Border

Local politics was overshadowed by non-stop Washington dramas this fall, but important trends emerged and decisions were made in New Mexico and the Paso del Norte borderland that will chart the identity and destiny of the region for years to come. Yet in various contests, it was a distinct minority of the electorate that shaped future courses...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conflict and struggle are key words at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year in Mexico. After a summer break, the controversy over education reform laws promoted by the Pena Nieto administration and backed by the country’s major political parties is back at center stage.

In recent days, tens of thousands of teachers and their allies have taken to the nation’s streets, plazas and highways to register their firm opposition to the education reform package, including the professional service law approved last week by the Mexican Congress that establishes a new educator evaluation system requiring teachers to pass No Child Left Behind-like standardized tests...

As the political crisis and debate intensify over Syria, immigrant advocates fear the issue of possible U.S. military action will delay comprehensive immigration reform in Washington.