Mexico's president seeks credit for migration drop across U.S. border
April 25, 2012 | 12:11pm
MEXICO CITY—Mexican President Felipe Calderon thinks he deserves some credit
for the dramatic reduction in the flow of Mexican migrants to the United
States.The movement of northbound migrants, in decline for years, has fallen to the point where it is essentially offset by Mexicans returning home — leaving net migration at a virtual standstill, the Pew Hispanic Center reported Monday.
The center cited a mix of reasons for the migration dropoff, which demographers say could spell the end of the biggest immigration wave in U.S. history. The factors include economic recession in the United States that has dried up jobs, toughened border enforcement, increased deportations and declining Mexican birth rates.
A day later, speaking to a gathering hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Calderon hailed the findings, saying his administration’s policies have played a key role in keeping Mexicans at home and prompting others to return.
“We are creating opportunities, job opportunities in Mexico, education opportunities for young people, health services and healthcare for the entire nation,” Calderon said, speaking in English.
Calderon acknowledged some Mexicans still think about leaving for the United States. “But the fact is there is a swing in terms of opportunity,” he said.
Migration experts in Mexico have scoffed at such assertions in the past, saying the condition of the U.S. economy has historically been the most important factor in speeding or slowing the flow of Mexican workers to the north.
Besides a shortage of the kind of jobs that traditionally have drawn Mexican laborers, migrants say the trip has become too risky. Tougher U.S. enforcement means it is harder and more expensive to sneak across, while bloodthirsty criminal gangs prey on migrants on the Mexican side of the border.
Migrants also cite an increasingly hostile environment in states that have passed strict immigration laws, such as the Arizona measure being reviewed Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Drug war bodies are piling up in Mexico
The heap of 11 decapitated bodies found in Yucatan shows
that the battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no
boundaries.
By Ken Ellingwood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 30, 2008
MEXICO CITY — The sickening discovery this week of 11 headless bodies heaped like broken dolls near the colonial city of Merida underscored a bitter lesson for Mexico: The battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.
The bodies are piling up nationwide, even in normally tranquil and touristy spots such as Merida, not far from the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza.
During a seven-day period ended Friday, more than 130 people died violently throughout the country. Headless bodies turned up in four states, including Baja California.
The Yucatan peninsula, strategically close to smuggling routes through Central America, tallied 12, after another decapitated body was found a few hours later Thursday about 80 miles east of the carnage near Merida.
Mexico's drug wars used to play out mainly in smuggling battlegrounds along the U.S. border, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. But a crackdown launched 21 months ago by President Felipe Calderon has exacerbated feuding among drug traffickers for control of smuggling routes.
As a result, the country convulses with daily violence that shows a new and disturbing geographic reach and viciousness.
"The bottom line is you've got a major internecine battle, a kind of civil war among drug cartels," said Bruce Bagley, a security and drug-trafficking expert at the University of Miami. "It has intensified because the stakes are high. There's a great deal of money to be made."
But traffickers are keenly aware of the psychological effect on enemies and ordinary Mexicans when they chop off rivals' heads and leave threatening notes with the remains.
Some analysts say tactics such as beheadings, once unheard of in Mexico's drug underworld, are akin to terrorism because part of the goal is to scare civilians so that they will press the government to back off. Calderon has sent 40,000 troops and 5,000 federal police officers into the streets as part of the campaign against organized crime.
"You're sending a signal to the Calderon government, to the police, that you mean business," said Fred Burton, vice president for counter-terrorism at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm. " 'This is the result when you don't play ball with us.' "
Last week, the Calderon government announced a broad new blueprint for fighting crime, including better coordination between federal and local authorities, new federal prisons, improved tracking of cellphones and tougher steps against money laundering.
Calderon administration officials said Thursday night that the Yucatan beheadings and other spectacular displays of violence show that arrests and drug seizures have hurt the cartels, prompting them to lash out with increasing savagery.
"They have to respond in a symbolic way that creates uncertainty in the public -- this is what they have been doing during the last months," Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said late Thursday during an interview on Mexican television.
Since Saturday, Mexico has tallied at least 136 killings across 18 of its 31 states, according to Mexican news media accounts. They included especially brazen attacks:
* On Thursday, the day the headless bodies were found near Merida, gunmen stormed a house in the Pacific state of Guerrero, killing two women and two girls, ages 8 and 12. Two police officers were ambushed and slain in a gun battle as they raced to the home.
* An armed group battled Mexican troops Wednesday in the central state of Guanajuato. Four gunmen died and two soldiers were wounded.
* Four decapitated bodies turned up Tuesday in Tijuana. Those killings appeared to be linked to a power struggle between drug traffickers who once collaborated as part of the Arellano Felix gang. Headless bodies also were found in Sinaloa and the northern state of Durango.
Two weeks ago, a hit squad killed 13 people, including a 16-month-old boy, at a family gathering in the northern town of Creel, a tourist gateway to the scenic Copper Canyon region.
Hardly a day goes by without new accounts of violence. Unofficial tallies by Mexican news outlets put the death toll from drug violence this year at more than 2,600. By some counts, it has already exceeded the total for 2007, which set a record.
Police officers have died at an alarming rate. The daily Milenio newspaper reported Friday that 71 officers had been slain nationwide in August -- the highest monthly toll since Calderon launched his crime offensive in December 2006.
Some of Mexico's more than 300,000 local and state police officers have been killed by drug hit men while carrying out their duties. But others have worked as hired gunmen for drug smugglers, and become targets of rival gangs. when one gang takes on another.
The violence has left Mexicans increasingly unsettled. They are unnerved by the steady stream of bloody news and pessimistic about the government's odds of winning, polls show. Many Mexicans tend to view the drug killings as largely a matter among criminal gangs, but the violence is increasingly claiming innocents, and showing up in new spots.
The Yucatan peninsula, though part of an important coastal smuggling corridor for cocaine shipped from Colombia, has not traditionally been a place where drug traffickers have battled.
But it has become an increasingly important transit route for narcotics relayed by land from neighboring Guatemala. That, and a growing local market for illegal drugs, has heightened competition for control, Bagley said.
Traffickers have resorted to decapitating rivals during the last two years.
Thursday, a young farmer came upon the heap of bodies, which according to some Mexican news accounts were covered with tattoos and bore signs of torture. Some of the accounts speculated that the killings might have been the work of the Zetas, a group of paramilitary-style hit men for the Gulf cartel who are known for extreme violence.
Gov. Ivonne Ortega Pacheco said in a television interview that anonymous callers had been demanding that authorities remove road checkpoints "and let them work." Ortega said the callers became more menacing about two weeks ago, threatening that bodies would start to turn up.
But Ortega said the roadblocks would remain in place. In a separate broadcast message, she sought to reassure Yucatan's residents.
"Yucatan is a peaceful state of hardworking people," she said. "We can't let any lawbreakers affect our families' tranquillity."
As Ortega spoke, news reports were circulating of the discovery of four bodies, 1,500 miles away in the northern border state of Sonora. Three had been beheaded.
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 30, 2008
MEXICO CITY — The sickening discovery this week of 11 headless bodies heaped like broken dolls near the colonial city of Merida underscored a bitter lesson for Mexico: The battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.
The bodies are piling up nationwide, even in normally tranquil and touristy spots such as Merida, not far from the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza.
During a seven-day period ended Friday, more than 130 people died violently throughout the country. Headless bodies turned up in four states, including Baja California.
The Yucatan peninsula, strategically close to smuggling routes through Central America, tallied 12, after another decapitated body was found a few hours later Thursday about 80 miles east of the carnage near Merida.
Mexico's drug wars used to play out mainly in smuggling battlegrounds along the U.S. border, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. But a crackdown launched 21 months ago by President Felipe Calderon has exacerbated feuding among drug traffickers for control of smuggling routes.
As a result, the country convulses with daily violence that shows a new and disturbing geographic reach and viciousness.
"The bottom line is you've got a major internecine battle, a kind of civil war among drug cartels," said Bruce Bagley, a security and drug-trafficking expert at the University of Miami. "It has intensified because the stakes are high. There's a great deal of money to be made."
But traffickers are keenly aware of the psychological effect on enemies and ordinary Mexicans when they chop off rivals' heads and leave threatening notes with the remains.
Some analysts say tactics such as beheadings, once unheard of in Mexico's drug underworld, are akin to terrorism because part of the goal is to scare civilians so that they will press the government to back off. Calderon has sent 40,000 troops and 5,000 federal police officers into the streets as part of the campaign against organized crime.
"You're sending a signal to the Calderon government, to the police, that you mean business," said Fred Burton, vice president for counter-terrorism at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm. " 'This is the result when you don't play ball with us.' "
Last week, the Calderon government announced a broad new blueprint for fighting crime, including better coordination between federal and local authorities, new federal prisons, improved tracking of cellphones and tougher steps against money laundering.
Calderon administration officials said Thursday night that the Yucatan beheadings and other spectacular displays of violence show that arrests and drug seizures have hurt the cartels, prompting them to lash out with increasing savagery.
"They have to respond in a symbolic way that creates uncertainty in the public -- this is what they have been doing during the last months," Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said late Thursday during an interview on Mexican television.
Since Saturday, Mexico has tallied at least 136 killings across 18 of its 31 states, according to Mexican news media accounts. They included especially brazen attacks:
* On Thursday, the day the headless bodies were found near Merida, gunmen stormed a house in the Pacific state of Guerrero, killing two women and two girls, ages 8 and 12. Two police officers were ambushed and slain in a gun battle as they raced to the home.
* An armed group battled Mexican troops Wednesday in the central state of Guanajuato. Four gunmen died and two soldiers were wounded.
* Four decapitated bodies turned up Tuesday in Tijuana. Those killings appeared to be linked to a power struggle between drug traffickers who once collaborated as part of the Arellano Felix gang. Headless bodies also were found in Sinaloa and the northern state of Durango.
Two weeks ago, a hit squad killed 13 people, including a 16-month-old boy, at a family gathering in the northern town of Creel, a tourist gateway to the scenic Copper Canyon region.
Hardly a day goes by without new accounts of violence. Unofficial tallies by Mexican news outlets put the death toll from drug violence this year at more than 2,600. By some counts, it has already exceeded the total for 2007, which set a record.
Police officers have died at an alarming rate. The daily Milenio newspaper reported Friday that 71 officers had been slain nationwide in August -- the highest monthly toll since Calderon launched his crime offensive in December 2006.
Some of Mexico's more than 300,000 local and state police officers have been killed by drug hit men while carrying out their duties. But others have worked as hired gunmen for drug smugglers, and become targets of rival gangs. when one gang takes on another.
The violence has left Mexicans increasingly unsettled. They are unnerved by the steady stream of bloody news and pessimistic about the government's odds of winning, polls show. Many Mexicans tend to view the drug killings as largely a matter among criminal gangs, but the violence is increasingly claiming innocents, and showing up in new spots.
The Yucatan peninsula, though part of an important coastal smuggling corridor for cocaine shipped from Colombia, has not traditionally been a place where drug traffickers have battled.
But it has become an increasingly important transit route for narcotics relayed by land from neighboring Guatemala. That, and a growing local market for illegal drugs, has heightened competition for control, Bagley said.
Traffickers have resorted to decapitating rivals during the last two years.
Thursday, a young farmer came upon the heap of bodies, which according to some Mexican news accounts were covered with tattoos and bore signs of torture. Some of the accounts speculated that the killings might have been the work of the Zetas, a group of paramilitary-style hit men for the Gulf cartel who are known for extreme violence.
Gov. Ivonne Ortega Pacheco said in a television interview that anonymous callers had been demanding that authorities remove road checkpoints "and let them work." Ortega said the callers became more menacing about two weeks ago, threatening that bodies would start to turn up.
But Ortega said the roadblocks would remain in place. In a separate broadcast message, she sought to reassure Yucatan's residents.
"Yucatan is a peaceful state of hardworking people," she said. "We can't let any lawbreakers affect our families' tranquillity."
As Ortega spoke, news reports were circulating of the discovery of four bodies, 1,500 miles away in the northern border state of Sonora. Three had been beheaded.
*
New FBI Statistics on Crimes Committed by Illegal Aliens
BIG BUSINESS! After reading these statistics, I could cry.
We have an invasion and no one seems to care. Worse, the "McKennedy"
Bill (McCain and Kennedy) would give legal status to these law breakers. If we
want to control murder, rape and vicious crimes, we may not need Three Strikes,
what we need is to find and deport the criminals who are here as illegal
aliens. The FBI already has a list of sexual predators here illegally. In May
they, along with the Salinas, California police picked up 40 of them. Why not
pick up the thousands of sexual predators that the FBI know are here in this
county illegally? Now is the time for crime groups, police and law enforcement
groups to stop playing politics, stop endorsing candidates, and to start
enforcing the law. Our public officials must act now, the citizens of Simi
Valley, Ventura County, of California and of the nation are not safe. Read this
FBI/ statistics and weep for the victims of our government not enforcing the
laws. These statistics were published at www.polipundit.com Write your thoughts
directly on the web site for all to see and discuss. Pass this along to your
friends, family and especially to law enforcement and elected officials. Ask
them why they are not doing more to protect our community from the criminal
element of the illegal aliens. Steve Frank
The Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta is a real place.
They did a real study. These are the real results. 'Based on a one-year
in-depth study, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute of Atlanta
estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United
States who have had an average of four victims each. She analyzed 1,500 cases
from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial
murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal
immigrants.'
*
FBI DIRECTOR:
"The violent MS-13 - or Mara Salvatrucha - street gang
is following the migratory routes of illegal aliens across the country, FBI
officials say, calling the Salvadoran gang the new American mafia. MS-13, has a
significant presence in the Washington area, and other gangs are spreading into
small towns and suburbs by following illegal aliens seeking work in places such
as Providence, R.I., and the Carolinas, FBI task force director Robert Clifford
said. "The migrant moves and the gang follows," said Mr. Clifford,
director of the agency's MS-13 National Gang Task Force."
INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants 2006
(First Quarter) INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants CRIME
STATISTICS 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix are for illegal aliens. 86% of warrants
for murder in Albuquerque are for illegal aliens. 75% of those on the most
wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque are illegal aliens. 24.9%
of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here
illegally 40.1% of all inmates in Arizona detention centers are Mexican
nationals here illegally 48.2% of all inmates in New Mexico detention centers
are Mexican nationals here illegally 29% (630,000) convicted illegal alien
felons fill our state and federal prisons at a cost of $1.6 billion annually
53% plus of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico,
Nevada, Arizona and Texas are perpetrated by illegal aliens. 50% plus of all
gang members in Los Angeles are illegal aliens from south of the border. 71%
plus of all apprehended cars stolen in 2005 in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
Nevada and California were stolen by Illegal aliens or “transport
coyotes". 47% of cited/stopped drivers in California have no license, no
insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 47%, 92% are illegal
aliens. 63% of cited/stopped drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance
and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 63%, 97% are illegal aliens 66% of
cited/stopped drivers in New Mexico have no license, no insurance and no
registration for the vehicle. Of that 66% 98% are illegal aliens. BIRTH
STATISTICS 380,000 plus “anchor babies” were born in the U.S. in 2005 to
illegal alien parents, making 380,000 babies automatically U.S.citizens. 97.2%
of all costs incurred from those births were paid by the American taxpayers.
66% plus of all births in California are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal
whose births were paid for by taxpayers
*
A GLIMPSE OF OBAMA THE HISPANDERER
ARTICLE
8 Out of 10 Illegals Apprehended in 2010 Never Prosecuted
http://www.alipac.us/article-6162-thread-1-0.html
Obama Quietly Erasing Borders
(Article)
*
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Monday, September 28, 2009
And T.J. BONNER, president of the National Border Patrol Council, will weigh in on the federal government’s decision to pull nearly 400 agents from the U.S.-Mexican border. As always, Lou will take your calls to discuss the issues that matter most-and to get your thoughts on where America is headed.
Monday, September 28, 2009
And T.J. BONNER, president of the National Border Patrol Council, will weigh in on the federal government’s decision to pull nearly 400 agents from the U.S.-Mexican border. As always, Lou will take your calls to discuss the issues that matter most-and to get your thoughts on where America is headed.
*
Obama Administration Caught Arming Mexican
Illegal Alien Rebels
DISCUSS THIS NATIONAL PRESS RELEASE WITH OUR ONLINE
ACTIVISTS AT...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1205835.html#1205835
BACKGROUND ARTICLES ON OPERATION GUN RUNNER AND FAST AND FURIOUS...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-230424.html
Update and Release on NC Victory against bogus Mexican ID for illegals
ALIPAC Responds to NC Legislator's Personal Attacks
http://www.alipac.us/article6196.html
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1205835.html#1205835
BACKGROUND ARTICLES ON OPERATION GUN RUNNER AND FAST AND FURIOUS...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-230424.html
Update and Release on NC Victory against bogus Mexican ID for illegals
ALIPAC Responds to NC Legislator's Personal Attacks
http://www.alipac.us/article6196.html
*
“PUNISH OUR ENEMIES”… does that mean assault the
legals of Arizona that must fend off the Mexican invasion, occupation, growing
criminal and welfare state, as well as Mex Drug cartels???
OBAMA TELLS ILLEGALS “PUNISH OUR ENEMIES”
Friends of ALIPAC,
Each day new reports come in from across the nation that our movement is surging and more incumbents, mostly Democrats, are about to fall on Election Day. Obama's approval ratings are falling to new lows as he makes highly inappropriate statements to Spanish language audiences asking illegal alien supporters to help him "punish our enemies."
Each day new reports come in from across the nation that our movement is surging and more incumbents, mostly Democrats, are about to fall on Election Day. Obama's approval ratings are falling to new lows as he makes highly inappropriate statements to Spanish language audiences asking illegal alien supporters to help him "punish our enemies."
*
CONTACT THE HISPANDERING LA RAZA PARTY PRESIDENT HERE:
You can contact President Obama and let him know of your opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
*
Go to http://www.MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
and read articles and comments from other Americans on what they’ve witnessed
in their communities around the country. While most of the population of
California is now ILLEGAL, the problems, costs, assault to our culture by
Mexico is EVERYWHERE. copy and pass it to your friends.
*
http://www.thebeerbarrel.net/showthread.php?6272-Mexican-Army-corrupted-and-now-largest-Drug-Cartel-in-Mexico
Mexican Army corrupted and now largest Drug Cartel in Mexico
*Mexican Army corrupted and now largest Drug Cartel in Mexico
MEXICO’S
BIGGEST EXPORT NEXT TO HEROIN IS THERE POOR, ILLITERATE, CRIMINAL AND
PREGNANT!!!
USING THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR THE MEXICAN WELFARE, FREE EMERGENCY ROOM MEDICAL, FREE
ANCHOR BABY BIRTHING, JOBS AND JAILS PLAN ENABLES THE DICTATORS OF NARCOMEX TO
MAINTAIN THEIR ECONOMY, WITH ALL ITS MONOPOLIES, IN THE HANDS OF A FEW!
WE ARE
MEXICO’S WELFARE AND JOBS PLAN! OUR PRISONS AND JAILS ARE FILLED WITH MEXICAN
CRIMINALS!
*
“Mexico, a country where roughly 40% of
the population lives in poverty, has 10 people on FORBES Magazine's 2008 list
of the world's billionaires. While these individuals have made important
contributions to society via the expansion of services to marginalized areas,
job creation, and charitable donations, this concentration of wealth and
economic power hinders Mexico's ability to realize more and deeper levels
of competition in key industries.”
Posted: 09 Mar 2011 07:25 PM PST
The latest Forbes rich list has come out and it’s little surprise that the wealthy got even more money. But before we consider the details, let me bring up an interesting Wikileaks diplomatic cable on Mexico’s rich.
Analysts
talk a lot about how Wikileaks cables have harmed U.S. diplomacy. But I find
myself turning to them for renderings of inequalities in other countries, and
tips on corruption.
In
any case, this July 2007 cable is titled “Who are Mexico’s Wealthiest Business Leaders,”
and it starts out thus:
“Mexico, a country
where roughly 40% of the population lives in poverty, has 10 people on FORBES
Magazine's 2008 list of the world's billionaires. While these individuals
have made important contributions to society via the expansion of services to
marginalized areas, job creation, and charitable donations, this
concentration of wealth and economic power hinders Mexico's ability to
realize more and deeper levels of competition in key industries.”
The
wealth of the richest Mexicans represented 10 percent of the value of the
nation’s gross domestic product, the cable says.
It
goes on to say that some of the richest Mexicans took advantage of
shortcomings in its political system to expand their wealth and create
private sector monopolies while “leaving the average Mexican out in the
cold.”
“The
negative aspects of this concentration of wealth and economic power cannot be
overlooked because many of these individuals control the monopolies and
oligopolies that hold back economic growth. SLIM, Salinas, and others have
used their influence to sway economic policy and work the system to further
their business interests and hinder their competitors. A World Bank report
found that billionaire-controlled companies in Mexico are more likely to be
involved in monopolistic practices and win amparos, or judicial stays, which
allow them to delay regulatory rulings against them while they mire the
process in appeals. The result is that SLIM still dominates the telecom
market; GE, NBC and others are unable to break into the broadcasting market;
and the Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco) remains unable to impose
significant penalties on anti-competitive conduct.”
If
Forbes is accurate, the concentration of wealth is increasing. While more
than 40 million Mexicans live in poverty, the world's richest man, Mexican
tycoon Carlos Slim, saw his wealth expand ever more, growing to $74 billion.
That’s a rise of $20.5 billion in a year. Slim is in the photo above, to the
right of President Felipe Calderon. Slim’s businesses include
telecommunications, an airline, a bank, a construction company, department
stores (including Sanborns), restaurants, music outlets, insurance, auto
parts, and ceramic tiles.
Coming
in at No. 39 on the rich list is another Mexican, German Larrea Mota Velasco
and family, with a fortune estimated at $16 billion. The chairman of copper
and silver miner Grupo Mexico saw his fortune climb $6.3 billion in the past
year, Forbes says.
At
No. 66 on the list is Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez, of the mining concern
Industrias Penoles, with $11.9 billion. At No. 112 is Ricardo Salinas Pliego,
the tycoon owner of TV Azteca, with $8.2 billion. At No. 268 is Jeronimo
Arango with $4 billion, largely accumulated from the sale of Cifra, their
self-made retail chain, to Wal-Mart. New to the list at No. 310 is Daniel
Servitje Montull and family, with $3.5 billion made from Grupo Bimbo, the
world’s largest breadmaker. At No. 512 is Emilio Azcarraga Jean, heir to the
Televisa fortune with a net worth of $2.3 billion. Then comes Roberto
Gonzalez Barrera and family with a $2 billion fortune from tortillas. At No.
993 is Roberto Hernandez Ramirez with a $1.2 billion fortune from sale of
Banamex, the bank. With a slim $1 billion fortune (chump change!) is Alfredo
Harp Helu at No. 1140, who also made a fortune from the sale of Banamex. Tied
in last place at No. 1140 is Joaquin Guzman Loera, the head of the Sinaloa
narcotics cartel.
So
which one is the most admirable and which is the biggest rogue?
|
*
“Among the commodities that Mexico exports is labor power. US corporations
depend on a supply of labor power from Mexican workers for their plants in
Mexico and the United States. The remittances of the latter, a major source of
income for millions of Mexican families, are crucial for Mexico’s GDP. Those US
and foreign plants that operate on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border,
across from US cities such as Laredo, McClaren and El Paso, Texas, and San
Diego, California, depend on a constant migration of low-wage workers from
southern to northern Mexico. Despite the draconian controls on immigration, the
integration of the labor markets is such that, according to one estimate, a 10
percent increase in wages for unskilled workers in the US over time results in
a 1.8 percent rise in Mexican wages.”
*
Mexican economy in free-fall
By Rafael Azul
26 August 2009
The Mexican economy shrank at an annual rate of 10.3 percent in the second
quarter of 2009. This is the worst economic performance since the National Statistics
Institute (INEGI) began issuing quarterly numbers in 1981. This statistic
signals a continuing deceleration for the economy, an increase over the
six-month average decline of 9.2 percent for the first half of 2009.Were one to predict a 7 percent decline for the entire year—a wildly optimistic estimate, given the above figures—Mexico would have faced its worst year since the Great Depression. Among the worlds’ major economies, only that of Russia has contracted more than Mexico’s, about 10.9 percent.
The third second quarter contraction follows a drop of 8 percent in the first quarter and 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. So-called secondary activities—construction, manufacturing, mining and utilities—fell by 11.5 percent. Tertiary activities, such as transportation and storage, fell by 10.4 percent. A somewhat positive result was generated in the primary sector—agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing—which rose by 1.1 percent of GDP.
By far the largest drop was in services associated with tourism, 17.1 percent, followed by manufacturing, 16.4 percent. This grim statistic is a direct result of a slowdown affecting the most industrialized parts of the country.
The drop in GDP has been accompanied by a crisis in the peso/dollar exchange rate. The rate changed from approximately 11 pesos to the dollar at the beginning of 2008 to 15.50 at the beginning of 2009. Only massive intervention by the Mexican Central Bank and the fall of the dollar itself restored some value to the peso, back to about 13 per dollar.
The social consequences of this dramatic decline are being felt. Mexico City residents report increases in nearly every measure of social unrest. Youth crime, drug use and corruption—all driven by increases in youth unemployment—have escalated.
Since the imposition of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992, the economies of the United States and Mexico have become much more closely integrated. Mexico transformed itself from an economy that relied mostly on domestic demand—less than 10 percent of GDP was involved in foreign trade—to an export platform, with over 30 percent of its GDP involved in foreign trade. This is particularly true for northern Mexico. Sixty percent of Mexico’s imports—mostly of manufactured goods—and two thirds of capital investments come from the United States. Over 90 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the US. In 2008 the total value of exports fell by 34 percent, while imports fell by 33 percent. This includes a 54 percent drop in the dollar value of oil exports.
Among the commodities that Mexico exports is labor power. US corporations depend on a supply of labor power from Mexican workers for their plants in Mexico and the United States. The remittances of the latter, a major source of income for millions of Mexican families, are crucial for Mexico’s GDP. Those US and foreign plants that operate on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, across from US cities such as Laredo, McClaren and El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California, depend on a constant migration of low-wage workers from southern to northern Mexico. Despite the draconian controls on immigration, the integration of the labor markets is such that, according to one estimate, a 10 percent increase in wages for unskilled workers in the US over time results in a 1.8 percent rise in Mexican wages.
The impact on the border economy has been devastating. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in industrial centers such as Ciudad Juarez, Laredo and Tijuana has affected the economies of the industrial corridor that stretches on both sides of the border from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas.
Consequently, the current US recession had an immediate impact on the Mexican economy. Exports, investment and remittances fell. Commodity prices, including the price of oil, also fell in response to the global drop in demand.
The collapse of exports, investments and remittances, however, are only part of the story. Food prices were on the rise throughout 2007, affecting living standards.
The official rate of unemployment, 5.2 percent of the labor force, up from 3.5 percent last year, obscures the actual state of affairs. Even before the crash, the economy was unable to create enough jobs to occupy new entrants into the labor force, a chronic problem for the Mexican economy.
Those that did not emigrate found employment in the so-called informal sector, which consists of what are euphemistically called “micro-enterprises.” This underground economy employs some 20 million people, 45 percent of the entire labor force of 45 million people. (Mexico has a population of 107 million; the labor force is officially defined as those over the age of 14.)
Since June 2008, the Mexican economy has lost 232,000 jobs, while the informal sector gained 99,000. If one adds this last group to the unemployed, the actual rate of unemployment would exceed 20 percent of the labor force. Such rates approach those of the 1930s and far exceed the jobless rates generated by the economic crisis of 1994.
The reaction of President Felipe Calderón’s National Autonomous Party (PAN) government to the new economic news resembles that of a US state governor, rather than the leader of a sovereign state. After dismissing warnings that the Mexican economy would be hard hit by the recession as “catastrophe mongering,” the Calderón administration proceeded to impose contractionary policies that reduced internal consumption and added to the unemployment rolls. The federal government will reduce spending by 85,000 million pesos, roughly US$6.5 billion, in the 2010 budget to be presented September 8.
At the same time, the Central Bank, with its policy of selling dollars to prevent the collapse of the peso, in effect has drastically reduced the money supply, increasing interest rates and further restricting economic activity. Central Bank officials have made it clear that the recovery of the Mexican economy depends on the recovery of the world economy.
The contractionary measures have been dictated by Wall Street. Last November, Fitch Ratings, a Wall Street Bond rating agency, gave a “negative” assessment of Mexican government debt. In May of this year, Standard and Poor’s also gave a Mexico a negative rating. Both agencies had threatened to reduce the government’s bond rating, presently at BBB+, three steps above junk bond status. In effect, the banks and the Obama administration are denying Mexico, a semi-colony of the US, the kind of bailout they have granted themselves. That the measures being imposed will result in increasing hunger and unemployment is of no consequence to the US ruling elite.
CALDERON’S ONLY JOBS PLAN IS TO EXPORT 38 MILLION ILLEGALS TO GRINGO LAND TO WAVE THEIR MEXICAN FLAG, AND LOOT!
“Wherever there’s a Mexican, there is Mexico!” Calderon
However, the union bureaucracy stopped short of calling on Calderón to rescind the budget cuts and to use the resources of the state to create jobs. Instead it demanded that whatever budget cuts take place be shared equally among all the government agencies. On Friday, Calderón placed a wage ceiling on government officials; from now on no government official will be allowed to earn a higher salary than the president himself. “Before we ask for further sacrifices from Mexican families, it is necessary that government officials show transparency in the efficient use of government resources,” declared Calderón, signaling further cuts in living standards.
*
MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
EXPORTING POVERTY... we take MEXICO'S 38 million
poor, illiterate, criminal and frequently pregnant
........ where can we send AMERICA'S poor?
The Mexican
Invasion................................................
Mexico prefers to export its poor,
not uplift them
March 30, 2006 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0330/p09s02-coop.html
Mexico prefers to export its poor,
not uplift them
At this week's summit, failed
reforms under Fox should be the issue, not US actions.
By George W. Grayson WILLIAMSBURG,
VA.
At the parleys this week with his
US and Canadian counterparts in Cancún, Mexican President Vicente Fox will
press for more opportunities for his countrymen north of the Rio Grande.
Specifically, he will argue for additional visas for Mexicans to enter the
United States and Canada, the expansion of guest-worker schemes, and the
"regularization" of illegal immigrants who reside throughout the
continent. In a recent interview with CNN, the Mexican chief executive
excoriated as "undemocratic" the extension of a wall on the US-Mexico
border and called for the "orderly, safe, and legal" northbound flow
of Mexicans, many of whom come from his home state of Guanajuato. Mexican
legislators share Mr. Fox's goals. Silvia Hernández Enriquez, head of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for North America, recently emphasized that
the solution to the "structural phenomenon" of unlawful migration
lies not with "walls or militarization" but with "understanding,
cooperation, and joint responsibility." Such rhetoric would be more
convincing if Mexican officials were making a good faith effort to uplift the
50 percent of their 106 million people who live in poverty. To his credit,
Fox's "Opportunities" initiative has improved slightly the plight of
the poorest of the poor. Still, neither he nor Mexico's lawmakers have advanced
measures that would spur sustained growth, improve the quality of the
workforce, curb unemployment, and obviate the flight of Mexicans abroad.
Indeed, Mexico's leaders have turned hypocrisy from an art form into an exact
science as they shirk their obligations to fellow citizens, while decrying
efforts by the US senators and representatives to crack down on illegal
immigration at the border and the workplace. What are some examples of this
failure of responsibility? · When oil revenues are excluded, Mexico raises the
equivalent of only 9 percent of its gross domestic product in taxes - a figure
roughly equivalent to that of Haiti and far below the level of major Latin
American nations. Not only is Mexico's collection rate ridiculously low, its
fiscal regime is riddled with loopholes and exemptions, giving rise to
widespread evasion. Congress has rebuffed efforts to reform the system.
Insufficient revenues mean that Mexico spends relatively little on two key
elements of social mobility: Education commands just 5.3 percent of its GDP and
healthcare only 6.10 percent, according to the World Bank's last comparative
study. · A venal, "come-back-tomorrow" bureaucracy explains the 58
days it takes to open a business in Mexico compared with three days in Canada,
five days in the US, nine days in Jamaica, and 27 days in Chile. Mexico's
private sector estimates that 34 percent of the firms in the country made
"extra official" payments to functionaries and legislators in 2004.
These bribes totaled $11.2 billion and equaled 12 percent of GDP. ·
Transparency International, a nongovernmental organization, placed Mexico in a
tie with Ghana, Panama, Peru, and Turkey for 65th among 158 countries surveyed
for corruption. · Economic competition is constrained by the presence of
inefficient, overstaffed state oil and electricity monopolies, as well as a
small number of private corporations - closely linked to government big shots -
that control telecommunications, television, food processing, transportation,
construction, and cement. Politicians who talk about, much less propose,
trust-busting measures are as rare as a snowfall in the Sonoran Desert.
Geography, self-interests, and humanitarian concerns require North America's
neighbors to cooperate on myriad issues, not the least of which is immigration.
However, Mexico's power brokers have failed to make the difficult decisions
necessary to use their nation's bountiful wealth to benefit the masses.
Washington and Ottawa have every right to insist that Mexico's pampered elite
act responsibly, rather than expecting US and Canadian taxpayers to shoulder
burdens Mexico should assume.
*
FROM JUDICIALWATCH.org
*
“The Obama Administration
seems to be heeding to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of
hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration
has a “backdoor amnesty” plan to legalize
millions of undocumented aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do
it.”
*
MEXICO ASKS U.S. TO STOP DEPORTING
SERIOUS CRIMINAL… GUESS OBAMA’S LA RAZA I.C.E WILL SIMPLY LET THEM GO?!?
*
Mexico Asks U.S. To Stop
Deporting Serious Criminals
Last
Updated: Mon, 09/27/2010 - 11:14am
In a flabbergasting request, a coalition of Mexican lawmakers
has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been
convicted of serious crimes in American courts.
The preposterous demand was made at a recent southern California
conference in which the mayors of four Mexican cities that border the U.S.
gathered to discuss cross-border issues. The only American mayor who attended
the biannual event was San Diego’s Jerry Sanders, evidently because his city
hosted it this year at a fancy downtown hotel.
Among the cross-border topics that were addressed at the
conference was the deportation of Mexican citizens who have committed violent
crimes in the U.S. The felons are persona non grata in their communities, say
the mayors of Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales and Nuevo Laredo. They want U.S.
officials to stem the deportation of such convicts to their cities, according
to a local newspaper report that covered the
conference.
To support the request, the mayor (Jose Reyes Ferriz) of
Mexico’s most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, pointed out that of 80,000 people
deported to his community in the past three years nearly 30,000 had committed
serious crimes in the U.S. Around 7,000 had served sentences for rape and 2,000
for murder. The criminal deportees have contributed to the escalating
drug-cartel violence in his city, Mayor Ferriz said, so he wants the U.S. to
make other arrangements when prison sentences are completed.
If this seems unbelievable, consider that a few years ago Mexico’s
government formally complained that too many Mexicans had
been repatriated from
the U.S. and that the entire country was overwhelmed with demands for housing,
jobs and schools. Various Mexican legislators publicly chastised the U.S. for
sending illegal immigrants back, explaining that the country could not
accommodate the “repatriated.”
The Obama Administration
seems to be heeding to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of
hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration
has a “backdoor amnesty” plan to legalize
millions of undocumented aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do
it.
*
MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
WE ARE MEXICO’S
WELFARE, BIRTHING CENTERS, JOBS AND …. JAILS SYSTEM!
THEY SAVE MUCHO, WE
SPEND EVER MORE!
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