News Summary for May 15th, 2008

Using rifles and grenades a group of more than 40 men wearing black attacked judiciary police headquarters in Guamúchil, Sinaloa.

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More than 200 army troops left Chihuahua heading for Ciudad Juárez to provide support in the battle against organized crime after a spike in the violence suffered by the border town.

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A criminal court ordered nine hired gunmen, among them three former soldiers, to remain within call of authorities… The men presumably belong to the cartel headed by the Beltrán Leyva brothers.

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The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill that includes money for the Mérida Initiative requested by U.S. president George Bush…This bill will now have to be debated and voted by the full house, no date has been set…

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President Felipe Calderón sent a draft law bill to reform the Federal Tax Bill, which has to do with Pemex’s fiscal status… The president sent the draft bill to the Congress permanent commission.

The Chamber of Deputies said it will not discuss the draft law bill until the Senate energy reform debates end.

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PRD deputies presented before the Congressional permanent commission a proposal to amend the Constitution to allow referendums and plebiscites to be recognized as part of a participative democracy.

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And Labor Party coordinator Ricardo Cantú said lawmakers from the Convergencia and Labor parties will file a complaint at the Attorney General’s Office against Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño, whom they accuse of influence peddling.

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News Summary for May 14th

Senate debate sessions on petroleum reform began with the participation of PAN leader Germán Martínez; PRI national president Beatriz Paredes and PRD founder PRD, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who all gave their viewpoints on the energy reform proposal. +++++++++++++++
Former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, through José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti, presented his own energy reform proposal at the Senate.
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More than 2,700 army soldiers, members of the navy, and public security and judiciary agents are taking part in a joint security operation that began in Sinaloa.
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Citing lack of evidence, the Attorney General’s Office released one of six people arrested in connection with the assassination of Federal Preventive Police regional security coordinator Edgar Millán Gómez.
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A group of armed assailants in a van fired at the chief of the Police Academy in Nuevo León, Arturo Cabrera.
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According to videotapes provided by the Ecuadorian government Mexican citizen Lucía Morett had spent time with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC… Morett can be seen taking part in a guerrilla training session.
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The Chamber of Deputies exonerated Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño of having engaged in influence peddling when he was president of the energy committee and an official at the EnergyMinistry.
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The United Left movement, which is backing Alejandro Encinas, announced measures to reveal fraud committed by supporters of Jesús Ortega during the party elections.

News Summary for May 13th..

Negotiations...Not now.
The Popular Revolutionary Army, the EPR, rejected a proposal to meet with the government for direct talks, saying conditions are not adequate. President Felipe Calderón said he regretted the move by the EPR and said his government will continue open to any possibility of dialogue with the armed group.
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Who did it? We may know..
The Federal Police detained five people related to the assassination of regional security coordinator, Edgar Millán. Authorities also identified Juan Carlos Arellano Anica, alias "El Nica," as the leader of the band of mercenaries whom, according to authorities, was hired to murder Edgar Millán. Officials believe the hit-man belongs to the band.

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From bad to worse:
And 11 people were assassinated in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in the past 48 hours.

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In more violence, three people were killed in Acapulco, Guerrero by unknown attackers using AK-47 and AR15 automatic weapons.

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What is going to happen to the PRD?
Former PRD party presidents Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Leonel Godoy, as well as Pablo Gómez, who was interim party president in 1999, called for the National Political Committee to be legally set up and that this body resolve the crisis affecting the party.

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The PRD National Guarantees Commission is analyzing the different complaints filed against the voting tally that gave victory to Jesús Ortega in the party election for national president.

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And PRD Senators coordinator, Carlos Navarrete, warned that if the PRI confirms that it does not accept the petroleum law bill in its entirety this bill will be politically dead.

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The Supreme Court ruled that applying the Special Tax Law on Production and Services, that includes increases to gasoline and diesel, was constitutional.

News Summary for May 8th, 2008

Things are going to get worse before they get better…
++The Federal Electoral Tribunal has ordered that the PRD National Guarantees Commission to provide a total count of the ballots caste during the internal elections to select the new leader of the party. The vote count must take place within 72 hours of the issuance of the Tribunal’s decision. Based on the vote count the PRD must announce who is the next PRD leader. Meanwhile, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas on Wednesday called on former PRD leaders, including Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to ask candidates who ran for the party presidency to withdraw their candidacies…

Dialogue? Seems unlikely..
++ The Popular Revolutionary Army rejected a proposal by the government to begin direct dialogue… In a press release the EPR called the proposal “treacherous, rude and cheating.” President Felipe Calderón said most Mexicans want governments that work and solve differences through dialogue.

I can’t believe they actually agree..
++ The chairman of the Congressional Permanent Commission, Senator Santiago Creel, said he agreed with the head of the National Human Rights Commission José Luis Soberanes who said that to withdraw army troops from the streets at this time would be suicidal. (Comment: Soberanes wants the military to continue facing the drug cartels? This must mean that the situation is much much worse then it appears…)

Hey Carlos…Stop that!
++ Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard said that by praising his government former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s seeks to undermine him.

Out of business? I doubt it..
++ A U.S. State Department report said that by 2009 drug organizations, which manufacture methamphetamines, will enter a crisis because they will run out of pseudoephedrine, their base ingredient.

Now it is Zacateca´s turn…
++ Army troops and an armed group had a shootout in the Villa de Cos municipality in Zacatecas… Three civilians were killed.

News Summary for May 7th, 2008

++ Naming Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo as interim PRD president is not legally valid said Ernestina Godoy, who heads the party’s National Guarantees Commission.

++ And the Federal Electoral Institute will review the validity of Acosta Naranjo’s appointment to the post. The IFE warned that if the move was not valid, it may order that another national council be named.

++ However, Rafael Hernández, PRD representative to the IFE, said the institute has been informed of Acosta Naranjo’s appointment, which is legal, according to Hernández.

++ And chief justice of the Federal electoral tribunal, María del Carmen Alanís, said no ruling will occur this week regarding complaints filed by Jesús Ortega against the PRD internal election.

++ In other news, senate PRD coordinator, Carlos Navarrete, said that Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Lorenzo Meyer are two of the first figures on the list to take part in the first phase of national debate on energy reform… Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not on the list.

++ President Felipe Calderón enacted constitutional reform in public spending by which, he said, there will be more efficiency and transparency in the use of federal funds on a national level.

A PRD lawmaker took part in the event, Francisco Santos Arreola, who is the secretary of the jurisdictional commission at the Chamber of Deputies. Santos Arreola acknowledged Calderón as president of Mexico and he criticized his fellow party members who continue to support a Mexico led by “caudillos.”

++ And the Lower House of Chambers began the selection process to choose another three IFE councilors who will begin their terms in August.

News Summary for May 6th, 2008

A looming Divorce?

++ The PRD celebrated its 19th anniversary… The New Left Movement, to which Jesús Ortega belongs, carried out an event at the Monument to the Revolution… Interim president Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo was at the event. Jesús Ortega called for a new PRD to be founded, by forming a national council to evaluate points that must be changed. Meanwhile, in a separate event, at the Expo Reforma, Alejandro Encinas, who was declared winner of the PRD election, said that the greatest threats to the party lie within… What ever that means…And former PRD leader, Leonel Cota, warned that whoever criticizes the movement in defense of petroleum led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a traitor to the country.

Why would they care?

++ The PAN filed a complaint with the IFE to investigate whether there is full certainty about the legality and legitimacy of interim PRD leaders.

Violence in Mexico? What else is new...

++ President Felipe Calderón, who headed the ceremony to mark the 146^th anniversary of the Cinco de Mayo Battle called for the defeat of the enemies of Mexico which are poverty and crime… He said he will not budge in his fight for legality and security.

++ State police in Guerrero, applied a special operation in Petatlán to protect cattle breeders leader Rogaciano Alba, who was the alleged target of attacks over the weekend that killed 17 people.

++ And in continuing violence in Tamaulipas, gunmen executed special judiciary police agent assigned to the command center there, Jesús Servando Zúñiga de los Reyes.

++ Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who was recently re-elected as leader of the Miners Union for another six years, urged the government to solve his case as well as strikes by miners. (This guy has an indictment against him for absconding more then 50 millon dollars from the Union coffers…He now lives in Canada, since if he returns to Mexico he will be arrested. All this and he was re elected?… Wow…)

News Summary for May 5th, 2008

From bad to worse…
***The PRD national council appointed Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo as interim president and Martha Dalia Gastélum as secretary general… These two will be in charge of the party until a solution is found to the post electoral crisis confronting the PRD. Acosta Naranjo, a member of the New Left movement which is backing Jesús Ortega, warned that the party of a “single man” is something of the past. He said that half of the party voted for Ortega, and that personalities must not be above institutions. But……Alejandro Encinas, who has been declared winner of the election, refused to accept the two appointments and reportedly his legal team is planning to challenge the resolution with the National Guarantees Commission since the party council met illegally.

What about the possible negotiations with the EPR…. Going no where…
***The emeritus bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz, said he trusted that the dialogue requested by the Popular Revolutionary Army with the federal government will have positive results but he criticized that these talks be conditioned to halting any all investigations against those responsible for attacks against oil pipelines last year. Ruiz was proposed as mediator. He said he has still not made direct contact with the EPR.

¿What is going-on in Guerrero?
***Meanwhile, 16 people were killed in Guerrero in a double attack perpetrated this weekend by an armed group against cattle breeder´s leader Rogaciano Alba Álvarez…The federal army increased security operations with federal and state agents both in Iguala and Petatlán, where the attacks occurred, and in the northern and Costa Grande areas of the state.

¿Lost Cause?
***Labor Secretary Javier Lozano called on both workers and the Cananea mine owners to sit down for talks and find a solution to the strike that has now lasted nine months…

***Shouting “neither pardon nor forgetting” hundreds of farmers from the town of San Salvador Atenco marched from the Angel of Independence Monument to the Zócalo… They demanded the liberation of at least 13 of their fellow activists who are still in prison two years after federal police clashed with villagers in Atenco.

Uggg Traffick...
**Thousands of vacationers returned from the long weekend that began last Thursday. The Public Security Ministry said that the most transit highways were the Mexico-Cuernavaca and Mexico-Querétaro.

Don´t forget to tune-in to Imagen News, the only English speaking nation-wide radio news program in Mexico. Every day at 5:30 and 23:00 hrs (Mexico City time) For local stations check out the side bar of this blog, or go to www.imagen.com.mx/news for instructions on how to download Imagen News to IPOD or MP3 player or listen via Real Play....

News Summary for May 3rd, 2008

++ Jesús Ortega Martínez, a candidate to head the PRD, filed a complaint with the Federal Electoral Tribunal against election results that gave victory to his opponent Alejandro Encinas.

++ The IFE approved fines of 50 million pesos for the PAN, Green Ecologist Party, the Convergencia party and Alternativa for unreported spots during 2006.

++ PRI deputy Juan Francisco Rivera called on the federal government to halt the wave of violence caused by vendettas among bands of narcotics traffickers… He said operations against organized crime are not working.

++ Federal District police have found a suspect in the murder of Roberto Velásquez Bravo, director of organized crime investigations at the Federal Public Security Secretariat.

++ TV Azteca will contest a 5-million-peso fine levied against the television station by the IFE general council for failing to broadcast political party spots. An attorney for TV Azteca, Salvador Rocha, said the resolution was baseless.

++ Amnesty International demanded that the Mexican government punish federal and state officials as well as police agents who took part in clashes with residents of San Salvador Atenco… Two years after the incident occurred, no policeman has been sentenced for abuses committed during the fighting.

++ Members of the Land Defense Front of the Peoples of San Salvador Atenco demanded the liberation of 16 of their fellow activists being held in a penitentiary.

News Summary for May 2d, 2008

++ The mediating committee proposed by the Popular Revolutionary Army called on the federal government to clarify whether the conditions it set to establish dialogue with the EPR are impediments or whether it is truly interested in there being mediation.

++Labor Secretary Javier Lozano said that International Labor Day is a significant and important date, but no reason for official celebration.

++ At a rally in the Zócalo in Mexico City, workers belonging to the electricians, phone workers, trolley bus and subway workers unions expressed their rejection of labor and energy reforms… Ezequiel Rosales, leader of the National Coordinating Group of Education Workers, proposed a national strike.

++ The chairman of the Senate Labor and Social Welfare Committee, Carlos Aceves del Olmo said that president Felipe Calderón has failed to fulfill his promise to be the president of employment… He said that unemployment has increased during the current presidential term.

++ Paying tribute to the 282 members of Mexican Squadron 201 who took part in the Second World War, President Felipe Calderón once again called for Mexicans to defend national sovereignty by taking advantage of the country’s energy potential.

++ PRI politician Emilio Gamboa, who heads PRI deputies at the Lower House of Congress, said constitutional reforms to change the format of the presidential state of the nation address were necessary since Mexico must move forward and become modern.

++ In other news, PRD organization secretary Ángel Cedillo said that annulling elections and appointing an interim president would be the most viable solution to overcome the post electoral crisis in the party.

News Summary May 1st, 2008

++ The Lower House of Congress approved changes to the format of the president’s annual report to the nation…The president may hand in a written report and there will be no need for him to personally read the document at the legislature.

++ Lawmakers also asked the Comptroller’s Office and the Interior Ministry to investigate a 90-million-peso donation made by Jalisco governor Emilio González Márquez to build a temple for Mexican martyrs.

++ The Senate Official Daily published an announcement of forums for the energy debate to be held from May 13 to July 22.

++ After the PRD announced that Alejandro Encinas won the party election, Dolores de los Ángeles Nazares quit the national guarantees commission saying that the vote tally was “illegal” since not all ballots were counted.

++ And Jesús Ortega’s team accused the National Guarantees Commission and the technical electoral committee of conniving so that Alejandro Encinas take over as PRD president.

++ President Felipe Calderón said the duty of the government is to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor… He launched a Feeding Program for marginalized zones that will help 280,000 families.

++ Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño said that he has still not made contact with a committee appointed by the Popular Revolutionary Army to start dialogue.

++ Attorney Generals of México, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belice supported a petition by U.S. president George W. Bush for the U.S. Congress to approve funds allocated to the Mérida Initiative.

++ The Federal District Legislative Assembly said that Mexico is the fifth country in Latin America with the highest rate of child sexual trade and the 28^th on a world level.

News Summary for April 29th, 2008

++ The federal government accepted proposal for talks with the Popular Revolutionary Army – the EPR – as long as four conditions are met, among them that the EPR halt attacks and sabotage, that talks cover other issues as well, not just be limited to the disappearance of EPR members, and that topics of national importance be discussed.

++ Speaking in Zacatecas, President Felipe Calderón asked Education Secretary Josefina Vázquez Mota to present a program to improve quality in the country’s primary level schools.

++ Former UNAM rector Juan Ramón de la Fuente was awarded the Citizen’s Merit medal by the Federal District Legislative Assembly… In his acceptance speech de la Fuente had harsh words for the country’s politicians, he called for insults to be set aside and for politicians to reach out to each other and engage in dialogue.

++ The Senate received the document calling for debate on energy reform to take place from May 13 to July 22. The document could be published this Wednesday.

++ Senators and deputies across the political spectrum condemned death threats made against the speaker of the Lower House of Congress, PRD member Ruth Zavaleta.

++ And the party itself, PRD party leadership, called the death threats against Ruth Zavaleta “despicable” and demanded that the federal government punish those responsible for the threats.

++ The PRD technical elections committee has completed tallying votes for councilors and national party congress members, however there are still no results for the main election, for party president.

++ Baja California Attorney general Romel Moreno confirmed that a shootout last Saturday in Tijuana, that left 16 dead, was a battle among groups within the drug cartel led by the Arellano family.

News Summary for Abril 21th, 2008

An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale struck Mexico City this Sunday in the evening. No damage or victims were reported. The National Seismological Service said the epicenter was located 38 kilometers southwest of Teloloapan, Guerrero…
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After leftist opposition lawmakers ended their sit-in of Congress on Friday, PAN and PRI senators warned that the Broad Progressive Front could carry out the same action if an extra period of sessions is approved.

Speaking at the PAN special national assembly President Felipe Calderón said that “those who wanted to break institutions failed” and said that the results of energy reform will be more visible in many years.

Former PRD presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador launched the second phase of his movement, the “pacific civil resistance in defense of petroleum” which includes doubling the number of brigade members, a tour of all of Mexico and possibly a referendum…

In more on the PRD election fracas, the technical electoral committee must rule on several complaints filed by the teams of both Alejandro Encinas and Jesús Ortega…
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The PAN special national assembly approved allowing non-party members running in elections as candidates, but polls or surveys continue to be barred in the choice of candidates…
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And the drug battles continue… On Saturday three shootouts between different bands of narcotics traffickers left 13 dead and 5 wounded in Tijuana… Eight suspects were arrested and authorities seize 21 vehicles, 54 weapons and munitions…
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And two people were killed, one wounded and six arrested after military troops engaged in a gun battle with suspected members of “Los Zetas” in Calatrava, in the municipality of Palenque, in Chiapas.
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Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, several state Attorney General’s Office officials and experts, including Romeo Ruiz – the cousin of governor Ulises Ruiz – were arrested by the army and federal police agents in connection to the disappearance of two members of the Popular Revolutionary Army, the EPR, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez.
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Some 1,200 residents of Jalisco took part in a march to protest over rude language used by governor Emilio González Márquez as well as huge donations of public funds made to associations linked to the Catholic Church.

News Summary for April 26th, 2008

++ The Broad Progressive Front ended its two-week blockade of the Congress after reaching an agreement with other parties to carry out a debate on energy reform that will last 71 days, from May 13th to July 22nd.

++ Convergencia senator Dante Delgado told Andrés Manuel López Obrador about the end of the blockade. López Obrador accepted the move although he said the time period for the debate was still insufficient.

++ President Felipe Calderón said that if energy reform is approved it will help Mexican farming since refinery and the petrochemical industry will be revitalized.

++ Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño hailed the agreement on the debate on energy reform and said he was confident all parties would take part.

++ State governors agreed to restructure the National Governor’s conference so that it will be influential in national affairs.

++ Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard took part for the first time in the National Governor’s Conference… He said that just like other state leaders he is concerned about the 2009 spending budget bill.

++ Speaking in defense of the Federal District abortion law, the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Víctor Hugo Círigo ruled out full legal rights for the unborn in the very early stages of conception.

++ Mexico City Chief of Police Joel Ortega said there is information on two men linked to the explosion on Chapultepec Avenue that occurred on February 15th. He gave no names but said the information could lead to arrests.

News Summary for April 26th, 2008

++ PAN, PRI, Green Ecologist Party, New Alliance and Alternative Party quickly approved a measure to eliminate the Federal District governance clause… thus eliminating the possibility that a party in the future have an absolute majority in the local assembly. The PRD has had an absolute majority in the Federal District since 2007.
++ PRD deputies will file a constitutional controversy complaint against the new measure eliminating the governance clause… The party said that the Lower House of congress approved the measure sent by the Senate with no debate, discussion or even a reading of the document and bypassing all legislative procedures.
++The Nation’s Supreme Court is analyzing the constitutional validity of a decree on the Federal District electoral code…
++ The Broad Progressive Front proposed that discussion on energy reform end on July 31st.
++ PAN president Germán Martínez said he trusted that a faction within the PRD will reject Andrés Manuel López Obrador and enter into the debate on reform to modernize Pemex.
++ The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Alberto Begné, called on the PRD, PT and Convergencia to end their blockade of congress for the good of democracy and the political left in Mexico.
++ President Felipe Calderón said that now is the time for dialogue and agreements within a legal framework… He said that many Mexicans seek to make Mexico a prosperous country.
++ The Baja California Attorney General’s Office said that some cases have been confirmed of police protecting drug-lords, transporting illegal drugs in their patrol cars and taking part in shootouts, as was revealed by General Sergio Aponte, commander of the second military zone.

News Summary for April 25th, 2008

++ Senate governing board chairman Santiago Creel said that the agreement to hold a national debate on energy reform lasting 72 days was postponed. The Political Affairs board decided it needed more time to analyze the proposal.

++ The Senate PRD coordinator, Carlos Navarrete, denied statements by PRI Senator Francisco Labastida that the PRD has withdrawn its demand that there be no special session of Congress once the regular period ends.

++ The committee of the Center for Studies on Law and Parliamentary Investigations at the Chamber of Deputies said that President Felipe Calderón’s proposals to modernize Pemex do have the intention of privatizing the state-owned company.

++ PRD speaker of the Lower House, Ruth Zavaleta, said there was no further reason to keep Congress blockaded since the Broad Progressive Front had achieved its goal of opening debate on the future of Pemex.

++ UNAM rector José Narro Robles called the government of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe “interventionist.” The rector called on the Colombian president to take back accusations against Mexican students who were at a FARC camp in Ecuador when Colombia attacked.

++ Colombia’s ambassador to Mexico, Luis Camilo Osorio Isazal, said the Colombian government lacks hard evidence to state that Mexican citizen Lucía Morett and the other four students killed in Ecuador had carried out guerrilla actions.

++The Attorney General’s Office said that the Swiss government could release in the near future 80 million dollars that were confiscated from Raúl Salinas de Gortari when an investigation began into accusations of illegal enrichment.

++ Commander of the Second Military Region, General Sergio Aponte Polito, gave the names of policemen in Baja California involved in organized crime.

News Summary for Abril 23, 2008

++ The Senate Energy Committee came up with proposal to carry out debate on energy reform for 72 days, from May 12 to July 22… The Senate political affairs board was expected to approve the proposal. Senate Energy Committee secretary, PRD member Graco Ramírez, said his party endorses the proposal but the Broad Progressive Front had still not decided.

++ The chairman of the Senate Political Affairs Board, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, said the debate on energy reform would last “the amount of time that is necessary” so as to later adopt the measures Mexico needs on the subject.

++ Meeting at a separate venue, the Chamber of Deputies approved steps to choose three new IFE councilors as well as the comptroller general of the institute.

++ Meanwhile, President Felipe Calderón said that the PRD “is making a fool of itself” with the takeover of Congress.

++ And Ruth Zavaleta, the speaker of the Lower House of Congress said Calderón’s remarks, made in New Orleans, were uncalled for and did nothing to solve the crisis.

++ The PRD national council appointed Graco Ramírez, who belongs to the New Left faction within the party, and deputy Raymundo Cárdenas, of the United Left movement, as “representatives” to temporarily substitute Leonel Cota and Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo who have stepped down as president and secretary general after their terms ended.

++ Graco Ramírez said that the vote count in six conflictive states had been completed, so only three more states were pending.

++ Police detained a U.S. soldier in Ciudad Juárez who was trying to introduce several weapons into Mexico, amongst them an R-15 automatic rifle.

We are back... News Summary for April 22, 2008

++ The Broad Progressive Front could end the blockade of the Mexican Congress… Spokesmen said the goal of blocking the Pemex reform approval has been reached.
PAN and PRI senators Santiago Creel and Manlio Fabio Beltrones rejected a demand by the Broad Progressive Front to sign an agreement not to hold a special additional congressional session. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas said it was a mistake by his party, the PRD, not to have presented its own energy reform bill before the senate, since, he said, that is the best defense of oil.

++ Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel, said that Mexico’s oil exports could practically disappear by 2021.

++ The IFE ordered the ad comparing Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Hitler pulled from the air, since it violated the law.

++ The PRD National Guarantees Commission agreed to count ballots from all of the centers that have yet to be counted to try and resolve the crisis affecting the party for the past month.

++ This Monday Leonel Cota’s stay at the head of the PRD comes to an end and the party National Council is working on naming an interim party president and interim secretary general.

++ Mexican president Felipe Calderón and U.S. president George Bush agreed to support the Mérida Initiative to ensure a safe border and fight organized crime and narcotics traffickers.

News Summary for April 18th, 2008

++ PAN senator Santiago Creel suggested to the Broad Progressive Front that it be the Senate energy committee to set a time frame for debate on energy reform… The opposition lawmakers said they would have a reply by Tuesday.

++ At a ceremony to welcome India’s President Pratibha Patil, President Felipe Calderón said Mexico is ready for greater flows of trade and investment to strengthen economic ties with India.

++ Deputy Interior Minister in charge of liaison with the legislature Cuauhtémoc Cardona Benavides, said the federal government will have no part in the Congressional crisis.

++ Pemex Refinery director José Antonio Ceballos Soberanis said that contracts signed by his department with the Transportes Especializados Ivancar firm are legal.

++ The PRD National Guarantees Commission announced that the party elections is at the final stage, and the vote count in nine conflictive states will be completed.

++ UNAM rector José Narro demanded proof from the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, of their alleged ties, especially of Lucía Morett, to FARC.

++ Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora announced a new strategy of attack against organized crime and their financial operations through an agreement with the National Banking Commission to fight money laundering.

++ Federal Agency of Investigations agents arrested the head of the Reynosa municipal police, Juan José Muñiz, who is accused of links to the “Zetas.”

News Summary for April 17th, 2008

++ The speaker of the Lower House of Congress, Ruth Zavaleta, asked President Felipe Calderón to authorize that debate on oil reform last four months.

++ PAN deputy Héctor Larios said that a formal event at the Chamber of Deputies planned to welcome the president of India Pratibha Patil, was cancelled since Broad Progressive Front lawmakers refused to put an end to their protest.

++ The Broad Progressive Front said it would no longer deal with the PRI and called on the PAN and the federal government to set the terms for national dialogue on energy reform… PRD senator Ricardo Monreal said that in exchange for a broad discussion on the matter, lawmakers would take a more moderate approach in their civil resistance actions.

++ IFE council chairman, Leonardo Valdés, denied that the 2009 elections are at risk because opposition lawmakers have taken over both houses of Congress.

++ The PRD’s national executive committee has not replaced the two members of the elections committee who resigned… The decision makes it impossible to renew the vote counts in the nine states that are still pending…

++ In other news, Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe, who was in Quintana Roo, said that four Mexicans who were killed when Colombia attacked a FARC camp in Ecuador were terrorists.

++ Calderón asked Uribe not to make quick judgments and to wait until investigations have been completed.

++ In response, the UNAM condemned Uribe’s accusations and said that Colombia’s president was offending – whilst in Mexican territory -- the memory of the university students who were killed in Ecuador.

++ And a video has been circulating on the Internet showing Raúl Reyes, the FARC leader slain in the attack, as he asks Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa to strengthen ties with the guerrilla group.

++ Four of the five suspects in the failed bomb attack on Chapultepec Avenue were ordered to prison, among them Tania Vázquez Muñoz, the woman wounded in the explosion.

News Summary for April 16th, 2008

++ In view of a failure to reach agreement for the Broad Progressive Front to free up tribunes at the congress, senators and deputies held congressional work sessions at other venues.

++ The Broad Progressive Front handed in a counterproposal, suggesting that debate and discussion on oil reform las four months, from May until August.

++ The Senate political affairs board rejected the counterproposal and said that debate on energy reform will take place during 50 consecutive days, as approved by the majority of senators.

++ The speaker of the Lower House of Congress, Ruth Zavaleta, gave legislators of the Broad Progressive Front 24 hours to relinquish the tribune, or she would cancel Thursday’s session to welcome the president of India.

++ The Chamber of Deputies approved a trip by President Felipe Calderón to New Orleans to attend the North American leaders summit from April 21st to April 23rd.

++ Meanwhile, Calderón, at an event in Quintana Roo, said he was certain that efforts to “divide Mexicans” would not progress and he made a call for everyone to work towards common goals.

++ Arturo Núñez and Edmundo Cancino, the two members of the technical elections committee at the PRD, resigned… They said that conditions prevented them completing the party elections vote tally.

++ A study by Mexican Transparency said that in 2007, 27 billion pesos were paid out in bribes in Mexico.

++ And the Guatemalan government confirmed that Mexican national Daniel Pérez Rojas, known as “El Cachetes” (Cheeks), captured on April 9th, is second in command of the “Los Zetas” group, who are hired gunmen working for the Gulf drug cartel.