Mexico Institute

Mexico Loses Leadership in Latin America (in Spanish)

mexicoinstitute — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:31:53 +0000

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 as a leader, and squandered the advantage of oil resources and neglected science.

Mexico House Committee Passes Spending Part of Budget

mexicoinstitute — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:23:09 +0000

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 shortfall including Pemex debt will be 2.75 percent of GDP, the widest since 1989, according to Gabriel Casillas, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Mexico City.

15 killed in one day in cartel-plagued Ciudad Juarez

mexicoinstitute — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:59:58 +0000

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 fire Friday, killing them both.

Three women were shot to death in two incidents, Sandoval said. A university professor was killed in a residential area.

Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives

mexicoinstitute — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:59:41 +0000

The New York Times, 11/15/09

During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San Diego, would be sending home hundreds of dollars a month to support his struggling family in Mexico. But at times like these, with the American economy out of whack and his son out of work, Mr. Salcedo finds himself doing what he never imagined he would have to do: wiring pesos north.

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.

Dancers and Video Evoke Emotions of Immigration

mexicoinstitute — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:56:55 +0000

Photo by Flickr user di the huntress

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 one, the production is not. The story of Herrera’s mother, Betita, begins with a video collage of footage created by the show’s media designer Olivia Ting.

“I started putting together the collage as an emotional landscape,” said Ting. “I took a lot of elements from a larger visual and pieced it together to make it look like a memory.”

With vivid scenes and strong performances from the nine dancers, the 90-minute production, which also mixes traditional Mexican music with modern percussion, evokes the emotion and struggle of the young immigrant.

Task Force Seeks Ban on Assault Weapons

mexicoinstitute — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:59:20 +0000

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, trade, development and environmental proposals that come as President Obama and his Mexicans counterpart, Felipe Calderón, move to deepen engagement on issues including economic recovery, climate change, illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking.

Robert C. Bonner, the U.S. co-chairman of the private task force, which included several former senior government officials from both countries, said the changes could be included in a follow-up to the Merida initiative, a $1.4 billion three-year commitment of U.S. aid to support Mexico’s crackdown on drug cartels that ends next year.

White House to Begin Push on Immigration Overhaul in 2010

mexicoinstitute — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:40:37 +0000

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 in Washington, Ms. Napolitano sought to dispel any notion that the administration — with health care, energy and other major issues crowding its agenda — might postpone the most contentious piece of an immigration overhaul until after midterm elections next November.

Laying out the administration’s bottom line, she said it will argue for a “three-legged stool” that includes enacting tougher enforcement laws against illegal immigrants and the people who hire them, and streamlining the system for legal immigration, but also what she called a “tough and fair pathway to earned legal status.”

U.S. Meets Immigration Reform Benchmarks: Napolitano

mexicoinstitute — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:35:08 +0000

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 2007 when Congress last failed to overhaul immigration laws.

Forbes: Mexico Kingpin Among World’s Most Powerful

mexicoinstitute — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:59:06 +0000

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 Powerful People.”

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is even considered more powerful than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – No. 67 – and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy – No. 56 – according to Forbes magazine’s list of the 67 “World’s Most Powerful People.” At No. 41, Guzman was just below Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

John King To Take Over Dobbs’s Slot at CNN

mexicoinstitute — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:54:50 +0000

Photo by Flickr user Rauchdickson

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 known for his reporting and neutral approach to politics, while Dobbs has grown increasingly opinionated in recent years, especially on such issues as his opposition to illegal immigration.