Mexico

By John Terrett in Americas on February 21st, 2012



A family of five from North Carolina is on the verge of being torn apart forever, if child welfare officials get their way.

The state's social services department wants the family's three children to be adopted by US foster parents, rather than have them live with their real father in Mexico.

He was deported just over a year ago and even though his wife supports the idea of the kids living with him, case workers doubt his accommodation in Mexico is suitable and they're pushing to keep the youngsters in the US.

I'm in the small town of Sparta to find out more.

Small town of Sparta

By Franc Contreras in Americas on November 2nd, 2011
Katiushka Rodriguez, Mexican lawyer and family member of some of the murder victims [Image: Franc Contreras]

Morelia, Mexico - Lawyer Katiushka Rodriguez says she can not find the words to express the deep sorrow she feels one year after several of her family members were found dead in a clandestine grave near the resort city of Acapulco.  

The victims were mostly mechanics who were on their annual beach holiday. Upon arrival in Acapulco gunmen from a drug trafficking organisation mistook them for members of a rival criminal organisation. The men, all from western Michoacan state, went missing in September 2010. Their badly decomposed bodies were discovered on November 2, 2010 stacked up in a mass grave near Acapulco.

One year after the crime was committed, Rodriguez says state and federal authorities have failed to investigate the murders and the crime remains unpunished, despite promises by President Felipe Calderón that those responsible would be brought to justice.

I spoke with Rodriguez and asked her what the tragedy meant for her family:

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on October 14th, 2011

An outdoor rock concert kicked off a big public relations push by the city of Juarez to clean up its crime-tarnished image. Called “Competitiva Juarez”, the city-sponsored two-week-long series of business, cultural and trade events is meant to promote a city notorious for sky-high rates of murder and drug fuelled crime.

Mexican President Felipe Calderone spoke at the opening conference. Former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will also make speeches.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on October 11th, 2011
The Massachusetts statesman's presidential ambitions include a plan for his Latin neighbours.

If Mitt Romney becomes president of the United States, he apparently has big plans for Latin America. 

“Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration really focused on Latin America,” a Romney aide apparently told a conference call of reporters late last week, according to this article in Politico. 

The article quoted an aide who said President Mitt Romney would envision “larger campaigns for economic opportunity in Latin America” and that Latin America would be one of the main regions in the world Romney foreign policy would differ from George Bush or Barack Obama. 

Fair enough.

With that in mind I took great interest when on Friday Romney released his 44-page foreign policy white paper titled: “An American Century - A Strategy to Secure

By Monica Villamizar in Americas on August 15th, 2011

"If you want to see the inner workings of the drug trafficking business, Honduras is the country," says Victor (not his real name). He was a major drug trafficker before he became a born-again Christian, after being shot in the skull and surviving.

Now he wants to purge all his sins, including several murders, to avoid being sent to hell in the afte life, he says. 

Victor  was in charge of overseeing cocaine shipments and "narco planes" to Honduras.

The illegal drugs from Colombia and Venezuela travel to the heart of Central America, where they are handed over to Mexican drug lords in Guatemala or Mexico.

By Mariana Sanchez in Americas on August 15th, 2011

It’s noon... and very busy under the scorching sun of Acapulco.

On one side of La Costera, the main road that runs along the coast, thousands of bathers are diving into the warm waters of this tourist city, once a paradise for honeymooners.

On the other side, the contrast couldn’t be more stark. A corner has been sealed off with red tape. Soldiers and police are waiting for a forensic team to pick up the body of a man lying on the ground, lifeless. Apparently, the man was a taxi driver killed by a drug gang.

We rushed to the scene. It happened just a few hours after landing in Acapulco. Local crime reporters have been incredibly busy. One killing is happening after another.

That’s exactly what I saw in the course of two hours.

Another alert. Ten minutes away, up the mountain through busy streets, a forensic team was picking up the remains of at least two dismembered bodies left on a corner, out in the open. The scenes were too horrible to describe.

By Monica Villamizar in Americas on July 22nd, 2011

Pictures of the latest objects seized by the police in the Mexican state of Michoacan, revealed that the mysterious 'Knights Templar" drug cartel is more bizarre than most people imagine.

There were four hooded tunics, with a red cross, a metal helmet, and a pamphlet or Templar rule book. This drug cartel claims to draw inspiration from the medieval Christian warriors who fought to protect Jerusalem and the Holy Grail.

No one knows if its founder, Servando Gomez, a school teacher, was a history entuthiast or simply read the Da Vinci Code.

The rules in the modern day 'templar bible' call for observance of 'gentleman' like behaviour and respect for women – but also state that any disclosure of knights templar activities will result in the death of the person and his whole family, and confiscation by the cartel of the snitch’s property.

By Andrea Schmidt in Fault Lines on June 21st, 2011
Gloria Arenas Agis

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By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on March 30th, 2011
Brazil's growing economy is hammering those of its neigbhours [GALLO/GETTY]

On Sunday, Alan Garcia, the president of Peru, said that his country, along with Colombia, Chile and Mexico would form a new regional economic bloc.

Garcia said the presidents of all four countries would meet in Lima on May 2 to hammer out the final details and make the formal announcement.

But all four countries - which have market-oriented economic priorities - already have individual free trade agreements amongst themselves. The stock markets of Colombia, Peru and Chile were even recently integrated.

There are currently no major barriers to free trade between them.

So what is the point of a formal economic block?

The point is simple: Brazil.

By Christopher Ars... in Americas on January 17th, 2011
Mangrove forests provide a habitat for diverse plant and animal species [Chris Arsenault]

The scenery is almost postcard perfect: a tiny beach nestled in a cove and surrounded by a lively mangrove forest ecosystem.

But local fisherman Bulfrano Castillo is worried; major hotels are rising up around the beach, and the owners are telling local people to scram.

"They can't just kick us out," Castillo says, standing beside his boat.

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