Mexico peso soars as investors eye Fed; stocks fall

MEXICO CITY, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso surged to a 23-month high on Thursday and bonds jumped as signs the U.S. economy may be slipping into a recession led investors to bet the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates.

The peso MEX01 gained 0.67 percent to 10.668 per dollar at the official central bank close.

In equities trading, weak U.S. data helped push the benchmark stock IPC stock index .MXX down 0.97 percent to 30,130.47 points, snapping a six-session rally.

"It's all about expectations of a rate cut," said Vicente Gonzalez, who heads currency trading at ABN AMRO in Mexico City.

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Mexico's peso reached its highest value in 23 months while the U.S. economy is in a decline. The peso went up 0.67 percent to 10.668 per dollar.

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Two laws target smokers in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY -- The news for smokers was bad. The question was how bad.

Smokers and restaurateurs and other business owners in Mexico City on Wednesday were debating the ramifications of not one but two groundbreaking laws seeking to curb smoking. Some were scratching their heads over which they would have to obey, and many others expressed skepticism that either would be effectively enforced.

"I'm sure that neither . . . is going to succeed," said Andres Romero Olivares, a 47-year-old accountant, who saw the restrictions as the wrong solution to the nation's health woes.

On Tuesday, the Mexican Senate passed nationwide restrictions on smoking in workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public enclosures, requiring stiff fines for violations and possible 36-hour jail stints for smokers who refuse to comply. That measure, already passed by Congress' lower house, is expected to be signed into law by President Felipe Calderon.

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Two new laws were passed in Mexico nation-wide banning smoking in public enclosures. Violations of this law coould require large fines or possible jail time and many citizens don't agree with it.

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Two laws target smokers in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY -- The news for smokers was bad.

The question was how bad.Smokers and restaurateurs and other business owners in Mexico City on Wednesday were debating the ramifications of not one but two groundbreaking laws seeking to curb smoking. Some were scratching their heads over which they would have to obey, and many others expressed skepticism that either would be effectively enforced.

"I'm sure that neither . . . is going to succeed," said Andres Romero Olivares, a 47-year-old accountant, who saw the restrictions as the wrong solution to the nation's health woes.

On Tuesday, the Mexican Senate passed nationwide restrictions on smoking in workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public enclosures, requiring stiff fines for violations and possible 36-hour jail stints for smokers who refuse to comply. That measure, already passed by Congress' lower house, is expected to be signed into law by President Felipe Calderon.

Náhuatl revival sought

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard wants all city staff members, from hospital workers to bus drivers, to learn the Aztec language Náhuatl in an effort to revive the ancient tongue, the city government said yesterday. Ebrard, seen as a possible presidential candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party in 2012, presented his government's development plan last week translated for the first time into Náhuatl.

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This story is very interesting because quite frankly, its somewhat stupid. Maybe I just didnt see the importance of knowing this language but it sure seems pointless.

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NCR inks deal for kiosks in Mexico International Airport

NCR Corp. is expanding its presence at Mexico International Airport, the company announced Tuesday.

AeroMexico purchased 32 self-check-in kiosks in its new terminal at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. The Mexican airline currently uses NCR self-check kiosks at seven additional locations throughout Mexico which include Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"As Mexico continues to grow into one of the world's top destinations for travel and tourism, airlines in the region must increasingly differentiate themselves by offering time savings and convenience to their customers," said Michael O'Laughlin, vice president for the Caribbean and Latin America for NCR.

The kiosks feature an integrated bar code imager to help enable easy customer identification as well as an integrated passport reader to cater to international travelers.

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Mexico is growing as one of the most popular destinations in the world, so they have decided to make it easier for their customers in some of their most popular airports.

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Mexico sets 25 percent renewable goal

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Within four years, Mexico wants to produce 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, the country's energy secretary said.

"The goal is that in 2012 renewable energy sources will account for more than a quarter of total capacity," said Georgina Kessel.

One of the Mexican government's priorities is to promote renewable energy as a means of ensuring the country's energy security, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

An important part of that strategy will be the construction of wind farms in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where installed capacity is expected to exceed 2,500 megawatts in 2012, Kessel said.

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This story is significant because the issue dealing with energy and energy sources is a very important one. With natural resources running out an alternative source of energy is very badly needed.

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Mexico's PRI Limits Opening of Oil to Border Fields

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party is pushing to limit foreign or private investment in the state oil monopoly to offshore fields near the U.S. border, a senator said.

The party agrees that Petroleos Mexicanos needs alliances with foreign companies to prevent U.S.-based producers from depleting fields that straddle the border before Mexico can get to them, Sen. Francisco Labastida told Televisa television today. Brazil's state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA would be suitable partners, he said.

Labastida, head of the Senate Energy Committee, is one of his party's top negotiators with President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, which is seeking support for a broader overhaul of energy laws. Calderon says state company Petroleos Mexicanos needs the help of foreign companies throughout the Gulf of Mexico to halt a decline in crude output and reserves.

Labastida said the two parties are yet to reach agreements on the scope of the energy bill.

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This story is significant because it not only affects Mexico's government but the governments of the surrounding countries as well. This decision should be profitable for multiple countries.

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Mexico's human rights commission investigates border shooting

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's human rights commission on Wednesday said it was investigating allegations that soldiers opened fire on a car at a checkpoint south of the Texas border, killing a man and wounding a U.S. citizen.

Jose Antonio Barbosa Ramirez solicited the National Human Rights Commission's help after the Mexican army opened fire on a car he was traveling in with his brother-in-law, Sergio Meza Varela, early Saturday morning in the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas state, the commission said in a statement.

The statement said the men had been drinking and doing drugs and decided to drive around the city. At about 4 a.m. Saturday, they were chased by a military-style Jeep and ended up at an army checkpoint where they attempted to flee by putting the car in reverse.

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There is an ongoing investigation involving allegations that soldiers opened fire on a car on the Texas-Mexico border, killing a man and injuring another. The men driving the car had supposedly been drinking and doing drugs.

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AOL Launches Mexico Site

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said Thursday that it launched a Web site for users in Mexico that combines its free e-mail and instant messaging features with local content in Spanish.

AOL partnered with fixed-line company Alestra for distribution and Mexican magazine company Grupo Editorial Expansion for content. Grupo Editorial Expansion is owned by Time Warner's magazine publishing unit, Time Inc.

AOL said it will also use its global distribution partnership with Hewlett-Packard Co. to offer a cobranded local language portal and search functions to the Mexican market.

The site is located at AOL.com.mx.

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America Online opened a new site in spanish that includes free e-mail, instant messaging, and local content updates. AOL has partnered with a Mexican magazine company for the content updates.

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Mexico hopes to normalize relations with Cuba

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican government said Tuesday that it would continue to push for the development of Mexico-Cuba relations to realize the normalization of bilateral ties at an early date.

The Foreign Ministry statement was issued following the announcement by Cuban leader Fidel Castro that he is stepping down as president of the Council of Ministers and president of the Council of the State of Cuba.

The statement reaffirmed Mexico's willingness to promote the development of its relations with Cuba, adding that Mexico respects the independent decision and the will of the Cuban people on the issue.

The Mexican government wished Castro a quick recovery and said it would closely follow developments in Cuba's political situation.

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This story is significant because any time two countries work towards reconciling there relationships it helps them as well as other countries.

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Mexico's Economic Growth Unexpectedly Accelerates

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's economic growth unexpectedly accelerated in the fourth quarter, led by the transportation and communications industries.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a country's output of goods and services, expanded 3.8 percent from a year earlier, the finance ministry said today.

The growth defied the predictions of most economists, who expected Mexico would be hurt by slowing demand from the U.S., its biggest trading partner. The government succeeded in its plan to boost domestic demand to compensate for a slump in exports, said Alfredo Coutino, senior economist for Latin America at Moody's Economy in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He predicts growth will continue to accelerate.

``This is going to be the first time in many years in which Mexico is going to move in the opposite direction as the U.S. business cycle,'' Coutino said in an interview.

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This story is significant because the economy was expected to decrease and it surprisingly increased. The U.S. business cycle moved in the opposite direction which is very surprising.

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Deadly Bomb in Mexico Was Meant for the Police

MEXICO CITY — Investigators have determined that a man linked to drug traffickers was trying to plant a bomb in a police official’s car when it blew up and killed him on a busy avenue here last week, the city’s attorney general said.

The attorney general, Rodolfo Félix Cárdenas, said Wednesday that six more people were being sought in connection with the explosion on Friday.

The blast unsettled the residents of the capital, which had so far escaped much of the drug violence that has racked other parts of the country.

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A man supposedly linked with drug trafficking in Mexico tried to plant a bomb in a police car when it exploded and killed him. Six other people are being linked with this attack.

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Mexico's Women-only Buses

Tuesday , 12 February 2008

CAIRO — Fed up with lecherous men taking advantage of the cheek-to-jowl conditions in the North American country's crowded transport system, Mexico's most populous city is running women-only buses. "There are good men in Mexico, but they’re not the ones on public transport," Mariana Vasquez, 30, told The New York Times on Monday, February 11.

"They try to touch you. They don’t give you a seat. Where are the gentlemen?"

Mexico City began in January running women-only buses to reduce unseemly behavior on public buses.

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This story is significant because discrimination to this extent has not been seen in many years. Something should be done about this issue very soon.

During U.S. visit, Calderón pushes for fair treatment of Mexicans

12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, February 12, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Monday evening outlined a series of reforms his government has taken to transform Mexico and exhorted the U.S. to give his countrymen living and working in the U.S. their basic dignity and rights.

"Human beings should be treated as human beings," Mr. Calderón told a group at Harvard University, acknowledging that his country has to do more to improve its relationship with Central American immigrants. "Central American workers provide benefits for Mexico, and Mexican workers provide benefits for the United States."

It was the second day of a five-day coast-to-coast U.S. visit for Mr. Calderón – his first since taking office in December 2006.

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This story is significant because Calderon voiced his opinion on how he feels about the Mexican immigrants.

Mexican president makes first U.S. visit, including California

5:24 p.m. February 8, 2008

MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Felipe Calderón's first trip to the United States next week is a high-stakes effort to shape the immigration debate during the U.S. presidential race.

Calderón won't meet President Bush or any of his would-be successors this trip, but will make his voice heard in major U.S. cities at a time when both Republican and Democratic candidates are carefully calibrating their positions on hot-button issues such as the border wall, deportations, guest-worker programs and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Many undocumented Mexican migrants who have raised families and built careers in the United States are facing a much bleaker future as federal, state and local governments crack down. And the election year isn't helping, according to Calderón, who has accused U.S. presidential candidates of using migrants as “symbolic hostages in their speeches and strategies.”

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This story is significant because this will be the first visit to America for President Calderon. With the presidential election coming soon what to do with the immigrants is a very important topic.

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Mexico's Calderon to reduce army role in drug war

MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday he wants to phase out the army's role in fighting drug traffickers as the country works to reform its notoriously corrupt police forces.

"We must clean up and strengthen the police forces across the country so that the participation of the army in the fight against crime will become less and less necessary," Calderon said at an event with Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human rights.

Calderon has mobilized some 25,000 Mexican troops since taking office in December 2006 to try to crush powerful drug cartels that are warring over lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

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The Mexican President has called for a reduction of the Mexican Army's role in the fight agianst drug trafficking. Many officers have been killed in this struggle and the problems are only getting worse.

U.S. shares the spoils with Mexico

HOUSTON -- "All right," was the assessment of legendary Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos as he left his luxury box following Mexico's 2-2 tie with the U.S. on Wednesday. "Next time we'll win," he said, before cracking a smile and sticking his tongue out to reveal he wasn't so sure.

El Tri failed for the 10th straight time to beat the U.S. on American soil, but this time the dominating contingent of Mexican supporters in the Houston crowd of 70,103 wasn't left as disappointed as usual.

In the previous nine U.S.-hosted Mexico games, the U.S. won eight and tied once while outscoring the Mexicans, 15-1.

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On Wednesday, the United States national soccer team tied Mexico 2-2 in what was a thrilling match. The USA has not lost to Mexico in their last ten matches played in America. This means the intense rivalry between these two soccer powerhouses will continue.

Mexico police caught between drug crackdown, cartels

MEXICO CITY - Poorly trained, badly paid and vulnerable to corruption, Mexico's legions of local police are increasingly caught in the crossfire as the Mexican government embarks on a crackdown on drug smugglers.

Dozens of municipal police have been killed in recent months in apparent drug hits, and several others, including the intelligence chief of Mexico City's Police Department, are under investigation, suspected of links to smugglers.

Last month, the Mexican government announced it was scrutinizing police commanders nationwide, and the Mexican army said it was disarming 300 police along the Texas border while prosecutors investigated them.

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Many Mexican police officers have been killed in the war against drugs. Many are untrained, poorly paid, and not equipped for the job yet they still fight in this crackdown on drugs.

Thousands in Mexico Urge Government to Renegotiate NAFTA

Tens of thousands of agricultural workers and their union representatives gathered at Mexico City's downtown plaza, the Zocalo, on Thursday to complain about the agriculture provisions in the North America Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Agricultural workers with tractors, cows and banners -estimated over 100,000 by media reports - came together, urging the Mexican government to renegotiate the rules in the agricultural part of the Agreement that do away with customs tariffs for corn, beans, sugar and milk starting in 2008.

"We have lost our way as a nation. We have given up sovereignty over food and energy," said Cruz Lopez, the speaker of the National Agricultural workers Confederation (CNC for its acronym in Spanish) according to Spain daily ABC.

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This story is significant because NAFTA is angering many people in Mexico as well as other places. The farmers feel that the tariffs are not fair and need to be changed.

Mexico's programme to aid jailed mothers

What to do with children born to women serving time is a social dilemma that tests even the most advanced prison regimes.

In Mexico, the authorities believe they are starting to deal with the problem head on, with some dramatic results.

They have started allowing babies born in jail to stay with their mothers until they are six years old.

Compare that to England or Scotland, where typically mothers can only keep their babies until they are 18 months old, and then only in exceptional circumstances.

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This story is significant because what to do with babies born while the Mom is in jail is a very important issue. The decision Mexico has made is one of the first of its kind and I believe it is a very well thought out one.

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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - It was fear of the hefty bill as much as fear of the drill that kept American musician Don Clay away from U.S. dental clinics for 30 years.

When a sorely infected tooth eventually drove him to the dentist last month, it was to a clinic in a Mexican border city better known for violent crime and drug cartels.

Shrugging off concerns about hygiene and Mexico's brutal drug war, thousands of Americans are heading to Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border cities for cheap dental treatment.

U.S. dental treatment costs up to four times as much as in Mexico, making it tough for uninsured Americans to treat common problems such as abscessed teeth or pay for dentures.

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Many Americans are starting to go to Mexico for cheaper dental work. Many Americans who are uninsured go across the border because it can cost up to four times less than
American dental work.

Mexico's new bumper crop: More illegal immigrants?

While U.S. politicians talk about building walls along the border and telling undocumented immigrants to "go home," a mass protest Thursday in downtown Mexico City pointed to one of the main causes of illegal immigration: the erosion of Mexico's rural farm economy in recent decades.

Thousands of Mexican small farmers swept into the capital this week, driving tractors and hauling cows (see video). They were protesting the lifting of trade restrictions on agricultural commodities like corn, rice and oats. The farmers say lifting these restrictions will put them out of work, because they won't be able to compete with powerful U.S. agri-businesses, and they're pressuring Mexico's government to renegotiate portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada.

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One major reason for illegal immigration of Mexicans into America is the decline of Mexico's farm economy in recent years. Recently, a mass protest in Mexico City took place to point out the issue.

Mexico protests against U.S. for firing tear gas to its territory

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican government protested on Friday against the U.S. Border Patrol's repeated firing of tear gases against Mexicans on Mexican territory.

"The firing of tear gases does not contribute at all to constructive understanding and collaboration, which should prevail between both countries for the attention to the border violence," stated Mexico's Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry added that it requested "a thorough investigation of the (U.S.) aggressions against a Mexican minor" that occurred in January.

The U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gas onto the Mexican side of the border in January, and in one of the incidents wounded a boy, whose identity was withheld, near the Mexico-U.S. border zone in Tijuana city, in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California.

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Mexico is currently not happy with the U.S.'s use of tear gas on Mexican's in Mexican territory. They claim that the use of the gas isn't helping border relations between the two countries.