News Summary for August 28th, 2010

In the wake of Mexicana de Aviación airline suspending flights, the Tourism Secretariat was negotiating with other airlines, both national and international, to increase the number of flights to Mexico to cover demand…Some parts of the country were practically left stranded because of the lack of flights, for example, Chetumal state capital Quintana Roo, Puerto Escondido, in Oaxaca and Minatitlán in Veracruz… Labor Secretary Javier Lozando and Communications and Transportation Secretary Juan Molinar Horcasitas were working with business groups to seek to inject new funds to start up Mexicana’s flights again.
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The Attorney General’s Office has taken up the investigation into the massacre of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas… The bodies of 40 of the victims had been identified… Tamaulipas’ Attorney General confirmed the assassination of the mayor of Hidalgo, Antonio Leal García… He was ambushed as he was leaving his ranch while traveling with his four-year-old daughter who was wounded in the attack… Hidalgo is a community located 90 kilometers from Ciudad Victoria in central Tamaulipas…
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Violence was rampant in Tamaulipas… Twenty-three people were wounded in grenade attacks… An explosive device detonated at the Tampico Metropolitan police headquarters left two people wounded… The Interior Secretariat announced that together with the Tamaulipas government they had agreed to increase the presence of federal forces and the Army to beef up intelligence operations and find the culprits…
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Meanwhile, Army troops captured the suspected Zetas leader in Monterrey, Juan Francisco Zapata Gallegos, known as “El Billy” or “El Pelón”… He is accused in the shootout at the Monterrey Technological Institute that killed two students…
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Authorities also arrested José Luis García Vázquez, alias “El Chilaca” who, according to the Public Security Secretariat is the suspected head of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel in Morelia…
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Despite heavy rains in Tabasco, nearly 3,000 people refused to leave their homes even though they were affected by rains or were at risk of flooding after water levels in two rivers were rising dangerously… They will be assisted by Navy, Pemex and Civil Protection boats and rafts… Alerts were issued for expected heavy rains in Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Michoacán in the following 24 hours…
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The Mexico Archdiocese Hugo Valdermar Romero accused the Mayor of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard of embezzlement, as he was allegedly using public funds in the slander lawsuit the mayor filed against him…
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PAN Deputies rejected a PRI proposal to drop the IVA or value added tax back to 15 percent from 16 percent it is currently… Deputy PAN economic policy coordinator Luis Enrique Mercado Sánchez called the proposal “populist” and said it would endanger public finances…
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PRI Senate caucus leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones demanded that President Felipe Calderón provide clear information on finances in his next report on the state of the nation… He asked for the president to rectify public policies and also his style of governing…