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Headline News

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 Acci�n 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

Mexican president under pressure on US visit

Mexican President Felipe Calderon travels to Washington Tuesday under pressure to defend Mexican immigrants after the passage of a controversial Arizona law, and to show results in his war against drug gangs.

Calderon faces domestic pressure to seek immigration reform in the United States, particularly in the wake of a new Arizona law that allows the detention of people suspected of being in the country illegally�..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

Mexico Shaken by Top Politician's Feared Murder

The white SUV was found on an unpaved country road with bloodstains on the seats. Within hours, hundreds of soldiers and police poured across ranches and fields looking for possible clues to the whereabouts of former Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fern�ndez de Cevallos, who disappeared last Friday. As the search got under way, frantic politicians and media reported that the victim's body had been found, then said that he was in hospital with a bullet wound and then that he was still missing�.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

Arizona immigration law: Mexico consul braces for fallout

The new consul general of Mexico in Phoenix said his office is preparing for an exodus from Arizona because of the state's stringent new immigration law, but he is appealing for Mexicans living here to remain calm because the law hasn't taken effect.

"We are sending the message. Stay calm. You don't have to take your kids right away (and leave)," Victor Manuel Trevi�o Escudero, 50, said Tuesday in his first interview since being appointed. "But if the school year ends, and the law is enforced, then you have to take proper action."��go to original article

Happy Birthday Jaime!

Jaimie Horton birthday picture

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

Mexico Trade and the Arizona Law
Tim Gaynor - Reuters
go to original
May 24, 2010

Some Mexican visitors have boycotted shops and stores in Arizona to protest the desert state's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigrants that is due to come into effect on July 29.

The following are facts about the sometimes strained trade relationship between the United States and Mexico, and the commercial and travel ties between Arizona and neighboring Sonora state in northern Mexico.

� The North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico came into effect on Jan. 1, 1994, creating the world's largest free trade area.

� Mexico is the United States' second largest trading partner after Canada, with trade flows of around $1 billion a day.

� Under NAFTA, Washington agreed to allow Mexican trucks to haul goods on U.S. roads. But a spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress eliminated funding for a pilot program.

� In response, Mexico slapped retaliatory tariffs on $2.4 billion of U.S. products in March, and accused U.S. lawmakers of bowing to protectionist pressures from union leaders.

� Arizona has border crossings with Mexico in six towns and cities, from Yuma in the west, to Douglas in the east.

� Last year, 27.9 million people crossed legally to Arizona from Mexico, 12.8 million of them through ports of entry in Nogales, the state's largest border city.

� Goods worth $20.8 billion moved over the Arizona-Mexico border in 2008 by truck and rail.

� Mexican visitor spending in Arizona was almost $2.7 billion in 2007-2008, a figure more than double the estimated spending in 2001.

� Nearly 23,400 wage and salary jobs in Arizona are directly attributable to Mexican visitor spending.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; University of Arizona, Eller College of Management.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Xavier Briand)

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 11^th, 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

What a show!

May 20th Celebration includes fabulous ballet folklorico in La Penita de Jaltemba Zocolo,

Rafael photography

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)

Mexico Captures Top Sinaloa Cartel Operative
gence France-Presse
go to original
May 22, 2010

Assault rifle ammo seized from alleged members of the Sinaloa drug cartel are presented to the press at the Police Command Centre in Mexico City in 2009. (AFP/Ronaldo Schemidt)

Mexico City � A senior member of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico's largest criminal gangs, has been arrested along with a cache of weapons, money and drugs, officials said Friday.

Jose Manuel Garcia had been coordinating Sinaloa's activities in the region surrounding the capital, before his capture on Wednesday, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

He was also an associate of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a fugitive leader of the Sinaloa cartel who has been listed in Forbes magazine as the world's 701st richest person, with a reputed one-billion-dollar fortune made from cocaine trafficking.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of the major drug gangs involved in bloody feuds over Mexico's lucrative trafficking routes into the United States.

More than 22,700 people have died in surging drug-related attacks following the launch of a military clampdown on organized crime, involving some 50,000 troops, at the end of 2006.
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

Happy Birthday Chris!

Photography by Ron Haedicke

Opinion

Increase in Internet hate mail scares

By Bill Bell, Special To North Shore News May 23, 2010

I fear for our American cousins' mental health.

Every day I receive numerous e-mails from people I know from the United States; ordinary folk for the most part, they come from a broad cross-section of the political spectrum, from left wing democrat to republican to libertarian. For the most part, the vast majority are not all that political.

Yet, over the past few years, I've noticed a growing trend of ultra-right-wing e-mail diatribes being sent my way. It started with the election of President Barack Obama, became worse with the American health care debate and went well beyond mean and nasty over Arizona's new law dealing with illegal immigrants.

Now I don't use the word "diatribe" lightly. These e-mails are laced with a combination of racial bigotry, breast-thumping American patriotism and a great propensity to distort facts and in some cases fabricate history to prove their points. More importantly, they use scare tactics to incite hate.

Usually I just file these e-mails in the trash, and if several start coming my way from the same address, I list it as junk mail. Despite my attempts to self regulate the flow of what I call sky garbage, I have noticed a recent increase in the amount of paranoia in the e-mail material that gets through.

Most disturbing, some of these messages include what marketing experts describe as a "call to action" (buy a gun for protection and more ammunition). These e-mails are being forwarded by moms and pops; people who once forwarded me golf and fishing jokes, now send distasteful jokes on how to force Muslims to commit suicide by going naked for the day. I just shake my head in disgust and wonder why I never saw this part of their character before now.

This morning I got the mother of all paranoid e-mails from a dear friend, a man who always has a good word to say about everyone. The e-mail was a shocker and by all accounts it has been sent out to thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

Like all good propaganda it uses trusted names, like the Rotary and Boy Scouts of America, to make it authentic and believable. It opens with the type of phrase that every proud, gun-toting American likes to use: "Lock and load!"

This particular e-mail is the most amazing piece of simple anti-Muslim propaganda that I have ever encountered, as it plays on people's fears and uses small-town examples. I can't help but wonder if the techniques used in this e-mail are the same used by the Nationalist Socialists in Germany during the 1930s to disseminate hate towards the Jews and gypsies.

"Excuse the language, but don't excuse the facts. Don't give up your guns, and buy necessary ammunition if you can find it. Be cautious and alert. Be ready if, God forbid, we need to protect our families and loved ones.

"If you weren't at Rotary Friday. You missed the only decent speaker we've had in more than a year. LTC John Cotter is the 144th Fighter Wing's anti-terrorism officer. John had a two-part presentation. First part was describing his job as the units' anti-terrorism officer. Pretty standard stuff.

"The second part was information that will curl your hair. A part-time air guardsman works as a checker at local Von's. Two women in full burkas buy every pre-paid cellphone in the store. Clerk/airman gets to thinking about it. Goes to Cotter and reports incident. Cotter asks store for surveillance video. It's scary enough that he contacts Fresno FBI. FBI investigates, determines these women have been doing this all over the Valley. Cellphones shipped through Canada to Iraq/Afghanistan where they become triggers for roadside bombs."

The e-mail goes on to use other examples of "local Muslim terrorists" in the Fresno area, but the most disturbing is this part of the e-mail which tells people to get ready.

"We are a country at war and the enemy is among us. I don't care what Janet Napolitano says, it's a fight to the death and we should be prepared as possible. There are a certain number (probably a large number) of Muslims among us who are awaiting the trigger date and will begin randomly killing as many of us as they can, sort of a Fort Hood on steroids. I know I'm getting prepared to shoot back."

The people who sent this to me believed and encouraged me to write about it. What they didn't do was check the authenticity of the so called facts in the story.

Here is what Snopes, an Internet site devoted to urban legends) says about the e-mail: "The account quoted above is a second-hand report of a December 2009 presentation given by Lt.-Col. John G. Cotter of the California Air National Guard.

"According to Lt.-Col. Cotter, this second-hand account "distorted, misrepresented and inaccurately reported" his presentation:

"'This is a viral e-mail that went out from a fellow named Earl Wright following my Eagle Eyes presentation to the Clovis Rotary Club in December. It has gone around the world several times and I have heard back from folks who know me all over the place. The quotes apparently attributed to me are false. I never refer to people as "ragheads" or f***ers, although I do stress that we don't profile. The examples cited in this e-mail have been distorted, misrepresented and inaccurately reported and attributed to me."

Despite the above clarification, the e-mail containing the falsehoods and inflammatory remarks continues to be distributed on the Internet along with thousands of other false and misleading hate stories playing on the fears of Americans.

Believing in false hyperbole, finding a terrorist in every Muslim, a call to stockpile ammunition is common on the web and in e-mail. As this fear grows (made ever more real by a car bomb in New York's Times Square) and if America allows this paranoia to take over its collective psyche, then I believe Osama bin Laden will have finally won. His victory will have been creating a nation that lives in constant fear.

And former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's statement on the Great Depression will hold even truer today: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

bill@ontheroadin.com

Your view

Editor,

Yep, there's no justification in fearing another 9/11. We should celebrate the diversity. Multiculty is swell. The more Muslims in our country the better. Let's celebrate the diversity. The Muslims are peaceful wonderful people who love the West. Islam's goal is not world domination, it's peace and love. It's a progressive religion, which encourages inclusion, homosexuals are particularly welcome, and it's big on women's rights. Kumbaya...

John Smith

Editor

Thank you to my sane, healthy Canadian cousins for diagnosing an awful disease that is plaguing my fellow Americans. I wouldn't have been as diplomatic as you if I had put pen to paper. However, let me share my observation, as a 65 year old middle classed American woman, the people sending out these "diatribes" are most often old, scared, cruel and ego centric Mad Hatters who don't have an ounce of compassion or fairness in their veins. Shame on them for propagating fear, selfishness and racism. Nowadays, I frequently embarrassed to be an American.

Maureen woodcock

Construction Begins on New Orchid Conservatory at Vallarta Botanical Gardens and Vanilla Pollination Process Continues
Douglas Lenox - vallartabotanicalgardensac.org
May 20, 2010

The completion date for Vallarta Botanical Gardens' new conservatory, which will house The National Collection of Mexican Orchids, is scheduled for Fall 2010.

The first phase of construction of the new Conservatory for the National Collection of Mexican Orchids at Vallarta Botanical Gardens (VBG) is well under way. The site is cleared and leveled and the perimeter of this striking new addition to the Gardens is laid out.

The design, inspired by turn-of-the-century architecture, is a classic hexagon, or six-sided building supported by columns finished with handcrafted brick facades. Architectural details will further enhance the old world charm of the Conservatory, and create an ambiance in perfect harmony with the glorious orchid collection it contains.

A fascinating process taking place at VBG is the pollination of Vanilla Orchids. This intricate procedure involves hand pollinating individual flowers, which are only in bloom for one day. After the orchids have been pollinated, the blossom falls off and a Vanilla Bean sprouts. Seeing this delicate procedure will make you appreciate and understand the amount of labor involved in making Vanilla flavor.

This is the ideal time to spend summer's day visiting VBG, seeing the foundation of the Orchid Conservatory, relaxing by the riverside, exploring the network of adventurous trails, shopping for unique plants and gifts, and having a leisurely lunch on the terrace of the Hacienda de Oro. The beauty and wondrous diversity of natural Mexico awaits you at the Gardens.

Located 30 minutes south of Old Town at Km. 24 on Highway 200, Vallarta Botanical Gardens offer something to keep every age group happy; from a Rose Garden for the romantic to jungle trails for the adventurous and a Carnivorous Plants area for the younger generation! The Botanical Gardens' vibrant and elegant settings also offer the perfect venue for weddings and special occasions. For more information, call (322) 223-6182 or visit VallartaBotanicalGardensAC.org.

Click HERE to learn more about Vallarta Botanical Gardens.

17 US States Now Filing Versions of Arizona's Immigration Bill SB 1070
MMD Newswire
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May 23, 2010

One of America's national organizations fighting against illegal immigration is announcing that 17 states are now filing versions of Arizona's SB 1070 law which is designed to help local police enforce America's existing immigration laws.

Numerous national and local polls indicated that 60-81% of Americans support local police enforcing immigration laws.

"Our national network of activists have been working overtime trying to help the state of Arizona and the brave Arizonans who have passed this bill," said William Gheen, President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. "Arizona no longer stands alone and we have now documented state lawmakers filing, or announcing they will file, versions of the Arizona bill in seventeen states! We will not stop until all states are protected from invasion as required by the US Constitution."

ALIPAC has documented the following 17 states are following Arizona's lead in response to citizen pressure.

ARKANSAS, IDAHO, INDIANA, MARYLAND, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, MISSOURI, NEBRASKA, NEVADA, NEW JERSEY, OHIO, OKLAHOMA, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, TEXAS, UTAH

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) has helped to pass some form of immigration enforcement legislation in over 30 states, while the group has also gained a national reputation for defeating legislation designed to give licenses, in-state tuition, and other taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens in 20 states.

ALIPAC's President, William Gheen is a former campaign consultant, Legislative Assistant, state lobbyist, and Assistant Sgt-At-Arms staffer in North Carolina who has turned his local experiences into a political battle plan by driving the national operations of ALIPAC.

"The Federal government has been hijacked by special interests that are neglectful of their duties and even hostile towards the rightful citizens of America," said William Gheen. "It is incumbent upon our states to protect American lives, property, jobs, wages, security, and health, when the Executive Branch fails to honor its Constitutional responsibility to do so by enforcing our existing border and immigration laws."

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC lobbied state lawmakers and AZ Governor Jan Brewer to pass SB 1070, which strictly prohibits racial profiling while empowering local police officers to enforce immigration laws.

ALIPAC's activists have been working for almost four weeks now to encourage state lawmakers across the nation to file versions of SB 1070, to help alleviate boycotts and other political antagonism towards Arizona. Citizen activist are being asked to call, e-mail, visit, and fax their state lawmakers to encourage them to support existing SB 1070 type bills or to file them as soon as possible.

For a list of the 17 states joining Arizona's push for this kind of legislation, and to view the associated documentation, please visit our tracking link for updated information here.

Fernandez de Cevallos' Family to Gov't: Back Off
Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
go to original
May 22, 2010


	We earnestly ask that they stay out of this process in order to help the negotiation. - Diego Fernandez de Cevallos

Mexico City � The son of a former presidential candidate missing for a week has asked authorities to stay out of what he called the "negotiation" for his father.

The statement to local news media Friday by the son of missing politician Diego Fernandez de Cevallos appears to confirm that his family believes he was kidnapped.

"We earnestly ask that they (authorities) stay out of this process in order to help the negotiation," said the statement, signed by Diego Fernandez de Cevallos Gutierrez.

A photo of a shirtless, blindfolded man resembling the gray-bearded politician appeared on social networking sites late Thursday.

The family's statement did not say whether talks had begun, if they had been contacted by kidnappers or what if any demands may have been made.

It is common for Mexican families to try to negotiate directly with kidnappers. But Fernandez de Cevallos' long-standing position in President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party makes their request more unusual.

Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, was reported missing March 15 after his abandoned vehicle was found near his ranch with traces of blood found on a pair of scissors.

The photo posted on Twitter shows a grim-faced, bearded man with a sheet of plastic in the background. The beard and shape of the face look like those of Fernandez de Cevallos, but the Federal Attorney General's Office has not confirmed the photo's authenticity.

Medical experts interviewed on Milenio television said the man appeared to be alive.

Fernandez de Cevallos was the 1994 presidential candidate of the National Action Party, or PAN, and while he finished second, his campaign helped lead to the party's victory in the 2000 election, ending 71 years of single-party domination in Mexico.

Calderon has called him "a key politician in the Mexican transition to democracy" and he ordered federal authorities to help Queretaro state investigators in the search.

Fernandez de Cevallos has been an elder statesman for the PAN, a power broker who split his time between the Senate and as an attorney representing some of Mexico's richest businesses.

So far, federal officials say they have no indication of his whereabouts.

"It's a mystery now. Of course, for me, it's very important to preserve the confidence on the privacy of this investigation," Calderon said during a CNN interview this week in Washington. "We will find Diego and, of course, we are working with all the resources we have to find him."

Calderon told CNN he did not think Fernandez de Cevallos was taken by drug gangs trying to send the president a message.

"No, the criminals used to send me a very clear message in another way. I think it's a very sensitive case," he said.

Then, gazing at a photo of a younger, healthy Fernandez de Cevallos, Calderon added: "It's very tough for me, of course, because Diego is a very good friend of mine. A very good friend."

Associated Press Writer Martha Mendoza contributed to this report.

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Early morning mist in valley behind La Penita Bill Bell Photograph

Giant Aztec Earth Goddess on Show in Mexico City
Agence France-Presse
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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 Calder�n Leads Launching of Routes of Mexico
Suzanne Stephens Waller - Presidencia de la Rep�blica
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May 24, 2010

(Presidencia de la Rep�blica)

Mexico City.- President Calder�n 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
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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.

lick the

Mexico Oil Exec Investigated in $13 Million Fraud
Patrick Rucker - Reuters
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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
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(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
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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 Rep�blica
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May 25, 2010

President Calder�n inaugurates Second Political Forum on Security and Justice. (Presidencia de la Rep�blica)

Mexico City - During the inauguration of the Second Political Forum: Security and Justice, President Felipe Calder�n 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 Naci�n, 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 Calder�n 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
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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!

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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.

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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 M�xico 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."

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