Mexican economic analysts again dispute official 2014 growth estimate, citing violence as principal concern

How low will it go?

*Updated Dec. 2*
Guadalajara -
Mexico's central bank reported today that economists and business advisers whom it regularly surveys have warned that the nation's gross domestic product (PIB/GDP) will grow by no more than 2.3% in 2014. It was the fifth time since May 7 the survey group cut its prognosis for the year ending Dec. 31, from an original 3.01% to 2.77% to 2.56% to 2.47%.

In the latest reduction to 2.3%, 26% of survey respondents cited national security woes, especially in violent Guerreo and Tamaulipas, as a negative pull on domestic economic expansion - the highest vote on that question since May 2011, when 28% of consultants did so.

Former Iguala mayor and wife arrested in Mexico City

Guadalajara -
Former Iguala, Guerrero mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, were arrested on federal criminal warrants in Mexico City early this morning, the government has announced.

The couple was taken into custody at a private residence by a special unit of the Federal Police described as "elite," and transferred to the headquarters of the Organized Crime Strike Force for questioning.

Mexican Catholic Church lashes out at political parties, including the "false Left"

Continuing social and political disarray in Guerrero is the focus

From today's lead editorial in Desde la Fe, the voice of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City. Translated from the original Spanish and edited for brevity/clarity:

"The worrisome situation ripping apart Mexico is the product of social inequality, corruption, a grossly deficient educational system and the lack of values. Our economic situation has made us a dysfunctional society. Only a small percentage of our people enjoy the lifestyle of the First World, while 50% of the nation lives on the edge of poverty, with the barest necessities. And millions of others are consigned to extreme misery.

Mexico releases U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi on humanitarian grounds

Guadalajara -
Marine reserve Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was ordered freed yesterday by a federal court in Tijuana, 214 days after he was detained for the illegal possession of firearms in Baja California state.

The court did not adjudicate the case to a verdict of guilt or innocence. It merely accepted defense recommendations that Tahmooressi be returned to the United States for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Prosecution medical consultants agreed several weeks ago that the sergeant, who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, suffers from PTSD.

Mexico's Supreme Court issues landmark rulings on limits of public referendums, rejecting call for repeal vote on PEMEX energy reforms

Former PRD national chair Jesús Zambrano, December 2013: "We're not going to just stand around with our arms crossed. We're going to keep working to throw out the energy reforms."

Guadalajara -
Mexico's highest appellate tribunal, the Supreme Judicial Court, today closed the door forever on continuing political efforts to undo dramatic energy reforms approved by the nation in December 2013.

Campaign photo with most wanted couple in Mexican puts ultra Left politician in unwanted spotlight

José Luis Abarca and María Pineda Villa, both sporting AMLO shirts, May 12, 2012

Guadalajara -
While Mexican prosecutors scour the countryside for the former mayor of Iguala, Guerrero and his wife, a 2012 campaign photo of two time presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador with the most loathed couple in the nation is causing more than a little grief for fellow leftist politicians across the country.

On eve of national police vetting deadline, Zacatecas will fire almost half of its 2,000 state and local officers

Guadalajara -
Tomorrow is the absolute deadline for completion of police trustworthiness evaluations at the federal, state and local levels, a process which began in January 2009 under former National Action Party president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. That deadline was extended at least three times by Mexico's federal congress, the last on Oct. 29, 2013. Mexican senators seek another delay in police vetting.

Mexico hints at imminent break in search for the 43

Guadalajara -
Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam conducted a press conference late this afternoon and suggested that authorities may be close to recovering the remains of 43 college students who disappeared 31 days ago and are presumed dead.

Karam said the government's new information came after the arrest of four members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, who he claimed had "taken custody of a large number of the students" after their detention by corrupt police in Iguala, Guerrero on Sept. 26.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"*

MGR's view

Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero -
Radical student groups staged further violent demonstrations in this capital yesterday, and promised to continue doing so until 43 missing college students "are returned to us alive." An estimated 300 students sacked and looted retail establishments, including Wal-Mart and others. Some national chain stores have closed their doors, and are being protected by state and federal police units.

The left wing teachers' union Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación en Guerrero (CETEG) said "the students' struggle is our struggle," but denied having participated in the events.

Los Zeta executioner linked to Canadian's 2011 murder in Oaxaca is arrested in Cancún

From cartel death squad to private security contractor

Cancún, Quintana Roo -
In December 2011, Ximena Osegueda Magana, 39, and her boyfriend Alejandro Honorio Santamaria, 38, went missing in a remote area of Oaxaca state.

Several weeks later their bodies were unearthed along a beach near Huatulco. Ximena, an aspiring linguist, was a Ph.D. candidate in Romance Languages at the University of British Colombia. She had already earned an undergraduate and a master's degree at McGill University.

Family ties, nepotism suggest nothing has changed in Iguala

"If the government continues repressing rural school students, the people will have the last word"

*Updated Oct. 30*
Iguala de la Independencia, Guerrero -
Twenty-five days after the mayor of this town and his wife vanished from public view, whereabouts yet unknown, many here say nothing will ever change.

Thirty days after 43 college students were kidnapped by corrupt police and cartel executioners, there is an unspoken consensus that Iguala's black history will continue uninterrupted, no matter who is in charge.

Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre quits under mounting political pressure

His support collapses under the weight of the missing students case, still with no clues at one month

*Updated Oct. 25*
Guadalajara -
Guerrero Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero announced late this afternoon that he would resign from his post within the next few days.

The move came almost a month after 43 college students were kidnapped in Iguala by teams of corrupt local police and cartel executioners on the payroll of Guerreros Unidos, a violent organized crime group which controls much of the state. The students, who disappeared Sept. 26, are believed to have been brutally murdered within hours. But their whereabouts remain unknown. Mexican A.G.: "Mary of the Angels" and her husband were "brains" behind Iguala executions, kidnappings.

Bloody Tamaulipas remains far from subdued

Guadalajara -
At least 19 gunmen were killed by Mexican security forces Tuesday in three separate incidents in the border towns of Matamoros and Río Bravo, Tamaulipas, national defense authorities have reported.

In each case, Marines and Federal Police on patrol were fired upon by unidentified assailants, according to government spokesmen. Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have long waged a war for control of the violent state's lucrative drug trafficking routes, which lead into Texas.

Mexican A.G.: "Mary of the Angels" and her husband were "brains" behind Iguala executions, kidnappings

Concern about sabotage of a political event was their motive

Facebook sweethearts . . . but now with declining Friends

Guadalajara -
In nationally televised press conference last night Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam said the former mayor of Iguala, Guerrero and his wife gave the orders which resulted in the killings of six persons in that city on Sept. 26, and the disappearance of 43 college students who may have been executed just hours later. Mexican priest: 43 college students were "burned alive."

Karam laid full blame on mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa, both of whom vanished from sight Sept. 30. Abarca was stripped of his credentials earlier this month and expelled from the far left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), the predominant political force in Guerrero. Prosecutors say they believe he is still in the country.

Mexican Supreme Court issues rulings on PEMEX reforms challenge, military court jurisdiction

Guadalajara -
In important back to back legal rulings today, Mexico's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judicial Court (SCJN), further defined the authority of military courts martial in one case, and in another ruled on a pending demand that energy reforms approved by the nation in December 2013 and which took effect Aug. 12 must be subjected to a special citizen referendum in June 2015.