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Posts Tagged ‘Felipe Calderon’

Fidel Castro Accuses Mexico of Lying About Swine Flu

4:26 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Cuba|Health|Latin America|mexico · Comments Off

13 May 2009

We don’t hear a lot from good old Fidel Castro, but when we do, it’s always something interesting. Take this piece of new: the Mexican government is angry because the Cuban leader is accusing them of keeping the 411 about the swine flu epidemic under wraps so as not to mess up Obama’s visit to Mexico. In a piece published in Cuba’s Granma newspaper, Fidel says that because of this deception, Cubans are now paying the price as citizens there were infected:

Today the presence of the H1N1 flu virus was detected in Cuba. The carrier is a young Mexican citizen who studies medicine in our country. The only thing that can be confirmed is that it didn’t come from the CIA, it came from Mexico [...]

The Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence of the virus while awaiting Obama’s visit, and now they are threatening us with suspending that of President Calderón, previously suspended for other, understandable reasons unconnected to the epidemic.

Mexico is emphatically denying this accusation, and Mexican president Felipe Calderon shot back yesterday that he “acted with determination, with promptness and with one single priority, which is and will always be to protect the health and the life of Mexicans.”

On the other hand, the Mexican Secretary for Foreign Relations (SRE) says that Castro’s accusations are making things a bit, well, weird for the relations between the two countries. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, SRE, says that the declarations “make bilateral relations awkward”.

Via / Granma and Times of India

Obama is in Mexico

16 Apr 2009

President Barack Obama has begun his much-anticipated trip to Mexico today, and both here and there people are expecting a lot out of this visit. Up for discussion with Obama’s counterpart, President Felipe Calderón, are the issues of trade, immigration and — perhaps the biggest standout — the U.S.’s role in fighting the drug war which has plagued Mexico of late.

I’m not expecting much to come of the immigration conversation, but Obama did make a promising statement on the issue of U.S. involvement in ending drug-related violence:

“It is absolutely critical that the United States joins as a full partner” with Mexico in the battle against drug cartels, Obama said at a welcoming ceremony with Calderon. The two nations must “stand side by side in order to promote common security and common prosperity,” he said.

As we here at home hope for some progress in Mexico-U.S. relations, Mexicans in Mexico have their own set of wishes and requests for President Obama. Back in January, Al Jazeera interviewed people on the street in Mexico City to ask them what they would ask of the new U.S. President. Their answers are compelling. Check it out, and let’s see if they — and we — get our wishes.

Via / Bloomberg

Sabado Afternoon Links: Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazilians, Washing, and Jon Stewart

14 Mar 2009

Mala is a little stressed out and seeking calm from the internet isn’t really helping.

I mean, mira, scary socialist Chavez is taking over everything, including highways, ports and airports.

It’s not like the U.S. to interfere in the elections of Latin American countries like El Salvador, right?

We could all just unwind in Mexico.

If we wanna a wax we’d have to skip Jersey.

We can’t even wash our kids anymore

Pero thankfully when all else fails, we have Jon Stewart.

Mexico’s Narco Violence Continues: 5 Decapitated Heads Found

6:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|Drugs|Latin America|mexico|society · 7 Comments

10 Mar 2009

narcoheads It seems that with each passing day, Mexico’s war on drug lords seems more and more hopeless, and the country is gripped with a seemingly endless chain of violent acts that have already left hundreds dead this year and nearly 6,000 deaths last year. The latest chapter in this bloody story is striking in its violence: this morning, 5 decapitated heads were found in an ice chests on the side of the road in rural Jalisco, Mexico. Mexico City’s La Jornada reports:

Inside styrofoam ice chests 5 male heads were found in the early morning on Tuesday in the town of fueron encontradas la madrugada de este martes cinco cabezas Ixtlahuacán del Río, some 50 kilometers north of Guadalajara, with a “narcomessage”. The macabre discovery coincides with today’s visit to Jalisco by president Felipe Calderón.

Reports we called in around 2:00 a.m. via an anonymous caller to the municipal police, who after corroborating the news alerted the state police and state judicial authorities.

Each head was found in an ice chest with packing tape wrapped around the eyes. The five containers were placed in a line alongside the the highway, very close to entrance into the town.

Heads in ice chests? Can it really get much worse than this? Savage.

Calderón had better act quickly before his country falls further into the hands of these assassins. This is not the Mexico I know and love.

Via / La Jornada

Imaga via El Informador

Drug Related Violence in Mexico Continues

3:08 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|mexico · 2 Comments

17 Nov 2008

tijuana%20drug%20war.jpg The BBC News is reporting that the drug related violence in Mexico was especially intense this weekend: Eleven were killed, including a young girl:

A teenage girl was among 11 people shot dead in suspected drug-related violence at the weekend in the northern city of Tijuana, authorities in Mexico say.

In one attack, masked gunmen opened fire in a pool hall, killing five people, while the girl, 14, and two men were killed in a shootout in a street.

This violence came shortly after at least one thousand people marched through Tijana demanding and end to the violence. Even worse, this violence comes after the brutal kidnapping/murder of a young boy earlier this month:

Kidnappers grabbed a 5-year-old boy from a gritty Mexico City street market, then killed him by injecting acid into his heart — a new low even for Mexico’s brutal kidnapping gangs.

The boy, Javier Morena, was the oldest son of a poor family that sold fruit at a market in the tough neighborhood of Iztapalapa, proof that the plague of kidnappings for ransom afflicts the working class as well as the wealthy.

So what is Mexican president, Felipe Calderon doing about all this? Congratulating himself on job well done. Of course.

Mexico has made “important achievements” in fighting drugs under the current administration, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Sunday.

Some 43 tons of cocaine have been seized in the littorals of the country since his government took office in December 2006, Calderon said at the welcoming ceremony in Acapulco Port for the arrival of School Vessel “Cuauhtemoc” after its international tour.

“The trafficking of that dangerous drug” was controlled, Calderon said.

For some reason, I’m thinking that concentrating on how great it is to find drugs is not quite what most Mexicans are hoping for when little boys are getting their hearts injected with acid. For some reason, I think those people might be hoping for a focus on human life and safety.

You can always count on the Mexican government to be in step with it’s people.

Mexican Congress on Lockdown Over Pemex

10:57 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|mexico|Money · Comments Off

15 Apr 2008

capt.ab04f71540fe4515ae8555f73f9df299.aptopix_mexico_oil_reform_mxmt103.jpg I got to give it to some members of the Mexican Congress who are sitting in the lower house of their congress to protest President Felipe Calderon’s reform proposal concerning Pemex, the nation’s state oil company. The proposal would allow Pemex to partner with private companies for exploration and refining. This is needed according to the president to help boost sagging oil production. The opposition maintains that this is just an attempt to privatize the oil industry.

U.S. Launches Plan Mexico

8:34 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · mexico|Politics · Comments Off

11 Oct 2007

Yesterday I wrote about how well Plan Colombia has worked out for the people there. Not surprisingly, the U.S. wants to spread its program to other Latin American nations. Next stop, Mexico.

The US intends to supply Mexico with a $1bn aid package to help combat an increasingly costly and violent war against drugs, according to a top Mexican diplomat.
The agreement, which some experts have dubbed ”Plan Mexico” after the controversial multi-billion-dollar anti-narcotics package the US established with Colombia in 2000, would be spread out over two years and include the supply of intelligence, training and equipment such as helicopters and boats.

Plan Mexico is said to differ from Plan Colombia in that no US troops would be allowed to operate on Mexican soil.

Via / The Financial Times

Two Amigos : Lula y Calderon

7:09 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|mexico|Politics · Comments Off

7 Aug 2007

Fidel and Hugo, Evo and Hugo. Ah yes lefty Latin America has its buddies and now Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Mexican president Felipe Calderón are trying to create a new type of Latin American male bonding, aligning their two economic powerhouse nations to work for the growth of all of Latin America. Calderon said :

President Lula and I know that our prosperity will only be complete and permanent if it comes with the prosperity of our neighbors.

This was followed by calls for a group hug. Ok not really but these two are an unlikely pair. Calderon is considered right of center and fairly Bush/U.S. friendly but Lula is considered more left and well left instantly means enemy of the U.S. in most cases.

Mexican Left: Frida belongs to us

11:08 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Arts|Controversia|mexico|Politics · 2 Comments

21 Jun 2007

A one hundred year retrospective of the life and art of Frida Kahlo at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes was the site of political unrest yesterday, as supporters of leftist ex-candidate for the Mexican presidency, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (referred to by his supporters as the “legitimate President of Mexico) gathered to protest the arrival of President Felipe Calderón and his guests. Calderón and a slew of his cronies, among them some celebrities, were attending a special event in honor of the Kahlo exhibit and were the subject of insults as they entered. Mexico City’s La Jornada paints an excellent picture of how things played out:

The biggest examples of aggression happened on the East side of the building, next to the Alameda Central park and at one of the entrances in which the protestors alternated between chants against the President and in favor of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and insults towards those who were going in: “¡lambiscones!” “¡cucarachas!” y “¡lamehuevos del espurio!”

Mexico’s New President Starts Anti-Drug Campaign

2:57 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · mexico · Comments Off

13 Dec 2006

New Mexican President Felipe Calderon is starting his term by laying down the law in terms of drugs.

Soldiers stopped cars and frisked passengers Tuesday, searching for drugs or weapons.Helicopters swooped low over remote mountaintops, looking for signs of opium and marijuana fields.Ships patrolled Mexico’s main Pacific port, a hub for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia.

The crackdown targets Calderon’s home state of Michoacan where drug gangs and their violence rule. There has been some concern expressed about the human rights of innocent people being violate in the crackdown.

Via / CNN.com

Image Via / Noticias de Oaxaca

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