DAILY LINKS
The Nation has a long, wonky, wonderful article on Mexican maize cultivation, the effects of NAFTA, and the dangers of genetically-modified seeds. Author Peter Canby backs up his excellent writing with piles and piles of meticulous research. Not to be missed. [link, via SM] (Image from Joel Penner.)
Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas ended his hunger strike yesterday after 134 days. Farinas decided to end his strike after the Cuban government said it would release political prisoners rounded up in the "Black Spring" crackdown of 2003. Get well soon. [link]
The Uruguayan selection, which has made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup, just received a shipment of half a ton of fine cuts of beef for the mother of all asados in preparation for a contest against Ghana on Friday: "450 kilos of lomo, 200 of entrecot, 75 of vacío, 75 of colita de cuadril, 150 of ojo de bife and 50 kg of picaña." [link]
Hitmen have assassinated the PRI candidate for governor of Tamaulipas State, Rodolfo Torre Cantú. Torre was gunned down along with six others at about 10:30 this morning on a highway on the way to a campaign event. Drug mafias are assumed to be responsible. [link]
From the days when coups were something of a regional sport, new documents detail a famous British ballerina's role in a plot to topple the government of Panama. The plan was to use her yacht to gather men and arms, then "land somewhere and collect in the hills." It didn't work. [link]
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has posted on its web site irrefutable evidence that gold-plated AR-15s and diamond-studded pistol grips are not nearly as cool-looking as they sound. The deadly knick-knack collection is said to belong to Valencia Cartel leader El Lobo. [link]
Two Brazilian ranchers were sentenced to 30 years in prison apiece for ordering the killing of an environmentalist nun: "Prosecutors said the pair offered to pay a gunman $25,000 to kill the 73-year-old [Dorothy] Stang because she had prevented them from stealing a piece of land that the government had granted to a group of poor farmers." [link]
This video of a kidnapping and car chase in Mexico is notable mainly for the bad-assitude of the TV journalists who were on this like white on rice. Well done, gentlemen.
The Economist takes a peak at the Mockus phenomenon in Colombia: "His moustacheless beard gives him the air of a Baltic pastor... He is financing his campaign with a bank overdraft. His supporters rely on Facebook and make their own posters; street vendors sell unofficial campaign T-shirts." [link]
Some cruise lines will cease traveling to Antarctica after this cruise season, as a ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil goes into effect next year. The ban came after a 2007 incident when a Gap Adventures ship got punctured by ice and sank, causing a mess. [link]
Category Archives: Mexico
Though it’s been revealed that the Vatican has received a total of 3,000 complaints of pederasty from around the world this decade, the Mexican Episcopal Conference tells La Jornada that it does not keep track of the number of complaints originating in Mexico, nor plans to do so, claiming Church policy is to pass the [...]
Also posted in Side notes | Leave a comment
Good point
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego told a group of journalists that Mexico should legalize the consumption of drugs. He’s apparently suggested this before, to the Fox administration, to no avail. But aside from the broad idea that prohibition never works, he’s making a specific appeal to basic fairness: Salinas Pliego said that the United States [...]
‘Magic wands’ not so magic
Mexico spent $10 million on drug-and-explosives finding “magic wands” that basically don’t work. The UK is trying to block the company that makes the GT 200 from exporting any more. Here is what should have been Mexico’s first clue that it had been conned: Promotional materials on the Internet describe the GT 200 as a [...]
After getting disastrous results, the U.S. government is suspending work on a virtual fence that was eventually supposed to extend along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The AP says this basically means the project is dead. The $50 million in stimulus funds earmarked for the pilot project will now be wasted elsewhere. The virtual fence has [...]
Also posted in Side notes, War on drugs Leave a comment
All a big misunderstanding?
The FBI says the killing of the American consulate workers in Juárez was a big misunderstanding, reports the AP: According to the line of investigation, the assailants — believed to be aligned with the Juarez drug cartel — may have been ordered to attack a white SUV leaving a party and mistakenly went to the [...]
Casaulties
I wonder if anyone has ever tried to tally up the total economic, social, and political cost of the war on drugs. Over half a century, it has killed thousands of people, militarized rural areas, criminalized whole generations of minorities, corrupted police forces, eroded civil rights, cost billions of dollars, and destabilized entire countries. All [...]
Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, is struggling to keep production up. In six years, production has dropped by 1 million barrels a day, to 2.5 million, and if the free-fall continues Mexico will become a net importer of petroleum within the decade. The largest potential new oil reserves are in deep water in the Gulf [...]
Also posted in Economy, Side notes Leave a comment
Mexico’s Supreme Court rules against human rights commission
Bad news for human rights in Mexico. The Supreme Court ruled today that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) can withhold information related to ongoing investigations from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) if it so chooses. More specifically, the ruling upheld Article 5 of the Attorney General Act, which states: [The PGR] will provide information [...]
Patrick Corcoran has written a nice essay on why Mexican President Felipe Calderón is screwing the pooch with his security policy: “[T]he impression [is] that the administration, rather than adopting a detached and objective perspective of Mexican security, is simply addressing issues according to their importance in the media. Instead of guiding public opinion, the [...]
Also posted in Side notes, War on drugs Leave a comment
Subsidies for drug traffickers
One of the longstanding, legitimate criticisms of NAFTA is that it put small farmers out of business by flooding Mexico with subsidized (and therefore cheap) U.S. corn. Apparently, Mexico had a mechanism in place to keep that from happening, in the form of its own subsidy program. As a cynical person such as myself might [...]
