Monday, October 19, 2026
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Can’t sleep? 5 simple ways to help you beat insomia

by Dr. Serge Gregoire

Are you like thousands of people who can’t sleep? Or do you seem to have trouble get a full night of restful sleep and you keep waking up in the middle of the night? Here are some simple tips and tricks to help you beat insomnia and get the sleep you have been missing (1, 2, 3).

Insomnia buster # 1: creating the right atmosphere

Being comfortable and free of distractions is one of the first steps in securing a good night’s sleep. Keeping your sleeping area cool, dark, and as free from noise as possible will create an environment conducive to sleep. Do not fall asleep with the television or radio on either as it will only distract you and will likely wake you during the night.

Insomnia buster # 2: avoid stimulates before bed

Many people know that drinking coffee before bed is a big no no; however, they over look the caffeine that can be found in other sources such as soda, some teas, and chocolate. Often these items are not only loaded with caffeine but contain tons of sugar as well. Avoid these items and instead substitute decaffeinated and low sugar alternatives.

Insomnia buster # 3: drink your tea

Some herbal teas, such as chamomile, can be a great addition to your night time routine. Chamomile is a natural way to help settle your nerves and to relax so that you can peacefully drift off to sleep. And if tea is not quite your thing, do not worry; they make great supplements that you can take to get the effects of chamomile for people who can’t sleep but do not like tea.

Insomnia buster # 4: aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is a great, natural way to help you beat those insomnia blues. Aromatherapy utilizes the scents of natural oils to help you achieve the desired effect. In this case, essential oils such as Lavender can help to relax and prepare you for sleep. And there are so many great ways to enjoy aromatherapy from bath oils in a nice soothing bath, or wonderful sleeping mist sprays that you can spray your sheets with before you go to bed that surrounds you with the calming scent to soothe you off to sleep. So if you can’t sleep, try one of these great aromatherapy products.

Insomnia Buster # 5: eat a balanced diet

It might surprise you, but what you eat might be one reason as to why you can’t sleep. A poor diet can lead to heart burn, indigestion, and a ton of other health problems that can be getting a good night’s sleep difficult. Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet will improve your over all health which can help to eliminate some of the pesky problems that keep you awake at night.

There are five very simple tricks that can help you sleep better. However, if you can’t sleep for prolonged periods of time or have other symptoms accompanying your restlessness, be sure to speak with your health care provider as these could be signs of a health problem or serious condition. And if you are on medication or are pregnant, be sure to consult your doctor before trying any herbal remedy as some, such as chamomile, may not be recommended. (Natural News).

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Why did 10 immigrants die in this truck in Texas?

Their deaths, after being crammed into an uncooled trailer amid scorching summer heat, expose the callousness of smuggling along the US-Mexico border

by David Agren in Calvillo, Tom Dart in San Antonio and Nina Lakhani

One day earlier this month, Johny Serna was brought by his mother to pray the rosary at a parish shrine to Santo Toribio Romo, the patron saint of migrants, with his uncle and his best friend. They had a long journey ahead.

The next morning, the trio departed for the US-Mexico border, where they crossed the Rio Grande, finally climbing into a crowded 18-wheeler that would take them part of the way to their ultimate destination, Chicago.

The truck turned out to be a death trap.

Serna, 18, survived the scorching heat and asphyxiating conditions – as did his uncle. But 10 others died in a tragedy that exposed the perils of crossing the frontier illegally – and the callous indifference of the criminals who transport migrants.

About 30 more victims were hospitalized in San Antonio, where the truck and its grim cargo were discovered in a Walmart parking lot after a supermarket employee became suspicious and called police when one of the passengers asked him for water. As many as a hundred people from Mexico and Central America had been crammed inside.

At least 11 hailed from the small Mexican state of Aguascalientes, where young men head north to make enough money to better their lot in life back home. It’s a long established rite of passage for successive generations tired of scratching meager livings from this region of dry highlands dotted with corn fields, guava groves and prickly pear cacti.

Unlike the migrants fleeing for their lives from Central America and violent corners of Mexico, those leaving Aguascalientes are drawn by the economic opportunities offered by the US.

Serna hated factory work and instead labored in construction and picked guavas. He had a single goal: buying a house. “He wanted to earn more and live a little better,” said his cousin, Omar Romo Serna, a pudgy 18-year-old with a thin beard.

Aguascalientes, in the geographic heart of Mexico, is considered one of the country’s more prosperous states, but even here the lure of the US is irresistible to many.

Gabriel Hernández, the city manager in Palo Alto – an hour east of Calvillo and home to seven of the trailer victims – cites pay at home as the problem. He says migrants work long and hard hours in the US but don’t feel “exploited” like they do in Mexico, where shifts in factories are long and pay might amount to $85 (£65) a week.

Many migrants simply dream of buying their own homes. Walking the dusty but tidy streets of the town, Hernández –who spent nearly two decades in the US – points out the larger homes with brick facades mean “American money”. Shabby concrete structures with corrugated metal roofs suggest no access to US funds.
Even Donald Trump’s migration crackdown and the rise of anti-migrant attitudes in the US is not enough to dissuade the town’s men from seeking better fortunes north of the border, said Patricia Briones, whose husband, José Rodríguez, perished in the truck. “He didn’t want to go to the United States,” she said. “But the economic situation is so dire here.”

The Zetas are responsible for some of Mexico’s most notorious migrant atrocities, including two massacres in 2010 and 2011 in which at least 265 migrants were kidnapped from buses, killed and buried in mass graves in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

However, the Zetas have never been directly involved in people smuggling, according to professor Rodolfo Casillas, an expert in migrant routes and criminal networks at the Latin American Social Science Institute (Flacso).

“Smuggling migrants is a specialist service, the Zetas don’t have the knowledge, experience or prestige in this business. That doesn’t mean the migrants didn’t have to pay them for security at some point,” he said.

“Criminal gangs don’t start and stop at borders – they operate through networks of accomplices which include transport companies and drivers,” said Erubiel Tirado, a security analyst. But he also said that it is not uncommon for other criminal groups to use the Zetas’ name to generate terror or to detract attention from themselves and confuse the authorities.

Once in Texas, the migrants walked for hours and were picked up the next morning and taken to the trailer, where they assembled with others, all waiting to depart in the evening.

At about 9 p.m., a man appeared and handed pieces of colored tape to the groups to distinguish them for the smugglers who would be collecting them later. Don’t worry, the man said: the truck has refrigeration, the trip will be fine.

But the cooling system was broken, and the container became an oven in the summer heat. The outdoor temperature reached a high of 38C (100F) and a low of 24C (75F) in San Antonio on 22 July, and the city is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Laredo.

Panic set in quickly, said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of Raíces, a San Antonio-based immigrant legal aid organization that is helping represent some of the survivors. Some cried, screamed and hammered on the walls. Others lost consciousness and hallucinated when they came round, believing they were dead.

It is one of the deadliest migrant-smuggling incidents in the US since May 2003, when 19 bodies were found in a milk truck abandoned at a truck stop in the Texas city of Victoria, 120 miles south-east of San Antonio. The first to die was a five-year-old boy who died in his father’s arms. The refrigeration system had been turned off.

Yet the dangers are not enough to end the flow of migrants, who continue to put their money and their lives in the hands of smuggling networks engaged in a form of hide-and-seek with federal officers along an increasingly militarized border.

(This article has been cut to fit space).

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US university campus to open in Querétaro, Mexico

Arkansas State University offers eight degree programs in Querétaro

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

Mexican university students will soon have the opportunity to study at a United States public university without crossing the border.
Arkansas State University (ASU) will open a campus on September 4 in the municipality of Colón, Querétaro, about 60 kilometers northeast of the state capital, Santiago de Querétaro.

Apart from education, administrative and sporting facilities, the 37-hectare campus also has student residences where all students will be required to live during their first year of study.

About US$75 million has been invested in the first phase of the new school but future expansion is planned as the university has a total of 150 hectares at the site.

The campus — described as the first U.S.-style campus in Mexico — will follow a U.S. education model with all classes given in English. The initial goal is to enroll between 300 and 500 students for the first academic year, an objective not far from being reached with 250 already enrolled.

Seventeen professors will teach during the first year, including 10 from the U.S. and four from Mexico. The other three are from Nicaragua and Iran.

“All of them are experts in their teaching area,” remarked rector Brad L. Rawlings.

Querétaro was chosen because of its climate, safety, economy and proximity to industries, such as automotive. The university plans to develop close links with industry and research institutions that are already established in the region.

Investors in the campus wanted to bring a U.S. standard of education to local students and found a suitable partner with the same goals in ASU, Rawlings stated.

Both Mexico’s Education Secretariat (SEP) and the Higher Learning Commission —an organization that accredits tertiary education institutes in the U.S. — will oversee the degrees offered at the campus and students will graduate with a qualification recognized by both countries.

Eight degree programs will initially be on offer: electrical engineering, biological sciences, business administration, mechanical engineering, biotechnology, international business, chemistry and strategic communication.

A post-graduate engineering administration degree and an MBA are expected to begin in 2018.

New degrees will likely focus on science and technology although there will be flexibility to respond to student demand and meet the needs of both Querétaro and Mexico, the rector said.

Students will also have the opportunity to complete an exchange at the university’s main campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas, although Rawlings stressed that all efforts are being made to replicate the U.S. college experience in Mexico.

“It’s like being at a university in the United States, but here in Mexico, with the same experience,” he said.

Tuition and fees for full-time enrollment for all degrees is 99,450 pesos (US $5,600) per semester while a room and meals cost an additional 10,990 pesos per month.

Source: Forbes México (sp)

Also about education in México:

Engineering student prolific inventor at 18

He has 171 inventions to his name, including an artificial intelligence device

Mexico has its very own budding Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla in its midst.

Despite being just 18 years old, an engineering student at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL) already has 171 inventions to his name, including drones, pistons, combustion, electric and hybrid engines and even an artificial intelligence device.

José Armando López Martínez, currently in his fourth semester of a mechanical and electrical engineering degree at a Monterrey campus of the university, first started developing his own inventions while still a high school student.

Twenty-three of them have already made it to the latter stages of the patent application process of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), meaning that they are likely to be officially registered soon.

One of his first inventions in his formative years while growing up in the Monterrey municipality of Guadalupe was a limited-slip differential that helped to cut down energy consumption.

Another was a temperature-controlled piston device that improves fuel efficiency in cars.

“Since I can remember I’ve always been very curious about electronic things and motors,” the young inventor remarked, adding, “I remember starting by taking a Nintendo 64 controller apart, changing the buttons around and putting it back to together.”

Pepe — as his friends call him — has also installed solar cells on a drone that allows it to stay airborne longer than any drones currently on the market.
However, the invention that perhaps stands out the most is an artificial intelligence device he created that goes by the name of Jarvis.

Pepe programmed the robot using the popular Python programming language, and it has the ability to respond to instructions in five different languages.
He talks to “her” frequently and goes as far as considering her a friend.

“I can strike up a conversation with her as though she were any other person. From any IP or LAN point she can be connected to the internet without needing a password. There is no need to decrypt anything,” José declared.

He is now planning to build a full body robot, putting his other inventions to one side for the time being so that he can focus on improving his abilities in programming and artificial intelligence.

Eventually, José’s dream is to work for Tesla, Inc., the innovative global company that is at the forefront of technological advances and manufactures electric cars in Silicon Valley.

That dream came one step closer to reality when representatives of the company visited Monterrey recently, heard about the prolific inventor and consequently granted him an interview.

“I’m in the selection phase with Tesla. They were looking for mechanical, manufacturing and automation engineers. They were surprised when I told them I had 171 patent applications,” José recalled.

The future looks bright for the young innovator and opportunities beyond Mexico’s borders are likely to beckon, although Guadalajara has also been developing as a technology hub over the past two decades.

Moisés Hinojosa, the former innovation head of the mechanical and electrical engineering faculty at UANL commented that José Armando’s abilities “leave all of us behind” and is certain that he will have success in his future endeavors.

“If he was in Silicon Valley or Boston companies and investors would [already] be chasing after him.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

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Have Mexico and the CIA united against Venezuela; has Mexico thrown aside its historical doctrine Estrada?

by The El Reportero’s wire services and Marvin Ramírez

The government of the president Enrique Peña Nieto starkly abandoned its traditional foreign policy doctrine Estrada after announcing its collaboration with the US government in its announced sanctions against Venezuela.

Estrada doctrine

The Estrada Doctrine is the name of Mexico’s core foreign policy ideal from 1930 to the early 2000s. Its name derives from Genaro Estrada, Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the presidency of Pascual Ortiz Rubio (1930–1932).

The doctrine was the most influential and representative instrument in the country’s foreign policy for 70 years, it claims that foreign governments should not judge, positively or negatively, the governments or changes in government of other states, in that such action would imply a breach of state sovereignty. This policy was said to be based on the principles of non-intervention, peaceful resolution of disputes and self-determination of all nations
But with this action, Mexico is aligning – with the CIA’s goal to unseat the Venezuelan government.

Mexican Undersecretary of Finance, Vanessa Rubio, said the administration of Peña Nieto will provide financial and tax information about current and former Venezuelan officials against whom Washington has issued sanctions.

Such punishments include the revocation of visas and the freezing of funds and assets, a policy with which the Mexican government is committed in spite of the diplomacy of respect for the sovereignty of third countries that for decades has earned it international recognition.

Earlier, a joint communiqué was issued by the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance indicating that the Peña Nieto administration will proceed ‘in consequence’ of the sanctions announced by the United States against Venezuela. The text of two paragraphs, and local media described as confusing, used the same language of the White House to justify punishments against senior Venezuelan government officials.

Regarding sanctions: ‘The Mexican government, through the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, reports that it will proceed accordingly, in accordance with the laws and conventions applicable in the matter,’ the text adds.

This is another escalation in the Mexican position against the Bolivarian government, now showing itself openly in its complicity with Washington. Mexico throws aside its historical doctrine Estrada, by which its foreign policy reaped sympathy and international recognition for the respect to the sovereignty and self-determination of third countries.

Now the Mexican authorities assume as their own the disqualifications of the administration of Donald Trump against the legitimate Venezuelan government that has denounced being attacked by foreign interests in collusion with the right-wing and economic power groups of the South American nation.

To better illustrate it: the Mexican Ministry of Finance investigates the minister of Culture of Venezuela, Elías Jaua, one of the 13 sanctioned by Washington, by orders of the United States. Jaua was Vice President, Foreign Minister and Speaker of Venezuela’s Parliament, with which Mexico maintains diplomatic relations that must be governed by principles today violated as commanded by White House.In this scenario, the chapter of the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity considered the interference of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto in Venezuelan internal affairs as an unacceptable submission. A document signed by intellectuals and scholars network members opined that the actions of the administration of Peña Nieto against Venezuela does not represent the sentiment of the Mexican people.

The call rejects the decision announced by the Mexican Foreign Ministry and of Treasury to join the sanctions of the government of Donald Trump against officials of the Venezuelan government. It emphasizes that the submission levels has exceeded the limits of rationality, degrading the dignity that any country must raise and violating the Mexican tradition with respect to the sovereignty of other nations.

The Network called on the Mexican government to publicly retract and recover the principles of a foreign policy that respects the right of self-determination of peoples and nations.

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Mercosur decides Saturday in Brazil about the expulsion of Venezuela

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Foreign ministers of Mercosur will meet on Saturday in Brazil to discuss the case of Venezuela confirmed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Eladio Loizaga.

There will be defined if they conclude with the process of application of the Protocol of Ushuaia, which provides that a country is suspended from the block when it breaks the constitutional order.

Loizaga said that there is not much to analyze in the case of Venezuela and that it only remains to suspend it from the bloc until the democratic order in that country is restored.

He explained that the entire process foreseen in the Protocol had been fulfilled and that now only decisions remain.

He recalled that under the Protocol the last thing before reaching the suspension was to call upon the affected State to state its point of view, but Venezuela did not even respond to this invitation.

It is unclear what will be the position of Uruguay that has been the most reluctant member to sanction Venezuela and prefers to insist on dialogue and a possible understanding.

Guatemalan government seeks indigenous support in dispute with Belize

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Morales has begun today a working visit to three regions of the country seeking support from mayors, governors and indigenous authorities and explaining the reasons for the territorial dispute with Belize.

The official support is seeking to influence positively in a people’s consultation planned before 2018 and will determine whether or not to take an insular and maritime litigation with Belmopan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) according to press media.

It is tried, in this manner, to solve a claim dating back to two centuries, as published by the Guatemalan News Agency’s official website.

In order to the ICC accept the case the application must be supported by the populations of both nations, according to local authorities.

Guatemala recognized the Belizean government in 1991 but paid no attention to its territorial borders, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry’s spokesman stated.

The Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales recently asked the political parties not to raise any political banner on this issue, according to foreign minister.

NAFTA renegotiation will harm Mexico, warns peasant leader

Renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will harm Mexico, assured today the Secretary General of the Independent Agricultural Workers and Peasants Union (Cioac, in Spanish), Federico Ovalle.

The peasant leader criticized what he described as weaknesses in the renegotiation process of NAFTA by the government and the ‘fictitious’ growth figures in agriculture and the creation of jobs.

He stressed that the agricultural chapter should be removed from the trilateral treaty and not go, once more as it happened in 1993, to a subortdinated negotiation of the Mexican economy.

Ovalle summoned to remember and not forget that the trade agreement with the United States and Canada in 1993 was headed by the present party in power, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, and now the renegotiation is also in its hands.

He called for a great mobilization next August 8 in this capital, on occasion of the 138th anniversary of Emiliano Zapata’s birth date and in defense of the interests of Mexican agricultura, above all, the small producers.

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Boxing – The Gentlemen’s Sport

JULY 29, 2017
Barclays, Brooklyn, NY, USA (Showtime)
Mikey Garcia vs. Adrien Broner
Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout
AUGUST 4, 2017
Chukchansi Park, Fresno, CA, USA (UniMas)
Jose Carlos Ramirez vs. TBA
TBA (ESPN2 / ESPN Deportes)
“Golden Boy Boxing”
AUGUST 11, 2017
Argentina (TyC / VTV)
Caril Herrera vs. Julio Escudero
Sebastian Papeschi vs. Francisco Torres
AUGUST 15, 2017
Shimazu, Kyoto, Japan (beIN)
Shinsuke Yamanaka vs. Luis Nery
AUGUST 18, 2017
TBA (ESPN Deportes)
“Golden Boy Boxing”
AUGUST 26, 2017
StubHub Center, Carson, CA, USA (HBO / BoxNation)
Miguel Cotto vs. Yoshihiro Kamegai
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017
California, USA (HBO)
Wisaksil Wangek vs. Roman Gonzalez
Ekaterinburg, Russia
Shane Mosley vs. Magomed Kurbanov

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Florida county sued for detention of US citizen

Suit against Miami-Dade County claims Honduran-born Garland Creedle was illegally detained, as activists hope to restore Miami’s ‘sanctuary city’ status

by Richard Luscombe

In itself, Garland Creedle’s short stay at Miami’s Turner Guilford Knight correctional centre ought to have been unremarkable. Arrested after an alleged domestic dispute at his family’s home one evening in March, the 18-year-old posted bond, and charges were never filed.

The Honduran-born teenager, however, now finds himself at the centre of a legal fight that immigration activists hope could ultimately restore Miami’s status as a so-called sanctuary city – and end county mayor Carlos Gimenez’s controversial cooperation with Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigrant agenda.

A lawsuit filed against Gimenez and Miami-Dade County by a coalition of advocacy groups, including the University of Miami school of law’s immigration clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, claims county jail officials acted illegally by detaining Creedle for two days at the request of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (Ice) as a “removable alien” even after his bond payment had posted.

According to the lawsuit, not only is Creedle a US citizen, making him ineligible for deportation, but Miami-Dade’s actions in holding anyone on an immigration detainer without a valid arrest warrant contravenes both the US constitution and Florida law.

“That a US citizen was held illustrates the problematic nature of these detainers, and one of our claims is there’s an insufficient probable cause finding on the detainer,” said Rebecca Sharpless, Creedle’s attorney and director of the immigration clinic at UM law school.

“We warned the county; we wrote to the mayor and commissioners before they decided to go forward, stating it was unlawful and that it was bad policy because it mixes immigration policy with our criminal justice system. They failed to heed our warning.”

The lawsuit, Sharpless says, is the culmination of six months of frustration and fear among south Florida’s sizeable immigrant community.

Gimenez caused outraged in January when he overturned years of county policy and ordered jails to approve all immigration detainer requests instead of only those for people facing serious charges. It followed an executive order from Trump cutting federal funds from cities and counties who offered safe haven to the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.

The mayor, who did not respond to a request for comment this week, justified the move at the time by pointing to $355m in government money Miami-Dade received for public housing, transportation and police programs.

Yet despite a federal judge blocking Trump’s order in April; a subsequent clarification from the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that only certain law enforcement funds would be withheld; and community protests, Gimenez and the Miami-Dade commission have persevered with the policy.

One consequence, opponents say, has been an upswing in the number of episodes in which law enforcement officers have taken into custody immigrants suspected of even the most minor offences, then passed them on to Ice.

“One of the big promises Gimenez kept saying was police officers would not function as immigration agents, but he either chooses to ignore it’s happening or doesn’t know,” said Thomas Kennedy, deputy political director of the immigration advocacy group FLIC Votes.

“The tension is inextricably linked with police enforcement. Say you’re an undocumented immigrant driving to work and run a stop sign, or you’re involved in a minor accident and the police decide to take you in. Your due process gets violated and you’ll be held for the immigration agency.

“It’s a fear immigrants have always had, even in the Obama years, but Obama wasn’t targeting the average, working-class immigrant. Driving every day, interacting with police officers, it’s always a nerve-wracking experience. This policy can bring such a heavy penalty and rip families apart.”

Between Gimenez signing the order in January and mid-June, Miami-Dade turned over 124 detainees to Ice custody, figures show. Among them is Raul Quiroga, a father of two from Argentina who has lived undocumented in the US for 15 years and was driving to his job as a construction worker in Miami in May when he bumped another vehicle with his truck.

He was arrested by state troopers, passed on to Ice and has been held at an immigration facility 40 miles from his family’s home pending deportation.
“My children are not well, they are very sad because they cannot see their dad and they do not understand why this is happening,” said Laura Quiroga, whose younger son, Thiago, nine, is a US citizen.

“Raul is the only support for the family, and we are being evicted from our apartment. I hope we can stay in the US but I’m very afraid he’ll be deported at any time.”

Members of several activist groups staged a protest at the privately run Broward detention centre in Pompano Beach on Saturday, accusing Ice agents of “kidnapping” detained immigrants for profit and denying them basic human rights and dignity.

“A deportation monster is being created by asking Congress [for] millions of dollars to increase detentions and deportations,” said Maria Asuncion Bilbao of United We Dream. “At times like these all we have is each other, and we have no choice but to organize and fight together.” the Guardian.

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Mexico seen as winner of first battle in NAFTA talks

There is some optimism after US document makes no mention of tariffs

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

Fears that a push from the United States to renegotiate the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would have a negative effect on Mexican exports and the economy in general might prove to be unfounded.

In fact, the Mexican Institute of Financial Executives (IMEF) believes that Mexico has won the first battle in looming trade talks with its northern neighbor after the U.S. government announced Monday that it would not seek to introduce protectionist measures such as tariffs or new quotas on industrial and agricultural goods entering the country.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative released an 18-page document entitled Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA Renegotiation in which it outlined its goals across a range of areas from digital trade to energy, the environment to investment and anti-corruption measures to currency, among others.
President of the national economic studies committee of the IMEF, Gabriel Casillas, explained that one of the main points for renegotiation from the U.S. perspective will be the rules of origin, which determine whether a particular product gets preferential treatment under the agreement depending on where it was made or produced.

However, some of the measures proposed will benefit not just the United States but Mexico and Canada as well, giving all three an advantage over competitors from other regions of the world.

“To update and strengthen the rules of origin, as necessary, to ensure that the benefits of NAFTA go to products genuinely made in the United States and North America,” is the objective as stated in the document.

No reference is made in the document to a desire to introduce tariffs on imports from either Canada or Mexico, news that is welcomed in Mexico.

“That there are no tariffs on the discussion table and a free market is maintained is a 50 percent win for Mexico. It’s probable that in the renegotiation process there will be bumps along the way but in the end it will arrive at a good place,” Casillas remarked.

There are currently more than 16,000 clauses in the 23-year-old agreement, each one dealing with a specific product.

Another objective is “to ensure that the rules of origin incentivize the sourcing of goods and materials from the United States and North America.”

Mechanisms already exist in the agreement that stipulate what percentage of the constituent parts of a product need to be sourced from the North American market in order for protectionist mechanisms not to apply, but the U.S. is seeking to make the rules stricter.

“If you want to make a car in Mexico and export it to the United States we need it to have at least 62.5 percent of its parts from the neighboring country so that it can pass free of tariffs. On this matter, they want to increase the origin content measures on some products for the benefit of the U.S.,” Casillas explained.

Objectives related to tackling corruption and making labor laws central to a renegotiated NAFTA are also outlined in the document.

Casillas conceded that introducing the changes in those areas might be complicated but that they are not necessarily bad for Mexico.

“They can be seen as a straitjacket to achieve good things, above all on corruption issues,” he said.

IMEF president Adriana Berrocal commented that it would be preferable for NAFTA renegotiations to conclude before Mexico’s presidential election and the United States midterms, both to be held in 2018.

“Both administrations are very conscious of that and are doing what is possible to meet [the requirements] on time. If for any reason it is delayed and it carries over to the next government, there’s not much to forecast now,” Berrocal remarked.

The United States has a trade deficit with Mexico that reached $63 billion last year and the stated objective to “reduce the trade deficit with the NAFTA countries” is seen as a priority for the U.S. in the upcoming talks.

Still, both members of the IMEF remain confident that an agreement that benefits all three members of NAFTA will be reached despite President Donald Trump’s occasional rhetoric and Twitter tirades that suggest otherwise.

A trade attorney and former counsel for international trade at the Economy Secretariat described the document as “very positive.”

“It deals with many of the fears of Mexican officials, particularly on going back to a tariff system . . . . It’s clear the U.S. does not want to move back to tariffs,” Carlos Véjar said in a report by the Financial Times.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer today announced that the first round of negotiations will be held Aug. 16-20 in Washington, D.C. He said John Melle, assistant trade representative for the western hemisphere, will be the U.S.’ chief negotiator.

Source: El Economista (sp), Financial Times (en).

Mexico: Left Wing López Obrador leads poll for 2018 presidential race

The National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), headed by presidential candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador, is leading the polls for the July 2018 elections, according to a survey released today.

MORENA, founded in 2014 by the 63-year-old politician who will run for the presidency for the third time, appears with 28 percent, followed by the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) with 23 percent, according to El Sol de México daily.

The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has 17 percent and a possible independent candidate got 10 percent.

According to the poll, 80 percent of respondents believe that PRI, which Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto belongs to, should not continue ruling the nation.

Peña Nieto has a low-level of popularity because many Mexicans believe he has failed in his crackdown on widespread corruption, as well as boosting the domestic economy after having pushed several reforms in important sectors of the country, the newspaper said.

In a simulated setting with potential top contenders, López Obrador had 31 percent, while Margarita Zavala, PAN candidate and wife of former President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), scored 26 percent.

The current Secretary of Interior in the cabinet of Enrique Peña Nieto, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, PRI candidate, had 15 percent and Miguel Angel Mancera, allegedly representing the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), reached seven percent.

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Guerrero ejidos create self-defense force

But armed forces have agreed to mount operation against a local crime gang

by the El Reportero‘s wire services

It wasn’t long after the establishment of yet another self-defense group in Guerrero that representatives of the armed forces met with its leadership and agreed to go after local criminals.

The spokesman for the new United Ejidos Rural Police said senior officers in both the Army and the Navy met yesterday with the new police force and agreed to pursue members of a gang that has been blamed for murders, assaults, robbery and extortion in seven ejidos, or agrarian communities.

The ejidos are located within the municipalities of Zihuatanejo and Coyuca de Catalán.

Artemio Sánchez Sánchez of the new police force said the meeting also agreed that the police would document the criminal activities of the gang and file criminal complaints.

He said the ejidos’ force, made up of at least 200 men armed with 22-caliber rifles and shotguns, would wait for a few days to see the results of efforts by federal forces before taking any action on its own.

Its original intention, announced Saturday in Vallecitos de Zaragoza, was to take on the gang and defend local citizens against it.

Sánchez lamented that neither state nor municipal authorities were represented at yesterday’s meeting, and issued a plea to the state that it send police to assist the federal forces.

Source: El Sur (sp)

Training CJNG recruits: they eat their victims

Teenage gang members reveal use of cannibalism

Eating human flesh is part of the training for young recruits to the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel (CJNG), two teenage boys told state authorities in Tabasco.

The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, said they were forced to eat the flesh of their torture victims, said the state Attorney General’s office. The two suspected members of a local CJNG cell were arrested recently in relation to the execution of five people on May 23.

Earlier that month the minors apparently kidnapped, tortured and executed an individual. The two boys narrated, “without any sign of remorse,” that they kept the corpse in a fridge and for a period of time cut off and ate pieces of the flesh.

The body was found on May 26 on the banks of the Carrizal River in the municipality of Nacajuca. At the time authorities said the corpse was missing both arms and other unspecified parts.

The Attorney General believes other minors have been trained by the CJNG in the same manner, and that boys as young as 12 could be part of the same process.
The training, said the authorities, is intended to create extremely dangerous, cold-blooded criminals.

Governor Arturo Núñez Jiménez lamented that more and more minors continue to be recruited by organized criminal gangs, and called on the people of Tabasco to assume their shared responsibility to prevent the phenomenon from happening.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mexico: Former municipal mayor sentenced for beating journalist

Enrique Benjamin Solis, former mayor of the municipality of Silao, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, was sentenced to two years in prison for qualified injuries and threats to the reporter Karla Janeth Silva, of El Heraldo, the newspaper reported today.

Solis, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), confessed that he had ordered Police Director Nicasio Aguirre to beat the journalist for criticizing him.

The trial lasted more than two years. The aggression was perpetrated on September 4, 2014, in El Heraldo’s office in Silao, by Jose Samuel Ornelas, with support from Luis Gerardo Hernandez and Joaquin Osvaldo Valero, who were paid by Jorge Alejandro Fonseca, deputy director of the police.

The newspaper noted that although Solis was sentenced, justice was not served, because the other participants in the organization and execution of the attack were not indicted.

It was reported that Solis will only serve seven months and days of the sentence, because he spent one year and four months in the Social Rehabilitation Center (Cereso) during the trial.

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Does Valerian Root effectively treat sleep disorders?

by Fari Magdala

Valerian root supplements worked well for me when I had trouble sleeping years ago. Compared to prescription drugs, Valerian root was a welcome and effective alternative. My mother, who was a registered nurse, suggested it. I’ll never forget the first time I took it. I was shopping with my Mom at a mall. I took one pill and felt sleepy almost immediately.Whew, I was so glad I wasn’t driving! At the time, I was also suffering from stress. I hated shopping but soon felt peace and enjoyed myself.

What is Valerian Root?

The Valerian root plant grows in Europe, Asia, and South America. The details of why Valerian supplements work for sleep and anxiety disorders can’t fully be explained by researchers. From what researchers found, Valerian Root increases brain levels of a chemical known as gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) . GABA aids the body in achieving a calm state.

How effective is Valerian Root in treating sleep disorders?

According to The National Institute of health, Valerian Root was used as medicine in ancient Greek and Roman times. In the 2nd, 16th and 19th century, the herb was used to treat Insomnia, nervous disorders, and heart palpitations. During World War II, Valerian was effective when treating soldiers experiencing air raid stress.

Clinical trials have been done to evaluate the success rate of this herb. But according to researchers reports, outcomes were mixed.   One placebo-controlled study was done of a women suffering insomnia took 300 mg of Valerian root extract 30 minutes before her bedtime for two weeks. She didn’t feel a significant improvement in the quality of sleep. This is surprising to me considering the success I had. For me, within 30 days of taking 300 mg of  Valerian Root nightly, my sleep patterns returned to normal. I was grateful!

Anyway,  another study was done. In this study,  400 mg of Valerian root extract enhanced sleep considerably compared to placebo’s given to 128  volunteers. Healthy volunteers described notable improvements in how long it took to get to sleep, quality of sleep, and how many times subjects awakened during the night.

Another longer term clinical trial included 121 people with insomnia. When each participant took  600 mg of dried Valerian root, symptoms of insomnia decreased in comparison to the placebo after 28 days of evaluation.

One small study involving  36 patients with generalized anxiety disorder yielded good results. Each patient was given  50 mg of Valerian root extract three times a day for a period of four weeks. Their symptoms significantly reduced anxiety compared to placebo.

In my opinion, there’s not enough research being done on the effectiveness of Valerian root for treating anxiety and insomnia. I’d prefer hearing from all the people who have positive testimonials. But scientific research is needed. Although, I don’t think sciences is always accurate in proving the effectiveness of natural treatments. After all, I pay $22 for a one month supply of a supplement that truly helped me.

Since Valerian root has been proven to be effective for those with insomnia, anxiety and stress, it’s worth trying. My insomnia issues have long since been resolved. But I still keep a bottle of Valerian root in my medicine cabinet.

Fari Magdala

I’m one of those people who firmly believes that the truth is never hidden. Our eyes may be covered for a time, but if we truly search with all we have within we find truth.

The first time I noticed the connection between mental health and diet, I was eating a bowl of sauteed rice. I added about four packets of soy sauce. I immediately felt my mood drop. I began recording my food intake and keeping a record of my results with emphasis on my mood changes. After 30 days, I knew I needed to change my diet.

Once diagnosed with clinical depression, I now had some insight on how to heal myself. As my life progressed with much prayer and pointed reading, I realized that the temple of the body needed pure, natural foods to sustain optimal mental and physical health.

 

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