Los Angeles Times
By Richard Fausset,
January 29, 2013
MEXICO CITY — Here is what you probably won't see in the coming weeks as the U.S. Congress debates a sweeping immigration overhaul: Mexico becoming involved.
Though the United States' southern neighbor is the country with the most at stake as Washington considers changing its policy toward illegal immigrants, Mexican diplomats and government officials are expected to keep a low profile to avoid the appearance of meddling in U.S. affairs and to minimize any potential backlash among conservatives in the States.
Mexican President Enrique "Peña Nieto, and the foreign minister and our new ambassador have all more or less said the same thing about Mexico's role in this, and the message is, 'We're interested, and we'll help if you think we can, but we're not going to take an active role,'" said Andres Rozental, a Mexico City consultant and former deputy foreign minister. 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 28, 2013
'Sick And Tired,' Residents In Southern Mexico Defend Themselves
NPR by CARRIE KAHN
January 27, 2013
On the main road into the Mexican town of Ayutla, about 75 miles southeast of Acapulco, about a dozen men cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner. Their faces are covered in black ski masks.
The men are part of a network of self-defense brigades, formed in the southern state of Guerrero to combat the drug traffickers and organized crime gangs that terrorize residents.
The brigades have set up roadblocks, arrested suspects and are set on running the criminals out of town.
Taking Control
They go over patrol shifts schedules, handwritten on wrinkled papers, and communicate with other checkpoints in town via walkie-talkies. One man, who wouldn't give his name but identified himself as a "lower commander," said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms. Read more.
January 27, 2013
On the main road into the Mexican town of Ayutla, about 75 miles southeast of Acapulco, about a dozen men cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner. Their faces are covered in black ski masks.
The men are part of a network of self-defense brigades, formed in the southern state of Guerrero to combat the drug traffickers and organized crime gangs that terrorize residents.
The brigades have set up roadblocks, arrested suspects and are set on running the criminals out of town.
Taking Control
They go over patrol shifts schedules, handwritten on wrinkled papers, and communicate with other checkpoints in town via walkie-talkies. One man, who wouldn't give his name but identified himself as a "lower commander," said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms. Read more.
Jan 27, 2013
Mexico corn imports increased 400% in a decade - La Jornada
La Jornada – Americas Program Original Translation
Mexico City
January 26, 2013
The country is increasingly dependent on food supplies from abroad, according to official figures
In just a decade, Mexico’s corn imports, grain that is at the base of the food pyramid in the country, increased fourfold, reaching in the last year a figure of $ 2.878 million dollars, about 37.400 million pesos, revealed the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
The country is increasingly dependent on food supply from outside. The imports of agricultural products, from cattle to dairy to fruits and grain seeds, rose to $ 12.330 million dollars last year, an amount that was more than twice the value of purchases made abroad 10 years ago, according to the organization.
This Friday, INEGI reported that in 2012, the balance of foreign trade in Mexico - the difference between total exports and imports of the country - showed a surplus of $ 163 million. In 2011, the balance was a deficit of $ 468 million thousand.
While the total foreign trade balance is maintained with a slight surplus, food imports have continued to grow, in a country where one in five of the population lives in the countryside.
Mexico City
January 26, 2013
The country is increasingly dependent on food supplies from abroad, according to official figures
In just a decade, Mexico’s corn imports, grain that is at the base of the food pyramid in the country, increased fourfold, reaching in the last year a figure of $ 2.878 million dollars, about 37.400 million pesos, revealed the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
The country is increasingly dependent on food supply from outside. The imports of agricultural products, from cattle to dairy to fruits and grain seeds, rose to $ 12.330 million dollars last year, an amount that was more than twice the value of purchases made abroad 10 years ago, according to the organization.
This Friday, INEGI reported that in 2012, the balance of foreign trade in Mexico - the difference between total exports and imports of the country - showed a surplus of $ 163 million. In 2011, the balance was a deficit of $ 468 million thousand.
While the total foreign trade balance is maintained with a slight surplus, food imports have continued to grow, in a country where one in five of the population lives in the countryside.
Drug war rages on the edge of Mexico City
Global Post
By Dudley Althaus
January 26, 2013
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — For all the murderous mayhem that has haunted Mexico in recent years, its capital city has remained essentially untouched.
Large cities like Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez have become synonymous with brutal drug war killings, while Mexico City's nearly 9 million residents have been largely spared.
But recent carnage in Mexico state, enveloping the capital like a folded tortilla, has many worried that's about to change.
Gangland slaughter on the fringes of Mexico's capital has claimed some 60 lives in 10 days, mocking President Enrique Pena Nieto's promise to reduce violence with better local law enforcement.
In response, federal and state officials have beefed up army patrols in the state's largest cities, hard on the capital's borders — and people are taking note. Read more.
By Dudley Althaus
January 26, 2013
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — For all the murderous mayhem that has haunted Mexico in recent years, its capital city has remained essentially untouched.
Large cities like Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez have become synonymous with brutal drug war killings, while Mexico City's nearly 9 million residents have been largely spared.
But recent carnage in Mexico state, enveloping the capital like a folded tortilla, has many worried that's about to change.
Gangland slaughter on the fringes of Mexico's capital has claimed some 60 lives in 10 days, mocking President Enrique Pena Nieto's promise to reduce violence with better local law enforcement.
In response, federal and state officials have beefed up army patrols in the state's largest cities, hard on the capital's borders — and people are taking note. Read more.
Jan 25, 2013
Canada-Mexico Guest Worker Program Touted as Model for U.S. To Replicate
Fox News Latino
January 25, 2013
As the country's leaders gear up once again to overhaul the immigration system, a heated debate is expected on the creation of a guest worker program allowing future temporary immigrants to come legally.
Politicians will take up various versions. Some say all they need to do is look north for an ideal model.
Canada has had a guest worker program with Mexico since 1974. Though it’s not without critics, it’s generally hailed as well organized and worthy of being replicated.
The process starts with Mexico screening potential workers on their education, health and skills. To ensure that they don’t overstay their employment visa, the Canadian government takes out part of the workers’ pay and puts it into a special fund — workers get the money when they return to Mexico.
Canada also requires that approximately 16,000 yearly recruits be married — but only they, not their spouses and children, can travel to Canada.
On some level, say those in industries that use foreign labor, Canada’s program should not be difficult to duplicate in the United States. But an important hurdle to its smooth implementation, they say, is the bitterly divisive nature of the ever-thorny immigration debate — it has become so politicized that there’s little to no room for compromise. Read more.
Refuting Monsanto's lies - UNORCA
National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations (UNORCA AC)
Americas Program Original Translation
Olegario Carrillo, the national leader of the National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations (UNORCA) initiated the second day of the encampment – a collective fasting in protest of the planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, camped out at the Angel of Independence in Mexico City – by refuting the lies propagated by Monsanto. The federal government could validate these lies if it approves permits for the commercial planting of more than one million hectares of GM maize in Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, as requested by Monsanto and other transnational seed companies.
1. Transgenic seeds have higher yields than conventional crops. FALSE.
Based on the records of thirteen years of GM crops in the U.S. it can be said that GMO crops have not increased yields. The yields of corn and soybeans (principal GMO crops) increased significantly during the last 15 years but the cause was not the use of transgenic seeds, but conventional breeding and other practices such as agroecology [i].
2. Transgenic seeds require fewer pesticides. FALSE.
Between 1996 and 2008 we used an additional 144 million kilos of pesticides that would have been used in the absence of GMO crops. This represents an average increase of 356 grams of pesticide per hectare planted with GMO seeds. The use of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops or RR increased by 31% between 2007 and 2008 due to the rapid expansion of herbicide resistant weeds and superweeds, virtually unknown before [ii].
Americas Program Original Translation
Olegario Carrillo, the national leader of the National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations (UNORCA) initiated the second day of the encampment – a collective fasting in protest of the planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, camped out at the Angel of Independence in Mexico City – by refuting the lies propagated by Monsanto. The federal government could validate these lies if it approves permits for the commercial planting of more than one million hectares of GM maize in Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, as requested by Monsanto and other transnational seed companies.
1. Transgenic seeds have higher yields than conventional crops. FALSE.
Based on the records of thirteen years of GM crops in the U.S. it can be said that GMO crops have not increased yields. The yields of corn and soybeans (principal GMO crops) increased significantly during the last 15 years but the cause was not the use of transgenic seeds, but conventional breeding and other practices such as agroecology [i].
2. Transgenic seeds require fewer pesticides. FALSE.
Between 1996 and 2008 we used an additional 144 million kilos of pesticides that would have been used in the absence of GMO crops. This represents an average increase of 356 grams of pesticide per hectare planted with GMO seeds. The use of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops or RR increased by 31% between 2007 and 2008 due to the rapid expansion of herbicide resistant weeds and superweeds, virtually unknown before [ii].
Mexico election council finds ruling party used $5.2 million in cash cards
The Washington Post
Updated: Thursday, January 24, 6:22 PM
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute has confirmed that President Enrique Pena Nieto’s party spent about $5.2 million through electronic cash cards during last year’s presidential campaign.
While opposition parties had charged the money represented illicit campaign financing, the institute said it found no evidence of that.
Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party has said the money was used for normal party personnel expenses, but the funds aroused suspicion, because the money appeared to have been triangulated through several shadowy companies instead of being disbursed directly from party coffers. Opponents also said they suspected that corporations may have used the cards to make campaign donations, something that is prohibited under Mexican law. Read more.
Updated: Thursday, January 24, 6:22 PM
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute has confirmed that President Enrique Pena Nieto’s party spent about $5.2 million through electronic cash cards during last year’s presidential campaign.
While opposition parties had charged the money represented illicit campaign financing, the institute said it found no evidence of that.
Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party has said the money was used for normal party personnel expenses, but the funds aroused suspicion, because the money appeared to have been triangulated through several shadowy companies instead of being disbursed directly from party coffers. Opponents also said they suspected that corporations may have used the cards to make campaign donations, something that is prohibited under Mexican law. Read more.
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