Bloomberg
By Nacha Cattan and Eric Martin
October 3, 2013
Mexico City police blocked the entrance to the stock exchange yesterday as thousands rallied on the main business boulevard and clashed with officers to protest President Enrique Pena Nieto’s economic agenda.
Police said about 30,000 students, teachers and supporters closed off the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, with hundreds outside the Bolsa Mexicana (BOLSAA) and U.S. Embassy. Officers clad in riot gear used fire extinguishers and tear gas to defend themselves against protesters attacking with sticks, rocks and Molotov cocktails in the capital’s historic center. Thirty two officers were injured and 102 protesters detained, Mexico City police said in a statement. 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.
Oct 4, 2013
Protesters clash with police in Mexico City
Hurriyet Daily News
Mexico City - Agence France-Presse
Protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City on Wednesday, leaving dozens injured as thousands of people marched to mark the anniversary of a massacre of students in 1968.
The Red Cross said at least 51 people were injured as a group of masked protesters threw rocks and firebombs at police who used tear gas and threw stones back at them.
The city's public security department said 32 officers were injured by mostly masked and "self-declared anarchists." At least 97 people were detained. Read more.
Mexico City - Agence France-Presse
Protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City on Wednesday, leaving dozens injured as thousands of people marched to mark the anniversary of a massacre of students in 1968.
The Red Cross said at least 51 people were injured as a group of masked protesters threw rocks and firebombs at police who used tear gas and threw stones back at them.
The city's public security department said 32 officers were injured by mostly masked and "self-declared anarchists." At least 97 people were detained. Read more.
Women teachers in Mexico protest new restrictive education law
Womens News Network
Katherine Ronderos
October 3, 2013
Excluded from the debate on educational reform, women teachers in Mexico, who represent more than 96 percent of teachers in preschool, 66 percent in basic education and 51 percent in secondary school, are protesting against a new law that will affect them negatively, especially those working in rural and indigenous communities.
Mainly women teachers in the states of Veracruz, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas (Mexico) went on strike while more than 30,000 teachers from some of the country’s poorest states moved into Mexico City and set up camp in the Zócalo, the city center, for three weeks in September. They are protesting en masse after the government pushed through “secondary” laws aimed at reforming the Education Act, in particular aspects related to teachers’ careers. They are demanding that the government moderate its education reforms. Read more.
Katherine Ronderos
October 3, 2013
Excluded from the debate on educational reform, women teachers in Mexico, who represent more than 96 percent of teachers in preschool, 66 percent in basic education and 51 percent in secondary school, are protesting against a new law that will affect them negatively, especially those working in rural and indigenous communities.
Mainly women teachers in the states of Veracruz, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas (Mexico) went on strike while more than 30,000 teachers from some of the country’s poorest states moved into Mexico City and set up camp in the Zócalo, the city center, for three weeks in September. They are protesting en masse after the government pushed through “secondary” laws aimed at reforming the Education Act, in particular aspects related to teachers’ careers. They are demanding that the government moderate its education reforms. Read more.
Mexico Kidnappings Top 105,000 In 2012, But Few Reported
Huffington Post
October 3, 2013
The most frequently cited statistic to illustrate the extent of Mexico’s problem with organized crime is the 70,000 people killed since ex-President Felipe Calderón launched his frontal assault on the country’s drug cartels. Here comes a new one.
Mexico saw 105,628 kidnappings last year, according to a survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, a government agency. The statistics didn’t show much faith in law enforcement to address the problem -- only 1,317 cases were reported to police. Read more.
October 3, 2013
The most frequently cited statistic to illustrate the extent of Mexico’s problem with organized crime is the 70,000 people killed since ex-President Felipe Calderón launched his frontal assault on the country’s drug cartels. Here comes a new one.
Mexico saw 105,628 kidnappings last year, according to a survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, a government agency. The statistics didn’t show much faith in law enforcement to address the problem -- only 1,317 cases were reported to police. Read more.
Sep 30, 2013
OAS proposes decriminalizing marijuana use in the region
September 28, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation
The secretary general of the Organization of American States
(OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said yesterday in the Senate that the strategy to
combat drug trafficking in the region has been wrong because it has focused solely
on the repression of the supply of narcotics and not on attacking the economic
power of the drug cartels, which has become increasingly violent.
He called for decriminalization of marijuana, and warned
that focusing efforts only on the sale of drugs, without taking institutional
actions aimed at tackling the financial structures and money laundering will lead
to “a war without end”.
In the forum “From Prohibition to Regulation: New Approaches
to Drug Policy” Insulza said that according to a report by experts from the OAS,
the drug trade generates 154 billion dollars a year, of which 77 billion is
laundered in the global financial system.
Also in the Senate but in another forum, Undersecretary of
Prevention and Citizen Participation of the Ministry of the Interior, Roberto
Campa said that despite the intense debate in the U.S. on the decriminalization
of drugs like marijuana, the violence that the drug trade generates will not change
radically in the region in the coming years.
Sep 10, 2013
'Not a Single Soldier, Not a Single Peso' for Syrian Misadventure!
La Jornada
By Guillermo Almeyra
Translated By Seren Moore for WorldMeets
September 10, 2013
The United States and the former colonial powers are preparing to attack Syria militarily. However, as in the war against Serbia, the real targets are in fact elsewhere. In this case, Russia again, the great power in crisis, possessor of gas and oil in the north; and Iran, the socio-political threat to Israel and the Gulf monarchies, and the key to Persian oil. It would be a blow to these countries, and to China, which defends Iran and Syria and fundamentally agrees with Russia. All of of these nations see this as a prelude to an attack on Venezuela (protected by them and by virtue of its vast oil reserves).
The war they are about to launch against Syria seeks, ultimately, to return to square one the open process of decolonization that began after World War II, install the imperial vassal Israel as the only power in the region, and defeat the process of democratization in the Arab world. Above all, this is a typical response of capitalism to a long economic crisis that appears without end: international financial capital expects, as it has in the past, to break the deadlock with a great war that will destroy property, deprive millions of people of their lives, and create a situation requiring massive reconstruction under conditions of global servitude and enslavement. Read more.
By Guillermo Almeyra
Translated By Seren Moore for WorldMeets
September 10, 2013
The United States and the former colonial powers are preparing to attack Syria militarily. However, as in the war against Serbia, the real targets are in fact elsewhere. In this case, Russia again, the great power in crisis, possessor of gas and oil in the north; and Iran, the socio-political threat to Israel and the Gulf monarchies, and the key to Persian oil. It would be a blow to these countries, and to China, which defends Iran and Syria and fundamentally agrees with Russia. All of of these nations see this as a prelude to an attack on Venezuela (protected by them and by virtue of its vast oil reserves).
The war they are about to launch against Syria seeks, ultimately, to return to square one the open process of decolonization that began after World War II, install the imperial vassal Israel as the only power in the region, and defeat the process of democratization in the Arab world. Above all, this is a typical response of capitalism to a long economic crisis that appears without end: international financial capital expects, as it has in the past, to break the deadlock with a great war that will destroy property, deprive millions of people of their lives, and create a situation requiring massive reconstruction under conditions of global servitude and enslavement. Read more.
Sep 8, 2013
Will Syria Crisis Stifle Immigration Reform?
Frontera NorteSur
Immigration News
September 7, 2013
As the political crisis and debate intensify over Syria, immigrant advocates fear the issue of possible U.S. military action will delay comprehensive immigration reform in Washington.
At a Labor Day march this past week, Eric Garcetti, the new mayor of Los Angeles, said Syria could become a “distraction” for immigration reform. The leader of the nation’s second largest city contended that action on immigration legislation should be the top national priority at the moment.
On Capitol Hill, the looming vote on President Obama’s push for U.S. military action could make Republicans in particular even more skittish about tackling the controversial issue of immigration reform, according to a Republican political consultant.
“(Syria) is going to be a difficult vote, and I really doubt that they would want to take two difficult votes, especially if the second one is about immigration,” said consultant David Johnson. Although a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate earlier this year, corresponding action failed to gain traction in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
If a legislative delay on immigration reform emerges as one effect of the Syria crisis, it will be the third time in a dozen years that pending action was put on the political back-burner. In 2001, a movement in such a direction by U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox was derailed by the 9-11 attacks. Eight years later, as the Great Recession deepened, campaign promises of immigration reform by newly-elected President Barack Obama took a back seat to health insurance reform and other issues.
Besides Syria, the politically thorny matter of the debt ceiling could complicate prospects for an immigration overhaul in the weeks and months ahead. Beltway talk is growing of a postponement of immigration reform until 2015 or even 2017, well after the next congressional and presidential elections.
Despite the sudden appearance of a new round of adverse political circumstances, immigrant rights activists in California, New Mexico and elsewhere are stepping up their mobilizations for a national legislative reform.
Building on an intense summer of activities at both the national and grassroots levels, immigrant advocacy and labor organizations have announced plans for demonstrationsOctober 5 in at least 60 U.S. cities.
Dubbed the “National Day of Dignity and Respect,” the protests are being organized to demand the passage of comprehensive immigration reform, a halt to deportations, and an end to the militarization of the border with Mexico. Activists then plan to congregate for a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C. on October 8.
“We are not going to do this like in other years, and say, well, other things take priority,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Los Angeles Immigrant Rights Coalition. “No, this time a lot has been given to bleeding, marching and voting, to not allow (immigration reform) happen.”
Sources: Noticiero Latino, September 6, 2013. Story by Jose Lopez Zambrano. Nortedigital.com/El Universal, September 6, 2013. La Opinion, September 5, 2013. Article by Pilar Marrero. Univision, September 2, 2013.
Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Immigration News
September 7, 2013
As the political crisis and debate intensify over Syria, immigrant advocates fear the issue of possible U.S. military action will delay comprehensive immigration reform in Washington.
At a Labor Day march this past week, Eric Garcetti, the new mayor of Los Angeles, said Syria could become a “distraction” for immigration reform. The leader of the nation’s second largest city contended that action on immigration legislation should be the top national priority at the moment.
On Capitol Hill, the looming vote on President Obama’s push for U.S. military action could make Republicans in particular even more skittish about tackling the controversial issue of immigration reform, according to a Republican political consultant.
“(Syria) is going to be a difficult vote, and I really doubt that they would want to take two difficult votes, especially if the second one is about immigration,” said consultant David Johnson. Although a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate earlier this year, corresponding action failed to gain traction in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
If a legislative delay on immigration reform emerges as one effect of the Syria crisis, it will be the third time in a dozen years that pending action was put on the political back-burner. In 2001, a movement in such a direction by U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox was derailed by the 9-11 attacks. Eight years later, as the Great Recession deepened, campaign promises of immigration reform by newly-elected President Barack Obama took a back seat to health insurance reform and other issues.
Besides Syria, the politically thorny matter of the debt ceiling could complicate prospects for an immigration overhaul in the weeks and months ahead. Beltway talk is growing of a postponement of immigration reform until 2015 or even 2017, well after the next congressional and presidential elections.
Despite the sudden appearance of a new round of adverse political circumstances, immigrant rights activists in California, New Mexico and elsewhere are stepping up their mobilizations for a national legislative reform.
Building on an intense summer of activities at both the national and grassroots levels, immigrant advocacy and labor organizations have announced plans for demonstrationsOctober 5 in at least 60 U.S. cities.
Dubbed the “National Day of Dignity and Respect,” the protests are being organized to demand the passage of comprehensive immigration reform, a halt to deportations, and an end to the militarization of the border with Mexico. Activists then plan to congregate for a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C. on October 8.
“We are not going to do this like in other years, and say, well, other things take priority,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Los Angeles Immigrant Rights Coalition. “No, this time a lot has been given to bleeding, marching and voting, to not allow (immigration reform) happen.”
Sources: Noticiero Latino, September 6, 2013. Story by Jose Lopez Zambrano. Nortedigital.com/El Universal, September 6, 2013. La Opinion, September 5, 2013. Article by Pilar Marrero. Univision, September 2, 2013.
Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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