PAN and PRD: death penalty law will not pass

Milenio, 12/5/2008
The PAN and PRD delegations in Congress reiterated their willingness to debate a law allowing the death penalty for kidnappers who kill their victims. However, they added that the proposal by the Coahuila governor, Humberto Moreira, would not pass.
The national PRD leader, Jesús Ortega, accused the PRI of using the proposal as an electoral [...]

Obama asked to build more infrastructure in border region (in Spanish)

La Crónica de Hoy, 12/5/2008
The Border Trade Alliance recommends president-elect Barack Obama invest in border infrastructure to eliminate the bottlenecks that negatively affect trade in the region.The organization, dedicated to promoting economic exchange between Mexico, the United States and Canada, sent its policy recommendations for sustaining the border economy to the president-elect this week.
Read more…

Hospitals Now a Theater in Mexico’s Drug War

New York Times, 12/5/2008
The sedated patient, his bullet wounds still fresh from a shootout the night before, was lying on a gurney in the intensive care unit of a prestigious private hospital here late last month with intravenous fluids dripping into his arm. Suddenly, steel-faced gunmen barged in and filled him with even more bullets. [...]

Mexico greets Richardson, doubts NAFTA reopening

International Herald Tribune, 12/5/2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for commerce secretary, Bill Richardson, got a warm welcome Thursday during a visit to Mexico, where government officials said they doubted Obama would follow through on a campaign pledge to re-negotiate NAFTA. The New Mexico governor met with businessmen at the private University of the Americas in Cholula, [...]

Some in Mexico want the death penalty reinstated

Los Angeles Times, 12/5/2008
The increase in slayings and kidnappings related to the nation’s war on drug traffickers has created a climate of fear. Legal experts see too many obstacles to restoring capital punishment.
“Behind this call [for the death penalty] is society’s desperation over the climate of insecurity we are living in,” said Alberto Herrera, head [...]

Mexico hosts its first human rights film festival

La Plaza, Los Angeles Times Blog, 12/5/2008
Immigration, women’s rights, illegal detention and human trafficking are some of the themes that will be examined next week during Mexico’s first human rights film festival. The weeklong event, which is to take place in Mexico City, is an attempt by a range of groups, including the Office of [...]

Obama’s choice of Xavier Becerra revives 2001 clemency case

Los Angeles Times, 12/5/2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to make Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) the next U.S. trade representative makes him the second Cabinet-level candidate to have been involved in President Clinton’s controversial 2001 commutation of a Los Angeles cocaine dealer’s prison sentence. The other is Eric H. Holder Jr., whom Obama has nominated to [...]

Reforms against bank abuse approved

CIDAC blog, 12/5/2008
Yesterday the Mexican Senate approved reforms to protect bank customers from financial abuse. The Central Bank will now establish minimum payment amounts, restrict how credit cards can be offered and to whom, and enforce sanctions against those who offer credit cards to minors. The reforms also require banks to inform customers in a [...]

Mexico Will Speed Up Projects to Help Jobs, Ruiz Says

Bloomberg, 12/5/2008

Mexico Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said the government will accelerate infrastructure projects in a bid to allay job losses caused by a global economic slump that has reduced demand for exports.
The government will spend $12.5 billion on roads, ports, railroads and other projects in the first quarter of next year after delays on [...]