Mexico to increase walk in inspections at selected ports

Mexican immigration officials are preparing to ramp up inspections of U.S. citizens and other foreigners entering the country on foot, requiring those crossing from San Ysidro to show travel documents such as a U.S. passport or passport card.
The head of Mexico’s National Migration Institute in Baja California, Rodulfo Figueroa, said that the new push will begin by September with the expected opening of a new building housing Mexican immigration and customs inspections stations at the Tijuana pedestrian entry.
Figueroa said that the measures will be enforced gradually, and inspectors will be sensitive to the flow of people entering the country.
“We will do everything we can to make the transition as seamless as possible,” Figueroa said. “People should not be panicking about this. We’re not going to create a four-hour southbound wait.”
The measures should not be that much of a burden on most U.S. citizens, as they are already expected to show passports or other valid travel documents when re-entering the United States.
Previous efforts by Mexico’s federal government to enforce immigration inspections in Baja California have met with stiff resistance from business leaders and tourism authorities fearful that the passport requirement would discourage visitors to the state. Particularly touchy was a requirement that those visitors planning to remain in Mexico for more than seven days pay a 330-peso fee, about $21.
Last November, a pilot inspection program aimed at pedestrians crossing into Mexico at Otay Mesa was canceled after Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid took up the issue with Mexico’s immigration commissioner.
Figueroa said the new plan has the full support of his higher-ups. Immigration inspectors currently inspect documents of all southbound bus riders entering Tijuana from San Ysidro through the El Chaparral port of entry, and have been conducting some inspections on pedestrian crossers at the discretion of immigration inspectors, he said.
With the opening of new building, authorities plan to create two lanes for pedestrians entering Mexico, one for Mexican citizens and the other for foreigners. “If we don’t have enough agents to review everyone, we’ll review everyone we can,” Figueroa said. “Our intention is not to create congestion at the border. Our intention is to try different strategies to process as many people as we can within a reasonable time frame.”
Similar inspections for those driving across into Mexico are also contemplated, but these “are way, way into the future,” Figueroa said.

Red-D-Arc Welderentals Acquires Mexican Welding and Generator Rental Firm eKipro

May 15, 2015

Red-D-Arc Welderentals has acquired the assets and operations of eKipro Rentals and Grupo Industrial Daymaga, a Mexican specialty equipment rental and services company that generated U.S. $16 million (about 212 million Mexican pesos) in sales in 2014. The companies, known collectively as eKipro, are based in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico, and have five locations: Poza Rica, Veracruz; Tampico, Tamaulipas; Salamanca, Guanajuato; Hermosillo, Sonora; and Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.
The company has more than 100 employees who will join Red-D-Arc’s Mexican subsidiary.
“The acquisition of eKipro will increase Red-D-Arc’s presence in Mexico and strengthen our position in this important area, particularly within Mexico’s energy sector,” said Mitch Imielinski, president of Red-D-Arc Welderentals.
eKipro was founded in 1008 by Mauricio Gracia Peña. “I believe the quality of service and breadth of product offering available to current and future customers in Mexico of both companies will be stronger with this combination,” Gracia Peña said. “It is an honor for the eKipro team and me to join Airgas through Red-D-Arc.”
Red-D-Arc Welderentals, owned by Airgas, is the largest provider of welding and welding-related rental products and services in North America, with more than 60,000 welders, 3,700 weld positioning and weld automation products, and more than 1,600 electric power generators in its fleet. The company, No. 24 on the new RER 100, includes service centers in Canada, Mexico, Europe and the Middle East, and dealers in the Caribbean, Middle East, Kazakhstan and Australia

Mexico First Cruise Ship Home Port at Rocky Point aka Puerto Penasco

ROCKY POINT, Sonora – The sound of heavy machinery scraping against rocks and an overwhelming smell of diesel fuel invade an otherwise serene desert beach where Mexico will spend roughly $100 million building its first cruise-ship home port.
The Mexican government chose to build the port in the sleepy beach town of Puerto Peñasco, better known as Rocky Point, because of its proximity to the United States and potential as a future international tourism destination.
"It is the most important project the city has ever had," said Miguel Guevara, director of promotion and international affairs for the city.
Construction workers spend their days dumping rocks, making concrete blocks and placing them along the breakwater to prepare the port for a January 2017 opening.
Officials said they hope the roughly mile-long port will tap into the growing cruise-ship industry by offering passengers an opportunity to explore the Sea of Cortez.
Proponents said the port could attract 3,000 new weekly visitors and transform the city's economy.
However, critics said the port could negatively impact local residents, wildlife and biodiversity.
Rocky Point is about 200 miles southwest of Phoenix and Tucson in Sonora, Mexico, along the Gulf of California. Some have nicknamed the town "Arizona's beach" because it's a three and half hour drive from both cities.
Tourism in the town, historically driven by fishing, is increasing with a majority of the town's visitors coming from Arizona.
Rosie Glover, a co-founder of the Rocky Point Tourism and Visitor Assistance Office, said the increase in tourism has been "surprisingly dramatic and not gradual at all."
Guevara said tourism dropped after the 2009 recession and though the city has not fully recovered, some have seen impressive gains.
"For the last six months or more, we've been busy every single week," Glover said.
Residents said there's been talk around the town about the home port for decades, but many people didn't take the project seriously until recently, when construction began in December 2013.
The government has already spent roughly $40 million on the port, which is about 50 percent completed, Guevara said.
Mexican authorities support the project because it will benefit the entire country's economy, said Jose Luís Castro, director of port operations for the Sonora government's tourism department.
Castro said money would flow into cities situated on the cruise ships' routes, like San Felipe, Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan.
Joe Houchin, who has followed the cruise industry for decades, said the cities have opportunities for repeat visitors because 80 percent of cruise goers choose land vacations based on the destinations they visit on a cruise.
Castro said millions of the country's residents want to take a cruise, but don't have visas — leaving that market largely untapped.
In addition, officials hope to attract millions of international visitors annually.
"Our main market is and will always be Arizona, but the home port will bring people from other states to come and start their trip on the Sea of Cortez," Guevara said.
The proximity to the U.S. made the town an ideal location, said Gustavo Brown, owner of Sandy Beach Resorts.
"With half a tank full of gas, you've got a whole family at the destination," Brown said of Arizonans.
Brown donated 12 acres of land for the construction of the home port and terminal on Sandy Beach, just west of the tourist strip.
"Our dream is to create a mega tourist resort in which we could have people from all around the world to come see us," Brown said.

Rancherito Dental Office in the Plaza area of the Rancherito Restaurant

 Maricela Mendivil invites you to come in for Service, an Estimate or just a visit.
You know Maricela and her Family from the Rancherito Restaurant

Toyota investing One Billion More in Mexico

Toyota investing $1B in new TNGA plant in Mexico, realigning North American manufacturing; expansion in Guangzhou

15 April 2015

Toyota is embarking on a multi-year plan to realign its manufacturing operations in North America in support of the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) (earlier post), a comprehensive approach to achieving sustainable growth by making ever-better vehicles more efficiently. Toyota also announced an expansion of its joint venture plant, Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (GTMC), in China (one of Toyota’s three assembly plants in China).
As part of this strategy, Toyota will invest approximately US$1 billion to construct its newest North American manufacturing facility in the state of Guanajuato in Central Mexico to produce the Corolla. The plant is the first designed from the ground up with TNGA production engineering technologies and will leverage the existing supply base and transportation infrastructure in the region. Toyota will also establish a plant preparation office in the state of Queretaro.
The new Guanajuato plant will begin producing the Corolla with Model Year 2020. The plant will be Toyota’s 15^th in North America, its first new plant since 2011 and its largest investment in Mexico to date. It will have the capacity to produce 200,000 units annually. (Toyota’s other manufacturing plant in Mexico is Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California (TMMBC), which builds Tacoma pickup trucks and Tacoma truck beds. The truck beds are used in production at TMMBC and at TMMTX in Texas.)
Once Corolla production begins in Mexico in 2019, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC) will transform its Cambridge, Ontario North Plant to switch from producing Corollas to mid-sized, higher-value vehicles, marking Toyota’s first major reinvestment in the plant since it opened in 1997. Toyota will also make significant new investments over several years in TMMC’s assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, Ontario to implement TNGA modifications, maintaining the facilities’ importance as a strategic manufacturing hub.
The Woodstock plant will continue to manufacture the RAV4, a vehicle competing in a rapidly growing segment. The Cambridge South Plant will continue to build the Lexus RX 350 and 450h, the newest models of which were recently unveiled.
By 2019, the Cambridge, Ontario plants will all be producing higher-value mid-sized vehicles, along with Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI). The new facility in Mexico and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, Inc. (TMMMS) will build the Corolla, consolidating compact vehicle production to the southern US and Mexico. These groupings by common vehicle platform follow Toyota’s consolidated truck production at its San Antonio, Texas and Baja California, Mexico plants, which has helped streamline Tacoma and Tundra assembly while better leveraging the supply chain.
These moves advance Toyota’s efforts under TNGA to group production by common vehicle platforms in each North American plant to improve efficiency and enhance flexibility.
Toyota intends for TNGA to boost vehicle quality and appeal while achieving cost savings through production engineering innovations, building more models on common platforms, the intelligent use of common parts and more fully leveraging Toyota’s supply chain.
Other recent manufacturing expansions by Toyota in North America include:

• $360-million investment in Georgetown, Kentucky plant
• $150-million investment in Huntsville, Alabama plant
• CA$100-million investment in Toyota’s Cambridge, Ontario plant to introduce hybrid production and increase capacity
• $100-million investment in Princeton, Indiana plant
• $90-million investment at Buffalo, West Virginia plant
• Substantial year-over-year increases in production volume at Toyota’s plants in Indiana, Mississippi, Texas, Canada, and Baja California, Mexico

Over the past 50 years, Toyota has built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where its operates 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the US) and directly employ more than 42,000 people (more than 33,000 in the US). 1,800 North American dealerships (1,500 in the US) sold more than 2.67 million cars and trucks (more than 2.35 million in the US) in 2014; about 80% of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.
Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), headquartered in Erlanger, KY., is responsible for Toyota’s engineering design, development, R&D and manufacturing activities in North America. TEMA’s Toyota Technical Center (TTC) operates engineering, research and development facilities in Ann Arbor, MI, including Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC).
Guangzhou Toyota. By restructuring its existing lines at GTMC and building an additional facility by the end of 2017, Toyota is preparing for future TNGA innovations and capacity increase. Toyota views it as vital to further improve the competitiveness of the existing lines and respond to future demand for stable growth in the Chinese market. At the same time, GTMC will collaborate with engineering, production and procurement on effective use of the existing supplier network and cost reduction activities at its R&D center.
GTMC will consolidate its vehicle production by vehicle size and pursue improvements based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and increased automation, to realize higher quality and productivity.
Following the restructuring and resulting higher efficiencies of the existing lines, GTMC will operate all three lines with the current number of employees. A competitive new facility will be created by implementing productivity improvement activities conducted on the existing lines and new innovative production engineering technologies. At the same time, it will work on smart plant-building, effectively utilizing existing equipment that is adjacent to the current facilities.

Federal appeals court rules for Mexican on torture claim

 A federal appeals court on Friday overturned decisions that put the burden of proof on foreigners who claim they were tortured in their home countries to show they cannot safely return to another part of the country they fled.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it is neither the responsibility of the petitioner nor the government to determine if it is safe for the person to return to another part of the country than where the torture occurred.
An expanded panel of judges in San Francisco ruled for Roberto Curinsita Maldonado, who appealed a finding by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals that he didn't qualify for a reprieve from deportation under the U.N. Convention Against Torture because he failed to prove he would be unsafe in any part of Mexico. A U.S. asylum officer had found that Maldonado's allegations of being tortured by police in the central Mexican state of Michoacan were credible.
The judges returned Maldonado's case to the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative panel in the U.S. Justice Department,
It was not immediately clear how much impact the ruling would have on others seeking to remain under the U.N. convention. Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, said the agency had no comment on the decision.
Bill Hing, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, said the decision is potentially significant for Mexicans escaping drug-fueled violence and police corruption and Central Americans who flee strife in their countries. Expecting them to show they would be unsafe in any part of their home countries is too high a bar, he said.

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"How can someone do that because they haven't lived in every part of the country often?" he said.
Dan Kowalski, an Austin, Texas, attorney and editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, a newsletter of immigration-law analysis, said the decision "represents a small, technical, but important step forward in the protection of (Convention Against Torture) applicants from any country, but especially from Mexico."

Oaxaca, Mexico, Man Dead Needs Identified

Police release sculpture of man killed in Santa Cruz County, asks public for help identification

More than four years since a man was found dead near Casserly Road in 2010, Santa Cruz County sheriff's detectives said Tuesday they are still trying to identify him.

Authorities said that recently discovered disabilities in the man's arms could lead to more clues in the cold homicide case.
"We're hoping that will jar someone's memory," said Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. Kelly Kent.
"It appears that it was something that he was born with."
The man was found dead Sept. 9, 2010 on a dirt road between a plant nursery and an agricultural field near the 300 block of Casserly Road, said sheriff's Sgt. Roy Morales. The man was buried under brush and had been (Died about August 8 and 22, 2010) dead for two to four weeks before he was discovered by field workers.

He was in his mid to late 20s, wore tailored jeans and was 4-feet-11 to 5-feet-4, authorities said.
In a test recently conducted by the Sheriff's Office forensic anthropologist, it was determined that the man had limited motion in his arms that prevented him from extending them straight. He also would have had trouble rotating his forearms, authorities said.
"It was considered a handicap," Morales said.
Authorities said it remains unclear if the man's disability played a role in his death; authorities also don't know what the man was doing in the field prior to his death.
Morales said the man died from blunt force trauma to his head. Sheriff's Sgt. Kelly Kent said he died "violently."
The man is Latino and may have been born in Oaxaca, Mexico, authorities said. Morales said that was determined in part from the man's compact features and because there has been a large migration of Oaxacan farmworkers to the Central Coast.
Morales said it was not clear if the man was a field worker in Santa Cruz County.
The Sheriff's Office earlier commissioned an artist to make a model of the man's head and torso to try to generate leads in the case. A photo of the model again was released Tuesday.
Morales said he hoped the new information about the man's disability is "specific enough that someone will remember a person with the described condition." He said he was reaching out to Mexican police and Mexican diplomatic leaders to drum up leads.
"Hopefully this will bring closure for the family and bring in a suspect," Kent said.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office asks anyone with information to call 831-471-1121 or 831-454-7630.

Australian woman Ms. Sarmonikas died after Butt Procedure

It has been revealed the Australian woman who died from a 'simple medical procedure' in Mexico was in the country to have buttock implants by a doctor who was once threatened with legal action by television celebrity Kim Kardashian.

The Gold Coast Bulletin has spoken to Ms Sarmonikas' cousin Nick Tsagalias, who confirmed her surgery was for buttock implants. This has been verified by a second family member.

Evita Sarmonikas has died in Mexico during surgery.

Plastic surgeon Victor Ramirez is understood to be the man who operated on Ms Sarmonikas. It was a procedure expected to go for 2½ hours, and then require two months of recovery, according to his website.

Dr Ramirez was involved in a legal dispute with Kardashian in 2012 after using a picture of her on a billboard to promote his business.
The billboard showed Kardashian lying down, with a slogan which when translated read: "Don't risk your beauty or your health."

Evita Sarmonikas was not strong enough in a world that constantly bombarded her with an urgency to demand more from her self and her body, her family said.

Dr Ramirez did not ask Kardashian if he could use the photo, which prompted her to threaten legal action, mainly because she has denied ever having had plastic surgery or implants.
His website describes the perfect candidate for buttock surgery as someone with "lack of volume of the buttocks."
"Currently, the safest way to achieve the desired results through buttock augmentation is using silicone implants," says a procedure outline on Dr Ramirez' website.
"Although it might seem easy and economical, never allow anyone to inject substances that increase the volume of the buttocks through the injection of oily substances because the damage that they cause is irreversible due to the fact that the modelling agents cannot be extracted from your body and will generate serious problems the rest of your life."
Ms Sarmonikas' family, who have set up a Facebook page for her, wrote that she travelled to Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California, with her boyfriend to have a cosmetic procedure.
Without saying what type of procedure, the family wrote that Ms Sarmonikas, who grew up on the Gold Coast, was "filled with certain inadequacies".
"Her perfect and whole soul was not strong enough in light of a world that constantly bombarded her with an urgency to demand more from her self and her body," the family wrote on Facebook.
"This was not the way to go home, no woman should risk death to improve on perfection."
The family has been notified of the autopsy results.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian woman who died in Mexicali, Mexico.

Diocese of Nogales, Mexico,

Pope Francis erects Diocese of Nogales, Mexico, just south of U.S.

Mar 24, 2015

A welcome sign is seen on a road leading from Nogales, Ariz., into the Mexican state of Sonora in this 2014 photo. Pope Francis has erected the new Diocese of Nogales in Mexico, the Vatican announced March 19. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has erected a diocese in northern Mexico, located along the border of Arizona.
The Diocese of Nogales is in the northern part of Sonora state and includes territory from the Archdiocese of Hermosillo, Mexico, the Vatican announced March 19.
The pope appointed Bishop Jose Leopoldo Gonzalez Gonzalez, 60, to head the new diocese. He had been auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara.
The Catholic population of the new diocese totals 381,398 people and includes 25 parishes, 44 priests, 62 sisters and 13 seminarians, according to the Vatican announcement. The diocese is about 17,000 square miles in size.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., blesses people on the Mexican side as he distributes Communion through the border fence in Nogales, Ariz. in this April 2014 file photo. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

Among the municipalities in the new diocese are Agua Prieta, Altar, Atil, Bacoachi, Caborca, Cananea, Fronteras, Imuris, Naco, Nacozari de Garcia, Nogales, Oquitoa, Pitiquito, Santa Cruz, Saric, Trincheras and Tubutama.
The Sonora-Arizona border is a desert area used by Mexicans to enter the United States seeking employment opportunities and a better life. Numerous church ministries and outreach programs serving the migrants exist in the region.

Death Voodoo ritual slaying

Mark Kilroy was a nice, normal kid who, in March 1989, headed south to Mexico for spring break.
Hundreds of thousands make the same kind of pilgrimage each year. Most return to school suffering from nothing more than the wages of too much merrymaking sunburns, bad hangovers, or romances gone sour.
Kilroy was not so lucky. He stumbled into a world of drug cartels and nightmare religion, a mishmash of superstitions derived from Santeria, African voodoo, and ancient Aztec rites of human sacrifice.
Kilroy, 21, who was pre-med at the University of Texas, and three friends parked their car in Brownsville, on the U.S. side, and walked across the bridge over the Rio Grande to the Mexican border town of Matamoros, a top spring break hangout.
For a few days, the boys lolled on the beach, drinking and flirting with Miss Tanline contestants. In the early morning of March 14, Kilroy’s three buddies decided they had had enough and were ready to stroll back across the bridge. They found Kilroy and started to walk.
Crowds of young revelers had the same idea, so the streets were packed. Somehow on the way back to the car, Kilroy got separated from the group. His friends waited at the border, then they searched, and then they headed back to the car and waited some more. By morning, when Kilroy had not arrived, they contacted police.

There was no trail to follow until April Fools Day, when Serafin Hernandez Garcia, 20, a narcotics gang lackey known as “Little Serafin,” busted through a drug checkpoint. He led police to a place called Rancho Santa Elena, a collection of worn-down filthy shacks owned by his druglord uncle. Police at the time did not suspect that Little Serafin had anything to do with Kilroy’s disappearance. They began to watch the ranch, hoping for a big pot bust, and they closed in, snatching family members and workers.
One of the workers said that he recalled seeing a “young gringo” tied up in the back of a truck, but did not know what had happened to him.
Presented with this bit of evidence, Little Serafin calmly admitted that he had helped kidnap the American student and that the boy had been killed.
“It was our religion, our voodoo,” Serafin told police. “We did it for success. We did it for protection.”

During a five-hour interrogation, Little Serafin described how gang members had lured the drunken college student into their truck. After a night of torture and sodomy, they lopped the top of his head off with a machete and boiled his brains. It was all part of the rituals of a religion known as palo mayombe, a violent voodoo cult that originated in Africa.
Police found this horrific bit of evidence in a kettle that had all the earmarks of being a cauldron for black magic potions in a shack filled with bloody relics of ritual slayings.
The rest of Kilroy’s body turned up in a shallow grave. His heart had been ripped out.
Remains of a dozen other lost souls eventually turned up in graves all around the ranch.
The high priest of this bloody cult, Little Serafin said, was “El Padrino,” Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a man with his bloody fingers in the dark worlds of drugs and voodoo. Constanzo grew up in Miami, the son of a woman who had a reputation as a practitioner of witchcraft — if tossing headless poultry and goats on your neighbor’s doorsteps can be considered a form of magic.

Looks good enough for modeling work brought Constanzo to Mexico City, where he plunged deeper into the dark arts. He opened an occult protection business. Mexican businessmen, including members of drug cartels, paid steep fees to have the young conjurer sacrifice animals to keep them safe from evil spirits. Soon, Constanzo moved on to more powerful magic, the kind you could get only from human blood.
His little band of ritual murderers grew. A priestess joined, a stunning Mexican woman, Sara Aldrete. She possessed all the outward appearances of a wholesome up-and-comer, a physical education student at a Texas college and an aerobics instructor.
But she also had deep ties with the drug cartels and a fascination with strange religions. The couple’s favorite movie was “The Believers,” a 1987 film about voodoo.
A year after that movie, Constanzo’s crew was snatching all kinds of people from the streets and fields around Mexico and subjecting these strangers to the most horrific torture. Some were skinned alive.
In a short period before Kilroy’s kidnapping, 60 missing persons were reported in the region.

Mark Kilroy happened to stumble across their path just when Constanzo decided he needed more power, the blood of a gringo who had to die screaming.
Constanzo fled as the investigation turned up the bodies and his connection to them. He holed up in Mexico City until May, when police were called to an apartment building with reports that a man was throwing money out the window and shooting at people who tried to grab the bills.
After a 45-minute gun battle, Constanzo and a male companion were dead.
As to the other gang members involved with the murders at the ranch, five were given sentences of 30 to 60 years. Investigators believe, however, that the actual number of El Padrino’s disciples was 10 to 15 times higher, and that they are still out there.

Mexican Wrestler Dies After Hit in the Ring

 Mexican Wrestler Dies After Hit in the Ring

Other wrestlers continued fighting before realizing Ramirez wasn't moving.

Mexico’s Pedro Aguayo Ramirez, a popular member of the country’s ‘Lucha Libre’ wrestling world, died Saturday after a blow during a bout in Tijuana. He was 35.

Woman Killed, two with major injuries from Whale vs. Boat Crash.

35-year-old Canadian woman died and two other tourists suffered "considerable" injuries when a surfacing whale crashed into the side of their boat, Mexican authorities said Thursday.
The Attorney General's Office for Environmental Protection said the boat was carrying nine tourists on a snorkel tour and was near shore when the collision occurred Wednesday.
Photos showed the open boat, about 25 feet (7.5 meters) long with twin outboard motors, apparently undamaged after the collision.
In a statement to prosecutors, the company that operated the boat, Cabo Adventures, said it was returning from its excursion when the whale suddenly appeared. It said the captain tried to turn, but the whale struck the vessel. Contacted by telephone, a company employee said the firm had no further comment.
The Baja California Sur state prosecutor's office said the collision near the beach resort of Cabo San Lucas tossed the victim who died into the water.
A crew member and a passenger lifted her back onto the vessel and Mexican navy personnel moved her to shore. She was taken to a clinic, where she was pronounced dead.

In this Tuesday, March 3, 2015 photo, a grey whale calf expels air through it's blowhole as a boat filled with visitors watches in the San Ignacio lagoon, on the Pacific Ocean near the town of Guerrero Negro, in Mexico's Baja peninsula. Mexican authorities said Thursday, March 12, 2015, that a 35-year-old Canadian woman has died and two other tourists were injured near the beach resort of Cabo San Lucas, when a surfacing grey whale crashed onto their boat as they came back from a snorkel tour. The Attorney General's Office for Environmental Protection said that two other tourists suffered "considerable" injuries. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Prosecutors' spokesman Sergio Villarreal said the woman died from head trauma. He said it was the first death in this type of accident he knew of.
The woman's hometown was not released. John Babcock, a spokesman for Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, said that "to protect the private and personal information of the individual concerned, further details on this case cannot be released."
While it did not say excessive speed played a role in the accident, the port captain's office for Cabo San Lucas issued a circular Thursday saying it had ordered its employees to ensure boats respect the 4-knot speed limit in San Lucas bay.
The office said that due to the presence of whales, it was advising vessels to operate with greater caution. The office also announced a temporary, 15-knot speed limit on boats in open water outside the bay, which it said will last as long as the whales are in the area.
The local representative of the attorney general for environmental protection, Jesus Tesemi Avendano, said the boat was not in a protected whale reserve area and it had not been on a whale-watching tour. He said the large number of whales sighted in Baja California Sur this year "may have played a role" in the collision.
While officials identified the animal as a gray whale, Jorge Urban, a professor of biology at the Baja California State University who specializes in whales, said it was almost certainly a humpback whale.
Urban said such accidents are not common. "This is the first time in 30 years of studying whales that I have heard about an accident like this ... in which passengers are pitched into the sea, and one dies," he said
Whales surface to breathe, often unexpectedly. Collisions between whales and boats are not unknown in Mexico, where whales come to breed in coastal lagoons in winter. In January 2014, a boat and a humpback whale collided off the coast of Baja California, injuring a U.S. tourist and three other people on board.

Good Bye Winter Visitors March 21, 2015 Starts 8 a.m., 2nd Street between A and B.

Good Bye Winter Visitors March 21, 2015  Starts 8 a.m., 2nd Street between A and B.

Federals battle Local Police during Labor Dispute

Mexico: 5 Federal Police Wounded in Standoff With Local Cops

A revolt by local police who barricaded themselves inside a station for nearly two weeks in a labor protest erupted in a clash that wounded least five federal agents in southern Mexico on Friday.

Between 250 and 300 local police officers have been hunkered down in the station in the town of Santa Maria Coyotopec for the last 13 days to demand raises and better working conditions, the Oaxaca state government said in a statement.

They shot at federal police who tried to remove them Friday, the government alleged. Five federal agents were wounded in the legs by bullet shrapnel, but their lives were said not to be in danger.

Some of the local officers contended it was not them but rather federal agents who opened fire in the pre-dawn confrontation.

"The federal police tried to get in through the main door, but my companions reacted and the clash began," said a policeman inside the compound who gave his name as only Luis for fear of possible reprisals.

Jeyco Perez, identified as one of the leaders of the revolt, told Milenio TV that they were only using shields to defend themselves and had not fired weapons.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the local officers carrying batons and riot shields, but no weapons were readily visible. The entry to the station was barricaded with a truck and metal fencing.

The locals captured at least three federal officers but later released them.

One, Mauricio Villela, said he was not harmed during his seven hours of captivity. He denied that it was federal police who opened fire, saying, "We did not shoot."

Hundreds of police remained in the area of the station, which the state government said holds more than 3,000 firearms and nearly 500,000 rounds of ammunition.

Oaxaca state security commissioner Victor Altamirano told Milenio that the operation seeks to keep those munitions from being misused by the local police.

Just before midday about 50 people who were apparently civilian residents of Santa Maria Coyotepec gathered at the station holding signs in support the protest.

The town is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the state capital, also named Oaxaca.

A revolt by local police who barricaded themselves inside a station for nearly two weeks in a labor protest erupted in a clash that wounded least five federal agents in southern Mexico on Friday.

Between 250 and 300 local police officers have been hunkered down in the station in the town of Santa Maria Coyotopec for the last 13 days to demand raises and better working conditions, the Oaxaca state government said in a statement.

They shot at federal police who tried to remove them Friday, the government alleged. Five federal agents were wounded in the legs by bullet shrapnel, but their lives were said not to be in danger.

Some of the local officers contended it was not them but rather federal agents who opened fire in the pre-dawn confrontation.

"The federal police tried to get in through the main door, but my companions reacted and the clash began," said a policeman inside the compound who gave his name as only Luis for fear of possible reprisals.

Jeyco Perez, identified as one of the leaders of the revolt, told Milenio TV that they were only using shields to defend themselves and had not fired weapons.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the local officers carrying batons and riot shields, but no weapons were readily visible. The entry to the station was barricaded with a truck and metal fencing.

The locals captured at least three federal officers but later released them.

One, Mauricio Villela, said he was not harmed during his seven hours of captivity. He denied that it was federal police who opened fire, saying, "We did not shoot."

Hundreds of police remained in the area of the station, which the state government said holds more than 3,000 firearms and nearly 500,000 rounds of ammunition.

Oaxaca state security commissioner Victor Altamirano told Milenio that the operation seeks to keep those munitions from being misused by the local police.

Just before midday about 50 people who were apparently civilian residents of Santa Maria Coyotepec gathered at the station holding signs in support the protest.

The town is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the state capital, also named Oaxaca.

Mexicans being shot by Police in USA

MEXICO CITY — President Enrique Peña Nieto lashed out Friday at what he called the “disproportionate use of lethal force” by police officers in Washington state that led to the death of an unarmed Mexican migrant.
Peña Nieto joined lawmakers in condemning the death of Antonio Zambrano Montes, a 35-year-old orchard worker who was slain by police officers in Pasco, Wash., on Tuesday. Video of the incident shows an unarmed Zambrano with his arms in the air slumping to the sidewalk after police officers open fire from a short distance away.
“I have ordered the Foreign Secretariat to offer support to the family . . . and to carefully follow the investigation into this lamentable and outrageous act,” Peña Nieto said.
Earlier in the day, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico’s Congress, condemned the shooting of Zambrano as an “act that outrages all Mexicans.”
“We voice our strongest condemnation of these acts of police brutality,” a statement from the leadership of the 500-seat legislative body said.
The statement followed a condemnation issued late Thursday by Mexico’s Foreign Secretariat, which accused Pasco police officers of using “disproportionate” force against Zambrano, who emigrated to the United States 10 years ago.
“The government of Mexico deeply condemns incidents in which force is used in a disproportionate manner, even more so when that use of force leads to loss of life,” the statement said.
A statement from the government of the Mexican state of Michoacan, where Zambrano grew up, called Zambrano’s death “murder.”
Three police officers in Pasco chased down Zambrano and shot him after he allegedly hurled rocks at automobiles and the officers. Pasco, in southeast Washington state, has a large community of Mexican residents.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/02/13/256646/mexico-denounces-police-killing.html#storylink=cpy

Bus Train Collision Mexico

Mexico bus-train collision kills 16

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Saturday 14 February 2015 10.58

The collision happened when the bus was attempting to cross rail tracks in the city of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon

At least 16 people were killed and 30 were injured when a freight train slammed into a packed passenger bus in northeastern Mexico last night, authorities said, warning the death toll could rise.
The collision happened when the bus was attempting to cross rail tracks in the city of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, state civil protection chief Jorge Camacho told AFP.
The accident occurred just after 5pm (11pm Irish time) at Camarones station, near the border with the United States.
Two children were among the 16 dead, said Mayor Desiderio Urteaga, although other local officials warned that the final toll could be nearer to at least 20 because some passengers were trapped after the crash.

Images broadcast by local media showed the bus smashed open and split in half by the force of the train.
Nine women and five men were identified among the dead, in addition to the two children, Mr Camacho said.
Of the 30 people injured, 22 were taken to hospitals in the nearby border town of Nuevo Laredo, around 60km away.
The bus, which normally transports around 40 people, was traveling with 60 passengers, as it made its way from Nuevo Laredo to the northern city of Nueva Rosita.
Mr Camacho said an investigation was under way to determine whether the bus driver was trying to beat the train when the vehicle was struck.
But prosecutors would determine the cause of the accident who was responsible, he added.
There was no fog or rain in the area at the time, he said.
Prosecutors were already at the scene.

Gang Member Threatened Police

A reputed member of the Vallucos prison gang threatened a  police sergeant early Sunday morning and attempted to fight another policeman at the city jail.
Police arrested 24-year-old Michael A. Montoya after a fight near the 17th Street bar district, according to police reports filed with the McAllen Municipal Court.
Montoya repeatedly threatened the officers who arrested him, according to court records. When police said they would charge him for making threats against them, Montoya apparently wasn’t impressed.
“I don’t give a (expletive),” Montoya said, according to the police report. “I’ve done hard time and that ain’t shit to me (expletive).”
After arresting Montoya, police drove him to the intersection of Bicentennial Boulevard and Chicago Avenue.
A witness at the intersection recognized Montoya — a short, stocky man with neck tattoos — and told police that Montoya had participated in a fight. During the fight, several men attacked another man with a metal rod and yelled that they were connected with the Vallucos, according to the witness.
Police told Montoya they would add aggravated assault with a deadly weapon to the charges against him.
“I told you (expletive), I don’t give a (expletive),” Montoya said, according to the police report. “I’m going to look for you when I get out and (expletive) you up.”
When Montoya arrived at the McAllen Public Safety Building, a jailer removed his handcuffs. Montoya clenched his fists and taunted the officer who arrested him, according to the police report.
“Come on (expletive), I told you I was going to (expletive) you up,” Montoya said, according to the police report.
The policeman ignored Montoya.
Police charged Montoya with two counts of obstruction or retaliation against a peace officer, a third-degree felony; and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony.
A judge set Montoya's combined bond at $300,000 for the three felony charges.
Montoya hadn't posted bond by Wednesday morning and remained at the Hidalgo County jail.

Mexico 14 Killed More May Die

14 killed in Mexico road accident

At least 14 people died and 19 others were injured Thursday when a bus collided with a freight truck in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, authorities said.

The accident happened before dawn on the road connecting Ciudad Obregon with Guaymas, the state coordinator for emergency services, Carlos Jesus Arias, said.

So far there are 14 people dead, the official said, adding that the injured were taken to two hospitals in Ciudad Obregon.

The bodies recovered at the scene are completely burnt and will be difficult to identify, Arias said.

The crash was apparently caused by an attempt by the driver of the bus, en route to the border metropolis of Tijuana, to pass a cantaloupe-laden truck on a bridge, he said.

Some of the 19 injured survivors are in critical condition, authorities said.

Immigrants will now get Mexican Birth Certificates in the United States

Immigrants Can Now Get Mexican Birth Certificates in US

The Mexican government on Thursday will start issuing birth certificates to its citizens at consulates in the United States, seeking to make it easier for them to apply for U.S. work permits, driver's licenses and protection from deportation.

Until now, Mexico has required citizens to get birth certificates at government offices in Mexico. Many of those living in the U.S. ask friends and relatives back home to retrieve them, which can delay their applications for immigration or other programs.

Now, even as Republicans in Congress try to quash President Barack Obama's reprieve to millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S., Mexico is trying to help them apply for programs that would allow them to remain temporarily in the country and continue sending money back to relatives across the border.

"It is a huge help. It helps individuals really begin to formulate their formal identity in this country," said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

About half of the 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally are from Mexico, and immigration experts estimate that roughly 3 million Mexicans could be eligible to apply for work permits and protection from deportation under the administration's plan.

About two weeks ago, California — which is home to more Mexicans than any other state — began issuing driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally.

Starting Thursday, the country's 50 consulates in the United States will be able to access data maintained by regional governments in Mexico and print birth certificates at the consulates, said Arturo Sanchez, consul for press and commercial affairs in Santa Ana, California.

Consulates should be able to issue birth certificates for nearly all birthplaces in Mexico, but some rural villages where documents are not digitally recorded may not be covered, Sanchez said.

Over the past year, the Santa Ana consulate has seen a surge in the demand for documents. Daily appointments have jumped by a third to nearly 400, with many people trying to get birth certificates, Sanchez said.

Mexican immigrants usually seek birth certificates to obtain a passport or consular identification card so they can then apply for a driver's license or immigration relief, he said.

In California, Mexican consular officials have supported the rollout of the new driver's license program, holding information sessions and offering test preparation classes to help immigrants pass the written test required to get a license.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said she believes Mexico is trying to make it easier for its citizens to stay here because of the money they send across the border.

Mexican migrant workers, many who live in the United States, sent home $21.6 billion to their families in 2013, according to the country's central bank.

Vaughan, whose organization advocates for tighter limits on immigration, said the integrity of birth certificates is critical because they are used to issue key identity documents like passports.

"If we can trust the Mexican government to do its due diligence and establish a system with integrity, then this will work and it is up to us to make sure we are communicating with them about what we need to see in terms of integrity," she said. "That is a big if."