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LAND FOR SALE

Land suitable for small ranch. 

In La Loma 10 minutes north of La Penita.  700,000 pesos. Ejido. 

Contact Rafael at

(cell phone 045 311 161 0573)

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July 26, 2010 

..the heartbeat of the Riviera Nayarit

  

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

Learn Spanish Learn Spanish Today Learn Spanish

Congratulations! Its a Ruiz Horton Girl!

Proud mom and grand mother chritisna and Hinde hold Delaney Jiamei Ruiz Horton.. born june 22

Proud Mom and Grandmother Chrsitina and Hinde Horton hold Delaney Jiamei Ruiz Horton.. born june 22

Delaney Jiamei Ruiz Horton.. born june 22

 

Sex to Die For: Romance Insect Stylelovebug1.jpg

                     © Tara A. Spears

There is a North American species of March flies in the insect family Bibionidae that is known as Lovebugs because of the large swarms that fly about ‘in flagrante delicto,’ oblivious to their surroundings. In the tropics, they herald the change of seasons as they mature only twice a year.  Lovebugs survive because they mainly exist to reproduce. After they grow from larvae they spend the rest of their brief lives attached to the opposite sex. Soon after mating, the male dies and is dragged around by the female, which is perhaps the Lovebugs’ one similarity to humans. The proliferation of the species occurs because the adult bugs have no natural enemies (automobiles are considered manufactured enemies). When the bugs are gone that just means all the adults of that generation have died, and it will be a matter of months until the larvae that were left will mature into adults. Still, what a great way to live: have sex until you die.

To read more about the Love bug click here

 

Become a Friend on the Riviera Nayarit Click Here 

Headline News

 

Report Says U.S. Fails to Assess Drug Aid to Mexico

Despite claims by the United States and Mexico that drug traffickers are feeling the effects of the countries’ joint offensive, a review by the Government Accountability Office has found that millions of dollars have been spent without enough regard for whether the money is doing any good. The office did say in a report to be released Wednesday that the Obama administration had done a better job in recent months of spending the roughly $1.6 billion set aside to fight drug traffickers in Mexico and Central America. Critics in the region have said bureaucratic hurdles have delayed the aid, which includes training and helicopters. ….go to original article

Mexico offers compensation, scholarships to survivors of day-care fire that killed 49 children

The Mexican government says it will provide university scholarships and free medical care to the children who survived a day-care center fire that killed 49 kids a year ago.It says it will also provide free medical and psychological care to their parents, their teachers, and adults who survived the blaze in the northern city of Hermosillo last June. The government is also financially compensating families of the children who died….go to original article

Man caught smuggling 18 monkeys under girdle in Mexico

A man with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt was stopped, searched and detained at Mexico City's international airport after authorities found 18 tiny endangered monkeys in a girdle he was wearing. The Public Safety Department said in a statement Monday that 38-year-old Roberto Cabrera arrived on a commercial flight Friday from Lima, Peru, when authorities noticed the bulge and conducted a body search….go to original article

Mexico calls for weapons crackdown

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, appealed to Congress and the Obama administration on Tuesday to help prevent organized criminals in his country from illegally buying and smuggling weapons from the U.S. Border violence related to drug, weapons and human trafficking has claimed thousands of lives in recent years. And with Mexico’s strict gun-control laws, law enforcement officials estimate that cartels are purchasing nearly all of their assault weapons and other guns from American vendors. ….go to original article

Latin American nations bid to join Mexico in Arizona case

Seven other Latin American countries want to join Mexico in going to court in the United States to support a lawsuit challenging Arizona's immigration enforcement law.

Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru filed separate but nearly identical motions to join Mexico's legal brief supporting the lawsuit filed by U.S. civil rights and other advocacy groups….go to original article

Caves Hide Secrets of Mayan Worldview

Deep in the Mexican jungle are flooded subterranean caverns once believed to be the homes of ancestral gods, which for more than 2,000 years have hidden the secrets of the Mayan cosmogony. Of the approximately 8,000 “cenotes” – as they are known – registered on the coast of the Mexican Caribbean, only 200 have been explored due to the lack of qualified personnel and the danger involved, archaeologist Guillermo de Anda said in an interview with Efe….go to original article

Geldof says Mexico climate summit must succeed

Pop star and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof said in Mexico on Monday that a UN climate summit in Cancun in December could not afford to fail. "Cancun is critical, Cancun can be where the 21st century starts, where the political process is more mature," Geldof told a news conference in Mexico City. Cancun follows last year's summit in Copenhagen which was seen by many as a failure, and with developing nations still waiting for a first 30 billion dollars in aid which was pledged at the time….go to original article

Prehispanic Sexuality Uncovered in the Latest Issue of Magazine

Procreator deities, patrons of the lustful and dissolute ones; ethnic groups prone to nudity; masturbation and rites involving homosexual acts are some themes treated in the latest issue of Arqueologia Mexicana dedicated to Sexuality in Mesoamerica.

Upon Spaniards arrival, many native groups’ practices were considered taboo, particularly those with profound sexual-cosmogonical connotations. Prejudices around these aspects transcended in time and were not subject of studies….go to original article


 

 

In Mexico, they also celebrate Spain's victory in World Cup final

Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving fans in Mexico celebrated Spain's World Cup triumph on Sunday, a joyful reminder of the historical ties to Iberia through language, culture and the legacy of conquest.

After the final whistle blew in Spain's 1-0 victory over the Netherlands, about 2,500 revellers converged at the Plaza de Cibeles in Mexico City's trendy Roma Norte district. They banged drums, blew vuvuzelas and marched around a fountain chanting and singing…..go to original article

 

Effort made to salvage U.S.-Mexico meeting

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he is trying to rescue a long-scheduled meeting between the governors of U.S. and Mexican border states.

The six Mexican governors scheduled to attend the September Border Governors Conference in Phoenix have canceled their plans in protest of SB 1070, Arizona's controversial immigration-enforcement law.

"I feel very strongly, and so do the Mexican governors, that we need to have the conference because this is a conference that has been going for 30 years," Richardson told The Washington Post. "It's a conference that diffuses a lot of problems." …go to original article

 

Floodwaters Inundate Mexico

There are times when the Rio Grande is little more than a trickle running through a concrete ditch separating Mexico and the United States.

This week was not one of the them.

The remnants of Hurricane Alex unleashed torrents of rain over northeastern Mexico, in what President Felipe Calderón called the worst storm “in recent memory” in the region. The rain broke records in some areas and floodwaters poured into rivers, inundating towns and shutting down border bridges. …go to original article

 

Dos Santos nominated Best Young Player

World football governing body FIFA Friday nominated Germany's Thomas Mueller, Andre Ayew from Ghana and Giovani Dos Santos of Mexico for the Best Young Player Award of the 2010 World Cup. FIFA Technical Study Group member Jomo Sono announced at a press briefing that the three players have so far distinguished themselves at the World Cup."The future of the game is the youth. Teams like Ghana, Germany and Mexico and Uruguay have shown at this World Cup that they are already working toward the 2014 World Cup," said Sono….go to original article

 

Mexico May Raise 2010 Growth Forecast, Cordero Says

Mexico’s government is likely to raise its 2010 economic growth forecast following an increased estimate from the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero said.

The government’s current growth projection is 4.1 percent, Cordero said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London today. Its new forecast may come in the next few weeks, he said, declining to give details…go to original article

 

Save Money On Dental Care: Go To Mexico

It costs a lot of money to go to the dentist. And with many Americans lacking dental coverage, getting your teeth taken care of is often cost-prohibitive. But a handful of entrepreneurial dentists in Mexico have stepped up to the plate, offering discount dentistry to a growing U.S. customer base.

For example, the average price of getting a porcelain crown on a tooth in the U.S. is around $945. But patients at DentiCenter, a chain of dental offices sprouting up in border towns from California to Texas, pay only $250.

DentiCenter, whose patient list is 97% U.S. citizens, was founded in 1991 by a Mexican-born, USC-trained periodontist. And as the U.S. economy headed south in recent years, more and more patients have headed south of the border for dental care…..go to original article

 

Sunny Mexico: An Energy Opportunity

Mexico’s solar resources are among the best in the world, far superior to those of Germany and Spain, the countries currently recognized as the world leaders in installed photovoltaic systems. Experts rank the quality of Mexico's photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal resources among the world's best. In terms of photovoltaic resources, the country has significant advantages….go to original article

 

Mixed results in Mexico elections leave nation without a clear path to future

After a Sunday of elections across Mexico that was widely seen as a test for the 2012 presidential race and the nation's future, the winner turns out to be – well, not really anyone.

President Felipe Calderón's party is weak, the left is in collapse and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, on a tentative path to recapture the presidency it held for 71 years, was shown to be vulnerable. Drug cartel intimidation dissuaded many people from voting at all. ….go to original article

 

Mexico's intense urbanization spurs social, economic trends

They never intended to stay, but in the three years since Rogelio and Lourdes Mendoza arrived in the capital looking for work, they've found no reason to return to their farming village 300 miles away.

Why would they?

"The city offers opportunity," said Rogelio, 31. "The countryside died a long time ago." …go to original article

Goals Announced for Tourism to Mexico
Jimm Budd - travelvideo.tv
go to original
July 21, 2010

Gloria Guevara Manzo
Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara expects Mexico to be the fifth most visited country in the world within six or seven years. Currently it ranks tenth and is number 20 in earnings.

Needed to reach this goal is more business from additional markets. For the moment, eight out of ten international tourists come from the United States and Canada.

Ms Guevara hopes to change this, with 40 percent of all travelers arriving from other countries. She sees China as especially promising.

Promotion is the responsibility of the Mexico Tourism Board (National Tourism Promotion Council), where Stephen Austin, the marketing director, announced that the new slogan will be “Mexico, a place you want to get to know.”

The Big Friendly Giants of Escuinapa
Kristian Beadle - miller-mccune.com
go to original
July 24, 2010

A view of the Marismas wetland system south of Escuinapa. (Kristian Beadle)
Big projects — one to preserve and one to promote coastal Mexico — bring with them both dreams and nightmares.

In mid-May of this year, an entire town moved to the beach for five days of partying. School was canceled and work was deferred for the thousands attending the annual Fiesta de Mar de las Cabras. They came mostly from Escuinapa, a town located one hour south of Mazatlán and 20 minutes inland from Playa Cabras.

According to organizers, it is the 105th year of the event, which had roots as an indigenous “pagan” festival to celebrate the sun god Yequi. Kids, parents and grannies listen to live music on the isolated beach. There is nothing around for miles except coconut trees and two impressive neighbors: the biggest wetland on the Pacific coast of Mexico, called the Marismas Nacionales; and the largest tourist “mega-project” in Mexico, which is about to hit high gear.

The town of Escuinapa is a patchwork of gray buildings surrounded by mango plantations. It is a humble place that suddenly finds itself at the feet of those two giants, who claim to be as big and friendly as the Big Friendly Giant in Roald Dahl’s book of the same name.

Likewise, these two giants are dream-catchers. The Nature Giant spins dreams of a healthy and bucolic lifestyle. It might be an antidote to its twin brother, the Money Giant, who trumpets dreams of wealth and growth.

While some are lured by their promises, others regard these giants with suspicion. Those who have read Dahl’s book know that most giants eat little children in their sleep. But might some giants make dreams come true?

The Nature Giant, the Marismas Nacionales (additional link here), is a system of coastal lagoons and wetlands spanning two states. Each state has a planned biosphere reserve — in Sinaloa state, home of Escuinapa, the reserve should be announced next February; while to the south, the reserve in Nayarit state was just decreed two months ago (located near the town of San Blas, not far from Puerto Vallarta).

As part of a United Nations initiative, the biosphere reserves would integrate human activities with the sustainable use of natural resources. They also set aside “core” areas for complete preservation. Both goals support healthy fisheries, a primary occupation for many coastal residents, which have been in extreme decline over the past decades. Shrimp fishing was a highly productive industry in Escuinapa until its crash — the 1,600 tons of shrimp brought ashore each year is now closer to 100 tons. By regulating the industry and setting aside core areas of preservation, the reserves hope to help shrimp stocks recuperate, alongside the countless commercial fish that use the wetland in key parts of their lifecycle.

In so doing, they conjure local fishermen’s lost dream — continuing to fish with their own boat and as their own boss.

On the flip side, fishermen are concerned that reserves will limit their fishing grounds — which is true, particularly in the short term. The reserve would also put restrictions on the growing agricultural industry surrounding the Marismas, with regulations on fertilizer/herbicide use and erosion caused by cattle.

When I was going through town, a meeting between government agencies and private organizations was held to draft the reserve’s management plan. I spoke to Miguel Cruz Nieto, director of conservation at Pronatura, the largest environmental group in Mexico, which was invited to participate in the plan drafting.

“People are resistant to environmental regulations — but they also realize that catastrophes like the Canal de Cuautla need to be avoided,” said Nieto. That man-made canal near San Blas opened in the 1970s to allow fishermen access to the ocean, but massive tidal water movement has left it more than a kilometer wide. Despite that boondoggle, people are concerned that the reserves will somehow handicap the Money Giant — the tourist developments that promise them so much wealth and growth.

The Money Giant is known as the CIP, a Spanish acronym that stands for “Planned Integral Center.” Reports (the link to the page in Spanish can be found here) say that it could become twice the size of Cancún, since the masterminds of the proposal — Fonatur, the Mexico government agency in charge of developing tourism — purchased twice as much land as it owns in Cancún.

The full size of the development will of course depend on the total amount of private investment. Twenty minutes from Escuinapa, the CIP is located between Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. Since the highway runs inland to avoid the flooded lands of the Marismas, the coastline has been kept mostly undeveloped, besides medium-scale agriculture and fishing. The miles of “untouched” beaches are now in the sights of tourism developers. Using the successful model of “Riviera Maya” in the Cancún area, they want to expand the “Riviera Nayarit” tourism corridor leading north of Puerto Vallarta. From the opposite end, south of Mazatlán, condominiums and hotels are springing up along lagoons to bridge that gap.

People in Escuinapa are very eager for the CIP and its potential to bring money to the area. Fortunes have already been made — the 80-year-old owner of the land purchased by Fonatur made millions of dollars and, in a gesture of giving back to the community, built a new school on the edge of Escuinapa. Hence, the general population frowns upon any restriction on the development.

“People don’t even want us to ask for a public review of the environmental impact report, because it slows down the process,” said Carlos Simental from the REDES group of environmental and business leaders of Escuinapa. “They have that much faith in the goodwill of the developers.”

Two weeks ago, Simental submitted the request for public review. “There is just too much at stake,” he said.

In the past, indigenous groups could traverse the 230 kilometers of the Marismas Nacionales by canoe during the wet season. However, water flow has become constricted in the last century and the Marismas are no longer seasonally connected. Six out of the seven rivers that drain into the Marismas have been dammed, and the last one has a proposal for a hydroelectric facility to power the CIP development and feed its water supply.

“Dams have other effects also,” Sandra Guido, director of the environmental group Conselva, told me. “They prevent rivers from flushing the fallen leaves [from seasonal tropical dry forests] which are used as organic matter in the lowlands; siltation and chemicals accumulate; and water availability allows agricultural operations to expand, which means deforestation for cleared lands, erosion and fertilizer runoff — all for something with a limited lifespan of a few decades, since dams fill up with sediment over time.”

However, it is impossible to build a development without water and power, so compromises are necessary.

One person finding a middle ground is mangrove expert Francisco Flores from the Institute of Maritime Sciences (UNAM-Mazatlán), who has been studying the Marismas his whole life. “There are ways to mitigate impact,” he said.

“Don’t let water flow be choked by roadways built up with dirt and rocks [instead, use bridges]. Reduce upstream erosion. Currently 230 annual tons of sediment wash into the Marismas, and the healthy normal is about 20 annual tons. This cuts off fresh water and creates salinization, which destroys the wetland. Mangroves prefer 15-20 [parts per million] of salt, versus the ocean, which is 30 ppm, and 100 ppm have been recorded in dying mangroves. Luckily, mangroves bounce back if given the proper water flow.”

The question is being posed whether these mega-scale projects are a good approach for our increasingly fickle climate. How do we make them sustainable, particularly if rain and temperature change? Are biosphere reserves sufficient antidotes to the possible side effects of dams, agriculture, and development? These Big Friendly Giants have good intentions, but they may either inadvertedly gobble some children along the way — that is, the prospects of the next generation — or keep our dreams intact.

Further down the coast, south of Puerto Vallarta, I would be looking at smaller scales of development and preservation, to see if there are other solutions besides the “super sized” approaches that we’ve come to rely on.

 For more information: Voyage of Kiri homepage also has more photos and maps of the locations.

Zapata: the love of the land. Bicentenario México 2010

Speaking God’s Language, With a Gangster Dialect
Marc Lacey - New York Times
go to original
July 24, 2010
Thousands of young people from some of the Mexican capital’s toughest vice-ridden neighborhoods have recently begun making monthly pilgrimages to San Hipólito Church carrying candles, rosaries and effigies of St. Jude, the patron saint of desperate causes, to hear the Rev. Frederick Loos. (Jennifer Szymaszek/New York Times)
Mexico City — Frederick Loos was cussing like a sailor the other night, which was surprising given that he is a Roman Catholic priest and his foul-mouthed discourse was delivered from the pulpit to hundreds of faithful gathered before him.

He spoke of God, the need to serve him and how he can transform lives. But interspersed in his sermon was the most colorful of street Spanish, which brought smiles to the faces of many of the gang members, addicts and other young people pressed in tight to listen.

“When you go to China you have to speak Chinese,” the priest explained afterward, slipping out of his vestments. “If you’re speaking to kids you use their idioms. I don’t think God is offended if it brings them closer to him.”

Those enmeshed in Mexico’s thriving drug culture — users and traffickers alike — have an unusual relationship with the church. Sniffing glue and making the sign of the cross might not appear to go together any more than killing and the catechism. But for many believers in modern-day Mexico they do.

The huge flock that descends upon San Hipólito Church on the 28th of every month is made up of unconventional churchgoers, to say the least. Tattooed and pierced, the young faithful come from some of the capital’s most rugged neighborhoods, and many of them acknowledge that they run with gangs and use drugs. Drug use, in fact, is rife just outside the church entrance, where marijuana smoke fills the air and glue sniffing is the rage.

But a first-century saint that many Mexican youths have adopted as their own is having a mind-altering effect, as well. Thousands of young people from some of the Mexican capital’s toughest vice-ridden neighborhoods have recently begun making monthly pilgrimages to San Hipólito carrying candles, rosaries and effigies of St. Jude, the patron saint of desperate causes.

“I want to connect with God,” said a glassy-eyed teenager holding a St. Jude statue and sniffing glue, when asked about his religious fervor.

“Yeaaaaah,” said his friend, swaying precariously, also high on glue.

The youths arrive by subway, bus and bike from the capital’s roughest edges, eager for blessings. The church, somewhat uneasily, is trying to channel this unorthodox mass fervor. The Rev. René Pérez, the folksy parish priest charged with keeping the rowdy new flock under control, is hoping to reinvent St. Jude as an unofficial local patron saint of addicts. “We don’t have a magic wand, but we do want to take advantage of this faith they have,” Father Pérez said.

As a result, he accepts drugs in the collection baskets if followers care to give up their vices on the spot. He also brought in Father Loos, 74, an American who has lived in Mexico for more than four decades and whose barrio slang helps him to relate to the newcomers.

“It’s a tremendous phenomenon, and nobody understands it,” said Father Loos, noting that the drug use stops at the church entrance. “They are clearly in need of help for their many problems. They carry these St. Jude statues, some of them bigger than they are. St. Jude is something that has become close to them.”

Hoping to prevent their fascination with St. Jude from morphing into an interest in Jesús Malverde, a 20th-century outlaw who has been adopted as a saint for those in the drug business, the church is eager to channel the young people’s faith into the mainstream church. Some traditional churchgoers, though, do not particularly care for the foul language, and a group of them caught up with Father Pérez the other night to protest Father Loos’s words.

The young Mexico City churchgoers are by no means the only ones meshing religion with vice. Powerful drug dealers in other parts of the country have been known to give sizable donations for church repairs and other projects. Calling traffickers “very generous,” Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, president of the Mexican Bishops Conference, drew controversy last year when he was quoted by the newspaper Reforma crediting them with building churches, chapels and other infrastructure.

In Michoacán, a state in central Mexico known for its marijuana growing and methamphetamine production, a twisted version of the Bible has been adopted by a drug gang known as La Familia.

“I ask God for strength and to give me challenges to make me strong,” the homegrown scripture goes. “I ask him for wisdom and to give me problems to solve. I ask him for prosperity and to give me brain and muscles to work.”

It is signed by Nazario Moreno, La Familia’s spiritual leader, who goes by the nickname El Más Loco, or The Craziest One.

While this parish in Mexico City is trying to persuade troubled youths to give up their vices, El Más Loco has created a cult in the countryside that uses religion to justify his group’s murderous ways, whether that means killing police officers trying to interrupt its drug business or eliminating rivals by chopping off heads. That good and evil could be so dangerously out of whack has the pastors here shaking theirs.

“Most of these people who are killing each other are baptized Catholics,” said Father Loos. “How can they do what they’re doing? The violence is so sadistic. How can they go home at night and hold their children? I can’t figure it out.”

 Greg Brosnan contributed reporting. " 

Bill Bell Photograph

Graveyard Isla Mujeres Yucatan.  The Bell's are currently in the Yucatan with Matejas and her three children

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexico Worried By Rise in Hemorrhagic Dengue
Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
go to original
July 21, 2010

Mexico City — Mexico is facing a sort of perfect storm of floods that breed mosquitoes, prompting a big increase in the number of hemorrhagic dengue cases, the country's top epidemiological official said Wednesday.

The disease's Type 2 strain, which makes people who have already had the Type 1 variant more vulnerable to developing the hemorrhagic form, is now in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz and moving north toward the region on the U.S. border.

Type 1 is already present in border states like Tamaulipas, which suffered extensive flooding in the weeks after Hurricane Alex made landfall June 30.

"It is possible, if not this year then next, for (Type 2) to reach Tamaulipas," said Miguel Angel Lezana, director of the National Epidemiological Center.

Veracruz borders Tamaulipas to the south.

Cases of the milder, classic form of dengue fever in Mexico have declined slightly since 2009. But the more serious hemorrhagic form has spiked to about 1,900 cases this year, compared with about 1,430 in the same period of 2009.

Only 16 people have died this year from the hemorrhagic form, but the seriousness of the disease makes it a concern.

Lezana said the recent flooding in border areas created ideal conditions for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread dengue fever.

"Now that temperatures are rising, that is the ideal combination - heat and humidity," Lezana said.

He said state and federal government workers are fighting the mosquitoes with control programs.

Lezana also noted the mosquitoes have adapted to living in Mexico at altitudes up to 1,850 meters (6,105 feet) above sea level - at least 350 meters (1,155 feet) higher than previously recorded.

Mexican Govt Turns a Blind Eye to Orphaned and Disabled Children
Daniela Pastrana - Inter Press Service
go to original
July 24, 2010
Of Mexico’s population of 107 million, 38 million are young people under 18, and one-quarter of these are under six.
Mexico City - A baby hits the floor when his father, who was holding him in his arms, is murdered in Mexico. A two-year-old watches from her stroller as six drug addicts are killed in a rehabilitation centre, including her mother. The mother of another three-year-old never makes it to collect him from his nursery.

This is the darkest side of the ongoing war in Mexico against the drug cartels: the unknown number of orphans, of whom there must be thousands, although there is no official count.

In Ciudad Juárez alone, on the border with the United States, civil society organisations estimate there are 10,000 orphans, on the basis that in the last three and a half years more than 5,500 people have been murdered, 70 percent of whom were between the ages of 18 and 45.

Assuming an average of two children per adult in this age range, if this calculation is extrapolated across the nation, where 25,000 people have been killed in that time period, the bone-chilling figure of 30,000 orphans is arrived at. They are one of the consequences of conservative President Felipe Calderon’s government strategy of all-out war against drug traffickers.

"We know there are thousands of orphans, but no one has the slightest idea of exactly how many, or where they are," Nashieli Ramírez, the head of Ririki Intervención Social, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working with poor and excluded children and women and one of the most respected voices in Mexico on children's issues, told IPS.

"We don’t know whether they are in the care of their extended family [grandparents, uncles and aunts] or living on the streets," the expert said, adding that the state National Agency for Family Development (DIF) does not have the structural resources to care for the orphan population.

She said counting the individual cases has to be done through the state Attorney General’s Offices in all 32 Mexican states, where death records are kept. But they, too, are unable to care for and refer the orphans to suitable places of safety, she said.

In Ciudad Juárez, for instance, more than 2,600 people were murdered in 2009, but the Chihuahua state DIF only has records of eight children orphaned that year. Two of these were adopted by families, according to the DIF.

"The DIF has no outreach capability to extend its care networks, especially when the affected population is so large," Ramírez said.

Stories and anecdotes multiply. A worker* at a nursery at the Mexican Social Security Institute in Ciudad Juárez told IPS that a few months ago, a mother never arrived to pick up her three and a half year old child at closing time.

"We tried to entertain him, and hours later a work colleague of his mother’s came and told us she had been shot. She wanted to take him but we couldn’t give him to her. If an authorised person isn’t available we have to hand him over to the authorities, according to the regulations," she said.

Eventually his father claimed him, and as the nursery is only for children being cared for by their mothers, the boy never came back. "We don’t know what happened to him, or whether he received any special care," the educator said.

Of Mexico’s population of 107 million, 38 million are young people under 18, and one-quarter of these are under six. But early childhood is one of the most neglected areas of public policy.

When he took office in 2006, Calderón announced the creation of childcare centres as the flagship social plan of his government programme. But results have been sparse.

"The problem is that the programme is focused on getting the mothers into jobs, not on providing quality care for the children," Catalina Castillo of the Organización Popular Independiente (Independent People's Organisation) in Ciudad Juárez told IPS.

Many children who have lost their parents also face discrimination, fuelled by the government’s constant rhetoric implying that all those who were killed were criminals.

Rodrigo and Raúl are brothers, aged eight and 10 respectively, whose parents were killed in 2008 and who now live with their maternal grandmother. According to Susana, their aunt, changing their school, home and city triggered rebellious and introverted behaviour in the boys, which gets worse every time other children ask them if their parents were killed "because they were ‘narcos’ (drug traffickers)."

In Ciudad Juárez, the NGO Fundación Integra works with a special group of orphans: those who have lost a limb or are permanently disabled.

In three years they have cared for over 800 people who were directly exposed to some kind of violence, 65 percent of whom are under 18. But they limit themselves to working with people who have relatives to take responsibility for them at home.

What about those who have no one? "We pass them on to the DIF. We can’t do anything else," said Laura Antillón, a manager at the foundation.

However many they may be, the orphans are part of a generation of children torn by the Mexican war on drugs. They have seen their parents killed, they have been displaced and discriminated against - but the authorities are not looking their way.

On Jun. 2, two families returning from holidaying in the port of Mazatlán, on the Pacific coast, were intercepted by armed men on the highway between Casas Grandes and Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua.

One of the travellers, 32-year-old Mario Alberto Iglesias, was taken away by the assailants and his headless body was found nearby, hours later. His wife, María de Jesús Magallanes, was left at death’s door and she died only days later in hospital.

A series of photographs not published in the local press shows the couple’s children - a boy of five and a girl of three - watching their mother bleeding to death. In another photo the little boy, in bloodstained clothes, is seen among armed soldiers at the scene, with no one paying him any attention.

"They are totally orphaned. No one looks at them, no one listens to them: what sort of reality are they creating for the future?" said Mayra Rojas, head of Infancia Común, an NGO which works against child sex abuse.

 * The nursery worker and some children and families are identified incompletely or not at all, at their request.
 Spanish Language Publications Promote Riviera Nayarit
RivieraNayarit.com
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July 16, 2010
This summer, a variety of Spanish-language publications are promoting the advantages of Riviera Nayarit as one of the best options for travel.
The efforts in matters of public relations carried out by Riviera Nayarit's Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) are paying off in editorial pieces in a variety of Spanish-language publications that promote the advantages of our destination as one of the best options for travel this summer.

Guadalajara's Mural newspaper, as well as Travesias and Glamour magazines recently published the touristic offerings that have earned this world-class vacation destination the nickname, "Mexico's Pacific Treasure."

At this time of year, the ocean is at its finest. "Bahía de Banderas + Riviera Nayarit" is the headline story in Mural newspaper's Primera Fila supplement. The article highlights the significant development and wide variety of activities that can be enjoyed in Riviera Nayarit, and invites its readers to enjoy a revitalizing tour along the coast on the way to our sister destination, Puerto Vallarta.

The peacefulness of Lo de Marcos, the passion in San Pancho, the adrenaline of Sayulita, the luxury of Punta Mita, the romance of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, the tradition of Bucerías and the recreation in Nuevo Vallarta: every single competitive advantage of Riviera Nayarit has been included in an article that includes specific recommendations for travelers.

Glamour's June issue highlights all the elements that gave Riviera Nayarit the nickname "Mexico's Pacific Treasure." This issue is targeted mainly towards women and highlights the premier services and the variety of Spa treatments, specialized techniques and luxurious facilities that can be found along the 190 miles that constitute our coast.

Travesias' article "Activities for All Tastes" includes Boutique Hotel suggestions, recommendations for those who have a free spirit, the best all-inclusive offers, as well as classic luxury offers.

These publications that promote Riviera Nayarit during the summer are the result of the intense work being done by the CVB, following Governor Ney Gonzalez Sanchez's State Development Plan, which translates into an added value regarding marketing efforts to promote our destination.

A DESTINATION THAT'S IN

July's issue of Caras Sports points out the importance of social life in connection with the International Fishing Tournament of San Blas. Mexico City's newspaper La Razon recently featured an article on this important event, inviting those interested in sport fishing to live the experience by setting sail to a port that is a historic site with a unique Mexican flair.

 Mexico Soon Will Require Prescriptions for Antibiotics
1 News Houston
July 17, 2010
(11 News Houston)
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - If the relentless violence has not hurt business enough, now pharmacies in Mexican border towns face a new hurdle. Starting next month, on August 25, they're required to ask for a doctor's prescription for the sale of all antibiotics.

 

Los Ayala PET Program a GO

The PET (Programa de Empleo Temporal - Temporary Employment Program) has been awarded to Los Ayala   for the fourth time, thanks to the hard work of our own "Juez" - Romy Mora.

     This program sponsored by SEMARNAT, has strict rules and regulations including but not limited to; submitting before and after photos; submitting reports, accounting for expenses; and adhering to the programs guidelines which including prompt payment of employees on a weekly basis. To qualify for the program; towns are required to submit a list of needs to Semarnat. Los Ayalas' list of needs included cleaning the estuary and streets and funds for supplies which included rakes, bags, machetes, wheel barrows and shovels.

     Thanks to Romy's due diligence Los Ayala, received 50,000 pesos to subsidize Los Ayala's clean up program, for the fourth time! As a result Los Ayala, has employed 17 people who will be working again this summer cleaning the estuary and keeping the streets and beach of Los Ayala clean.

     Los Ayala Life recognizes the contribution of Romy Mora, SEMARNAT, and the dedicated workers, who together are making Los Ayala an even better place to live and vacation.

     If you should encounter these people at work, give them a well-deserved thumbs up!

    Our community neighbours; La Penita de Jaltemba and Rincon de Guayabitos have also been awarded 50,000 pesos each by the SEMARNAT program; and the beautiful beach town of Chacala just sixty minutes north of Jaltemba Bay has been awarded 49,000 pesos.

     Truly, a wonderful program benefiting everyone in Los Ayala; and the community of Jaltemba Bay,and the state of Nayarit!
 
Christina Stobbs

 

 

 
Experts Say US and Mexico Must Work Together to Battle Mexican Drug Cartels
Laurel Bowman - voanews.com
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July 21, 2010
A deadly car bomb last week, the first of its kind, suggests that Mexico's drug cartels are growing increasingly bold and sophisticated. As illegal drugs and people cross the US-Mexican border into the United States, weapons and possibly billions of dollars in cash flow south. Speaking in Washington this week, experts said fixes will have to be multi-faceted and long-term.

A TV station caught on tape what was a first in Mexico's fight against drugs - a car bomb targeting police detonated in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

At least three were killed in what's being viewed as an escalation in Mexico's already raging drug war.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley:

"Unfortunately, these drug cartels, they have enormous amount of resources at their disposal," said P.J. Crowley. "They can buy any kind of capability they want. But we are determined, working with Mexico, to do everything in our power to reduce this violence."

In Washington Tuesday, experts gathered to discuss steps the United States and Mexico should take moving forward.

Matt Bennett is Vice President of Third Way, a self-described moderate think tank. It hosted the event.

"It is not just a Mexican problem," said Matt Bennett. "Guns and money are flowing from the United States south and fueling this problem and drugs are traveling north…"

"It's a mutual responsibility between the U.S. and Mexico," said Henry Cuellar. "We cannot let Mexico fail."

Congressman Henry Cuellar says tightening the border alone won't do the trick.

The U.S. has to help Mexico develop its police force, justice system, and courts. It's hard to catch drug traffickers in Mexico, Cuellar says, "and once they are caught… to prosecute someone, at least when I was down there, was less than a 2 percent chance," he said.

That's compared to a prosecution rate in the high 90s in the U.S., he says.

"Once again I want to warn everybody, especially in Mexico, if you want to come to America through Maricopa County, we are going to have enough fire power to react to any assaults on our deputy sheriffs," said Sheriff Arpaio.

That's Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona. Last week, while conducting his 17th immigration sweep, he brought out his "big gun," a machine gun. He said his deputies needed it for protection while patrolling desolate areas where drug and immigrant smugglers have been spotted.

But Mexico's Ambassador to Washington, Arturo Sarukhan, says guns bought in states like Arizona are fueling the drug trade.

He is calling on the U.S. to help plug the flow.

"Mexico has very stringent gun laws," said Ambassador Sarukhan. "You can't walk into a store and buy a gun like you can in this country."

The United States has announced it will send 1200 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico. They will help keep a look-out for illegal border crossers and smugglers and assist with criminal investigations.

Mexico's drug violence has killed nearly 25,000 people since 2006, when Mexico's president launched an anti-drug offensive.

Mexican White Gold: The Country’s Largest Agri-Business

                   © Tara a. Spears

Part 2. See the Sol page two for1st installment

Sugar cane is the mainstay crop of Mexico, employing 2.5 million people mostly in the rural areas. Traveling around Nayarit, one can’t help noticing the cane fields with the workers swinging machetes to the rhythm of banda music or the slow moving, overloaded trucks on the serpentine mountain roads taking the harvest to the refineries in Tepic. As with farmers in any country, many Mexican families have worked the same fields for generations: it is a way of life besides a livelihood. The cultivation of sugar cane here has changed little since the 1500s when it was first introduced.

Continued on Page two Click here

 

Mexico: Ancient Woman Suggests Diverse Migration
Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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July 23, 2010
Mexico City - A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.

Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.

But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.

"History isn't that simple," Terrazas said. "This indicates that the Americas were populated by several migratory movements, not just one or two waves from northern Asia across the Bering Strait."

Some outside experts caution that the evidence is not conclusive.

Ripan Malhi, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, said that "using facial reconstructions to assign ancestry to an individual is not as strong as using ancient DNA to assess the ancestry of the individual, because the environment can influence the traits of the face."

"All of the current genetic evidence points to Northeast Asia as the main source for Native Americans," Malhi said.

However, there have been few opportunities to use DNA or other methods to identify the origins of the first inhabitants because only a handful of skeletons from 10,000 years ago have survived.

The female is known as "La Mujer de las Palmas," or "The Woman of the Palms," after the sinkhole cave near the Caribbean resort of Tulum where her remains were found by divers and recovered in 2002.

Because rising water levels flooded the cave where she died or was laid to rest, her skeleton was about 90 percent intact. Archaeologists and physical anthropologists calculated she was between 44 and 50 years old when she died, was about 5 feet (1.52 meters) tall and weighed about 128 pounds (58 kilograms).

Experts also measured skull features and calculated the muscle and other tissue layers that once covered her face, which served as a guide for experts in paleo-anthropological modeling at the Atelier Daynes in France to complete a model of the woman.

The model shows a stocky woman and clad in a simple knee-length woven tunic. She had a broad face, prominent cheeks, thin lips, and little trace of the epicanthic eye-folds that characterize many modern Asian populations.

"Her body structure, skin and eyes are similar to the population of Southeast Asia," the institute said in a statement.

Susan Gillespie, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida, noted that while the Bering land bridge theory still has a lot of support, "the situation is messier than the straightforward scenario ... of big-game hunters chasing woolly mammoths over the exposed `Bering bridge' to Alaska."

"Recently there has been more serious inquiry into the various origins of migrants, modes of transportation, and dates of when they got here," Gillespie said in an e-mail message. "Dates for peopling of the Americas have been pushed way back, and with the finding of very early skeletal remains, the genetic/skeletal linkages to peoples of northeast Asia has become more cloudy."

But Gillespie cautioned against comparing a reconstructed face from 10,000 years ago to modern populations in places like Indonesia, which have also probably changed over 10 millennia.

"You have to find skeletons of the same time period in Asia, or use genetic reconstructions, to make a strong connection, and cannot rely on modern populations," she wrote. "Do we have any empirical data on what Southeast Asian women looked like ... 10,000 years ago?"
 


 Town, Resort Offer Safe Haven for Mexico Trip
Shera Dalin - Telegraph UK
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July 15, 2010
Barra de Navidad, seen from the luxury Grand Bay Resort on neighboring Isla Navidad, is a small village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico along the Costa Alegre, or Happy Coast, that offers surfing, deep sea fishing, beach combing and excellent seafood restaurants. (Telegraph/Jorge Riopedre)
With all the news of violence coming out of Mexico these days, many visitors have been scared away. But the lovely little town of Barra de Navidad and its neighboring luxury resort on the Pacific Coast are an oasis of welcome and relaxation.

Located about three hours south of Puerto Vallarta, Barra de Navidad is one of the hidden jewels of the Costa Alegre, or Happy Coast. Founded by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in 1540 on Christmas Day, which explains the name Christmas Bar, this area is blessed with strong waves for the surfer set, gorgeous sunsets that rival Key West and small towns filled with tasty, authentic Mexican food and lovely artisanal crafts.

A good base of operations is the Grand Bay Resort on Isla Navidad, a short boat ride across a lagoon that separates the town from the resort property and is actually located in Mexico's smallest and safest state, Colima. While many tourists may not have heard of Isla Navidad or the Grand Bay, celebrities such as pop star Lady Gaga, hockey player Wayne Gretzky and President Bill Clinton have all decamped to the Grand Bay (www.wyndham.com).

If the two-story Presidential Suite doesn't fit a beer budget ($2,730 per night, low season), one of their smaller executive suites provides a dining room, a living room and even a kitchen for families. A luxury room ($350 per night, low season) had ample space for a couple up to a family with two children, as well as a quiet balcony for watching the boats and birds flit across the lagoon. Balconies also are a great location for early risers who want to spy on tejones, shy raccoon-like animals native to the area.

The Grand Bay's multi-level swimming pool with water slides and swim-up pool bar is a haven from the full-on heat and humidity of a Mexican summer, which is the off-season until August. At that time, Mexican schoolchildren are on vacation and families come in droves. Winter is the high season and the prices rise accordingly.

The resort also provides kayaks for paddling around the lagoon and an excellent kids' club for times when mom and dad want to visit the full-service spa or go shop in Barra's many craft emporiums.

For those who love to shop, there is a wide selection of intricate Huichol indigenous crafts in Barra. Often these are jewelry items or animal figures with tiny seed beads sewn or embedded into the surface of the object in graduating hues of colors that give great depth and artistry to each piece. Like in most markets and bazaars in Mexico, haggling is expected for those who like to negotiate for what they want.

Perhaps one of the best-groomed and most scenic golf courses in Mexico is the course at the Grand Bay. It's open to the public with reservations and has 27 challenging holes, some with arresting views of waves crashing against the rocks bordering the Pacific Ocean.

One of the highlights of a trip to Barra de Navidad is seeing the bounty of surrounding ecosystems. That means leaving the placid Barra area and encountering Mexico's police force.

Taking the main road, Highway 200, to the area's other cultural attractions closer to the city of Manzanillo is likely to result in one or two police or Mexican army checkpoints. These roadside checks are courteous, easily managed in English and result in opening your car's trunk or maybe a quick look around the vehicle's interior.

If the sight of troops with automatic weapons is unnerving, the easiest way around it is to travel with a local tour guide or tour company. The police and army recognize these guides and wave them through checkpoints without stopping.

Although Barra de Navidad is in the state of Juarez, which has been in the headlines for violence, Isla Navidad, and the remaining adventures mentioned here are in the state of Colima. As Mexico's smallest state, it is primarily agricultural and, to date, has the lowest crime rate of any Mexican state.

For those who want to spike all that relaxation at Isla Navidad with a thrill, the Natura Parc zip line in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains is the place (manzanilloadventures.com). For $80 per adult and $35 per child, visitors can launch themselves off five connecting zip lines.

Natura Parc provides each person with a helmet, gloves, safety harness and dual pulleys to ride the zip lines; one is a backup for safety. Experienced English-speaking guides, excluding jump leader Cholo, who leads each jump and is proud of his 2,000 zips across the mountains, accompany each group of riders.

Getting to the uppermost zip line is a physically demanding hike and not for the sedentary. But there is a rest stop at the halfway point up "Deer Mountain," as the guides have named it, and the reward is well worth the exertion, despite the first dizzying moment of stepping off into space and careening lightning-quick across the treetops.

The sunny views of the nearby shipping port of Manzanillo, with its blinding white architecture perched above the Pacific, casinos and the spot where Bo Derek filmed the movie "10," are more than repayment for the brief heart stoppage.

The zip line adventure includes bottled water for the hike and a delicious lunch of clay-oven grilled organic pizza at El Rincon de la Tia restaurant in the hamlet of Benito Juarez adjacent to Natura Parc. Maybe the adrenaline from the zip line enhanced the taste of the pizza, but this is fresh, perfectly baked pizza oozing with gouda cheese. Try the Mexican pizza, which comes with a drizzle of refried beans, green peppers and bacon crumbles.

Another educational and interesting side trip is El Tortugario, the sea turtle preservation center in the tiny beach town of Cuyutlan. El Tortugario (www.cuyutlan.com.mx) is a private turtle breeding and research sanctuary that subsists on the 25-peso (about $2.50) adult admission. The center breeds these gentle giant creatures in the hope that more of their endangered offspring will survive their trek over the black sand beach back to the sea after hatching.

The center has several resident adult turtles for viewing and one baby turtle for petting even if visitors are there outside the hatching season in August. There are also endangered iguanas to look at and a few lazy crocodiles.

Cuyutlan is also home to the Salt Museum, which recently was renovated with federal money. This is still a rustic affair, situated in a wooden warehouse with no climate control. But the exhibits give a good picture of how residents, including indigenous peoples, have toiled over centuries to harvest salt from the sea in man-made salt lagoons.

That sea salt, now prized for its natural minerals, is shipped across the country and is a staple of Mexican tables. A hefty 2-pound bag will cost 5 pesos, or about 40 cents.

If you still haven't had enough of Mexican wildlife, another attraction is the iguana sanctuary in the city of Manzanillo. Sandwiched between a canal and an auto repair shop in a residential neighborhood, visitors can stand on the sidewalk across the canal and see scores of endangered iguanas perched on the trees overhanging the canal. Children especially get a kick out the iguanas' frequent bathroom breaks, which resoundingly land in the watery canal below.

Some of the iguanas are as large as well-fed cats and their colors range from dusty brown to vibrant green - the best to eat and the cause of their endangered but now protected status, said guide Humberto Ramirez of HumberTours.

If the zip line wasn't enough adventure, on the way to Natura Parc on Highway 200 is Rancho Pena Blanca (www.mexicanpacific.com/get/ranchopenablanca/). The ranch offers tours of its tequila distillery, ATV rides on the mountains and beautiful beach surrounding the ranch, and opportunities to pet donkeys and taste tequila, of course. Watch out for days when cruise ships are docked in Manzanillo because the ranch can get crowded.

On the trip back to Isla Navidad, there are opportunities to stop at one of the many roadside stands that sell fruits produced by the banana, coconut, mango and durian (jack fruit) groves populating the area. Five varieties of bananas alone will satisfy most people and give more than a flavor of this rich, vibrant area

US Issues Mexico Border Travel Warning
kvoa.com
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July 22, 2010
The US Department of State has issued this Travel Warning to inform U.S. citizens traveling to and living in Mexico about the security situation in Mexico. The authorized departure of family members of U.S. government personnel from U.S. Consulates in the northern Mexico border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros remains in place. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Mexico dated May 6, 2010 to note the extension of authorized departure and to update guidance on security conditions and crime.

Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year. This includes tens of thousands who cross the border every day for study, tourism or business and at least one million U.S. citizens who live in Mexico. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major drug trafficking routes. Nevertheless, crime and violence are serious problems. While most victims of violence are Mexican citizens associated with criminal activity, the security situation poses serious risks for U.S. citizens as well.

It is imperative that U.S. citizens understand the risks involved in travel to Mexico, how best to avoid dangerous situations, and who to contact if one becomes a victim of crime or violence. Common-sense precautions such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas during daylight hours, and avoiding areas where criminal activity might occur, can help ensure that travel to Mexico is safe and enjoyable. U.S. citizen victims of crime in Mexico are urged to contact the consular section of the nearest U.S. Consulate or Embassy for advice and assistance. Contact information is provided at the end of this message.


 

Hundreds of National Guard Troops to Be Deployed to US-Mexico Border
Yana Kunichoff - t r u t h o u t
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July 22, 2010

(Spc. Karen Kozub/The National Guard)
Hundreds of National Guard troops are expected to begin their deployment to the US-Mexico border on August 1 as part of the Obama administration's attempt to halt the flow of weapons, cash and people to El Norte.

In a joint announcement with the National Guard Bureau, the Obama administration said it will send 1,200 troops to border regions, as per an agreement made in May. The soldiers are expected to go to Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico.

The announcement of a firm date for the troop surge comes on the tail of the federal governments suit against Arizona over its anti-immigrant law SB 1070, which would allow police to question anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant, and as drug-related violence in Mexico continues unabated.

The decision to further militarize the border is a cornerstone of American policy both at home and in the region, said David Bacon, a journalist who has reported extensively on the plight of migrants in Mexico, the United States and the Philippines, along with the macro political events pushing their movement.

At home, the seemingly contradictory nature of the administration further militarizing the border while simultaneously going to court to stop a law which targets undocumented immigrants who cross the border was "simply Obama trying to cover his right flank politically."

"Will it stop people from crossing the border?" Bacon asked, of the administration's plan. "No, how could it - it doesn't deal with why people cross the border in the first place. This is the worst kind of political theater."

Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and former Arizona governor, said the troops heading to the border will be equipped with enhanced security technology like thermal-imaging binoculars and observation aircraft to focus on the area around Tucson.

Arizona will also be where the largest number of troops, 524, are deployed. Meanwhile, of the rest of the volunteer force, 224 will be sent to Texas, 224 to California and 72 to New Mexico.

In addition, 300 agents and officers from the United States Customs and Border Protection will also head to the border, according to Alan Bersin, Customs and Border Protection commissioner.

The Border Patrol, which grew from 9,000 agents in 2001 to 20,000 in 2009, costs an estimated $4 billion annually. The cost of this deployment will be shared between the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department.

These forces will be stationed along more than 670 miles of border fence, walls, spikes and bollards being constructed since 2006, at an estimated cost of $4 billion.

While the focus of border enforcement is also to stop the smuggling of drugs and other illegal substances into the United States, the conversation politically has centered on stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants. "Sealing" the border has long been a precondition for any immigration legislation considered and with immigration reform now on the table, Obama has taken up the mantle of a stronger border.

In his speech on the subject earlier this month, Obama called the state of US borders "porous" and "broken," said that controlling them was an "obligation" and a "responsibility" and noted that the nation has "more boots on the ground near the Southwest border than at any time in our history."

According to Bacon, if the administration wanted "to start picking apart border enforcement, you have to look at why people are crossing the border in the first place. Poverty in Mexico, trade agreements, structural adjustment policies we imposed through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the North American Free Trade Agreement and encouraging the Mexican government to break trade unions" while at the same time "it is virtually impossible to get a visa to the United States."

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Despite the little enforcement policies do to remedy the root causes of migration, said Bacon, they have become an essential part of any immigration bill because they are not used "not to reduce the pressure on people to migrate, but to pressure them into migrating based on corporate friendly programs."

These programs, Bacon continued, are what could be called "corporate labor supply bills. Basically, they are built around the idea that employers need immigrant labor, they should get it and they should get it at any price that they want to pay."

In addition, he said, many undocumented immigrants who would otherwise travel back and forth between Mexico and the United States think twice before doing so because the journey north again is dangerous and expensive.

A report released in 2002 by Princeton University sociologist Douglas Massey, with Jorge Durand and Nolan J. Malone, also argued that the border buildup discouraged seasonal laborers from going back home when they were not working, thus, increasing the number of people who reside without status in the United States.

Despite most political conversation to the contrary, recent reports have shown that, in the past year, undocumented immigration has declined by nearly one million, supporting the arguments of those who say that immigration depends on the economy, not on American policies or border walls.

The exact role of the National Guard troops is unclear. In a statement, Napolitano said the troops "will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the southwest border."

Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said the soldiers are "there to support the efforts of law enforcement, not to have a direct law enforcement role."

Regardless of whether the National Guard troops' work is largely administrative or assists in picking up migrants, Bacon says the one thing that they won't be doing is protecting the most vulnerable group on the border.

As the border becomes filled with people with guns, most of whom are troops, it becomes " a very dangerous place for migrants, increasing their risks of getting shot or seriously injured in the process" of crossing, Bacon said. The Border Patrol are "not there to keep woman from being raped or people from having their life savings stolen" as they run from hunger and poverty in Mexico.

The concentration of troops near city points such as Tucson "forces migrants into rural areas, so people have to walk further and further." Rather than deterring people, Bacon said, "today, the average border crossing takes several days" of walking through the desert.

Chichen itza, Bill Bell Photograph

Chichen itza, Bill Bell Photograph

Big Lies and the U.S. Immigration Debate
ernd Debusmann - Reuters
go to original
July 24, 2010
On the emotional issue of immigration, perception trumps reality and the widely-held perception is of an 'unsecured border' and a cross-border invasion by criminals rather than people in search of work and a better life.
The prize for the biggest political lie of 2009 went to Sarah Palin, the darling of the American right, for injecting fictitious "death panels" into the health reform debate. This year, fact-benders are hard at work to control the debate on another controversial topic, immigration. Competition is intense.

It comes from opponents of immigration reforms that would simultaneously offer better control of the 2,000-mile U.S-Mexico border, a new visa system, and a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, the majority Mexicans, who are already in the country. The official term for this is "comprehensive immigration reform."

But influential politicians insist there must be no reform before the border is entry-proof to illegals, and they portray the frontier as a virtual war zone, on both sides of the line.

There is Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, who is talking about the discovery of decapitated bodies on the American side of the border. There is Senator John McCain, who has said violence along the border is the worst he has ever seen. There is a letter 12 members of congress (10 Republicans, two Democrats) wrote to President Barack Obama saying border violence is increasing "at an alarming pace."

None of this stands up to factual scrutiny though perhaps none of it is quite at the toxic level of the claim Palin put on her Facebook page last year -- that the government's proposed health care reforms included setting up panels that would decide whether elderly or disabled Americans were worthy of continued health care or should be let to die.

This was entirely fictitious but it "set political debate on fire," said the Pulitzer prize-winning fact-check site Politifact.com, which rated the death panels the biggest political lie of 2009, based on a poll of 5,000 readers. The death panel canard contributed to the rapid growth of the anti-government tea party movement and threw doubt over the passage of the health reform bill. It finally passed in March, against unanimous Republican opposition.

On the emotional issue of immigration, perception trumps reality and the widely-held perception is of an "unsecured border" (McCain's phrase) and a cross-border invasion by criminals rather than people in search of work and a better life. There has been no corroboration of Governor Brewer's claim that 87 percent of illegal border crossers have prior criminal records.

The perception that the federal government has failed to fulfill its obligation to keep illegal immigrants out prompted Arizona, the main gateway for unauthorized entry, to pass its own law, the toughest in the country. It makes it a crime to be in Arizona without identifiation papers. The Obama administration says immigration is a federal prerogative, not a matter for a state to decide, and is trying to strike down the law which is scheduled to take effect on July 29.

BORDER PATROL DOUBLED IN SIZE

Early in July, in his first major speech since taking office, Obama described the present immigration system as broken, complained that reform had been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling and said that "the southern border is more secure than at any time in the past 20 years."

Statistics bear this out. Since 2001, the number of Border Patrol agents has more than doubled, from 9,000 to more than 20,000. According to FBI crime numbers, violent crimes in states along the border have dropped steadily over the past decade and are among the lowest in the country now.

That is in stark contrast with sharply escalating violence on the Mexican side of the border, where beheadings and gun battles have become routine, often within sight of the U.S. cities on the north bank of the Rio Bravo. In Ciudad Juarez, the main battle front in Mexico's drug wars, the daily death toll has been running at eight since the beginning of the year. Across the bridge, El Paso is one of the safest cities in the U.S.

Even Phoenix, Arizona's capital, counts among the safest big cities in the country, according to FBI statistics. But the perception that there are waves of violent criminals storming across the border is becoming so widespread that 78 percent of respondents in a CBS/New York Times poll last May said more should be done to keep illegal immigrants out.

Doing so has a perverse unintended consequence, according to Doris Meissner, who headed the Immigration and Naturalization Service for seven years. In an opinion piece co-signed by another former INS official, James Ziglar, she wrote in the Washington Post: "Today, our borders are more secure than ever - so those here illegally stay because re-entry is perilous."

But displays of armed force play well in American politics, which is why Obama ordered the deployment of 1,200 National Guard troops to the four states bordering Mexico. They are scheduled to arrive on August 1.

And when will the president begin to tackle comprehensive immigration reform? Campaigning for the presidency, he said he would take on the issue within his first year. That deadline is seven months past. No new timeline has been set.

(You can contact the author at Debusmann(at)Reuters.com)

Calderon Replaces Top Security Official
Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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July 15, 2010
Mexico's new Interior Minister Francisco Blake, left, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, center, and Mexico's outgoing Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, gesture during a ceremony at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 14, 2010. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)
Mexico City — Mexico's president accepted the resignation Wednesday of his top domestic security official, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont, and named a former congressman with experience in fighting drug cartels to replace him.

President Felipe Calderon praised the hands-on experience the new federal interior secretary, Jose Francisco Blake, gained serving in the same post at the state level in Baja California, a border state plagued by drug violence.

"In that position, he has played a fundamental role in confronting in a decisive way the problems of violence in that state," Calderon said of Blake, who will oversee the multi-agency national security council.

"The knowledge he has of crime, and the good relations he managed to build between the police and army in the fight against crime in Baja California, will without doubt be of great value in strengthening the fight for public safety," Calderon said.

Mexico's federal police and the army have played the leading roles in a war against drug cartels that has cost more than 22,700 lives since Calderon announced an anti-drug offensive in late 2006.

But in many regions, the army has voiced mistrust of corruption-ridden local police forces.

The Interior Department that Blake will head plays a key role in coordinating efforts between the forces and intelligence gathering. It also recently began promoting a series of social programs it said are aimed at reducing the poverty and unemployment that contribute to the drug problem.

One of the challenges facing the new interior secretary will be gaining approval for a government proposal to combine scattered, ill-equipped and poorly supervised city police forces into single, statewide forces.

Calderon praised Gomez Mont, but more for his efforts at political reforms since assuming the post in November 2008 than for any hands-on involvement in the war against drug cartels.

Gomez Mont's most famous moment in the drug war was an undignified moment in the drug-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez when a heckler slapped him in the back of the head.

Calderon suggested that Gomez, a prominent lawyer and gifted orator with little or no law enforcement experience, would return to private practice.

The leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, welcomed Gomez Mont's resignation.

In a statement, the PRD said his exit "puts an end to a period of constant confrontation between the former head of domestic policy and the opposition parties, who he always treated with disrespect."

The resignation came after a highly publicized dispute between Gomez Mont and Calderon over the advisability of forming electoral alliances with leftist parties like the PRD to prevent a predicted wave of victories by the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Gomez Mont heatedly opposed such alliances, and resigned from Calderon's conservative National Action Party in February to protest the pacts, which some party members said placed in doubt the party's ideological underpinnings.

However, the alliances helped coalition candidates wrest two important governorships from the PRI in the country's July 4th elections.

He also angered the opposition by overseeing the liquidation of a state-owned electrical power company whose militant union had been a constant thorn in the side of the government.

The new interior secretary, Blake, stressed his commitment to human rights and press freedoms, and promised "a democratic security policy, supported not only by the forces of law and order, but also by the three branches of government, and society as a whole."

"We will have to specially direct our efforts in meeting the challenges to public safety and the fight against organized crime," Blake said in accepting the post.

Gomez Mont was also hurt by the antics of his brother Miguel - the former head of the country's tourism investment fund - who was involved in an embarrassing scuffle at the soccer World Cup in June, and later resigned.

Calderon also announced the appointment of Bruno Ferrari, the former head of the country's investment promotion agency, as economy secretary, to replace Gerardo Ruiz Mateos, who will move on to become Calderon's chief-of-staff.

Ferrari said Mexico has "been promoting a responsible and profound transformation," and pledged to continue that work.

But while it has passed tax and regulatory reforms, Calderon's administration has made little headway on its biggest challenge - reforming the country's antiquated labor laws and opening the state-controlled oil sector to greater private participation.

Ferrari said he would continue to make Mexico more investment-friendly, more competitive and productive, and pledged greater economic growth and job creation, but did not say what specific reforms he would pursue in the two years left in the administration.

 

 

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Mexico May Expand 6% This Year, Catching Up With Brazil, De la Calle Says
Jonathan J. Levin - Bloomberg
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July 16, 2010

Mexico’s economy may expand 6 percent this year as domestic demand increases, said Luis de la Calle, the Mexican economist who helped negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The pace of Mexico’s economic expansion will gain on Brazil’s growth as domestic consumption picks up in the second half of the year, said de la Calle, who is now a partner at Mexico City-based business adviser De la Calle, Madrazo, Mancera SC, speaking in an interview yesterday.

The economist’s call pits him against the average forecast of 30 Mexican economists surveyed by the central bank, who expect 4.4 percent gross domestic product growth in 2010, according to the July 1 report. In the first quarter, Mexico’s GDP expanded 4.3 percent from a year earlier, compared with Brazil’s 9 percent first-quarter GDP expansion. De la Calle points out that few economists came close to accurately forecasting Mexico’s 6.5 percent plunge in GDP last year.

“Growth between Brazil and Mexico won’t be as different as people think,” de la Calle said. “Everyone that’s saying 4 percent, 4.5 percent -- they were all wrong about the contraction, too.”

Brazil’s economy, Latin America’s largest, may grow 7.1 percent this year, compared with 4.5 percent growth in Mexico, the International Monetary Fund forecast this month.

Mexico’s domestic demand has lagged behind as exports drive the recovery from last year’s contraction, the worst since the 1930s. Mexican retail sales fell 0.1 percent in April from the same month a year earlier, the country’s statistics agency said June 18. The agency will report May retail sales July 21.

The peso fell 1.3 percent to 12.9382 at 12:47 p.m. New York time from 12.7720 yesterday. The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due 2024 fell one basis point to 6.93 percent, according to Banco Santander SA. The price of the security rose to 127.89 centavos per peso.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at jlevin20(at)bloomberg.net

 

Bungled Cases Show Weakness in Mexican Judiciary
Caroline Stauffer - Reuters
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July 17, 2010

Most trials are carried out behind closed doors in an antiquated system that relies on written testimony between judges and lawyers, while 40 percent of prisoners in the country's overcrowded jails are still awaiting their day in court, some of them for years, according to rights groups.

Mexico City - An investigation into a child's disappearance is bungled, a senior politician's kidnap is unsolved and the prime U.S. suspect in a murder is allowed to slip back to California in murky circumstances.

A rash of mishandled criminal cases in recent months has exposed gaping deficiencies in Mexico's judicial system at a time when President Felipe Calderon faces his strongest challenge yet from brutal drug cartels.

Calderon, who has pinned his presidency on a war against drug gangs in which more than 26,000 people have died since late 2006, announced far-reaching reforms to the justice system more than two years ago to weed out corruption and speed up delays.

But recent gaffes by police and prosecutors in high-profile criminal cases have highlighted the festering justice system in a major emerging economy with modern financial, manufacturing, mining and telecoms industries.

Last month, the man who oversaw a botched investigation into the disappearance of 4-year-old Paulette Gebara was named attorney general of the populous State of Mexico. Police were ridiculed when they said they found the girl dead in her own bed in Mexico City a week after they had searched the entire house and launched a nationwide campaign to find her in March.

Former Senator Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, a former presidential candidate and prominent leader in the ruling National Action Party, has been missing since May 15 when his abandoned car was found near his ranch with bloodstains by it.

Despite pressure by Calderon to solve the case, authorities abandoned their investigation at the request of the family, who are believed to be using private ransom negotiators, in a further mark of broken confidence in the justice system.

Concerns at the way investigations are conducted peaked last month after Bruce Beresford-Redman, a former producer of the hit U.S. television show "Survivor," sneaked home to California under unclear circumstances despite the fact Mexican authorities had named him prime suspect in his wife's murder.

"Lack of accountability has left an injured society without answers," said Jose Ortega, president of the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Penal Justice, which helps individuals file complaints about the justice system. "People have stopped raising their voices to demand more of their government."

DELAYED REFORMS

The stakes for getting the justice system to work have never been higher for Calderon, a lawyer by profession.

Last month, a gubernatorial candidate for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was gunned down by suspected drug cartel hitmen in the northern state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico's highest profile political killing in 16 years. No arrests have been made in Rodolfo Torre's murder.

Cause in Common, a group that lobbies for justice reforms, estimates that someone is convicted for only 5 of every 100 crimes committed in Mexico. Ortega said that based on government statistics, 91.5 percent of reported crimes go unpunished.

Stories abound in Mexico of people jailed without being charged and being tortured into confessions.

Guillermo Velez was 33 and worked in a Mexico City gym when he was arrested in 2002 on suspicion of running a kidnap ring. He died the next day in jail, with authorities saying his death was due to natural causes.

Nine years on, the prosecutor involved has admitted the charges were false but Velez's father is still campaigning to defend his son. "I will keep fighting until authorities admit the agents tortured and killed my son," he told Reuters.

Intimidation, corruption, torture and plain incompetence in investigating crimes are only some of the problems in Mexico's struggling justice system.

In 2008, Calderon's administration pushed a constitutional overhaul to reform the country's archaic court system.

Most trials are carried out behind closed doors in an antiquated system that relies on written testimony between judges and lawyers, while 40 percent of prisoners in the country's overcrowded jails are still awaiting their day in court, some of them for years, according to rights groups.

The constitutional changes seek to make oral trials widespread. They also introduce the presumption of innocence, and allow authorities to detain organized crime suspects for 80 days rather than the previous 72 hours.

Implementing the changes is left to the country's states, said Martin Barron, a policing and crime prevention specialist at a government research agency, meaning there could be 32 different interpretations of oral trials in the country.

"Corruption means the system hasn't been implemented like it should be," said Maria Elena Morera of Cause in Common.

In May, Calderon called on the states to speed up implementation of the reform so that Mexicans can have "access to a transparent and expedited justice system as soon as possible." He said seven states had completed the reforms, while half of the remaining states were still implementing them.

Some skeptics say that test-bed oral trials in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most murderous city, have actually led to more intimidation in some cases, as victims and their families are put face to face with perpetrators in court. They say the reforms will only work once institutions, such as law enforcement and courts, are strengthened.

"What we want is truth, justice, peace and the right to live a normal life as Mexicans," said Ortega. "Today we don't have that."

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Kieran Murray)

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How the Sneaky Hands of the Big Banks Are Working Overtime to Rip You Off
July 17, 2010
After living through the Great Financial Crash of 2008, just about everybody recognizes that megabanks screwed the economy hard and were rewarded with big bailouts, which further screwed over, well, everybody, in the name of banker bonuses. But Big Finance has been waging its war on the middle class for decades, and many of its most destructive practices don't actually put the financial system in jeopardy. These tactics work because they are so effectively predatory. Banks gouge consumers and get rich—they don't create risks for the financial system, because they result in pure, risk-free profit, converting hard-earned middle-class wages into quick and easy bonuses.

One of the most pernicious of these predatory practices is the overdraft fee. It's one of the biggest revenue streams for banking behemoths today. In 2009, banks reaped over $38 billion in overdraft fees from their own customers, while posting a total combined profit of just $12.5 billion. Without overdrafts, many banks would have scored massive losses last year, and possibly gone under. Instead, they booked epic bonuses.

It can come as a huge shock to get hit with a rash of overdraft fees. You open a bank statement to find that you are not only broke, but deep in the hole thanks to several $30 or $40 charges. Your first reaction is shame. How could I have let this happen? But looking into the ways that banks conduct their overdrafts, you come to realize that you've simply been scammed.

"It abuses consumers and sucks money out of the economy that goes beyond any contribution to society that finance provides," says Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C. "Overdraft fees are one of the worst abuses. For people living paycheck to paycheck, they have a serious effect on their everyday lives."

Banks are actively deceiving their own customers. According to an FDIC study, 75 percent of all banks don't even tell people they've been automatically enrolled in "overdraft protection" programs. Many consumers don't even realize that their accounts are subject to these charges—they assume that anything that puts them past zero will simply be denied.

It gets much worse. Once banks realized that overdraft fees could be a real cash cow, they developed "fee-harvesting" software, which reorganizes the order of your checking transactions to maximize the number of overdraft fees for the bank. In other lines of financial business, this is called "backdating," and it's considered "fraud."

How the Scam Works

Say you've got $100 in your checking account, and you decide to pay some bills and run some errands. You spend $30 on gas and another $20 on your water bill. Later, you head to the grocery store and spend $81—oops!—on groceries. Banks, of course, could notify you that your $81 purchase was going to send you over the edge and result in an overdraft fee. They don't, because they don't want to risk that you'll deny the purchase and reject the fee.

But in addition to neglecting this safeguard, the bank automatically processes your $81 purchase ahead of your previous charges. As a result, you do not get hit with one unwanted overdraft fee for your groceries—you get hit with three, because your costliest purchase was processed before the others—even though you made the cheaper purchases first.

"Overdrafts are a classic example of a potentially useful idea where the industry ends up going totally overboard," says Raj Date, a former Deutsche Bank executive who currently heads the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy. "When you step back and ask, as a reasonable business person, would any customer want their fees to be itemized such that their fees would be maximized? No. No customer would ever want it."

This is not how banks are supposed to operate. They're supposed to fuel sustainable, healthy economic activity. That was, in fact, the rationale behind bailing them out. As President Obama said in April 2009: "The truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses."

Needless to say, that lending didn't happen. In a series of monthly reports, the U.S. Treasury Department noted that bank lending to small businesses fell dramatically from April 2009 through January 2010. After months of bad stats, Treasury simply stopped keeping track of the numbers altogether. The FDIC still tracks those numbers, and they don't look good. As Shahien Nasiripour has noted, the latest figures show small business lending down 4 percent from last year's already dismal levels, putting it lower even than early 2009, before the stimulus package kicked in.

Instead of supporting the economy, banks are making their money with cheap-shot fees, risky proprietary trading and secretive derivatives deals. It's worked, in a sense. By "earning" their way back to health, the nation's largest banks are at a much lower risk of collapse now than when Obama took office. But those earnings have not been good for the economy, as we were promised they would be.

"It's not good from a societal sense, but from a banking industry perspective, it's just a recognition of reality," says banking analyst Nancy Bush of NAB Research. Bush is a Wall Street veteran who supports overdraft programs, but acknowledges they indicate economic trouble. Banks have discovered a way to make money off of people without any money. When everybody's broke, that's a much less risky enterprise than lending to businesses that could use the funds to create jobs, but might default due to bad economic conditions. Banking analysts like Bush are charged with holding management teams accountable to their shareholders, and these fees are good for profits, which mean shareholders are getting what they want.

But this is the exact opposite of what anybody but a shareholder would want a bank to be doing. We don't want banks to be kicking society when it's down, we want banks to be helping us get back on our feet.

Setting The Banks Straight

Agencies have been voicing concerns about overdraft fees for years. The FDIC published a damning study on the practice in 2008, and the Federal Reserve began issuing warnings to the banking industry about unfair overdraft programs in 2004. But up until 2004, overdrafts were generally viewed as a form of short-term credit—the bank is basically lending the consumer money that is paid back with interest. But the interest rates are so egregiously predatory—the average overdraft fee amounts to 1,067 to 3,520 percent (PDF), according to the FDIC - that they simply would not be tolerated if regulators had to think of them as loans.

So the banking lobby scored a tremendous coup in 2004 when it convinced the Fed that these were not "loans" but "fees," and therefore not subject to traditional consumer protections. The Fed warned that banks needed to change their marketing so that consumers wouldn't think of overdrafts as loans, but didn't require any changes in the way the programs actually operated.

Even this reclassification scheme wasn't enough for Wall Street, which managed to violate even the much weaker consumer protection rules on fees 335 times a year, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO also found that consumers who went to an actual bank branch were unlikely to be able to obtain information about basic overdraft terms and conditions, much less comprehensive information about how their checking accounts could be gamed.

The Fed is offering another weak response to the overdraft insanity today. By mid-August, the Fed will require consumers to "opt-in" to overdraft programs, instead of being automatically enrolled without their consent. It's a step forward that will likely limit some of the overdraft profits banks currently enjoy. But it will not require that the programs be fundamentally changed. It will not cap the amount of the fees charged, or the number of fees charged, nor will it require consumers to be notified when a purchase or withdrawal will result in a fee. Banks will take a modest hit from the new rules as consumers choose to back out of the program—but the fundamentally obscene business model will remain.

A more promising development comes from the Wall Street reform bill. A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will take over nearly all of the consumer protection rules currently written and enforced by the Fed and the OCC (Rep. Miller was instrumental in getting strong consumer protection through the House). An aggressive director could write strong rules prohibiting abuses, so there is a great deal riding - $38 billion a year, in fact- on who President Obama appoints to the post. Right now the front-runner is Harvard University Law School professor Elizabeth Warren. Warren came up with the idea for a CFPB years ago, and has proven herself to be a strong reformist voice of reason as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She deserves the post.

But without strong leadership, the banking swindles will continue. If recent history is any guide, there are few others in Washington, D.C. willing to take a stand for citizens when the banking industry comes to pillage our pocketbooks.

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