Mexico’s Currency Heads for Worst Yearly Decline Since 1995

Bloomberg, 12/31/2008
Mexico’s peso headed for its worst yearly decline in more than a decade as the global financial crisis roiled the nation’s markets and a recession in the U.S. eroded demand for Mexican exports.
The peso fell for a fifth day, its longest losing streak in more than two months, after a U.S. report showed the [...]

USAID: Migrant Remittances Newsletter

Migrant Remittances Newsletter, 12/31/2009
Change and continuity in money transfers have shaped 2008, while uncertainty in 2009 looms in people’s minds. This issue shows that remittances are suffering downward shifts in some countries and upward or steady flows in others. While these shifts are believed to be associated with current global trends, the steadiness is yet [...]

Mexico arrests drug leader; military’s role in drug war debated

CNN, 12/31/2008
Mexican authorities said they have arrested the leader of a drug cartel that set off two grenades during a public celebration in September, killing eight people and wounding more than 100. Alberto Espinoza Barron, known as “the Strawberry,” heads the “Michoacan Family,” which operates in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico, authorities said. [...]

Mistrust bedevils war on Mexican drug cartels

Los Angeles Times, 12/31/2008
The U.S. has begun pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Mexico to help stanch the expansion of drug-fueled violence and corruption that has claimed more than 5,000 lives south of the border this year.
The bloodshed has spread to American cities, even to the heartland, and U.S. officials are realizing that their [...]

Chihuahua City now a model for cleaning up Mexico’s police

Christian Science Monitor, 12/31/2008
There is nothing extraordinary inside the municipal jail in Chihuahua City: Half a dozen men kill time – some sleeping, others pacing – their languid motions caught on TV monitors outside their cells. But the cameras aren’t just to aid the guards. Across town, Chihuahua’s state human rights office is viewing the [...]

2008 winds down with 843 killings in Tijuana

Associated Press, 12/31/2008
This border city across from San Diego is winding up a violent year with at least 843 killings so far in 2008, a Mexican official said Tuesday. Baja California state attorney general Daniel de la Rosa said in a statement that 90 percent of the killings are related to drug trafficking in Tijuana, [...]

New study: Mexico’s Right-to-Know Reforms

Jonathan Fox, Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies, Fall 2008
Mexico’s laws and official political discourse now emphasize transparency. Citizens’ “right to know” is assumed to encourage more accountable governance. But what difference have these reforms made in practice, and how do we know?
After the historic presidential elections in 2000, the momentum for institutional change quickly [...]

WWII guest workers from Mexico apply for back pay

Arizona Republic, 12/31/2008
The Mexicans who came legally to work in the United States during World War II are old men now, but the former guest workers may finally collect some of the wages deducted from their paychecks decades ago. The Mexican government agreed earlier this year to pay each worker or their survivors about $3,500 [...]

“We will fight this battle together or we will lose together” (in Spanish)

Poder, 12/30/2008
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza speaks candidly in this interview with Poder’s Dolia Estevez about drug trafficking, President Bush, Mexican journalists, and the state of the bilateral relationship.
Garza leaves office on January 20, 2009.
Read more…

Mexico and Cuba plan to strengthen ties in 2009 (in Spanish)

El Financiero, 12/30/2008
The Mexican and Cuban governments have programmed “activities to strengthen relations” throughout 2009, according to a press release from the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations. The dates have not yet been set, but “without a doubt” there will be a visit from Raúl Castro to Mexico and a reciprocal visit from Felipe Calderón [...]