U.S. – Mexico Relations: Comments on the Eve of President Obama’s Inauguration

Issues in International Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1/15/2009
Some 5,300 people were killed in Mexico in 2008 stemming from the drug trade. The violence that accompanies the shipment and sales of narcotics from and through Mexico to the United States stems primarily from U.S. antinarcotics policies. It would be useful if President [...]

U.S. anti-drug information leaked to Mexico cartels

Reuters, 1/15/2009
Corrupt officials inside Mexico’s security forces have leaked U.S. anti-drugs intelligence directly to drug traffickers to help them escape raids, a senior U.S. law enforcement agent said. A recent anti-corruption sweep showed the infiltration of Mexican police forces had reached alarming levels, with several high-ranking investigators and a presidential guardsman arrested for selling information [...]

Another Mexico

The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/15/2009
A Mexican saying holds that Como Mexico no hay dos — There is only one Mexico. American media these days interpret that notion with a vengeance. Story after story depicts a country overrun by out-of-control drug wars and murder, where corrupt police officers trip over beheaded victims more often than they [...]

New Pew Report: Hispanics and the New Administration

Mark Hugo Lopez & Gretchen Livingston, Pew Hispanic Center, 1/15/2009
A year and a half after a lengthy, often rancorous debate over immigration reform filled the chambers of a stalemated Congress, the issue appears to have receded in importance among one of the groups most affected by it–Latinos.
Only three-in-ten (31%) Latinos rate immigration as an “extremely [...]

Dollar worth up to 14.50 pesos- highest level in 15 years (In Spanish)

La Jornada, 1/15/2009
The dollar reached its highest level in more than 15 years, 14.25 pesos at end of trading, after a day in which the U.S. currency sold for as much as 14.50 pesos at banks and exchange banks. The Mexican Central Bank then sold 400 million pesos, the second sale of currency in less [...]

Editorial: Obama can’t put border drug war on back burner

Arizona Republic, 1/15/2009
Barack Obama’s meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Monday was largely ceremonial. U.S. foreign policy toward Mexico needs to move to a much higher and more assertive level.
Calderón’s war against the drug cartels is a struggle to preserve Mexico’s progress toward democracy and rule of law. And things aren’t going well. Violent [...]

Reality check for U.S.-Mexico relations: Obama may find Mexico and its drug war a compelling foreign policy issue

Denise Dresser, Los Angeles Times, 1/15/2009
On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon engaged in a time-honored tradition: At the outset of a new U.S. administration, the American president meets the Mexican head of state before all others. Obama and Calderon got the chance to look into each other’s eyes and speak about [...]

New website: the history of Mexico’s oil sector (in Spanish)

Mexico Institute, 1/15/2009
Dr. Carlos Marichal of El Colegio de México maintains an interesting website on Mexico’s oil industry, with timelines dating from 1783, government archives, an analysis of various legislation, and a database of statistics on the sector. The website is in Spanish.
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