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20090325
Hillary Clinton - US - Mexico - Criminal - Drug - Law
"Clinton: U.S. drug habits fuel border violence: Secretary of state in Mexico to bolster anti-narcotics cooperation." ... "[United States] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday pledged to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Mexico in its violent struggle against drug cartels, and acknowledged the U.S. shares blame because of its demand for drugs and supply of weapons." ... "She said the United States shares responsibility with Mexico for dealing with violence now spilling across the border and promised cooperation to improve security on both sides." ... ""The criminals and kingpins spreading violence are trying to corrode the foundations of law, order, friendship and trust between us that support our continent. They will fail," she told Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa. "We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you."" -AP via -MSNBC

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Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - US - Mexico - Illegal - Drug - Enforcement - Military - Health - Brazil - Colombia
"Clinton: U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War." ... "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a blunt mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies have been a failure and have contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border." ... ""Clearly what we've been doing has not worked," Clinton told reporters on her plane at the start of her two-day trip, saying that [United States] U.S. policies on curbing drug use, narcotics shipments and the flow of guns have been ineffective." ... ""Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she added. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."" ... "More than 7,000 Mexicans have been killed in the bloodletting since January 2008, with the gangs battling authorities and one another for supremacy." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is sending hundreds more agents and extra high-tech gear to the border to intercept weapons and drug proceeds heading south." ... "Last month, former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called on the United States in a report to consider legalizing marijuana use and focusing more on treatment for drug users. Obama has emphasized his support for expanded treatment facilities, although not for allowing marijuana use. " (1, 2) -By Mary Beth Sheridan -WashingtonPost

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20090212
Criminal - Drug - War - Government - Law - Politics - Health - US - Brazil - Mexico - Colombia - World
"Latin American Panel Calls U.S. Drug War a Failure." ... "As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the [United States] U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point." ... ""The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]. "We have to move from this approach to another one."" ... "The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana." ... "The report, by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, is the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it. A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded in lowering drug use." ... "The three former presidents who head the commission are political conservatives who have confronted in their home countries the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking." ... "The report warned that the U.S.-style antidrug strategy was putting the region's fragile democratic institutions at risk and corrupting "judicial systems, governments, the political system and especially the police forces."" ... "Latin America, he [former President of Colombia César Gaviria] said, should adapt a more European approach, based on treating drug addiction as a health problem." -By José de Córdoba with contributions by David Luhnow, Louise Radnofsky and Evan Perez -WSJ.com

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20090211
Phoenix - Arizona - Law - Terrorism - Politics - Drugs - California - Texas - US - Mexico
"Kidnapping Capital of the U.S.A.: Washington Too Concerned With al Qaeda Terrorists to Care, Officials Say." ... "In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, [Arizona's capital] Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City [Mexico's capital] and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC [America's capital is too obsessed with al Qaeda terrorists to care about what is happening in their own backyard right now." ... ""We're in the eye of the storm," Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico's drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. "If it doesn't stop here, if we're not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation," he said." ... "California Attorney General Jerry Brown warned that as the U.S. [United States] government focuses so intently on Islamic extremist groups, other types of terrorists those involved with the same kidnappings, extortion and drug cartels that are sweeping Phoenix are overlooked." ... ""Those [criminals], for the average Californian or the average America, may be a more immediate threat to their well being," Brown said." ... "In fact, kidnappings and other crimes connected to the Mexican drug cartels are quickly spreading across the border, from Texas to California." (1, 2) -By Brian Ross, Richard Esposito and Asa Eslocker -ABCNEWS.com

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20081108
Sarah Palin - John McCain - Clothes - Money - Comedian - Canada - France - Mexico - US - 2008 Election - 2012 Election
"Palin calls critics among McCain aides ‘jerks’." ... "The [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain campaign aides complained about the $150,000 that the Republican National Committee had spent on [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Ms. Palin’s clothes, the way a Canadian comedian was able to embarrass the campaign by calling her and pretending to be the president of France, and the political ambitions she seemed to harbor beyond 2008." ... "By the end of the week, their complaints had escalated considerably, with Fox News quoting unnamed McCain campaign officials as saying that Ms. Palin had not known that Africa was a continent, not a country, and claiming that she did not know which countries were covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement [the US, Canada, and Mexico]." ... "Ms. Palin told reporters in Alaska that the anonymous criticism was “cowardly,” and that she had discussed the campaign’s position on Nafta at her debate prep sessions." ... "“I remember having a discussion with a couple of debate preppers,” she said. “So if it came from one of those debate preppers, you know, that’s curious. But having a discussion about Nafta — not, ‘Oh my goodness, I don’t know who is a part of Nafta.’ ”" ... "“So, no, I think that if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta, and about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” Ms. Palin said. “And that’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right.”" -By William Yardley and Michael Cooper with contributions by Julie Bosman and Brian Stelter -NYTimes -MSNBC

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20080911
Media - US - Mexico
"Carlos Slim Helu, World's Second Richest Man, Buys Large Stake In New York Times." ... "Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu and members of his family now own 6.4 percent of publicly traded shares in The New York Times Co., according to a regulatory filing Wednesday." ... "The 9.1 million Class A Common Shares were purchased by Inmobiliaria Carso, S.A. de C.V, a Mexican holding company controlled by members of the Slim family, according to a disclosure report the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission." -AP via -HuffingtonPost.com

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20080523
• Oceans - Global - Climate - Science - Environmental - Atmospheric - Industrial - Factories - Cars - History - Animals - Seattle - Washington - California - Oregon - US - Canada - Mexico - "Acidified seawater showing up along coast ahead of schedule." ... "Climate models predicted it wouldn't happen until the end of the century." ... "So a team led by Seattle [Washington] researchers was stunned to discover that vast swaths of acidified seawater already are showing up along the Pacific Coast as greenhouse-gas emissions upset the oceans' chemical balance." ... "In surveys from Vancouver Island [British Columbia, Canada] to the tip of Baja California [Mexico], reported Thursday in the online journal Science Express, the scientists found the first evidence that large amounts of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf — the shallow sea margin where most marine creatures live." ... "Off Northern California, the acidified water was only four miles from shore." ... ""What we found ... was truly astonishing," said oceanographer Richard Feely, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "This means ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on the continental shelf right now."" ... "All along the coast, the scientists found regions where the water was acidic enough to dissolve the shells and skeletons of clams, corals and many of the tiny creatures at the base of the marine food chain. Acidified water also can kill fish eggs and a wide range of marine larvae." ... ""Entire marine ecosystems are likely to be affected," said co-author Debby Ianson, an oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada." ... "Though it hasn't received as much attention as global warming, ocean acidification is a flip side of the same phenomenon. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from power plants, factories and cars that is raising temperatures worldwide also is to blame for the increasing acidity of the world's oceans." ... "Normally, seawater is slightly alkaline. When carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves into the water, it forms carbonic acid — the weak acid that helps give soda pop its tang. The process also robs the water of carbonate, a key ingredient in the formation of calcium carbonate shells." ... "Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Feely estimates the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of the man-made greenhouse gas — about one-third of the total released during that period." ... "By keeping some of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the oceans have blunted the temperature rise due to global warming. But they've suffered for that service, with a more than 30-percent increase in acidity." ... "The acidified water upwelling along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades will have absorbed more carbon dioxide and will be even more acidic." -By Sandi Doughton -SeattleTimes

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20080213
• Mary E Peters - Corporate - Government - Politics - Trucking - Safety - Trucks - Emissions - Law - Environmental - Clean Air Act - Union - San Francisco - California - Texas - US - Mexico - "Greens, Teamsters collide with Mexican trucks." ... "International Brotherhood of Teamsters lobbyist Fred McLuckie thought his fight to keep Mexican trucks out of America ended when Congress cut a pilot program’s funding last December." ... "Instead, the veteran lobbyist is still in the fight, after U.S. [United States Republican President Bush's] Transportation Secretary Mary Peters continued to fund the program — a move many interest groups and lawmakers say is unconstitutional." ... "“You never know what to expect in this town,” McLuckie said. “It is certainly disappointing that we’re going back at this program. Our immediate concern is that Mary Peters isn’t following the law.”" ... "The program drew harsh criticism from the Teamsters, citizen rights group Public Citizen and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association [OOIDA], which have aligned to press safety and pollution concerns with lawmakers. The groups say there is no guarantee that the trucks are in compliance with U.S. safety or emissions standards." ... "“How is it that the administration can simply ignore a law?” said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer. “It’s frustrating and shocking that we have such a clear and blatant violation of law by a rogue administration.”" ... "The Teamsters have also gotten support from an unlikely bedfellow: the environmentalist Sierra Club. Greens are concerned that emissions from Mexican trucks could cause El Paso, Texas, and other U.S. cities along the border to violate Environmental Protection Agency regulations." ... "“We think the increase of potential air pollution could put communities along the border out of Clean Air Act compliance,” said Sierra Club spokesman Oliver Bernstein." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco [California] heard oral arguments Tuesday over the plaintiff’s charges that Peters broke federal laws and endangered American motorists by allowing the trucks on the road." -By Erika Lovley -Politico.com

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20080208
• United States - Torture - War Crimes - Criminals - - Human Rights - Politics - Mexico - "U.N. says waterboarding should be prosecuted as torture." ... "The controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding and used by the United States qualifies as torture, the U.N. [United Nations] human rights chief said on Friday." ... ""I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, told a news conference in Mexico City [Mexico]." ... "Violators of the U.N. Convention against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of 'universal jurisdiction' which allows countries to try accused war criminals from other nations, Arbour said." -By Mica Rosenberg with contributions by Patricia Zengerle -Reuters 

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20080119
• Food - Oil - Money - Poverty -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - "A New, Global Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories." ... "Rising prices for cooking oil are forcing residents of Asia’s largest slum, in Mumbai, India, to ration every drop. Bakeries in the United States are fretting over higher shortening costs. And here in Malaysia, brand-new factories built to convert vegetable oil into diesel sit idle, their owners unable to afford the raw material." ... "This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food." ... "The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, based on export prices for 60 internationally traded foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year. That was on top of a 14 percent increase in 2006, and the trend has accelerated this winter." ... "In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs." ... "According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen." ... "A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food." ... "Cooking oil may seem a trifling expense in the West. But in the developing world, cooking oil is an important source of calories and represents one of the biggest cash outlays for poor families, which grow much of their own food but have to buy oil in which to cook it." (1, 2, 3) -By Keith Bradsher with contributions by Andrew Martin, Anand Giridharadas, and Michael Rubenstein -NYTimes 

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20080107
• US Immigrant - Women - Children - Politics - Sacramento - California - US - Mexico - "Abused immigrant spouses may face deportation: U.S. [United States] rethinks its policy of letting them remain here in certain cases." ... "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is re-examining a longtime policy [Violence Against Women Act visas] to let immigrant spouses remain here when their abusive U.S. citizen or permanent-resident spouses refuse to help them obtain legal status." ... "Ana Bertha Arellano, who runs her own Sacramento [California's capital] restaurant and cleans offices all night as a janitor, fears a change in that policy would destroy the safe life she's been struggling to build for herself and her children." ... "Without that protection, Arellano could end up deported by the same U.S. officials who agreed to shelter her from abuse six years ago and legally stay here on a special provisional visa." ... ""I have my own health insurance. I don't take any aid for anything. I don't want anything else but a chance to have some stability for my family," said Arellano, 37, one of the thousands of immigrants, many mothers of U.S.-born children, who could be affected if the policy shifts." ... "Arellano's story, like many, begins with marriage to a husband she loved and with whom she had two children, both born here. But her husband, a permanent resident of the United States, never filed papers to sponsor her for permanent residency, she said." ... "After they were married, she said he told her to cross the border from Mexico illegally in 1997, saying he would submit their application once she got here." ... "Instead, she said, he used her undocumented status to prevent her from complaining about his subsequent beatings and verbal taunts." ... "Beth Hassett, executive director of Women Escaping a Violent Environment, which counsels battered women in Sacramento County, predicted that a hard-line policy will cause immigrant women to remain in violent relationships if coming forward leaves them vulnerable to deportation." (1, 2) -By Susan Ferriss -SacBee.com 

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20080103
• United States - Mexican - Trucks- Transportation - Safety - Politics - Corporate - Government - North Dakota - "Mexican trucks allowed deep into U.S. in defiance of Congress, lawmaker says." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration is allowing Mexican trucks to continue to travel deep into the United States despite what critics say is a congressional mandate to ban the trucks from U.S. [United States] highways." ... "Congress voted last year to halt funding for a pilot program that allows Mexican 18-wheelers to begin traveling freely into United States as part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]. The Department of Transportation contends, however, that the congressional action permits the current program to continue while banning any new program." ... "The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the DOT [Department of Transportation] agency that regulates the program, quietly acknowledged last week that the program is still under way, adding that it's issued permits to 11 Mexican companies with a total of 56 trucks. Mexican trucks previously were confined to a 25-mile border zone." ... "[North Dakota Democratic Senator] Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, scoffed at that interpretation and called on the Bush administration to end the program immediately." -By Dave Montgomery -McClatchyDC.com

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20071220
• Mitt Romney- Rudy Giuliani - Mike Huckabee - Tom Tancredo - Criminal - Illegal - Employer - Immigrants - Employees - Language - Terrorism - History - Colo - New York - Arkansas - US - Mexican - People - Noteworthy - 2008 Election - "GOP hopefuls run in a hypocrisy derby." ... "Everybody knows that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney was running - as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani put it - a "sanctuary mansion." But not many people know that he was not the only one." ... "No less an anti-immigrant zealot than [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Colorado Representative] Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.[Republican-Colorado]), the would-be President who built a failing campaign on the single issue of persecuting "criminal aliens" - as he is fond of calling undocumented immigrants - also has a few skeletons in his closet." ... "Listen to this: Five years ago, when Tancredo wanted to install a home theater and make other renovations in his house, he had no qualms hiring a contractor that - gasp! - also employed undocumented workers." ... "The man who had said, "[The face of illegal immigration] is the face of murder. It is the face of infiltration into the country of people who are coming to do us great harm," wasn't at all troubled by the fact that only two in the crew of five or six laborers spoke English." ... "[In 1994, then New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani said] "If you come here and you work hard, and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city," he told The New York Times in 1994." ... "While in Arkansas, he [Arkansas Republican Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee] was instrumental in bringing a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock [Arkansas's capital]. That consulate issued thousands of identification forms that now, after he has become a presidential hopeful, Huckabee has begun to call "illegal immigrant identification cards."" ... "And do not forget that if he is elected President, he has vowed to expel the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants within 120 days, which comes to deporting 100,000 people per day." -By Albor Ruiz -NYDailyNews.com

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20071208
• John Edwards - United States - Canada - Mexico - Working - Families - Multinational - Corporate - Media - Government- 2008 Election - New Hampshire - "Edwards Condemns NAFTA." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Saturday he wants to replace the empty promise that NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] would create millions of jobs with his own promise to be a tough negotiator on trade deals." ... "On the 14th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Edwards condemned the deal that lowered trade barriers between the United States and Canada and Mexico, arguing that it has paved the way for a series of deals that put the interests of multinational corporations ahead of working families." ... ""NAFTA was sold to the American people with promises that it would grow the economy and create millions of new jobs. But today, we know those promises were empty," he said. "In all three countries, it has hurt workers and families while helping corporate insiders."" ... "He also told voters in Derry [New Hamshire] that those corporate powers are in danger not only of controlling what comes out of government but the election process itself. Responding to a woman who said she resented media conglomerates trying to dictate the outcome of the presidential campaign, Edwards said the concentration of media ownership has become unhealthy for democracy." ... ""This all goes back to the same problem. Are the big corporate interests in Washington going to decide what's going to happen with your democracy and what's going to happen with your government? You can't let them decide what's going to happen with your elections," he said. "Then, they're not only controlling your democracy, they're controlling your elections."" -AP via -CBSNews 

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20071018
• US - Mexico - China - Manufacturing - Politics - Duncan Hunter - US Immigration - Law - Calif - 2008 Election - "Lawmakers blast DHS for building border fence with Chinese steel." ... "House members allied with the domestic steel industry blasted the [Republican President Bush run] Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday for building a fence on the Mexican border with Chinese steel." ... "GOP presidential hopeful Rep. [California Republican Representative and 2008 election Presidential Candidate] Duncan Hunter (Calif.), who authored a bill signed into law last year mandating 850 miles of fence along the border, said DHS should have gone to U.S. producers to procure any necessary steel or pipe." ... "“The Department of Homeland Security has, the last time I checked, $800 million cash on hand available to build the border fence. So they don’t have to go and get cut-rate deals to build the border fence,” Hunter said. U.S. pipe makers can “easily” supply the products necessary for the fence, Hunter insisted." -By Ian Swanson -TheHill.com

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20070911
• Mexico - US - Oil - Money - Political - Army - "6 pipelines blown up in Mexico." ... "In an apparent case of politically motivated sabotage, six explosions blew apart oil and natural gas pipelines operated by Mexico's Pemex state oil and gas monopoly early Monday in Veracruz and Tlaxcala states [of Mexico], causing fires and forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people from surrounding towns." ... "Mexico is the world's sixth-largest oil producer and a major supplier of petroleum to the U.S. The outages drove the price of oil above $78 a barrel in futures trading Monday." ... "Monday's attacks occurred two months after a leftist guerrilla group, the Popular Revolutionary Army, known by its Spanish initials EPR, took responsibility for carrying out four similar bomb attacks on Pemex pipelines and a switching station in the central states of Queretaro and Guanajuato." ... "Although no group claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, political analysts here said they bore the hallmarks of the EPR or a similar group, and probably were intended as a message against President Felipe Calderon and his policies." ... "Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst, said that the attacks on Pemex reflected the growing "radicalization" of Mexico's left-wing groups, which believe they have been systematically shut out of political power by the Fox and Calderon administrations." ... ""This is a direct consequence of what Calderon received as an inheritance of the election, in which he was chosen in a doubtful manner" from his leftist opponents' perspective, Crespo said." -By Reed Johnson with contributions by Cecilia Sánchez -LAtimes 

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20070808
• US American - Mexico - Los Angeles - Calif - US Immigration - Civil Liberties - Law - "Deported in Error, Missing and Months Later Home." ... "An American missing in Mexico for nearly three months after being wrongfully deported has been found and reunited with his family here [Los Angeles, California]." ... "The man, Pedro Guzman, 29, was taken into custody on Sunday at the border crossing in Calexico, Calif., as he tried to enter the United States, said Mark D. Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has represented the family." -By Randal C. Archibold -NYTimes 

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