The Agonist - Mexico

Mexico freezes prices on food

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:31:58 -0700

Dudley Althaus | Mexico City | June 19

Houston Chronicle - Agreement aims to steady costs as nation reels from rising inflation

Moving to stem rising inflation and civil discontent, President Felipe Calderon and Mexican industrialists announced an agreement Wednesday to freeze prices on more than 150 food items.

The pact, which will be in effect through the end of the year, comes amid escalating costs of corn and other staples of the Mexican diet.

Companies agreed to hold prices steady for cooking oil, tomato sauce, canned soups and tuna, beans, chili sauces and other staples of the Mexican table.

Border battle brews over Mexico's undersea oil

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:43:28 -0700

Marla Dickerson | Gulf of Mexico | June 5

LA Times - Unable to develop its deepwater wells and crowded by foreign energy giants, the nation weighs opening up a key industry.

Eight miles north of the maritime border with Mexico, in waters a mile and a half deep, Shell Oil Co. is constructing the most ambitious offshore oil platform ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico.

As tall as the Eiffel Tower, the floating production facility will be anchored to the ocean floor by moorings spanning an area the size of downtown Houston. Slated to begin operating late next year, this leviathan known as Perdido (or Lost) will cost billions and be capable of pumping 100,000 barrels of crude a day.

But Perdido's most-notable achievement may be to compel Mexico to loosen its 70-year government monopoly on the petroleum sector, thanks to a phenomenon Mexicans have dubbed the "drinking straw effect."

Mexicans fear that companies drilling in U.S. waters close to the border will suck Mexican crude into their wells. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis' fictional oilman in "There Will Be Blood" likened the concept to siphoning a rival's milkshake.

Drug lords turn tables in Mexico with lists of wanted police chiefs

Tue, 27 May 2008 22:09:03 -0700

David Usborne | May 28

Independent - Parts of northern Mexico appear to be under virtual siege, with drug gangs pinning up hit lists across one city, showing names of police officers it wants to murder.

An unusual chill has fallen Chihuahua City, just across from El Paso on the Texas border, after authorities said they found banners attached to bridges displaying a list of 21 police officers targeted for assassination, reportedly written by a gang called Gente Nueva (New People).

Violence spawned by drug trafficking gangs who are at war both with each other and law enforcement officers has escalated to the point where towns and cities in the north are operating, in effect, under curfew.

Residents in Ciudad Juarez, also in Chihuahua State, stayed mostly in their homes last weekend after a mystery email surfaced warning of an impending bloodbath – with shopping malls and nightclubs listed as likely targets of gunfire.

New phase seen in Mexico's drug war

Sun, 18 May 2008 03:10:39 -0700

Héctor Tobar | Mexico City | May 18

LA Times - The recent killing of the country's top drug cop has prompted a crackdown, but the cartels have struck back.

To strike back at narcotics traffickers suspected of ordering the assassination of Mexico's top drug cop, President Felipe Calderon dispatched 2,000 army troops and federal police to the gang's home base, the western state of Sinaloa.

The traffickers struck back themselves with a paramilitary-style ambush of a police station, and taunted the newly arrived troops with mocking signs on the streets.

Analysts say those moves last week show that the killing of Edgar Millan Gomez on May 8 has opened a dangerous new phase in the country's drug war.

The Militarization of Mexican Society

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:11:24 -0700

A Primer on Plan Mexico
By LAURA CARLSEN
Counterpunch
May 8, 2008

On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar "Merida Initiative," security aid package to Mexico and Central America. The initiative has fatal flaws in its strategy; instead of leading to a stable binational relationship and peaceful border communities, its military approach will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses.

Mexico and the United States face a joint challenge in decreasing transnational organized crime and they must cooperate to strengthen the rule of law and stop illegal drug and arms trafficking over the border. This misguided policy will result in an inability to achieve its own goals and will waste taxpayers' money. It will also seriously undermine the U.S.-Mexico relationship and Mexican stability.

Mexicans fight over falling oil production

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:16:14 -0700

Franco Ordonez | Mexico City | April 23

McClatchy - The price of oil is reaching record levels worldwide, but Mexico, long considered an oil power, is failing to reap the rewards because its state-owned oil company hasn't developed many of the areas known to be rich in petroleum.

President Felipe Calderon this month proposed allowing the ailing state oil company to contract with international companies to help drill deeper in those areas. But leftist lawmakers have blocked the legislation to allow that, claiming that Calderon's proposal amounts to privatizing a national treasure.

NACC

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:48:15 -0700

José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco
By Greg Palast
Monday, April 21, 2008
(For TomPaine.com)
(Listen to the Podcast here)

Psst! George Bush has a secret

While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania, the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico.

You’re not supposed to know that – for two reasons:
First, the summit planned for the N.O. two years back was meant to showcase the rebuilt Big Easy, a monument to can-do Bush-o-nomics. Well, it is a monument to Bush’s leadership: The city still looks like Dresden 1946, with over half the original residents living in toxic trailers or wandering lost and broke in America.

Democrats are changing U.S. policy in Latin America

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:03:24 -0700

Pablo Bachelet | Washington | April 19

McClatchy - An empowered Democratic Party has taken command of U.S. policy toward Latin America, stalling a free-trade agreement and taking aim at military aid programs for Colombia and Mexico.

This assertiveness began after Democrats took control of Congress in early 2007, but it took a dramatic turn in recent weeks, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi derailing an effort by President Bush to force a vote on a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Beyond taking aim at military aid, Democrats say they want a new approach toward Latin America.

Dodd proposed a new ''strategic partnership'' based on broader public security and rule of law, poverty and inequality and energy integration.

He said changing the long-standing U.S. embargo against Cuba would help Washington reengage with Latin America.

Mexican helicopter crash kills 11 soldiers

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:26:35 -0700

Miguel Garcia Tinoco | Uruapan, Mexico | April 18

Reuters - A Mexican army helicopter crashed during anti-narcotics operations in western Mexico on Friday, killing 11 soldiers, local authorities said.

The helicopter went down at around midday in a rural area in Michoacan state, a major front in the government's army-led war against drug cartels, Michoacan's state attorney general's office said, without giving the cause of the crash.

"There are 11 men dead, including a colonel, and one soldier was injured. We do not yet know the cause," a spokesman said.

The helicopter wreckage lay on the ground in several chunks, surrounded by dozens of police. A child at the scene told Reuters he saw it plummet out of the sky and hit a tree.

Oil sit-in pushes out Mexico MPs

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:45:39 -0700

April 17

BBC - A sit-in protest by leftist politicians over energy reform plans has forced Mexico's Congress to relocate for the first time in almost 20 years.

Lawmakers had to cram into conference rooms to press ahead with routine business on Tuesday.

Leftist MPs seized the podiums of both houses last week in protest at plans to ease limits on private involvement in the state oil giant, Pemex.

The government says Pemex needs outside investment to boost falling production.

Congress has only been forced out of its chamber a handful of times in Mexican history - the last time was in 1989 when the lower house had to evacuate because of a fire.

Mexican lawmakers slam energy reform bill

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:11:33 -0700

Mexico City | April 11

UPI - Mexican lawmakers rushed the speakers' podiums of both houses of Congress in opposition to a proposed energy reform bill, said Mexican officials.

The opposition leaders from both the House and Senate were denouncing President Felipe Calderon's energy reform proposal, which would allow outside energy firms to invest in Mexico's state-owned energy company PEMEX, El Universal reported Thursday.

Critics of the bill contend the reform would dilute profits from PEMEX, which is the major source of federal revenue for Mexico's budget.

10 Reasons to Look Critically at Dissolving Mexico-U.S.-Canada Borders

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:15:34 -0700

10 Reasons to Look Critically at Dissolving Mexico-U.S.-Canada Borders
By Manuel Pérez Rocha and Sarah Anderson,
AlterNet. Posted April 9, 2008

Hint: Xenophobic right-wing conspiracy theories about a mythical North American Union are not among them.

This month, President Bush will host the leaders of Canada and Mexico to advance the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a project Lou Dobbs has predicted will "end the United States as we know it."

Lou sounds downright blasé, though, compared to all the online ranting and raving on this subject. And while there are plenty of reasons for progressives to be up in arms over this effort to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement, the xenophobes have clearly cornered the market.

In their paranoid fantasies, the three North American executive powers are secretly plotting to surrender everything they hold dear about the good ol' USA. The U.S. borders, the flag, and even the almighty American dollar would disappear as the country is submerged into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Will army presence pacify Mexico's most violent city?

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:40:47 -0700

By Franco Ordonez | Ciudad Juarez | April 6

McClatchy - The gunmen caught their target on his way home.

Police Cmdr. Juan Manuel Flores had just finished his shift on Easter and was pulling onto a dirt road in his quiet neighborhood of run-down adobe homes. Out of nowhere, two SUVs darted out and cut him off, forcing him to drive his car into a palm tree on the sidewalk.

Neighbors scattered for cover as masked men stepped out of the vehicles and for six minutes fired a barrage of AK-47 fire into the officer's blue 1998 Dodge Neon, police and witnesses said. One of the masked men then walked to Flores' battered car and fired a final shot to ensure that the officer was dead.

"He never had a chance to reach for his pistol," said Jaime Torres, a spokesman for the police department.

The killing March 23 was the eighth assassination of a police officer this year in this border town across from El Paso, Texas. Several days later, the Mexican government sent in the army.

Polluted Mexico City bans smoking

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:34:54 -0700

Mexico City | April 3

Reuters - Mexico City on Thursday banned cigarette smoking in all public places, from bars to office buildings, to reduce the amount of carcinogens inhaled by residents of the smog-filled capital.

The city, home to some 18 million people in the metropolitan area, is the latest large city around the world to pass a smoking ban to improve public health and protect nonsmokers from secondary smoke.

But not all Mexicans are happy about the prospect of smoke-free cantinas where tequila and cigarettes are traditionally enjoyed hand-in-hand.

"Right now I'm fine, but later tonight -- after a couple of drinks -- I'm going to really want one," said 26-year-old Rodrigo Nunez, a smoker and government office worker playing a game of pool in a bar in the fashionable Condesa neighborhood on his lunch break.

Mexico sends troops to Texas border to battle drug lords

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:03:18 -0700

Franco Ordonez | Mexico City | March 29

McClatchy - Nearly 1,000 Mexican troops arrived at the Ciudad Juarez airport Friday to deal with a surge in drug war violence that's sent tremors throughout the country, local media reported.

Mexican authorities said they're part of the more than 2,000 soldiers and federal policemen involved in "Operation Joint Chihuahua" who are being dispatched to combat narcotrafficking operations that have terrorized much of the state of Chihuahua, particularly Ciudad Juarez, Palomas and the city of Chihuahua, the state capital.

More than 200 people have been killed in the area, which borders El Paso, Texas, since the beginning of the year, according to local media reports. Thirty were killed over the Easter weekend.