Mexico Journalists Sign Narco-Violence Coverage Pact

What is it that they say about strength and numbers?
40 Mexican media groups that represent more than 700 newspapers, television and radio stations gathered for what looked like a very formal ceremony yesterday to sign an agreement to a set of guidelines concerning their coverage of “criminal violence” in Mexico.
This is unprecedented in two ways. First, it had never been done before because, frankly, it was never needed in the past. And second, it flies in the face of the intimidation, threats and murder that journalists and communications professionals in general have been subject to.
While drug wars rage across Mexico little if anything has been reported in the Mexican media for fear of extreme reprisals – even government officials have been reluctant to admit to the drug cartel siege of many Mexican cities (but that in itself is not so hard to believe). This compact could be a watershed, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that coverage of the drug wars will change.

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Posted by Sylvia Lopez

Mexico protects Human Rights

By Ricardo Alday We cannot agree more with you editorial on Friday "Mexico needs to be a Priority," in that no other bilateral relationship is more important for the scrutiny and prosperity of the United States than the one with Mexico. To read more, click here Posted by Diana Rosendo

The Drug Wars Are Not What They Used To Be.

I remember the day they shot Cuco Reyes Pruneda. Or at least I remember the headlines that Sunday morning. I was on my way to buy Sunday morning barbacoa at a place around the corner from our house in downtown Nuevo Laredo; I must have been ten or eleven years old, plotting in my head how I would manage to scrounge the ojo, my favorite part, from everyone else at the table. The headline was atop a stack of still bundled newspapers -el Correo, el Diario, el Ciuidadano, el Mañana-I don’t remember which. “El Cuco Acribillado,” it read in bold, red letters. There was no need for more description, everyone in town knew who el Cuco was. His family, the Reyes-Martinez clan, was waging a war, defending their “plaza” over control of the drug smuggling routes against a Texan named Fred Gomez Carrazco. This was a bold hit and even a 10 year old understood the ramifications. Those were different times, though. The city wasn’t under siege. The criminals killed each other, but they had the decency to have their shootouts in some remote part of the rural edges of the city. Town folk were only witness to headlines and very graphic pictures of the aftermath. Cuco was killed by cops avenging the death of two of their own, it’s said that American agents helped spring the trap that killed him. Things are much different now in my childhood home. The drug war has spread into the streets and into people’s homes. I have family and friends who have fled across the border, into Laredo, Texas, for safety and I haven’t been to visit my old haunts in years. It’s gotten that bad.

for more, click here

[posted by Sylvia Lopez]

Juarez Police Officer Denied U.S. Asylum

Jose Alarcon, 27, was a cop in one of the world’s most lawless cities. Wounded in a gun battle with drug gangs in Juarez in 2008, he survived only to see his partner killed in another gunfight. When Alarcon refused bribes from the city’s drug lords, he knew it was a matter of days before they killed him, too. Alarcon, his wife and two young children fled to El Paso to seek asylum in the United States.

for complete article, click here



[posted by Sylvia Lopez]

Shedding grim light on Juarez darkness

by Richard Ruelas - Mar. 8, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic


The stark, unrelenting violence in Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, could be captured only in a documentary, says Charlie Minn, director of the current "8 Murders a Day." It is the kind of horror story that does not fit in the world of make-believe.

Posted by: Diana Rosendo

For whole article, click here

Border chief: Agency has to understand cartels

The U.S. Border Patrol must understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of violent smuggling cartels to have any hope of dismantling them, the agency's chief said Wednesday.

for complete article click here

posted by Flor Parra

Napolitano touts safety of US border communities

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe, but also warned Mexican drug cartels they'll be "met by an overwhelming response" should they move north.

For complete article, click here

posted by Flor Parra

Clinton Voices U.S. Support of Mexico in Trip

GUANAJUATO, Mexico — More than a month after the disclosure of cables in which American diplomats questioned progress in Mexico’s drug war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came here on Monday to deliver a message of solidarity with President Felipe Calderón and to rebut public doubts about persistent violence.

For complete article, click here

Posted by Perla Parra

Mexican President Condemns New Immigration Law

(Posted by Uriel Rivera)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/arizona-immigration-law

The Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has condemned Arizona's new immigration law and warned that relations with the border state will suffer as a result.

The law, which gives the police the right to stop anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant, "opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement", Calderón said last night. Trade and political ties with Arizona would be "seriously affected", he warned.

"Nobody can sit around with their arms crossed in the face of decisions that so clearly affect our countrymen," Calderón said in a speech at the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.

His comments came as the furore over the law escalated, with calls growing in the US for a boycott of hotels, convention centres and other economic targets in Arizona.

Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to victimisation of anyone who looks or sounds Latino. Supporters say the legislation is needed because the state can no longer cope with an estimated 450,000 illegal immigrants.

Mexican Officials Criticizes U.S. Hate Crimes

Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico (AHN) - A Mexican government official is complaining publicly about what he says is an alarming increase in hate crimes against Hispanic people in the United States.

Daniel Hernandez Joseph, director of Mexico's Protection for Mexicans Abroad program, says some American authorities are fostering practices that he was quoted as saying were "denigrating and unacceptable" toward Hispanics.

He mentioned FBI statistics that show a more than 40 percent increase in hate crimes against Hispanics in less than a decade.

Click here for more

Posted by Cynthia Sanchez

Calderon's dead-end war

(Posted by Uriel Rivera)

In Ciudad Juarez this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderon insisted that appearances notwithstanding, drug violence had begun to recede thanks to the yearlong presence of 10,000 Mexican troops in the border city.

Yet according to his own government's figures, there have been 536 executions in Juarez since Jan. 1, which is 100 more than during the same period last year.

And the violence is not localized to a few border towns like Juarez. Over a holiday weekend in Acapulco this month, 34 people were assassinated in drug-related incidents; nearly 20 suffered the same fate in the drug-producing state of Sinaloa; and perhaps most poignant, two graduate students from Mexico's premier private university, Monterrey Tech, lost their lives March 19, victims of crossfire as the Mexican military pursued drug cartel members at the entrance to the campus.



http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-castaneda25-2010mar25,0,5018841.story

Cartels use intimidation campaign to stifle news coverage in Mexico

12:00 AM CST on Monday, March 8, 2010

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com

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Cartels use intimidation campaign to stifle news coverage in Mexico

12:00 AM CST on Monday, March 8, 2010

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com

REYNOSA, Mexico – In the days since a long-simmering dispute erupted into open warfare between the Gulf drug cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, censorship of news developments has reached unprecedented dimensions along much of Mexico's border with Texas. A virtual news blackout has been imposed, several sources said, enforced by threats, abductions and attacks against journalists.

In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in the Reynosa area, which is across the border from McAllen. One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing.

Even by the vicious standards of Mexico's drug cartels, which have made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, the intimidation campaign is more far-reaching – and more effective – than other attempts to squelch media coverage of cartel activities, industry and law enforcement sources say. It is virtually impossible to safely report or verify, or even ask questions.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-blackout_08int.ART.State.Edition2.4b84845.html

[Posted By Michael Felix]

© 2010, The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Clinton Presses Region to Recognize Honduras

MEXICO CITY — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended a five-day tour of Latin America Friday with a lightning trip to Guatemala, where she promised Central American presidents more help to fightdrug trafficking and repeated her call for more countries to recognize the new government of Honduras.

The new Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo, attended the meeting in Guatemala City, an appearance that signaled a step toward normalizing relations with neighbors El Salvador and Guatemala.

[Posted by Brenda Diaz]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/world/americas/06clinton.html?ref=americas

Mexican authorities find tunnel at federal facility

TIJUANA — Images from a video surveillance camera led Mexican authorities to a suspected smuggling tunnel under construction in Tijuana inside a guarded federal customs facility at the Otay Mesa border crossing, authorities said yesterday.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/12/tunnel-found-under-federally-guarded-area-in/

Posted by Alex Sobieski

Study: County’s immigrant Latinos have highest self-employment rate

Combined regional census and federal economic data show that in San Diego County, Latino immigrants have a higher rate of self-employment than that of nonimmigrant Latinos and even native-born U.S. citizens, according to a new report.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/27/study-countys-immigrant-latinos-have-highest-self/

Posted by Alex Sobieski

Vehicle checks at border paying off Authorities seize cash, guns bound for Mexico

SOUTH COUNTY — Last spring, U.S. officials announced a $400 million effort to tighten border security, this time with an emphasis on southbound inspections of vehicles headed into Mexico to check for contraband cash and firearms.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/07/vehicle-checks-at-border-paying-off/

Posted by Alex Sobieski

Drug smugglers’ creativity grows

Hidden among truckloads of peppers, bananas, toilet paper and medical supplies entering from Mexico, customs officers have been finding another type of import.

NELVIN C. CEPEDA / UNION-TRIBUNE

Driver Juan Madero looked on at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry last week as an agriculture specialist inspected a box of cilantro.

PHOTO BY NELVIN C. CEPEDA - UNION-TRIBUNE

At the Otay Mesa cargo port, U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector Eiichiro Ninmiya checked loads of goods last week with his partner, Cora.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/15/drug-smugglers-creativity-grows/

Posted by Alex Sobieski

Baja village has become smugglers’ launch point

PEGGY PEATTIE / UNION-TRIBUNE

Popotla’s activity and proximity to the border make it an attractive spot for smugglers to take to the sea with their human cargo, U.S. and Mexican officials say

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/01/baja-village-has-become-smugglers-launch-point/

Posted by Alex Sobieski

Disminuyen las remesas

Washington/EFE — Las transferencias de dinero de inmigrantes de América Latina y el Caribe a sus países cayeron un 15% en 2009, hasta los 58,800 millones de dólares, debido a la crisis económica en países como EE.UU., España y Japón.

Según un informe publicado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), la recuperación de estas transferencias durante el último trimestre de 2009 y las estadísticas de empleo y migración revelan una estabilización del envío de dinero.

[ Zelene Valencia]

http://www.impre.com/laopinion/inmigracion/2010/3/7/disminuyen-las-remesas-176864-1.html

Drug war clashes between Gulf cartel, Zetas may escalate, could affect North Texas

08:36 AM CST on Monday, March 1, 2010

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

NUEVO LAREDO – Longstanding tensions between the Zetas paramilitary group and their old employers, the Gulf drug cartel, have exploded into a full-blown war, worrying U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials that a likely protracted battle will further threaten this stretch of the Texas-Mexico border. Parts of it are already under heightened security.

The resumption in violence shatters a three-year uneasy truce in this region and represents a potential menace to places such as North Texas where the Zetas and a rival drug trafficking organization known as La Familia are entrenched, according to a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/030110dnintdrugwar.416aff8.html

© 2010, The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Posted By Michael Felix]