U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, Tamaulipas issues Emergency Warning for Americans

Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens Regarding Increased Security Incidents in Ciudad Victoria (March 31, 2012)

*Warning renewed June 4, 2012*
The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, tonight issued an alert for American citizens in the area, and for those traveling through the state of Tamaulipas. Mexican authorities say the Los Zetas and Cartel Golfo are locked in a bitter struggle to control narcotics trafficking in the region. The U.S. warning is reproduced in full below.

Tamaulipas state is a deadly area of Mexico, right next door to Texas. An American citizen and her two teenage daughters who crossed the border at Brownsville were executed on a bus several days before Christmas 2011. They were in route to a family holiday gathering when gunmen stopped the vehicle and indiscriminately fired on passengers. The killings occurred inside adjacent Veracruz state, but the bus had passed through Tamaulipas on the way. A newspaper facility in Ciudad Victoria, the increasingly dangerous capital city of Tamaulipas, was the subject of a car bombing attack less than two weeks ago. Details about all of those events, as well as the general U.S. State Dept. travel warning issued for 18 of Mexico's 32 states on Feb. 8, 2012, are contained in the links below.

Peña Nieto roars on Day 1 of campaign

PAN and PRD can only go up . . . then again, maybe it will get worse

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto flexed his political muscle on the opening day of Mexico's 2012 presidential campaign yesterday (March 30), demonstrating complete domination of the field. A GEA-ISA poll conducted by the Milenio network and published late last night showed:

Mexico's presidential campaign begins

The race to July 1 is finally underway



Overview
After months of pre-campaign tight-rope walking designed to keep candidates within the narrow confines of the country's rigid election laws, Mexico's Big Event of 2012 began in earnest at 12:01 a.m. today. The nominees fanned out across a divided nation to address cheering supporters, while party bosses and political stage managers officially sounded the clarion call to battle. The candidates face 90 days of intense trail-stumping just ahead, as they focus on delivering core messages and sound bites to the anticipated 80 million Mexicans who will go to the polls on Sunday, July 1.

In the short term the race will merely determine who occupies Los Pinos, Mexico's White House, for the next 72 months. In the long term the consequences for this nation of over 110 million may be far greater. Mexico is locked in a death struggle with international narcotics cartels, described by the country's 2010 Nobel Prize winner in Literature as "a monstrosity, powerful, enormously rich and without the slightest scruples." Few will dispute that domestic security -- the drug war -- is the overriding issue in the 2012 campaign, but the candidates disagree significantly on the best method for waging that war. Mexicans are exhausted by 64 months of vicious combat which has left over 50,000 persons dead, with no end in sight. The so-called National Security Strategy -- a plan to defeat the cartels with the armed forces -- was adopted by outgoing president Felipe Calderón in December 2006. Perhaps popular in its early years, it has become less so with the passage of time and the mounting death toll. The ultimate question is whether voters in 2012 will opt to stay the course with a candidate who is clearly identified with the Calderón approach, or switch to someone -- anyone -- who may offer a competing plan.

U.S. drug czar tells House that Juárez is world's deadliest city, and Mexican local, state police are heavily infiltrated

Local police are "part of the problem, not part of the solution," warns State Dept. narcotics trafficking expert

*Update below*
William R. Brownfield, Ass't. U.S. Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told a House of Representatives panel this morning that Ciudad Juárez on Mexico's northern frontier is the most dangerous city in the world, and that local and state police throughout the country remain highly infiltrated by cartels and narcotics traffickers.

Juárez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, has been rated the world's deadliest city in recent years, exceeding even Baghdad's reputation for terror. But in January a private Mexican group reported that the sprawling metropolis had been bumped to second place by a statistically more dangerous city in Honduras. That fact, coupled with claims that night life and entertainment are beginning to return to some parts of the embattled border town, caused some to suggest that Juárez had finally turned the corner. But Brownfield strongly disagrees, he told representatives today.

Fidel Castro greets Pope Benedict XVI - but no jail pass for U.S. citizen Alan Gross

No freedom for Alan Gross, despite American diplomatic note to Vatican emissary

News sources say the meeting was brief and cordial. Neither the Vatican nor Cuba have issued an official statement, since the visit was regarded as personal. Fidel Castro turned over control of the nation to his brother Raúl in 200.

There is no indication that the men discussed the case of imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15 year sentence for state security crimes. Some had hoped that Benedict might ask the Cubans to release Gross, though the possibility of such appeared remote. The Associated Press reported today that the Obama administration filed a formal diplomatic request several days ago with the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington, who is the equivalent of the Vatican's ambassador to the U.S. The request solicited the assistance of Pope Benedict during his meetings with Cuban officials. But a church spokesman said that although Benedict raised general humanitarian concerns and issues, they had not talked about "individual cases."

Man arrested in Mérida homicide was sex servant for hire, police say

Mérida crime blotter - a case of "homosexual passion," local authorities allege

A 19 year old man from Kanasín was arrested by Yucatán state police last night and charged with the Mar. 19 murder of a 64 year old man who lived in colonia García Ginerés, just off avenida Colón in central Mérida. Investigators say the suspect had provided sexual services to the victim prior to the day of the offense, and was summoned to his home for the same purpose on the evening of the murder.

Execution in Cancún hotel zone

News from the "zona hotelera"

*Updates below*
News sources report that a man was executed in front of the Hotel Ibis about 11:00 a.m. this morning. The hotel is located in a high commercial traffic area at the intersection of Tulum and la Nichupté avenues. Witnesses told police that a group of armed men in a SUV opened fire on the male victim, who died at the scene. He has not yet been identified, and there are no arrests or suspects.

Benedict and Fidel, so very far apart

MGR News Analysis - Perhaps a Reconciliation in Havana

"It's obvious that Marxist ideology, as originally conceived, no longer addresses reality, and thus it's impossible to build a society upon it" -- Pope Benedict XVI, in route to Mexico and Cuba, Mar. 23, 2012

"Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything." -- Fidel Castro, quoted in My Life: A Spoken Autobiography, by Ignacio Ramonet (2009)

Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Santiago de Cuba and this afternoon he travels to the capital, where he's scheduled to meet with president Raúl Castro and government officials. But it's still uncertain whether Fidel Castro will receive Benedict before he departs the island tomorrow. The Pontiff has several times said that he hopes to speak with the most iconic revolutionary leader of the 20th century, but Havana has insisted on downplaying the possibility. Fidel is not in the best of health, and he holds no official position in the government other than that of elder statesman and brother of the current president, to whom he yielded power in 2006. Still, it's tantalizing to think about such an encounter between two men born but a year apart in the third decade of the last century. Their very different trails in life have carried them to points distant, and one wonders what they might talk about as their own mortality stares them in the face.

Malaysian court hears closing arguments in death penalty trial of three Mexicans

Verdict will be delivered May 17

Kuala Lumpur -- Three Mexican men facing the death penalty in a Malyasian criminal court will learn their fate in May. They will either be acquitted or sentenced to hang.

The accused are brothers Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, 36, Simon Gonzalez Villarreal, 33, and Luis Alfonso Gonzalez Villarreal, 47, all from the western state of Sinaloa on Mexico's Pacific coast. Together with two Malaysians, they were arrested and charged in March 2008 with manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine and precursor chemicals (used to make the meth), and with narcotics trafficking. They have been in custody for four years. The men were detained only weeks after arriving in this southeast Asian nation. They worked in a Mexican brick factory before moving to Asia.

Abortion opponents challenge PRD candidate López Obrador at papal Mass

A Who's Who of Mexican political and religious life turns out for Pope's main event

Guanajato, Mexico -
Not surprisingly, almost everybody who is somebody in Mexican politics turned out for this morning's open air Mass said by Pope Benedict XVI. Today is his last day in the country. Tomorrow he heads to Cuba.

President Felipe Calderón attended the Mass, as did several of his cabinet members. The entire Roman Catholic hierarchy of Mexico was present - including several dozen bishops, archbishops and three cardinals. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox was another prominent invitee. But undoubtedly the most watched participants were the country's three main presidential candidates: Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI), Josefina Vázquez Mota (PAN) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (PRD). About 650,000 persons turned out for the service.

Mexico, Vatican call for international arms sales treaty to stop flow of drug war guns

Guanajuato, Mexico -
Pope Benedict XVI, who is in the last 24 hours of a three day visit to Mexico, has principally addressed himself to the country's youth, especially those affected by the ravages of narcotics trafficking and chronic drug war violence. Last night he had a 40 minute meeting with president Felipe Calderón, at the end of which Mexico and Vatican State called for an international treaty to "regulate in a responsible way the sale of long arms and handguns, with the goal that their availability to criminals be avoided."

Canadian released in triple homicide case

Authorities say driver had traces of marijuana in his system

Mérida, Yucatán -
Jean François Beaudet, who was originally accused by state prosecutors of vehicular manslaughter in the Feb. 4 deaths of three young Yucatán men, has been released from custody, a news service reports. The criminal charges will not be pursued.

Beaudet, 25, was at the wheel of a van when he crossed the center line and collided head on with a taxi, investigators say. 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 the men were trapped in the crushed taxi and had to be extricated by emergency responders. The victims were Yucatán natives.

A Free Press under fire in Mexico - and with government or political sponsorship?

172 attacks against Mexican journalists in 2011, reports international organization, resulting in extreme psychological stress for those who work to get the news out

Article 19 is an international press advocacy organization about which I've written before. Last October it filed a complaint against Mexico with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the country has failed to to protect journalists from acts of violence. Mexico fails to protect journalists, says legal complaint: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/mexico-fails-to-protect-journalists.html.

Earlier this week Article 19 reported that 2011 was one of the most violent years for the media since the drug war was launched in 2006. The group says that there were 172 reported attacks against journalists or media organizations, with 29 of those in the state of Veracruz, one of the most deadly areas in all of Mexico (Veracruz reporter paid with her life: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.mx/2011/11/veracruz-press-furious-over-prosecutors.html.)

Blind Mexican justice - but for everyone?

MGRR Opinion - Many without resources remain caught in lethargic Mexican legal system, despite constitutional reforms

*Links added below Jan. 23, 2013*
Mexico City -
The lawyers have left the courthouse and the French journalists are no doubt checking out of their hotel rooms today, headed for Benito Juárez International Airport. Florence Cassez had her breakfast this morning at the same place she did yesterday and many other days before that - in a Mexican jail cell. The justice ministers of this country's Supreme Court are watching endless video reruns of themselves, delivering their opinions during yesterday's marathon session which still hasn't resolved the fate of a convicted kidnapper sentenced to 60 years in prison. Life moves on for all of the participants.

There will be as many reactions to the Cassez case on the other side of the Atlantic as there have been here, and most of them will be equally uninformed and without basis other than emotion. The French say she is innocent and had the bad luck to fall in with an unsavory boyfriend. The Mexicans, 65% we're told, believe Cassez is guilty and got a fair trial. The case, an odyssey for the defendant and a chronic headache for the Calderón government and two sovereign states whose relationship has been bruised in the process, is not over.

Mexico's Supreme Court splits on the legal issues, but upholds conviction, 60 year sentence of Florence Cassez

"La verdadera seguridad es la que se construye en la legalidad - True security is founded upon adherence to the rule of law." - Juan Silva Meza, Chief Justice of Mexico

Mexico City -
A five judge panel of Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court, the highest appellate tribunal in the nation, today rejected a bid by Florence Cassez to overturn her conviction and 60 year prison sentence. The ruling is the end of the immediate legal road for the 37 year old French national, but she still has remedies available. Attorneys for Cassez vowed they'll continue the fight, saying their client is innocent and that her substantial legal rights were violated when she was arrested over six years ago.