Today Mexico's Supreme court upheld an April 2008 Mexico City decision to decriminalize abortion, thus permitting women to have an abortion in Mexico City during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy without the penalty of jail time. The court ruling is highly controversial, and saw 8 justices in favor and 3 against. Until very recently, […]
The Mexican State has failed, again, in providing security for its citizens. The years of tranquility experienced during the economic recovery of the late 1990s, suggest that, indeed, better economic conditions, and not the government's anti-crime initiatives, reduced crime in the country. Now that economic conditions are not as promising, Mexican society is living in […]
After the high-profile kidnapping and brutal murder of a 14-year-old Mexico City boy in June raised outrage among Mexicans, the federal government recently decided to form an anti-kidnapping squad. Since the police were implicated in the aforementioned kidnapping, the authorities are taking special measures to ensure cooperation between levels of the government. To that end, […]
With the 2008 AIDS conference closing in Mexico City this past week, I wanted to highlight a few closing thoughts from the conference: 1) in 2005 the G8 promised universal access to antiretroviral drugs for AIDS treatment, and only 1/3 of the promised resources have been deployed 2) A big battle in developing countries will […]
In a hundred and eight years, Mexico has won, so far, 12 gold medals. Up to August 14th, the insignificant number of these medals has not changed for Mexico. On August 12th, however, two young women added their names to the list of Mexican medalists. The two women, Paola Espinoza and Tatiana Ortiz, won a […]
On August 7th, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that he will propose a new bill to Congress that includes the implementation of life imprisonment for kidnappers. The proposal is a result of a new wave of kidnappings that has shocked Mexican society in the last few weeks. In the most recent case, a 14 year […]
After a recent post on Mexico's fight against AIDS in Tijuana, I wanted to explore the other, brighter side of the city. An article in today's NY Times titled “It's Hot. It's Hip. It's Tijuana?” reveals a different side of Tijuana than the main drag, Avenida Revolucion, which is much of the source of Tijuana's […]
With the 2008 International AIDS conference taking place in Mexico City during August 3-8, I wanted to include a link to the conference's main web site, as well as highlighting the programme-at-a-glance that includes the schedule breakdown, links to powerpoint presentations, and more.
This Sunday Mexican President Felipe Calderon will host the 17th annual International AIDS conference in Mexico City. As part of this, I wanted to highlight an article in yesterday's Washington post. While the United States government does not support providing free needles to intravenous drug users, Mexico launched a program to provide clean needles to […]
In the last couple of days, several sources have confirmed that a number of high-ranking officials at the Attorney General's Office will resign to their positions. The Deputy Attorney General in charge of Special Investigations on Organized Crime (SIEDO) is among the officers who will be leaving office. It is possible that other deputies in […]
Today I stumbled upon a fascinating BBC World News that shows another aspect of this fascinating and diverse country: a photo article on Mexico's female “luchadores”. Check it out here.
Results from the first phase of unofficial referendums on oil privatization are in. More than 83% of citizens of Mexico City said no to the questions: “With the whole cycle of oil production under state auspices, do you agree that the private sector should play a role?” and “In general, are you in agreement with […]
Today World Trade Organization (WTO) Director Pascal Lamy confirmed that the latest round of WTO talks collapsed after nine days because of a dispute between developed and developing countries over “safeguard clauses” to protect lesser-developed economies from a flood of imports. For Mexico, this means increased reliance on its existing plethora of free trade agreements. […]
Today, the Mayor of Mexico City and the Local Assembly have organized an unofficial referendum on oil reform. The referendum opens a new chapter on the impact of democracy on strategic public policy. Indeed, the referendum‚ a democratic institution‚ has the potential to stop or dramatically alter the progress made during the open debate‚ another […]
Many times when writing on this blog I feel that the worst of Mexico comes out. For that reason, today's post reveals some of the best Mexico has to offer in a one of the provinces stricken by the drug war – Michoacan. This New York Times article exposes an interesting trip to Michoacan, leaving […]