilot program aimed at helping Arizona
businesses learn more about opportunities in Mexico.
Arizona has a wealth of organizations from which to build enhanced
economic ties with Mexico. These include the 51-year-old Arizona-Mexico
Commission, the Border Governor's Conference and the Border Legislative
Conference. There are close ties between Arizona's universities and
universities in Mexico.
The foundation is in place. The potential is limited only by Arizona's
attitude.
"Yes, I Do"
Want a Same-Sex Marriage Licence Emilio Godoy - Inter Press Service
go to original
March 05, 2010
A lesbian couple, Ema (L) and Janice, hold a
child as they begin the legal process toward marriage in a gov’t
office Thursday. (The News)
Mexico City - Emma Villanueva and her partner lined up at the civil
registry office in the Mexican capital to register for a marriage
licence Thursday, the day that Latin America's first same-sex marriage
law went into effect.
"We have worked hard for equality, so that our families will have the
same rights as others. This is an act of justice," Villanueva, an
English teacher and translator who has been in a lesbian relationship
for six years, told IPS.
She and her partner have raised her five-year-old daughter together.
Like them, a number of other couples were at the civil registry office
in downtown Mexico City to register for marriage, in the face of fierce
opposition from the Catholic Church and just ahead of Family Day in
Mexico, which is celebrated on Sunday.
The law, passed by the Mexico City local assembly in December, gives gay
people full marital rights, including the right to adopt.
The leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) used its majority
in the assembly to approve changes to the local civil code, so that
marriage is no longer defined as the union of a man and a woman, but as
"the free uniting of two people."
"The defence of the secular state is a key and strategic aspect, in
order for the rights of families of all shapes and kinds, as well as
sexual diversity and different gender identities, to be respected,"
Lilia Monroy, a researcher with Social Development and Citizen's
Initiative (INCIDE Social), a local NGO, told IPS.
In this country of 107 million people, there are around one million
single-parent households, according to the National Institute of
Statistics and Geography (INEGI), which defines 10 different kinds of
families.
The new Mexico City law also gives same-sex couples access to loans and
social security services, and grants them the same inheritance rights as
heterosexual couples enjoy.
"This was a joint achievement by organisations, individuals and the city
government itself, which reflects how public policies cannot be imposed
on us, but must adequately reflect society in all its diversity," José
Sánchez, with Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (CDD - Catholics for
Choice), told IPS.
The same-sex weddings will begin to be held on Mar. 12. And more than 30
couples are planning a collective marriage ceremony for Mar. 21 in
central Mexico City.
However, the constitutionality of the reforms to the local civil code
has been challenged by the Attorney General's Office, which filed a
lawsuit with the Supreme Court in January.
But the Supreme Court has already dismissed similar legal action in five
states governed by the conservative ruling National Action Party (PAN),
which argued that the legal reforms would set a precedent forcing other
states and municipalities to accept gay marriages.
The Observatorio de Familias y Políticas Públicas (Observatory of
Families and Public Policies), to which Incide Social, CDD and 11 other
NGOs belong, rejected such arguments Thursday.
"The reforms are not creating a reality but acknowledging it: same-sex
couples exist and have always existed in our country. And children,
adolescents and young people already live in these families, or with
single or separated homosexual individuals, under their responsibility
and protection," said Monroy.
People in Mexico City can now adopt children, independently of their
civil status and sexual orientation.
"Up to now, we didn't have any mechanism for our families to have legal
recognition," said Villanueva, the head of the NGO Círculo de Familias
Diversas (Diverse Families group).
"The huge majority of same-sex couples who will get married have already
been living together for a long time," Sergio Sarmiento, a columnist
with the Mexico City daily newspaper Reforma, wrote Thursday. "The only
difference will be that they'll have a document that will give them
greater stability in their relationships."
Another threat is the possibility that the local parliaments of other
districts in Mexico will adopt measures to specifically ban same-sex
marriage, as the legislature of the state of Yucatán, in the southeast
of the country, did in July.
In the last few years, the Mexico City local assembly has been a pioneer
in certain areas. A law on civil unions, which applies to both
heterosexual and homosexual couples, went into effect in late 2006. And
a law legalising abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy
entered into force in April 2007.
"The challenge is effective enforcement of these laws, so that they will
gradually help eliminate intolerance and social discrimination," said
Sánchez.
"The recognition of rights is a pending issue in civil unions, so they
will enjoy the same rights as married couples, which they do not yet
have," said Monroy.
On Wednesday, the first same-sex marriage licences were issued in
Washington, D.C. And the first gay marriage in Latin America took place
in December in Argentina.
On-Going
Violations of Human Rights Elicits Call for Honoring Mexico's Treaty
Commitment Nancy Davies - The Narco News Bulletin
go to original
March 01, 2010
Jesús Alfredo Lopez Garcia, President of the
Mexican Protectorate of Human Rights (D.R. 2010 George Salzman)
The Mexican Protectorate for Human Rights, a new human rights group,
demands that Oaxaca and Mexico honor the UN treaty Mexico signed which
extends individual human rights to everyone regardless of nationality,
sex, religion, or political persuasion. The International Bill of Human
Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two
Optional Protocols. In 1966 the General Assembly of the United Nations
adopted the two detailed Covenants, which completed the International
Bill of Human Rights. Mexico served on the human rights council in 2009
with much fanfare on the part of President Felipe Calderón, who since
his assumption of power in 2006 has protected Oaxaca governor Ulises
Ruiz Ortiz (URO).
Ironically, URO now calls Calderón a liar. It seems that URO made a
bargain with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI in its Spanish
abbreviation) to assist Calderón’s National Action Part (PAN in its
Spanish abbreviation) in a vote to raise taxes. In return, Calderon’s
Secretary of Government pledged that the PAN would not enter into a
political alliance with the electoral opposition shaping up in Oaxaca
against the PRI. Now that opposition coalition is up and running PAN has
joined it.
The Protectorate’s campaign was introduced at a press conference on
February 25, 2010 by the human rights lawyer and president of the
Protectorate, Jesús Alfredo Lopez Garcia, who points out that at least
eight foreigners have been arrested, harassed and abused in Oaxaca for
indicating opposition to URO. Reporters, radio and TV broadcasters,
artists, video makers, writers and international tourists have
repeatedly suffered at the hands of this administration. Under the
international treaty which Mexico signed, the right to express one’s
views cannot be limited for being a non-citizen.
The most recent case in Oaxaca involved four foreign women, three of
them Americans and one Uruguayan. The four, legally residing in Oaxaca
with tourist visas, were arrested shortly after seeing URO in the Zócalo
on the evening of Thursday, January 28, around 9 p.m.
One of the young women spoke to URO, asking why Juan Manuel Martínez
Moreno was still in prison for the October 2006 murder of Brad Will, a
case which has become internationally famous because no evidence exists
linking Martinez Moreno, the scapegoated APPO activist, to Will’s death.
Five minutes after the governor walked away from them the four women
were arrested, driven around, threatened and imprisoned overnight in a
cell, sleeping on the cement floor. In the morning López García obtained
the release of the women who presented their visas to immigration
authorities. The US consular agent, Mark Leyes, also intervened on
behalf of the US government.
López García said that shortly he will once again solicit the Executive
to declare “his position in regard to the abuses which foreign citizens
endure.”
Although many of us are familiar with the murders, disappearances,
detentions, torture and more committed in 2006, some aspects of those
statewide events have yet to be revealed. For example, the assassination
of Oaxacan José Colmenares on August 10 was committed by snipers
stationed on rooftops along the APPO march route. López García told me
that Colmenares, who was struck by nine bullets, clearly must have been
individually targeted. Why? According to López García’s conversation
with Colmenares’ widow, on voting day July 4, 2006 Colmenares met up
with URO at the polling place they both use. Colmenares remarked, with a
thumbs down sign in URO’s presence, “Ya cayó, ya cayó!” (APPO slogan
“He’s out!”), referring to the presumed forcing from office of the
governor. Colmenares was killed five weeks later. No emergency medical
treatment was administered, although he was shot in front of a medical
clinic and taken inside.
Evidently, this governor brooks no opposition or criticism, regardless
of nationality. López García suffered an act of aggression himself on
February 15 which “was carried out by an individual who claimed to work
in the Secretary of Government. He identified himself as Mario Narvaez
Cruz, and he was carrying a knife. He told me they sent him to talk with
me and give me a warning.” López García solicited the Executive Power
“to ratify or amend the message of the aggressor who said his name is
Mario Narváez.” Thus far there has been no response.
The Mexican Protectorate of HUman Rights, which will defend the human
rights of foreigners in Mexico as well as those of Mexican citizens,
will seek criminal charges against URO personally. According to López
García, the executive branch of the state government could prosecute,
assuming the incoming governor is not a PRI successor to URO. Efforts to
achieve any legal actions in Oaxaca routinely fail if they involve
government officials, all of whom are controlled by the PRI.
A candle of hope has now been lit in Oaxaca by the political opposition
coalition, which hopes to wrest power from the PRI by electoral means on
July 4, 2010 when a new governor, local deputies and mayors will be
chosen. The possible cleansing by peaceful means of the 80-year reign of
PRI caciques depends on whether disillusioned citizenry will bother to
vote. The possible prosecution of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and his cabinet of
2006 depends on that same electoral outcome. One might affirm that peace
in Oaxaca depends on the 2010 electoral outcome, and many point to the
presence of the federal police on the streets: not a hopeful sign.
• • •
Footnote: According to the official page of the United Nations Office of
the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR): Following an official
invitation of the Mexican Government, the United Nations Office of the
High Commission for Human Rights signed an Agreement in July 2002 in
order to establish an OHCHR Office in the country. Later on that year,
Mexico ’s Senate ratified the Agreement and the Office was formally
established. In 2003, OHCHR conducted an in-depth assessment and
diagnosis of the country’s human rights situation, identifying the main
obstacles to the full integration of international human rights
standards into domestic legislation, and to the implementation of
recommendations made by international human rights mechanisms. OHCHR,
then, assisted the Government in elaborating a new National Program on
Human Rights largely based on the results of the assessment.
The Office is developing a thematic focus on the situation of human
rights of women, indigenous peoples, journalists and human rights
defenders in general. At the normative level, the Office supports the
debate about a constitutional reform in Mexico to ensure that
international human rights norms are duly incorporated into national
legislation. Compliance with recommendations made by the various United
Nations bodies and special mechanisms to Mexico will be encouraged and
supported,
lick
the ad to go to our s
The Good
Life in Xalisco Can Mean Death in the United States Sam Quinones - Los Angeles Times
go to original
February 17, 2010
People line up for a turn on the Himalaya
carnival ride at the newly enriched summer festival in Mexico's
Xalisco County. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Xalisco, Mexico - As a boy, Esteban Avila had only a skinny old horse
and two pairs of pants, and he lived in a swampy neighborhood called The
Toad. He felt stranded across a river from the rest of the world and
wondered about life on the other side.
He saw merchants pay bands to serenade them in the village plaza and
dreamed of doing the same.
He had a girlfriend but no hope of marrying her because her father was
the village butcher and expected a good life for his daughter.
Then Avila found an elixir and took it with him when, at 19, he went to
the United States. It was black-tar heroin, and selling it turned his
nightmare into a fairy tale.
Avila was part of a migration of impoverished Mexican sugar cane farm
workers that has had profound repercussions for cities and towns across
America. Over the last decade and a half, immigrants from the county of
Xalisco (population 44,000), in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit, have
developed a vast and highly profitable business selling black-tar
heroin, a cheap, potent, semi-processed form of the drug.
Their success stems from a business model that combines discount
pricing, aggressive marketing and customer convenience. Addicts phone in
their orders, and drivers take the heroin to them. Crew bosses sometimes
make follow-up calls to make sure addicts received good service.
The heroin networks need workers, and the downtrodden villages of
Xalisco County have provided a seemingly endless supply of young men
eager to earn as much money as possible and take it back home.
As black-tar heroin ruined lives in the United States, it pulled the
poorest out of poverty in Xalisco. Drug earnings paid for decent houses
and sometimes businesses, and it made dealers' families the social
equals of landowners. By addicting the children of others, they could
support their own.
"I'd be lying if I said I was sorry," Avila said. "I did it out of
necessity. I was tired of birthdays without gifts, of my mother
wondering where the food was going to come from."
Boom times
Xalisco County begins a couple of miles south of the state capital of
Tepic and spreads across 185 square miles of lush, hilly terrain. A
highway curves through it to the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta to
the south.
The county seat, also named Xalisco, is a town of narrow cobblestone
streets and 29,000 people. For many years, dependence on the sugar cane
harvest kept the county poor. Houses had tin roofs, and few had proper
plumbing.
Xalisco ostensibly still depends on sugar cane. But it is now among the
top 5% of Mexican counties in terms of wealth, according to a government
report.
Enormous houses with tile roofs and marble floors have gone up
everywhere. In immigrant villages across Mexico, people build the first
stories of houses and leave iron reinforcing bars protruding skyward
until they save the money to add second stories. Often the wait is
measured in years. In Xalisco, homes go up all at once.
Off Xalisco's central plaza are swanky women's clothing stores and law
offices. Young men drive new Dodge Rams, Ford F-150s and an occasional
Cadillac Escalade. Outside town are new subdivisions with names like
Bonaventura and Puerta del Sol.
Xalisco's Corn Fair, held every August, is another measure of the town's
newfound wealth. Twenty years ago, the fair's basketball tournament was
a modest affair. Teams from surrounding villages competed against one
another in ragged uniforms.
Then "the boys began going north and getting into the business," said
one farmer. "The town just began to come up."
The tournament purse grew so fat that semi-pro teams began competing.
Last year, with first prize worth close to $3,000, semi-pro squads from
Mazatlan, Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta competed, each with American
ringers. One local village sponsored a team made up entirely of hired
players, reputedly paid for by a heroin trafficker.
Sharing in this wealth to varying degrees are 20 villages scattered
across the hills south of the town of Xalisco. Esteban Avila was born in
one of them, a place named for the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano
Zapata.
Avila, now 35, is in a federal prison in Texas, serving a 15-year term
for conspiracy to distribute heroin. He described his odyssey in
interviews with The Times on the condition that he would not talk about
anyone else in the drug business.
When he was a boy, the village of Emiliano Zapata was poor and notorious
for its violence. In The Toad, where Avila's family lived, roofs leaked
and the hills were the bathroom. When Avila and his friends went to the
village basketball court, other boys ran them off with rocks and
insults.
Later, Avila wanted to join the Mexican Navy or highway patrol, but only
sons of well-connected fathers were admitted, he said.
"In the United States, there's no need to be a criminal to live well,"
he said. "But in Mexico, they throw you into a dead end."
At 14, Avila traveled to Tijuana, then slipped across the border and
made his way to the San Fernando Valley.
"I wanted to look for some new way to live, something with a future," he
said. "I wasn't going to find it in the village."
But he didn't want to go to school and he was too young to work. So he
returned to Emiliano Zapata and bided his time working in the sugar cane
fields.
In the mid-1990s, men from Xalisco began selling black-tar heroin across
America. A friend who ran a heroin network recruited Avila to work as a
driver in Phoenix.
Avila, then 19, accepted. Every day, he drove around the city, his mouth
full of tiny, uninflated balloons, each filled with a tenth of a gram of
heroin. Addicts phoned in orders. A dispatcher relayed them to Avila,
who delivered the drugs to customers and collected payment.
Five months later, he took a bus back to Xalisco with $15,000 in his
pocket. He was wearing new Levi's 501s - a prized garment in many
Mexican villages.
"That night was the first time we had more than enough to eat," Avila
said.
His parents never asked how he made the money.
In the Xalisco system, drivers commonly strike out on their own after a
few years and set up delivery operations. In 1997, Avila told his boss
that he was going to seek his own heroin market in New Mexico.
A friend told Avila about addicts in Santa Fe, so he went there. He
found those addicts and through them many more, including dozens in
Taos, Xalisco's sister city. A half hour away, he discovered the town of
Chimayo, in the verdant Espanola Valley, with one of the highest rates
of heroin addiction in the country. Soon, Avila's cheap, powerful black
tar drove out the powder heroin that addicts had been using.
Avila declined to reveal where he got his heroin, other than to say that
Nayarit's mountains are filled with small poppy farms and that black tar
is easily made.
In Albuquerque, he bought a counterfeit birth certificate and driver's
license; he crossed the border posing as an American from then on. Back
in Xalisco, he hired drivers from villages near his own, paying
smugglers to bring them across the border.
"Some drivers just wanted enough to build a decent house or buy a new
truck. Then they were coming back home," he said. "Some wanted to fly,
like I did."
He returned to Emiliano Zapata and for three years managed the business
from Mexico, returning to the United States only occasionally. At home,
families asked him for loans; some paid him back. Poor young men asked
him for work up north.
He took his family to fine restaurants in Tepic, where they nervously
rubbed elbows with the city's middle class.
"Our life changed entirely," he said. "It gave me more self-assuredness.
If you have a peso in your pocket, you feel lighter of spirit. The
weight of life is easier to carry."
At a fiesta in Xalisco's plaza one night, Avila and a friend paid for 11
hours of banda music, plus alcohol: a $3,000 tab.
He paid for one sister's quinceañera and another's wedding. He paid for
a sister to attend college in Tepic, the first in her family to go.
Now he could give his girlfriend the life her parents expected. He stole
her away to a Puerto Vallarta hotel for a weekend - which in the village
meant they were married.
Avila hired workers to build a house for his parents and men to help his
father in the field. He hired a maid to help his mother. He moved his
wife and children away from Emiliano Zapata and its violence and low
expectations.
His father was greeted on village streets by those better off than he.
He drank less, yelled less. One day, seeing his son with some cocaine,
Avila's father took him aside and counseled him not to use drugs and to
avoid bad habits.
"For the first time, I felt he spoke to me the way a father should speak
to a son," Avila said.
Heroin opened vistas for other sugar cane cutters' sons as well. The
village's moneyed classes no longer could talk down to farmers.
"We were all equal now," Avila said.
Over the next decade, networks of Xalisco dealers moved across the
country, often competing with one another in such cities as Columbus,
Ohio; Portland, Ore.; and Nashville.
Much of the money they earned flooded south, reaching the poorest of
Xalisco County, people used to cutting cane for $8 a day.
So as quickly as dealers were arrested, they were replaced by others
from Xalisco betting they could elude capture long enough to return with
money for a house, truck or other mark of success.
One heroin driver from the village of Aquiles Serdan built a house with
an electric garage-door opener, awing his neighbors.
Another former sugar cane worker, speaking on condition of anonymity,
described the impression made by the device. "Everybody watched while
the door went up by itself," he said. "People would walk by and look at
it."
Seeing young men his age return from the United States with money, this
man decided he wanted some too. He became a heroin driver in a
southeastern U.S. city.
"I had a wife and son and I couldn't support them," he said. "I thought
I'd buy land, and build us a house." He said half the young men in
Aquiles Serdan left to try their luck as drivers.
In his first six weeks last year, he earned $7,000, more than he'd ever
had at one time. Then he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to distributing
heroin and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Back in Aquiles Serdan, 20 new houses have gone up, several with
electric garage doors.
Operation Tar Pit
In 2000, Esteban Avila's fairy tale ended. He was among nearly 200
people arrested in a dozen cities in a federal investigation dubbed
Operation Tar Pit. The case began in Chimayo after a rash of overdoses -
85 deaths in three years, representing 2% of the town's population.
The arrests marked the first time the Drug Enforcement Administration
had pieced together the national reach of Xalisco dealers. In Xalisco,
the busts had an almost recessionary effect. "The fiesta was dead.
Nobody was coming to the plaza," said a man who lived there at the time,
speaking on the condition that he not be identified.
The easy money Avila made turned out to be the hardest of his life. His
children are growing up without him.
Still, heroin lifted his family's horizons. Avila believes that poor
people get no breaks they don't make for themselves. Had he been able to
achieve anything by legal means, he would have, he says.
The truth of that is hard to know. But it does seem that black-tar
heroin, as it destroyed lives in America, remade his own in Mexico and
channeled his gumption unlike anything else available to him at the
time.
"At least I'm not going to die wanting to know what's on the other side
of that river," he said from prison. "I already know."
Driving Safely in Mexico
Driving safely in Mexico tips by Bill and Dot
Bell
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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
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