It's back to school day in Mexico, but continued teacher strikes idle almost a million students in Oaxaca

Labor unions show relentless opposition to PRI education modernization efforts

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca -
Classes resumed today for millions of Mexican elementary and secondary students, but even before thousands of school houses had opened their doors a powerful teachers' union called strikes in the southwestern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, which could quickly spread to other areas.

The union, La Coordinadora Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), told about 70,000 of its members to boycott classes in Oaxaca. The state has a population of 3.9 million, slightly over a million of whom are enrolled in school. Local officials reported that only about 40,000 were in classes this morning, with an estimated 977,000 stuck at home. Authorities said that as many as 13,000 schools were affected by the strike.

Mexican army captures leader of Gulf Cartel

The new PRI government scores again, with latest takedown of a key narco boss

*Updated Aug. 18*
Guadalajara -
Mexican authorities reported late this afternoon that federal security forces earlier today captured Mario Armando Ramírez Treviño, leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel, one of the country's largest drug trafficking and criminal organizations.

A joint communique issued by the secretaries of government, national defense and by the attorney general said Ramírez Treviño, 51, whose aliases include El Pelón and X20, was captured by Mexican army units in Río Bravo county in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, bordering Texas. The area, thick with U.S. bound drug trafficking routes, has long been an epicenter of narco violence. A U.S. Marine was kidnapped in the region on May 14 and has yet to be found.

The death house on Lope de Vega

It was only a walk of two blocks from Guadalajara's American Consulate to his car, but DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar ended up here instead

Guadalajara -
The house at 881 Lope de Vega in Guadalajara's Colonia Jardines del Bosque has virtually nothing to distinguish it from many others in the neighborhood. In the late afternoon sun the remnants of a faded campaign sign for 2012 National Action Party presidential candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota are just discernible on a whitewashed wall surrounding the property. An electrified wire designed to keep out the uninvited runs atop, though there's nothing unusual about that in this city. The wall has a wooden door; it looks like it is rarely if ever opened. The property yields no clues about its current occupants or its terrifying history, but people walking down the street tend to choose the opposite sidewalk.

Mexico claims drug war deaths are plummeting

. . . but it may not sell everywhere

Guadalajara -
Mexico's secretary of government Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong claimed today that drug war deaths in July fell to their lowest level since the Enrique Peña Nieto administration took office Dec. 1.

Sen. Patrick Leahy blocks $95M in Mérida Initiative funds

MGR News Analysis -
Vermont Democrat says he's dissatisfied with Enrique Peña Nieto's "lack of clear strategy" in drug war, but does the problem lie much closer to Capitol Hill?

Guadalajara -
On Feb. 17 MGR published a piece entitled U.S. freezes Mérida Initiative funds promised to Mexico, which is still being heavily read seven months later. That's a good thing, because the problem is yet far from resolved.

Spain's supreme court denies political asylum to Mexican family fleeing drug cartel threats

Guadalajara -
Spain's highest court has denied an asylum petition filed by a Mexican national who alleged that he and his family are being "persecuted" by narcotics traffickers.

The man was identified in court papers only as Luis Alberto V.H., with no hometown listed. He claims that he and his family were ultimately forced to abandon Mexico due to threats by organized crime, which culminated in the kidnapping of one of his sons. The man, a bank employee, alleged in his legal petition that cartel operatives repeatedly demanded detailed information on the bank's clients, including names, addresses and account balances.

Malaysian court affirms Mexican brothers' death sentence

Sinaloans convicted of narcotics offenses move one step closer to the gallows

Kuala Lumpur -
Malaysia's Court of Appeals, the second highest tribunal in the southeast Asian nation, this afternoon upheld the death sentences for drug manufacturing and possession imposed on three Mexican brothers in May 2012.

Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, 37, Simon Gonzalez Villarreal, 34, and Luis Alfonso Gonzalez Villarreal, 48, are from the western state of Sinaloa on Mexico's Pacific coast. With two others, they were arrested and charged in March 2008 with manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine and precursor chemicals, and narcotics trafficking. The men were detained only a few weeks after arriving in Malaysia. They had worked in a Mexican brick factory before moving in search of better jobs, their families said. Sinaloa, the brothers' home, is a hotbed of Mexican drug cartel activity and has been the scene of extreme narco violence in recent years.

People of color and indigenous groups often the target of discrimination in Mexico

Gays, HIV positive also report mistreatment in the nation's huge capital city, study finds

Guadalajara -
Mexico is a nation of morenos. The term means nothing more than dark skinned. Within that almost boundless category one sees human flesh ranging from a nearly imperceptible tan to almost black. People on both ends of the spectrum readily describe themselves as morenos, and commonly with pride.

It is not offensive to refer to someone in this country as a moreno. It is merely descriptive, and at times may even be regarded as a term of endearment. Which makes it all the more ironic that morenos report they are frequently the targets of discrimination for that very reason.

No exit for Survivor producer Bruce Beresford-Redman

Appellate court rejects his latest effort to bring the case to an end

There were no smiles on this arrival at Cancún International Airport

Cancún, Quintana Roo -
Former Survivor producer Bruce Beresford-Redman has lost a bid to have murder charges dismissed in a long running case being tried in state district court in this city.

In November 2010 Beresford-Redman was accused of killing his wife, Mónica Burgos, while the two were on vacation here in April of the same year. A local judge conducted a preliminary hearing in February 2012 and found sufficient evidence to hold the ex-producer for a full trial (Former producer of Survivor bound over for trial in Cancún murder). Beresford-Redman appealed that ruling, and tried to short circuit the case by other legal maneuvering as well (No release for Bruce Beresford-Redman).

Guadalajara vs. los ambulantes: a familiar story

Itinerant vendors not welcome at Guadalajara's city hall

An indigenous family, with nothing left to sell after city inspectors seized their inventory


Guadalajara -
Vendedores ambulantes are itinerant merchants found in every major Mexican metropolis, and plenty of smaller communities, too. Offering clothing, jewelry, food, unique indigenous products, music and video CDs and countless other items, the ambulantes, or "wanderers," establish points of sale in high traffic areas, where they'll have the greatest contact with the buying public. Although they often sell to tourists from abroad, their products are popular with locals as well. The downside is that they present competition to traditional businesses which conduct operations in storefronts. Fixed site proprietors, who must pay rent, utilities, insurance, wages and myriad other costs associated with conventional retailing, resent the ambulantes, who often compete on the sidewalk right in front of such businesses.

As deadline looms for completion of police background checks, many fail to measure up

Guadalajara -
A plan implemented by former Mexican president Felipe Calderón over five years ago to conduct extensive background checks on all local and state police officers must be completed in just over 10 weeks. But large numbers continue to be dismissed from their positions after failing to pass the rigorous "confidence" examinations, which include polygraphs.

In Monterrey, Nuevo León, a city which has been hard hit by the 80 month old drug war, 150 officers of 440 recently evaluated were dismissed from the force after tests showed they were unfit for service for a variety of reasons.

Russia's asylum to Snowden is a "serious humiliation for Barack Obama" - so concludes Spain's El País

A perspective from the other side of the Atlantic

Guadalajara -
Madrid based El País, arguably Spain's most prominent newspaper and one of the most influential on the European continent, offered this editorial opinion in today's edition (translated and edited for clarity by MGR):

Manuel López Obrador: no to marijuana legalization

A surprising decision by the far left politician, who criticizes former PRD colleagues

Guadalajara -
On the campaign trail in April 2012, leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that drug legalization raised a "delicate matter," but that he would consider the issue after consultation with experts. "I want what will be right for Mexico, what will work for Mexicans. I won't be controlled by any special interest group," he promised. Despite the ambiguity of that statement, most expected he favored at least the decriminalization of cannabis.

But yesterday AMLO unambiguously rejected rising support for a legalization plan in the Federal District, heavily promoted by the the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) of which López Obrador once was the shining star. PRD will push for legal pot in Mexico's Federal District. Decriminalization bills are expected to be introduced in the district legislature in September.

U.S. State Dept. will grant marriage visas to gay partners

Effects of Supreme Court's June 26 ruling extend far beyond American soil

Guadalajara -
The U.S. State Dept. announced today that the marriage visa program will be extended to same sex couples, effective immediately.

Under previous law, a foreign national lawfully married to an American citizen could use that as the basis for a visa application - provided the parties were not of the same sex.

But as the result of a June 26 ruling by the highest court in the nation, agencies and departments of the United States government may no longer discriminate in any form against the parties to a gay marriage, if the union was legally entered into in a jurisdiction which recognizes same sex unions. The U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage.

Guadalajara police officers die in double execution

*Updated Aug. 5 - two more officers die*
Guadalajara -
Two investigators for the Jalisco state prosecutor's office were executed early this morning in an ambush at a major intersection on the city's east side.

The senior of the two officers, 43, was a 16 year veteran of the department and was assigned to homicide investigations. The subordinate accompanying him, 41, had served on the force since 2008. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the 7:00 a.m. attack. Police said they were probably on their way to work. Sicarios, or hired hit men, were waiting for them.