Passing the hat on Sunday night

Guadalajara -
Street performers from neighboring Michoacan state travel to Guadalajara on weekends, hoping to earn a few pesos in the city's main square. There is no work at home, and worse still, increasing lawlessness and civil disorder. At least four drug cartels are fighting for control of Michoacán, local police have disappeared in many communities and have been replaced by citizen militias (some armed by cartel bosses, according to the government), and as if all that were not enough, thousands of school teachers remain on strike, demanding higher pay and the revocation of modern educational reforms which Mexico's congress approved in December. The itinerant entertainers earned but a few dollars from passersby this Sunday evening, far less than their lodging, food and transportation costs.

Cancún bars push deadly drinks, alleges Q.R. newspaper

Booze on the rocks served with ether laced ice, claims Por Esto


Cancún, Quintana Roo -
In less than a month three foreign tourists have died along Mexico's famed Riviera Maya, including a 40 year old American tourist from Los Angeles, a 21 year old Canadian woman on vacation with a girlfriend and a 44 year old man visiting Playa del Carmen with family.

MGR reported the deaths May 9 in Body of Canadian tourist remains unclaimed in Cancún.

Mexican military still at vanguard of the drug war, with 3,500 arrests in Enrique Peña Nieto's first six months

"We're not doing anything different" - General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, SEDENA secretary


Guadalajara -
Mexico's Dept. of Defense reported yesterday that although somewhat less visible than in the previous administration, military operations against organized crime remain "intense," with high ranking drug cartel operatives frequently the targets.

Between Dec. 1 and May 15, almost 3,500 persons were arrested in what SEDENA officials called "precision strikes."

Mexico drops another notch in gross tourism receipts

Guadalajara -
Two months ago secretary of tourism Claudia Ruiz Massieu warned that Mexico's rankings as a travel destination would likely fall a place or two in the soon to be released 2012 numbers. This week they did.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) gathers and reports visitor statistics for member nations annually.

Drug cartels behind three recent Guadalajara attacks

Four arrested in Mar. 9 murder of tourism secretary; another in Mar. 31 bar attacks which killed eight


Guadalajara -
The Jalisco state prosecutor's office announced late last night the arrest of five men in connection with three high profile attacks in Guadalajara since Mar. 1. A total of nine persons died in two of the attacks. All of the men are linked to regional organized crime groups.

Insurance broker announces "narco policy" for Mexico

Guadalajara -
Marsh Brockman and Schuh, which advertises itself a global leader in insurance brokering and risk management, will offer a new policy "designed specially" for the challenges of doing business in Mexico, it said last week.

Spanish businessmen executed in Sinaloa

Guadalajara -
Two Spanish nationals visiting Mexico's northwest Pacific coast were found dead today near Culiacán, the Sinaloa capital.

The men were in the backseat of a car which had been driven or pushed into a local canal. When the water level descended the vehicle was spotted by passersby, who summoned police.

The victims were identified by the Sinaloa state prosecutor as José Montoya Lozada, 58, and Fernando Carmona Romero, 57. Initial reports claimed the men were professional chefs who were interested in regional cuisine. Later accounts said they were clothing merchants who had lived in Guadalajara for several months. One man was from Madrid. Their remains are being repatriated by family members.

Mexico says drug war deaths are plummeting

Guadalajara -
In its latest drug war analysis, Mexico's Department of Government (SEGOB) today reported that during the first five months of the new PRI administration, homicides connected to organized crime activity dropped 18% compared to the last five months of the previous government.

Body of Canadian tourist remains unclaimed in Cancún

Hotel zone records two alcohol related deaths of foreign tourists in recent days


*Updated May 15*
Guadalajara -
Early Monday morning, Canadian Sidney Nicole Taylor, 22, was drinking with friends at the Dady'O, a well known watering hole along touristy Kukulcán Boulevard in the heart of Cancún's hotel zone. She and a friend, Natalie Jane Archibald, 21, were registered guests at the Gran Caribe, just a few doors away.

Taylor and Archibald left the Daddy 'O about 2:45 a.m., according to the latter, who went to bed as soon as the young women returned to their rooms.

Timothy Hallett Tracy is "neither a photographer nor a film maker," says Venezuelan justice minister

"His intent was to create chaos in the streets"


Guadalajara -
In an television interview broadcast yesterday in Caracas which cannot portend well for U.S. national Timothy Hallett Tracy, Venezuela's justice minister claimed the accused American is neither a photographer nor a documentary film maker.

Those claims are "just a facade," minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres told Televen on Sunday, referring to recent statements by Tracy's family and supporters in the United States. "We've seized hundreds of videotapes and email which show otherwise," said Rodríguez, "and they will be presented in court."

Enrique Peña Nieto commemorates Battle of Puebla

But M. François Hollande does not

Guadalajara -
In Puebla this morning, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and top cabinet officers presided over ceremonies in honor of the Battle of Puebla, fought 151 years ago today.

Commonly known as Cinco de Mayo north of the border, and often more widely celebrated there than in this country, the event is not to be confused with Mexico's independence day, which is Sept. 16.

Attacks on Mexican journalists on the rise in 2013

No reduction in violence during EPN's first 120 days, reports London-based press advocacy group


Guadalajara -
Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, but there was little to celebrate in Mexico.

In London the human rights organization Article 19, which focuses on freedom of information and expression issues, reported this week that attacks against journalists in Mexico rose 20% between January and March, compared to the same period a year ago. President Enrique Peña Nieto took office on Dec. 1, advertising a domestic security strategy focused on "reducing the violence" in Mexico.

René González, one of the Miami Five, is allowed to stay in Cuba on condition that he renounce U.S. citizenship

U.S. dangles a tiny carrot in Havana, but it will be too little and too late to extricate Alan Gross

René González of the Miami Five, at far right

*Updated May 10*
Guadalajara -
A federal court in Florida today granted all but unconditional freedom to René González, 56, one of the members of the Miami Five arrested in 1998 and sentenced to a long prison term for espionage.

González was in Cuba when he received the news.

Obama tells Mexico: "drug legalization not the answer"

"Tu eres el sueño. You are the dream" - Barack Obama, Mexico City, May 3

Guadalajara -
In a mid-morning speech before young people at Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology, president Barack Obama again bluntly acknowledged U.S. responsibility for this country's domestic security challenges. He ruled out drug legalization as the solution:

President Obama arrives in Mexico

"Stemming the southbound flow of guns and cash is critical" - Barack Obama, Mexico City, May 2


Guadalajara -
President Barack Obama arrived in Mexico City this afternoon, his fourth visit to the country since taking office in 2009.

A joint press conference conducted by Mr. Obama and Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto is underway at this hour at the National Palace.