by the El Reportero’s news services
Felipe Calderón
As we have argued before, most recently in January, we agree with President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa that Mexico is not a failed state. In an interview with Spain’s El País published on March 17 he argued, strongly, that the US was wrong to categorise Mexico as a failing state. Calderón pointed out that the economy is working normally in Mexico, children go to school and most parts of everyday life go on as usual.
After spreading southward, cocaine production enters Central America
The recent discovery of a cocaine-processing lab in Honduras — the first of its kind — points to a new twist in the trend towards the development of a production capacity in countries until recently seen only as transit routes for drugs on their way to markets in the US and Europe. This trend is already quite evident in several South American countries, as confirmed in recently released US and UN reports.
Too much of a good thing ?
Latin America’s economies have started 2011 unusually by producing pleasant surprises almost across the board. The most important surprise, probably, is that domestic demand in Mexico is picking up strongly. This means that the economy should have a much better 2011 than most economists had expected. It may also mean that the violence will diminish. There are already signs that the murder rate has stopped increasing and may even be falling.
Peru marred by protests ahead of election
On March 30, Keiko Fujimori, a former congresswoman and the daughter of former (and imprisoned) president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), was the fi rst presidential candidate to face serious protests. Political protests are making electoral waves in the regions.
If hard evidence of Keiko Fujimori’s countervote was needed, this was it. The protests in Iquitos, in the Amazonian department of Loreto, which borders Ecuador, were so large and violent that they had to be dispersed by tear gas.
Besides the overtly political protests in Loreto, there are environmental protests in southern Peru, which may swell support for the left-wing Ollanta Humala’s congressional candidates in Arequipa. Humala’s Gana Perú’s congressional candidates are part of a 3,000 strong protest, entering its eighth day, against an open cast copper project mine.
A new opinion poll on March 30 by a marketing company, IMA, put the former president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) back in front but had Humala consolidating his second place.
Humala is holding strong, with 21.9 percent to Toledo’s 23.9 percent, whilst Keiko Fujimori dipped, for the fi rst time in the past six weeks, to 17.6 percent. Toledo’s former fi nance minister, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, is snapping at Keiko’s heels, but remains in fourth place on 16.9 percent. The first round is on April 10. The top two go through to a run-off on June 5.
Mexican Organized Crime Among Largest armies in the world
Mexico, Mar 31 (Prensa Latina) Every year organized crime in Mexico gets USD $40 billion from the United States, the equivalent of senadora, Patty Murray, y cuando la funcionaria prometió resolver el problema. Hasta ahorita, la “resolución” ha sido entregarle una solicitud para que pida la ciudadanía, y avisarle que como es veterano de guerra, no le costará nada.
Para que las cosas fuera parejas, una de dos. O deportan a Leeland a su nativo Canadá, o regresan a Emily Samantha a Estados Unidos. O de tres. Podrían poner a Leeland en adopción, y Guatemala podría deportar a Emily Samantha de regreso a Estados Unidos. O de cuatro. Podrían arreglar la estúpida y absurda ley de inmigración que no sirve para nada, y ninguno de los dos absurdos anteriores volvería a repetirse. mexicodelnorte@yahoo.com.mx
