Destruction and potential death and injury were averted yesterday morning in Mexico City’s Torre Mayor skyscraper. At around 11:00 a.m. 10,000 employees and visitors to the building were evacuated from the premises after a bomb made of pipes and containing a quick combustion powder was discovered.
The bomb was found after police received an anonymous call which revealed a description of the car where the explosives were eventually found, and the license plate number.
According to Mexico City’s La Jornada newspaper, employees of the Torre Mayor said that it took them about 40 minutes to reach the ground floor after hearing the alarms go off. Employees had to remain on the street for several hours, and were finally allowed to re-enter the building at around 3:00 p.m.
The Torre Mayor is Latin America’s tallest skyscraper, but if developers have it their way, it won’t be for long. Mexico City will soon welcome an even taller building, the Torre Bicentenario, which will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence in 2010.
Via / La Jornada
VL readers, today, August 31st, is International Blog Day. What is it?
BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.
BlogDay recommends that we suggest blogs that are different from those we normally link to — and “different from their own culture, point of view and attitude.”
Here are my picks for BlogDay. Some are new to me, some aren’t, but all are worth sharing with you. Get to know these blogs and I guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know before:
LobsterSquad: Ximena Maier is a talented illustrator living in Madrid, Spain. I share a passion with her: cooking. I’ve lurked on her blog almost since day one (not sure how I found it), and so should you, since her uber-entertaining entries are coupled with with her own gorgeous drawings.
Dutched Pinay on Expatriation: I enjoy reading the funny adventures of Dutched Pinay, a Filipina living in the Netherlands. Her anecdotes about adjusting to life in northern Europe with her friend “Dutchman” are definitely worth a read.
IndiaUncut: Amit Varma writes from Mumbai on everything from Bollywood gossip, tech, politics and travel. He’s an entertaining writer with a great sense of humor, so check him out.
Cajun Squeezebox Blog: Want to get to know Cajun music? This is the place to learn anything and everything about Cajun accordion music, and get a taste for Cajun culture as well.
Scribbit: Michelle Mitchell writes about the adventures of raising a family in Alaska, fielding questions from her kids like “How old was I when I was a baby?” and “Who trained Yoda?” Funny stuff.
I hope you’ll drop by these blogs and have a look around. And if you have a blog, why not post your own picks? Or feel free to link to your own blog in the comments section of this post.
9:45 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Movies · 3 Comments
31 Aug 2007With Miguel Varoni (Pedro el Escamoso), Fernando Colunga, and Saúl Lisazo (yum I like him), Ladrón Que Roba a Ladrón is either like a really long novela episode or a Latinized version of Ocean’s 11 (depending on your tastes). It opens today in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco and Jacksonville, Fla.
I haven’t seen it and doubt I will (this weekend anyway). So who has seen it and how was it?
8:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Paraguay|Politics · Comments Off
31 Aug 2007
While the former dictator of Paraguay may have gone to that military academy in the sky, something fishy is going on in the South American nation that lends just a little bit of legitimacy to Hugo Chavez‘s claims that the U.S. is digging its imperialist claws into Latin America.
In May of 2005, the Paraguayan Senate voted to allow U.S. troops to operate in Paraguay with total immunity. Washington had threatened to cut off millions in aid to the country if Paraguay did not grant the U.S. troops entry. In July of 2005 hundreds of U.S. soldiers arrived in the country, and Washington’s funding for counterterrorism efforts in Paraguay doubled. The U.S. troops conducted various operations and joint training exercises with Paraguayan forces, including so-called Medical Readiness Training Exercises (MEDRETEs). Orlando Castillo, a military policy expert at the human rights rights organization Servicio, Paz y Justicia in Asunción, Paraguay, says the MEDRETEs were “observation” operations aimed at developing “a type of map that identifies not just the natural resources in the area, but also the social organizations and leaders of different communities.”
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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