Impartial Inquiry Needed to Ensure Accountability
The governor of Chiapas should ensure a thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation into the deaths of six people and the injuries of 17 others during a police operation in the community of Miguel Hidalgo, Human Rights Watch said today....
from the San Bernardino Sun by Stephen Wall,Sergio Espinoza worries about his mom's future.When the economy was strong, the 36-year-old Mexican immigrant used to send $300 or $400 a month to his mom and other relatives in his hometown.With the United States teetering on the brink of financial collapse, the cash flow heading south of the border has dried up."I haven't sent any money home for three months. Not one penny," said Espinoza.Espinoza said his widowed mom, Maria de la Cruz, survives on dollars he wires from the United States. She lives in Jacona, a city of 53,000 people in the western state of Michoacan.Lately, Espinoza has been able to find work only two or three times a week. If he's lucky, he'll earn $60 or $70 a day."The situation is bad here," Espinoza said in Spanish, "and...
from Business Week Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Bangladeshi Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus are joining forces to offer credit to poor people in Mexico.Slim and Yunus are creating Grameen-Carso, a lending institution that in its first phase will provide at least 80,000 loans.Slim is committing at least US$45 million to the venture, which they expect to expand to other parts of Latin America.Slim said Monday the institution will follow the model developed by Yunus' Grameen Bank. Link to full article. May expire in future....
Landmark Decision Confirms Right to an Abortion up to 12th Week of Gestation
In a historic decision today, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Mexico City’s law decriminalizing abortion during the first 12 weeks of gestation is constitutional. In a publicly broadcast proceeding, the court voted 8-to-3 in favor of upholding the Mexico City law, which came into force in 2007. A written decision is expected from the court within days....
from the Wichita Eagle A quarter of the farmhands in Washington state are Mexicans according to a new survey. Many came to the statesnorth because their small farms could not compete with the bigger ones up north.By MANUEL VALDESThe survey - "A Sustainable Bounty: Investing in Our Agricultural Future" - was conducted by the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust and released last week. More than 2,800 farmworkers in 14 Washington counties were interviewed for the survey in 2006.The number of indigenous workers "shows the dire economic situation for indigenous people in Latin America," said Rosalinda Guillen, one of the survey coordinators.She echoed an argument suggesting that an overflow of American goods - specifically corn - drove the indigenous from their lands after many could...
Quebec, 13 August. In a ceremony today at the IFLA Congress William Gates Senior presented the 2008 Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award of $1 million to the Vasconcelos Program in Mexico's Veracruz state. In his remarks, Dr. Victor Arredondo, Veracruz secretary of public education and founder of the Vasconcelos Program explained how the Program was named for José Vasconcelos who in the 1920's led a program that brought education and knowledge to rural areas on the backs of donkeys and mules. Nowadays, the Program reaches out, bringing technology and knowledge via a fleet of all-terrain buses.Bill Gates Senior, introducing the award, talked of the importance of reading and libraries and the Gates Foundation's intention to support innovative initiatives that "help people give...
from Bloomberg The US economy also effects other countries. As migrant workers send a lot of money back home. This story profiles how less work in the US effects Mexico.By Jens Erik GouldIn the Mexican town of Tarimbaro, construction has stopped on new homes, so sales at a hardware store are half last year's total. A butcher who slaughtered a head of cattle a day now slays two a week. And Rocio Rangel feeds her son and daughter bread and coffee for dinner.Rural Mexican towns are suffering as money transfers from relatives working north of the border dry up, the result of a weak U.S. economy. Remittances equaled 2.7 percent of gross domestic product last year and are Mexico's second-biggest source of dollar flows after oil exports.``My children need more than this, but we don't have...
from The Watertown Daily Times Summer time is when kids are out of school, and they have time to taketrips and lend a helping hand. This one is for building houses in Mexico. - KaleMEXICO MISSION: Local teenagers brave variety of challenges to build houses for the poorBy GABRIELLE HOVENDONThe 10 adults and 34 teenagers who signed up for the fifth annual Watertown First Presbyterian Church Mexico Mission Trip found themselves faced with poverty and tough conditions when they arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 1.The group, led by the church's associate pastor, the Rev. Matthew D. Schultz, partnered with a San-Diego based organization called Amor Ministries to build three houses for Mexican families.The ministry was founded in 1980 and has built more than 12,000 homes in poverty-stricken...
from the Statesman Journal This is a profile of an orphanage in Mexico. Churches in Oregon work with this orphanage sending volunteers and donations their way. Info on how to donate is at the bottom. - Kaleby Dick HughesMario kept his promise: He was graduating.Now we had to fulfill our part of the bargain.So last week found my family 2,594 miles from Salem in the steamy rainforest of southern Mexico.We joined the rows of proud parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and guardians as the middle-school students marched in formation to receive their certificates and grades.Yes, middle school. With elaborate ceremony, Mexican schools celebrate success at each stage — primary, middle and high schools.Making it through middle school was a big accomplishment for 16-year-old Mario.His...
Government, Police Actions Blocking Access to HIV Prevention
Unless governments act to end the human rights abuses fuelling the spread of HIV, little progress will be made towards addressing the global epidemic, 400 AIDS and human rights organizations said today. The coalition called on organizers of the biannual International AIDS Conference, which opens in Mexico City on August 3, 2008, to make human rights a central theme of the world’s largest gathering on HIV/AIDS....
Officials Should Address Deficiencies, Not Defend Them
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission undermines its own credibility by distorting the findings of a Human Rights Watch report, Human Rights Watch said today. The commission’s claim that it found “48 errors” in the report does not withstand scrutiny and it is a blatant tactic to sidestep the critical issues of its effectiveness....
Commission Documents Abuses, but Falls Short Promoting Remedies and Reform
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission seriously limits its impact by not effectively promoting remedies and reforms needed to end abusive practices, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....
from the Washington PostA man is pulled from fetid floodwaters in Villahermosa. The disaster is one of the worst in Mexican history.By Manuel Roig-FranziaWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, November 7, 2007; A01VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Nov. 6 -- Roofs rot underwater, stretched out by the thousands over miles and miles. But it is the roofs jutting just above the brown, stinking floodwaters that truly make the heart ache.Those roofs are makeshift homes now, refuges for weary men, women and children too scared to leave behind what little they have. The streets below are liquid highways clotted with dugout canoes, but the people up on the roofs and in the fetid second-story rooms just watch them go past."They'd take everything if I weren't here," Manuel Vázquez said Tuesday as he clung to...
The US Congress should oppose counternarcotics assistance to Mexico unless it includes strong conditions aimed at ending abuses by Mexican security forces, Human Rights Watch said today....
from The Houston ChronicleUNICEF taps the Mexican legend El Hijo del Santo for kids' campaignBy REED JOHNSONLos Angeles TimesMEXICO CITY — During his long, sweaty career as a lucha libre wrestler and occasional B movie actor, El Hijo del Santo has grappled with borderland outlaws, green-faced vampire assassins and such fearsome adversaries as Negro Casas and Heavy Metal.Now he's battling opponents that are as hazardous and hard to pin down as any foe he has faced, including environmental pollution, child poverty and a system that he believes neglects the needs of many of his fellow stretchy-panted warriors.El Hijo del Santo, "The Son of the Saint," is arguably Mexico's most famous living luchador, or freestyle wrestler. Born Jorge Guzman here 44 years ago, El Hijo del Santo is the...
Protestors Allege Serious Abuses by Oaxaca Police
The governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca should ensure that officials conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests by police following a July 16 confrontation with protestors, Human Rights Watch said today....
from the San Diego Union TribuneMEXICO CITY – Poverty affects nearly half of Mexico's population, but levels vary significantly throughout the country, reaching their highest in the southeast, officials said Wednesday.The southern state of Chiapas, with a 75.7 percent poverty rate, is Mexico's poorest, while the northern border state of Baja California has the lowest poverty, at 9.2 percent, according to The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy. The council released data in the form of maps that, for the first time, pinpointed poverty rates at the local and statewide level in the country's 31 states and the capital, Mexico City.According to the maps, which the council based on national poverty figures in 2005, the poorest states after Chiapas are Guerrero,...
from Newsday By LISA J. ADAMSMEXICO CITY -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pilot program to help New Yorkers break the cycle of poverty is modeled after a well-regarded Mexican initiative.Bloomberg was in Mexico on Tuesday studying the program for tips he might adopt back home. The mayor, who reiterated that he is not planning to run for president, visited towns, spoke with his counterpart in Mexico City and met with workers and independent evaluators of the anti-poverty program.The government's Oportunidades program provides medical care and gives cash grants to families for keeping children in school. It has been lauded by the World Bank and other countries as a model because it focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty by investing in long-term development."New Yorkers...
from PravdaPresident Felipe Calderon on Monday launched a national program aimed at creating jobs for young Mexicans and curbing the flow of millions who migrate to the United States in search of work.The so-called National First Job Program will give cash incentives to companies for hiring first-time job holders. Calderon, who took office in December, campaigned on promises to be the 'Jobs President' and vows to boost employment opportunities in Mexico.A conservative who narrowly won election last July, Calderon is under pressure from a strong leftist opposition to alleviate poverty affecting half the country's citizens. While he has criticized U.S. immigration policies such as a proposed border fence, he also says Mexico must stem the tide of immigration by increasing opportunities at...
from The Dallas Fort Worth Star TelegramBy IOAN GRILLOMEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon made his first tour to a dirt-poor mountain town Wednesday and announced a new program to uplift Mexico's 100 poorest communities, answering leftist critics who accuse the conservative leader of only wanting to help the rich.Traveling by helicopter to Tlacoachistlahuaca, a community of mainly Mixtec Indians in the Pacific state of Guerrero, the newly sworn-in president promised to pave and light the town's streets, build a proper drainage system and build thousands of houses."Beyond the colors of political parties, there is only one Mexico, a Mexico drowned in poverty and marginalization, and a Mexico that wants politicians to get to work," Calderon told families in a dirt town square.About 50...
Honoree Secures Access to Legal Abortion for Rape Victims
Human Rights Watch will give its highest award to Verónica Cruz, a leading Mexican women’s rights advocate, on November 2....
Civil Society Groups Demand End to Violence against Women
The candidates in Mexico's July 2 presidential elections should publicly pledge to prevent and punish the mutilation and murder of women in Mexico, Human Rights Watch, V-Day and 65 other civil society groups said in an open letter published today....
Key Advances, but Fundamental Changes Still Needed
As Mexico’s President Vicente Fox enters the final months of his term, the ambitious human rights agenda that he brought with him to office remains largely unfulfilled, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....
Prosecutors, Health Workers Intimidate Rape Victims With Insults, Threats
Mexican officials actively prevent rape victims from gaining access to legal and safe abortion, and they fail to punish rape and sexual violence inside and outside the family, said Human Rights Watch in a report released today....