Mexico City behaving badly: one man’s crusade to end poor civic habits

08/06/16 The Guardian 

Until recently, Arne Aus den Ruthen roamed one of Mexico City’s more affluent boroughs on the lookout for bad civic behaviour, broadcasting it on Periscope to an outraged population. He exposed people parking on sidewalks, tossing bags of trash out into the street and dumping pylons, bricks and buckets in the street to save parking spots.

He even confronted bodyguards blocking a wheelchair access ramp with their SUVs and refusing to move – only to discover they were waiting for a member of the president’s inner circle to finish a workout at a nearby gym.

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Gov’t seeks to improve fight against pollution in central Mexico

07/12/2016 Fox News Latino

Mexican Environment Secretary Rafael Pacchiano has recommended that the Metropolitan Environmental Commission, or CAME, hold a special meeting to discuss improving air quality in the Mexico City region.

The metro region is comprised of Mexico City and 224 municipalities in the central states of Mexico, Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala.

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Mexico’s ICA to bid for Mexico City airport contracts -report

07/07/16 Reuters

Mexican construction firm ICA will bid to build runways and a terminal at Mexico City’s new airport, local media reported on Thursday.

Luis Zarate, chief executive of ICA, told the newspaper La Jornada that the firm will present documents to participate in a runway bid with a consortium of domestic and foreign firms on Aug. 8.

“It’s a project that interests us … it is a challenge for Mexican engineering and we have the ability to do it,” Zarate was quoted as saying.

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Mexico arrests suspected associate of drug boss ‘El Mayo’ Zambada

07/07/16 Reuters

One of the top suspected associates of Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has been arrested in Mexico City, prosecutors said on Thursday, in a new blow to the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel.

Heriberto Zazueta, alias “El Capi Beto,” was detained on Wednesday by federal agents in coordination with Interpol. There was a warrant for his arrest in Mexico and an order for his extradition to the United States.

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Mexico’s business elite speak out against corruption in an extremely polite protest

06/16/16 Vice News

The Angel of Independence monument in the heart of Mexico City is often overrun by protesters seeking to highlight the grievances that abound in a country with 50 percent poverty and acute inequality.

The demonstrators who took over the landmark this Thursday came from rather different stock.

Instead of stopping traffic, the men and women in suits walked across the street in groups with the help of a traffic officer. Rather than shouting slogans, they played tranquil elevator music out of a PA system. They didn’t hold signs scrawled with insults in black marker. They did spell out their concern with large gold balloons held by younger staff — also in suits.

                                                                   The balloons said “MX without corruption.”

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US to turn drug cartel founder over to Mexico

6/9/2016  The Washington Post 

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Embassy in Mexico says Sinaloa cartel co-founder Hector “El Guero” Palma will be turned over to Mexican authorities after his release from a U.S. prison.

The U.S. bureau of prisons says Palma will be released Saturday. Palma served five years in a Mexican prison before being extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 16 years for transporting 50 kilograms of cocaine.

It is unclear whether Palma still faces any charges in Mexico.

Attorney General Arely Gomez says prosecutors are looking through files for any remaining criminal cases. She said that in some cases the statute of limitations has expired.

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Mexico City is ‘crowdsourcing’ a new constitution. But will it change anything?

6/2/2016 The Guardian 

The impossibility of defining Mexico City, a place where more than 20 million people converge every day, is one of its essential characteristics. From above, you can see pockets of wealth and luxury right next to settlements of extreme poverty; densely populated tenement buildings and large monochromatic swathes of shantytown punctuated by green foliage and, during spring, thick purple flower clusters.

Such contrasts reflect the overwhelming diversity of inhabitants of a city in the process of creating its first political constitution – a reform which, initially at least, was received with deep scepticism. The most important challenge will be to include this kaleidoscopic population in an initiative that aims to reshape the political, economic and social structures of one of the biggest and most chaotic cities in the world – where the average commute is one hour and 21 minutes.

In part, the new constitution is the result of a decades-long struggle that gained momentum when the population spontaneously organised to make up for the incompetence of both federal and local government following the catastrophic 1985 earthquake that killed many thousands of people.

 

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