New Mexico Mercury

The High Cost of Candy:  Death Toll Climbs in Factory Disaster

The fatal toll from the October 24 explosion and partial building collapse at a Mexican border candy factory now stands at eight workers.  The death of Miguel Armando Reyes Castro was announced this week after the critically injured worker succumbed in a Guadalajara hospital where he had been transferred for treatment of severe burns sustained from the pre-Halloween disaster that struck the Dulces Blueberry factory hundreds of miles to the north in Ciudad Juarez.

The Blueberry plant manufactures Sunrise Confections candy products which are sold in large retail outlets in the United States for El Paso-based Mount Franklin Foods, which in turn is a subsidiary of the Elamex company.  Blueberry’s workers are not directly employed by the candy maker, instead laboring for the ELI labor sub-contracting agency...

Mexico Forced Displacement on OAS Agenda

The growing issue of people forcibly displaced by violence in Mexico is getting scrutiny from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).  At a November 1 session of the Organization of American States’ commission in Washington, D.C., a representative of the IACHR asked the Mexican state to enact “specific” policies for forcibly displaced persons.

Laura Leal, a researcher with the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (IATM), testified that upwards of 170,000 people could be displaced in the country, but the number is hard to pin down since many displaced people operate below the radar screen to avoid reprisals...

Land, Migrants and Poets: The Day of the Dead 2013

New Mexico and the borderland will come alive this weekend with activities related to the annual Day of the Dead celebration, which falls on Saturday, November 2, this year.  As befits a cultural boom that is drawing in thousands and thousands of people, this year promises bigger and broader events than ever before, encompassing art, music, literature, and culinary treats.

“Without a doubt,” the growth of immigrant and Mexican populations on this side of the border is “exponentially” related to the expansion of the Day of the Dead, said Albuquerque poet and longtime community activist Jaime Chavez...

Albuquerque Police Oversight Review Concluding

A task force working on police accountability in Albuquerque is on track to wrap up its mission by the end of the year.  Although the city council-appointed Police Oversight Task Force (POTF) held this month the last of three forums designed to gather community input, public comments are still being accepted for a final report.

Andrew Lipman, POTF chair, told FNS that his group should have recommendations for possible changes to the official police oversight commission ready for city councilors to consider by the end of December.  “We need to keep on moving,” Lipman said...

Columbus Day, Chiapas Style

Tens of thousands of indigenous protestors and their allies in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas took to the streets on Saturday, October 12.  While the date is officially called Dia de La Raza and celebrated as the Latin American equivalent of the Columbus Day holiday in the United States,  indigenous Mayans in Chiapas tagged another name on the day:  521 Years of Indigenous, Black, Campesino and Popular Resistance...

New Mexico, Nation Rally for Immigration Reform

Hundreds in Albuquerque join a national call for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

Climate Whacks Mexico’s Economy

The twin blows of Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel are jolting the Mexican economy. According to the federal Budget and Taxation Secretariat (SHCP), the storms will shave Mexico’s estimated 2013 growth rate from 1.8 percent to 1.7 percent. Federal officials expect growth to pick up pace during the fourth quarter of the year, but the latest downward indicators followed a series of previously announced reductions in the year’s projected economic growth rate, which plunged from 3.5 percent to 3.1 percent even before reaching a new low in the aftermath of September’s storms...

The Mexican Uprising Deepens

Less than one year after taking office, the administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto faces serious challenges to its core policies. Leading the opposition are tens of thousands of public school teachers protesting the new No Child Left Behind-like law they contend will cost jobs,  aggravate educational inequities and lead to privatization.

The protest, which counts months now, is expanding in both scope and participation and more and more assuming the character of a multi-issue popular movement...

Albuquerque Tackles Police Oversight

Born from years of police shootings, scandals and lawsuits, a public process to reform the oversight of the Albuquerque Police Department is underway.

The Corporatization of Street Dealing South of the Border

A persistent narrative of narco issues south of the border maintains that violence is largely over the struggle to control drug routes leading into the dope-ridden United States, the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs.  Yet, an increasing share of Mexican narco-violence can be attributed to conflicts over domination of the country’s own expanding domestic market. From Tijuana to Tapachula and from Monterrey to Mexico City, the internal market is thriving as sales of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and methamphetamine all meet a demand that’s soared since the early 1990s...