Mexico losing patience with U.S. spying on its leaders

And more juicy tidbits are on the way, promises journalist Glenn Greenwald

Guadalajara -
Mexican secretary of government Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong may have been conspicuously ignored by his boss at a security conference last week, but today president Enrique Peña Nieto placed him at the top of the batting lineup to deal with the latest revelations of National Security Agency spying on world leaders, especially Mexico's.

Sen. McCain demands answers on release of former Guadalajara Cartel boss who murdered U.S. DEA agent

The senator may be distressed when someone explains to him how Mexican criminal justice works

Guadalajara -
It's been more than two months since a federal appellate court in Jalisco state ordered the midnight release of Rafael Caro Quintero, the 60 year old former boss of the long defunct Guadalajara Cartel who, according to law enforcement officials, was once worth a half billion dollars.

Caro Quintero was convicted of several murders, including that of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar at a cartel safe house in Guadalajara in February 1985. He spent 28 years in prison, but a panel of Mexican judges eventually sided with the arguments of well heeled criminal defense attorneys and ordered his immediate release, finding that his murder prosecution should have been brought in state rather than federal court.The death house on Lope de Vega.

Mystery of what befell young Ukrainian couple in Yucatán backcountry remains unsolved

Ten months later, a desperate mother on the other side of the world seeks answers, and so do local investigators: one murder, or two?

Updated Mar. 21, 2014 - Yucatán prosecutor confirms: remains found in remote peninsular region are those of missing Ukrainian tourist

Updated Feb. 1, 2014 - Remains of Ukrainian woman may have been found

Xocempich, Yucatán -
Dzitás County, or Municipality as it is known here, lies southeast of the state capital of Mérida, more or less in the center of the flat, dry Yucatán peninsula, which stretches from the Gulf of Mexico on the west to the Caribbean sea on the east. It's one of 106 municipalities in this state, with a population of about 5,000. The county seat shares the same name.

Not much happens here, and not many people pass through the area. Those who do generally are on their way to or returning from the nearby town of Valladolid, a gateway to the famous Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá. More than a few residents use the language of ancestors as their primary tongue. Its curious sounds, made famous in the 2006 Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto, bear no resemblance to the official one imposed by Spanish explorers.

Guadalajara Catholic Archdiocese: gays are "emotionally unstable"; legislators should reject Jalisco civil union bill

Harsh characterization of gay life styles will further polarize Jalisco legislative debate

Guadalajara -
The official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guadalajara, the second largest concentration of Catholics in the nation, has called homosexuality an "illness," and argues that a pending civil union bill in Jalisco state is designed to "resolve the problem (of gays) who suffer from the emotional instability of attraction to persons of the same sex."

The comments, likely to generate controversy, appeared in Thursday's (Oct. 17) edition of Semanario Arquidiocesano de Guadalajara, the Church's authoritative voice in Mexico's second largest city (Un "progreso" mal entendido y planteado).

Although Mexico is but a short judicial step away from formal legal recognition of same sex marriage throughout the country, based upon human rights principles in its federal constitution, some of the nations's 31 jurisdictions are trying to side step the controversial issue by proposing laws which would recognize gay civil unions with almost all the rights and protections of traditional heterosexual marriage. But it is unclear if such statutes would pass constitutional muster and survive scrutiny by Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court, or whether gays must be allowed to marry.

Guadalajara attorneys were carrying a million pesos in cash when they were executed in Puerto Vallarta

But investigators say the money was legit

Guadalajara -
The plot has thickened in the case of two Zapopan lawyers who were shot to death in Puerto Vallarta's tourist district early Thursday morning, in a machine gun ambush which has all the hallmarks of a well orchestrated organized crime hit. Narco execution in P.V. tourist zone claims two Guadalajara brothers.

Investigators in the local Public Ministry have revealed that a briefcase containing almost a million pesos was found in the trunk of the men's Volkswagen, which was riddled with dozens of 7.62 mm AK-47 rounds. That sum is the equivalent of about $78,000 USD at the current exchange rate (12.85).

Vallarta execution victims were Guadalajara attorneys

They were sent to P.V. to recover real estate, it appears

What does Jalisco's PRI governor Aristóteles Sandoval have to say about narco crime in his state? This week he urged citizens, "Be patient with us while we finish off those drug cartels" (all 80 of 'em?)

Guadalajara -
Two brothers executed early yesterday morning in the heart of Puerto Vallarta's tourist district were attorneys who practiced law in the suburban Guadalajara community of Zapopan, authorities reported.

Peña Nieto two for three on reform packages, as Mexico's House of Deputies easily passes tax bill

Guadalajara -
President Enrique Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party team are six weeks out from celebrating their first anniversary in office. Much of 2013 has been devoted to a triumvirate of proposed PRI reforms in the education, energy and tax arenas. So far Peña Nieto is batting impressively.

Narco execution in Puerto Vallarta tourist zone claims two Guadalajara brothers

Not a good way to begin the high season . . .

*Oct. 17 - Vallarta execution victims were Guadalajara attorneys*
*Oct. 19 - Attorneys were carrying a million pesos in cash*
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco -
Puerto Vallarta's famed Zona Rosa was once again the scene of narco violence early this morning, in a brutal machine gun attack which killed two suburban Guadalajara men and critically injured a companion.

Just after 1:00 a.m. gunmen strafed a Volkswagen in which the three victims were travelling at the corner of Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza streets. The assault occurred in front of El Tortio, a popular sports bar and restaurant located just blocks from Vallarta's waterfront. The area is part of the city's sprawling tourist zone, which has been rudely awakened to the brutal realities of Mexico's 82 month old drug war in the past year. Puerto Vallarta: tensions linger after brazen narco attack.

Is there trouble at the top of Mexico's political hierarchy?

No secrets on YouTube . . .

Guadalajara -
Mexico's secretary of government - often erroneously referred to by the U.S. press as the "secretary of the interior," although that American cabinet post has utterly nothing in common with the Mexican SEGOB - is considered by many to be the nation's vice president, even though the latter office does not exist in this country. Think of the U.S. secretary of state, secretary of defense, secretary of the treasury and the White House press secretary all rolled into one post. That's SEGOB and its boss, who is appointed by and ultimately answers only to the president.

Guadalajara's police force could be slashed in two weeks

"Mexico needs a real renovation of its police forces, the most important link in public security" - President Enrique Peña Nieto, Oct. 15

Guadalajara -
The Jaliscan capital could automatically lose half of its metropolitan police force by the end of October if a 58 month old federal mandate to conduct confidence checks on almost half a million state and local police officers nationwide is not extended, the state Board for Police Evaluation (BPE) has reported.

Mexico's federal congress passed a law in 2008, during the administration of former PAN president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, which requires every police officer in the nation to submit to an extensive battery of polygraph, background and other fitness for service tests. Examinations began in January 2009, and were to be completed by Jan. 3, 2013. But huge numbers of officers had not been tested by that date, so the congress agreed to postpone the testing deadline to Oct. 29. Mexico extends time to weed out corrupt local cops.

Oaxaca's governor caves to school teachers, pays them $92 million dollars for 40 days not yet worked

His decision was pragmatic, but it won't be popular with many

*Updated Oct. 16 - CNTE extortion continues, this time in Michoacán*

Guadalajara - In the end, teachers collected all their back pay and bonuses in Mexico's southwestern Oaxaca state, even though 76,000 of them just began the 2013-14 school year yesterday.

When school officially resumed Aug. 19, members of the powerful Coordinadora Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) were not standing at their whiteboards. Continued teacher strikes idle a million students in Oaxaca. Instead, thousands of them were on the streets of Mexico City, where they caused millions of dollars of property damage and economic loss to local commerce. Secret Service locks Mexico City Zócalo

Mexican senators seek another delay in police vetting

*Updated Oct. 17 - proposal clears the full senate almost unopposed*
Guadalajara
Leaders of Mexico's three main political parties plan to introduce legislation today to again push back the deadline for completion of trustworthiness and competency certifications of the nation's 450,000 local, state and federal police officers.

The process, a linchpin of the drug war strategy implemented by former president Felipe Calderón, began in January 2009 and was supposed to end on Jan. 3, 2013. But local officials were far from finishing, so the federal congress moved the deadline to Oct. 29. Mexico extends time to weed out corrupt local cops.

A Mexican easily outruns the Kenyans at Guadalajara's 29th Marathon - all 42.195 kilometers of it

Guadalajara -
Kenyan Benjamin Kiplimo Metto runs faster than some people can ride a bicycle. Today he zipped through 26+ miles of Guadalajara's 29th annual marathon in 2:23:13, averaging almost 11 miles per hour and posting a 3.39 kilometer. But it wasn't quite enough for first place. Metto captured fourth, a full five minutes off the winning time posted by Veracruz native Tomas Luna Dominguez (2:18:03). Two other Kenyan runners took second and third place.

In a land where many are poor, Mexican millionaires are increasing by leaps and bounds

"A poor country, full of the rich"

Guadalajara -
Mexico is a nation of 118 million, with a median age of about 26. On July 29 a federal agency, the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (known by its Spanish acronym, CONEVAL), reported that 45% of them were at or below the official poverty line. 53.3 million - that's how many Mexicans live in poverty (see the chart in that story for a list of extreme poverty by state).

"Zeta killers" behind gun battle which left three Jalisco police officers dead

Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco -
Three state police officers were killed Tuesday evening during a shootout with heavily armed assailants in this town 50 kilometers east of Guadalajara.

The firefight began about 7:00 p.m. and lasted for more than three hours. Authorities threw dozens of local and state police officers into the furious gun battle, eventually using armored vehicles to subdue the attackers. The state police dead included a senior Jalisco commander. Four gunmen were killed, and several others were seriously wounded.