Death of Chief and Asst. Murders updated

The police chief and deputy police chief of Tarimbaro, a city in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, were murdered, police said Wednesday.

The bodies of chief Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña and deputy chief Osvaldo Rendon Salcedo were found Tuesday afternoon after police received a report that two bodies were lying by an SUV parked behind the Las Chalupas bar in the community of Uruetaro.

Officers found the bodies of the two chiefs, who were holding their pistols and had been shot several times, by the vehicle.

Gonzalez Magaña and Rendon Salcedo had been reported missing Monday, police said.

Investigators are trying to determine the motive for the killings and find those responsible, the Michoacan attorney general’s office said.

Salvador Gonzalez Magaña, the former police chief in Tarimbaro and brother of Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña, was murdered in March, media reports said.

Michoacan has been rocked by a wave of drug-related violence in recent months.

Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs.

Mexican Federal Police ambushed, two dead nine inured

 

     

REUTERS photo

Federal police officers stand guard at a gas station following an arson attack in Morelia. REUTERS/Alan Ortega

Morelia, Mexico - An armed group ambushed a federal police convoy in a western Mexico state plagued by violence, killing two officers and wounding nine others, officials said Thursday.

The officers were traveling in four buses escorted by two police vehicles when they were shot at by gunmen hidden on a hill in Michoacan late Wednesday, the national security commission said in a statement.

The wounded officers were taken to hospitals after the attack near the town of Las Yeguas, close to the municipality of Apatzingan, a bastion of the Knights Templar drug cartel.

The federal government deployed thousands of troops and police officers to Michoacan in May to return peace to the state amid confrontations between the cartel and vigilante groups that formed in towns fed up with gang violence.

 

Monster truck kills 8, injuries to 79

Monster Truck Accident Kills 8 in Mexico (Drudge Retort)
At least eight people, including three children, were killed and 79 were wounded when a monster truck careened into a crowd Saturday afternoon at an airshow on the outskirts of Chihuahua, Mexico.            

Mexico officials ID bodies as 5 of missing 12

Mexican authorities said Friday they have identified five bodies pulled from a mass grave as some of the 12 people kidnapped three months ago from a Mexico City bar almost within sight of the U.S. Embassy and the city's main boulevard.

Assistant attorney general Renato Sales told reporters that 13 badly decomposed bodies were pulled from a grave covered with cement, quicklime and asbestos discovered Thursday on a rural ranch east of Mexico City.

Ricardo Martinez, a lawyer for relatives of the missing, said there is no doubt the other bodies would also be identified as the missing youths, most of whom are from the rough Mexico City neighborhood of Tepito.

"They're going to wind up identifying all of them,"  because now it's proven that this is organized crime."

Officials said the remains are at federal labs, where experts are using DNA tests, and they expect to have all of them identified soon. There was no immediate explanation about how the 13th body was related to the kidnapped youths.

"At this point we have plainly identified through genetic testing Alan Omar Athiencia," aged 26, said Renato Sales, adding "we have sufficient evidence" to identify the bodies of two other men and two women.

The head of the federal forensics office, Sara Monica Medina, said the bodies of the other four — Gabriela Ruiz Martinez, Rafael Rojo Martinez, Guadalupe Morales Vargas, and Josue Piedra Moreno — had been identified from implants, tattoos and other physical characteristics, and further tests were pending.

Relatives of the victims, angry and agitated by the identification of some of the bodies, gathered outside the headquarters of Mexico City prosecutor's office to demand a meeting with the attorney general on Friday afternoon.

"This is bad, bad, bad," said Ana Maria Vargas, mother of Morales, who had three children and sold lingerie in Tepito. "I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do."

Investigators found a pistol, a shotgun and several pairs of handcuffs at a home on the ranch where the mass grave was found.

The young bar-goers vanished from the Heaven club at midday May 26, just a block from the leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital's equivalent of the Champs-Elysees.

The bizarre disappearance resonated across the city of 9 million people because many had come to believe it was an oasis from the rampant drug violence that had led to discovery of mass graves elsewhere in the country.

While drug gangs have carried out multiple killings in Mexico City, seldom had they involved so many victims, and seldom have the victims been buried in mass graves, as drug gangs have frequently done in northern Mexico.

Authorities set up a perimeter more than a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the excavation site on a hilly ranch known as La Negra, where federal police and attorney general's trucks and large white vans were seen working the operation. The private property next to Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park is walled and surrounded by oak and pine trees.

The federal Attorney General's Office said agents had received information about possible illegal weapons on the property and obtained a search warrant. When they started looking around, they discovered the grave.

"They found a home that looked like a safe house," Murillo Karam told reporters Thursday. "We were operating under the belief it was a weapons case."

Prosecutors have said the abductions from the Heaven bar were linked to a dispute between street gangs that control local drug sales in the capital's nightclubs and bars. They say the gangs are based in the Tepito neighborhood where most of the missing lived. Two of the missing youths — whose bodies have still not been identified — are sons of imprisoned drug traffickers , but the families insist the missing young people were not involved in drug trafficking.

Surveillance cameras showed several cars pulling up to the bar at midday and taking the victims away. A witness who escaped told authorities that a bar manager had ordered the music turned off, told patrons that authorities were about to raid the establishment and ordered those inside to leave.

Those detained in the Heaven case include club owner Ernesto Espinosa Lobo, known as "The Wolf," who has been charged with kidnapping, as well as another bar owner, a driver and a security guard. A fifth person, Jose de Jesus Carmona, 32, is under arrest pending charges and another is a fugitive.

In another element of the case that is reminiscent of cartel warfare, one of the owners of the Heaven bar, Dax Rodriguez Ledezma, fled authorities only to turn up dead, his body dumped and burned in a rural area with that of his girlfriend and another friend.

 

Assailants Halt Ambulance In Mexico, Take Away 4 Wounded In Shootout

A group of suspected cartel hit men intercepted an ambulance in northern Mexico and abducted four people who had been wounded in a shootout, authorities said.

The four patients, who had been wounded in a firefight pitting two groups of gunmen in the town of Guadalupe y Calvo, were being rushed to a hospital when they were forced off the ambulance Thursday night in the town of Parral and taken away in an SUV, Carlos González, spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office, told Efe.

In a separate incident, two men who were traveling in an SUV on the road leading to Guadalupe y Calvo were wounded early Friday when armed men who had set up an illegal checkpoint fired at them for not stopping.

One of the victims was shot in the head, while the other was wounded in the hip, state authorities said in a press release.

On June 11, a candidate for mayor of Guadalupe y Calvo was kidnapped and killed by a group of gunmen, while in 2010 assailants shot and killed the incumbent mayor of that town, located in the southeastern part of Chihuahua.

Chihuahua has been one of the Mexican states hardest hit in recent years by organized crime-related violence.

Sierra Madre near Concordia, Mexico

This June 11, 2013 photo shows an aerial view of the recently completed cable-stayed bridge called the Baluarte in the western Sierra Madre near Concordia, Mexico. The Durango-Mazatlan Highway vies to be one of Mexico's greatest engineering feats, designed to bring people, cargo and legitimate commerce safely through a mountain range known until now for marijuana, opium poppies and an accident-prone road called the Devil's Backbone.

 

 

Mexico Teacher Position Open

Posted: Tue 21st May 2013 14:57 GMT			Add to My Jobs' Folder
EFL Teacher Santa Maria Educativa		Location	Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico
		Deadline	--
		Experience	1 year
Details
Institution: Our school is a non-profit regular school providing PreK-12 instruction in content areas (English, Spanish, math, science, etc.), accredited by the State of Sonora, Mexico. A major goal is to have English class (ESL PreK-12) taught by native speakers with TESL training and experience and/or Teacher training and experience. Qualifications: Bachelor degree in Education or ESL Certification or Teacher Certification, teaching experience in regular school, master degree in education or ESL (desired). Teaching Duties: Teachers are expected to work Monday to Friday, from 6:45 am to 3:00 pm. (class time, recess and students´ entrance and exit supervision, weekly class planning). Included in the time between 6:45 and 3:00 there is a weekly staff meeting and an individual weekly meeting with the academic coordinator. These meetings are where teachers and the academic coordinator have the opportunity to review lesson plans, test design, observations, student performance, and general school happenings. In addition to the regular school day, there is a monthly training session and several special events that the school holds throughout the school year where teachers are expected to participate (Christmas Play, Parents meetings, one sport event, etc.). We ask for flexibility in our teachers, and at the same time strive to respect personal preferences, leaving open the possibilities for changes in classroom assignment according to the needs of the school. Generally, each English teacher teaches at 3 different grade levels at a time. Teachers at our school are expected to participate actively and implement the discipline rules the school sets, inside and outside the classroom, working as a team with the rest of teachers and school officials. Contract Period: Scholastic year contracts: August, 2013 – June, 2014. Transportation: Transportation to the city of Guaymas is at the teacher’s expense. Guaymas has an international airport with flights to the U.S., and the city is a five-hour drive from the Arizona, USA border on a modern four-lane divided highway (foreign cars do not need special permit). Another (and maybe more affordable) option is to fly into Tucson or Phoenix, AZ and then take a bus into Guaymas. The city of Hermosillo, Sonora´s capital, is an hour drive from Guaymas, providing a very wide choice of national and international flights. Location: Guaymas is a seaport of about 100,000 inhabitants on the Gulf of California, backed by the Sonoran desert. A few miles from Guaymas is the beautiful seaside resort of San Carlos, a fast-growing recreational area with beautiful cliffside homes and great recreational activities such as diving, snorkeling, kayaking, fishing, and water sports. Many Americans and Canadians own homes in San Carlos due to its proximity to the border and its beauty. Because of its southerly latitude (mid-Florida) and location on the Gulf, summers are hot and winters are mild and sunny, with very warm water temperatures. TO APPLY, SEND: 1) A detailed and current resume, with picture. 2) Three teaching references that include telephone and email contact, along with letters of reference. 3) A cover letter explaining your interest in this position and your qualifications. RESPOND TO THIS AD Gerardo Rodriguez Tel : (52) 622-222-1861
Qualifications
ESL/EFL Certificate needed, teacher certification desired, experience at regular school desired
Compensation
Payment Schedule: Salary paid at end of each contract month and on the 15th of each month (two payments per month). Salary: Salary will be paid in pesos. The monthly salary will be $12,292 pesos before Mexican taxes are deducted ($10,774 after taxes). Renewal: Each annual contract is subject to renewal with increase in salary, dependent upon successful completion of the contract, quality of performance, positive evaluations, and mutual consent of the teacher and the administration of Colegio Navarrete. Teachers with a multi-year commitment to Mexico and the institution are encouraged to apply. Vacation Leave: Two major holiday periods occur during the school year--- Christmas vacation and Spring Break---each of which is approximately two to three weeks, plus various other Mexican holidays. These are paid holidays. They cannot accrue as cash and must be taken during the scheduled holiday dates. Sick Leave: Colegio Navarrete will provide 3 days of paid sick leave. After the expiration of these 3 days, teachers who find themselves in a position of needing more leave, upon presentation of proof, will be granted leave with a deduction in pay at the daily rate. The school does not provide Mexican school medical insurance. Medical facilities are available in Guaymas and in Hermosillo, and Tucson, Arizona is only an hour’s flight from Guaymas, and 5 hour drive. Housing: Colegio Navarrete does not have faculty housing available. However, the institution will assist new teachers in finding suitable housing. We suggest that teachers arrive, at latest, 3 days before start of contract for the purposes of getting settled. We will provide host housing for three days, during which time teachers can look for an apartment, with our help. After the three day period has expired, we respectfully request that teachers who have not yet found housing, relocate at their own expense. It is estimated that a one- or two-bedroom furnished apartment, either in Guaymas or in San Carlos, can be rented for between $2000 - $3500 pesos per month, depending on the location. Visa, Mexican: Colegio Navarrete will facilitate application for the visa to work in Mexico and reimburse all visa fees at end of contract. Processing may take several weeks. Teachers require to bring their passport, birth certificate, apostillized diploma (ESL or bachelor) and ask for a Tourist visa when entering Mexico (which would be exchanged for a working visa once in Guaymas) City Cost Guide How much in Mexico? Check your daily living costs Worldwide!   189 cities in 70 countries
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Company/Organisation
Santa Maria Educativa [CLICK for more information on this company/organisation]
Address	Totoaba s/n Col Aurora Final Altos Colegio Navarrete Guaymas, Sonora 85420 - Mexico
Telephone	011526222226655
Fax	011526222226655
Contact person	Gerardo, CEO
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Tamaulpas Mexico Nine Dead

      

Nine bodies, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside an SUV with Texas tags in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, state officials said.
The grisly discovery was made Sunday night in the community of Santa Clara, the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office and the Public Safety Secretariat said in a joint statement.
The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States.
Police received a tip from a caller that the bodies were inside a GMC Yukon SUV, the state agencies said.
“The remains of nine unidentified males, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside the vehicle,” the AG’s office and the secretariat said.
The bodies were taken to the morgue, where specialists will try to identify them.
A Mexico City newspaper reported Monday that 1,025 people died in drug-related violence in March, making it the deadliest month since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office.
A total of 3,919 people have been killed in drug-related incidents since Dec. 1, 2012, the day Peña Nieto took office, the Milenio newspaper said.
The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say.
Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels.
Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins.
The grisly discovery was made Sunday night in the community of Santa Clara, the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office and the Public Safety Secretariat said in a joint statement.
The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States.
Police received a tip from a caller that the bodies were inside a GMC Yukon SUV, the state agencies said.
“The remains of nine unidentified males, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside the vehicle,” the AG’s office and the secretariat said.
The bodies were taken to the morgue, where specialists will try to identify them.
A Mexico City newspaper reported Monday that 1,025 people died in drug-related violence in March, making it the deadliest month since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office.
A total of 3,919 people have been killed in drug-related incidents since Dec. 1, 2012, the day Peña Nieto took office, the Milenio newspaper said.
The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say.
Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels.
Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins.

Mexico slaughters 1.2 million chickens bird flu

Mexican authorities say they've slaughtered more than a million chickens infected with bird flu.

Investigators detected the virus in 18 farms in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, Mexico's Agriculture Ministry said this week.

Chickens there were infected with the H7N3 virus, which Mexican authorities said does not pose a threat to humans.

"This virus is exclusive to birds, so there is no risk for public safety," the Agriculture Ministry said earlier this month.

Authorities offered different tallies of how many infected birds had been slaughtered.

Agriculture Minister Enrique Martinez said Monday that more than 2.1 million chickens had been killed -- including 519,000 egg-producing chickens, 722,265 breeding chickens and 900,000 chickens raised for meat.

On Tuesday, Javier Usabiaga Arroyo, a state agriculture official, said the total number of infected chickens killed was about 1.2 million, Mexico's state-run Notimex news agency reported.

Officials have vaccinated 1.9 million birds since the outbreak began earlier this month, and they plan to vaccinate millions more, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement this week.

The outbreak has sparked concern about a possible spike in food prices, but authorities said Monday that the number of slaughtered chickens is a small fraction of the country's overall population and there is no reason for egg or chicken prices to increase.

"The outbreak of avian influenza is controlled," Mexico's food safety agency said in a statement.

Other strains of bird flu have spread to humans and prompted authorities to slaughter animals.

In 1997, authorities in Hong Kong killed about 1.5 million chickens after H5N1 avian influenza passed from birds to humans there.

Last year a new strain of H3N8 flu jumped from birds to mammals and was responsible for the death of more than 160 seals off the New England coast.

CBP Boats

Border Patrol on High Speed Boats Ask for Public Help in Stopping Smugglers

  

• Two CBP Marine unit Midnight Express boats patrol the waters off of U.S. shores. (CBP)
  

The "Midnight Express" can't do it all.
The aforementioned 39-foot-high speed boats are a favorite of the U.S. border patrol, which they contend is the fastest law enforcement boat in the world, with its 1,200 horsepower.
But for border patrol agents in Southern California, horsepower isn't enough and they are asking local residents to join the hunt for smugglers along the coast of Del Mar, which is just 36 miles north of Tijuana, Mexico.
"We are actively pursuing this and we are asking for the public's help because we can't be everywhere," agent Edward Cleary said during a Del Mar City Council meeting on Jan. 14, according to The Coast News.
The border patrol is asking residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity that could hint to drug smuggling or human smuggling, like "a whole bunch of people running through your neighborhood at 2 or 3 in the morning into a van."
He described well-planned out plots in which smugglers use panga boats, or fishing boats, to drop off their drugs or in some cases, people. Spotters drive around the coast looking for areas without police enforcement and using radios communicate with the pangas about where to land.
"Everyone jumps out and runs to a van or pickup truck," he said to the newspaper. "Normally, they are close to a major road with freeway access.
Cleary said maritime landings from smugglers are becoming more of a problem as land security increases. Unlike on land, the ocean is a wide expanse free of multi-million dollar fences, cameras, and drones making it difficult to stop smugglers.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were 228 watercrafts ready to be deployed in 2011 compare to the 26,875 vehicles used on land.
The CBP's Coastal Border Enforcement Team isn't alone in patrolling the waterways, they work in conjunction with local police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and now - local residents.
Last week, police seized $7 million worth of marijuana at a commercial truck cross point on the Arizona/Mexico border town of Nogales.

Prosecutor’s 3 Boydguards Killed by Police

MEXICO: Odd Confrontation

             

Three bodyguards were killed Friday when police attacked the motorcade of the attorney general of the central Mexican state of Morelos, the state’s governor said.

Ten state police officers were taken into custody after the incident, Gov. Graco Ramirez told Radio Formula.
The assault occurred after midnight Thursday in Cuernavaca, the state capital, as Attorney General Rodrigo Dorantes Salgado was en route to his home, the governor said.
The “absurd confrontation” - as the Morelos government called it in a statement - erupted when state police officers in several patrol cars overtook the AG’s motorcade, isolated Dorantes’ vehicle from those of his bodyguards and began shooting.
Asked whether the cops were trying to kill Dorantes, who escaped unhurt, Gov. Ramirez said the hypothesis of a deliberate attack is as valid as that suggesting confusion on the part of the police
“The confusion should not have existed,” the governor said, noting that the attorney general travels in a clearly marked vehicle which is known to the state police.
It appears the shooting continued until around 1:00 a.m., when state Public Safety Secretary Alicia Vazquez Luna arrived at the scene to find three of Dorantes’ bodyguards dead.

U.S. Fugitive Captured at Lukeville Az port

Fugitive sought by Ariz., Calif., caught in Mexico (My Mother Lode)
The U.S. Marshals Service announced that 31-year-old William Carl Freeman was taken into custody Friday at the Lukeville, Arizona port of entry after Mexican authorities discovered he was living under an assumed name in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.

          

Dumb Criminal

Juan Ramirez Tijerina Packed for Jail Break

Give him an "A" for ingenuity.
Four years into a 20-year sentence for illegal weapons possession, Juan Ramirez Tijerina had had enough of life in the pokey. After a conjugal visit in July 2011 with his partner, Maria del Carmen Arjona Rivero, he was packed and ready to go – literally.

Ramirez was apprehended after officers, noticing that Arjona seemed nervous as she headed for the prison exit in Chetumal, Mexico, with a bulging suitcase, unzipped the bag and found the convict inside.
He's back behind bars, and Arjona was detained.
"This is rare," says a prison spokesman. "Most of the inmates here dig tunnels, try to jump fences or take advantage of a riot to escape."
 

Mexico hosts hot air balloon fest

A hot air balloons is getting readied for liftoff. It's among dozens taking part in the 11th annual Leon International Balloon Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico. Started in 2002 with just 27 balloons, the festival has grown to become the biggest in Latin America, drawing pilots from 14 different countries last year. Peter Pierre, from the United States, says it's his 10th visit. SOUNDBITE: Hot Air Balloon Pilot from Fresno, California, Peter Pierre, saying (English) "The people have been great, we are very happy to come down and fly. As you can see the beautiful sky with all of the balloons, it's always real good flying here, we really enjoy it." Besides pilots, the festival also attracts thousands of spectators. SOUNDBITE: Visitor From Mexico City, Jacqueline Gutierrez, saying (Spanish) "The balloons are varied, very colorful, unique to each company and the idea is good." A sky filled with dozens of balloons, butterflies and even Elvis is without a doubt a beautiful sight. But perhaps the best view is reserved for the pilots who soar high above Leon's Metropolitan Ecological Park.

Missing Persons Postings a Good Idea

No longer just on Milk cartons.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A border state in northern Mexico has launched a campaign it hopes will be more effective than photos on milk cartons to help find missing women and children: It's using advertisements on tortilla wrappers.
At least three dozen tortilla shops have joined in the Chihuahua state campaign to print appeals for help on the thin paper wrappers that shopkeepers use to wrap up a pound or two of hot tortillas at a time.
"The disappearances in Juarez have to disappear," the ads read. They are accompanied by photos of "disappeared" people: a woman's bodiless clothing walks down a street appearing to hold a shopping bag; a little girl's shoes and socks stand on a curbside.
The wrappers include a phone number for reporting disappearances or sightings of missing people.
The campaign started this week, and has been welcomed by shopkeepers and customers in the violence-wracked border city of Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas.
"The truth is a lot of people don't know about the missing young women - we are always the last to find out - so I think the governor had a good idea when he started this campaign to help families find missing people," said the owner of a Ciudad Juarez tortilla shop who did not want her identity revealed for fear of retaliation or extortion from the city's gangs.
Ciudad Juarez was hit by a series of eerily similar kidnap-killings of more than 100 mainly young women beginning in 1993. While those cases have tapered off, killings and disappearances continue.
A customer at the tortilla shop, who also didn't want her identity revealed, said the campaign could help.
"A lot of people don't have any way to watch TV or read the newspapers, they don't see the news, so this way they would at least know who to call or what to do in the case of a disappearance," she said.
Silvia Najera, spokeswoman for the Chihuahua state special prosecutor's office for crimes against women, said a total of 341 women had been officially reported missing since 1995. Of those, 316 have been found either dead or alive, while 25 cases remain open.
Women's rights activist Vicky Caraveo said she believes the women's killings of the 1990s and early 2000s haven't ended. Carveo said women matching the same profile of those earlier victims continue to disappear.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/11/13/2765809/mexico-state-uses-tortilla-wrapper.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

2012 Sept 16 Independence Day Mexico Fiesta

Mexican Independence Day 16 de Septiembre:    by May Herz                                           El Grito de Independencia

VIDEO DVD AVAILABLE :     Great Mexican Music CDs for a festive celebration. Mexico's Independence Column CLICK to view our beautiful Mexican Art Prints for Sale   Advertisement

2011 was the year of the Bicentennial Celebrations in Mexico. This wonderful country commemorated   200 years of Independence  from Spanish rule and 100 years of  its  Revolution that began in 1910 and toppled dictator Porfirio Diaz.   El Grito every 16th of September is the Mexican Fiesta par excellence! On this day Mexicans all over the world celebrate Mexico’s independence from Spanish rule. As you know, indigenous peoples were the first to inhabit what is now known as Mexico. They created great civilizations such as the Olmec, the Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, and of course the most powerful of all, the Aztec Empire.   After Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, the Spaniards carried out expeditions to find gold and riches from these faraway lands.   In 1521, about 500 Spanish soldiers arrived in Mexico, headed by an ambitious man: Hernán Cortés.  At this time, the Aztecs had built a great empire that ruled over all Mesoamérica. So the Spaniards decided to direct their attacks towards them.  The indigenous nations that were under the Aztec rule were tired of the physical and economic hardships imposed upon them by this empire.  This circumstance made them think that by helping the Conquerors defeat the Aztecs, they would be better off.  So they decided to aid the Spaniards. This is how the Conquest of what is now Mexico began.   On the 13th of August 1521, Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor was captured. The indigenous allies of the Spaniards raided Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire. They didn’t know it at the time, but they had been liberated from one oppressor and fallen in the hands of a much more powerful authoritarian. This was the beginning of three centuries of Spanish rule. The new colony was named Nueva España, New Spain.  The years that followed were devastating. The conquerors brought with them diseases unknown to the natives. The epidemics that broke out as well as the merciless workload imposed upon the natives dramatically diminished the Indian population.   There were approximately 20 million Indians inhabiting this territory before the Conquest, and after just one century of Spanish rule there were only 1 million left!   Colonial society was highly stratified. Spaniards born in Spain, occupied the higher echelons, followed by Criollos, those born in Mexico from Spanish parents; Mestizos, the mix- blood offspring of Spaniards and Natives; Indios, Native Indians; Negros, African slaves.   Each socio-ethnic group had different rights and duties. The privileged were the peninsular Spaniards.  Discontent steadily grew, especially amongst the Criollos, who were always treated as second-class subjects of the Spanish Crown.   It is no surprise then, that Criollos were the spark that ignited the Independence movement.   In  1808, Napoleon invaded Spain, and decided to impose his brother José Bonaparte, as king of Spain (1808-1810).  The Criollos found in this circumstance the opportunity to seek their independence form Spain. Influenced by the concepts of liberty, equality and democracy proposed by the French philosophers Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and by the war of Independence of the United States, they decided to start a revolt.  It was 1810, and their plan was to start the war on the 2nd of October.  Unfortunately, their plans were discovered in early September. The movement was in trouble. They had two alternatives; either abandon their plans, or move faster and start the revolt immediately.  Fortunately for our country they decided upon the second alternative.  In the early hours of September 16, 1810, father Hidalgo, accompanied by several conspirators –Iganacio Allende, Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez-   rang the bell of his little church, calling everyone to fight for liberty.  This was the beginning of the Independence War, which lasted 10 years.    Celebrating! And this is the moment that every 16th of September is re enacted in every plaza or zócalo of Mexico, and commemorated by Mexicans all over the world.   Streets, houses, buildings and cars are decorated everywhere in the country. On every street corner there are vendors selling flags, balloons, sombreros and rehiletes -shuttlecock, all with the green, white and red, our National Colors. Flags wave from practically every house and building. Lighted decorations are set up in every city, the most spectacular being those of the Zócalo, main plaza, in Mexico City.  This main plaza of every town and city is the place where the great 16 De Septiembre celebrations take place. People of all ages come to this fiesta, to take part in the collective gaiety!  Food is always a very important part of these festivities. Literarily hundreds of stands are set up several days before and offer the traditional antojitos, most aptly described as a variety of finger foods, Mexican candies, and punch.  Punch. ponche, is a drink made of fruits that are in season: guayabas, sugarcane, raisins and apples, and such a delicious aroma! During September, Mes de la Patria, the month of our nation as it is called in Mexico, restaurants serve traditional Mexican dishes, such as Mole Poblano, Chiles en Nogada, Guacamole and chips. During the evening of September 15, people start gathering in the zócalo. Many people walk around dressed in typical Mexican dress: men as Charros and women as China Poblanas, or indigenous dresses. Those who don't own a typical outfit, at least dress find something to wear in the colors of the flag. Live Mariachi Music bands play to the delight of all present. There are also photography stands where one can have a picture taken, attired with a sombrero and atop a wooden horse! The euphoria is collective and all are prepared to shout, yell and make as much noise as possible with fake trumpets, noisemakers and whistles! As the evening advances, the plaza gradually fills with more and more people; suddenly there is practically no room to move. Excitement and euphoria reach a crescendo at the culminating moment when a government official arrives in the zócalo, at 11:00 P.M. to give the grito or cry of Independence.  This ritual recreates the moment in which Father Hidalgo, gathered his followers in Dolores Guanajuato. It is customary for our President to deliver the grito in Mexico City’s zócalo. It is in this plaza, atop Palacio Nacional, the National Palace -a beautiful colonial building where the President’s offices are located-, that the original bell rung by Hidalgo is placed. And this is the bell that is rung every 16th of September.  The ceremony reaches the high point when the crowd joins in proudly shouting out the names of the heroes of our Independence, to end with the exciting VIVA MÉXICO!  When the grito ceremony ends, the sky lights up with multicolored rockets that shower our hearts with the pride of knowing that we are a free and independent nation. Enjoy Your Day!

Mexico opening first mariachi school

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A Mexican cultural center says it is opening the country's first school dedicated to mariachi music.
Mariachi performing has traditionally been something passed down through families. But school director Leticia Soto Flores says there is increasing demand for mariachi instruction.
The Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center is opening the mariachi school Oct. 8 at the Plaza Garibaldi in downtown Mexico City. The plaza is a traditional site for strolling mariachis.
The school begins accepting applications Monday and will consider 200 applicants for 72 positions in the first class, which will graduate in three years. The school will cost the equivalent of $190 a year.
It will include classes in trumpet, violin and guitar, along with music theory and the history of mariachi music.

Credit to AP; By ISAAC GARRIDO

Preserving Mexico's folk art masks

Bill LeVasseur has collected hundreds of Mexican masks from remote villages that now hang on the walls of his museum in San Miguel de Allende. He's singlehandedly preserving a piece of Mexican culture that few realize is still thriving today.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / September 6, 2012

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Bill LeVasseur collects ritual masks of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. 'Some of the best compliments I get are from Mexicans,' he says. ' "Thank you for preserving this," they say. "This is part of our culture that we can't lose." '

Sara Miller Llana

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San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Bill LeVasseur never set out to become an ethnographer. Or a historian, anthropologist, migration specialist, or scholar of syncretism for that matter. He was an American advertising executive living in Mexico City who simply liked Mexican folk art.

Sara Miller Llana Latin America Bureau Chief
Sara Miller Llana has been the Latin America Bureau Chief, based in Mexico City, since 2006.

But in the past two decades he has become all of those things, of sorts at least, amassing a collection of hundreds of Mexican masks from remote villages across the country that today he hangs on the walls of his museum in San Miguel de Allende. In doing so, he has singlehandedly preserved a piece of Mexican culture that few realize is still thriving today.
“Some of the best compliments I get are from Mexicans,” he says. “ 'Thank you for preserving this,' they say. 'This is part of our culture that we can't lose.' "

IN PICTURES: Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project

Masks have a crucial place in Mexican society, a pre-Hispanic custom that evolved but continued after conquest by the Spanish. Today, particularly in the thousands of tiny towns across the country, artisans still carve them for use in ceremonial dances to celebrate feast days and patron saints, most of it fusing elements of indigenous customs with Roman Catholic narrative.
Mr. LeVasseur stumbled upon masks innocently enough, as an expat on a stint abroad in Mexico City. A colleague gave him one as a present, piquing his curiosity. He started reading. He began going to art fairs to look for new renderings. Then he started traveling the switchbacks across the country.
“I felt like I was looking through a keyhole back 400 years in time,” he says of his first experiences watching dancers in costume marching down the streets of dusty Mexican towns.
Today his collection, The Other Face of Mexico, spans the spectrum: representations of saints and devils, adorned with tigers and snakes, carved from mahogany or avocado wood. His one requirement: that they have previously been used in a dance or ritual, so that they are a living piece of history, not simply a piece of art.
LeVasseur has retired from his job and moved permanently to San Miguel de Allende, where he and his wife, in addition to the museum, run a bed-and-breakfast. But he still travels extensively, adding to his collection each year.
Taking five or six journeys annually, he has helped spread maskmaking knowledge across the country. Some towns are so small that that residents communicate and share crucial news via loudspeaker. He remembers showing up at one and paying the equivalent of a dollar for a town member to advertise that a man was there, interested in seeing what masks were available for sale. Artisans, carrying their most detailed work, walked in droves towards him. While many have spent lifetimes etching wood, a skill passed down from family to family, they have little idea of the art being created in the rest of the country. LeVasseur always bring photographs to share and leave with them.

IN PICTURES: Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project

At home in San Miguel de Allende, a popular destination for American retirees in central Mexico, his musem draws visitors from across the globe. But some of his most important visitors are the school children that come in busloads weekly.
The indigenous represent about a 10th of Mexico's population – there are more than 60 indigenous languages officially spoken throughout the country – and they preserve their culture not just through language but through their celebrations and the structure of their kinship. But school curricula treats indigenous culture as history,  LeVasseur says. The students learn that the Spaniards conquered Mexico in the 16th century, and are pointed to the archeological ruins of Teotihuacan in central Mexico or the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula to learn about indigenous history. But it often stops there. “This is not just history,” LeVasseur says, “it's contemporary.”
The proceeds from the museum go to a local daycare, which looks after the children of indigenous women who sell crafts on the streets to tourists during the day. Eventually LeVasseur hopes that his collection ends up in a university in the United States. In the meantime it continues to grow, as artisans stay busy and the dances thrive, exposing everyone from a five-year-old Mexican to a Finnish housewife to a slice of culture that might otherwise remain isolated in the high mountains or tropical lowlands of Mexico.

Mexican Barter Mart

MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 2012 (IPS) - Isabel Becerril has come with some friends to the “barter market” in the Mexican capital, to exchange 40 kgs of recyclable refuse for fresh produce, sweets and plants. “This is the first time I have come here, and I like it,” the university student tells IPS, with her ecological bag in hand.
“This encourages people to separate their trash,” says Becerril, 20, a student of graphic design at the Autonomous Metropolitan University.
Since March, the Mercado del Trueque – barter market – has operated the first Sunday of each month in the Bosque de Chapultepec, a forested park that is described as “the lungs of the city”, to the west of the capital.
The market is a novel idea forged by groups of local vegetable and plant vendors and the Mexico City secretariat of the environment (SMA).

The barter mechanism is simple. In a large white tent, SMA employees and volunteers at 20 tables receive cardboard, paper, glass, aluminium, plastic bottles, electronic devices and other waste from consumers, weigh the materials, and give the customers slips of paper which they hand over at kiosks for plastic vouchers representing the points they earned.
Using these vouchers, they can buy tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, lemons and other produce from farmers from districts surrounding Mexico City. The amounts depend on the points gained.
For example, one kg of plastic bottles is equivalent to 24 points, a kg of aluminium is worth 16, and a kg of cardboard or glass, three points each.
And at the vegetable stands, 20 points can buy half a kilo of tomatoes or potatoes.
The project “has been a success for the farmers,” says Erick Izquierdo of the Tierra Nueva Cooperative, founded in 2011 to advise small farmers on agroecological practices.
“The idea is for people to meet peasant farmers, see what they grow, and value their work,” he told IPS.
In Xochimilco, one of the 16 administrative divisions of the capital, Izquierdo raises rabbits and quail, and grows plums, avocados and lettuce.
Recycling is still in its infancy in Mexico. Of the more than 40 million tons of garbage generated every year in this country of 112 million people, only 15 percent is recycled. And in Mexico City, which produces 13,000 tons of solid waste a day, the rate is just 12 percent.
Farmers participating in the barter market have gained a new place to sell their produce and earn an extra income, which is paid by the SMA.
The recycling industry also benefits, because the materials collected are trucked to a company that processes and prepares them for industrial uses.
The Mexico City Federal District law on solid waste, passed in 2003, makes the separation of organic and inorganic waste obligatory, for their management and recycling.
The early bird…
The initiative was an instant success. More than 20,000 people have visited the market, exchanging over 70 tons of waste materials for 41 tons of fruit, vegetables, dairy products and plants, according to the SMA.
Jorge Godoy, who has been selling his produce at the market since it opened, sold his entire stock of pigweed, lettuce, potatoes and parsley – over 100 kgs – on Sunday Aug. 5.
“Sales were good today; this income is a big help,” the 27-year-old farmer, who works a one-hectare plot of land outside of the town of San Gregorio Atlapulco, in Xochimilco, told IPS.
Preparations begin the day before, as the goods are trucked to the market. At 6:00 AM on the first Sunday of each month, the farmers begin to set up their stands in the 686-hectare Bosque de Chapultepec, the largest city park in Latin America, whose name means “hill of the crickets” in the Nahuatl tongue.
The market opens at 8:00 AM and continues to do business until all the produce is sold.
Since the very first edition, long lines of people have formed in the barter market, waiting to swap their recyclable waste for fresh produce. Work goes on at a frenzied pace, at both the recycling tables and the vegetable stands.
At the entrance, visitors are greeted by a large sign that says “Don’t throw away what still has value; swap it instead”.
In the areas where the separated recyclable trash is placed, another group of people fill up the trucks that take the materials to the processing plant, where they will once again be transformed into useable elements.
Lourdes García got up early to bring in her load of glass and plastic. “This is the first time I have come. I heard of the market when it opened, and I started to collect my trash, and now I decided to come,” the 60-year-old retired nurse told IPS.
She said she was going to use her points to buy ornamental plants.
But the project is now facing a challenge: how to expand its operations. “We’ve reached our limit; the next step would be to make it a ‘travelling’ market, or replicate it in other areas,” Izquierdo says.
There are more than 20 “travelling” organic produce markets in Mexico, which are becoming more and more common.
The participating farmers and the SMA are negotiating to create the Tarjeta Proverde, a “green” card that would entitle them to discounts on purchases of farm machinery or parts.
Another alternative is based on the possibility that the city government may certify organic producers for using environmentally-friendly techniques.
Becerril wants to return to the market. “It’s a good idea, because it generates benefits for both consumers and producers,” the graphic design student says.

Legal System in Mexico Changing

3/27/12

Mexico's legal system may soon be making a major change. Mexican Judicial Officers are seeking to modernize their Criminal Justice System from "guilty until proven innocent" to the American approach of "innocent until proven guilty."

The Mexican Criminal Justice System is based on civil law and the Napoleonic Code.

As it stands now, a criminal case is presented via written statements and depositions but there is no oral testimony.

Brownsville attorney Luis Saenz was invited to participate as an instructor on behalf of the United States Department of Justice to tutor them. He joined us live on Action 4 Sunrise to discuss the changes.