Mexico Week In Review: 11.12-11.18

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review:  11.12-11.18
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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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Note: Next edition will be published on December 02. - ed.

AT 21 DAYS OIL SPILL CONTINUES

Twenty-one days after an accident in a platform of Mexican state oil
company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) in the Gulf of Mexico, platform
Usumacinta is still tilted and the escape of oil continues. A
bulletin of PEMEX said adverse weather conditions in Campeche stopped
the repair of the facilities. "One of the main problems is the lack
of wind able to disperse the gas coming out of the field, which
elevates the risk for a explosion or intoxication," the bulletin said.

The gusts of wind of up to 81 miles per hour and waves eight meters
high in the Gulf of Mexico on October 23 caused one of the biggest
accidents in the history of PEMEX that cost the life of 23 workers of
the Mexican enterprise. Although the company attributes the incident
to the damages caused by a cold front, recent investigations showed
that the steel mass was broken by the Central Drill, which ignored
security rules together with the Committee of Normalization of PEMEX.
Subsidiary organisms recommended in May 2007 to suspend operations in
the event of "predictable meteorological conditions not approved as
favorable for security."

PEMEX estimated that its facilities pour 422 barrels daily of light
crude oil into the sea that is dispersed easily due to its
consistency. When contacting with the environment, they added, 40
percent evaporates, another percent is emulsified, 20 percent is
picked up in ships and the rest is solidified.

Source: Prensa Latina, Havana: 11/12
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OIL FIRE LEAVES HEAVY DAMAGE

Mexican oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos reported damages of $400,000 in
the wake of the new oil platform fire. The fire broke out Tuesday
(11/13) night in the Kab 101 platform, which registered gas and oil
leaks since October 23. It was triggered by a spark while trying to
control the leaks by mud injection. PEMEX firefighting ships
continued trying to suffocate the fire with water curtains, according
to PEMEX authorities. No victims have been reported so far. Once the
fire is out, we will continue efforts to control the leaks, the
source added.

Source: Prensa Latina, Havana: 11/14
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GOVERNMENT ENACTS BROAD ELECTORAL REFORM

A broad electoral reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry
by barring political parties from buying radio and television
advertisements took effect during the week. The reform attempts to
level the political playing field by requiring television and radio
stations to broadcast 48 minutes of free political advertising each
day and forbidding parties from buying their own air time. In past
elections, there was no limit on how many ads political parties could
buy. It also limits presidential campaigning to three months before
Election Day, and forbids political parties from insulting political
institutions and candidates.

Mexico's two major television broadcasters denounced the political ad
provision, but said they were more concerned the requirement that
stations give opponents the "right to reply," which they said could
chill free speech. Mexican laws already restricted private campaign
contributions, and parties receive most of their financing - US$350
million last year - from the government. In the 2006 election, at
least 56 percent of campaign spending went to TV and radio ads,
according to Mexico's Electoral Institute.

The constitutional amendments, approved by Congress and then by a
majority of Mexico's state legislatures, were much desired by
followers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who claimed he actually won
last year's tight presidential race. They call for the wholesale
replacement of the Federal Electoral Institute, a big-spending,
semi-autonomous agency that doles out public campaign funds,
organizes elections and enforces campaign laws. Lopez Obrador's
backers accused the head of the institute, Luis Carlos Ugalde, of
helping tilt the 2006 election to President Felipe Calderon, an
allegation he has repeatedly denied. Ugalde and other critics of the
new law say they worry it will erode the independence of the
institute, which was created in 1990 to clean up Mexico's once
notoriously fraudulent elections. Congress now has 30 days to approve
companion legislation and replace the institute's board.

Source: Associated Press: 11/13
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SAN DIEGO WILDFIRES RATTLE FARAWAY HAMLET IN MEXICO

Though it is 2,000 miles away, a small community in Mexico is reeling
from last month's firestorms in San Diego County, a disaster that has
left one of the town's young people dead and three missing. On Sunday
(11/11), 20-year-old Alejandro Martínez Flores died from his injuries
at UCSD Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since being
rescued by firefighters on Oct. 21, the day the Harris fire began.
Martínez was from Mazatlan in the coastal state of Guerrero, a hamlet
of roughly 5,000 inhabitants about an hour inland from Acapulco that
happens to have the same name as the glitzy resort city. Relatives
and friends said he was one of a group of five young people who
boarded the same flight from Acapulco to Tijuana the day before the
fires began, with plans to be smuggled into the United States. He
planned to live with an uncle in Anaheim and work so he could send
money to his parents and three siblings, his mother said yesterday by
phone from Mexico. "He dreamed about helping us, because we are so
poor," Yolanda Flores Salvador, 41, said tearfully. "His siblings are
all studying, and he wanted the best for them. He was the oldest."
Martínez had quit school to work as a bricklayer, his mother said,
but this didn't bring in much. So he got together with four friends
planning to make the trip north, three of whom are now missing,
including a young married couple and a young woman. Relatives fear
they could be among the two men and two women whose badly burned
bodies, still unidentified, were found Oct. 25 in Dulzura.

A family friend said Martínez decided to tag along with Rubén Santos
Ramírez, 27, and his wife, Arely Peralta Rivera, 24, when he learned
they had plans to leave. The couple had bought plane tickets for
Tijuana and planned to go to Orange County, where they had relatives,
including Santos' father. "Alejandro told me that he knew my brother
was going to go," said Luis Alberto Santos, 21, Rubén Santos'
brother. Another young man and woman joined them on the trip. One was
Lourdes Eugenio Tadeo, according to a Guerrero state agency that
assists migrants and their families. Eugenio, around 20, also knew
the couple and had a boyfriend in Orange County, Santos said.

The other was a man whom relatives of the group described as an
acquaintance. He is the only member of the group known to have called
relatives in Mexico to say he escaped the flames and made it across.
Relatives of the missing individuals said they had not been in touch
with him personally, and it's unclear what happened once the group
reached Tijuana. However, Santos and other relatives said the group
had apparently crossed the border and was either waiting for a
smuggler's vehicle, or already in one, when the fire approached and
they tried to flee. The bodies found late last month were in a ravine
off state Route 94, a highway smugglers routinely use for picking up
people who crossed into the country illegally on foot.

Altogether, seven people who crossed or are thought to have crossed
illegally during the firestorm have died. The fires have killed a
total of 10 people. In the town of Mazatlan, the families of the
missing are ridden with anxiety, fearing the worst. "We are
devastated over what has happened there with the fires," said
Concepción Peralta Ramírez, 54, Arely Peralta's father. "We know
nothing of my daughter and my son-in-law." Peralta said he and his
wife were trying to see if they could obtain a temporary visa to
search for the missing couple in the United States. "We'd like to be
able to stay two or three weeks searching the hospitals," he said.
Flores, Alejandro's mother, said she had tried to persuade her son
not to leave for the United States, telling him it would be a
dangerous trip. Now, she is determined not to let her younger
children go. "We've seen what can happen," she said.

Source: Union-Tribune (San Diego): 11/14
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FLOODS COULD BE AVOIDED.

Flooding caused by torrential rains in the southeastern Tabasco state
has left more than a million people homeless and 80 percent of the
area flooded after the Carrizal and Grijalva rivers burst their
banks. The streets of the state capital, Villahermosa, turned into
canals as water, as deep as 3 meters (10 feet), flooded the city.

For environmentalists and some experts it was a tragedy that could
have been avoided. "The authorities did not do an adequate job
despite having previous experience and studies out that warn about
the dangers of a large flood," said Jorge Escandón, head of
Greenpeace Mexico's climate change unit.

Critics say that in Tabasco, which borders the Gulf of Mexico,
houses, roads and commercial centers are being constructed in the
paths of river drainage. According to the National Water Commission,
it will take three months for the flood waters to drain out of the
area. In the neighboring state of Chiapas, a small rural community
was wiped off the map by a landslide caused by the downpour on Nov. 4.

Source: IPS: 11/15

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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: 11.12-11.18
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