NPR, 4/12/13
Mattel says its “Dolls of the World” line of Barbies come with passports, stamps and, with many of the toys, an “animal friend.” But the toy company’s been getting some criticism this week for “Mexico Barbie,” is “dressed for a fabulous fiesta in her vibrant pink dress with ruffles, lace and brightly colored ribbon accent” and is “sold with a pet Chihuahua, a passport and a sticker sheet to record her travels.”
Leave a Comment » | 
Mexican Culture | Tagged: Barbie, Chihuahua, controversy, Mattel, Passport | 
Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
La Jornada, 3/8/2013
61% of femicides concentrate in the State of Mexico, Chihuahua, DF, Guerrero, Baja California, Jalisco, Michoacan, and Veracruz. Records also indicate that some municipalities in these states have femicide rates above the national level.
Leave a Comment » | Media and Society, Mexican Culture | Tagged: Baja California, Chihuahua, DF, dia internacional de la mujer, femicide, Feminicide, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Mexico State, Michoacan, Veracruz, Violence, Women | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
El Universal 2/14/2012
Las nueve entidades que registran una tendencia creciente de homicidios de mujeres son Chiapas, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal, Durango, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Sinaloa y Sonora, según un estudio presentado por la subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos de la Secretaría de Gobernación, Lía Limón, en el Senado de la República.
El estudio también analiza las particularidades de cada zona. En el noreste del país, por ejemplo, una mujer de 20 a 24 años tiene 39 veces más riesgo de morir por homicidio, que una mujer de la misma edad de la zona centro del país.
Leave a Comment » | Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Chihuahua, DF, Durango, femicides, Guerrero, human rights, Mexico, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Senate, Sinaloa, Sonora, violence against women, Women | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/14/2013
A new surge of killing, kidnapping and extortion is the latest sign that the violent crime wave in Mexico has not subsided since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office and could grow further in the weeks to come, U.S. law enforcement officials say. Fresh intelligence indicates that the paramilitary group known as the Zetas is pushing farther into northern Coahuila and Chihuahua states, threatening to reignite deadly violence in areas bordering Texas, including Ciudad Juárez.
Leave a Comment » | Democracy and Elections, Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, Coahuila, Lost Zetas, President Peña Nieto | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Al Jazeera, 7/24/2012
The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces “don’t fight drug traffickers”, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico has told Al Jazeera, instead “they try to manage the drug trade”.
Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico’s most violent states – one which directly borders Texas – going on the record with such accusations is unique.
Leave a Comment » | Democracy and Elections, Media and Society, Mexican Culture, Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Central Intelligence Agency, Chihuahua, DEA, Drug trade, Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, Hector Murguia, mayor of Juarez | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Animal Politico, 7/18/12
In the municipality of San Francisco de Conchos, Chihuahua, 90% of the police force quit on Tuesday due to the recent wave of violence; the officers said that they lacked equipment and plans to confront the violence. The municipality, which has about 3,000 people, had 12 murders in the past 4 weeks. Only four policemen remained on staff, and federal and state police were sent in and will remain until new police can be hired.
Leave a Comment » | Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Chihuahua, Police | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
The Washington Times, 5/14/12
When a jumbo jetliner touches down almost anywhere in the world, the last thing on the pilot’s mind is that the plane’s brakes likely were made in the capital of one of the most crime-riddled states in Mexico. Behind the headlines of warring drug gangs and a soaring murder rate in Mexico, a fast-growing high-tech economy centered on the aerospace industry has sprung up in recent years.
In Chihuahua City alone, 36 aerospace plants have opened since 2007 as a growing number of international parts makers use the city as a base for tapping a massive airplane-production market in the United States. “Our first objective was to get into the U.S. market and get a deal with U.S. customers,” said Nicolas Maillard, director of the French-owned Manoir Aerospace plant in Chihuahua City, 235 miles south of El Paso, Texas.
Shiny, precision-shaped steel discs produced by the plant are shipped to companies in Ohio and Kentucky, where they are added into the assembly line for brake systems on the Boeing Co.’s commercial airplanes. With the average cost of manufacturing labor running about $6 per hour in the city, a new era of high-tech growth is taking root. “The real advantage is the cost of labor,” Mr. Maillard said. “In France, labor would account for about 30 percent of the cost of production on an item like this. Here, it’s roughly 10 percent, and we’re closer to the market we’re trying to reach.”
Leave a Comment » | Business and Competitiveness, Economic Integration, U.S.-Mexico Border | Tagged: Chihuahua, North American trade, U.S.-Mexico Trade, Working Together: Economic Ties between the United States and Mexico | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Reforma, 3/12/2012
Photo by Flickr User Alterna2
The organizers of a concert of the popular musical band, Los Tigres del Norte, were fined by the local government of Chihuahua because the band sung narcocorridos (a.k.a. drug ballads) during its performance at a cattle fair last Sunday. According to municipal law of Chihuahua, every music group must refrain from singing with lyrics that contain references to violence and drug trafficking. The fine total is of approximately 20,000 Mexican pesos and might include a ban to the Tigres del Norte from ever performing again during the present local administration in Chihuahua that lasts through 2013.
Leave a Comment » | Mexican Culture, Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Chihuahua, Los Tigres del Norte, narcocorrido | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
CNN México, 9/13/11
Pobladores del municipio de Uruachi, en la sierra del estado de Chihuahua, al norte de México, están dispuestos a tomar las armas para enfrentar a un grupo de 12 pistoleros que mantiene cercada a la comunidad, informó este lunes el alcalde Aldo Campos.
“Nos tienen rodeados. Desde aquí se ven los hombres armados que están en las montañas y lo peligroso es que la gente del pueblo se está armando para enfrentarlos”, dijo Campos en conferencia de prensa.
El alcalde de Uruachi dijo que los supuestos sicarios se han colocado en los cerros que rodean a la población. Campos explicó que el viernes pasado llegaron unos 12 hombres armados y desde entonces se han dado una serie de enfrentamientos con otras bandas que han dejado varias viviendas dañadas.
“Lo preocupante aquí es que ya se metieron con la sociedad. No tenemos miedo y sabemos qué hacer. Los jóvenes ya están buscando las armas”, agregó.
Leave a Comment » | Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Chihuahua, gunmen, Security, Uruachi, Violence | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Los Angeles Times, 9/12/11
As Mexico’s drug war grinds on, violent homicide has overtaken car accidents as the leading cause of death of young people in the country, reports the Mexico City daily El Universal.
Government statistics reviewed by the newspaper show that in 2008 and 2009, the second and third complete years of Mexico’s drug war, violent deaths of people between 15 and 29 shot up about 150%. The figures rose almost equally across various narrower age brackets within that group.
Half of those homicides occurred in five states that include some of those worst hit by the current violence: Chihuahua, Baja California, Guerrero, Sinaloa and the state of Mexico, on the border with Mexico City. Violence is now the leading cause of death among Mexicans between the ages of 15 and 29, overtaking car accidents, the report said.
The federal government’s database on deaths tied to organized crime shows 1,638 young people were killed in suspected drug-related attacks in 2008, a number that rose to 2,511 in 2009 and 3,741 in 2010.
Leave a Comment » | Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Baja California, Chihuahua, drug violence, Drug War, Organized Crime, Sinaloa | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
