Narco violence leaves 10 dead after a baseball game in Ciudad Juárez

Execution gang which murdered two U.S. nationals in March 2010 may have carried out these killings

Guadalajara -
Over the past year officials in Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from El Paso, have been proudly pointing out that drug war homicides are dropping precipitously. But all is far from well in the city of 1.5 million, which is a major trafficking route to the enormously lucrative U.S. market (Mexican drug cartels operate in 1,286 U.S. cities).

Armed and masked gunmen carrying cuernos de chivo, or "goat horns" - a nickname for the the ubiquitous AK-47 - attacked family members celebrating a baseball victory about 9:00 p.m. Sunday evening, killing 10 of them, the Chihuahua state prosecutor has announced. Among the dead were a seven year old girl and two women. At least three other persons were wounded but survived. The victims included several adolescents.

Energy reform debate opens in Mexican Senate, with grave warnings of "foreign takeover" of PEMEX

"We're facing the grave reality that the foreign petroleum producers which were expropriated in 1938 - now with new names - may return to manage the industry, and to decide who will be the long term beneficiaries of Mexico's vast hydrocarbon deposits" - Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, today in Mexico City

Guadalajara -
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the 79 year old son of the man who seized foreign oil company assets and nationalized Mexico's petroleum industry three quarters of a century ago, today told a legislative committee in Mexico City that "call them whatever you want to call them, but the administration's energy reform proposals are a privatization plan."

The committee began public hearings this morning on a proposal by the 10 month old Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto to amend articles 27 and 28 of the federal constitution, which grant the government a strict monopoly in the hydrocarbon industry.

Andrés Manuel's vision for Mexico

MGR's view

"The fix is in" on energy reform, says AMLO: new laws "designed for foreign business" will be passed Oct. 15

"Energy reform has been designed for the sole benefit of huge foreign enterprises, for which our last several presidents have been nothing more than puppets" - MORENA leader Manuel López Obrador

Guadalajara -
Leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who hopes to lead a massive demonstration in Mexico City tomorrow against pending constitutional amendments which would open the state controlled oil company PEMEX to private investment, complained today that the new laws have already been approved behind the scenes, and will be officially passed Oct. 15.

Joe Biden makes things just a little harder for EPN

The Veep's Spanish is not so good, but he's happy to be here anyway

Guadalajara -
You have to wonder who plans (and times) the visits of foreign leaders.

Without energy reform, Mexico will need more than half a century to reach U.S. output

Guadalajara -
Mexico has plenty of oil and gas, but most of it is laying in the ground unexploited, making the country a net importer of natural gas. That was the conclusion in this McClatchy news service report filed two days ago.

Without the prompt enactment of energy reforms, it will take Mexico at least 60 years to reach U.S. production levels, the head of the country's department of energy noted this week. "By then it will be too late," said secretary Pedro Joaquín Coldwell.

Mexico's Left determined to shackle the nation to the past

MGR Opinion -
Hogtied to history, and on the wrong side of it

Guadalajara -
Leftist movements have frequently been on the right side of history. "Right" in the sense that they supported egalitarian principles, advocated the toppling of anachronistic regimes or systems which held power by might rather than by right, and championed the cause of the least powerful in society.

Mexico is in full recession, say business executives, with major pension and social service funds "broke"

Mexico battered by Ingrid, Manuel and a national economy in free fall

Guadalajara -
The Mexican Institute of Financial Executives (IMEF) has joined in the gloomy assessment of Mexico's struggling economy, predicting that growth in 2013 will be but a paltry 1.5%. Earlier this year IMEF estimated that the economy would expand a respectable 2.7%. But officials of the organization have significantly revised their forecast, noting that the country is "already in a recession."

Canada tightens predator laws aimed at sex tourism

Retired Canadian who victimized many Cuban children provided the legislative impetus

Guadalajara -
Canada says it will update its criminal laws to protect foreign children from Canadian sexual predators, by opening up databases containing detailed information on offenders who present a high risk of pedophilic behavior

The announcement, reported in Toronto and redacted by the Latin press, follows last summer's conviction of notorious Toronto predator James McTurk, who became the first Canadian to be convicted of committing sex crimes against Cuban children while vacationing there.

Secret Service locks down Mexico City's Zócalo

CNTE will be denied access, after local businesses suffer huge economic losses

Mexico City -
The Mexican government has announced that the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP) will remain in the capital city's largest square until at least Sept. 19, to prevent the reentry of striking school teachers who belong to the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE). Members of the powerful labor union occupied the Zócalo, as it is known, for months earlier this year, with the largest contingent arriving from Oaxaca state in southwestern Mexico in late August. They were just dislodged by federal security forces on Friday.

The EMP is a quasi-military tactical unit primarily charged with the duty of protecting the president and first lady of Mexico, and high ranking government officials. It is equivalent to the United States Secret Service.

Mexico City labor violence, through the lens

MGR photojournal report

Guadalajara -
Members of the radical teachers union Coordinadora Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) were kicked out of Mexico City late Friday by federal security forces, after they refused to leave voluntarily. Some of them had been permanently encamped near the center of government for months, while the main contingent arrived in late August. CNTE says they'll be back on Wednesday - unless of course the government prevents their reentry. CNTE's previous visit cost the Federal District millions of dollars in lost business revenues and security expenditures, as well as property damage.

The top image and those below were taken by MGR photo affiliate José Luna last week.

A wet Guadalajara celebrates Mexican independence

MGR photojournal report -
Tapatios turn out in force, despite endless rain

Guadalajara -
Mexico was battered over the weekend by a hurricane on one coast and a tropical storm on the other, bringing buckets of rain and jacket weather to Jalisco. But under gloomy skies and periodic showers the parade went on today in Mexico's cultural heart. Tomorrow it's back to school and back to work.

Elena Poniatowska, entirely out to lunch in New York

MGR's view -
80 tons of trash in Mexico City, and a call "aux barricades" in the Big Apple

Guadalajara -
Just in time for weekend festivities in honor of Mexico's 203rd birthday, government security forces finally recovered Mexico City's main plaza, the Zócalo, late Friday, dislodging tens of thousands of school teachers who belong to an ultra-reactionary labor union known as Coordinadora Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE).

Mexico remembers The Six Heroic Cadets, 166 years later

MGR video report -
Ejército mexicano parades on Chapultepec avenue

Guadalajara –
Mexican Independence Day festivities began this morning in Guadalajara, just as they did in hundreds of cities, towns and hamlets across the nation. They will run through the weekend.

Monday, Sept. 16 officially marks the Republic's 203rd birthday.

Yucatán teachers fold, agree to return to the schoolhouse

PRI governor Rolando Zapata Bello gets the job done - maybe he deserves that big check after all

Mérida,Yucatán -
Local 57 of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), which called for work stoppages in Yucatán primary and secondary schools last Friday, gave up the ghost today under the threat of frozen paychecks and deductions for every day missed by teachers. School closings spread to Yucatán, but Peña Nieto says "there's no turning back".

After what were described as eight intense hours of labor negotiations, SNTE and state officials announced an accord. Teachers will return to their classes immediately, and will be paid even for those days they have missed since last week.