Notes to Obama: Jorge Ramos (with video)

BBC News, 1/8/2009
As part of BBC World News America’s ‘Notes to Obama’ series, celebrated newscaster Jorge Ramos offers his personal advice to the president-elect.  is known as “the voice” of Latin Americans in the United States. The Mexican-born newscaster is an anchor on the Univision network, the largest Spanish language television network in the United [...]

Mexico’s Stimulus Plan Comes at a Critical Time

Wilson Center Expert Sources, 1/8/2009
Mexican President Felipe Calderon outlined his plan to revive his nation’s economy Wednesday, hoping to bolster it against a slide caused by the U.S. credit crisis. The most crucial parts of the plan include infrastructure development as well as measures for utilities and the private sector, said Andrew Selee, director of [...]

Texas Town Works To Avoid ‘Spillover’ From Mexico Killings (Audio)

NPR, 1/8/2009
The drug cartel violence in Mexico is impacting the relationships between Mexican and American border towns. Beto O’Rourke, a city representative of El Paso, Texas explains how the city is struggling with the after effects of the violence.
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New Book: Does North America Exist? Governing the Continent after NAFTA and 9/11

Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1/8/2009
In the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, renowned public intellectual and scholar Stephen Clarkson asks whether North America “exists” in the sense that the European Union has made Europe exist.
Stephen Clarkson is Professor of Political Economy at the University of [...]

Mexico takes urgent economy steps

BBC News, 1/8/2009
The Mexican government has unveiled emergency measures to protect its economy from the global financial crisis and US recession. President Felipe Calderon said Mexico was facing a period of great difficulty and rising unemployment. He promised nearly $150m to struggling industries in a bid to save hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The measure is [...]

More U.S. funds freed for Mexico’s drug fight

Los Angeles Times, 1/8/2009
The United States has released an additional $99 million as part of an aid package to support Mexico’s police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said Wednesday that the funds would help Mexico’s military buy aircraft and other equipment to help detect drugs, cash and weapons. He [...]

Top cartel suspect arrested in Mexico

CNN, 1/8/2009
Mexican authorities have arrested a top drug cartel suspect and two other men and seized drugs, weapons, explosives, vehicles and cash, the state-run news agency said. Adrian Rivera Garcia, known as “El Primo Rivera,” is the presumed head of one of the cells in the Beltran-Leyva brothers cartel, the Notimex news agency said Thursday, [...]

Mexico’s Economy Won’t Grow This Year, Carstens Says

Bloomberg, 1/8/2009
Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said the economy will stall this year as the U.S., which buys 80 percent of the country’s exports, enters a recession. The finance ministry will revise its growth forecast to zero for this year, Carstens said. While there is a possibility the economy may contract, it could also expand [...]

Mexico Inflation Surges to 7-Year High on Peso Plunge

Bloomberg, 1/8/2009
Mexico’s inflation surged to a seven-year high in December after the peso’s 20 percent plunge last year drove up costs for airline tickets and imported goods.
Consumer prices climbed 6.53 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since June 2001, and 0.69 percent from a month earlier, the central bank said today. Prices also [...]

U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars

The New York Times, 1/8/2009
The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
Mr. Chertoff said the criminal activity [...]