No Tijuana exit today for Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi

*Updated Sept. 20*
Guadalajara -
U.S. Marine Reserve Sgt. Andrew Paul Tahmooressi claims that he arrived in Tijuana involuntarily on Mar. 31, 2014, attempting to do a quick U-turn before touching Mexican soil. Criminal defense attorney Fernando Benítez tried to demonstrate what had happened in a Baja California federal court today, but the impact was not immediately clear and the session adjourned without a ruling.

The judge reviewed B&W security tapes of the Tijuana entry station, just across from San Ysidro, California, where Sgt. Tahmooressi was detained with several weapons and an ammunition stockpile. He has been in custody for 165 days, and faces years in prison if convicted.

Mexico rolls out low earner tax plan to stimulate anemic economy

"Let's Grow Together" unveiled by PRI administration

Guadalajara -
Mexico, beset by seriously lagging economic growth for two years running, is using every tool at its domestic disposal to stimulate worker productivity and overcome chronic business malaise.

In the Federal District yesterday president Enrique Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) team officially rolled out a new program called "Let's Grow Together," designed to get millions of workers out of the "informal sector" - a term for self-employment, where income is not reported to any authority, taxes are not paid and eligibility for many government benefits is never established. Often they are street vendors and home based businesses, which none of the family may ever escape.

Former Mexico City governor Marcelo Ebrard, a moderate leftist, loses bid to capture PRD helm

And its aging "moral leader" Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas is likewise rebuffed by the party rank and file

Guadalajara -
Mexico's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), the nation's primary leftist voice since 1989, held its internal election Sunday for the man who will lead the party into the 2018 presidential contest.

Preliminary counts showed that the Progressive Movement coalition led by Marcelo Ebrard, 55, the popular governor of the Federal District (Mexico City) from 2006-2012, split about 27% of the votes cast with two other candidates. A faction known as the New Left, whose favorite son is Mexican Senator Carlos Navarrete, garnered 73%. Ballots are still being counted at this hour. The winner must obtain at least 60%.

Hillary Clinton sees "a brilliant future in Mexico"

Everybody wants to shake hands with EPN these days

Guadalajara -
Mexico City was popular with several prominent Americans this week, politicians and businessmen alike.

Mexico's 2015 federal budget submitted to Congress: 4.6 trillon pesos

And the president suffers a slight pay cut

*Updated Oct. 30*
Guadalajara -
Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray today delivered to the nation's Chamber of Deputies a proposed 2015 federal operations budget of 4.7 trillion pesos. At the current exchange rate of about 13.5 pesos to the dollar, the sum represents $348 billion U.S. dollars.

Peña Nieto, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are wired

Guadalajara -
Last spring Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto proclaimed that internet access is a fundamental right to which every citizen in this nation is entitled. He promised to extend service to the remotest regions of the Republic by the time his term ends on Nov. 30, 2018, on the theory that an uninformed electorate cannot make intelligent, long term decisions for the country. Three weeks ago he repeated the guarantee. Peña Nieto: respect for human rights is Mexico's focus. Perhaps, too, it's so everyone can keep up with messages like this one.

Mexico's National Electoral Institute gets 4 million signatures demanding referendum on PEMEX reforms

Mexico's energy reform controversy is far from over

Guadalajara -
The lower chamber of Mexico's federal Congress, the House of Deputies, has delivered to the National Electoral Institute (INE) 2,360,000 signatures from citizens across the nation demanding that sweeping energy reforms which became law on Aug. 12 be submitted to a public yeah or nay vote in 2015.

Zacatecas violence continues, security forces targeted

Zacatecas, Zacatecas -
Brazen attacks by organized crime against security forces in this north central Mexican state show no sign of abating, more than a year after they began.

State Security Police units were ambushed Wednesday by yet unidentified gunmen near a remote hamlet in Villa González Ortega county. Mexico's Gulf Cartel is one group operating in Zacatecas.

Mexico a major player in Dengue Fever vaccine trials

French manufacturer hopes to market in 2015

Guadalajara -
Mexico, which last year reported more than 60,000 cases of Dengue Fever nationwide, is playing a key role in clinical tests being carried out by the French pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi. The company hopes to have a vaccine on the market by 2015.

More than 20,000 persons from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico, including 8,000 Mexicans, participated in the third stage of trials which have been underway for more than 20 years.

Mexican Human Rights Comm'n. holds Oaxaca Gov. Gabino Cué responsible for state education disaster

"A violation of students' human rights" - CNDH

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca -
One year ago today Mexico's southwestern state of Oaxaca was plagued by a teachers' union strike which left tens of thousands of darkened classrooms and nearly 900,000 students idle at home. Today the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) laid the blame squarely on Governor Gabino Cué, contending that his conduct in tolerating the events deprived students of their constitutionally guaranteed human rights. Continued teacher strikes idle almost a million students in Oaxaca (Aug. 19, 2013).

Jalisco schools face junk food fines - but who will pay?

Guadalajara -
Mexico, a country which faces critical obesity issues, especially among its juvenile population, is doing its best to penalize one of the many causes.

Last fall the lower chamber of Congress passed by a solid majority a comprehensive revenue package which increased the cost of so-called comida chatarra - junk foods like chips and snack cakes - as well as soft drinks, of which Mexicans are purportedly the world's largest consumers. Peña Nieto two for three on reform packages, as Mexico's House of Deputies easily passes tax bill.

Mexico's Gendarmería Nacional takes up duty in Jalisco

Guadalajara -
Mexico's National Security Commission (CNS) has reported that the first units of the Gendarmería Nacional, which became operational 10 days ago, arrived in Jalisco last weekend. Mexico's scaled back national gendarmerie debuts.

The state is only one of five where the paramilitary forces were dispatched. The others are Baja California, Chiapas, Guanajuato, and Tamaulipas. On the border: Tamaulipas, now a virtual Michoacán II.

Mexico's 31 states slow to recognize gay marriage

Courts, not politicians, are leading the legal charge

Guadalajara -
The legislature of Mexico's Federal District passed a same sex marriage law five years ago, and gay unions contracted in the capital city have enjoyed full legal legitimacy since 2010. Yesterday the border state of Coahuila became only the second jurisdiction in the nation to follow suit, despite repeated court rulings clarifying and enforcing marriage rights.

In December 2012 Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court rejected as unconstitutional a provision of the Oaxaca state civil code which had defined marriage as "the union of persons of opposite sex with the capacity for and purpose of procreation." Mexico's Supreme Court takes another step towards nationwide recognition of gay marriage. The court ruled that homosexuals are protected by human rights provisions implicit in Mexico's federal constitution, as well as by others to which the nation has explicitly subscribed in international treaties and conventions. Yet most of the nation's state governments have refused to change their rules until a court ordered them to do so.

Heineken sells Mexican sub to U.S. firm for $1.23 billion

Guadalajara -
Dutch beer manufacturer Heineken has announced the sale of its subsidiary in Mexico, Empaque, to U.S. packager Crown Holdings.

Empaque maks cans, aluminum tabs and related products for the beverage industry.

Crown paid $1.23 billion dollars in the transaction, which will close in 2015. Heineken acquired Empaque four years ago, but said it wanted to divest itself of the satellite business so it could "focus fully on the production and sale of beer in international markets."

Company officials said Empaque will continue to be a key partner of and supplier for the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma brewery, a huge Heineken bottler in Monterrey, Mexico.

© MGR 2014. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.

Despite U.S. warnings, Mexican tourism is posting record results

Guadalajara -
The U.S. State Dept. warns American travelers once or twice a year about the hazards presented in many of Mexico's 32 states. It did so most recently on Aug. 15. State's latest warning about Mexican travel risks angers Peña Nieto administration.

But while officials here invariably express annoyance with such ominous notices from north of the border, calling them distortions and overstatements, they appear to have had virtually no impact on a staple of the national economy.