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<channel>
	<title>The Mex Files</title>
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	<link>http://mexfiles.net</link>
	<description>¡COMO MEXICO NO HAY DOS! The "Real Mexico" -- high-brow, low-brow, masked transvestite wrestlers, machete-wielding naked farmers, WalMart shoppers, Socialists, Capitalists, Big business and the weirdness that floats down from the north.  Mexican art, history,</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:15:25 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>The Mex Files</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net</link>
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			<item>
		<title>The White Man&#8217;s Burden</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/the-white-mans-burden/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/the-white-mans-burden/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:13:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rich people behaving badly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Right Wing Idiots]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7155</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not exactly diplomatic, these guys&#8230;
According to the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the new &#8220;chancellor&#8221; [Foreign Minister of Honduras], Enrique Ortez Colindres, &#8230; [referred to]  President Barack Obama of The United States as &#8220;that little black man who doesn&#8217;t know anything&#8221;.
(via La Pagina [El Salvador], translation by Inca Kola News)
The translator adds that the &#8220;Chancellor&#8217;s&#8221; exact [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7155&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>Not exactly diplomatic, these guys&#8230;</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 300px"><img src="http://blog.netorivas.net/imagenes/LAESQUINADELVIERNESDELOSRECUERDOS_E1BA/clip_image002.jpg" alt="Enrique Ortez Colindres and wife, Patricia D’Arcy (photo: NetoRivas)" width="290" height="218" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Enrique Ortez Colindres and wife, Patricia D’Arcy (photo: NetoRivas)</p></div>
<p>According to the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the new &#8220;chancellor&#8221; [Foreign Minister of Honduras], Enrique Ortez Colindres, &#8230; [referred to]  President Barack Obama of The United States as &#8220;that little black man who doesn&#8217;t know anything&#8221;.</p>
<p>(via<a href="http://www.lapagina.com.sv/nacionales/12119/2009/07/03/Nuevo-canciller-de-Honduras-menosprecia-a-El-Salvador" target="_blank"> La Pagina [El Salvador]</a>, translation by <a href="http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/07/hondurass-de-facto-chancellor-obama-is.html" target="_blank">Inca Kola News</a>)</p>
<p>The translator adds that the &#8220;Chancellor&#8217;s&#8221; exact words were &#8220;<span style="font-style:italic;">Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada&#8221;</span> which Otto politely refrains from tranlating as &#8220;That nigger don&#8217;t know nothin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>Honduras&#8217; ethnic composition &#8212; according to the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/HO.html" target="_blank">C.I.A. World Fact Book</a> &#8212; is 90% mixed race (mostly Amerind and European), 7 percent Amerind, 2 percent black and 1 percent &#8220;white.&#8221;  The Chancellor appears to be a member of the last of the aforementioned groups.</p>
<p>Ortiz Colindres wrote <a href="http://openlibrary.org/b/OL5970032M/Repu%CC%81blica-Federal-de-Centro-Ame%CC%81rica-a-la-luz-del-derecho-internacional-pu%CC%81blico" target="_blank">his doctoral dissertation on the history of the 1823-1840 Central American Republic</a> and a second book on i<a href="http://openlibrary.org/b/OL22133756M/Integracion-politica-de-Centroamerica" target="_blank">nternational law and Central American cooperation </a>.</p>
<p>A post on the (extreme right-wing) &#8220;<a href="http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2009/06/viva-honduras-libre.html" target="_blank">Infidel Bloggers&#8221; by Carlos Echevarria</a>, refers to</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8230; our dear family friend, whom had just met with my father on Thursday in Tegucigalpa, has been named Foreign Minister of Honduras, Dr. Enrique Ortez Colindres.</p>
<p>He is a career, senior level Ambassador with long tenures in France, under different administrations, and at the United Nations. A staunch anti-communist and pro-American to boot! (of course not Barry&#8217;s Amerika)</p></blockquote>
<p>Echevarria speaks of himself (and his connection to Honduras) thusly:</p>
<blockquote><p>For the record my father was a &#8220;company&#8221; man for many years and conducted a plethora of activities in Latin America, especially Honduras during the Contras period in the &#8217;80&#8217;s.</p>
<p>He has, moreover, been engaging in business in that Central American nation for well over 40 years&#8230;I know all aspects of Honduras quite well.</p></blockquote>
<p>If &#8220;the company&#8221; to which Echeverria is referring is &#8220;THE COMPANY&#8221; &#8230; and the de facto foreign minister was holding meetings with representatives of that organization that is intriguing information.  I know nothing about Carlos Echeverria, other than he has a website called &#8220;<a href="http://carlosechevarria.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Let&#8217;s Get It Right</a>&#8221; &#8212; which quotes mostly rightist opinion pieces, when it isn&#8217;t pumping Sarah Palin as a presidential candidate or other odd extremist causes.</p>
<p>I hit what may be paydirt &#8212; Patty D&#8217;Arcy is the niece of, and a commentator for, whomever runs  <a href="http://blog.netorivas.net/?p=1179" target="_blank">NetoRivas.Net</a>.    I just found this while looking for a photo of the &#8220;chancellor&#8221; and haven&#8217;t had time to read through, digest and translate.</p>
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			<media:title type="html">Enrique Ortez Colindres and wife, Patricia D’Arcy (photo: NetoRivas)</media:title>
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		<title>Give &#8216;em an inch, they&#8217;ll take a meter</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/give-em-an-inch-theyll-take-a-meter/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/give-em-an-inch-theyll-take-a-meter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:32:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aretha Franklin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clueless gringos in Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gringo(landia)]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7125</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[HUH?
(CNN) &#8212; The metric system is the kind of thing that you can expect from the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority Democrats now have in the United States Senate.
After the Watergate scandal in 1974, Democrats trounced Republicans in the mid-term elections, getting 61 seats in the Senate and 291 in the House.
In the Senate, they adjusted the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7125&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/01/feehery.franken/index.html" target="_blank">HUH?</a></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>(CNN)</strong> &#8212; The metric system is the kind of thing that you can expect from the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority Democrats now have in the United States Senate.</p>
<p>After the Watergate scandal in 1974, Democrats trounced Republicans in the mid-term elections, getting 61 seats in the Senate and 291 in the House.</p>
<p>In the Senate, they adjusted the rules to make it harder for Republicans to filibuster (reducing the magic number from 67 to 60 to invoke cloture, which ends debate). In the House, they passed all kinds of reforms to take power away from senior members and give it to junior members. And Congress mandated that the American people embrace the metric system.</p>
<p>The metric system idea never really caught on&#8230;</p></blockquote>
<p>The Watergate scandal led to screwing up the U.S. entry into a rational system of weights and measurements?  OR&#8230; a disputed election (and recount) in the State of Minnesota somehow means the United States will finally do something the rest of the planet finds good enough, smart enough and gosh-darn it  like it &#8230;</p>
<p>Today is the U.S. national holiday when people in the United States celebrate their unique usos y costubres, like a screwy system of weights and measurements no one else understands.  Here in Mexico (which receives the most U.S. visitors and has the largest number of U.S. residents) there&#8217;s actually a monument to the adoption of the metric system (in Veracruz, where this particular reform is among several memorialized in an impressive, block long Benito Juarez memorial complex).  But, being Mexico, land of a million gringos, there are sometimes problems.</p>
<p>The temperature right now here in Mazatlan is 28°&#8230; which someone in the U.S. I was speaking to on the phone wanted to know what that was in &#8220;real&#8221; temperature.  Uh&#8230; 28 degrees&#8230; warm and sunny&#8230; would it be hotter if it was 29 degrees, and does it make all that much difference if it&#8217;s 82.4° Fahrenheit?</p>
<p>Close enough&#8230; and that&#8217;s the &#8220;problem&#8221; for people in the U.S.  When joining the rest of the planet and adopting the metric system was first proposed in the U.S., academics were the ones excited by it.  I realized why no one else thought it was a good idea when I saw a sign on a university campus reading &#8220;15 MPH/ 24.14 KmH&#8221;  &#8212; No shit!</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the problem&#8230; we expect everything to be exact&#8230; which just ain&#8217;t the way things work here.  If answering a personal ad (and I&#8217;m mature&#8230; not dead!) I say I&#8217;m 1.77 m tall.  Except for the gringos, who think 5&#8242;10&#8243; (requiring two different calculations) is my height (and actually adds a couple of millimeters).  C&#8217;mon&#8230; nobody&#8217;s that anal (and if they are, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d be interested in meeting anyway), but I&#8217;m still surprised how many people move to Mexico (or anywhere else) and find this a problem.</p>
<p>My simple rules for snowbirds and other measurement challenged folks.</p>
<ul>
<li>A half kilo is about a pound.</li>
<li>A liter is a quart and some.</li>
<li>A kilometer is about 2/3rds a mile</li>
<li>I&#8217;m not short.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m not tall either.</li>
<li>Mazatlan is hot.</li>
</ul>
<p>That&#8217;s all you need to know.  And the 4th of July is for fireworks and drinking beer (except in those jurisdictions where the ley seco is in effect the day before election day, too).</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t think one Senator from Minnesota (<a href="http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/199406/Al_Franken">even  a known math whiz</a>)  is going to change the Republic&#8230; and even if people in the U.S. never do figure out how to divide and multiply by 10&#8230; there are still be some things the U.S. gets mostly right:</p>
<p>From the 2002 Fourth of July celebrations in Washington DC.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/give-em-an-inch-theyll-take-a-meter/"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/c99rH6tw-mk/2.jpg" alt="" /></a></span></p>
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			<media:title type="html">richmx2</media:title>
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		<title>Mexico&#8217;s Masked Midget Murder Mystery</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/mexicos-masked-midget-murder-mystery/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/mexicos-masked-midget-murder-mystery/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:15:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ciudad de México]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime and Punishment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Luche libre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prostitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7127</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last Monday there was a double tragedy in the world of Luche Libre.  As Kris Zelner posted on &#8220;Pro Wrestling Insider&#8220;:
 Alberto &#38; Alejandro Jimenez also known as the original La Parkita &#38; Espectrito    II respectively were found dead on Monday in room #52 at Hotel Moderna just    blocks [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7127&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>Last Monday there was a double tragedy in the world of Luche Libre.  As Kris Zelner posted on &#8220;<a href="http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=39778&amp;p=1" target="_blank">Pro Wrestling Insider</a>&#8220;:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Alberto &amp; Alejandro Jimenez also known as the original La Parkita &amp; Espectrito    II respectively were found dead on Monday in room #52 at Hotel Moderna just    blocks away from Arena Coliseo after being drugged &amp; robbed by two    prostitutes.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The officers said that the men were found unharmed <em><strong>[other than dead!]</strong></em> and all of their belongings    were gone and after talking to the hotel clerk who said that they checked in    at 6:00 AM on Monday and that the women left some 12 hours later alone. The    bodies were transferred to a forensic specialist where the autopsies will be    done to determine the true cause of death but the initial belief is that the    women put something in the men’s drinks and it killed them according to    Enrique Humberto Pliego who is a prosecutor in Cuauhtemoc.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The mini wrestlers were 35-years-old and professionals for around 18 years  working all around the country for the various promotions with their older  brother being the original Espectrito.</span></p>
<p>The speculation was that La Parkita and Espectrito II deaths were the unintended results of the old &#8220;dope-a-mope&#8221; scam, in which ladies of the evening entice their clients to take a doctored drink (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna" target="_blank">belladonna &#8212; used for eye diseases &#8212; has been used for this for the last couple of centuries</a>) that will put them out for a few hours while the victim is robbed.  It&#8217;s a pretty common crime (and the source of a <a href="http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp" target="_blank">great urban legend </a>) &#8230; but even with large sized people, the amount of belladonna need to put a guy under can be fatal (allegedly, it&#8217;s what Macbeth used to off Duncan).  Smaller people, presumably, are more susceptible to a drug overdose.  Too easy.</p>
<p>Being Mexico City&#8230; a simple crime is never simple.   It turns out that <a href="http://www.milenio.com/node/242416" target="_blank">the hotel security tape turned over to the Federal District Prosecutor</a> was &#8220;intentionally edited, with the purpose of removing certain sequences of the recording.&#8221; Specifically, the prosecutor&#8217;s office said they think images of certain individuals entering and leaving the hotel were edited out of the tape.</p>
<p>Add to the weirdness that the two brothers made their living dressed as skeletons, and that La Parkita recently got out of prison after doing time for credit card fraud &#8230; and I fully expect this story to get stranger.  If it doesn&#8217;t make a good novel, it&#8217;ll at least make a good short story&#8230;. or a mini-series.</p>
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		<title>Animal Planet&#8230; Mexican edition</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/animal-planet-mexican-edition/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/04/animal-planet-mexican-edition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ciudad de México]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Horses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7097</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new &#8220;Soil Conservation Brigade&#8221; of Mexico City&#8217;s Environmental Police was  introduced to the public this week.  From the photo, it looks like they&#8217;ll also be providing free organic fertilizer:
Rare babies&#8230;
Two Scimitar oryx calves were born at Chapultepec Zoo last month.  Extinct in the wild, there is an international effort to return oryx to their [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7097&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>The new &#8220;Soil Conservation Brigade&#8221; of Mexico City&#8217;s Environmental Police was  introduced to the public this week.  From the photo, it looks like they&#8217;ll also be providing free organic fertilizer:</p>
<div id="attachment_7099" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 335px"><img class="size-full wp-image-7099" title="mounties" src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/mounties1.jpg?w=325&#038;h=217" alt="Photo by Ricardo Castelan (cuartoscuro.com)" width="325" height="217" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Ricardo Castelan (cuartoscuro.com)</p></div>
<p>Rare babies&#8230;</p>
<p>Two Scimitar oryx calves were born at Chapultepec Zoo last month.  Extinct in the wild, there is an international effort to return oryx to their native north Africa, although the success of efforts in Morocco and Tunisia depend on captive breeding programs like that at Chapultepec, which has one of the most active breeding programs for rare and endangered animals in the world.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7100" title="Scimitar Oryx 1" src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/scimitar-oryx-1.jpg?w=300&#038;h=199" alt="Scimitar Oryx 1" width="300" height="199" /></p>
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		<title>Last Honduran post for tonight</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/last-hondruan-post-for-tonight/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/last-hondruan-post-for-tonight/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:09:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7138</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apparently, it&#8217;s not being reported within Honduras that Roberto Micheletti&#8217;s claims that his &#8220;government&#8221; has the support of  Taiwan was seen as kind of pathetic.  And the news that Taiwan was supporting the Honduran putchists was news to Ma Ying-jeou too.
President Ma Ying-jeou has criticized the coup in Honduras which has seen the Honduran President [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7138&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>Apparently, it&#8217;s not being reported within Honduras that <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/1124528.html" target="_blank">Roberto Micheletti&#8217;s claims that his &#8220;government&#8221; has the support of  Taiwan was seen as kind of pathetic</a>.  And the news that Taiwan was supporting the Honduran putchists was <a href="http://english.rti.org.tw/Content/GetSingleNews.aspx?ContentID=81961" target="_blank">news to Ma Ying-jeou too</a>.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">President Ma Ying-jeou has criticized the coup in Honduras which has seen the Honduran President Manuel Zelaya forced out of the country. Ma made his remarks in a speech in the National Assembly of Panama on Thursday.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">Ma said that Taiwan, as a democratic country, condemns the removal from power of a democratically-elected leader.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">&#8220;The Republic of China has always supported freedom and democratic and legal institutions. We express our condemnation of any action that violates democracy and the rule of law,&#8221; said Ma.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">Ma called on Honduras to resolve its presidential crisis in line with the country&#8217;s constitution.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">On Wednesday Ma met briefly with the exiled President Zelaya at the inauguration of Panama&#8217;s President Ricardo Martinelli. Other governments in Central America have also urged Honduras to restore Mr. Zelaya. Furthermore the United Nations has also passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognize any government in Honduras other than that of Mr. Zelaya.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">President Ma Ying-jeou was originally scheduled to visit Honduras as part of his trip to Taiwan&#8217;s diplomatic allies in the region. This was cancelled however after news of the coup emerged. Ma will travel to Nicaragua next before returning to Taiwan.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.milenio.com/node/241545" target="_blank">Milenio</a> (a middle-of-the-road/conservative Mexican paper) is reporting that the Honduran authorities have extended the &#8220;state of emergency&#8221; and <a href="http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/2009/07/golpe-de-estado-sixth-day-theres.html" target="_blank">Hermano Juancito</a> writes of the demonstrations throughout the country:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">The anti-coup forces are claiming that 50 thousand people were demonstrating in various cities in the country: 30,000 in Tegucigalpa, thousands more in San Pedo Sula, Comayagua, and Progreso. Some of their demonstrations have turned violent, especially in San Pedro Sula, but some have been violently broken up by police or military forces.</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">The pro-coup forces are claiming 70,000 or more in their demonstration in Tegucigalpa and tens of thousands in San Pedro Sula, Choluteca, and other cities. Often the speakers are local businessmen and politicians. They typically are protected by police and are peaceful.</p>
<p>An e-mail from &#8220;Ing. Wilson Rubio&#8221; posted on <a href="http://hondurasresistencia.blogspot.com/2009/07/camaras-de-comercio-de-cortes.html" target="_blank">Honduras Frente al Golpe de Estado</a> claims that the Chamber of Commerce is levying a &#8220;donation&#8221; on its members to support the so-called &#8220;Peace Marches&#8221; (which sound suspicously like the pro-Calderon &#8220;anti-crime marches&#8221; here in Mexico pushed by Televisa).  I can&#8217;t imagine why &#8220;spontaneous&#8221; demonstrations would require corporate donations, can you?</p>
<p>Also, check <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/090703/honduras-media-crackdown?page=0,0" target="_blank">GlobalPost&#8217;s article by Ione Grillo</a> (via Inca Kola News) on press censorship&#8230; something even reported (on the news pages) by t<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124658463338890161.html" target="_blank">he Wall Street Journal. </a></p>
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		<title>Street battles in Tegucigalpa?</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/street-battles-in-tegacegalpa/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/street-battles-in-tegacegalpa/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:59:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Juan-Carlos of Spain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spain]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7134</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Argentine news service TELAM is reporting that Organization of American States Secretary-General Miguel Insulza, managed to meet with the Honduran Supreme Court&#8230; for a response to OAS demands for return to democratic and constitutional government.  The demands have been rejected according to El Salvador&#8217;s La Prensa.  Tomorrow is the 72 hour deadline for the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7134&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p><a href="http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/458458-100891-0-En-Honduras-el-secretario-la-OEA-ratific%C3%B3-que-espera-que-Zelaya-vuelva-la-Presidencia" target="_blank">Argentine news service TELAM</a> is reporting that Organization of American States Secretary-General Miguel Insulza, managed to meet with the Honduran Supreme Court&#8230; for a response to OAS demands for return to democratic and constitutional government.  The demands have been rejected according to<a href="http://www.laprensagrafica.com/internacionales/centroamerica/44152-csj-de-honduras-rechaza-peticion-de-insulza.html" target="_blank"> El Salvador&#8217;s La Prensa</a>.  Tomorrow is the 72 hour deadline for the return of the legitimate president, at which time, the OAS ultimatum will kick in, leading to Honduras&#8217; expulsion for the hemispheric organization.  Insulza arrived and left Tegucigalpa under massive military protection.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="http://elextranewspaper.com/news.php?nid=11889" target="_blank">Pablo Palomo of NOTIMEX</a> is reporting that the scene around the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa is a &#8220;battleground&#8221;, while <a href="http://www.abc.es/20090703/internacional-iberoamerica/estalla-bomba-frente-aeropuerto-200907031801.html" target="_blank">ABC (Spain)</a> reports that bombs have gone off at the airport.  Spanish media is also reporting that King Juan-Carlos has spoken against the coup.  And, having put down a coup that was supposedly in support of him (and of right-wing oligarchs) back in 1981, the man knows a thing or two about coups.</p>
<p>Mexican sources have mentioned dissention within the military, with possible mutinies against the coup, but I&#8217;m having a hard time finding on-line sources and confirmation right now.</p>
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		<title>Stereotypical Friday Night Video</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/stereotypical-friday-night-video/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/stereotypical-friday-night-video/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:30:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Movies and TV]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[This Japanese short promotes film-making in Mexico &#8212; or (with the exception of the very short clip from the one and only Mexican film shown at the end) at least making movies Mexicans hate&#8230; and find stereotyped and bone-headed.  You know&#8230; Hollywood films.

       <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7000&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>This Japanese short promotes film-making in Mexico &#8212; or (with the exception of the very short clip from the one and only Mexican film shown at the end) at least making movies Mexicans hate&#8230; and find stereotyped and bone-headed.  You know&#8230; Hollywood films.</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/stereotypical-friday-night-video/"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/oq0OAbwW4j4/2.jpg" alt="" /></a></span></p>
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		<title>Why Honduras Matters &#8212; to the U.S. and Mexico</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/why-honduras-matters-to-the-u-s-and-mexico/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/why-honduras-matters-to-the-u-s-and-mexico/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:30:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2006 Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Border Issues]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bureaucracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crack-pots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evil-doers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Felipe Calderón]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gringo(landia)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Legal system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexican History 1910-20 (Revolution)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politica (Mexicana)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Victoriano Huerta]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mexfiles.net/?p=7106</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m not all that interested in the fate of Mel Zelaya, the deposed president of Honduras.  I really don&#8217;t care if he is impeached&#8230; for any number of things.  The original justification for the coup &#8212; that Zelaya &#8220;disobeyed&#8221; a court order is pretty tenuous:  when the Supreme Court ruled a planned referendum was unconstitutional, [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7106&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>I&#8217;m not all that interested in the fate of Mel Zelaya, the deposed president of Honduras.  I really don&#8217;t care if he is impeached&#8230; for any number of things.  The original justification for the coup &#8212; that Zelaya &#8220;disobeyed&#8221; a court order is pretty tenuous:  when the Supreme Court ruled a planned referendum was unconstitutional, the President changed it to a non-binding referendum; when the Elections Commission said their resources couldn&#8217;t be legally involved, the now non-binding referendum became something no different than the  <a href="http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/2009/07/should-zelaya-come-back-to-honduras.html" target="_blank"> on-line polls, as &#8220;la gringa&#8221; wants coup supporters to manipulate</a>).  Perhaps government funds were involved, and perhaps it&#8217;s an impeachable offense.  Who cares?</p>
<p>The rights and wrongs of the Zelaya Administration are irrelevant, as are the rationales being spun in Tecapagalpa and presented to a skeptical world.</p>
<p>The best reason, and one that doesn&#8217;t involve geo-politics, was given by <a href="http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/07/chart-of-day-is_02.html" target="_blank">Inca Kola News</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">I have two kids, five and nearly three years old. When they&#8217;re 21 and 18 I&#8217;m going to have enough trouble on my hands worrying about boys and drugs and getting them into unversities and making sure they get there unpregnant and all the rest. I really don&#8217;t need to worry whether they&#8217;re going to take a bullet in the chest if they decide to protest the government of the day. Or maybe just disappear.</p>
<p>Not having kids, that&#8217;s not a worry of mine&#8230; but I live here, too.  And, I am a United States citizen.  In both Mexico, and in the United States, there is a creeping (or rather blatant) attempt to <a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicanisima/2009/07/will-the-national-guard-help-fight-the-drug-war.html" target="_blank">move the military into more civilian roles</a>.  In Mexico, military involvement in civilian police matters has been applauded and supported by the United States &#8212; but the record of <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-army21-2009mar21,0,7218318.story" target="_blank">human rights abuses is growing</a>.  In the United States, where &#8220;terrorism&#8221; is used to justify an expanded military role in civilian affairs, there haven&#8217;t been that many overt problems&#8230; yet.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">
<div id="attachment_7118" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 528px"><img class="size-full wp-image-7118" title="gloriosavictoria" src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/gloriosavictoria.jpg?w=518&#038;h=345" alt="Gloriosa Victoria, Diego Rivera (1954), commemorating the coup overthrowing Guatemala's democratically-elected President, Jacobo Arbenz  (Photo: BBC)" width="518" height="345" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Gloriosa Victoria, Diego Rivera (1954), commemorating the coup overthrowing Guatemala&#39;s democratically-elected President, Jacobo Arbenz  (Photo: BBC)</p></div>
<p>There seems to be a myth that coups are outside a constitutional framework.  Not so.  Victoriana Huerta became president in 1913 constitutionally.  For real.  Jose Pino Suarez, the vice-president resigned, leaving Foreign Minister Pedro Lascuráin as second in line when Francisco I. Madero resigned for reasons of health (like there was a gun pointed at him).  Lascuráin holds the world record for the shortest term in office for a legitimate president of all times&#8230; probably about 45 minutes.. long enough to appoint Victoriano Huerta HIS foreign minister, and then resign himself.  All constitutional, all legal.  And&#8230; defended by the right as a way of &#8220;restoring order&#8221; and dealing with a president over his head during a time of calls for social change.</p>
<p>Constitutional&#8230; but no one in their right mind would say that wasn&#8217;t a coup.  Lydia Gueller was President of Bolivia (remembered only for being Bolivia&#8217;s one and only Presidenta) for eight months (November 1979 &#8211; July 1980) to provide a   &#8220;constitutional&#8221; cover for a military dictatorship.  Until, of course, she acted too civil, and was overthrown by the &#8220;Cocaine Coup&#8221; of General Luis Garcia Meza.</p>
<p>People forget that the United States very nearly did have a military coup &#8212; which was crafted to fit &#8220;constitutional norms&#8221; in the early 1930s.  How seriously the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot" target="_blank"> &#8220;Business Plot&#8221; </a>had advanced is a matter of historical speculation, but it would have been a &#8220;constitutional&#8221; solution that allowed for a military and fascist state.   That the coup failed was ironically due to one of the major figures in U.S. intervention in Latin America,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler" target="_blank"> General Smedley Butler</a>.  The plan called for &#8220;persuading&#8221; the President to create a &#8220;Secretary of General Affairs&#8221; (perfectly constitutional) and installing a fascist economic system (also constitutional&#8230; nowhere does the U.S. Constitution require any particular economic system).</p>
<p>In 1935, as in 2009,  you had deep economic unrest, political calls for &#8220;change&#8221;, and resistance from those who were willing to turn to a military solution to preserve the status quo. Butler was something of a crank, and maybe so were the organizers (which included <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/240707fascistcoup.htm" target="_blank">Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two future Presidents)</a> , but there are overt signals being given by today&#8217;s right-wingers that they would accept the use of military force to create an extra-legal solution to temporary problems&#8230; and to after-the-fact develop a legal fiction to cover the event.  What stopped the coup in 1935, more than anything, was that Smedley Butler was the wrong man for the job.  Not that he wasn&#8217;t experienced in military intervention.  He was&#8230; all too well.  As he said to the <a href="http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/reviews/wharton_plot.html" target="_blank">New Britain CT American Legion (31 August 1931)</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I spent 33 years&#8230;being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism&#8230;.</p>
<p>&#8220;I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City [Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street&#8230;.</p>
<p>&#8220;In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested&#8230;.I had&#8230;a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions&#8230;.I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents&#8230;&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Calls for social and economic change here in Mexico have largely gone unheeded.  One reason for the high abstention rate, and the<em> <a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/jornadas-de-reflexion/" target="_blank">voto nulo</a></em><a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/jornadas-de-reflexion/" target="_blank"> </a>campaign is disgust with the existing political system, and the sense that voting is a futile act.  After the 2006 Presidental election (which many believe was manipulated), a huge segment of the people feel the system failed them.  That doesn&#8217;t mean they don&#8217;t want social change, however.  And&#8230; with the sitting administration turning to using the military (which, many argue, is unconstitutional), there is a sense in some quarters that this country did have a &#8220;constitutional&#8221; coup.</p>
<p>The danger isn&#8217;t the preservation of legal formality, but the after-effects.  <a href="http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9701b/warzapat.html" target="_blank">The military has been used here to attack domestic dissent &#8212; sometimes in the guise of fighting the &#8220;drug war&#8221; (as with the Zapatistas)</a> and there are there have already been minor incidents in the United States when the military is used to &#8220;fight terrorists&#8221; along the border.  Almost unnoticed, the Calderon Administration slipped in a bill allowing for a &#8220;state of exception&#8221; (i.e., the abrogation of civil rights) in the latest crime bill.  <a href="http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/6126.html" target="_blank">More on our &#8220;state of exception&#8221; here. </a></p>
<p>In Honduras, where<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1124528.html" target="_blank"> the &#8220;constitutional&#8221; fig leaf is slipping</a>, there are reports of <a href="http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=338375&amp;CategoryId=23558" target="_blank">forced recruitments into the Army</a> &#8230; or, perhaps, into <a href="http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/2009/07/photos-of-pro-government-anti-zelaya.html" target="_blank">those pro-coup protests</a> the gardener tries to sell as &#8220;proof&#8221; of the rightness to the coup (not that one can&#8217;t create a crowd to support a government proposal easily.  PRI mastered the mass demonstration years ago, and the Calderon Adminstration, with the help of Televisa, convinced even foreigners to turn out for an &#8220;anti-crime&#8221; rally to justify continued military intervention in civil justice), <a href="http://hondurasresistencia.blogspot.com/2009/07/destituyen-alclade-san-pedrano-y.html" target="_blank">arbitrary replacement of elected officials,</a> and, in the words of <a href="http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/2009/07/golpe-de-estado-day-five-five-days.html" target="_blank">Bishop Luis Alfonso Santos, speaking for the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, read from the Cathedral altar yesterday:</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">&#8230; protests of the citizenry in the streets and highways, a climate of insecurity and fear in families because of the limitation of constitutional rights, including:</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">The right to freedom of movement, freedom of association and to demonstrate, inviolability of one’s home, the right of private property, freedom of the press and of dissemination of ideas and opinions, personal freedom, including the right not to be detained administratively in a police station for more than 24 hours and [the right to] a limit of six days of investigative detention under judicial orders, which would lead to indefinite detentions. All this mentioned above is contained in the Decree about the “State of Exception” which was being drawn up yesterday, July 1, in the National Congress. With this we are coming near to a massive violation of human rights.</p>
<p>When even <a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/06/30/when-progressives-go-bad/" target="_blank">factually challenged, supposedly &#8220;progressive&#8221;,</a> voices in the United States make excuses for military intervention (and abrogation of civil rights, as well as state terrorism), there&#8217;s a sense that &#8212; given the U.S. propensity to use Latin American social and political events only as object lessons for whatever political football is being kicked around within Washington &#8212; tolerance for extra-legal ways of resolving political disputes is acceptable to more people than we realize.</p>
<p>Consider this, broadcast among other places, on Armed Forces Radio (&#8221;Nork&#8221; means &#8220;North Koreans&#8221;).</p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; display: block;"><a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/why-honduras-matters-to-the-u-s-and-mexico/"><img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/t36Tzx3xc94/2.jpg" alt="" /></a></span></p>
<p>It can&#8217;t happen here?  Mexico or the United States?</p>
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		<title>Non-fiction, right?</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/non-fiction-right/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/03/non-fiction-right/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Argentina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snark]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Editorial Mazatlan&#8217;s offices are in a bookstore, that makes a tidy business in the beach-reading biz.  I&#8217;ve been trying to get the bookstore&#8217;s shelves in a little less disorder.   We don&#8217;t often get people reading political biographies while on vacation, but I suppose South Carolina governor Mark Sanford&#8217;s biography might prove rather entertaining.

  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7093&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p><a href="http://editorialmazatlan.com/index.php" target="_blank">Editorial Mazatlan</a>&#8217;s offices are in a <a href="http://mazatlanbook.com/" target="_blank">bookstore</a>, that makes a tidy business in the beach-reading biz.  I&#8217;ve been trying to get the bookstore&#8217;s shelves in a little less disorder.   We don&#8217;t often get people reading political biographies while on vacation, but I suppose South Carolina governor Mark Sanford&#8217;s biography might prove rather entertaining.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7094" title="argentinesbed1" src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/argentinesbed1.jpg?w=500&#038;h=500" alt="argentinesbed1" width="500" height="500" /></p>
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		<title>Hemano Juancito from Honduras</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/hemano-juancito/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/hemano-juancito/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:45:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The first public pronouncement of the Catholic Church in Honduras can be found in article on a Spanish church website that reiterates a position the church took ten days before the coup. The article begins: “The executive director of Caritas of Honduras, Father Germán Calíx, make it clear that the Catholic Church rejects the coup [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7086&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><blockquote><p>The first public pronouncement of the Catholic Church in Honduras can be found in article on a Spanish church website that reiterates a position the church took ten days before the coup. The article begins: “The executive director of Caritas of Honduras, Father Germán Calíx, make it clear that the Catholic Church rejects the coup against the constitutional government of its country, but at the same time demands that the deposed official Manuel Zelaya respect the constitutional requirements for plebiscites and referenda in regard to constitutional reforms.” The full text in my English translation can be found below in the previous post.</p>
<p>The bishop of Santa Rosa has been meeting with the priests of the diocese and I suspect that a statement may be released by tomorrow afternoon. When I have a copy I will publish and translate it.</p>
<p style="padding-left:120px;">Hemano Juancito, 1-July-09, 10:59 P.M.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Late on Saturday 27-June (the coup was the next morning) Hermano Juancito posted &#8220;Rumors abound here. I won&#8217;t comment until I have some real information.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s no secret the  Church has its own problems with President Zelaya, which is rather beside the point.  <a href="http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Hermano Juancito</a> is John Donaghy, a lay volunteer with the Catholic relief organization Caritas, in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras is commenting, meaning he has some real information.</p>
<p>His reports of violence, news blackouts and of civil liberties being rescinded are what we are hearing from others and I hope no one is foolish enough to start suggesting a Catholic missionary worker from Ames Iowa is in cahoots with Fidel Castro.</p>
<p>His blog was mentioned by Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic Magazine, which he mentions has caused his traffic to explode&#8230; &#8220;And so my ministry grows – hopefully still &#8216;in service to those most in need.&#8217; Brother Juanito writes.</p>
<p>Stay safe, Brother John.</p>
<p>And <a href="http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">keep checking Hermano Juancito for update</a>s (and &#8212; for those who do so &#8212; pray he can keep posting).</p>
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		<title>Days of reflection&#8230; on Batman</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/jornadas-de-reflexion/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/jornadas-de-reflexion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Minor parties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PRD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PRI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politica (Mexicana)]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Yup, &#8220;Jornadas de reflexión&#8221; is the official phrase used for the 72 hours before the election, when no polls can be published, no campaigning is allowed and &#8230; I guess&#8230; everyone is supposed to &#8220;reflect&#8221; on their voting.   One nice thing is we don&#8217;t have to put up with all that last-minute campaign news and [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7079&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>Yup, &#8220;Jornadas de reflexión&#8221; is the official phrase used for the 72 hours before the election, when no polls can be published, no campaigning is allowed and &#8230; I guess&#8230; everyone is supposed to &#8220;reflect&#8221; on their voting.   One nice thing is we don&#8217;t have to put up with all that last-minute campaign news and exit polling (also not allowed) though there is an official &#8220;quick vote&#8221; tally that will start appearing at 8 PM on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Since at least last March, all polls have shown that the PRI will form the legislative majority in the next Senate and Chamber.  The only question is how many of the 300 district seats they&#8217;ll win in the Chamber, and how many of the 200 plurinomal seats they&#8217;ll be entitled to as a result.  It&#8217;s a little complicated.  There are 300 electoral districts, where the top vote getter becomes the delegate.  Based on how the party vote goes in each state, there are additional seats awarded&#8230; but no one party is allowed to hold more than 2/3rds minus one of the total seats.</p>
<p>Best guesses are that PRI will hold somewhere between 200 and 220 seats.</p>
<p>In the Senate, it gets very complicated, with two senators per State (as in the United States and two for the Federal District (96 Senators in all), PLUS another 32 Senators selected (based on party vote) by &#8220;Conscription&#8221;&#8230; a regional lumping of the States into five super-districts called &#8220;Conscriptiones&#8221;.</p>
<p>The relatively large PRD faction in the outgoing legislature was something of a fluke, based mostly on the Lopez Obrador coat-tails.  PRD is expected to fall back to its normal 15 to 20 percent of the total.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-7083" style="margin:20px;" title="batman&amp;robin" src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/batmanrobin.jpg?w=338&#038;h=273" alt="batman&amp;robin" width="338" height="273" />The &#8220;null vote&#8221; &#8212; those who plan to mark their ballot for no one, or write in a candidate (&#8221;Batman&#8221; &#8212; always a favorite write-in protest candidate &#8212; may garner more votes than listed candidates in several districts) &#8212; has become a factor, though the votes will not count in assigning seats.  The &#8220;nullistas&#8221; have a variety of causes&#8230; from demanding an electoral system that allows for independent candidates (both rightists and leftists have their own candidates in mind), or change the law to allow for referendum and recall, to those in the media who want to legalize paid political advertising.  The recent Honduran coup&#8230; caused in <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47418" target="_blank">some part by dependence on the political party system</a> (and having a elections commission system based on Mexico&#8217;s) and the crisis that developed when the President&#8217;s policies conflicted with his party&#8217;s, may have given the <em>nullistas </em>a boost in the last few days.</p>
<p>Depending on how poorly the Social Democrats do (they need at least 2.5 percent of the vote to keep their party registration), I expect they&#8217;ll be part of the nullista faction next time out.</p>
<p>However, the real winner will be nobody&#8230; somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of voters are abstaining.</p>
<p>Expect calls for electoral changes by the end of the year&#8230; and expect PRI to defend the system that it took them a few years to get used to, but that they&#8217;ve been able to spin to their advantage once again.</p>
<p>After the election, I hope to write a fairly long piece on the PRI&#8217;s resurgence, but want to see how resurgent they really are, first.  So, for now, I&#8217;m in my own &#8220;<em>jornadas de reflexión&#8221;</em></p>
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		<title>A high-tech lynching &#8230;</title>
		<link>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/a-high-tech-lynching/</link>
		<comments>http://mexfiles.net/2009/07/02/a-high-tech-lynching/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>richmx2</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Americas (outside U.S. and Mexico)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cancún]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime and Punishment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cuba]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Death squads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evil-doers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Informal economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Zetas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Money laundering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Provincia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quintana Roo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Veracruz]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A new youtube vido (which I&#8217;m not going to post) has surfaced supposedly showing &#8220;Zetas&#8221; being tortured and confessing to naming various federal and state police and other officials from Quintana Roo and Veracruz involved with the Zetas in a Cuban (or, rather, Cuban-American) smuggling operation. 
Joe Reynold&#8217;s &#8220;NarcoGuerra Times&#8221; posted about this story yesterday, [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mexfiles.net&blog=551963&post=7076&subd=mexfiles&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>A new youtube vido (which I&#8217;m not going to post) has surfaced <a href="http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/608605.html" target="_blank">supposedly showing &#8220;Zetas&#8221; being tortured and confessing to naming various federal and state police and other officials from Quintana Roo and Veracruz involved with the Zetas in a Cuban (or, rather, Cuban-American) smuggling operation. </a></p>
<p>Joe Reynold&#8217;s &#8220;NarcoGuerra Times&#8221; posted about this story yesterday, but I think Joe seems to be under the impression that the video is from Veracruz State, and not&#8230; as I believe&#8230; Quintana Roo.  It&#8217;s a small matter, but an important one.</p>
<p>The bizarre story from June 2008 of <a href="http://mexfiles.net/2008/06/19/take-the-long-way-home/" target="_blank">Cuban &#8220;indocumentados&#8221; being &#8220;kidnapped&#8221; by Zetas </a>(from Tapachula, Chiapas on the Guatemalan border), did involve the State of Veracruz (where the Cubans who were rounded up said they had been held by their supposed &#8220;kidnappers&#8221;) but both Mexican and Cuban investigators focused in on what they thought were the centers of a wide-spread operation organized in Miami (by the U.S. government supported &#8220;Cuban American National Foundation), which involved<a href="http://mexfiles.net/2008/06/23/does-the-united-states-government-finance-the-zetas/" target="_blank"> smuggling through Cancun. </a></p>
<p>The men in the video are presumably some of those who were found outside Merida (the capital of Quintana Roo) with their heads chopped off.  Shortly thereafter, two Cubans were arrested in connection with the crime and at the time, I wrote what<a href="http://mexfiles.net/2008/09/04/cuban-heels/" target="_blank"> I considered the most plausible explaination for this murder</a> &#8230; exile Cuban death squads getting rid of their patsies makes more sense to me.</p>
<p>Given that just a couple of weeks ago, what <a href="http://mexfiles.net/2009/06/28/death-squads/" target="_blank">appears to be a death squad using the name &#8220;Mata Zetas&#8221; appeared in Cancun</a>&#8230; it&#8217;s tempting to think this is the same group.  What&#8217;s scary is that these guys mimic a police interrogation video so closely &#8212; from the hooded, uniformed guards to the off-camera interrogator to even the shirtless (presumably to document for the court that no physical torture was performed) &#8220;perps&#8221;&#8230; or, maybe it was filmed by police officers acting extra-judicially.</p>
<p>My point is that Quintana Roo seems a more likely spot for something like this to happen.  Veracruz may have cultural ties to Cuba, but Cancun and Miami have much closer business ties (and Cuba is closer to Quintana Roo than Veracruz), including shady business. American gangsters (including Cuban-American gangsters) go where the money is&#8230; and there&#8217;s more money (and more opportunity for laundering money) in Cancun than in Veracruz.</p>
<p>Death Squads are usually associated with the extreme right.  There are rightists in Veracruz, to be sure, but a lot more of them among the shadier figures in  Miami&#8217;s Cuban community (most of whom are perfectly respectable people, naturally)&#8230; and Miami has become a Mecca for all kinds of rightist Latin American organizations.</p>
<p>If, however, NarcoGuerra News is correct, and this death squad (or another death squad) is ALSO working in Veracruz, that is even more disturbing.</p>
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