ABC/Univision
Get ready for the very first "unmanned" border station on the U.S.-Mexico border. Slated to open at the end of this month, the Big Bend National Park in Texas will be staffed by, you guessed it, computers.
The station will be equipped with machines that can scan citizenship documents and conduct live video interviews with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at a station in El Paso, Texas, Tech News Daily reports. While Mexican citizens will be able to use the crossing, U.S. officials maintain that Americans tourists to the national park are more likely to do so. When a similar CBP crossing was open in the same location more than a decade ago, few Mexicans used it. In 2002, because of increased security measures, U.S. officials closed the original crossing, forcing tourists to travel more than 100 miles to the next nearest crossing to get to Mexico, according to Nextgov.
For anyone worried about the effectiveness of an unmanned station, federal officials maintain that the technology is both effective and cost-efficient, given the number of border crossers in the area. Natural barriers, such as the Rio Grande river, already make illegal crossings more difficult in the region than in other segments of the border, Nextgov reports. Cameras and surveillance tools will be set up in the vicinity, like at any other border station and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials will also be able to travel from the El Paso station should the need arise. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.
Jan 3, 2013
US & Mexico Plan for New Border Inspection Station in Tijuana
Fox News Latino
January 03, 2013
Commercial shipments crossing the Mexican border with the United States will have now have a new layer of screening before they can enter the country thanks to the announcement of a planned customs inspections station in Tijuana that will for the first time ever permit U.S. agents to screen loads before they cross into the U.S.
Funded by the Mexican federal government, the facility will operate on the same compound as the busy Otay Mesa border crossing and will have U.S. and Mexican officials operating in the same facility. This idea of the building is to speed up the process for which certain goods – namely produce – cross the border.
The site supposedly has a laboratory, rooms for cold storage and state-of-the-art inspection equipment and U.S. officials would enter the compound from a secure road on the U.S. side of the border. The site will officially be opened once U.S. President Barack Obama and newly-inaugurated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto give the joint go-ahead. Read more.
January 03, 2013
Commercial shipments crossing the Mexican border with the United States will have now have a new layer of screening before they can enter the country thanks to the announcement of a planned customs inspections station in Tijuana that will for the first time ever permit U.S. agents to screen loads before they cross into the U.S.
Funded by the Mexican federal government, the facility will operate on the same compound as the busy Otay Mesa border crossing and will have U.S. and Mexican officials operating in the same facility. This idea of the building is to speed up the process for which certain goods – namely produce – cross the border.
The site supposedly has a laboratory, rooms for cold storage and state-of-the-art inspection equipment and U.S. officials would enter the compound from a secure road on the U.S. side of the border. The site will officially be opened once U.S. President Barack Obama and newly-inaugurated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto give the joint go-ahead. Read more.
In crime-toughened Mexico City, cash-for-weapons exchange extended
Los Angeles Times
By Daniel Hernandez
January 3, 2013.
MEXICO CITY -- Promised that no questions would be asked, they've brought in handguns, pistols, rifles, grenades, bullets, and dozens of gun replicas that may or may not have been used to spook a robbery victim.
Hundreds of people have turned in nearly a thousand weapons and at least one grenade-launcher in nine days in exchange for gifts and cash -- as well as anonymity -- in a holiday pilot program that has exceeded government expectations in Mexico's populous capital.
The program, "For Your Family, Voluntary Disarming," was launched at the historic Santuario de la Cuevita church in the crime-toughened borough of Iztapalapa on Christmas Eve, with promises of tablet computers and bicycles for handing over any firearms.
By Dec. 31, when the pilot was supposed to end, about 900 weapons had been turned in, said Rodolfo Rivera, the Mexico City police department official in charge of the program. His team restarted the exchange on Wednesday. Read more.
By Daniel Hernandez
January 3, 2013.
MEXICO CITY -- Promised that no questions would be asked, they've brought in handguns, pistols, rifles, grenades, bullets, and dozens of gun replicas that may or may not have been used to spook a robbery victim.
Hundreds of people have turned in nearly a thousand weapons and at least one grenade-launcher in nine days in exchange for gifts and cash -- as well as anonymity -- in a holiday pilot program that has exceeded government expectations in Mexico's populous capital.
The program, "For Your Family, Voluntary Disarming," was launched at the historic Santuario de la Cuevita church in the crime-toughened borough of Iztapalapa on Christmas Eve, with promises of tablet computers and bicycles for handing over any firearms.
By Dec. 31, when the pilot was supposed to end, about 900 weapons had been turned in, said Rodolfo Rivera, the Mexico City police department official in charge of the program. His team restarted the exchange on Wednesday. Read more.
Jan 2, 2013
Mexico's President Alters Tactics Against Drug Crimes
NPR, by Carrie Kahn
Mexico's new attorney general says there are now 60 to 80 drug cartels operating in the country, a sharp rise from the 10 that existed when outgoing President Calderon took office in 2006. President Enrique Pena Nieto says he wants to go after crime associated with drug trafficking instead of taking down crime bosses. Listen to the story.
Mexico's new attorney general says there are now 60 to 80 drug cartels operating in the country, a sharp rise from the 10 that existed when outgoing President Calderon took office in 2006. President Enrique Pena Nieto says he wants to go after crime associated with drug trafficking instead of taking down crime bosses. Listen to the story.
Mexico Drug-Related Deaths Rose to 12,394 in 2012, Milenio Says
Bloomberg: Killings related to drug violence in Mexico climbed 0.9 percent in 2012 from the year before, newspaper Milenio reported today on its website.
Last year’s death toll of 12,394 pushed the number of killings in the past six years to more than 54,000, according to the Mexico City-based daily. The deadliest year was 2010 with 12,658 deaths.
There were 982 deaths in December, President Enrique Pena Nieto’s first month in office, 33 more than in the previous month, Milenio said. Two states bordering the U.S. had the highest death tolls in December: 122 in Chihuahua and 105 in Coahuila.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brendan Case in Mexico City at bcase4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jose Enrique Arrioja at jarrioja@bloomberg.net.
Read Milenio article.
Last year’s death toll of 12,394 pushed the number of killings in the past six years to more than 54,000, according to the Mexico City-based daily. The deadliest year was 2010 with 12,658 deaths.
There were 982 deaths in December, President Enrique Pena Nieto’s first month in office, 33 more than in the previous month, Milenio said. Two states bordering the U.S. had the highest death tolls in December: 122 in Chihuahua and 105 in Coahuila.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brendan Case in Mexico City at bcase4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jose Enrique Arrioja at jarrioja@bloomberg.net.
Read Milenio article.
Dec 26, 2012
Swapping guns for cash in Mexico City
Al Jazeera
Mexico City uses new approach to combat violence a month after a 10-year-old boy was killed in a movie theatre.
Mexico City uses new approach to combat violence a month after a 10-year-old boy was killed in a movie theatre.
Mexico City is offering cash and computers in exchange for guns to help combat violence.
This voluntary disarmament programme comes a month after a 10-year boy was killed by a stray bullet inside a movie theatre.
The exchange point is in Iztapalapa, a borough of the Mexican capital where youth crime is among the highest.
Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner buys the weapon from a special government run shop.
The voluntary disarmament program has been met with mixed feelings. Read more.
Dec 22, 2012
Newtown: Gun 'Barbarism' that Cannot be Removed by Legislation
Mexico – La Jornada
Translated By Miguel Gutierrez for WorldsMeets.us
December 15, 2012
Few single episodes of violence have shaken both the society of the United States and international public opinion like the slaughter that occurred yesterday at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where a man opened fire indiscriminately, killing 26 people - including 20 children aged five to ten before killing himself.
Without ignoring that this episode is part of a long series of shootings in schools, workplaces and public places in the country - such as the infamous massacre at Columbine High School in April 1999, which left 15 people dead; the murder of 33 students at Virginia Tech at the hands of one of its students in April 2007; and the recent slaughter at a Colorado cinema that saw 12 people fatally shot - and without overlooking that fact that any homicide is reprehensible - the chilling effect of the school attack in Sandy Hook is multiplied because most of the victims were from the most vulnerable and sensitive segment of any society: its children. Needless to say, none of the toddlers who were murdered represented threats to the "free State," in the language in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is used to justify the unrestricted possession of weapons in the country - much less to the aggressor himself.
Yesterday, offering the official position of the White House, a visibly distraught President Barack Obama said: "And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this." Read more.
Translated By Miguel Gutierrez for WorldsMeets.us
December 15, 2012
Without ignoring that this episode is part of a long series of shootings in schools, workplaces and public places in the country - such as the infamous massacre at Columbine High School in April 1999, which left 15 people dead; the murder of 33 students at Virginia Tech at the hands of one of its students in April 2007; and the recent slaughter at a Colorado cinema that saw 12 people fatally shot - and without overlooking that fact that any homicide is reprehensible - the chilling effect of the school attack in Sandy Hook is multiplied because most of the victims were from the most vulnerable and sensitive segment of any society: its children. Needless to say, none of the toddlers who were murdered represented threats to the "free State," in the language in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is used to justify the unrestricted possession of weapons in the country - much less to the aggressor himself.
Yesterday, offering the official position of the White House, a visibly distraught President Barack Obama said: "And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this." Read more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)