The Merida Initiative would provide $950 million dollars in two years to Mexican law enforcement agencies to support their efforts against resourceful and elusive criminal organizations. The Mexican government needs the aid and the executive branch in the US is willing to provide it. But the US Congress would only grant the funds conditional on […]
Drug-related murders in Mexico have soared in the last two months. Municipal, state, and federal police officers have died in clashes against heavily armed commandos or have been assassinated on the orders of drug bosses. It has been argued that this rise in violence is a signal of the Mexican government's progress in the War […]
Mexico is one of the largest exporters of corn. Nevertheless, it also imports almost half of what it consumes. In a world of skyrocketing food prices, this dependency is becoming a national security problem. In order to reduce pressure over rising food prices, President Felipe Calderon has launched an initiative that promises to improve the […]
While oil prices continue to rise, Mexico is debating how to maximize oil profits and modernize its aging oil industry. The oil industry, nationalized in 1938, is one of the pillars of the Mexican economy and an icon in Mexican history. In spite of this, the industry has experienced operative, technological, and financial problems that […]
With the war on drugs continuing to escalate in Mexico, I feel it's important to examine the role that the United States plays in fueling the illicit drug trade. Most of us know that the US is the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs. The education system is geared to advertise the evils of drugs. […]
The Mexican armed forces are a pillar of the war against drugs. Indeed, thousands of regular troops are patrolling several municipalities and large cities across Mexico while Special Forces make most of the arrests of high-profile drug lords. In a country plagued by corrupt police forces and heavily armed drug traffickers, the army (which also […]
After exploring the recent death of Mexico's antinarcotics chief, I decided to explore where much of the funding for Mexican drug cartels comes from. The latest killing of Edgar Millan Gomez (see my previous blog post) has now been linked to a Sinaloan drug cartel (see: NY Times article) and occurred shortly after several of […]
This morning's killing of Mexico's Acting Chief of Federal Police, Edgar Millan Gomez, has put the emphasis back on the Bush Administration's Plan Mérida. Millan Gomez was the highest-ranking official to be killed since President Felipe Calderon began the crackdown on Mexican drug cartels in 2007. His death highlights the gravity of the war on […]
On April 10th 2008, opposition legislators closed the podiums in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. This action effectively forced the remaining members of Congress to take legislative action elsewhere and prevented a fast track approval of a key energy reform that affects the most precious natural resource in Mexico: oil. Between 2001 […]
In March 1st 2008, Colombian armed forces destroyed a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuador. Raul Reyes, a FARC's top commander, died in what is considered the "biggest blow" to the guerrilla group so far. The Colombian armed forces also killed 4 Mexican students and injured another one. The incident […]
Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady seeks to put the Nafta-bashing on the campaign trail during the Democratic presidential primary into perspective this week. O’Grady says not only will such rhetoric undermine U.S. efforts to assist in the modernization of Latin American economies, it tips the balance of power towards Big Labor when it […]
A Wall Street Journal op-ed takes a look at some of the problems facing those responsible for managing Mexico's nasty drug war, and the new “realist” attitude adopted by the country's new Attorney General, Eduardo Medina Mora. Mary Anastasia O’Grady explains a new approach that Mora says seeks to curb the “enormous economic and fire […]
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox spoke at the New York Democracy Forum last week, giving a candid presentation that outlined his anger at the wall being constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border, his support for revamping NAFTA and the creation of a temporary guest worker program for Mexican migrants. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8813317554481503136″ width=”400″ height=”326″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Officials in the state of Chihuahua recently announced their plans to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified bodies buried in common graves in Ciudad Juarez, after beginning a similar process in Chihuahua City. Although local authorities deny a direct link to the murders and disappearances of several hundred local women in the past 14 […]