Apologies to Mexico
►http://www.thenation.com/article/168803/apologies-mexico
Dear Mexico,
I apologize. There are so many things I could apologize for, from the way the US biotech corporation Monsanto has contaminated your corn to the way Arizona and Alabama are persecuting your citizens, but right now I’d like to apologize for the drug war, the 10,000 waking nightmares that make the news and the rest that don’t.
La faillite de la « guerre contre la drogue » en chiffres
►http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/07/04/lapidaire-la-faillite-de-la-guerre-contre-la-drogue-en-chiff
(source :)
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/business/in-rethinking-the-war-on-drugs-start-with-the-numbers.html ?
They are thinking about the wrong numbers. If there is one number that embodies the seemingly intractable challenge imposed by the illegal drug trade on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, it is $177.26. That is the retail price, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, of one gram of pure cocaine from your typical local pusher. That is 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
Mexico election diary: What’s on Mexican minds? | The Economist
►http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2012/06/mexico-election-diary
Mexico election diary
What’s on Mexican minds?
Jun 3rd 2012, 18:46 by T.W. | MEXICO CITY
WITH a month to go until Mexico’s presidential election, everyone is thinking about politics. Or are they? A new poll asking which news stories have caught people’s attention suggests that campaign hasn’t grabbed everyone. A survey by Inteligencia Publica and Defoe asked people if they had heard about various big stories that had been in the news over the past couple of months. Of the top five, none was related to the election. Here, in order of the proportion of people who said they were aware of the event, are the biggest news stories in Mexico since March 24th:
90%: a visit by Pope Benedict XVI
86%: the ominous rumblings of Popocatépetl, Mexico City’s local volcano
72%: the death of Julio Alemán, a Mexican actor
69%: forest fires near the city of Guadalajara
68%: the death of Carlos Fuentes, a Mexican novelist
The biggest stories that were related to the election were a series of protest marches by students, a video made by an NGO showing children calling for an end to the country’s various problems (54%) and the case of Tomás Yarrington, a former state governor accused of links to organised crime, which he denies (51%).
A healthy reminder, as we head into the weekend, that there is life beyond the campaign trail. We’ll be back next week with more election news.
Report: Human rights issues linked to Mexico’s fight against drug cartels
►http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_20795411/report-human-rights-issues-linked-mexicos-fight-against
Several U.S. citizens are among those who reported being beaten, suffocated, and receiving electric shocks when in the custody of Mexican authorities, according to the recently released U.S. State Department report on human rights around the world.
Robert Bryce : Renewable Energy Can’t Run the Cloud - WSJ
►http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303610504577420251668850864.html
Data centers now consume about 1.3% of all global electricity. That amount of energy, about 277 terawatt-hours per year, exceeds the electricity use of dozens of countries, including Australia and Mexico.
And that quantity of energy will continue to grow. (...)
The mismatch between the power demands of Big Data and the renewable-energy darlings of the moment are obvious. U.S. data centers are now consuming about 86 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, or about 43 times as much electricity as is produced by all the solar-energy projects in America.
#green #technologie #énergie #datacenters via @renaud
Western banks ’reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade’
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/western-banks-colombian-cocaine-trade
The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich “consuming” countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn “producing” nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems.
Mexican students protest ’biased’ election coverage
►http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/students-in-mexico-take-to-streets-to-protest-biased-election-
Television and newspaper media are concentrated in a few hands in Mexico, and many of the demonstrators believe they are skewed in favor of Peña Nieto and the return to presidential power of his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The PRI ruled single-handedly for seven decades until being ousted in 2000.
Mexico’s Drug War : 50,000 Dead in 6 Years
►http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/05/mexicos-drug-war-50-000-dead-in-6-years/100299
Since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón began an all-out assault on drug cartels in 2006, more than 50,000 people have lost their lives across the country in a nearly-continuous string of shootouts, bombings, and ever-bloodier murders
Protest in Juárez seeks missing-women progress
►http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20598347
On Thursday, Mother’s Day in Mexico, more than 50 relatives of several missing young women protested outside the state prosecutor’s office and criticized the lack of progress in the investigations.
Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart
After Top-Level Struggle
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html
Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.
Walmart’s Massive Bribery Scandal: What Happens Now?
►http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/walmarts-massive-bribery-scandal-what-happens-now/256206
Revelations that the company may have hushed up evidence of kickbacks to Mexican officials could drag down past and present executives.
À propos de walmart :
►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2006/01/SERVANT/13092
Peu sourcilleuse sur les conditions de travail dans les entreprises auprès desquelles elle se fournit, Wal-Mart sous-traite une grande partie de ses produits en Afrique, en Amérique latine, et désormais en Chine, où les salaires sont encore plus bas.
New book accuses Vatican of hiding cases of sexual abuse of minors – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs
►http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/25/new-book-accuses-vatican-of-hiding-cases-of-sexual-abuse-of-mino
On the same day Pope Benedict addressed and blessed a group of 1,800 children in Guanajuato, Mexico, three Mexican authors released a book accusing the Vatican of hiding or ignoring cases of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
The book, “La Voluntad de no Saber” (Willing Not to be Aware), chronicles multiple cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by Marcial Maciel, a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest who was influential at the Vatican.
Maciel, who died in January 2008 at age 87, was the founder and director of the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement.
Mystery disease kills thousands in Central America - seattlepi.com
►http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Mystery-disease-kills-thousands-in-Central-America-3288301.php
A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama.
(...)
Many of the victims were manual laborers or worked in sugar cane fields that cover much of the coastal lowlands. Patients, local doctors and activists say they believe the culprit lurks among the agricultural chemicals workers have used for years with virtually none of the protections required in more developed countries. But a growing body of evidence supports a more complicated and counterintuitive hypothesis.
The roots of the epidemic, scientists say, appear to lie in the grueling nature of the work performed by its victims, including construction workers, miners and others who labor hour after hour without enough water in blazing temperatures, pushing their bodies through repeated bouts of extreme dehydration and heat stress for years on end. Many start as young as 10. The punishing routine appears to be a key part of some previously unknown trigger of chronic kidney disease,
le #travail (c’est pas la) #santé #cdp #chimie #agriculture
Mexico Drug War, Five Years Later (Plog)
►http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/12/21/in-focus-mexico-drug-war-five-years-later/5151
A graphic picture is emerging in Mexico five years after President Felipe Calderon launched his all-out assault on organized crime: Mass killings as cartels fight each other for territory and civilians caught in the violence; police unable to prevent the mayhem or to investigate the aftermath. The government needed to act decisively, he said, to prevent organized crime from taking over the country. Over the next five years, he deployed 45,000 troops, made major hits on the leadership of at least five cartels and spent nearly $46 billion fighting organized crime, his defining domestic policy. (...) Source: Plog
In Focus: Mexico Drug War, Five Years Later
►http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/12/21/in-focus-mexico-drug-war-five-years-later/5151
Since then, chaos has exploded on the ground in once-quiet places across the country, including Veracruz. As authorities cracked down in one spot, violence moved to another. When cartel leaders were arrested, the gangs dissolved into more violent splinter groups fighting in areas where corrupt local authorities did not fight back.
Warning: All images in this entry are shown in full, not screened out for graphic content. There are many dead bodies. The photographs are graphic and stark. This is the reality of the story and an important part of the drug war in Mexico.
Funeral workers walk toward their car at the end of a burial in San Rafael cemetery, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, April 8, 2009. Drug violence has spiked since President Felipe Calderon began a national crackdown on organized crime in 2006. Battles among cartels, their rivals and soldiers have led to nearly 9,000 deaths and a cross-border crime spillover. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
EU Council Quietly Adopts ACTA, By Hiding It In An Agriculture And Fisheries Meeting | Techdirt
►http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111219/02385917123/eu-council-quietly-adopts-acta-hiding-it-agriculture-fisheries-meeting.sht
from its penultimate position on the agenda it was clearly not really regarded as very important, and was just waved through. Here’s how the official press release (pdf) reported it:
The Council adopted a decision authorising the signing of an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (#ACTA) with Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.
ah l’#europe ! et le déni de #démocratie
Christianity is world’s largest #religion, says Pew Forum survey
►http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/316410
The Pew Forum reports about one-third of the world’s people, that is, 2.2 billion, are Christians and about one-third of the total number of Christians in the world live in the West. The countries with the largest Christian population are the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.
Mexico admits responsibility in rape, torture of indigenous woman
►http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/12/landmark-case-mexico-admits-responsibility-rape-torture-indige
For a moment, Valentina Rosendo Cantu seemed overwhelmed. Nine years after she was raped and tortured by Mexican soldiers, she stood before a packed auditorium Thursday to hear top government officials accept responsibility for what was done to her.
Recycled Battery Lead Puts Mexicans in Danger
►http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/science/earth/recycled-battery-lead-puts-mexicans-in-danger.html
la #mafia du #recyclage a tout prévu :
The spent batteries Americans turn in for recycling are increasingly being sent to #Mexico, where their lead is often extracted by crude methods that are illegal in the United States, exposing plant workers and local residents to dangerous levels of a toxic metal.
The rising flow of batteries is a result of strict new Environmental Protection Agency standards on lead pollution, which make domestic recycling more difficult and expensive, but do not prohibit companies from exporting the work
U.S. Agents Launder Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels
►http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/world/americas/us-drug-agents-launder-profits-of-mexican-cartels.html
Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.
Mayan 2012 Apocalypse Prediction Might Have Been Mistranslated | Death and Taxes
►http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/164997/mayan-2012-apocalypse-prediction-might-have-been-mistranslated
Gronemeyer has been studying the stone tablet found years ago at the archeological site of Tortuguero in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Tabasco.
He said the inscription describes the return of mysterious Mayan god Bolon Yokte at the end of a 13th period of 400 years, known as Baktuns, on the equivalent of Dec. 21, 2012. Mayans considered 13 a sacred number. There’s nothing apocalyptic in the date, he said.
International banks have aided Mexican drug gangs
►http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-money-laundering-banks-20111128,0,430982.story
Despite strict rules, some banks have failed to ’know their customer’ or ask about the source of large amounts of cash, allowing billions in dirty money from Mexico to be laundered.
26 bodies found in abandoned vehicles in Mexico
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/24/bodies-found-abandoned-vehicles-mexico
Twenty-six bodies were discovered bound and gagged on Thursday in vehicles abandoned in the heart of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the site of the recent Pan American Games, officials said.
Battle for ’birthplace of the sun’ in Mexico - Features - Al Jazeera English
►http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/10/20111027125212764306.html
A battle for the UNESCO-recognised Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Ecological Reserve in the northern state of San Luis Potosí has been unfolding over the past year, since word got out that First Majestic Silver Corp. of Canada had been granted 22 mining concessions for more than 6,000 hectares, nearly 70 per cent of it within the reserve.
From tweeting to jail
►http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/mexico/2011/09/from-tweeting-to-jail.html
Just last week, the government of Veracruz, in southeast Mexico, arrested, charged and imprisoned a man and a woman for “terrorist acts,” arguing that the two tweeted messages that were terrifying the population. The messages sent by these two individuals warned of shootings and other possible violence that would be supposedly perpetrated by Gulf Cartel members. As a result of the tweets, many scared parents picked up their children from school; stores shut down for a day and people were panic-stricken.
If the “tweeteros” are found guilty, they could face up to 30 years in prison!
Police abuses rattle faith in Mexico’s drug war
►http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/06/us-mexico-drugs-idUSTRE7955LW20111006
Mexico is spending on its federal police forces like never before as it fights powerful drug cartels, trying to overcome a long history of corruption, abuse and incompetence.