As we’ve persistently covered for years, Obama’s approach to Latin America has been a familiar one. He has used the ridiculous and failed drug war as a pretext to prop up ugly, military regimes with horrible human rights records throughout Latin America. This has led to some very bloody results in places like Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, and elsewhere.via Latin America in Obama’s Second Term « Antiwar.com...
Read MoreLawmakers on Thursday released emails that appeared to show Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke knew as far back as 2005 of allegations that company representatives had bribed Mexican officials.The emails appeared to contradict the company’s public statements about a bribery scandal tied to its Mexican affiliate, Wal Mart de Mexico. Lawmakers said Wal-Mart Stores Inc did not dispute the authenticity of the emails.via Lawmakers: Wal-Mart CEO knew of Mexico bribe claim |...
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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is firming up his foreign policy team, naming key players to oversee everything from security cooperation with the Obama administration to Mexicans living in the United States.Peña Nieto is expected to officially name Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, a security expert and writer whose work appears in top intellectual magazines, as a top security adviser. He was an influential critic of former President Felipe Calderón’s drug policy, which left more than 60,000 people dead in drug violence and more than 25,000 missing since December 2006.Additionally, Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade Kuribreña this week named Arnulfo Valdivia...
Read MoreThere are few better ways to start the new year than posting strong results. So imagine the delight of Mexico’s new administration when a manufacturing index on Wednesday showed the best monthly result since records began in April 2011.The so-called Purchasing Manufacturers’ Index (PMI), a survey among businesses of things like new orders, production and employment in the sector, rose to an all-time high of 57.1, notably above November’s 55.6 points.Mexican manufacturers said they received the highest monthly increase in new orders since the index began, in a clear sign of increasing demand. Production also reached its highest point since the index began.As if to reinforce the good news surrounding Mexico, the country’s stock market index hit an all-time high during morning trading on Wednesday – though brokers said that the increase was mainly the result of Tuesday’s “fiscal cliff” deal in the US.The latest results from Mexico’s PMI suggest that increasing competitiveness in the manufacturing sector is for now, at least, compensating for the ongoing complicated global environment.via Mexico manufacturing: chugging along |...
Read MoreIf you want to know what is wrong with Mexico, you might start by looking at Pemex’s production figures for last year, which were published on Wednesday in a preliminary report and came in at just under 2011 levels, notching up an eighth straight year of declines.No matter that Mexico is an oil-rich nation with vast, untapped reserves thought to lie in the Gulf. No matter that oil is currently at about $93 a barrel. The fact is that the country’s state oil monopoly simply isn’t cutting it.It is true that Pemex, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, has largely managed to halt the dramatic fall-off in production that began to occur in 2004, and the last two years have shown that production has more or less stabilised at around 2.55m barrels per day.But it should be clear to even the most fervent supporter of a large state – there are still plenty of these in Mexico – that something has to change.As a recent report by Mexico’s Itam University and the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, said, “the current system has shown itself to be unable to respond to changing circumstances and has left us on the brink of a disastrous decline in oil production and reserves”.via Pemex: not cutting the mustard |...
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