Mexican retailers to boost 2008 investment 17 pct

MEXICO CITY, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Mexican retailers plan to increase investment by 17 percent this year to open and remodel stores despite a sluggish economy, the National Association of Supermarkets and Department Stores said on Wednesday.

"The expected investment in 2008 is $3 billion, which will result in an 11 percent expansion in sales floors," ANTAD President Vicente Yanez told a news conference.

Last year, ANTAD members invested $2.56 billion.

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This story is significant because Mexico is planning on investing much more money than in previous years. The sales floors will be expanded greatly.

Mexico court clears Portillo move

Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled that the former president of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo, can be extradited to his home country to face fraud charges.

Mr Portillo, in office from 2000 to 2004, is wanted over the disappearance of $15.7m (£7.9m) earmarked for the defence ministry.

Mexico authorised his extradition in 2006, but Mr Portillo's defence team challenged the move in several courts.

Mr Portillo denies any wrongdoing and his lawyers say their fight will go on.

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This story is significant because a man is being accused for the stealing of a large sum of money. This former president is in a very bad position because Mexico is trying very hard to find him guilty.

Scholar: NAFTA has helped Mexico, but not enough

10:15 p.m. January 27, 2008

NAFTA has done the job it was negotiated for, but it has not been enough, a Mexican political economist says.

Gustavo Vega, director of the Center for International Studies at the prestigious Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City, said that while NAFTA has helped create more jobs for Mexicans, it has not helped create enough of them.

Still, had it not been for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, Mexico would have suffered a much-greater financial crisis after its economy crashed in December 1994, he said.

“It helped us to recover from the crisis sooner rather than later,” Vega told the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego on Tuesday. Two million jobs were created in Mexico between 1995 to 2001, according to Vega. “But we need a million every year. It is not enough,” he said.

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This story is significant because NAFTA did not bring about the many jobs Mexixo expected. They feel as if NAFTA has done some good but has not fulfilled all the expectations.

Assessment Complete

Mexico's Cantarell Dec oil output hits 2007 low

MEXICO CITY, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Crude oil output from Mexico's huge but aging Cantarell offshore field fell to 1.260 million barrels per day in December, the energy ministry reported on Saturday.

It was the field's lowest monthly output level last year and a 16 percent drop from December 2006's 1.493 million bpd.

The fall in output meant Cantarell, the jewel of Mexico's oil industry since the late 1970s but now in decline, accounted for just 43 percent of Mexico's oil production in December. For years it had accounted for 60 percent of output.

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This article is very significant because oil is at the top of many countries priority lists and this will effect many countries.

Mexico peso, stocks rise on US stimulus plan optimism

MEXICO CITY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso firmed for the third straight day on Thursday and stocks jumped amid optimism about U.S. government and central bank efforts to boost the world's largest economy.

The peso MEX01 strengthened 0.39 percent to 10.898 per dollar, while the benchmark IPC stock index .MXX rose 1.03 percent to 27,905.13 points.

The U.S. Congress and the White House agreed on the details of a $150 billion package, first announced last week, to stimulate the economy of the United States which many investors fear is slipping into a recession.

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While many investors fear that the U.S. will slowly slip into a recession, the value of a Mexican peso increased by .39 percent. This can only mean good things for the Mexican economy.

Mexico anti-drug official says target of hit men

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's deputy attorney general said on Thursday that three men arrested in Mexico City last week with shoulder-fired rockets, rifles and a submachine gun were planning to kill him.



Jose Luis Santiago, the point man in the country's war on drug gangs and the official in charge of extraditing drug bosses to the United States, said the suspected hit men may belong to the Sinaloa Cartel, which dominates Mexico's Pacific Coast cocaine smuggling routes.

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The Mexican deputy attorney general claims that three men arrested with firearms and explosives were out to kill him. The deputy attorney general is one of the leaders in the country's war on drugs.

Mexico Jan. Consumer Prices Rise Less Than Expected

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican consumer prices rose less than economists expected in the first half of January because of declines in tomato and travel costs.

Consumer prices rose 0.27 percent in the first 15 days of the month, compared with a 0.20 percent increase a month earlier, the central bank said today on its Web site. The rate was less than the median estimate of 0.38 percent in a Bloomberg survey of 18 economists.

``This is going to put some of their worries about inflation at ease,'' said Rafael de la Fuente, senior economist for Latin America at BNP Paribas in New York, in a telephone interview.

Mexico's central bank, after raising the benchmark interest rate twice in 2007, may reverse tack and cut it later this year should the U.S. face a recession and hurt the Mexican economy, said Delia Paredes, senior economist at Banco Santander in Mexico City, ahead of the report.

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Mexican consumer prices didn't rise as much as economists predicted it would for the month of January. Because of this, Mexico doesn't have to worry so much about inflation.

Mexico's PRI May Slow Congress Unless Cardenas Fired

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's largest opposition party stepped up pressure on President Felipe Calderon to fire his agriculture minister, threatening to delay proposed legislation, including a plan to revamp the state oil company.

Unless Calderon removes Alberto Cardenas, he risks having his plans ``bogged down,'' said Hector Padilla, a lawmaker from the Institutional Revolutionary Party and head of the agriculture committee. The party says Cardenas failed to win bigger agricultural subsidies and restrict imports of U.S. sugar and corn, depressing prices for farmers in Mexico.

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This story is very significant because when this particular party is unhappy, Mexico's government is under a lot of pressure to fix the problem. In this particular case the agriculture minister seemed to not be doing a very good job at controlling many of the jobs he was hired to do.

Violence spikes in Mexico

Fri Jan 18, 7:01 PM ET

TIJUANA, Mexico - Rosalba Padilla thought the first shots were nothing but construction in her quiet, upper-class Tijuana neighborhood. It wasn't until she looked out her window and saw a sea of police that she realized the noise was gunfire.

Down the street, at the Preschool of Happiness, director Gloria Rico activated the school's alarm, prompting police to rush into the building, their guns drawn. Rico said the children were terrified by the chaos

The fighting erupted as federal agents raided a house near the U.S. border Thursday that authorities say sheltered gunmen linked to drug traffickers. Soldiers and police joined skirmishing that became a chaotic three-hour battle. A federal agent and a gunman died and four officers were wounded in the latest outbreak of violence across the border from San Diego. Inside the house, authorities later found six slain kidnap victims.

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This story is ecspecially significant because it shows that shootings and violent crimes can occur anywhere at any time. Shootings in and around schools have been a very common occurence lately and it is a very serious subject.

Assessment Complete

Assessment Complete

US, Mexico strengthen gun checks

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Mexican police who seized arms could use the system to notify the US who would then target the dealers.

Mexico has been struggling to deal with heavily-armed drug traffickers.

It has complained that its northern neighbour is not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal arms into Mexico.

Mr Mukasey also urged the US Congress not to be distracted by the presidential election and approve the proposed $1.4bn (£712m) joint US-Mexican anti-drug plan, known as the Merida Initiative.

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This is signifigant because the U.S. is now giving Mexico access to a database that would let them trace smuggled weapons. This will not only help the U.S., but Mexico too in their fight against violence and drug trafficking.

Mexico gets new domestic security chief

Wed Jan 16, 3:43 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon replaced his domestic security chief on Wednesday with a young, Spanish-born and U.S.-educated aide who led his 2006 campaign effort.

Juan Camilo Mourino took over as interior secretary, replacing Francisco Ramirez Acuna, who stepped down amid an upsurge in drug-fueled killings and criticism that he has cracked down on opposition protests. He said he was resigning to "pursue personal activities."

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This article is very significant because any time a major job such as a domestic security chief changes operators there are many risks at stake.

Drug traffickers attempting to influence Mexican politics, attorney general says

MEXICO CITY: Drug traffickers have tried to influence political campaigns in Mexico by intimidating and even kidnapping candidates and trying to steer election results, the attorney general said.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in remarks released by his office Friday that drug gangs have tried to influence politics in the border states of Baja California and Tamaulipas, the western state of Michoacan, and other parts of the Gulf and Pacific coasts.

"We have evidence, complaints from candidates who were kidnapped or intimidated, or who received threats intended to influence the results of an election and the behavior of candidates," he said.

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This is significant because illegal drug traffickers are attempting to intimidate political candidates and trying to change elction results. Many candidates have been affected by these traffickers by receiving threats and being kidnapped.

Mexico govt says closing in on energy reform deal

MEXICO CITY, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Mexico's government is closing in on a deal with opposition lawmakers to overhaul energy laws, the new interior minister said on Thursday.

"What we need to do is modernize the energy sector," Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino told Mexican television.

"The parties ... have said they are ready to enter the final phase of talks," Mourino told Mexican radio later.

Mexico, a top three supplier of crude oil to the United States, saw oil exports slip last year to their lowest level since 2002 because of pounding storms and sagging output at the massive Cantarell oil field.

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This story is significant because energy is at the top of many countries priority lists at this point. This particular reform deal will have an affect upon the United States as well as many other countries.

Mexico names new Interior Minister

MEXICO CITY -- At 36, Spanish-born Juan Camilo Mouriño was already the quiet power behind the throne in Mexico. He controlled the calendar of President Felipe Calderon and appointed the top deputies of each member of Calderon's Cabinet.

On Wednesday, the green-eyed man known by the nickname "Ivan" officially became the second most powerful man in Mexico. Calderon named him interior secretary, the top Cabinet post and a traditional springboard to the presidency.

Mouriño was born in Madrid, the scion of a wealthy Spanish family that moved to Mexico when he was 7. He remained a Spanish citizen until age 18.

His rise to power, achieved in little more than a decade in politics, is an unlikely story in a country where Spaniards are still linked with empire and conquest.

Mouriño has the youthful good looks and European features most commonly associated here with TV actors. But before Wednesday, few Mexicans had heard his voice. Even among Mexico's political class, he's an unknown quantity.

"This guy hasn't done anything in his life to deserve the crown jewel of the Cabinet," said Federico Estevez, a political scientist. "He's a blank page. Appointing him is an incredibly bold and risky move by Calderon."

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This story is significant because Juan Camilo Mourino is now the second-most powerful man in Mexico. President Calderon has appointed him as the new Interior Secretary, a usual step towards presidency.

Mexico: Trade Deficit Declines

Mexico reported a smaller-than-expected trade deficit for November after oil exports rose sharply. The deficit narrowed to $760 million from $1.65 billion in October, the finance ministry said. Economists expected a gap of $1.39 billion. Mexican oil export revenue rose 69 percent last month to $4.89 billion, the ministry said. Nonoil exports grew 8.7 percent to $19.5 billion. Total imports rose 12 percent to $25.18 billion.

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This article is significant because of the very large amounts of money being discussed. The trade deficit of of one country can have a large affect on other countries.

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