Art Unites Cultures: Exhibit opens today in honor of the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Brownsville Herald, 12/11/2008
She sits mysteriously on a log, her voluptuous body cast in emerald green, a golden monarch wing unfolding behind her and radiating warmth through the forest. Another painting by Oaxacan artist Beatriz Figueroa at the Historic Brownsville Museum portrays a quetzal stretching its snowy feathers to reveal a candy apple breast and flowing [...]

California Helping Poor and Immigrants Open and Maintain Bank Accounts

The New York Times, 12/11/08
California is starting what banking experts call the nation’s largest, most ambitious effort by a state government to enable people, especially immigrants and the poor, to open and maintain bank accounts. The program, Bank on California, which is to be announced Friday in Sacramento, will seek to create 100,000 accounts over [...]

An American’s Lament: ‘I Was Deported, Too’

The New York Times, 12/11/08
The two men could barely communicate. One was a Mexican laborer, the other an American wanderer, neither with any pesos in his pockets. But they bonded, having just gone through similar ordeals. “The migra got me,” lamented the downcast Mexican, using slang for the United States Border Patrol. “I know what [...]

Mexico announces carbon cap at climate talks

Associated Press, 12/11/2008
Developing countries upbraided rich nations at U.N. climate talks Thursday, saying they were refusing to act boldly enough to stop global warming. Mexico sought to prod others into action by becoming the first developing country to announce a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
To spur global collective action, Mexico’s environment secretary, Juan Rafael Elvira, [...]

The end of the American dream

The Economist, 12/11/2008
There is a small, artificial lake, well stocked with carp. Around it loom hills covered in pink wildflowers. It looks idyllic. But the hills used to be sown with maize and the wildflowers are a sign that the workforce has left the fields fallow to toil in more profitable ones in the United [...]

Preparing for tougher times

The Economist, 12/11/2008
It was great while it lasted. In the five years from 2004 Latin America’s economies grew at an annual average rate of over 5%, inflation remained generally low, credit expanded and exports boomed. All this meant that the proportion of people living in poverty fell from 44% in 2002 to 33% this year, [...]

DEA News: U.S. Cocaine Market Disrupted, Prices Continue 21-month Surge

Vocus/PR Web, 12/11/2008
The prices of cocaine and methamphetamine in the United States have risen significantly over the past 21 months, while purity of the drugs has decreased, according to continued analysis of cocaine and methamphetamine seizures by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“For almost two years the illicit drug market has been showing signs of distress,” [...]

Thousands of pilgrims descend on Basilica de Guadalupe (in Spanish)

Milenio, 12/11/2008
Thursday morning continued without major incidents in the arrival of tens of thousands of pilgrims to the Basilica de Guadalupe through the five main corridors, although there was strict security.
Public Security authorities for the Federal District said that its entire special operations force of 1,850 officers had been dispatched to provide security and surveillance [...]

Mexico says oil exports to fall sharply by 2017

Associated Press, 12/11/2008
Mexico said Wednesday that rising domestic consumption will cut the country’s oil exports almost 40 percent by 2017, although the country hopes to increase crude production to just over 3 million barrels per day by that time.
Exports will drop from the estimated daily average of 1.4 million barrels per day in 2008 to [...]