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Posts Tagged ‘mexico’

Mexican Government Up in Arms Over Burger King Ad

14 Apr 2009

Burger King has pissed off Mexico’s Ambassador to Spain because of a new ad campaign running in that country for a product called the “Texican Whopper”. Ambassador Jorge Zermeno wrote to Burger King in Spain to denounce what he called “denigration” of the Mexican flag.

“This advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico’s national flag,” Jorge Zermeno wrote in a letter to Burger King in Spain, the Reforma newspaper reported on Monday.

The ambassador contacted the local offices of Burger King after he saw the posters in Spain, Reforma said. The burger is only available in Europe, according to the paper.

Mexico has strict laws prohibiting the defamation of the flag, Zermeno said. He asked Burger King to cancel the ad campaign that “offends Mexicans and Mexico.”

You might remember from numerous posts on VL over the past few years that Mexico doesn’t like people doing weird things with their flag, and this offense can be punishable with harsh fines and even jail time.

Reuters reports that Zermeno’s complaint was related to posters (image above) for the campaign found around Madrid, but I wonder if he’s seen the TV version (video after the jump) – which from the looks of it was created for the U.S. or Canadian market — as it’s much worse.

Feliz Easter Links

6:59 am By Maegan La Mala · crime|Funny|mexico|Religion · Comments Off

12 Apr 2009

Yes, my preteen made Easter eggs with Twilight themed writing. Help me.

Whether you celebrate the officially sanctioned Catholic Church Jesus has risen holiday or the church of azucar, bunnies or painted eggs of the goddess here are some links in la mañana for today:

The Washington Post has a Peep Show

Do NYC Gangs Go People Hunting on Easter? (Hmm what would a holiday be without some messed up racial profiling).

Yesterday In Mexico they Judas got his.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Mexican Mummies on Tour in the U.S.

8:54 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bizarro|Events|history|mexico|society · 3 Comments

3 Apr 2009

One of the craziest things I ever laid eyes on in Mexico (and that’s saying a lot) was the momias de Guanajuato: the Guanajuato mummies. Ancient Mexican civilizations didn’t practice mummification of their dead; these mummies are allegedly the exhumed bodies of once-buried deceased people whose families couldn’t pay to maintain their graves and were taken out to make room for dead people who could at a time in the 19th century when cholera was doing away with the population. Other sources say that when cholera was plaguing the region, dying — not dead – sufferers were buried in an effort to stop the spread of the disease, which explains the horribly agonized faces of the bodies who were literally buried alive.

Sound attractive? Well you’re in luck, as you won’t have to travel to Guanajuato to see them…the mummies are coming to a city near you!

A group of 60 Guanajuato mummies will kick off a tour of 10 American states, generating income of more than 6 million dollars for the country in the 3 years the exhibit will last [...]

The tour will start at the Detroit Science Center and continue on to the cities of Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and Orlando, whose museams have up to 10,500,000 visitors per year.

Organizers of the traveling show, to be called “The Accidental Mummies”, say that this isn’t “a circus show” but a way to teach Americans about Guanajuato’s history and traditions. Milenio reports that over $600,000 is being spent in marketing the event and in hiring FBI artists to recreate busts of how the mummies must have looked when they were alive.

Via / Milenio

Video via pedroultreras on YouTube

At the Border Security is Privilege

8:27 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|Drugs|Immigration|mexico|Politics · 5 Comments

25 Mar 2009

All eyes are on Mexico with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arriving there. Yesterday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano revealed a border security plan that was allegedly less about undocumented immigrants and more about protecting the “us” from the violence coming from “them”. And next month U.S. President Obama will meet with Mexican President Calderon to discuss “their” problem.

I think that it’s important to note that the Obama administration is sending a clear signal that it is going to follow the safety first rhetoric that the Bush administration nearly perfected, that is the rhetoric that before we talk human rights, especially those of immigrants, we need to make sure we are protected from them.

Who are they?

They are the drug cartels and human traffickers. Now don’t get me wrong the violence is horrible but violence in Mexico isn’t anything new. Look specifically at the massive killing of women in Juarez. Pero the U.S. gets down to business when college students worry about their spring break vacation plans being ruined.
350 additional security personnel will be sent to the border including agents from the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) teams will be doubled and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is to create a special south-west intelligence group to co-ordinate all its efforts to tackle Mexican drug-related crime.

ATF is to send 100 agents to the border within 45 days to crack down on illegal gun transfers from the US into Mexico.

They are the undocumented coming into the U.S. protected by plants that conspire to hide them. So part of the plan includes spraying potentially harmful chemicals to kill the plants that help to hide “them”.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be so cynical and hold out hope for the new administration. Napolitano did mention how U.S. drug consumption is helping to fuel the cartel violence. Hmm but no mention of how the current drug policy is the U.S. including mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines have increased the prison population. Napolitano did mention how walls aren’t an especially helpful security plan but that parts of the border wall under construction will be finished and other parts reinforced with technology.

Feel safer yet? I know in my neighborhood, on this side of the border and in neighborhoods across the country, families are growing restless with their growing insecurity. ICE is still conducting raids. Families are still be separated. When will the security of many many U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents matter? How long will they have to wait while the rest of us sit back feeling safe and sound?

Via / Feet in Two Worlds, Para Justicia y Libertad. , BBC, Latina Lista

Mexican Tourism Board: Mexico Needs an Image Makeover

24 Mar 2009

1949726238_351271f9eb_o As much as I love Mexico, I have to admit that lately all of the violence — from severed heads in ice chests to massive roadside graves — makes it harder and harder to convince people who don’t know the country that that’s not what it’s about. The Mexican Tourism Board appears to realize that this is becoming more and more challenging, and its Secretary says that the country needs to “rebuild its image” in the eyes of foreigners, namely potential tourists. El Universal reports:

At a conference, [the Secretary] stated that it isn’t about an advertising campaign but doing anything necessary “to compensate for the attacks that Mexico has suffered in the last several weeks.”

Accompanied by the director of the Council for Tourism Promotion, Oscar Fitch Gómez, the Secretary explained that the intention isn’s just to rebuild Mexico’s image to attract visitors but to improve the country as a whole.

The Secretary also stated that potential tourists hear many things about Mexico that just aren’t true, some as extreme as the notion that the country is “at war”. He also mentioned that the ex-director of the CIA advised his own son not to visit Mexico because the narcos were planning to attack Spring Break revelers, and that the responsibility of convincing American tourists that these rumors are false belongs to Mexico.

I symphathize with this effort. I always hated when people tried to tell me things about Mexico City — you can’t walk down the street at night without getting robbed, nor get into a cab without getting kidnapped, etc. — when I lived there and knew the truth. But at the same time, we have to be realistic and realize that cosmetic changes won’t fix a problem that is getting worse and worse every day. This isn’t a job for the Tourism Board but for President Felipe Calderon.

Via / El Universal

Mexican City Outlaws Catcalls

17 Mar 2009

cat_calls Hot on the heels of Guanajuato, Mexico’s banning of public displays of affection comes another strange local law: the city of Culiacán has decided to fine anyone caught shouting “piropos” — catcalls — to women on the street. The anti-piropo law is just one in a series of measures designed to promote morality in the city:

The new law “Police and Good Government” that went into effect yesterday (Monday) in this city provides for economic sanctions for those who catcall, encourage or allow the viewing of pornographic websites in cybercafés and those who leave children under 12 years of age alone in parked vehicles. In addition, the law will also apply to those who do not paint the fronts of their homes and those who play live music loudly at house parties.

Some of these measures seem crazy, others sound about right, but the combination of all of these things is RANDOM. Was there suddenly an outbreak in Culiacán of catcalling, porno-looking, child-leaving and non-painting and the city council just had to put a stop to all of it? And why not fine those playing taped music loudly?

In any case, I wouldn’t worry so much about these social ills, since the first thing that comes to mind — at least to my mind — when I hear the name Culiacán is narcotráfico.

Via / El Universal

Massive Grave in Mexico Linked to Drug Cartels

6:40 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|mexico|society|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 2 Comments

15 Mar 2009

A grave containing 9 bodies was discovered over the weekend in Juarez, Mexico, and all signs point to the fact that this is yet another bloody chapter in Mexico’s on-going drug wars. CNN reports:

Investigators have yet to determine the identities of the seven men and two women found in the grave, Gonzalez said. They have not released information on how they were killed or how long they have been there.

Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight both each other and Mexican authorities. The conflict has made violence increasingly common in Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns.

The discovery coincides with the arrival of some 5,000 Mexican troops dispatched to Ciudad Juarez in an effort to put a stop the the heightening violence in the city.

To get a sense for what drug violence is doing to Ciudad Juarez (incidentally also infamous for the mysterious murders of hundreds of women over the past several years), have a look at the above video from the YouTube and Pulitzer Center “Project: Report” project.

Via / CNN

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

Kiss in Public and Go to Jail in Mexico

6:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro|Latin America|mexico|society · 3 Comments

19 Jan 2009

Excessive PDA is something I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of, but if you’re in Latin America it’s something you just have to live with. On the metro, on the bus, on the street corner, there’s a whole lot of fajándose going on. But that has come to an end — in fact any type of kissing has come to an end — in the Mexican city of Guanajuato:

A controversy has broken out in Mexico after the city of Guanajuato, in the center of the country, decided to penalize couples who kiss in public with jail time.

The municipal law was approved on Tuesday by city hall — its majority politicians from the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (PAN)- and according to Guanajuato’s mayor Eduardo Romero Hicks, is part of a campaign to encourage “good habits”.

According to the PAN mayor, prolonged kisses in public make children feel ashamed and for this reason the law will stipulate a fine or up to three days in jail.

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