3/4/2015 Financial Times
How should Mexico combat the “incredulity and distrust” that President Enrique Peña Nieto himself admits has swept the country? Answers on a postcard, please.
More than 8,000 people have done just that. In a campaign launched by civil society groups in November, Mexicans have vented their frustration with the ruling classes by sending in their own proposals for reforming the country. They will make uncomfortable reading for the government.
Leave a Comment » | 
Security and the Rule of Law | Tagged: Rule of Law, Security | 
Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
3/4/2015 BBC News
Omar Trevino Morales, leader of the notorious Zetas drugs cartel in Mexico, has been captured by security forces.
He was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday in the city of Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, police said.
He is believed to have run the Zetas cartel since the capture of his brother, Miguel Angel, in 2013.
The arrest comes days after Mexican police captured another suspected drug lord, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez.
Leave a Comment » | Crime & Violence | Tagged: drug cartels, Los Zetas, Organized Crime | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
3/3/2015 Forbes
The combined net worth of Mexico’s billionaires increased $1.6 billion this year, from $142.9 to $144.5—or 1.12%. Mexican billionaires did better than in 2014, when their combined wealth dropped by 4%, but their aggregate wealth is still below the 2013 level of $148.6 billion.
Based on the 2015 Forbes billionaire data, with a net worth of $77.1 billion (equal to 6.1% of Mexico’s GDP), Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú kept his #2 position in the world’s billionaires rankings for the second consecutive year. In 2014, Slim lost the richest-person-on-the-planet title to Microsoft founder Bill Gates who, according to Forbes, has held the title for 16 of the past 21 years.
Leave a Comment » | Business and Competitiveness | Tagged: Economy, Mexican economy | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
Adam Williams and Angelina Rascouet, Bloomberg, 2/2/2015
Mexico will alter terms of oil blocks being auctioned this year in response to criticism from prospective bidders that crude’s rout made original requirements onerous.
Authorities will release new fiscal terms for shallow water contracts on Friday, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said at an energy summit in London Monday. He spoke after BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said terms “need to be a little more competitive,” echoing comments by Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Mexico’s Alfa SAB.
Leave a Comment » | Business and Competitiveness, Economic Growth | Tagged: Economy, Mexico, Oil | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
ABC News, 2/3/2015
President Enrique Pena is being criticized for having a possible conflict of interest in his nominations for attorney general and Mexico’s highest court.
Critics are blasting his choice of Arely Gomez to replace Jesus Murillo Karam as attorney general because she’s the sister of top Televisa news executive Leopoldo Gomez. He denied Tuesday he had any influence over his sister’s career.
Leave a Comment » | Democracy and Elections | Tagged: EPN, Mexico | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
David Adler, 2/2/2015
MEXICO CITY — Around the corner from two taco stands and a small cantina, in an otherwise nondescript section of Mexico City’s Doctores neighborhood, there is an unmarked storefront known as the “Prepa Popular Tacuba.” On its outside, two large stencils frame the doorway. One depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe, melancholy, clinging to an AK-47. The other is of Emiliano Zapata, leader of Mexico’s biggest peasant revolution, scowling, looking outward. A poster below him carries the faces of Mexico’s missing 43 students.
Inside, in a large, dimly lit classroom, several leaders of Mexico City’s Urban Popular Movement convene for their weekly meeting. On the whiteboard, someone writes the details of an upcoming march in red marker. Others pass around copies of “Norma 26,” a law that regulates the construction of low-income housing in Mexico City. The rest of the members of the movement — a collection of local community organizations fighting for housing rights — sip instant coffee, eat biscuits and deliberate. “We must defend the city,” one leader said. “This is a matter of our right to the city, and we must defend it.”
Leave a Comment » | Democracy and Elections, Media and Society | Tagged: Mexico, Mexico City, Norma 26 | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
ABC News, 2/2/2015
For the third time in less than a month, the Mexican government has condemned the killing of one of its citizens by police in the United States.
The Mexican government on Monday said in a statement that it had called on the U.S. Justice Department to look at the cases for suspected excessive force.
Leave a Comment » | Crime & Violence | Tagged: Mexico, U.S.-Mexico Relations, Violence | Permalink
Posted by mexicoinstitute
