Yucatán safety continues to be subject of hot debate

MGR News Analysis

The White City's iconic stone cathedral is the oldest in the Americas

*Updated Mar. 1, 2014*
Mérida, Yucatán -
The Yucatán peninsula is a huge fist of land jutting up into the Gulf of Mexico. It's hot, flat and dry. Three Mexican states comprise the peninsula: Campeche on the far west; Yucatán, more or less in the middle; and Quintana Roo, along the country's Caribbean shore. The latter area is often referred to as Mexico's Riviera Maya. Geographers will remind us that the peninsula also includes Belize and a small part of Guatemala.

Huge explosion at Pemex offices in Mexico City

A rising death count, with many injured; criminal investigators at the scene

Guadalajara -
Within the hour Mexican news sources have reported a major explosion at the corporate headquarters of Pemex, the state owned petroleum company, in the nation's capital.

At least 30 injuries have been reported, some of them said to be serious. There is one confirmed fatality. Other sources are reporting more deaths. Some people may be trapped inside.

HSBC hires former U.S. federal prosecutor to counsel anti-money laundering committee

Guadalajara -
Six months after it had to pay U.S. regulators $2 billion for years of laundering Mexican drug profits, financial giant HSBC has hired a former U.S. deputy attorney general to help it avoid a repeat of the problem.

James Comey was second in command at the Justice Dept. from 2003-2005, during the George W. Bush administration. Before that he was the chief U.S. prosecutor in New York City. Comey was a key figure in the obstruction of justice case filed against home style diva Martha Stewart in 2004.

Comey will provide legal advice to HSBC's new Financial Systems Vulnerability Committee, which reports directly to CEO Stuart Gulliver. He'll also serve as an HSBC assistant director.

RCMP criminal affidavit lends strong support to Mexico's case against Canadian Cynthia Ann Vanier

Self-proclaimed specialist at "diffusing and calming the most contentious and difficult environments" was paid a cool $740,000 to lead 2011 "fact finding trip" to Libya, as brutal Gaddafi regime collapsed

Guadalajara -
Cynthia Ann Vanier, arrested in November 2011 on charges that she was a key figure in a scheme to smuggle one of the sons of the late Muammar Gaddafi into Mexico, is on trial in Quintana Roo state. The case is now winding up, and a criminal court will soon hear final evidence and closing arguments. A decision could come within the next few weeks.

The Mount Forest, Ontario native faces years in custody if convicted. She's being held in a Chetumal prison. Last year Vanier claimed that she had been "physically, mentally and emotionally" abused by penal authorities while in the remote facility near the country's border with Belize. She was denied bail due to the seriousness of the offense. Canadian pleads not guilty; alleges abuse in Mexican jail.

All the familiar weapons used in latest assassination of Jalisco police chief - as kidnappings a la Cassez continue

MGR News Analysis -

*Updated Feb. 4*
Guadalajara -
For police chief Lucio Rosales Astorga, yesterday was business as usual in Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco, a sleepy town of about 10,000 northwest of Guadalajara, not far from the Nayarit state line.

At least it was supposed to be that way.

Mexican peso "well anchored," says central bank director

No repeat of 1994 disaster remotely in sight

*Updated Mar. 25*
Guadalajara -
The director of Mexico's central bank had good news today for those who are paid in or hold the moneda nacional - the peso. The government has no plans to tamper with what it regards as a stable currency.

Banixco chief Agustín Carstens said the peso is on solid economic footing - "well anchored" - and he ruled out any possibility of a currency devaluation.

Carstens' comments echoed those of president Enrique Peña Nieto, who last week told a U.N. economic summit in Santiago, Chile that Mexico's economy is firing on all cylinders, with anticipated 2013 growth of up to 4%. Peña Nieto attributed the stability to low inflation, and above all, to a modest ratio (34%) of national debt to gross domestic product (producto interno bruto, or PIB, in Mexico). Mexico poised for 4% growth in 2013. Carstens concurred with those appraisals today.

Should narco criminals be forgiven? Mexico's Roman Catholic Church implores victims' families to do just that

With it's yet powerful social voice, Church pushes the envelope in "My Brother, the Narco"




Guadalajara -
Mexico's Roman Catholic Church remains an influential institution in this country, despite inroads by other faiths in recent years. Experts say that about 80% of the nation considers itself Catholic. And although there is a clear line of demarcation between church and state affairs in Mexico, as there is in the United States, that line not infrequently gets crossed.

Bodies of seven musicians found in Nuevo León well

Anybody can die in Mexico's drug war - anybody

*Updated Jan. 29*
Guadalajara -
The bodies of seven members of the popular musical group Kombo Kolombia have been found in a well near the town of Mina, in Mexico's northern Nuevo León state.

The corpses, dressed in the group's customary stage clothing, were located on a ranch known as El Coyote. Authorities expect to find more.

The fix was in, says Mexico's leftist pol López Obrador: Peña Nieto leaned on Supreme Court to free Cassez

Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons!

Guadalajara -
Mexico's firebrand leftist politician, never short on words, came roaring out of the gates once again today, claiming the country's Supreme Judicial Court freed Florence Cassez on Wednesday under pressure from president Enrique Peña Nieto and the newly installed PRI administration.

Last week Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the ruling a "barbarous injustice" to Mexicans. Today he charged that EPN "wasn't far removed from the legal process; he wanted to curry favor" with France.

With Cassez case now history, France will assist Mexico in setting up new national gendarmerie

Florence is back in Paris, so two old partners can turn their attention to new matters

Guadalajara -
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in Santiago, Chile yesterday that his country will help Mexico set up its first national gendarmerie, a paramilitary force which Enrique Peña Nieto announced just days after he was elected July 1.

Ayrault's comments came at a summit sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). Peña Nieto is attending the CEPAL forum, where he acknowledged on Friday that Mexico is confronting "grave security issues.". Ayrault said French consultants will arrive in Mexico in February.

Executions soar in Mexico's heart, as Peña Nieto's new PRI government passes half-way point in critical first 100

MGR News Analysis -
It wasn't supposed to work this way

*Updated Mar.27, 2014 (bottom of page)*
Guadalajara -
Eight weeks ago today, on Dec. 1, the new Institutional Revolutionary Party administration took the reins of power in this country. On its 57th day in charge of Los Pinos, Mexico's White House, things are not going exactly as planned.

Speaking at an economic summit in Santiago de Chile yesterday, Peña Nieto acknowledged "grave security issues" in many parts of Mexico. Coming from a president who at times has been noted for his mastery of hyperbole, that's perhaps an understatement.

Peña Nieto: Mexico poised for 4% economic growth in '13

"We want to create greater legal confidence in investing in Mexico" - Enrique Peña Nieto, in Santiago

*Updated Apr. 7*
Guadalajara -
On his first trip abroad as Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto delivered an optimist economic prognosis for his nation in the year ahead, predicting growth could reach 4%. He said it would likely be considerably higher before his term ends in 2018.

That number is almost certainly much better than the United States will post in 2013. (Jan. 11 - Banxico chief: grim prognosis for U.S. economic growth).

Peña Nieto is in Santiago, Chile, attending a regional summit sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). CEPAL was established as a U.N. agency in 1948. It now has 44 member states, including 20 in Latin America and 13 in the Caribbean.

No justice for Mexicans in Florence Cassez ruling

MGR's view - She beat the rap

"I believe that I was declared innocent" - Florence Cassez, on her arrival in Paris

"Pobre país, tan cerca del aplauso fácil y tan lejos de la auténtica justicia - What a sad country; so ready to applaud, so far away from real justice" - Sen. Javier Lozano Alarcón (Puebla)

Guadalajara -
To French poet and novelist Victor Hugo is attributed the statement, "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Some in la République française surely will be thinking about those words as they take le petit déjeuner and devour the bold headlines in cafés this morning (it's already Jan. 24 for them).

Anybody who paid attention to the bizarre twists in L'affaire Florence Cassez, especially in the last year, was not surprised by today's Mexican Supreme Court ruling. The handwriting has been on the wall for months. But that doesn't make it good handwriting.

Mexico's Supreme Court frees Florence Cassez

"Grave violations of human rights, the wholly corrupting effect of which destroyed the constitutionally guaranteed presumption of innocence, thus entitling Cassez to immediate liberty" - a SCJN opinion

Mexico City -
Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court (SCJN), the highest appellate tribunal in the country, today ruled firmly in favor of convicted French national Florence Cassez, and ordered her immediate discharge.

Cassez, a prisoner of Mexico's Dept. of Corrections for the last 85 months, could be set free in hours.

Some news sources are reporting that French diplomatic vehicles have already been spotted on the grounds of the women's correctional institute south of this city, where Cassez is being held.

(6:00 p.m. - A convoy carrying Cassez and French consular officials has just left the prison, on its way to Mexico City International Airport. Family members of Zodiac victims cried and cursed as it passed by, screaming out, "Kidnapper! Murderer! Damn you!" The convoy had a heavy federal and state police escort. Press photos of Cassez and her father at the airport show both wearing bullet proof vests.)

Puerto Vallarta: tensions linger after brazen narco attack

MGR photojournal report -
Theories differ about what was behind the events of Oct. 15, but most agree, the city was changed

On an overcast afternoon, a placid Bahía de Banderas extends to the horizon. But the tranquil waters conceal an undercurrent of fear in the legendary resort, made famous in 1964 by Night of the Iguana.

*Updated June 20 - Puerto Vallarta sweats through the dog days of summer*
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco -
The corner of Insurgentes and Lázaro Cárdenas in old town Puerto Vallarta has nothing to distinguish it from thousands of such crossroads in Mexico. A visitor, looking around, might be almost anywhere.

The streets are a mixture of old bricks, rough stones and long crumbled asphalt. They suit Vallarta's historic charm, and its laid back, care free mood. People come here to swim, beach comb and soak up the sun, far from the bitter winds, ice and snow of northerly latitudes. They come here to eat and drink, with old friends and new ones just made. They come to forget about life back home for awhile.