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At least 35 killed in fire at Mexican day care center

11:12 am By la Macha · Labor| mexico| youth · 1 Comment

8 Jun 2009

Tragedy occurred over the weekend in multiple places. One of the most notable was this fire that killed 35 and hurt countless others at a daycare center in Mexico.

And from the BBC News:

Reports say the fire started in a tyre depot next to the state-run centre.

President Felipe Calderon said that the fire was a “painful tragedy for all Mexicans”.

“I have ordered the federal prosecutor to carry out investigations as soon as possible to help us know exactly what happened and how, and to determine the corresponding responsibility,” he said.

More than 140 children are reported to have been at the centre when the fire began.

This is just so horrible. And it made me remember the “ground zero” kid (remember him?) and how *his* home was next to a pig factory. It reminded me of all the lives that were lost back in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s here in the US that basically kicked the labor movement into high gear.

Why were people working in such conditions? Why is it considered ok to have some children grow up surrounded by toxins that kill?

There are no answers yet–and given the Calderon government’s past history with transparency and accountability, I hardly expect them. I wish nothing but strength and healing for the people dealing with this tragedy–and may Calderon be on the right side when these families begin raising hell in the name of their loved ones.

Swine Flu “Patient Zero” Immortalized in a Statue

27 May 2009

964429 Um, what? Sure, he was famous for about a minute, but what’s the motivation behind making little Edgar into a bronze statue? Apparently attracting tourists to his hometown of Perote, Veracruz (Mexico). Reports 20 Minutos:

The statue of patient zero of the new flu in Mexico has a frog in his right hand as a symbol of biblical plagues. It was made by Mexican sculptor Bernardo Luis Artasanchez, who traveled to La Gloria in the town of Perote, Veracruz, to spend time with the youngster and his family.

The effigy, some 4 feet high and weighing 154 pounds, was created at the petition of the Veracruz authorities to symbolize the victory over AH1N1 virus and to attract tourists.

I guess I can understand the “victory over the virus” argument, but to attract tourists? I mean, do you think families will take an alternate route on their way to Veracruz from Mexico City and hit Perote to see the flu boy statue? I’m not seeing it.

Perote is beautiful by the way, I can vouch for it.

Via / 20 Minutos

Mexico City Tells Swine Flu ‘Adios’

4:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Latin America| mexico| society · Comments Off

21 May 2009

3482891591_0772d4b1b1 While the swine flu might have claimed its latest victims stateside, Mexico City – plagued by the stigma of the disease for weeks now — is officially declaring the illness to be yesterday’s news. The city has lowered the alert level as the Mayor, Marcel Ebrard, tells citizens it to take a chill pill, since the megapolis has reached a milestone in its fight against the flu: one full week with no new cases. The AP reports:

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the change means the risk of contagion is low, the situation is under control and the images of countless people wearing blue surgical masks in cars, sidewalks, restaurants and theaters can be consigned to history.

“There’s no longer any need” to wear masks, Ebrard said. “Now you can come to the city without any risk.”

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said nobody has been hospitalized with respiratory infections in the last three days, and no swine flu cases have been confirmed since May 14. “We are seeing a 96.1 percent drop in cases, and that’s why we are dropping the alert level to green today,” Ahued said.

The flu has meant a sharp dip in tourism to the city and indeed to the entire country, so I assume that as small as this milestone might be, the capital is anxious to milk it for all its worth in an effort to get tourists back to the Mexican capital with a quickness.

Via / AP

Image via xaminmo on Flickr

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

Latino Civil Disobediance : Mexicans in NY, Ricans in DC

7 May 2009

mmedidiororr The past few days have been busy for activists around the issues of Puerto Rico’s colonial status and Mexican political prisoners.And yet, I can’t seem to find much information about either act of civil disobedience in the mainstream news media.

From Narco News:

Today, May 4, 2009, the Other Campaign New York took over the Mexican Consulate in New York to demand the liberation of the 12 political prisoners who have been brutally repressed for resisting neoliberal urbanization projects that are destructive to human life and culture, specifically the construction of an airport in Atenco, and for protecting displaced flower vendors in Texcoco.

Today, on this third anniversary of the repression, the arrests, the violations, the torture, and the breaking and entering made by the military police in Atenco, a delegation of members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio succeeded in entering the offices of the Consulate of Mexico in New York despite the fact that these offices have been under strict and tightened security since precisely 3 years ago when Mexicans of The Other Campaign New York with real heart and memory, demanded the liberation of the political prisoners of Atenco. We succeeded in entering the offices to hold a non-violent protest demanding the immediate release of the prisoners of Atenco.

Once inside, the compañer@s of the Other Campaign New York, amongst the clamor of: “Freedom for political prisoners (Presos politicos, libertad)!, Liberty, liberty, to those prisoners for fighting (Libertad, libertad, a los presos por luchar)!, We are all Atenco (Todos Somos Atenco)!”, along with other chants, and with our signs, some with prison bars to look like a cell, and also with bandanas, gave out to our fellow country men and women at the Consulate DVD’s of the video “Breaking the Siege”, about the repression in Atenco, and informational flyers where we explain our main demands.

Later, we demanded to speak with the consul Ruben Beltran in order to give him a letter of demands. First, they told us that he was not there because he was in Mexico, but we knew that this was a lie, since the day before the consul was in El Barrio at an event proselytizing for PAN during the imposed Cinco de Mayo celebration.

After a while, the authorities of the Consulate told us that the Consul was in New York but that he could not be found in the Consulate, and they closed consular services to the public, asking all of their clients to abandon the offices. By the end of our action, the consul arrived. We gave him a giant size letter on a poster-board with the following
demands:

1. Liberty for the political prisoners in Atenco.

2. Cancel the arrest warrants for those 2 who are being persecuted.

3. Revoke and appeal the sentences.

4. Complete respect for the human rights of the detained and the persecuted.

5. Punishment for those responsible for the violations of human rights.

The consul, Rubén Beltrán, first told us that he was open to engage in dialogue with all Mexican people in New York and listen to all opinions, but then blamed us – and our cause, the liberation of the prisoners in Atenco – for having closed the services of the Consulate and for having left so many people unattended.

Obama Says Happy Cinco de Mayo, Gives Props to Mexicans, Pero Doesn’t Say a Thing About Immigration

7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| mexico · 6 Comments

5 May 2009

Cinco De Mayo commemorates Mexican army’s defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It’s not a drinking game, gringos (damn, why I gotta go make everything racial).

President Obama made a statement yesterday about the holiday. In his statement, he speaks bad Spanish, gives props to Mexicans, especially for how they dealt with the whole swine flu thing. Pero me thinks that it was a missed opportunity for President Obama.

It all started here….

10:40 am By la Macha · Controversia| Health| U.S.-Mexico Border| animals| children · 10 Comments

29 Apr 2009

childwswineflu I’m not really sure why CNN feels the need to run the story about where swine flu started. According CNN, this little boy is “ground zero” of the swine flu–which means what? That this little boy is the original site of destruction and violence? And wouldn’t you figure it, this original site of destruction and violence is a Mexican that is eating ice cream while the rest of us scream frantically and crawl on our hands and knees through the street.

Damn Mexicans.

I don’t know, though. I found this part of the article to be much more beneficial in understanding the whole scope of things:

Edgar has managed to bounce back from his symptoms and playfully credits ice cream for helping him feel better.

His mother blamed the virus on a huge pig farm in the neighborhood. Officials have conducted tests at the farm owned by U.S. company Smithfield Foods, and those tests came back negative.

Meanwhile, Mexican health officials suspect the swine flu outbreak has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses.

That little section made me remember that factory pig farms are some of the worst polluters in the world.

“North Carolina’s ten million hogs produce twice as much feces and urine as the populations of the cities of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago combined. Industrial farms, most with thousands of hogs each, store the waste in open-air pits, called lagoons. They spray the waste, untreated, as manure on adjacent fields.”

So those dear little piggies may be as healthy as can be, but anybody breathing in their shit being sprayed on adjacent fields is probably going to have some problems.

But who wants to talk about the ethics and problems of factory farming practices when we can demonize ice cream eating little boys?

Breaking News: Mexico City Hit by Strong Earthquake

12:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Latin America| mexico · Comments Off

27 Apr 2009

As if Chilangos didn’t have enough problems with the swine flu emptying the Mexican capital’s streets (see related video above), a 6.0 earthquake centered in Guerrero just shook the city. Reuters reports:

Mexico was hit by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The USGS said the quake hit 19 miles south-southeast of Tixtla, Guerrero, about 150 miles south of the capital, Mexico City. It was 25.6 miles deep.

Buildings in the capital shook.

Quakes of this magnitude are classified as strong and are capable of causing severe damage.

The USGS earlier reported the quake measured 5.8.

As we speak, CNN is reporting that buildings in tourist spot Acapulco, located close to the epicenter, are being evacuated.

Via / Reuters

Bring on the Chuletas : Swine Flu in the Mala’Hood

6:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Food| Health| animals| mexico · 2 Comments

27 Apr 2009

Jennifer wrote up about the swine flu outbreak that has emptied Mexican streets and has hit close to home, with a confirmed case of the illness right here in my own home borough of Queens, NYC. Thankfully swine flu isn’t something you can get from eating pork, porque everytime I hear the words “swine flu” I want some chuletas or pernil.

And now swine flu is the new racial profiling:

Secretary Janet Napolitano also said border agents have been directed to begin passive surveillance of travelers from affected countries, with instructions to isolate anyone who appears actively ill with suspected influenza.

In other words don’t stand close to a coughing Mexican? Or if you see a Mexican sneeze call ICE?

Dangerous Swine Flu Breaks Out in Mexico

10:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Immigration| Latin America| World| mexico · 3 Comments

26 Apr 2009

Mainstream media was a-buzz all weekend with news that a flu originating in swine had broken out in Mexico, killing some 60 people and making several people sick stateside. The SF Chronicle reports:

California doctors and other health experts are on the lookout for cases of a new strain of swine flu, a potentially dangerous virus that has reignited fears of a pandemic flu outbreak after killing about 60 people in Mexico and sickening eight people in the United States.

Hospitals and public health departments throughout California, where six of the American cases have been found, were told Friday to increase surveillance of the rare strain of flu that combines genetic material from humans, pigs and birds.

Today it appears that the death toll has risen to 81 in Mexico, and all public events in Mexico City have been cancelled for fear of the disease spreading from person to person, which is apparently how the flu gets around (not from consumption of pork). Kissing has also been banned, as has all other “close contact”.
Read more…

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