75% reduction on the diesel price increase announced (In Spanish)

El Universal, 1/27/2009
President Felipe Calderón announced a 75% decrease in the monthly price hike on the cost of diesel in order to respond to the needs of the fishing, agriculture and transport sectors.
He acknowledged that the measure will affect federal government revenue in the order of 10 billion pesos; however, for that the government will [...]

Mexico GDP May Shrink 1.8% in 2009, Central Bank Says

Bloomberg, 1/27/2009
Bank policy makers, who predicted as recently as October that the economy would grow 1.5 percent this year, said Mexico will be harder hit than previously predicted by the recession in the U.S., which buys 80 percent of Mexican exports.
Weaker economic activity gives the central bank “margin to relax” monetary policy, the bank’s statement [...]

US-Mexico border fence almost complete

The Associated Press, 1/27/2009
The Homeland Security Department says the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border is mostly finished. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling says that 601 miles of the project had been completed as of a week ago. Easterling says 69 miles of the fence still must be built to meet the goal set [...]

Pemex to Sell $2 Billion of 10-Year Bonds in U.S.

Bloomberg, 1/27/2009
Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, plans to sell $2 billion of 10-year notes in the U.S., a person familiar with the offering said.
Emerging-market issuers are returning to debt markets after the global financial crisis cut off access to credit last year. Mexico’s government was the first, selling $2 billion of 10-year bonds on [...]

Yearly Mexican remittances drop for 1st time

The Associated Press, 1/27/2009
The money sent home by Mexican migrants fell in 2008 for the first time on record, Mexico’s central bank said Tuesday — part of a global trend that could worsen as emigrants from developing countries lose jobs in the global financial crisis.
Remittances, Mexico’s second-largest source of foreign income after oil, plunged 3.6 [...]

Mexico City opens the 1st of 300 planned soup kitchens

Los Angeles Times, 1/27/2009
As Mexico slips into the profound economic crisis circling the globe, unemployment is rising along with food prices. Inflation is running about 8% annually, but some basic “family basket” items such as cooking oil and rice are going up about 200% a year, said Cesar Cravioto, head of the city’s Institute of [...]

Gillibrand’s Immigration Views Draw Fire

The New York Times, 1/27/2009
During her one term in the House of Representatives, from a largely rural, traditionally Republican district, Kirsten E. Gillibrand was on safe political ground adopting a tough stance against illegal immigration.
Ms. Gillibrand, a Democrat, opposed any sort of amnesty for illegal immigrants, supported deputizing local law enforcement officers to enforce federal [...]

Cartels in Mexico’s Drug War Get Guns From US

The New York Times, 1/27/2009
As police approached a drug cartel’s safe house in northwestern Mexico last May, gunmen inside poured on fire with powerful assault rifles and grenades, killing seven officers whose weapons were no match.
Four more lawmen were wounded in the bloodbath and a cache of weapons was seized, including a single AK-47 assault [...]

The National Commission on Human Rights warns of increase in vigilante groups (in Spanish)

El Universal, 1/27/2009
José Luis Soberanes, national ombudsman, recognized as worrisome the growing formation of armed vigilante groups that seek to deliver justice by their own methods and said that their emergence is the result of the absence of the state in overseeing public security.
He noted that the groups violate article 17 of the Constitution which [...]

Mexico’s Ability to Endure Crisis Linked to U.S., Carstens Says

Bloomberg, 1/27/2009
Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said the economy’s ability to mitigate the global financial crisis this year will depend largely on the U.S. stimulus plan and how quickly American financial markets stabilize.
Mexico’s economy probably grew 1.7 percent last year with almost no expansion in the final quarter, Carstens said yesterday in an interview in [...]