Wikileaks soldier pleads guilty to some charges at U.S. court martial

Publication of confidential diplomatic cables in 2011 stressed U.S.-Mexico relations


Guadalajara -
PFC Bradley Manning today entered a plea of guilty to 10 counts of unauthorized possession of government documents before a military tribunal in Ft. Meade, Md.

But Manning told Colonel Denise Lind, the Army judge presiding over his general court martial, that he's not guilty of a far more serious charge of aiding the enemy, which could land him in prison for life. It's not clear if the government will pursue a dozen remaining counts in the case which carry heavier penalties.

The 26 year old Army private was arrested in May 2010 and accused of uploading thousands of documents to Wikileaks, a controversial whistle-blowing website founded by Australian Julian Assange in 2006.

Mexico's drug war disappearances: "official government list" still proves nothing

MGR News Analysis


*Updated May 24*
Guadalajara -
Mexico's new Institutional Revolutionary Party government has been busy for the past week fielding questions about the number of persons who have allegedly disappeared since the drug war was launched 75 months ago, on Dec. 11, 2006. Press reports in the United States have alleged, or strongly suggested, that tends of thousands of missing Mexicans fell victim in the last half dozen years to out of control security forces, including local and state police and Mexican army troops (Mexican officials dispute U.S. press reports on drug war disappearances: claims are based on nonexistent data).

Sexual expression in Mexico can carry risks - some petty, some very permanent

*Updated May 24*
Guadalajara -
In Chihuahua, a 23 year old member of Mexico's lower legislative body, the Cámara de Diputados, is taking heat for the snug miniskirt she likes to wear on the floor of the chamber.

In the border town of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, across from Del Rio, Texas, the garment is outright banned by a local ordinance designed to protect community morals. The prohibition extends to heterosexual and homosexual wearers alike. City fathers maintain that miniskirts provocatively displayed on city sidewalks are an affront to local standards of decency.

Yucatán capital, $32 million in the hole, looks for way out

New PAN mayor blames the city's precarious financial position on previous PRI administration


*Updated Mar. 3*
Mérida, Yucatán -
The White City, capital of this peninsular state due south of America's Gulf Coast, is feeling the same financial pressures affecting many communities north and south of the border. It's worried how it's going to keep the lights on.

Mayor Renán Barrera Concha reports that the city is about 400 million pesos in debt. At today's exchange rate of 12.75 pesos, that represents almost $31.5 million U.S. dollars.

The bills include both immediate payables - sometimes called trade debt - and long term obligations inherited from the previous PRI administration, according to the mayor.

Barrera, who took office late last year, belongs to the National Action Party (PAN). Mérida's former mayor was Angelica Araujo Lara, a member of Mexico's powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which captured the presidency in 2012.

Murder of Belgian national in bustling Acapulco tourist district further damages an already tarnished image

Died at busy plaza where he went to shop

*Updated Feb. 25 - Corrected identification of victim, with details*
Guadalajara -
A 65 year old Belgian citizen was executed at point blank range yesterday afternoon by unknown gunmen in the heart of Acapulco's tourist district.

The victim was identified by two news sources as Sarens Jank Merched, although other press reports listed derivations of that name. No home town or permanent residence was given.

Mexico nabs chief executioner for Cartel of Acapulco

*Updated Feb. 24*
Guadalajara -
Mexican authorities have announced the arrest last night of a man they say is the chief executioner for the Cártel Independiente de Acapulco (CIDA).

Ricardo Reza García was taken into custody when he exited a house which was under surveillance and prepared to drive away. He was flown immediately to Mexico City.

A spokesman for Mexico's attorney general told a press conference late this afternoon that "El Reza" was the cartel's jefe de sicarios - the boss of its death squad. He's wanted on numerous kidnapping and murder charges. Five other cartel members were also arrested.

Mexican officials dispute U.S. press reports on drug war disappearances: claims are based on "nonexistent data"

Government challenges existence of alleged database relied upon by Washington Post, L.A. Times

*Updated Feb. 25*
Guadalajara -
Fallout from the latest Human Rights Watch report concerned alleged civilian disappearances during Mexico's drug war is continuing today, as past and present officials say HRW's claims are exaggerated and misleading. Hype is always present in Mexico's drug war, especially when Human Rights Watch comes to town.

Mexico's new PRI government, which has been in office just short of three months, said that recent reports in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post claiming that those papers had received a huge database of missing persons from officials in this country couldn't be true, because there is none.

Hype is always present in Mexico's drug war, especially when Human Rights Watch comes to town

MGR News Analysis -
Press calls HRW report on forced disappearances "false," while PRI admin. admits, "there's no list"


*Updated Feb. 25*
Guadalajara -
Human Rights Watch, which never misses a chance to bash Mexico for trying to defend itself from powerful drug cartels and criminal gangs, filed another one of its fairy tale reports this week.

A month ago it laid into the Mexican armed forces, without which there might not be a Mexico today. More accurately, as MGR recently pointed out, Mexico might be the Somalia of Latin America, and its capital, perhaps, a sister city to Mogadishu. Human Rights Watch's condemnation of Mexican drug war reveals how little it understands conflict.

University researcher charges that neither Mexico nor the U.S. want to eradicate drug trafficking, "only to control it"

Argentine writer Pilar Calveiro says openly what many have quietly suggested for a long time



Guadalajara -
Neither Mexico nor the United States have any real interest in defeating the drug trafficking industry which plagues both nations. They only want to control it for their own purposes.

That's what a respected Argentine researcher and author told a Politics and Violence forum at a Puebla university.

Pilar Calveiro is an investigator for the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). BUAP, the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla, is the oldest and largest university in the city, one of the most important Spanish colonial settlements in Mexico. It was founded in 1587 as Colegio del Espíritu Santo by the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). It later became a secular college run by the state.

Speaking this week at an event sponsored by the Dept. of Latin American Social Sciences and the Institute of Critical Studies, Pilar said that both nations seek to exercise a "monopoly on drugs."

Enrique Peña Nieto: "I'm not able to confirm the death of El Chapo Guzmán"

Rumors + rumors ≠ facts

*Updated*
Guadalajara -
Mexican news sources tonight are reporting the possible death of Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán in Guatemala today. Guzmán is the most wanted narcotics trafficker in the world.

Guatemalan security forces killed four men in a shootout near the community of San Francisco earlier Thursday. Authorities there are trying to identify the men, who are suspected of being drug traffickers.

World Bank: Mexico has 14th largest global economy, but its citizens rank 81st in food purchasing power

Guadalajara -
One of five Mexicans lives in hunger - an aggregate 22 million people. And although measured by gross domestic product the nation holds a respectable 14th place among the world's economies, its citizens are far back in 81st position in their ability to buy food sufficient for daily sustenance.

Such are the conclusions of an end of the year report by the World Bank, the subject of commentary here today.

The Bank, an international financial institution which lends money to emerging nations for capital investment and economic development, and whose primary focus is the reduction of poverty, concluded that only two of every 10 Mexicans is completely free from worry about adequate nutrition. The other eight frequently or periodically experience food shortages. Worse, 20% of the nation is never able to feed itself the minimum established by government standards.

Narco terrorists launch grenade attack against capitol building in border state of Tamaulipas

Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas -
A heavily armed commando squad lobbed two grenades against the Government Palace here last night.

The brazen 6:30 p.m. assault left at least three persons injured and heavily damage several vehicles. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

Tamaulipas adjoins Texas. Its capital, Ciudad Victoria, is a metro area of 325,000, 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of the Matamoros-Brownsville border crossing.

New York Times finally figures it out: in Mexican drug war, Enrique Peña Nieto = Felipe Calderón Hinojosa

MGRR News Analysis -
"The media often are the last to know things, because their wishes father their thoughts" - Columnist George Will, in The Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2013


Guadalajara -
In a "major analysis" of the Mexican drug war, and especially of the the much heralded "new" strategy of PRI president Enrique Peña Nieto, the New York Times arrived at an amazing conclusion today: there isn't one.

That will make big news in The Big Apple. Perhaps in Washington, too, where some in Congress remain confused about what's going on south of the border. U.S. freezes Mérida Initiative funds.

But for anybody who lives in this country, and who's been paying the slightest attention to what the Man himself has repeatedly said and done over the last nine months, the response will be, "O.K., so what else is new?"

U.S. freezes Mérida Initiative funds promised to Mexico, approved by Congress

MGR's Opinion -
One excuse after another, none with much merit

*Updated Aug. 15 - Sen. Patrick Leahy blocks $95M in Mérida Initiative funds

Guadalajara -
Exactly a year ago president Obama asked Congress to approve a $234 million defense package for fiscal year 2013 under the Mérida Initiative, a 2007 agreement between the United States and Mexico which provides for U.S. training and equipping of Mexican military and police forces, plus intelligence gathering and sharing.

The package included another $10 million to be spent domestically on enhanced U.S. intelligence services.

In his transmittal message to Congress Obama said, "A stable Mexico will enhance the national security of the United States, promote economic development in the country and protect U.S. citizens, especially along our shared border." The 2013 fiscal year began Oct. 1, and will soon be half over. Obama asks Congress for $244 million towards Mexican drug war.

Guatemalan ambassador warns of growing Los Zeta drug cartel presence in his country

"They're all through our territory"

*Updated May 6*
Guadalajara -
Guatemala's ambassador to Mexico has once again warned about the growing threat presented to his nation by the Los Zetas drug cartel. The precarious position in which the country finds itself is the direct result of Mexican military successes against narcotics traffickers and organized crime, according to ambassador Fernando Andrade Díaz-Duran.

"The government of Guatemala is quite concerned about Los Zetas operations, and not just along the border. For the past three or four years they've established themselves throughout our territory, working with smaller local cartels and gangs," said Díaz-Duran in a Mexican press interview last week. "Our border is very porous, with more than 300 locations where people can cross on foot." Murders in the area have skyrocketed, he noted.