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]

Drug smugglers’ creativity grows

Drug smugglers’ creativity grows

Produce truckers increasingly used

BY LESLIE BERESTEIN, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2010 AT 12:04 A.M.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/15/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.

With drug cartels becoming increasingly creative in evading border authorities, it has become commonplace to find drugs embedded among the truckloads of goods that move each day through the nation’s ports of entry. Two weeks ago, inspectors at the Otay Mesa cargo port found more than 3,800 pounds of marijuana hidden in a shipment of peppers and green beans. A few days later, they found a ton of pot stashed in a load of bananas.

{Posted by Alex Sobieski}

Mexican President Calderon to return to violence-plagued Juarez

By Nick Valencia, CNN

February 16, 2010 9:55 p.m. EST

CNN) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon will return to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the municipal police department said.

"For security reasons, details are nonexistent," police department spokesman Jacinto Seguro said.

Calderon will attend a meeting with local, state and federal officials, as well as civic and human rights groups, on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez, which has been plagued by violence stemming from drug cartels.

The January 31 killings in southern Juarez of 15 people, most of whom were students with no ties to organized crime, has sparked outrage across the country. The slayings, which occurred at a house party, are thought to be the result of bad intelligence by a cartel and the gang that carried out the killings.

[Posted by Brenda Diaz]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/16/mexico.juarez.calderon/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29

Mexican police find 5 decapitated men in drug cartel-plagued state of Sinaloa

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican authorities have found the decapitated bodies of five men in a western state known for drug-gang violence.Sinaloa state prosecutors spokesman Martin Gastelum says the bodies and heads were found Tuesday in front of a primary school in the town of Escuinapa.He says two of the heads were missing their ears and two more had a "Z'' carved on their backs in an apparent reference to the Zetas drug gang.The Zetas have been involved in some of the bloodiest confrontations in a drug war that has cost more than 15,000 lives in Mexico in three years.Sinaloa is the birthplace of the leaders of several drug cartels. The Zetas are based is the border state of Tamaulipas across from Texas.

[Posted by Julia Martinez]

Nuevas normas para visas de trabajo

WASHINGTON/AP — El gobierno estadounidense propuso aumentar los salarios y reforzar las medidas de seguridad en el trabajo de los braceros agrícolas temporales, alterando la política de su predecesor que según los sindicatos fomentaba la mano de obra barata en detrimento de la contratación de estadounidenses.

El Departamento del Trabajo propuso normas que, entre otras cosas, requeriría a los terratenientes agrícolas esforzarse en contratar mano de obra nacional para las tareas de recolección antes que acudir a los braceros extranjeros. En los últimos años miles de braceros extranjeros han sido contratados con ese fin.

www.impre.com/inmigracion/2010/2/14/nuevas-normas-para-visas-de-tr-173222-1.html

[Posted By Zelene Valencia]