70 kidnapped migrants rescued in northern Mexico

Authorities in northern Mexico say security forces have rescued 70 migrants who had been kidnapped and were being held at a house inside a gated community in the coastal city of Madero.

Tamaulipas state officials say in a statement Friday that there were 41 Hondurans, 18 Salvadoran, six Guatemalans, four Nicaraguans and one Cuban. Officials say there were several children in the rescued group but give no further details.

Authorities say an anonymous call led marines, soldiers and federal and state police to the house Thursday. No arrests were made.

Abductions of migrants for ransom are common in northeastern Mexico, an area controlled by the Zetas and the Gulf drug cartels. In 2010, the Zetas were blamed for the mass slaying of 72 migrants in another part of Tamaulipas.

Women Killed named Femicide

Femicide in Mexico: An Unpunished Crime

Cross-posted from The Red Elephant Foundation

Femicide in Mexico has been brought to light since the beginning of the 1990s when Ciudad Juarez witnessed the killings and disappearances of hundreds women and girls in the state of Chihuahua. However, despite international attention and strong condemnations against the Mexican government -which the Inter-American Human Rights Court considered as one of the main responsible of the killings-, the situation of femicide in the country has worsened.

The concept of femicide has been highly debated by feminists, scholars and international organisations, having almost a collective consent that femicide can be understood as ‘the killing of females by males because they are females’. Femicide is usually perpetrated by men, and in some rare cases, other females may be involved. When compared to male homicide, femicide is generally committed by partners or former partners, and involves domestic ongoing abuse, threats or intimidation, sexual violence or situations in which women have less or fewer power and resources than their partner. The situation of femicide in Mexico more accurately reflects what Marcela Legarde (former Mexican government representative and Chair of the Special Commision on Femicide) described as ‘a crime of the state which tolerates the murders of women and neither vigorously investigates the crimes nor holds the killers accountable’. 

The spread violence across the country in the last decade, aggravated by economic crises and inequality, has a direct impact on violence against women, which comprises a wide range of physical and physiological undermining acts. Comprehensive measures to eradicate these acts and behaviours have not been adequately implemented and collecting data on femicide in the country can be quite challenging, as police and medical data-collection entities do not have the necessary information, or in the worst cases –which is actually extremely common-, is highly manipulated and used as political propaganda.

Human rights groups and international organisations highly differ with official statistics on femicide. Some academics even argue that at this point, one of the greatest challenges in Mexico’s fight for gender justice is to come out with real numbers of what has been going on since Juárez in 1990. Several actors are involved in the process of gathering information, from local media to international NGOs, to investigative agencies and human right bodies, which all agree that the crime of femicide has severely increased in all 32 states of Mexican territory.

In a 23-year period which witnessed the crucial struggle for gender equality policies, public awareness, creation of commissions and agencies to monitor women’s human rights, and most importantly, the fight over the criminalisation of femicide in national legislation have not yet reach their ultimate goal since Juárez. On the contrary, it has gotten worse.

Femicide in Mexico has increased by around 55 per cent between 1990 and 2011. The easiest way to come with an approximate number is through the analysis of statistics per state taking into account different sources from a variety of actors. Let us focus for example on the case of the state of Mexico, in which our now President Enrique Peña Nieto was then governor and in which between 2005 and 2011, around 4.379 women were killed. These figures show that femicide in the state of Mexico only was ten times higher than Ciudad Juárez during the same period of time. In 1990, a woman in Ciudad Juárez was killed every 12 days, and by 2011 a woman was killed every 20 hours.

In the state of Sinaloa just in 2010, over 110 women were killed out of 100.000 female inhabitants. Baja California -which was widely known for its 0.0 rates in killings of women between 1990 and 1992- reported 3.9 murders of women only in 2011, while Durango witnessed the killings of 15 in 2010. Morelos –which was the worst state to be a woman in 1999- had a rate of 5.1 and by 2012, it was 6.3. One of the most shocking cases is the state of Nuevo León, which in 2001 had a rate of 0.4 and by today, it records a total of 9.2 women murdered out of 100.000 female inhabitants, meaning that in 13 years femicide is 23 times higher.

The NGO National Citizens’ Observatory on Femicide says that in 17 out 32 states the crime may increase in the next five years. Femicide continues despite judgments from international tribunals, reports and condemnations by international organisations, and will keep on as a matter of urgent concern in a country already facing high levels of insecurity and widespread violence. Patriarchal based-systems of inequality and exclusion, as well as a systematic pattern of impunity, are a reflection of the lack of access to justice. Closure is far from being reached to those who have lost their women and girls not only in the mentioned states, but also in others such as Oaxaca, Tamaulipas and even my home, Jalisco.

Various international human rights mechanisms have issued several recommendations, and the government adopted a legal framework to ensure the right of women to a life free from violence and discrimination through the General Law of Access for Women to a Life Free of Violence in 2007. However, the Mexican government failed its legislation through the alteration or lack of information; frequent absent cases of violence against women presented before the National Bureau of Data and Information; or having the National System to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence against Women to discard situations of emergency in relation to the killings of women in the state of Mexico and others, and in the worst cases, not even publicly acknowledging the alarming situation of femicide in the country which clearly violates its constitutional obligations and international human rights law instruments.

Mexico needs to revise its codification efforts in criminal codes at the local levels, which would represent a breakthrough that allows the crystallization of the problem, facilitate the development of prevention and sanctioning mechanisms, as well as providing justice to thousands and thousands of victims. Penalties for crimes committed against women, represent the biggest challenge to overcome femicide in local criminal codes. And lastly, Mexico needs to overcome its critical and alarming impunity-based system, in which human rights are severely undermined.

It seems that in over 20 years violence against women has suffered major setbacks, despite the government’s ‘progressive administrations’ and positive international discourses. Eradicating mass killings of women and tackling impunity are not part of the government’s agenda. At least not in this administration.

Pilgrim's Pride to acquire Tyson foods Mexican poultry business

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Greeley-based Pilgrim's Pride lost the bidding war for Hillshire Brands to Tyson Foods, but on Monday said it has reached an agreement to purchase Tyson's poultry business in Mexico.
JBS SA, the parent to Pilgrim's Pride, will pay $575 million for Tyson poultry units in Mexico and Brazil. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Tyson Foods' Mexican business will be acquired through Pilgrim's Pride. The Brazilian business is to be acquired by JBS Foods, also a JBS SA subsidiary.
Tyson will use the money to pay down debt related to its $7.75 billion purchase of Hillshire Brands, president and CEO Donnie Smith said.
Tyson said JBS and Pilgrim's Pride expect to keep the Brazil and Mexico operations working to capacity with the existing workforce. The company also said labor contracts in both countries will be maintained.
Earlier this year, both Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson Foods made bids for Hillshire Brands Co., with Tyson winning the bidding war after Pilgrim's Pride withdrew its proposal to acquire Hillshire in early June.
The Mexican business, Tyson de Mexico, is based in Gomez Palacio in north central Mexico. It has three plants and employs more than 5,400 people at its plants, offices and seven distribution centers.
Tyson's Brazil operations, Tyson do Brazil, involves three production plants, two in Santa Catarina and one in the state of Parano. The Brazilian operation employs 5,000 people.
Bill Lovette, president and CEO of Pilgrim's Pride Corp. CEO Bill Lovette said the deal demonstrates Pilgrim's "continued commitment to our growth strategy of disciplined acquisitions." The acquisitions, Lovette said in a statement, add company value for Pilgrim's shareholders and strengthen the company's position in the market.
Tyson said it intends to focus on growing its poultry business in Asia, which includes three poultry plants in China and majority ownership of two poultry plants in India.
"Longer term, we remain committed to our international business and will continue to explore opportunities to extend our international presence," Smith said.
Meanwhile, Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat processor, said it will close three struggling U.S. plants. A plant in Cherokee, Iowa, where 450 people work, will close Sept. 27. Plants in Santa Teresa, N.M., where 200 people work, and in Buffalo, N.Y., which employs 300, are expected to shutter in the first half of 2015.

The Real U.S. Mexican Border

Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridge To Mexico Open in few Weeks

Mexico side of Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridge to be finished in August

After three years of delays, the Mexican side of the Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridge will finally be completed in August, Mexican officials said.
Officials said that the new border crossing will not be operational until the end of the year when inspection facilities are built and a road connects the port of entry with a major highway running into the interior of Mexico.
The completion of the port of entry is about a month behind schedule. In late January, the U.S. Consulate in Juárez and the Mexican Consulate in El Paso said in a joint announcement that work on the Mexican side of the bridge was going to be finished in July.
Last week, the bridge project was a little more than 90 percent complete, according to the Mexican Department of Transport and Communications, or SCT.
"We are practically on schedule," said Efraín Olivares Lira, the general director of the SCT in Chihuahua. He said the bridge will be finished in mid-August.
Once complete, the 693-foot long structure will connect to the U.S. half of the six-lane bridge. The U.S. side was finished in the fall.
The first phase of a highway from the international bridge to Alameda Avenue in the El Paso County has also been completed.
El Paso County and state officials will have a meeting this week to inform the public about the second construction phase of the Manuel F. Aguilera Highway that will connect Interstate 10 to the new border crossing. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Rogelio Sanchez county building, 1331 N. Fabens in Fabens.
In contrast, the Mexican Tributary Administration Service, or SAT, which funds and oversees the construction of Mexican customs offices, still needs to build the inspection facilities. The project was supposed to be have been done by the first half of the year.
SAT officials in Mexico City did not reply Friday to email messages about the inspection facilities.
Also, SCT needs to build a road from the Chihuahua-Juárez highway — which extends to the interior of Mexico — to the new border crossing. The project will allow commercial traffic to bypass Juárez.
It will be similar to the road that connects the Chihuahua-Juárez highway to the Santa Teresa border crossing.
The first phase of the project will consist of building the roadway from the Tornillo-Guadalupe bridge to the Juárez-Porvenir road. A second phase will stretch the road about 20 miles to the Chihuahua-Juárez highway.
The project will be done by the state using federal funds. Construction of the first phase of the access road will cost up to 120 million pesos, or $9.6 million, according to the SCT.
Because some of the funds will come from Fonadin, SCT officials expect drivers to be charged a toll to use the road.
The agency, through the Chihuahua state government, has acquired the right of way for the land where the new road will be located, Olivares Lira said.
He said bids for the road project have already been launched and the selected bid for the projects will be announced in the next few days.
Mexican authorities estimate that the new port of entry will be ready for use by the end of 2014.
It is unclear which Mexican federal agency will be responsible of demolishing the current two-lane Fabens-Caseta bridge once the new bridge opens. The old bridge, which was built in 1938, is about 650 feet from the new crossing.
Mexico was supposed to begin construction of its side of the bridge two months after the July 2011 ground-breaking ceremony for the new port. Since then, Mexican officials changed the start date several times.
The SCT, which is responsible for the construction, blamed the delay on a lack of funding and on national elections that installed new leadership in late 2012.

Strip Club, will your Heart stand the excitement?

 

Just like the rides at an amusement park, should strip clubs also have a sign warning those with heart conditions of what they're about to experience?
From the Nogales international:

According to Nogales, Sonora municipal police, officers responded at 10:20 p.m. on Friday to a report of a dead body at Boleiro TD’s on Calle Elias. When they arrived, they met with paramedics from the Cruz Roja who told them that they had found the victim, a 64-year-old resident of Nogales, Ariz., in a private room, showing no vital signs.

The man, who had a pacemaker, apparently died of a heart attack.
The paramedics also told police that they had seen one of the club’s employees, 36-year-old Raul Pelayo Huerta, take a gold chain from the body.
Pelayo, who works as a DJ at the club, allegedly confessed to taking the chain and returned it to police, saying he had removed it only in order to apply first aid...

The three employees, along with Loremy Martinez Ceballos, a 29-year-old dancer at the club, were taken into custody and placed at the disposition of a local prosecutor “for the clarification of responsibilities,” the police department said in a news release.

Mexican Bishop Raul Vera Lopez Slams Homophobes For Being 'Sick' And 'Heartless'

“The people who say homosexuals are sick are sick themselves," declared Catholic bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo, Mexico, in an interview with El Pais.
Lopez, who has long been involved with ministry to the gay community, continued, "The Church needs to come to them not with condemnation, but with dialogue. We cannot cancel out a person’s richness just because of his or her sexual preference. That is sick, that is heartless, that is lacking common sense."
His comments came in response to a question from El Pais that referenced a recent baptism. In May, Lopez attracted public attention for his public baptism of three children, one of whom was the daughter of a married lesbian couple. He explained, “If I find the natural daughter of one of two women, how can I deny her baptism? If the parents seek it, it’s because there is a Christian faith." Citing a recent meeting with Pope Francis, he added, “The pope has the same attitude as Christ did.”
Lopez has a long history of advocating for the marginalized and fighting against inequality, and this isn't the first time that he's denounced homophobia as a sickness. Though his causes have earned him censure from his superiors and criticism from his congregations in the past, many of his opinions in the El Pais interview seem to echo statements from Pope Francis.
In 2013, Pope Francis said that the church had become "obsessed" with the issues of abortion and homosexuality, detracting from its mission to be a "home for all." Lopez also touched on that theme, telling El Pais, "When there was a national campaign against abortion here, I organized rosary recitations to reflect on the defense of the lives of migrants, miners and women as well as the unborn. But we are hypocrites. It would seem that the only moral rules deal with condemning same-sex couples and abortions. You do that and you’re the perfect Christian."