Mexico Loses Leadership in Latin America (in Spanish)

El Universal, 11/16/09
Mexico was once boasted as a leader in Latin America, but is now an observer of the development of other nations. Academics and specialists confirm that the country has found itself stuck in several areas stymieing its competitiveness.
The majority agree: the country wasted its potential, never looked south to reassert itself [...]

Mexico House Committee Passes Spending Part of Budget

Bloomberg, 11/16/09
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — Mexico’s finance committee in the lower house of Congress approved the spending portion of the 2010 budget, calling for 3.18 trillion pesos ($243.9 billion) in total outlays.
The legislation calls for a deficit not including debt from state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos of 0.75 percent of gross domestic product. The [...]

15 killed in one day in cartel-plagued Ciudad Juarez

The Associated Press, 11/15/09
A 7-year-old boy, three women and a university professor were among 15 people who were killed in a single day in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, authorities said.
State prosecutor’s spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the child was traveling with his father in a pickup when gunmen opened [...]

Dancers and Video Evoke Emotions of Immigration

em>The San Franscisco Chronicle, 11/14/09
Origins of Flight, a dance performance by the David Herrera Dance Company that opened Friday night and will be performed again tonight at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts tells the story of a young, pregnant woman who immigrates to the United States from Mexico.
If the story is a familiar [...]

Task Force Seeks Ban on Assault Weapons

Washington Post, 11/12/09
A binational task force on U.S.-Mexico border issues will call Friday on the Obama administration and Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and for Mexico to overhaul its frontier police and customs agencies to mirror the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The recommendations are among a broad set of security, [...]

White House to Begin Push on Immigration Overhaul in 2010

The New York Times, 11/13/09
The Obama administration will insist on measures to give legal status to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants as it pushes early next year for legislation to overhaul the immigration system, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday.
In an address at the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy group [...]

U.S. Meets Immigration Reform Benchmarks: Napolitano

Reuters, 11/13/09
The United States has dramatically improved security along its border with Mexico and met other requirements set by lawmakers in 2007 for passing immigration reform, a top U.S. official said on Friday.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said improvements, including a big decline in illegal border crossings, have altered the political climate that existed in [...]

Forbes: Mexico Kingpin Among World’s Most Powerful

Washington Post, 11/12/09
Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord escaped prison by hiding in a laundry truck nearly a decade ago, and his legend and fortune seem to grow with each passing day he eludes capture.
Now he has reached a new level of fame – or infamy – by making Forbes magazine’s list of the 67 “World’s Most [...]

John King To Take Over Dobbs’s Slot at CNN

em>Washington Post, 11/12/09
CNN announced Thursday that John King, the Sunday morning host best known for his magic wall, is taking over the 7 p.m. slot left vacant by the abrupt resignation of Lou Dobbs.
The decision, described by network sources, amounts to a doubling down on straight news. King, a former Associated Press writer, is [...]

In Mexico, Tying the City in Knots Is a Capital Idea

Los Angeles Times, 11/12/09
Reporting from Mexico City – Take world-class traffic congestion. Add protesters, tens of thousands of them, until streets become a thick, impenetrable mass. Let angry horn-blowing begin. Repeat, over and over.
There are times in Mexico’s teeming capital when you can’t get there from here. Usually, it’s a question of too many [...]