A president-in-waiting?

By David Agren - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 9:50 AM - 0 Comments

Alex Cruz/EPA/Keystone Press Agency

Mexican politicians deliver annual reports known as informes, serving up pomp, pageantry and political theatre. Informes glorify accomplishments and gloss over failures, perhaps making it no surprise that recently departed state of Mexico governor Enrique Peña Nieto—the early front-runner for the 2012 presidential contest—served up some unbelievable crime numbers this fall. Peña Nieto bragged of achieving a 54 per cent reduction in the murder rate between 2005 and 2010—and friendly media outlets trumpeted the claim. “Peña Nieto lowers homicides 50 per cent,” screamed the tabloid La Razón. It took The Economist magazine, however, to take Peña Nieto to task, calling his figures “absolutely false” because a statistical revision in 2007 caused the homicide rate to tumble, and forcing the presidential contender to subsequently issue a rare mea culpa.

Such scrutiny is rare for Peña Nieto, who presented new statistics showing a three per cent decline (during the same years the federal murder rate more than doubled to 21.9 per 100,000 inhabitants). For the most part, his ascent from provincial politician to presidential front-runner has been marked by deft media and crisis management—and, critics allege, plenty of positive coverage from Mexico’s dominant media empire, Televisa. Peña Nieto leads the early polls for the July 1, 2012, election in which his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)—which ruled Mexico for 71 uninterrupted years until 2000—will attempt to regain the presidency. Polling firm Consulta Mitofsky gives the telegenic Peña Nieto a nearly 30-point advantage over his closest competitor. “He’s emphasized personality more than issues so far,” says George Grayson, Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Peña Nieto recently unveiled proposals for economic and structural reforms, many of which PRI lawmakers have actually torpedoed in congress for the past 11 years. And he spent much of his six-year gubernatorial administration, which concluded on Sept. 15, promoting public works projects. “Government that delivers,” boast signs all over his state. He didn’t speak that much about crime during his time in office, even though drug cartels have waged turf wars in the state of Mexico, which surrounds most of Mexico City and contains its grittiest suburbs. The 45-year-old contender’s stated ideas for quelling violence, including gradually withdrawing the military from the streets and generating better intelligence, generally differ little from those of President Felipe Calderón. And he’s rejected the idea of brokering a deal with the deadly drug cartels that are behind most of the country’s violence—although PRI politicians allegedly did just that in past years to keep a lid on crime. It’s something some voters expect will happen again, in spite of Peña Nieto’s statement. “The PRI is returning to put this all under control,” says engineering student Alejandro Mendoza, 22.

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Acapulco: where inmates run the prison

By Patricia Treble - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 10:05 AM - 0 Comments

Prisoners at Acapulco’s penitentiary didn’t have time to clean house when more than 500 Mexican police officers paid their residence an unannounced pre-dawn visit last week in order to move 60 inmates to other correctional facilities. In addition to 100 plasma TVs, video games and two bags stuffed with marijuana, the officials also discovered 19 prostitutes, two peacocks and six female inmates in the men’s section. As if the place wasn’t crowded enough, more than 100 cockerels, used for popular cockfights, were found on the premises, as well as two peacocks—described as “pets” by Guerrero state spokesman Arturo Martinez.

Acapulco is in the midst of a violent crime wave as rival drug gangs battle for control of the area. Recently, a human rights commission accused the prison, along with others in the state, of being controlled by inmates. It isn’t alone. In July, detainees in the Cereso Hermosillo jail in Sonora state were caught selling $15 raffle tickets for a one-in-200 chance of using a cell fitted out with air conditioning, a full kitchen including appliances, as well as a comfortable bed and even a private toilet.

A new kind of Mexican influx

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:05 AM - 1 Comment

In some regions, the battered U.S. economy is getting a boost from an unusual stimulus—investment from well-heeled Mexicans. Drug violence and gang-related kidnappings have led to an exodus of the wealthy in recent years, as Mexico’s businessmen increasingly seek safety north of the border. As industrial hubs such as Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city, watch their entrepreneurs pack, places like San Antonio, Texas, are welcoming a flurry of Mexican investment.

Pouring money into U.S. business projects, especially ones demonstrated to create American jobs, is, in fact, one of the speediest and surest ways to obtain U.S. work permits and green cards. The number of investment visas granted to Mexican citizens has grown 73 per cent between 2006 and 2010, according to the U.S. State Department. Though Chinese applicants still constitute the bulk of investors hoping to land on U.S. shores, rich Mexicans have become a much sought after source of capital in some areas of the southern United States. And though some in the States are questioning a system they say is “selling” residency rights to the wealthiest bidders, most don’t seem to mind Mexico’s new influx of designer sunglasses, private jet airplanes and, above all, job-creating money.

Casino attack kills 53 in northern Mexico

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 26, 2011 at 10:54 AM - 2 Comments

Fifty-three people are dead and a dozen more injured after several gunmen burst into a Monterrey, Mexico casino, doused it in gasoline and lit it on fire. Witnesses said armed men told gamblers and employees to leave while they poured gasoline. Many, however, retreated further into the building out of fear, trapping themselves as the flames spread. “This is a sad night for Mexico,” said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire in a televised address. President Felipe Calderon released a statement on Twitter, calling the incident “an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism.” Monterrey has been the scene of increasing violence as the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels battle for territory in the area. Attorney General Leon Adrian de a Garza said one of the gangs was responsible for the casino attack. The cartels often extort businesses by threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to make payments. In May, the same casino was sprayed with bullets by armed gunmen, but no one was injured. Monterrey’s murder rate has risen precipitously in the past two years. At this rate, killings in 2011 will be double what they were last year.

CBC News 

Here comes the rain again

By David Agren - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Marco Ugarte/AP

With the onset of the summer rainy season, Adriana Cornejo moves her furniture upstairs in the blue-collar suburb of Nezahualcóyotl to the east of Mexico City. Here, the heavy precipitation often brings rising flood waters. “It’s like Christmas. You know it’s coming and you get ready,” Cornejo says.

Flooding dates back centuries in Mexico City and its environs, which were built on drained lakes in a high-altitude valley with no natural drainage outlet. But residents and experts say the situation is worsening as changing weather patterns, past political corruption and the pumping of water from aquifers to serve a regional population now topping 20 million causes areas to sink by up to 40 cm per year.

The National Water Commission has warned of the potential for catastrophic floods, which would cover the eastern half of the Mexico City area—turning it once again into a lake. But water-basin management consultant Valente Souza calls that kind of talk “irresponsible.” Still, he argues places like Nezahualcóyotl, which was built by squatters, are unable to drain themselves and will be plagued by worsening floods.

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The summer strawberry showdown: local vs. Californian

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 5:33 PM - 32 Comments

I think my strawberry obsession has gone too far.  Let me explain: there’s a green grocer right at the end of my street in the west end of Toronto that sells the plastic packs of California berries side by side with the local pints. Continue…

Mexico, beyond the beheadings

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 10:51 AM - 4 Comments

The New York Times fronts today with a long piece about how changing fortunes in Mexico are affecting rates of illegal immigration into the United States. It’s not unambiguously good news, but there’s enough cognitive dissonance in the piece to keep you chewing through the weekend. Here’s the nut graph:

A growing body of evidence suggests that a mix of developments — expanding economic and educational opportunities, rising border crime and shrinking families — are suppressing illegal traffic as much as economic slowdowns or immigrant crackdowns in the United States.

On how the economy is actually getting better:

Jalisco’s quality of life has improved in other ways, too. About a decade ago, the cluster of the Orozco ranches on Agua Negra’s outskirts received electricity and running water. New census data shows a broad expansion of such services: water and trash collection, once unheard of outside cities, are now available to more than 90 percent of Jalisco’s homes. Dirt floors can now be found in only 3 percent of the state’s houses, down from 12 percent in 1990.

And the place is getting better educated:

The census shows that throughout Jalisco, the number of senior high schools or preparatory schools for students aged 15 to 18 increased to 724 in 2009, from 360 in 2000, far outpacing population growth. The Technological Institute of Arandas, where Angel studies engineering, is now one of 13 science campuses created in Jalisco since 2000 — a major reason professionals in the state, with a bachelor’s degree or higher, also more than doubled to 821,983 in 2010, up from 405,415 in 2000.

Similar changes have occurred elsewhere. In the poor southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, for instance, professional degree holders rose to 525,874 from 244,322 in 2000.

It also does not hurt that the US has changed its approach to helping Mexicans immigrate legally:

[The US consular official] insisted that his staff members change their approach with Mexicans who had previously worked illegally in the United States.

“The message used to be, if you were working illegally, lie about it or don’t even try to go legally because we won’t let you,” said one senior State Department official. “What we’re saying now is, tell us you did it illegally, be honest and we’ll help you.”

Kidnap victims fight to the death

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Bernadino Hernandez/AP

A new practice has emerged that raises the bar for twisted cruelty in Mexico’s bloody drug wars, where beheadings, hangings and shootings are regular occurrences. The Zetas drug cartel is reportedly pitting kidnap victims against each other in gladiator-style battles to the death. The revelation comes from a drug trafficker speaking anonymously in Texas, according to the Houston Chronicle. The trafficker reportedly described how Zetas gang members storm highway buses, kill the elderly, rape the women, and force the able-bodied men to fight in their blood sport. Armed with machetes, hammers or sticks, these victims are forced to fight until one of them is killed, said the trafficker.

The practice has been linked to the discovery of mass graves in northern Mexico, where over 400 bodies have been unearthed in recent months. Meanwhile, 33 people were killed during a 24-hour span in June in the city of Monterrey, where gangs battle for control of drug traffic. Since 2006, more than 35,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s drug war.

Newsmakers: June 2-9, 2011

By Nicholas Kohler and Cathy Gulli - Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

Ken McKay/TalkbackThames/Rex Features/CP

Happy birthday, Mr. President

Turning 80 usually warrants a birthday party. But Cuban President Raúl Castro was hardly celebrated at all. It seems his advanced age is an uncomfortable reminder to many Cubans that their country’s leaders are old—and old-guard. With no young successors in place (the next in line for the job are 79 and 80), Cubans worry that economic reforms now under way will be jeopardized if either Castro or his brother Fidel, 84, take ill. Still, Castro was positively spry on his birthday, asking female reporters: “How do I look, ladies, how do I look at 80? How many old men of 60 are there who aren’t in my shape?”

Mother Fox

Three decades after losing her son Terry to cancer, Betty Fox is fighting to stay alive. The Fox family, in the spotlight ever since Terry’s Marathon of Hope across Canada in 1980, released a statement that the matriarch is “seriously ill,” but stressed she does not have cancer. Though details are scarce, she reportedly spent time at a hospice in Chilliwack, B.C. Her last major public appearance was carrying the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies in Vancouver last year.

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What happened down on the farm?

By Stephanie Findlay - Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), a union that represents food industry workers in Canada and the U.S., filed a complaint to the B.C. Labour Relations Board against the Mexican government and a Mission, B.C.-based farm, for allegedly blocking the return of a seasonal Mexican worker to Canada for his involvement in a union. The UFCW claims it has a Mexican government report blacklisting Victor Robles Velez, who had worked the last four years at Sidhu & Sons Nursery Ltd., for his union involvement. “The Mexican consulate has gone to the farms and injected themselves in the democratic process by telling workers and threatening workers that if they unionize or vote for a union they’ll be sent back to Mexico immediately,” says Wayne Hanley, the UFCW president. The hearing for the complaint, filed last month, is expected to take place in the next couple of weeks.

The Mexican consulate in Vancouver and the owners of the farm categorically deny the charges. “Absolutely not, there is no blacklist,” says a consulate spokesperson, adding the consulate has “absolute respect for the workers’ right to join the unions.”

The B.C. complaint is the latest in a series of controversies relating to the rights of migrant agricultural workers in Canada. Last month, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a controversial ban on collective bargaining rights for migrant agricultural workers in Ontario, a decision critics say benefits employers and leaves foreign workers vulnerable. Andy Neufeld, a communications director with the UFCW, says that, if proven, the B.C. complaints have national, even international, consequences. “We’re talking about a government’s interference with their citizens’ rights,” says Neufeld, adding, “It would be surprising if somehow we were special out here in B.C. and this was an isolated incident.”

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Canadian businessman killed in Mexico City

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 12:53 PM - 3 Comments

A Canadian man who owned an air conditioning company in Zapopan, Mexico, was shot and killed in the country’s capital last week, the Toronto Star reports. Mexico City’s attorney general said that Joel St. Tierre, 35, was shot in the head on May 3. Police were unable to identify his body due to a lack of identification documents, until his wife, Melanie Cote, identified the body on May 5. Canadian foreign affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione said consular officials are working with local authorities in the investigation

Toronto Star

The sounds of silence

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 12:20 PM - 1 Comment

Christian Hartmann/Reuters

It may be a case of self-perpetrated extinction: the last two living fluent speakers of a dying language won’t talk to each other. Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, who live less than 500 m apart in the village of Ayapa, Mexico, are the only ones still able to master the finer points of Ayapaneco, one of the country’s dozens of indigenous languages. However, they don’t care to engage each other in conversation, the Guardian newspaper reports. Segovia is said to have been speaking the language to his brother until he died a decade ago, and he speaks it to his son and wife, who understand him, but aren’t able to use Ayapaneco to answer back. Velazquez, on the other side, reportedly speaks to no one in the language. Their obstinate silence appears to stem less from true acrimony than from a general disinterest in each other. The pair just don’t have much in common, according to Daniel Suslak, a linguistic anthropologist who is contributing to drafting the first dictionary of the language. Interest in the silent pair of neighbours is also coming from Mexico’s National Indigenous Language Institute, which is planning to hold language classes with the two men.

Shootout in a vacation paradise

By Jane Switzer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 11:40 AM - 1 Comment

Bernandino Hernandez/AP

The latest wave of violence in the resort town of Acapulco left three people dead and ended in a fire that destroyed a supermarket, movie complex and stores in a shopping centre. Two gunmen and one soldier were killed in a shootout that started after police chanced upon a gang trying to set fire to the shopping centre. The incident is believed to have been drug related; the popular holiday destination has seen a marked increase in drug violence this year, despite claims from the city’s mayor that things aren’t as bad as they appear.

Indeed, Acapulco authorities claimed to have ended a gang war when they apprehended a cartel member suspected of being behind the murders of 22 people in January. Still, killings have steadily continued as rival drug cartels fight for control of the port city. Last month, 10 people were killed when gunmen opened fire in a nightclub. That same week, two young boys were shot dead as attackers chased a man through their house. Overall in Mexico, an estimated 35,000 people have been murdered in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón declared war on the country’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

More than she could chew?

By Erica Alini - Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 3:04 PM - 0 Comments

Raymundo Ruiz/AP

After being hailed as her country’s bravest woman last year, the 20-year-old police chief of a Mexican border town roiled by drug violence made headlines again this week for seeking asylum in the United States. Marisol Valles Garcia, a criminology college student and police chief in Praxedis G. Guerrero, took six days of leave last week, and hasn’t returned yet. The unexplained absence comes less than six months after she had startled Mexico and the foreign media for being the only one to hand in a resumé for the job of police boss in Praxedis, a battleground for rival drug cartels seeking to gain control of an important trafficking route.

Garcia faced the task of restoring a semblance of public security in a town just a few kilometres south of Ciudad Juárez, where over 3,000 people were killed in drug-related violence last year alone. But when she took time off work—allegedly to care for her sick baby—rumours quickly spread that she had fled to the States after receiving multiple death threats and escaping a kidnapping attempt, something Mexican authorities haven’t confirmed. She has now been fired. Filling her post won’t be easy: last time, it took about 14 months.

Why do Canadians still vacation in Mexico?

By Michael Petrou with Erica Alini and Julia Belluz - Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 11:02 PM - 42 Comments

Mexican police keep a close watch on one of the beaches in Acapulco Pedro Pardo

The Plaza Sendero shopping mall on the outskirts of Acapulco has a fabric store, a shoe shop, and a movie complex, screening Tron: Legacy, The Tourist, and Gulliver’s Travels. A red-eyed dog lies asleep in the shade of the mall entrance, and nearby a man sits on his haunches, awake but equally motionless. The parking lot is scattered with bright orange shopping carts. Across the adjacent highway, shanties cling to an eroding hill, where the scorching sun has singed off almost all greenery. Smoke drifts upward from a cooking fire or burning rubbish.

A pedestrian bridge spans the highway. On it someone has pasted a flyer for a local church that promises salvation for those who suffer from vice, broken families, curses, or sicknesses with no known cause. Fifteen bodies were dumped here in January, most with their heads cut off and bodies mutilated. Six more were found stuffed into a nearby taxi. Their hands and feet had been bound. Two police were shot and killed the same day.

Handwritten posters at the crime scene link the murders to one of the drug cartels in the midst of a war for territory and export routes in Mexico. The victims almost certainly belonged to rival gangs. They are among more than 1,000 murdered over the past year in Acapulco, a popular vacation spot for Canadians.

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The paper trail

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 16 Comments

The crucial document in the Oda Affair was first uncovered by Embassy magazine last fall and detailed in an extensive report on KAIROS.

After soliciting feedback from CIDA sections and embassies in the relevant countries, a number of memos and background documents were prepared for Ms. Oda in advance of approving the project. ”CIDA bilateral desks and Canadian posts abroad confirm that the proposed country components of the program are strategically aligned with our country program objectives, or complement these well,” reads one of the backgrounders. ”In Mexico and Guatemala, our embassies initially expressed concern over mining activities, which KAIROS addressed.”

The tone of the memos are such that they categorically endorse the full $7.1-million proposal, saying the entire package of projects would directly and indirectly benefit 2.5 million women and girls and 2.9 million men and boys by teaching “the targeted poor their human and legal rights, together with successful negotiating techniques to obtain fairer shares of local wealth.”

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 11, 2011 at 11:36 AM - 37 Comments

Conservative Senator Hugh Segal proposes a North American community.

Segal outlines several goals the North American Community could accomplish: - Enhanced market size and trading opportunities for Canadian companies, employees and investors with fewer trade barriers. - A continentwide commitment to economic and social development, through which models such as Canada’s equalization program could be applied elsewhere. - Co-operation in environmental, social and military activities that help nations face “threats” and “challenges” that cross borders. - The creation of a North American Assembly, similar to the European Parliament in its early days.

Segal believes the assembly could take the shape of a place where politicians who are already elected in their own nations regularly gather to share “best practices” and work together. The question of whether it should ever become a directly elected body could up be for discussion in the White Paper.

Canadian tourist caught in gang crossfire in Mexico

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 4:54 PM - 4 Comments

A 69-year-old Penticton, B.C. man was caught in crossfire in the tourist-town of Mazatlan, Mexico on Tuesday. He’s recovering in hospital after a metal plate was put in his shattered leg. This came just a day after a 41-year-old Canadian woman alleged she was raped by police officers who arrested her on New Year’s Eve in Playa Del Carmen, a beach-town near Cancun. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry warns that the northern border region of Mexico should be avoided, and reminds Canadians that “high levels of criminal activity… remain a concern throughout the country.” Mazatlan, on the west coast, and Playa Del Carmen, in the southern state Quintana Roo are both far away from the most deadly regions, but these recent incidents are causing Canadians to question whether to visit the country at all. One travel agent in Vancouver told CBC News that she warns clients to avoid western Mexico, including Mazatlan. Travel booker iTravel2000 says the tourist destinations are safe. Mexico’s drug war intensified last year: 15,273 died in gang-related violence in the country in 2010, up from 6,500 the year before. Over a million Canadians visited Mexico last year.

Wall Street Journal

CBC News

How ethical is your oil?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 7, 2011 at 5:32 PM - 188 Comments

The Environment Minister observed yesterday (around the 12-minute mark of that interview) that Canada is a supplier of ethical oil—a phrase recently employed by Ezra Levant—because the revenues derived from that oil are not used to “fund terrorism or the destabilization of other governments.” This may or may not beg questions about the origins of our own oil imports.

The latest release of Statistics Canada’s Energy Statistics Handbook lists our sources of crude oil and equivalents going back to 1989. Our noted individual sources in 2010 (through September) were, in order: Algeria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia and the United States.

Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

A perfect wedding for one
Chen Wei-yih, a 30-year-old living in Taipei, waited for the right man. But he never came along, so in a triumphant gesture aimed in part at upending clichés about unmarried women, she rented a hall, bought a wedding dress and will marry herself on Nov. 6. The Facebook page for “Only&Only’s Wedding” has won her loads of new friends. And yes, there is a honeymoon: Chen will travel with her new, better half to Australia.

Still Wayne’s world
It would have been the biggest English divorce since Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Shaken Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told a press conference that his star attacker, Wayne Rooney, intended to move to a new professional soccer club instead of renewing his contract. Rooney had quarrelled with his boss over an ankle injury, and told Sky Sports he had concerns over “the continued ability of the club to attract the top players in the world.” The fight raised the possibility of Rooney defecting to a Man U rival—perhaps the most despised of all, Manchester City. But after two days of uncertainty, Rooney relented and signed a deal that will keep him in the famous red kit until June 2015.

He said it once. He’ll say it again.
He has no chance of becoming the next governor of New York, but this gubernatorial candidate’s stump speeches have won him Internet fame, a parody on Saturday Night Live and even a toy action figure based on his likeness. Jimmy McMillan heads a political party called The Rent is Too Damn High Party, and in appearances he hammers away at his party’s one and only platform plank: the rent is too damn high. “Our children can’t afford to live anywhere. There’s nowhere to go,” he said during one televised debate. “Once again, why? You said it, the rent is too damned high.” He even won over front-runner Andrew Cuomo, who during the debate admitted: “I’m with Jimmy: the rent is too damn high.”

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Mexico's other big boom

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Tourists may be thinking twice about Mexico amid escalating violence linked to drug cartels, but the bloody war that’s claimed some 28,000 lives over the last four years hasn’t stopped investors from piling into the nation’s economy. The Latin American country recently sold US$1 billion worth of 100-year government bonds—the largest century-bond offer on record and the first to come out of the region.

For the Mexican government, it’s a no-brainer: a rare opportunity to take advantage of reduced borrowing costs at a time when developed countries are holding the line on record-low interest rates. But some observers are concerned investors are getting carried away, arguing the sale is evidence of a credit bubble in the making. For one thing, a lot can happen in 100 years, and economists say rising interest rates in developed countries will ultimately make the lower-quality Mexican debt less attractive. And while there’s ample evidence of continued investment in Mexico, which has benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement and boasts a growing middle class, it remains a developing country with an economy that still counts tourism as an important industry—an industry at constant risk as the death toll mounts.

A casualty of war

By Michael Barclay - Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

AP Photo

Despite the fact that 12 people were killed, children were wounded, and vehicles were hijacked and used as battering rams, residents of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, didn’t see, hear or read anything in the media about a five-hour war in their streets last month between a powerful drug cartel and the Mexican military. That’s because the drug cartels are making it clear to journalists that they could be killed or kidnapped if they don’t comply with the cartels’ demands for favourable coverage.

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Mexico’s drug cartels: Is Canada next?

By Katie Engelhart - Monday, June 7, 2010 at 11:23 AM - 102 Comments

Shaul Schwarz / Getty Images

When councilman Beto O’Rourke looks out the 10th-floor window of the El Paso, Texas, city hall, he sees a fence: “a big, ugly, Berlin-style fence. It’s disgusting.” The structure separates dusty El Paso from its proximal sister city: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which is, by all accounts, under siege. More than 850 people were killed in the northern Chihuahua city this year, nearly all of them in drug cartel-related violence. “Juárez has become the deadliest city in the world,” O’Rourke insists. “It’s a crazy, f–ked up situation.”

In response, the Obama administration announced last week that it will send 1,200 National Guard troops to patrol along the southwest border—this just weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed to dispatch aerial drones to prowl the Texas skies. Four decades after the U.S. launched its “war on drugs,” battle lines are hardening. But the new initiatives may be a case of too little, too late. While most eyes have been focused on the violence in Mexico—some 23,000 people have died since 2006 as drug cartels vie for control in places such as Juárez and Tijuana along the U.S. border, battling each other and the Mexican authorities who are trying to stamp them out—there has already been a more dire development: the push by cartels into the United States itself.

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Don’t pack the wrong passport

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 5 Comments

Hélène Scherrer was looking forward to a week’s worth of sunshine when she packed her bags and headed to Mexico last month. What she got instead was a close-up view of the ongoing diplomatic spat between Canada and its southernmost NAFTA partner.

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