Mexico Considers Sweetening Contract Terms After Crude Rout

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.

read more…

Mexico Upset by Presidential Appointments for Key Posts

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.

Read more…

The Fight for Mexico City’s Future

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.”

Read more…

Mexico Condemns Run of Mexican Citizens Killed by US Police

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.

Read more…

Top Mexican Drug Cartel Leaders Captured or Killed in Recent Years

The Associated Press, U.S. News and World Report, 2/27/2015

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Recent captures or killings of top Mexican drug cartel leaders:

— Feb. 27, 2015: Authorities say federal police capture Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, one of the world’s most-wanted drug lords who once terrorized Michoacan state as leader of the Knights Templar cartel.

— Oct. 9, 2014: Mexican officials announce the arrest of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, purported leader of the Juarez cartel.

Read more…

Mexico Sells €2.50 Billion in Euro Bonds Due 2024 and 2045

Anthony Harrup, Wall Street Journal, 2/26/2015

MEXICO CITY—The Mexican government sold €2.5 billion in nine-year and 30-year bonds Thursday, securing record low yields for the maturities and completing most of its international capital markets financing needs for 2015, a Finance Ministry official said Thursday.

Alejandro Díaz de León, head of public credit at the ministry, said demand for the bonds was 3.5 times the amount sold, with around 400 investors placing more than 600 orders.

Read more…

Mexico, U.S. Bust People Trafficking Network

Fox News Latino, 2/26/2015

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office and U.S. immigration authorities have broken up a network that smuggled undocumented Latin Americans to the United States, arresting 42 people, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced Thursday.

On Monday, the 42 people arrested were charged with people trafficking, rape of an unaccompanied minor, sexually abusing migrants, illegal deprivation of freedom and other crimes, the embassy said.

Read more…