Latin America: Important Events That Will Impact The World’s Economy In 2013

President Peña Nieto says ‘Mexico is open for business’Recently elected President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) made a public statement that government-owned concessions including the energy sector might be available to foreign investors under his administration.Traditionally owned by the state and the world’s second largest non-publicly traded company, the oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) is a $415.75 billion company that pays over 60 percent of its revenue in royalties and taxes to support 40 percent of the Mexican federal budget. Lack of reinvestment in infrastructure and innovation, terminal decline of some of its oil fields...

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How Bankers Help Drug Traffickers and Terrorists – NYTimes.com

LAST month, HSBC admitted in court pleadings that it had allowed big Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to launder at least $881 million. The bank also admitted to using various schemes to move hundreds of millions of dollars to nations subject to trade sanctions, including Iran, Cuba and Sudan, in violation of the Trading With the Enemy Act. “On at least one occasion,” according to a statement by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, “HSBC instructed a bank in Iran on how to format payment messages so that the transactions would not be blocked or rejected by the United...

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The Keys to Mexico’s Economic Ascent | Mexico Current News and Mexico Current Events, all the Latest News on Mexico Today

“Mexico ¿cómo vamos?” is a new website meant to track Mexico’s economic rise. Feel free to take a gander at http://www.mexicocomovamos.mx.The site is a creation of two of Mexico’s leading think tanks, and it draws on insights from 60 leading economists and policymakers, including the likes of Dr. Guillermo Ortiz, Dr. Luis de la Calle, and Dr. Jonathan Heath. A medley of interactive graphs and polls attend op-ed articles, making the site a wonk’s delight. (The question of the day: Can Mexico create one million formal sector jobs this year? ‘Unsure’ is just nudging out ‘agree’ as the most...

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» Overview: Mexican Migration Beyond the Downturn and Deportations

Multiple indicators suggest that Mexican migration to the United States has stabilized at reduced levels after absorbing the effects of the Great Recession and toughened U.S. immigration enforcement efforts.The most recent data available show that northbound flows are holding steady with signs of increasing unauthorized migration, while southbound flows are decreasing. The result is that the size of the Mexican-born population in the United States has fully recovered from losses experienced during the recession. Meanwhile, unemployment among those migrants has decreased and labor force participation rates have held steady—a post-recession economic performance slightly better than for U.S. native-born workers. Another sign of recovery comes from an increased flow of remittances to Mexico.These are the major findings of a new collaborative project between the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute in Los Angeles and El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana. The Mexican Migration Monitor, a joint publication that makes its debut with this report, presents key trends in the ongoing and evolving movement of people between Mexico and the United States. As described below, the methodology involves developing a composite picture using multiple sources of publicly available information in combination with previously unpublished data from the Border Survey of Mexican Migration.via » Overview: Mexican Migration Beyond the Downturn and...

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Texas Officers Accused of Helping Drug Smugglers – NYTimes.com

Drug traffickers have long profited here and in other Texas border towns. But their success has sometimes depended on forging unusual alliances.Some of the very officers sworn to combat the drug trade have been illicitly earning cash by helping vehicles transporting marijuana and cocaine avoid detection from law enforcement agents, serving as escorts and scouts during the shipments, the authorities say.via Texas Officers Accused of Helping Drug Smugglers –...

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