U.S. embargo of Cuba is 50 years old today

News Analysis - Nothing to celebrate on this Golden Anniversary, either in Washington or Havana

The Cold War economic embargo of the island nation which is but 100 miles off the Florida keys was imposed by president John F. Kennedy on this date five decades ago. Measured by the goal of removing the Castro regime, its declared purpose, the embargo has been a miserable failure and an example of disastrous foreign policy. Fidel and Raul Castro still control Cuba, and they've outlasted 10 successive American presidents - 11 counting Barack Obama.

Cuba calculates that the embargo has cost the island nation (adjusting for inflation and currency changes) over $1 trillion USD since 1962. But the embargo has taken its economic toll on the United States, too. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a 2009 report - harshly critical of the embargo on purely pragmatic grounds - that maintaining it strips America's economy of $1.2 billion per year in lost sales and exports. Last fall, for the 20th consecutive year, the United Nations called upon the United States to abandon the embargo immediately - by a vote of 186-2.

Mexicans prepare to testify in Malaysian drug case, facing death penalty

Enfrentan tres mexicanos en malasia cargos que llevan pena de muerte; serán juzgados esta semana y tienen derecho de declararse

Kuala Lumpur -- Three Mexican men facing the death penalty in a Malyasian criminal court will finally get the chance to tell their side of the story this week. But if the court rejects their testimony, they'll be one step closer to the gallows.

Mexico's Caribbean Riviera Maya in the hands of drug cartels and extortionists

Quintana Roo businessmen and citizens call for Mexican army to replace local police

*Updates below*
In recent months I've written about the deteriorating security situation on Mexico's Caribbean coast, the famed Rivera Maya. The area consists of such well-known resort communities as Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Isla de Mujeres and others, all of which are in Quintana Roo state, just east of Yucatán.

In October 2011 I posted a brief report entitled Los Zetas Taking over Rivera Maya. Readers have devoured that story. It probably opened the eyes of many who had no idea that this lush region on Mexico's southeast coast is quietly being taken over by the same elements which have wreaked havoc in other parts of Mexico, including the prime west coast resort of Acapulco.

López Obrador repeats promise to pull Mexican military forces from drug war

News analysis - a very bad idea, which fortunately will go absolutely nowhere

Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador today repeated a promise he made last fall. If elected president, he'll remove Mexico's armed forces entirely from the 62 month old drug war launched by president Felipe Calderón in December 2006. It's a repeat of what López Obrador first trial-ballooned in November 2011 (http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/lopez-obrador-begins-campaign-with-bold.html). The PRD nominee says the military will be "returned to their quarters" within six months after he takes office.

Although the announcement is nothing new, it places López Obrador in sharp contrast to PAN candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, who handily won her party's nomination last night (Feb. 5). Vázquez Mota has repeatedly emphasized that she'll stay the course and keep the army in the fight until local security forces -- including hundreds of thousands of municipal officers -- are ready to resume community policing duties, particularly in those areas which are cartel enclaves.

This issue, about which I have written many times, is an absolute no-brainer. López Obrador -- whom I respect -- is dead wrong on this ridiculous proposal. Pulling military forces from the drug war at this point would be an invitation to disaster. The hyperbolic "failed-state" and "civil war" theorizing in which some uninformed commentators love to engage when discussing Mexico's brutal struggle against the drug cartels might actually take on a degree of credibility were the country's military pulled from the hunt for narcos.

Josefina and Enrique

Opinion - Win or lose, Vázquez Mota will teach "Mexico's Great Hope" a few things

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900-1965) was a rare U.S. politician of another era. I'll venture that most Americans under 60 have never heard of him, which is unfortunate. Stevenson was a highly capable leader of the Democratic Party who often carried the torch for liberal causes, a man of keen intellect, an excellent orator and a person of quiet dignity whose honor was unimpeachable. Few modern politicians -- in the United States or Mexico --remotely resemble Adlai Stevenson.

Stevenson was the 31st governor of Illinois. He was also twice the Democratic nominee for president, in 1952 and 1956. He lost both times to the Republican candidate, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stevenson can be forgiven for losing. It was all but impossible to beat a retired U.S. Army general who had just saved the Western world from Adolf Hitler.

Right after his second heart-breaking defeat, Stevenson was asked how he felt: His reply: "Well, I feel like the little boy who got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and in the darkness he stubbed his toe against the bedpost. He was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh."

Enrique Peña Nieto should remember those words. He may find they describe his own emotions come Sunday, July 1.

Josefina Vázquez Mota sweeps PAN primary with convincing 55% win

PANista will be first female presidential candidate in Mexico's history; calls PRI and Enrique Peña Nieto "authoritarian, corrupt" and a "great threat to Mexico"

Josefina Vázquez Mota made history this evening by capturing her party's nomination to become the first woman presidential candidate of a major party in Mexico's 202 years of statehood. With 90% of the internal ballots counted, Vázquez Mota is handily winning 55% of the votes cast by PAN party regulars.

The big surprise tonight is the abrupt reversal of position by her two male opponents. Ernesto Cordero, who just days ago was all but out of the race with only 10% support according to recent polls, leaped ahead in the final week of the primary campaign and has captured 38% of the vote. Santiago Creel, who had enjoyed solid 20-25% support based upon those same polls, has ended up far back in third place with just over 6% of the vote. About 547,000 PAN party members participated in the primary selection process.

PAN primary balloting under way

Mexico's National Action Party (PAN) is selecting its 2012 presidential nominee today. As many as 500,000 party regulars will vote for the candidate who they hope will keep PAN in Los Pinos, Mexico's White House, for six more years.

The three candidates vying for the right to be PAN's standard bearer are Josefina Vázquez Mota, Santiago Creel and Ernesto Cordero. The winner will face off against Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), on July 1.

Six Canadians involved in fatal accident near Mérida; three Mexicans killed

Mérida, Yucatán -- Six Canadians travelling in a van near Mérida were involved in a fatal auto accident last night (Feb. 4) which claimed the lives of three young Mexican men.

Police say the driver of the van, Jean François Beaudet, crossed the center line and collided head on with a taxi. The cab driver, 26, and his front seat passenger, 27, were killed instantly. A third man in the rear seat died hours later at a local hospital. All three men were trapped in the crushed taxi and had to be extricated by emergency responders.

Accused Canadian enters not guilty plea; alleges abuse in Mexican jail

Cynthia Ann Vanier claims "physical, mental and emotional abuse" while incarcerated

Chetumal, Quintana Roo -- The Canadian woman accused of being the brains behind a conspiracy to smuggle a son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi into Mexico appeared in a criminal court in this Caribbean coast city yesterday (Feb. 3), to enter a formal plea to the charges. Cynthia Vanier, of Mount Forest, Ontario, is being held at a prison facility far away from the condominium which she owns in Mexico City, where she was arrested last year. The property allegedly has been seized by the government.

Vanier entered a plea of not guilty during the hearing, which was the equivalent of an arraignment under U.S. law. She told the judge that she had been "physically, mentally and emotionally abused" during her incarceration, but did not elaborate on the claims.

López Obrador: "I don't speak English, and I don't pretend to"

PRD nominee says he'll rely on translators, giving him "more time to think"

Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador laid in to the presidential heir apparent today, alleging that Enrique Peña Nieto, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) nominee, is 100% stage-managed. López Obrador didn't spare the Mexican media, either, whom he accused of conspiring to boost the front-runner.

"But people are starting to realize who this (Peña Nieto) really is, they've been completely deceived until now, what with the media's management of him and all, and they still protect him so carefully when he's on television," said PRD's nominee. Referring to questionable financial practices by PRI that surfaced last week, which the national press has shown little interest in pursuing, López Obrador said, "If it had been us, there would have been news bulletins every few minutes."

U.S. citizen arrested in Havana fuels speculation: another Alan Gross case?

A Miami newspaper today reported that a Cuban-born American citizen has been arrested by state security police in Havana and is facing criminal charges there.

José Ramón Darias Tarrago, 51, is a resident of Homestead, Fla. He arrived in the United States from Cuba in 1995 and is married to Viviana Darias, also 51, who left Cuba in 1992. The couple married in the U.S. and later became naturalized citizens. They have a 15 year old son.

Viviana Darias related this information in an interview with the Spanish language paper, El Nuevo Herald:

As PAN primary campaign winds down, López Obrador says he'll hug the bad guys

Presidential contest field will be narrowed to three on Sunday, February 5

Of Mexico's three major political parties, only one -- the National Action Party (PAN) -- has not yet selected it's 2012 presidential standard bearer. It will do so this Sunday, Feb. 5. The primary is an internal survey of registered party members, not an election open to the general public.

Unless something changes drastically in the next 72 hours, the PAN choice will be Josefina Vázquez Mota. A late January poll showed her with a commanding 60% support, compared to opponents Santiago Creel with 26%, and Ernesto Cordero far back in third place with just 10%. Vázquez Mota, who turned 51 last month, will become Mexico's first female presidential candidate if she captures the PAN nomination.

U.S. missionaries murdered near Monterrey

Monterrey, Nuevo León -- An American missionary couple who had spent much of the last 30 years working in Mexico were found murdered yesterday (Feb. 1) in Santiago, Mexico, a town 20 miles south of this major commercial center of four million people. Authorities said both died by strangulation, and robbery may have been the motive.

John Frank Casias, 77, and Wanda Casias, 67, were discovered in their rural home by a son who lives in nearby Monterrey. The house was in disarray when their bodies were discovered, and valuables, including a vehicle, were missing. Both victims appeared to have been beaten.

Argentine woman appears before Mexican federal prosecutors to present evidence of prostitution ring; implicates her father with Los Zetas, crooked INM agents

Accuser is under heavy security due to "death threats" by "ex-spy" Raúl Martins

When I posted 48 hours ago on the Lorena Martins story, I suspected that her about-to-be-delivered allegations would be a bit spicy -- as sex scandals usually are. But they've turned out to be green chile hot, and not just because prostitution is the underlying theme.

Martins, 35, is an Argentine who claims that her father, Raúl Martins, runs an international prostitution ring which imports women to Mexico. By itself that wouldn't be much of a story, except that Raúl once worked as a secret agent for Argentina's Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado (State Intelligence Dept.). The Latin press takes delight in referring to him as an "ex-spy."

Canadian woman, three others to stand trial in failed Gaddafi smuggling plot

Mexican government says group's motive was "to make a large quantity of money"

In December, MGRR reported on an international plot to smuggle one of the sons of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, together with members of his immediate family, into Mexico (links below).

The conspiracy, discovered last year by intelligence services here, is said to have involved several foreign nationals, including a Canadian woman, a Dane and two Mexicans, all of whom were taken into custody. Mexican authorities refer to their breakup of the plan as Operación Huésped.