Mexico Week In Review: 01.22-01.28

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 01.22-01.28
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Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit:
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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BORDER NEWS I: DEADLY FORCE, DEATHS UP AT US BORDER

The number of Mexicans shot while trying to enter the United States
have increased and the weapons are deadlier, the Mexican National
Human Rights Commission has said. "Official inattention or
indifference to this problem, in the United States or in Mexico,
favors impunity among individuals, anti-immigrant groups and
government officials," the rights ombudsman said.

The commission said the use of deadly weapons, such as expanding
bullets, also known as dum-dum bullets, has increased. "Instances of
intentional use of lethal force against immigrants has been
documented," the commission said in a statement. Recent cases include
Francisco Javier Dominguez, who was shot January 13 and his body
returned to Mexico; and Marcos Saul Torres and Jaime Quintanilla, who
were wounded by gunshots on January 10, according to the statement.
The ombudsman also pointed out that the case of Guillermo Martinez,
who was killed in December 2005, has not been clarified, even though,
the report says, "in California, US immigration officials shot him
with expanding bullets."

The commission asked that the Mexican government follow up US
authorities' investigations and "that border guards not be sent into
the field without sufficient training."

Source: AFP: 01/21
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BORDER NEWS II: BORDER BARRIER WORK STARTS

Construction has begun on vehicle barriers that will be part of a mix
of fencing along the Arizona-Mexico border to discourage illegal
border crossings. The construction is part of a Bush administration
initiative announced last year that aims to provide a mix of
high-tech virtual fencing and a traditional physical barrier. The
first phase of construction will consist primarily of concrete-filled
vertical tubes set into the ground to prevent vehicles from entering.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russell Knocke said some
portions of the barrier may also contain traditional fencing. The
first phase will be placed along nine miles at the western edge of a
37-mile stretch of desert in southwestern Arizona. On Jan. 12,
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff cleared the way for the
work to start by waiving environmental regulations and laws impeding
construction along the 2.8 million-acre Barry M. Goldwater bombing
range. Environmentalists have criticized the fencing and barrier
plans, saying that won't stop people in search of jobs but will be a
step toward destroying a fragile portion of southern Arizona's
desert. The initial construction phase could take a few months.

Source: Associated Press: 01/25
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GUERRERO: CAMPESINOS BLOCK GOLD MINE

On the early morning of Jan. 25 some 100 state and municipal police
agents removed workers and campesinos who for more than two weeks had
been blocking access to the Los Filos gold mine near the community of
Carrizalillo in Eduardo Neri municipality in the southern Mexican
state of Guerrero. Carrizalillo resident Samuel Pena Maturana said
some protesters, including two women, were beaten in the process;
about 70 protesters were taken to a local police station and held for
about four hours before being released. Campesinos also charged that
police agents had looted some of their houses and stolen money and
food. Later on Jan. 25 dozens of protesters from the Solidarity
Committee in Defense of the Lands (CSDT) returned and resumed the
blockade. Carrizalillo residents and other local campesinos set up
encampments on Jan. 26 to support the protest. About 200 people have
been involved in the blockades in the two weeks since they began.

The workers and campesinos are demanding that the Canadian-owned
Desarrollo Minero San Luis, S.A. (Luismin) sign a new agreement to
pay 92,000 pesos annually for each of the 700 hectares occupied by
the mine--about $4.2 million a year for the whole site--as
compensation for the damage to local flora and fauna and for diseases
caused by pollution from the mine over the past two years. The
campesinos say that the mine is consuming most of the water they need
for washing and for their livestock. They also complain that dynamite
blasts from mining operations are shaking their homes and cracking
the adobe walls. The company has invested $388 million in the Los
Filos mine, from which it expects to extract 333,000 ounces of gold
in 2007.

CSDT president Crisoforo Guzman said on Jan. 26 that the protesters
had filed a protest with the state human rights commission against
Governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo and the police departments over
the police operation on Jan. 25. The state is governed by the
center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), but state party
director Sebastian de la Rosa Pelaez insisted that "this act of
violence [the police operation] is not supported by the PRD." The
protesters said they are to meet with State Government Secretary
Armando Chavarria Barrera on Jan. 29 and with Luismin representatives
on Jan. 30 to discuss their demands.

Luismin is the Mexican mining division of the Vancouver-based
Goldcorp Inc., which expects to expand its gold production by 50%
over the next five years. Goldcorp has several Mexican projects,
including Los Filos, which set to start production in the second
quarter of 2007; El Sauzal; and Penasquito, expected to be the
largest gold mine in Mexico when full production is reached in 2012.
Goldcorp's Latin American operations grew significantly in 2006 when
it merged with Glamis Gold Ltd [Glamis Gold's San Martin mine in
Honduras was the target of an occupation by workers in October 2005].

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater
New York: 01/27
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NAFTA BLAMED FOR SOARING FOOD PRICES

Mexican authorities and university researchers confirmed that the
national crisis of alleged corn supply and increased prices of other
products is a hint of what is to come with NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement). The rector of Chapingo Autonomous University,
Sergio Barrales, pointed out the situation in the country is the
first impact of the step toward free trade, and warned problems will
worsen, because effects are already national.

Though this state of affairs had been predicted, its sudden
appearance was not expected and Federal Executive measures to stop
the price rise are palliative. If the country's course is not
corrected, there will be serious shortages of food, Barrales warned.
If that happens, he noted, it will certainly lead to social
instability, because problems turn serious when there is hunger, and
Mexico experienced that during the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Current
difficulties with corn respond to the real effects of international
dependence on supplies of basic grains. However, the academic
questioned a true lack of corn because the current harvest was good.

Source: Prensa Latina: 01/22
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MEXICO'S "FOOD FIGHT" GOES NATIONAL

For the first time in recent history, two large Mexican unions are
jointly issuing a national demand for price control on 34 basic
products, and a salary hike. Union Nacional de Trabajadores and
Frente Sindical Mexicano, which group 116 unions, will march January
31 demanding to meet with President Felipe Calderon and threatening a
series of strikes.

Union leaders have added their voices to other protestors in Mexico,
chiefly over the high price of the staple tortilla, which is getting
out of reach of most families. PRD Sen. Ricardo Monreal (Democratic
Revolution party) exposed a pact to fix prices on this food and said
his party will demand that congress investigate denunciations of corn
speculators. Monreal said the PRD also proposed an emergency salary
because in the first 50 days of the Calderon government, the workers
have lost 30 percent of their purchasing power.

Source: Prensa Latina: 01/23
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GOVERNMENT PROPOSES TRANSSEXUAL RIGHTS

A Mexican congressman said he will submit a bill in March that would
amend the country's constitution to guarantee the rights of
transsexuals and change civil laws to ensure they can legally change
their name and gender. David Sanchez Camacho's bill would insert a
paragraph into Article Four of the Mexican Constitution stating that
"every person has the right to the recognition and free exercise of
their gender identity and their gender expression."

Article Four currently guarantees equal rights for women and men and
states the rights of children and families, but it does not mention
homosexuals or transsexuals. A transsexual is a person who has
undergone a sex change operation or whose sexual identification does
not correspond with the gender at birth. Changes to the constitution
need approval from two-thirds of both houses of Congress and
two-thirds majorities in at least 16 of the 31 state legislatures.
Sanchez Camacho said he had the support of his leftist Democratic
Revolution Party, which holds only about one-quarter of the seats in
the lower house. Transsexual activists said they hope other countries
will present similar proposals.

Source: Associated Press: 01/25
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TABASCO: AFTER CRIME STORIES, A REPORTER VANISHES

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the fate of
Mexican reporter Rodolfo Rincón Taracena, who has been missing in the
southern Tabasco state since Saturday night (01/20). CPJ is
investigating whether Rincón's disappearance is linked to his
professional work.

Rincón, an investigative crime reporter for the Villahermosa-based
daily Tabasco Hoy, was last seen leaving the newsroom around 7 p.m.,
a colleague who asked not to be identified told CPJ. Rincón left his
personal belongings and camera at his desk and told his editor that
he would be back shortly, the source said. No one has heard from
Rincón since. The reporter's wife and colleagues reported him missing
to local authorities on Wednesday, according to Mexican press reports
and CPJ interviews. On the day of his disappearance, Rincón had
published an investigative article on local drug trafficking. On
Sunday, the daily ran another article with Rincón's byline on a local
band of ATM muggers.  A source at Tabasco Hoy told CPJ that Rincón
had received anonymous telephone threats in 2006, but had not seemed
worried by them.

Ethel Riquelme Fernández, general director of the office of the
special prosecutor for crimes against journalists in Mexico City,
told CPJ that the office's delegate in Tabasco is investigating
Rincón's disappearance. José Antonio Calcáneo Collado, president of
the Federation of Mexican Journalists' Associations, said that state
authorities are also conducting an investigation.  "We are very
worried about the well-being of our colleague Rodolfo Rincón," said
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We urge Mexican authorities to
conduct a prompt and thorough investigation, to locate Rincón, and to
bring him to safety."

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that
works to safeguard press freedom around the world.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists Press Release: 01/26

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The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 01.22-01.28
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