The arrest of a notorious Mexican mobster belonging to the Zetas cartel is a significant accomplishment for President Pena Nieto, but it won’t tame the bloodshed.
Tag: mexico
EL UNIVERSAL (Mexico), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch MICHOACAN – Twenty gang members and two federal police officers were killed in late- night clashes between the police and the Knights Templar drug cartel in this southeastern Mexican state, El Universal reports Friday. Police say 15 of its officers were injured when members of the drug cartel ambushed […]
Categories
Mexico Captures Zeta Cartel Leader
SDP NOTICIAS (Mexico), DALLAS MORNING NEWS (USA) Worldcrunch MEXICO – Mexican Marines have captured Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, leader of the Zetas, one of the most brutal and feared cartel of the country. Late Monday, the Mexican government confirmed the arrest earlier in the day of the man knows as “El Z-40.” Treviño Morales was […]
BUENOS AIRES – Last month, at the magnificent Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (“Palace of Flowing Waters“) in Buenos Aires, representatives from 12 Latin American countries came together to discuss something so basic, and so vital. How can we work together in our region to make best use of that priceless resource: water? I had the […]
Inside the demographics and economics of an aging planet.
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – If we based our knowledge of Latin America on Amnesty International’s latest global human rights report, we would believe that there is no real justice in the region, violence is on the rise, police regular torture citizens, that there are multiple attempts to exterminate indigenous groups, and organized crime is gaining ground. […]
Categories
Magazines, Mapped! Week Of May 10
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.
Worldcrunch El Financiero reported this week that child labor abuses affect at least three million kids in Mexico: long workdays, minimal or no payment, informal jobs, and more blatent abuse are constant factors in their daily lives. The last official numbers on underage workers were released in 2011 and indicated that about 870,000 boys and […]
TAPACHULA – “I’ve come here to earn money, and then I’ll go back home…” Josefina Perez talks as she cuts coffee trees with a machete on the 617-acre Irlanda farm perched on the Tacana volcano in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Like this 40-year-old seasonal worker, more than 100,000 Guatemalans cross the border each year […]
CIUDAD JUAREZ – A maquiladora, or maquila, is an offshoring factory or manufacturing plant operated under U.S.-Mexico free trade agreements to encourage the development of industry in Mexico. Mexico allows materials used in maquilas to enter duty-free, provided the finished product is then immediately exported out of Mexico. The U.S. in turn charges these products […]
Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – We’re not sure if this is fodder for a Disney cartoon feature, or a Stephen King horror movie: a woman in her car was caught on video by a fellow motorist trying to abandon her dog on the streets of the Xochimilco district of Mexico City. The faithful pooch, who appears […]
Categories
Mexico City Bans Salt Shakers
EL UNIVERSAL (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – About 200,000 restaurants, taverns and cafés in the Mexican capital removed saltshakers from their tables – permanently – on April 4. The move, reports El Universal, is part of an effort to raise awareness on the dangers of a high sodium diet and its correlation to hypertension and […]
TURIN – Music and organized crime are a duo that have gone hand-in-hand since way back when. Outlaws often see songs as a way to glorify what they do, creating legends that inspire as well as frighten the regions they come to dominate. The Mexico we hear about today is said to be held hostage […]
Mexico’s New President Peña Nieto’s has pushed through a sweeping reform of the telecoms and TV sector, which could undo the monopoly that turned Carlos Slim into the world’s richest man.
El UNIVERSAL (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Let’s call it spot-a-cop! The Mexico City’s Ministry of Public Security has dubbed it Mi Policia (My Police), a smartphone app launched this week that uses GPS technology to allow smartphone users to communicate with their local police directly, and in real-time, reports El Universal. This is believed […]
EL DIARIO, SEXENIO (Mexico), LA PRENSA (Honduras), LA VOZ (Argentina), LAVANGUARDIA (Spain) Worldcrunch Latin America’s time has come. The papacy is ours for the taking. Strong candidates walking into the conclave, and more than 40% of the world’s Catholics come from this region. This is exactly what Latin America’s faithful, and newspapers, were saying back […]
Worldcrunch With the conclave set to begin Tuesday afternoon, the lists of papabili are being narrowed down and scrutinized by the Cardinals gathered at the Vatican. Back in the home countries and dioceses of the top contenders, the secret vote to choose the successor of Benedict XVI can be viewed with a mix of pride […]
-Editorial- MEXICO CITY – There are many possible interpretations of the sudden and public imprisonment of the extravagant Elba Esther Gordillo, who until a couple of days ago was the president of the Mexican teachers’ union, and who is accused of having embezzled $160 million from the union. Gordillo is known throughout Mexico as “The […]
LA CRÓNICA, EXCELSIOR (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Ciudad Victoria, a city in one of the most dangerous states in Mexico today, Tamaulipas, was recently flooded with brochures offering money for information on the people behind a project called “Valor por Tamaulipas” (Courage for Tamaulipas). The project is indeed courageous, aiming to diffuse information regarding […]
MEXICO CITY – My neighborhood dealer was a low-class guy. We went to the same public school, but he was few years younger than me. He was never very bright nor did he excel in anything; he spent his afternoons standing outside his house or at the street corner, without bothering anyone, and with no […]
BUENOS AIRES – A new exhibition at Buenos Aires” Palais de Glace museum delves into the colorful and high-flying world of Lucha Libre – the freestyle wrestling so popular in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. In Lucha Libre, the good guys are called “tecnicos” (technicians) while the bad guys – who wear even more […]
EL UNIVERSAL, MILENIO (Mexico) Worldcrunch TOLUCA – Forbes magazine named her the “most powerful woman in Mexico” in 2012, but now Elba Esther Gordillo, 68, is under arrest for embezzling more than $156 million dollars from the country’s main teachers union. Esther Gordillo, former head of Mexico’s long-ruling PRI party and longtime teachers union chief, […]
Some Mexican leaders say immigration reform is simply a domestic matter to be left for Washington to resolve. But the stakes for Mexico are simply too big.
EL UNIVERSAL (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Linguistic experts have identified as many as 364 different dialects in modern Mexico, with at least 100 people speaking each linguistic variation. But this wealth of language diversity risks disappearing. Javier López Sánchez, director of the National Indigenous Languages Institute in Mexico (INALI), says that currently 64 dialects […]
AYUTLA – In the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero, residents of about 15 municipalities have decided to form a “community police” to confront the drug cartels. “The state,” says one farmer matter-of-factly, “has abandoned us.” A commander of the group, who goes by the moniker G1, is talking in the parking lot of the Aurrera […]
SANTIAGO – The recent decision of the U.S. Justice department to block the acquisition of Mexican beer giant Grupo Modelo by the Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev came as a surprise. The $20 billion acquisition was announced last June, and what’s surprising is that neither company involved is technically an American company. Belgium-based multinational AB InBev is […]
EFE, ANIMANATURALIS (MEXICO) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of animal rights activists in Mexico City took to the streets this weekend to call for an end to bullfighting in Mexico, reports EFE. More than 200 activists took their clothes off and poured fake blood on themselves during the demonstration. They planted fake “banderillas” on themselves, […]
LIBERATION, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, L’EXPRESS, FRANCE INFO (France), REFORMACOM (Mexico) Worldcrunch Florence Cassez, a French woman sentenced to 60 years in jail in Mexico for kidnapping, is on her way back to France. Cassez, 38, is expected to land in Thursday afternoon in Paris, where she will be welcomed by France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs […]
PROCESO (Mexico), AMERICA ECONOMIA (Latin America) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – It is being hailed as the first-ever Mexican counterpart to the CIA. But for this new “superministry” of government, established secretly over the past few weeks by just-installed President Enrique Peña Nieto, the main targets are the powerful and bloody organized crime networks that control […]
Some skeptics, though, wonder whether all the enthusiasm for the developing world has created a sort of emerging market “bubble”.
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – The recent corruption scandal involving Walmart in Mexico has coincided with the last corruption ranking by Transparency International. The giant American retailer, which also has stores in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and several Central American countries, has been accused of systematically paying bribes in Mexico that total more than $24 million over the […]
MEXICO CITY – “We say small here, not tall,” reminds a notice, written in black letters on the wall of this new chain of Mexican coffee shops. If coffee isn’t enough, there is also chocolate: hot, cold or with chili pepper that leaves consumers with a slightly burning throat. It’s been around for barely two […]
EL NORTE (Mexico), CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – At least 17 people were killed in a Northern Mexico prison on Tuesday, reports El Norte. Eleven inmates and six guards died in a shootout as the prisoners attempted to escape the prison through tunnels, reports CNN. “The inmates started to shoot with […]
SANTIAGO – Enrique Peña Nieto hasn’t stopped moving. Since he took over as president of Mexico, two weeks ago, he has signed enough documents and made enough promises to keep his government busy for the whole six years they have in front of them. In his inaugural address, he laid out a 13-point plan with […]
CNN, LOS ANGELES TIMES (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera died Sunday in a plane crash in northern Mexico, reports BBC News. Photo Jenni Rivera Jenni’s father, Pedro Rivera, confirmed the death of the Latin music and reality TV star as well as the deaths of every member on […]
TIJUANA – The sinister stairs seem to lead down into a small hell. Illuminated with red lights and beating to the sounds of hard rock music, the air hangs with the smell of marijuana and sweat in a sticky cloud that engulfs everything. The destination is the basement, which has become one of the most […]
MEXICO CITY – There are a lot of good restaurants in Ciudad de México – Mexico’s capital city (its name sounds a lot more dashing in Spanish than the English Mexico City used by most). Authentic Mexican cuisine is excellent, and Mexicans like to eat well – with little room to spare. So forget everything […]
TIJUANA – There is a party going on across the wall. You can hear the sounds of families and friends, and good fun. Adriana walks towards the fence and explains that further away, some kids are flying kites. But the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. From where we stand, we won’t be able […]
MEXICO CITY – More blood and more death. Mexico’s drug wars seem to be getting crueler and more sadistic by the year. Of all the players involved, probably no one is more responsible for the increasing violence than Miguel Angel Treviño, a.k.a. ‘Z-40,’ who has just taken over control of the notorious Los Zetas cartel […]
SANTIAGO – It’s July of 1990, and the two Germany’s have just united, marking the end of the Cold War, and capped with West Germany’s soccer World Cup victory over Argentina. As the images of the defeated players travelled the world (who can forget Diego Maradona’s tears?), in New York, a Latin American company was […]