Frontera NorteSur   2006

Gaming Fever Strikes Mexico's Southern Border

Once a remote jungle outpost where sights of swinging monkeys and slithering jaguars provided the most thrills, the Belizean district of Corozal now buzzes with the joyful shouts and sorrowful moans of gamblers. Strategically located just yards from the Mexican border, three casinos do a steady business as players try their luck with slot machines, routlette wheels and poker tables. Of 10 gamblers entering the Belizean casinos, 8 are Mexican nationals, according to Julio Enrique Tzul, assistant administrator of Belize's free trade zone.

"Cheap gasoline used to be the draw, but the three casinos are the attraction ever since a few years ago." Tzul said. Lured to the flashing temptations of fortune, Tzul reported that tour buses from the Mexican interior unload their passengers at the casinos' doorsteps. Passengers come from the Yucatan, Tabasco, Veracruz, Mexico City, Michoacan, Jalisco, and Nuevo Leon, he added.

Employing 800 workers and operated by businessmen with US and Middle Eastern ties in Belize's free trade zone, the popular gaming palaces include the Princess Casino and Golden operated by Turkish entrepreneur Sudi Ozcan; the Las Vegas Casino run by US businessman George Hardie, and the floating Midnight Gambler owned by Issac Hamui Abadi, who has expressed interest in opening a fourth casino. Lebanese-descended, Hamui Abadi is an acquaintance of Joaquin Hendricks, the governor of Mexico's southern Quintana Roo state that borders Belize.

Now enjoying a foothold in Central America, Las Vegas Casino owner George Hardie...

Across the Belize-Mexico border, meanwhile, the Mexican gaming industry got another shot-in-the-arm when a new bingo parlour opened its doors this month in the Chiapas state capital city of Tuxtla Gutierrez. Publically inaugurated on November 9, the Bingo 777 offers remote sports betting and electronic number games. Owned by businessmen Raul Fernandez Quintana and Pablo Cortina de la Fuente, the new gaming outlet is operating on a 25-year permit granted by Mexico's Interior Ministry last year. The permit is one of 198 controversial concessions granted by the Interior Ministry in May 2005 just before Interior Minister Santiago Creel left office to mount an unsuccesful bid for the Mexican presidency.

According to one report, the number of gaming concessions awarded just in May 2005 represented almost double the total of permits granted in Mexico from 1917 to 2004. Promojuegos and six other enterprises received the 198 permits during Creel's last days in office. The other firms include Mio Games, Eventos Festivos de Mexico, Promociones e Inversiones de Guerrero, Apuestas Internacionales, Entretenimiento de Mexico, and Juega y Juega.

Promojuego's Quintana is also reportedly associated with three professional soccer teams and Televisa, one of Mexico's two dominant television networks. Attending the public opening of Bingo 777 in Tuxtla Gutierrez were Roger Grajales Gonzalez, Chiapas state government secretary and Rosario Pariente Gavito, mayor of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Little hard data is available about the social, health and economic impacts of Mexico's new gaming boom, which so far hasn't evolved into approval of full-blown Las Vegas-style casinos. Hector Marin Lopez, a psychologist with the Quintana Roo state Health Ministry, said that 20 percent of the Belize casino clients are housewives, especially divorcees or women having conflicts with their husbands. Marin said that only 30 percent of casino players have the financial means to engage in gambling, and that 15 percent turn to loans to keep the roulette wheels rolling and the slots shaking.

One economic consequence of the gaming boom has been a boost to the pawn shop trade in the Quintana Roo state capital of Chetumal, which is located near Corozal. Sleiman Tamaor Saoud, a Chetumal pawn store owner, said 23 hock shops currently serve the small city of 150,000 people.

Sources: La Jornada, November 10 and 11, 2006. Articles by Javier Chavez and Angeles Mariscal. Proceso, September 25, 2006. Article by Beatriz Pereya. juegos y sorteos.gob.mx presidencia.gob.mx

Banks Leap Across Borders

Given the green light by the Federal Reserve Board, a Mexican bank has finalized its majority-ownership purchase of the Texas-based Inter National Bank (INB). Luis Pena Kegel, director general of the Banorte Financial Group, said the INB will use its base from the city of McAllen on the Texas-Mexico border to expand into other regions of the United States.

"With this operation, Banorte has the intention of getting closer to families and businesses on both sides of the border with innovative financial products that nobody else is offering," Pena said in an interview with the Mexico City daily La Jornada.

Transferring remittances from the United States to Mexico for no charge is one big enticement that the INB will employ to attract new customers. A booming business, remittances in Mexico could reach an oversall sum of $24-25 billion dollars in 2006- an increase of more than 20 percent increase over last year's amount. Figures from the central Bank of Mexico estimate that total remittances during the the 6-year presidency of Vicente Fox, which concludes December 1 of this year, will reach almost $93 billion dollars.

According to Pena, binational mortgages will be another product offered by the INB. While providing financing to US residents interested in purchasing real estate in Mexico, the INB will also assist Mexican residents seeking to purchase a home in the United States, Pena explained.

Possessing deposits of more than $1 billion dollars, the INB counts 18 branches in Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley and in El Paso. The firm employs 305 people. Banorte paid $259 million dollars for a 70 percent ownership stake in Inter National, and could buy out the remaining shares in the future.

Banorte is associated with prominent Monterrery businessman Roberto Gonzalez Barrera, whose fortunes as the head of the Grupo Maseca milling and tortilla company soared during the administration of former President Carlos Salinas Gortari (1988-94). Enjoying ties to the Salinas family, Mexico's so-called "Tortilla King" oversaw the successful expansion of Grupo Maseca into the US, Costa Rica and other nations. In a cultural and culinary milestone, Grupo Maseca inaugurated China's first tortilla plant in the city of Shanghai last September.

In 1992, investors headed by Gonzalez purchased Banorte as part of the Salinas administration's bank privatization program. Currently capitalized with $7.85 billion dollars, Banorte has 1,000 branches and 3,050 automatic teller machines in Mexico.

Even as Banorte is expanding into the United States market, US and Spanish firms are stepping up their banking activities in Mexico. In one of the final decisions of the outgoing Fox adminstration, Wal Mart and Prudential Financial were among 5 new companies authorized to operate in the banking sector last week. Manuel Somoza Alonso, a former chief of the Mexico

City stock market, has been named as the individual likely to head Prudential's new Mexico operation. Together with two additional banks awaiting final approval, the new banks will join a roster of 13 new financial services businesses given official authorization by the Mexican federal government during the last year of Vicente Fox's presidency. Also among the latest round of banks authorized to operate is Bancoppel, a company associated by the rapidly-expaning Coppel department store chain of the Sinaloa businessman Enrique Coppel Luken.

Finding new niches, the new banks are expected to offer credit opportunities for lower and middle-income consumers who are often hard-pressed to purchase household goods and other items. "They will orient their business to segments of the population that have not been traditionally served by banks," said the federal Ministry of Budget and Taxation in a statement.

Flowing in cash, some Mexican banks are agressively enrolling new clients-even without customers' knowledge. Controversy recently erupted in Tijuana after students at the Autonomous University of Baja California were assigned debit cards issued by the Spanish-owned Santander Serfin bank that were meant to be used as university indentification cards. "(University officials) gave out confidential information to Santander Serfin, charged Mariana Cota of the newly-formed University Student Movement. "Our names and personal data are on a debit card that we did not solicit."

Once languishing in the pits, Mexico's banking sector has made an impressive comeback during the Fox administration. Recently given a favorable report by the Standard and Poor's financial rating service, Mexican banks are estimated to have raked in more than $15 billion dollars in earnings during the Fox administration, thus registering a 541 percent increase over their earnings obtained during the previous Zedillo administration, when the Mexican government initiated a costly public bail-out of institutions that were on the verge of collapse. Ultimately, most Mexican banks were peddled off to foreign investors, who now control about 90 percent of the stock in the country's financial institutions. Investors can expect about a 20 percent rate of return from Mexican banks, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Analysts credit much of the recent banking boom and profit surge to the widespread reintroduction of consumer credit, a growing market which earns banks about three times the rate of interest charged in the United States and Spain. Bank of Mexico statistics report that consumer credit increased 47 percent during the first months of 2006, while credit destined for productive activities grew only by 11 percent in the same period. Service commissions, considered among the highest in the world, and tax breaks also serve to fatten a cash cow.

Some analysts warn that the entry into the bank business of companies like Wal Mart, which don't specialize in banking, is beginning to resemble the privatization "pinata," when individuals with little banking experience were given control of financial institutions that eventually required government intervention. On the other hand, the CNBV, Mexico's federal agency in charge of overseeing banks, has assured investors that it will scrupulously safeguard their money, and fulfill its oversight function in relation to the new banks. The CNBV vows it will meticulosly review the financial health of the new companies competing to handle the public's money.

Sources: La Jornada, November 12 and 17, 2006. Articles by Juan Balboa, Roberto Gonzalez Amador and Antonio Castellanos. Frontera, November 14, 2006. Article by Lorena Arellano. Banorte, November 16, 2006. Press statement.

Real Estate Development Grips Mexico 's North

Backed by some of the world's biggest names in capital, mega-projects are transforming the landscapes of northwestern Mexico . Representatives of US tycoon Donald Trump, for instance, recently announced a new $200 million-dollar condominium development slated for Baja California 's Rosarito Beach area, a popular tourist destination located about 30 minutes south of San Diego . Sources inside Trump Ocean Resort Baja disclosed that the 400-unit condo complex in the exclusive, ocean-front Punta Bandera zone will be flanked by a shopping center and world-class restaurants.

Gabriel Robles, president of Tourist Developers Association of Baja California, commented that Trump's project joins the fast pace of growth in the Tijuana-Rosarito-Ensenada corridor, where 2,500 new projects are underway. "This shows us that foreign capital is confident about investing in Mexico , especially Baja California ," Robles said.

The Baja real estate boom is the Pacific Coast 's version of a similar condo and real estate frenzy that is unfolding across the Gulf of California in the state of Sonora . As a result, residents of Phoenix , Arizona , once consigned to a landlocked, blistering piece of desert described by some as a hell-hole during the high months of summer, now enjoy their own beach. The three-and-one-half hour trip from Phoenix to Puerto Penasco , Sonora , is getting cut considerably with the completion of a coastal highway in northwestern Sonora . Already, an estimated 1.6 million tourists, especially Arizonans, visit Puerto Penasco and Rocky Point every year.

Boosting the fortunes of Puerto Penasco's tourist industry is the propensity of US tourists to seek safe vacation getaways in the wake of 9-11, according to some observers. Following the pattern of international tourist development, Puerto Penasco has become a second home for many affluent tourists who were enamored by their first visits and then decided to purchase land.

Some credit fallout from the US housing market across the border for also propelling Puerto Penasco's rapid growth. "Low mortgage interest rates and the boom in real estate values in the United States allowed many people to make extra money to invest it in cheaper properties," said Juan Luis Martin, president of the Playa Norte company.

Investments in the once-quiet resort have soared from an estimated $56 million dollars in 2001 to a projected $1.2 billion dollars for the 2006-09 time period. Residential real estate sales are so hot in Puerto Penasco that tiny apartments in the upscale Bella Sirena development fetch about $600,000 dollars. Still, for the less well-heeled, Puerto Penasco offers options in the form of 4 trailer parks that rent lots with utility hook-ups for $20 dollars per night.

Exploding on the coastal fringes, northern Mexico 's development bonanza could move inland if an idea floated by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu comes to pass. The head of the new Ideal development and construction company, Slim recently proposed the construction of a new highway along the northern Mexican border.

Speaking at a border development forum in Mexicali this month, Slim suggested the opening of a Mexican highway running parallel to US Interstate 10 across the border. According to Gabriel Flores Viramontes, the president of the Business Coordinating Council of Ciudad Juarez, Slim contended that a new border highway would enhance the economic competitiveness of Mexico 's northern border cities. Among others, outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox and prominent Ciudad Juarez businessman Miguel Fernandez Iturbide attended the Mexicali meeting.

Sources: Norte, October 13, 2006 . Article by Cesar Ruiz. La Jornada, October 8, 2006 . Article by Antonio Heras and the AFP news agency. Agencia Reforma/La Voz de Nuevo Mexico , July 21, 2006 .

Tamaulipas-Vietnam Relations on the Upswing

Increasingly, Asian investors, businessmen and entrepreneurs are carving their mark on the Mexico-US borderlands. Japanese, Korean and Chinese companies and individuals all play an important role in the 2,000-mile zone that stretches from Tijuana to Matamoros . Now, another Asian country, Vietnam , is putting its stamp on the region. A recent visit to the border state of Tamaulipas by Ho Quang Minh, project coordinator for the International Cooperation Institute of Vietnam, resulted in pledges of greater ties between the northern Mexican state that borders Texas and Vietnam .

Victor de Leon Orti, state minister of rural development, said Ho Quang Minh's visit yielded positive gestures for improved cooperation in the education, agricultural and healthcare fields.

"He showed the interest of his internationally-recognized organization in establishing broad collaboration between Tamaulipas and ( Vietnam ) that allows us to search for strategic points in international trade for our high-quality products,” de Leon said.

According to the Tamaulipas state official , Ho Quang Minh offered assistance in boosting Tamaulipas' aquaculture industry, with an eye toward marketing products abroad.

"He proposed that we could work jointly here to increase the production of shrimp, catfish and lobster, all of which could be sold in countries like Japan ," de Leon said. Other products identified for inclusion in possible Vietnamese-Tamaulipan joint export projects include cactus and tequila. De Leon added that Ho Quang Minh also offered Vietnamese expertise in the realms of education and alternative medicine, especially in regards to promoting acupuncture.

Source: Enlineadirecta.info, August 6, 2006 . Article by Roberto Aguilar Grimaldo.

Mine Disaster Report Blasts Government Officials

A report from Mexico 's official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has blasted federal officials for neglecting unsafe conditions at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in northern Coahuila state, where a February 19 explosion and cave-in took the lives of 65 miners and injured 11 others. According to the CNDH, federal Labor Ministry officials assigned to the agency's Coahuila delegation had "clear knowledge" of unsafe conditions at Pasta de Conchos prior to last winter's disaster.

Made public on July 17, the CNDH's Recommendation 26/2006 urges Labor Minister to Francisco Salazar to undertake action against his personnel responsible for overseeing labor conditions at the Pasta de Conchos facility in the municipality of San Juan de Sabines, and to devote sufficient resources and training to Labor Ministry personnel so disasters like the one that occurred at Pasta de Conchos are not repeated. Quickly responding to the CNDH's report, the Labor Ministry promised a speedy answer to the recommendations, but noted that federal officials are already taking various measures to ensure worker safety in Mexico . An advisory body, the CNDH does not have the power to order policy changes.

In an official statement, the Labor Ministry said the CNDH's conclusions coincide with similar ones reached by the federal government after the fatal February 19 explosion, which led officials to “make decisions and reinforce concrete actions, many of which were already in effect prior to the disaster.” According to Cristina Euerbach, a representative of Pastoral Mexicana, non-governmental organization concerned with workers' rights, eight miners have been killed in accidents in different parts of Mexico since the Pasta de Conchos tragedy.

Operated by a subsidiary of the Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico , the Pasta de Conchos mine was inspected by Labor Ministry officials in July 2004- almost two years before the disaster. According to the CNDH's investigation, inspectors found 48 safety and hygiene infractions during their review, seven of which were considered of an urgent character to address. The unsafe conditions included oil and gas leaks, missing safety devices and malfunctioning lighting, among others, according to the CNDH. The human rights agency contends that Labor Ministry inspectors did not verify company compliance with safety regulations until February 7, 2006 - only 12 days before disaster struck.

Almost immediately following the tragedy, allegations surfaced of corruption in the ranks of the Labor Ministry's Coahuila offices. In its report, the CNDH noted that Coahuila Labor Ministry employees complained about not receiving adequate resources from the home office to carry out their jobs properly. Finding constitutional violations of labor rights, the CNDH recommended that the Labor Ministry compensate the dead miners' families

Carlos Pavon Campos, political secretary of the National Mineworkers Union , said the CNDH's report confirms the disaster was an "industrial homicide," as mine union leaders have long contended. While not publicly commenting on the CNDH's report, Grupo Mexico issued a statement July 19 that highlighted the company's efforts to recover the bodies of dead miners from Pasta de Conchos. Grupo Mexico said it has spent more than $10 million dollars and employed advanced technology in the arduous recovery work. In late June, rescuers recovered the body of 49-year-old worker Felipe de Jesus Torres Reyna, but 64 other victims remain buried in the mine's rubble.

Grupo Mexico stressed that the company is providing economic, medical and emotional support to victims' families, so far, to the tune of nearly $5 million dollars. "We respect and share the pain of the families," said Dr. Enrique Valverde, coordinator of the company's humanitarian support program. "We want them to know that we are doing all that is within our means every day to recover the remains.." According to the Labor Ministry, Grupo Mexico has paid 63 miners' families about $70,000 dollars each in compensation for the loss of their loved ones.

Identified with the wealthy Larrea family, Grupo Mexico 's board of directors include individuals associated with Kimberly Clark Mexico and the Carlyle Group. A transnational corporation with mining, smelting and railway interests in several countries, Grupo Mexico is the owner of the mothballed Asarco copper smelter in El Paso , Texas , which is currently at the center of a cross-border environmental battle over a company proposal to resume operations.

Clearly finding fault with government officials charged with overseeing Pasta de Conchos, the CNDH'S report contrasted sharply with a earlier report issued this month by a working group of the federal Chamber of Deputies. Led by Deputy Lucio Galileo Lastra of President Fox's National Action Party, the working group concluded that "no evidence exists to identify the causes of the lamentable incident." However, the report did not reflect the full opinion of the congressional commission.

Endorsed by legislators from the PAN, PRI and Green parties, the report was criticized by legislators from the PRD, PT and Convergence for Democracy parties, who issued their own report June 21 concluding that sufficient information was available to pursue legal charges against the Labor Ministry, Mexican Social Security Institute and Grupo Mexico for "negligence in the Pasta de Conchos accident" and omission of safety and health measures.

Sources: Proceso/Apro, July 18 and 21, 2006. Articles by Miguel Cabildo and Rosalia Vergara. La Jornada, July 18, 2006 . Article by Patricia Munoz Rios. El Universal, July 18, 2006 . Article by Jorge Herrera. Grupo Mexico , July 19, 2006 . Press statement. Federal Labor Ministry, July 18, 2006 . Labor Ministry. National Human Rights Commission ( Mexico City ), July 17, 2006 . Press statement. El Sur/Agencia Reforma, June 24 and June 25, 2006 .

New Remittance Numbers

Soaring in importance, migrant dollars are playing a bigger and bigger role in sustaining many Mexican communities. New figures recently released by the Bank of Mexico report a big jump in the flow of remittances from early 2003 to early 2006. In the state of Aguascalientes , for example, a family of four took in an average of $323 dollars in remittances every month during the January-March 2006 quarter. In the same quarter of 2003, the average monthly remittance income in Aguascalientes for a four-person household was just over $200 dollars. For many households, a $323-dollar income is enough to pay the monthly rent and utility bills and still have a little bit of extra spending cash left over.

Despite the incorporation of many different Mexican communities into the migrant stream, the Bank of Mexico's study reported that the bulk of remittance monies is sent to the traditional migrant-expelling states of Michoacan, Jalisco and Guanajuato, plus the federal capital of Mexico City . During the time period studied by the Bank of Mexico, 45 percent of all remittances registered in Mexico were received in the four entities. The uneven geographic distribution of remittances suggests that migrants from central Mexico and the capital might be obtaining higher-paying jobs in the United States than their counterparts from newer, migrant-expelling regions who have less time and connections north of the border. Also, it's likely more people from the four dominant remittance-receiving entities are working in the United States than migrants from other states.

In the case of Michoacan, the $595 million dollars in remittances received during January-March 2006 accounted for a full 11.5 percent of the state's gross domestic product. Neighboring Jalisco, which boasts a bigger population and industrial base than Michoacan, received $456 million dollars during the first three months of this year, an amount that made up an estimated 3.6 percent of the state's gross domestic product. Michoacan, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes were the states registering the highest amounts in average remittances per-family, while Baja California Sur , Yucatan , Quintana Roo and Nuevo Leon were the states with the lowest.

Noticeably absent from both the high and low end of the remittance spectrum were the northern border states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. The Bank of Mexico's numbers were based on a study of money exchange houses.

Source: El Sol del Centro (Aguascalientes), June 4, 2006.

Mexico and Guatemala Move Forward with Regional Energy Plan

The governments of Mexico and Guatemala took another step forward recently in implementing the controversial Plan Puebla Panama , a regional development strategy that proposes a series of mega-projects economically linking southern Mexico with the tip of South America . In a ceremony held earlier this month in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula , Chiapas , Mexican President Vicente Fox and Guatemalan President Oscar Berger signed an agreement that will connect power lines between Mexico and Guatemala . Estimated to cost $40 million dollars, the pact will allow Mexico to export electricity to her southern neighbor. The first line is expected to be constructed between Tapachula and Los Brillantes , Guatemala .

Alfredo Elias Ayub, the general director of Mexico 's Federal Electricity Commission, said the agreement was the first step in a regional energy grid threaded by more than 1,000 miles of power lines and connections to electrical substations in each of the Central American countries. Elias Ayub said the overall cost of the regional energy project, surpassing more than $320 million dollars, will be supported by the Inter-American Development Bank and the governments of Spain , Colombia and Mexico . According to the Mexican official, the joint financing scheme will permit "the consolidation of a regional electricity market."

Elias Ayub predicted that the demand for electricity in the Central American countries will grow at an annual rate of 5 percent during the next 15 years. He added that the regional electricity strategy should make an additional 300 megawatts available for consumption, or about 8 percent extra for the market.

Source: El Financiero, June 14, 2006. Article by Eduardo Ortega.

Anti-Nafta Sentiment Rises

Concerned about the looming elimination of tariffs on different agricultural products, Mexican farm and labor organizations are renewing calls for a renegotiation of sections of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). In Tamaulipas state, leaders of the Federation of Rural Landowners and the Tamaulipas Regional Ranchers Union support the growing demands to reopen the agricultural clauses of Nafa for revision. Eduardo Espronceda Galindo, the president of the landowner's group, contended that increased trade liberalization will trigger a larger "exodus to the big cities." Espronceda's warnings come less than two years before all tariffs on corn, bean and powdered milk products are set to expire.

Anticipating economic blows from the 2008 tariff tear-down, several Mexican national organizations have prepared a preliminary document that urges the next Mexican president to demand either the partial suspension or cancellation of Nafta's agricultural provisions. Sometimes identified with the PRI and PRD political parties, the organizations backing the appeal include the Mexican Electrical Workers Union, Caritas, the General Union of Workers and Farmers (Ugcom), and the big National Farmers Confederation. The groups maintain that Nafta has "represented the total collapse of the agricultural and industrial productive economy," resulting in massive unemployment and the disappearance of thousands of small businesses.

"Another reason to cancel Nafta," continues the document cited in the La Jornada newspaper, "is that an illegitimate government signed it in 1993, a government that was the product of electoral fraud and the illegal imposition of a regime that didn't respect Mexican interests."

Statistics cited by the emerging anti-Nafta coalition, report that corn production in Mexico actually increased from 18.2 million tons in 1994 to 21.6 million tons in 2004, but that the modest jump in production wasn't enough to cover the national demand for 27.2 million tons in 2004. Consequently, corn imports rose from 2.2 million tons in 1994 to 5.5 million tons in 2004. Nafta's boosters argued that trade liberalization would benefit consumers, but according to a study by Mexico's Workers University, the price of tortillas-a Mexican staple-shot up almost 7 times from December 1994 to February 2006, while the average minimum wage only increased from 15.2 pesos per-day in 1994 to 48.6 pesos (less than five dollars) per-day in 2006.

Renewed anti-Nafta sentiment in the Mexican countryside could result in the third wave of protests against the trade agreement. Led by the Democratic Farmers Front of Chihuahua and other organizations, many Mexican rural producers staged unsuccessful protests during the early 1990s against the signing of the Nafta. Later, during 2002-2003, many groups retook the anti-Nafta banner under the umbrella of the massive The Countryside Can't Take It Anymore movement. The later protests subsided after some of the participating organizations reached agreements with the Fox Administration for new rural support programs, and because of internal disagreements over the direction of the movement.

The Fox Administration, meanwhile, remains steadfast in its posture of not reopening the Nafta during its last months in office. In remarks this week, Mexican Economy Minister Sergio Garcia de Alba said revising the Nafta would open a Pandora's Box with the United States and Canada of "20 other (agricultural ) issues" unnamed US and Canadian officials threaten to put back on the table if the corn, bean and powdered milk sections of the trade agreement are revisited by Mexico.

Contending there is really no foreign competition over white corn, Garcia de Alba disputed declarations that yellow corn imports threaten national food self-sufficiency. Regarding beans, Garcia de Alba blamed drought for production downfalls in some regions. Mexican economy minister said it was important to concentrate on developing the rural economy, but that growing corn, wheat and sorghum wasn't appropriate in all geograhic and climatic zones.

Sources: La Jornada , June 20 and 22, 2006. Articles by Gabriel Leon Zaragoza and Miriam Posada Garcia. enlineadirecta.info, June 20, 2006. Article by Jesus Hernandez Garcia.

Labor Conflicts Deepen as General Strike Looms

Contributing to a charged national political climate in Mexico, tension continues to pervade labor conflicts in the border states of Sonora and Coahuila. In Sonora, members of the National Mineworkers Union led by Napoleon Gomez Urrutia maintain strikes at mines owned by Grupo Mexico in Nacozari and Agua Prieta. The transnational company canceled its contract with the union earlier this month, sparking fears that police action against strikers is imminent.

In Nacozari, strikers charge that army patrols and plainclothes Sonora state policemen are intimidating miners and their families. "We aren't about machetes," said one unidentified striker, "but we have a surprise for them if they come." Nacozari's copper miners, who earn about $65 dollars per week, also accuse Grupo Mexico and the government of forcing schools and clinics to curb educational and medical services for miners' families.

Jose Luis Castillo Jimenez, director of the Mexican Social Security Institute clinic in Nacozari, denied that his superiors or Grupo Mexico have ordered services curtailed, but admitted that the federal health agency wasn't serving miners. Castillo said the decision was an "administrative question" that came from above.

Approaching three months in duration, the Sonora strikes are part of a national conflict that pits followers of Napoleon Gomez Urrutia against a rival union leadership legally recognized by the federal government. This week, pro and anti-Gomez factions clashed in Moncolva, Coahuila, and Taxco, Guerrero, resulting in several injuries. The strike also affects steel works in the important Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, where economic activity has reportedly plummeted 50 percent since the strike began last April.

A police action against strikers in Lazaro Cardenas earlier this year left two strikers dead.

Some representativesof Mexico's business community are calling on the federal government to crack down on what they consider an illegal strike and use force if necessary to bring it to an end. Tomas Natividad, the president of the labor commission of the Mexican Employers Confederation, contends that the the strike demonstrates the weakness of the federal government, a state of affairs that is encouraging unnamed foreign investors to put on hold their projects and contemplate withdrawing investments from Mexico.

On the other hand, labor movement leaders are stepping up pressure on the Fox Administration to back down from its confrontation with Gomez, who is a fugitive charged with embezzling union funds. Gomez's supporters contend the legal accusations are a maneuver to divert attention away from the Pasta de Conchos coal mine disaster in Coahuila last February that left 66 miners dead at the Grupo Mexico-owned facility.

Demanding that the federal government keep its hands off the labor movement, at least 200 unions and labor associations are preparing a general strike set for June 28. If successful, the work stoppage will be Mexico's biggest national labor protest in recent memory.

While strikes are nothing new in Mexico, the scope and timing of the spreading labor strife, sizzling just days before a presidential election, is highly unusual. In a separate struggle that also has national ramifications, thousands of teachers in Oaxaca state reoccupied the downtown of the state capital after they were violently evicted by state and local police in an action that this week that resulted in scores of people injured, including police and civilians.

Added to their demands of better salaries for educators and educational conditions for students, the strikers now demand the resignation of Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. This week's street battle in Oaxaca City prompted solidarity actions by teachers in Zacatecas, Mexico City, Michoacan and Guerrero. Observers say the Oaxaca teachers' strike could complicate the July 2 federal election in the southern state.

"The climate of violence and police repression will generate violent outbreaks in the days before, during and after the July 2 elections," warned Juan Manuel Macedo Negrete, a national teachers' union leader in Michoacan.

Sources: CNN en Español, June 15 and 16, 2006. La Jornada, June 15, 2006. Articles by Octavo Velez Ascensio, Enrique Mendez and editorial staff. Proceso/Apro, June 14, 2006. Article by Arturo Rodriguez Garcia. El Financiero, June 14, 2006. Articles by Isabel Becerril, Guadalupe Cadena and editorial staff. Norte/Agencia Reforma, June 11, 2006. Articles by Haydee Ramirez. cambiosonora.com, June 10, 2006. Article by Jesus A. Ibarra.

Border Controls Stir Business, Political Leaders

Dependent on cross-border tourism, a growing number of business and political leaders in the Mexico-US border region are worrying about the economic impact of pending US border security controls. One concern is over the Bush Administration's Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) scheduled for a two-phase implementation beginning on December 31, 2006. The measure will require US citizens returning from Mexico to present a passport or other accepted document. Until now, US citizens have typically shown driver's licenses or simply stated American citizen" to officials at border crossings.

In Coahuila state bordering Texas , business leaders worry that the new identification requirements will discourage some US citizens from crossing over to the Mexican side to shop, eat and have fun. Citing the high costs new passports could entail for large families, Evaristo Lenin Perez Rivera, the mayor of Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, said the business community is "very worried" that cross-border tourism will take a plunge. Mayor Perez pointed to the May Day boycott staged by immigrant workers and their supporters as an example of how local border economies are fused. According to Mayor Perez, businesses in neighboring Del Rio , Texas , saw a drop in sales of about $300,000 dollars, while more than half of the 5,000 vehicles that normally travel to the US side did not cross on May 1.

Efrain Valdez, the new mayor of Del Rio , is likewise worried about how the future passport requirements will impact the border zone. "I don't like this measure. I think it could be that the authorities don't live on this border where things are very different," Mayor Valdez said. "Another thing is that they've never asked us our opinion and don't know how this could affect tourism along the border."

Made up of representatives from Mexico and the United States , the Border Trade Alliance (BTA) has scheduled a June 14 meeting in Del Rio to discuss the WHTI. "We clearly support the efforts of our government to protect our borders from those that intend to harm us," said Pete Sepulveda, the president of the BTA's board of directors, "but at the same time we should be on guard to assure that the implementation of new rules doesn't cause excessive damage to our border regions and economy." The June 14 meeting is expected to discuss a US Senate amendment approved last month that requested a 17-month delay in implementing the passport travel requirement.

Like their Mexican counterparts, business and political leaders in Canada are voicing alarm about possible, negative economic impacts of new US travel requirements, especially since very few US citizens hold passports. At a Montreal meeting held on Saturday, June 3, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities passed a resolution outlining the group's concerns about the WHTI.

In Anahuac, Nuevo Leon , a town also bordering Texas , Mayor Mucio Mauricio Gallegos, contended that the deployment of National Guard troops could intimidate some people from
traveling back and forth across the border. As in other US border states , the National Guard in Texas is expected to play a primarily administrative and logistical support role in border law enforcement strategies.

According to Mayor Gallegos, about 15 percent of Anahuac's people currently work in the United States- legally or otherwise. "When (migrant workers) return on weekends, they pump life into everything," Mayor Gallegos said. "That's when businesses make money, when the restaurants are full and when people are out on the streets. Every weekend, there are dances, barbeques and happiness in the town."

Sources: zocalo.com.mx, June 4, 2006. Article by Hervey Sifuentes Del Rio . Canoe-CNews, June 3, 2006. El Universal, May 31 and June 1, 2006. Articles by Juan Cedillo and Hilda
Fernandez Valverde.

Mexico 's May Day: The Convergence of Labor, Electoral and Migrant Issues.

In a preview of widespread protests expected to be convened this May Day against the Fox Administration's labor policies, unions in the northern border city of Matamoros and other parts of Tamaulipas state staged brief work stoppages on Friday, April 28. Organized by the National Mineworkers Union and allied groups, the protesting workers reiterated their demands that Labor Minister Francisco Salazar Saenz step down and union autonomy be respected. Many unions now threaten a national general strike if Salazar is not removed from office. They also demand that fugitive National Mineworkers Union President Napoleon Gomez, who was removed from office earlier this year amid intra-union rivalries and a corruption investigation by the Federal Office of the Attorney General ( PGR ), be recognized as the genuine head of the miners' union.

"This was an act of protest based on an agreement of the National Front for Unity and Union Autonomy, and against the injustices of the federal government and the labor minister who are interfering in issues that are the responsibility of (union members)," charged Arturo Ortega Mireles, the secretary-general for the telephone workers' union in the Matamoros region.

The Matamoros labor stoppage was but one action in a wave of protests throughout Mexico that affected perhaps 5 million people on April 28. Featuring work stoppages, marches and pickets that lasted from one to several hours, protests occurred in Coahuila , Queretaro , Hidalgo , Michoacan, Guerrero , Puebla , Tlaxcala , Campeche , and Yucatan states, among others. In Mexico City , thousands of union members brought traffic to a halt in the capital's downtown for much of the day. Telephone company offices, Mexican Social Security Institute sites, swank tourist hotels, textile plants, and university campuses were among many workplaces temporarily hit by work stoppages. In response to the labor protests, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar once again denied the Fox Administration was violating union autonomy.

VIOLENCE AND THREATS OF MORE VIOLENCE

Mexico's widening state-union labor conflict, which snowballed after last February's fatal explosion at a Grupo Mexico-owned coal mine in Coahuila state killed 65 workers and turned into a power struggle between the Fox Administration and National Mineworkers Union President Napoleon Gomez, took a plunge for the worse on April 20 when two union members were killed and more than 40 injured by police during a violent clash in the Pacific port city of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan state. Thirty vehicles and a building were torched in the heat of a battle that involved hundreds of workers and police.

Pouring ample fuel onto the national political fire, the Lazaro Cardenas incident embarrassed Michoacan Governor Batel Cardenas, a prominent member of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Governor Cardenas, the son of legendary opposition politician Cuahtemoc Cardenas, denied approving the repression and ordered the state human rights commission to investigate

Press accounts report that the police eviction of workers who had occupied a Sicartsa steel plant was planned and carried out by several Michocan state and federal security agencies, including Michoacan's Special Operations Group (GOE), the Federal Preventive Police, Mexican Navy, and Cisen , Mexico 's version of the CIA . A video shown on the Internet site of Mexico 's El Universal newspaper last week revealed shots being fired from a police helicopter during the pitched battle between workers and law enforcement officers.

The Michoacan state leaders of President Fox's National Action Party (PAN) and the Business Coordinating Council supported the police action as an appropriate response to a strike that had been declared illegal by the federal government. Coordinating Council President Ricardo Rubi labeled the workers' posture "violent and senseless." In initial statements following the Lazaro Cardenas confrontation, Fox Administration spokesman Ruben Aguilar blamed the violence on old-style union practices of "extorting" favors and defending corrupt leaders who have "no place" in Mexico 's new political system.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the Michocan state committee of the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party together with the zonal command of the long-dormant Popular Revolutionary Army ( EPR ) issued a communique that denounced the government, private sector and some union leaders for acting in one way or another against workers' interests. The clandestine group threatened to resume its tactic of "armed self-defense" if responsible police forces aren't fired and punished, the GOE dissolved and the Federal Preventive Police withdrawn from Michoacan.

Federal Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca absolved federal elements of any responsibility for the Lazaro Cardenas violence in a statement last week, but investigations continue at the state level. Quickly after the April 20 incident, the Michoacan state head of public security, Gabriel Mendoza Jimenez, and the director of the Michoacan Ministerial Police, Jaime Liera, were out of their jobs, with Liera and 3 other Michoacan state police officers charged with criminal violations in the Lazaro Cardenas confrontation.

The high-profile head rollings, coupled with Governor Cardenas's denial of culpability in the Lazaro Cardenas matter, raise new questions about who is in control of public security in Michoacan, especially given the frequent episodes of narco-violence that often involve police. A broader public security crisis was highlighted again on Sunday, April 30, when two heavily-armed bands of still-unknown origin shot it out with AK-47 rifles and grenades in the Michoacan municipality of Tepalcatec . As many as 15 trucks carrying gunmen reportedly were involved in a fire-fight that left at least one man dead and another injured.

Meantime, tensions persist in the mining districts of the border and northern states of Sonora , Coahuila and Zacatecas. The day after the Lazaro Cardenas showdown, a violent row between pro and anti-Gomez union members was reported in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, resulting in a serious injury to mine workers' union member Miguel Angel Porras Coronado.

Stand-offs between police and the Mexican army on one side, and union members on the other, are reported both in Moncolva, Coahuila, and Nacazori, Sonora, where local mine workers' union leader Indalecio Perez Morones was ordered jailed on April 13 and arrest warrants were issued for 29 other unionists on charges related to a strike called against a Grupo Mexico facility last month. Urging conciliation in the ongoing labor dispute, Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira called on the federal government to avoid another Lazaro Cardenas. Gov. Moreira, a leading member of the Institutional Party of the Revolution (PRI), added the conflict between the union and Fox Administration has "spun out of control."

THE POLITICIZATION OF MEXICO 'S LABOR MOVEMENT

The April 28 work stoppages involved the CROC, CROM, SME UNT , STUNAM, SNTE, CETEG, and other labor federations and unions-organizations generally close to the PRI or PRD political parties. Contributing their support were thousands of Michoacan students who marched in support of the Lazaro Cardenas workers. Voices in support of the immigrant legalization movement in the United States rang out loud and clear on April 28.

"(April 28) is a sample of what will happen on May 1," said Francisco Hernandez Juarez, the leader of the national telephone workers' union. "(It) was an historic day in many respects. Never, probably since the Revolution, had an action of such magnitude been realized," Hernandez contended. Juarez and other opposition union leaders plan a massive counter-march to Monday's official May Day Parade in Mexico City that is being organized by union leaders who will meet later in the day with President Vicente Fox.

In an unprecedented fashion, important sections of the labor movement are moving beyond narrow workplace issues, as well as the immediate Salazar/Gomez confrontation, to incorporate other demands, including reductions in energy prices and support for the so-called Great American Boycott organized for May 1 by immigrant rights' organizations in the United States . Unions in the Sonoran border city of San Luis Rio Colorado , for instance, plan to make the legalization of undocumented workers in the US one of their big themes in this year's traditional May Day parade. Pro-migrant sentiment that is manifested during the official May Day parades in border cities like San Luis Rio Colorado and Nuevo Laredo , Tamaulipas, could help swell the ranks of demonstrations in support of the Great American Boycott.

Long subservient to the federal government, sectors of the workers' movement, although in many ways still dominated by figures who were or are close to the former ruling PRI party, are nevertheless on the verge of overturning the pattern of official union-government collaboration that's historically defined labor relations in Mexico.

Even sectors of the Mexican Labor Congress, which has been timid in opposing Fox Administration economic policies, and teachers' union leader Elba Esther Gordillo, who was once considered politically close to Vicente Fox and his wife, are throwing in their lot with the labor opposition.

In a presidential and congressional election year, the new labor movement is fast acquiring a political tone. A common declaration heard April 28 was that the PAN and its presidential candidate, Felipe Calderon, would pay the price on election day for their alleged anti-worker policies.

Sources: El Bravo, April 29, 2006 . Article by Jose Maria Barrientos and Delia Arellano. El Diario de Juarez/El Universal, April 29, 2006 . El Sur, April 29, 2006 . El Universal, April 26, 28 and 30, 2006. Articles by Francisco Gomez, Alejandro Suverza, Jaime Marquez, and the Notimex news agency. Procesco/Apro, April 28 and April 29, 2006 . Articles by Rosalia Vergara, Rosa Santana, Francisco Castellanos J., Jose Palacios Tepate, and Arturo Rodriguez Garcia. La Jornada, April 21, 22 , 23, 24, 29, 30, 2006. Articles by Patricia Munoz, Carolina Gomez, Cristobal Garcia Bernal, Gerardo Flores, Carlos Torres, Daniela Morales, Antonio Aguilera, E. Martinez, and Fabiola Martinez. La Cronica, April 29, 2006 . Article by Juan Jose Razzo. Univision, April 21 and April 28, 2006 . cedema.org, April 22, 2006 . EPR communique. enlineadirecta.com, April 30, 2006 . Article by Gaston Monge.

Latin America Border Series: Remittances Driving Central American Economies

Fair doses of media attention recently have been cast on the role of migrant remittances in the Mexican economy. Statistics reported in a paper authored by a Costa Rica-based researcher suggest remittances are even more economically vital to Central America than they are in Mexico -at least for many families. According to figures compiled by Marije van Lidthe de Jeude, a Dutch anthropologist and independent researcher who has worked with the United Nations and other international organizations, the four Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua received a combined $7 billion dollars out of a total of $34 billion dollars in remittances from the United States that entered Latin America just in 2004. The four small countries account for barely 6 percent of Latin America 's total population.

Van Lidthe de Jeude said Central American remittances have grown “exponentially” since 1990, reaching a point in 2003 when migrant dollars constituted 20 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) of El Salvador and 30 percent of the GNP of Nicaragua. Another important development reported by van Lidthe de Jeude: remittances dominate the legal foreign revenues entering Nicaragua , El Salvador and Guatemala . Not surprisingly, most remittances flow from jobs in the United States , but an undetermined sum comes from in-region migration, especially from Salvadorans working in Guatemala and Nicaraguans laboring away in neighboring Costa Rica

Van Lidthe de Jeude recently spoke about the experience of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica at the international conference on borders sponsored by state universities from New Mexico , Texas and Chihuahua and held in Ciudad Juarez . The Dutch scholar said no firm numbers exist about the number of Nicaraguans living and working in Costa Rica, but one 2005 estimate puts the figure at somewhere between 350,000-450,000 people-about 10 percent of Costa Rica's total population. More than 50 percent of the migrants are women, a trend also evident in Guatemala where 63 percent of all Salvadoran migrants are female.

According to van Lidthe de Jeude, Nicaraguan emigration to Costa Rica picked up during the Sandinista revolution and civil war of 1979 to 1990, but continued afterward for “pure economic reason.” Today Nicaraguan labor fills jobs in the agricultural, domestic services, construction, and private security sectors. Like their Mexican counterparts, Nicaraguans send money home that is spent on educational, housing and other ordinary expenses.

Like Mexicans in the United States , Nicaraguans in Costa Rica increasingly constitute the majority of faces on certain job sites.

For instance, Costa Rica 's prime export, coffee, “can't be harvested without the help of Nicaraguans,” van Lidthe de Jeude maintained. Once picked by students given time off from school, the coffee bean is now harvested by Nicaraguan seasonal workers.

Documented or not, Nicaraguans are even landing jobs as private security guards. “Most of those jobs are filled by Nicaraguans,” van Lidthe de Jeude said. “It's also interesting to note that apparently in Costa Rica there are more houses with fences and private security walking on the streets guarding houses or streets than in many cities in Colombia, for example,” she added.

In her remittance paper, van Lidthe de Jeude cites other Central American studies that, like Mexico, assess remittances as carrying importance for local and family economies but still lacking broader, positive economic development impacts. Quoted by van Lidthe de Jeude, one study contends that remittances not only achieve transfers of wealth, but deepen economic dependence as well, contributing to “the strengthening of inequalities between developed countries and (nations) on the path of development.”

Kent Paterson

A Deck of Chinese Cards

Mexican and US officials and businessmen are stepping up contacts with China and other Asian nations in high-stakes bids to expand economic relations. Trade missions from Baja California , Chihuahua , Michoacan and Texas all have recently flown to meetings and tours in the emerging global economic powerhouses of the Far East .

Headed by Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza, a state delegation of cabinet members, elected officials and university leaders journeyed to China late last month to strike new business, industrial and tourist agreements. Prior to the trip, Alejandro Cano Richaud, Chihuahua state secretary for industrial development, said Chihuahua representatives were interested in examining the Shanghai free trade zone, and exploring the possibility of having Chinese manufactured products finished in Ciudad Juarez before exporting them to the United States. "We don't see China as a competitor, but as an ally," Cano said.

As a result of the trip, Chihuahua officials signed several academic, research and business development accords, including pledges to increase language-learning exchanges between Chinese and Mexican students. In an almost simultaneous Asian tour, Baja California Governor Eugenio Elorduy Walther led a group of businessmen and state officials to China and South Korea for a round of deal-making on investment and tourism. China has recently emerged as a hot, new source of tourists visiting Mexico. Gov.Walther announced that an unnamed South Korean company agreed to invest $40 million dollars in a new Baja California factory dedicated to the production of televisions and computers. The plant is expected to employ about 1,200 workers.

Not missing out on the trade tour circuit, members of the Free Trade Alliance from San Antonio, Texas, and officials from Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, planned a joint China trip this week to promote promote their emerging trade mega-corridor stretching from the Pacific to the US Midwest via the Kansas City Southern Railroad. In San Antonio , the old Kelly Air Force Base has been transformed into a transportation intermodal to handle the anticipated upsurge in trade-driven traffic.

Geared up for a massive influx of Chinese imports, the port of Lazaro Cardenas is undergoing a $200 million-dollar container ship facility uplift paid for by Hutchison Port Holdings. Hector Carranza, the port's business director, said the Michoacan coastal city is poised for expanded action. "We are ready. The port is ready," Carranza insisted. Given Lazaro Cardenas' new strategic importance, Mexican officials have reacted sharply to recent labor strife in the port, warning investors could be driven away.

Their eyes fixated on the expanding Chinese star, Mexican officials are now considering opening an eastern-oriented Pacific port in Baja California to help handle the burgeoning trade volume. Located about 150 miles south of the US-Mexico border, Punta Colonet is emerging as a possible super port. Carlos Jauregui, the executive director of the port of Ensenada said construction of the port could begin in 2008 and be completed by 2012. Jauregui estimated the facility could cost about $5 billion dollars to build, including a rail link to the United States .

Sources: El Diario de Juarez, April 1 and 5, 2006. Articles by Gabriel Simental and the Notimex news agency. La Cronica ( Mexicali ), April 2, 2006. Articles by Edgar Lopez and editorial staff. Norte, March 28, 2006. Article by Hugo Hernandez Jauregui. Albuquerque Journal/Associated Press, April 6, 2006.

Grupo Mexico Labor Conflict Deepens

The labor and political crises arising from last February's deadly explosion at a Grupo Mexico-owned coal mine in northern Coahuila state are deepening on all fronts. Labor, political, business and church sectors are involved in a multi-faceted conflict with still unknown consequences for Mexico 's presidential transition year. Fueling much of the discord is the decision of federal Labor Ministry to recognize Elias Morales and not Napoleon Gomez as the legal secretary-general of the National Mineworkers Union following the Coahuila mine disaster. Raising the banner of union autonomy, miners at Grupo Mexico-owned facilities in the northern border state of Sonora have staged work stoppages and protests while other union members have conducted similar job actions in Zacatecas and Michoacan in recent days and weeks.

On March 24, workers at the Grupo Mexico Nacozari de Garcia mine in Sonora carried out a work stoppage in support of deposed union leader Napoleon Gomez and in demand of a new contract. The miners want improved safety conditions, decent equipment and protection from environmental contamination allegedly affecting their families.

Since the work stoppage, miners have taken their movement to the streets of Nacozari. This week the workers blockaded the municipal administration building and banks in protest of alleged federal interference in the management of union funds. "It's not the company's or the government's money,” contended union leader Indalecio Perez Morones. “It's money contributed by the workers, and we need it at the moment,"

On April 1, another union-led work stoppage erupted at a Grupo Mexico subsidiary mine near the Sonora-Arizona border city of Agua Prieta . If their demands are not met, union members vow to garner support from other national and international labor organizations and possibly strike. More than 1,200 workers were involved in the Nacozari and Agua Prieta actions.

In Moncolva, Coahuila, meanwhile, about 1,500 mineworker union members participated in an April 3 march organized by federal Deputy Ricardo Rodriguez Rocha and led by new union Secretary-General Elias Morales. The marchers demanded that Gomez be held responsible for the alleged pilfering of $55 million dollars earned from the privatization of the Cananea copper mine in Sonora during the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Filing through the streets, Gomez opponents chanted " Napo , Napote. We want you in the bote (jail)." Besides the Cananea money, the marchers also demanded five percent of the proceeds from privatization of the Altos Hornos state company in Coahuila. Gomez loyalists briefly clashed with Morales supporters, and plastic bottles and water bags were reportedly tossed but the incident did not escalate. The next day, April 4, Gomez supporters in Coahuila held an election to choose local leaders, but a Morales representative announced the new union leadership would not recognize the vote and instead hold a new round of balloting.

A fugitive, Gomez is currently wanted by the Federal Attorney General's Office on charges stemming from the Cananea sale, but he is still supported by many union members who accuse federal Labor Minister Francisco Salazar of illegally sacking Gomez and replacing him with Morales. Gomez's supporters contend their leader was targeted in order to divert attention away from Grupo Mexico and the Labor Ministry as the responsible parties for the February 19 disaster at the Pasta de Conchos mine in Coahuila that left 65 miners dead.

In March, pro-Gomez union members filed industrial homicide charges with the Coahuila State Attorney General's Office against Labor Minister Salazar and two of his inspectors, Mario Alberto Fraga Zamarron and Jesus Reynaldo Mencacha Medina, who supposedly inspected and approved safety conditions at the Pasta de Conchos facility before the explosion happened.

The Fox Administration-Gomez-Morales conflict is steadily witnessing national repercussions. On April 2, 10,000 National Mine Workers Union members at iron and steel works shops in the south-central Pacific Coast port of Lazaro Cardenas , Michoacan, commenced a work stoppage. They threatened to declare a full strike and seize properties if Gomez is not reinstituted soon. The action polarized local labor-management relations, caused millions of dollars in economic losses and sparked legal charges against union leaders.

Declaring a strike in Lazaro Cardenas illegal, the federal Labor Ministry urged that normal channels be used to resolve the conflict. According to the Labor Ministry, the job action is not only illegal and destructive to the economy of the Michoacan but affects the country as a whole. "(The work stoppage) is an attack against the patrimony of many Mexicans, and in an irresponsible way erodes the image of Mexico abroad and drives investment from the national territory," claimed the Labor Ministry in a communique.

Labor Minister Salazar, meanwhile, faces new political heat over the February Pasta de Conchos tragedy. Allegedly offensive remarks made last month by Salazar about miners supposedly entering their workplaces while high on drugs and intoxicated from alcohol prompted leaders of the Coahuila state congress this week to resolve that Salazar publicly apologize for his comments and testify before the federal congress about both the causes of the Pasta de Conchos disaster and mining industry safety conditions in general. In a gesture of multi-party unity, Representatives from the PRI, PAN, PRD, UDC, PT and PVEM political parties all backed the resolution.

Another actor in the spreading conflict, the Roman Catholic Church, plans on refocusing attention in the coming days on the Pasta de Conchos victims. Former Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz, a well-known human and indigenous rights activist, has joined ranks with Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo , Coahuila, to organize a "Caravan for Life" on April 10. The pilgrimage is scheduled to begin in Moncolva during the morning and arrive outside the Pasta de Conchos mine in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas later in the day. Church and non-governmental organizations are expected to be on hand for prayers and reflections with family members of the 65 dead miners, who have rejected a Grupo Mexico compensation offer of about $75,000 dollars for each deceased miner until the bodies of their loved ones are recovered from underground shafts.

Sources: El Universal, April 4 and 5, 2006. Articles by Hilda Fernandez and the Notimex news agency. El Diario de Sonora, April 4, 2006. Article by Santiago Garcia. zocalo.com.mx, April 4 and 5, 2006. Articles by Alberto Rojas and editorial staff. La Jornada, April 3, 2006. Article by Patricia Munoz Rios. El Imparcial/SUN, April 3, 2006. Proceso/Apro, March 17 and April 4, 2006. Articles by Rosalia Vergara and editorial staff.

Automotive Safety Parts Factory Hit by Explosions

Still grappling with the deadly explosion that killed 65 miners last February, the northern border state of Coahuila was shaken by a series of new blasts on the evening of March 30. This time gas explosions rocked the Takata automotive parts plant located in Ciudad Frontera, south of the Pasta de Conchos mine where miners earlier perished in an explosion blamed on a build-up of methane gas. In the latest incident, gas leaks in equipment used by the Ciudad Frontera maquiladora were blamed by the Coahuila Civil Protection Department for the explosions. No deaths were reported, but at least 7 injuries were registered by the Mexican Social Security Institute and the Red Cross.

Roberto Enriquez, Takata's human resources manager in Ciudad Frontera, said 600 workers were successfully evacuated from the plant. Upwards of 4,000 residents of surrounding neighborhoods were also forced to leave. The first explosion, followed by a series of at least four other blasts, attracted a crowd of curious onlookers who were soon forced to flee in panic. "It was horrible. We didn't think we would escape with our lives," said Ciudad Frontera resident Fidencio Gonzalez.

Compared to a movie scene by one reporter, the last explosion produced a fireball. Police, army, fire and civil protection units all arrived to cordon off the scene, and firefighters spent three hours battling a fire before it was extinguished. The explosions destroyed the factory and damaged more than 500 homes, businesses and public buildings, including a command and control center of the Coahuila State Public Security Ministry, in about a three-mile radius. Monetary losses were estimated in the millions. Accompanied by Takata executive Dan Luk, Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira Valdes announced the company will compensate property owners and continue paying workers' salaries during the rebuilding of the maquildadora.

The explosion came on the heels of a two-hour plant evacuation on March 29 after gas leaks were reported. Nonetheless, work at the factory had resumed when the disaster happened the next day. Similar to the Pasta de Conchos mine situation, the Takata plant was reportedly inspected by the federal Labor Ministry some months prior to the disaster.

Located close to plants run by Tecksid and the Lear Corporation, the Takata factory was built within 150 feet of previously-settled residences. Some Ciudad Frontera residents complained that irregularities characterized the siting of Takata, but Mayor Rogelio Ramos said all the legal authorizations were in order. "We will analyze if it is necessary to change (the plant's location)," Mayor Ramos added.

A Japanese-owned company, Takata manufactures air bags, safety belts and other automotive safety devices. Posting more than $4 billion dollars in 2005 global sales, Takata's main clients include GM, Ford, Nissan, Toyota , and Daimler/Chrysler. The Ciudad Frontera plant employed about 2,600 personnel prior to its fiery destruction.

Sources: El Universal/Notimex April 1, 2006. Proceso/Apro, April 1, 2006. zocalo.com.mx. March 31 and April 1, 2006. Articles by Juan Ramon Garza, Erik Alba, Eduardo Rios, Roberto Ortiz, and editorial staff. takata.com

A Political Fallout Rains from the Coahuila Mine Disaster

The explosion that killed 65 miners in the border state of Coahuila last month is sending fallout far and wide. Bursting open a new political can of worms, the coal mine disaster is setting loose labor-management conflicts, heightening government-union conflicts, firing up intra-union rivalries, and exposing possible corruption in all the institutions entrusted with safeguarding the lives of miners and the well-being of their families.

On March 1, about 270,000 members of Mexico 's National Mineworkers Union launched work stoppages in several states in protest of an attempt by the federal Labor Ministry to remove Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as secretary-general of the miners' union. The national action was primarily aimed at facilities operated by Grupo Mexico , the owner of the Pasta de Conchos mine in Coahuila where the 65 coal miners died. Safety grievances and the lack of equipment at other company mines were also raised as justifications for the mass worker protests. Erupting during an already turbulent federal election year, a prolonged labor dispute in the mining industry is bound to have unforeseen political repercussions.

In the northern state of Sonora bordering Arizona , copper and other miners quit work at facilities in Cananea, Nacazori and Agua Prieta. Francisco Javier Salazar, a union member in Cananea, accused Grupo Mexico and the Fox Administration of trying to divert attention away from government and corporate responsibility for occupational health and safety hazards in the mining industry by placing the blame on Gomez for miners' problems. On February 28, the Labor Ministry headed by Francisco Javier Salazar Saenz approved a long-time Gomez opponent, Elias Morales Hernandez, as the "provisional," legal head of the union.

Finally acting years after a legal challenge was first pursued by Morales against Gomez for the union's top leadership post, the timing of the Labor Ministry's decision fell under immediate suspicion. Morales was once considered the "right-hand man" of Gomez's father, Napoleon Gomez Sada, who ran the union for decades prior to his death. Morales and the younger Gomez then fought over succession of the union leadership, with Gomez's supporters maintaining their man was legally elected union president in a 2002 assembly. Pro-Gomez union members label Morales a tool of Grupo Mexico , a tag Morales denies. Although he is not in control of the union's headquarters in Mexico City , Morales declared the union's national committee under Gomez was dissolved. Morales was backed up the head of Mexico 's Labor Congress, railroad union leader Victor Morales, who himself is under fire from retired railroad workers for allegedly stiffing them for their pensions.

Elias Morales said this week he will press the Federal Attorney General's Office to pursue legal charges against Gomez for illegally occupying the union's headquarters. The claimant to the mine workers' union top post is also demanding that federal legal authorities investigate an alleged misappropriation by Gomez of a multi-million dollar trust fund set up for miners after the privatization of mines in the 1980s.

The dramatic challenge to Gomez and subsequent miners' strike followed days of mounting accusations of official malfeasance in the deaths of the Coahuila miners. A December 2005 report from the Labor Ministry noted that better monitoring of gas levels in the Pasta de Conchos mine was needed. Two weeks before the disaster the mine passed a safety inspection, but several miners were later quoted in the press as saying there were dangerous levels of methane gas in the mine just before the deadly February 19 explosion. Urging an investigation of the Labor Ministry, Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira charged that two federal inspectors responsible for the Pasta de Conchos mine were bought off with "girls, liquor and money" before the disaster happened.

In recent days, angry family members confronted both union leader Gomez and government representatives, accusing the officials of forcing the doomed miners to work in deadly conditions. Already balancing numerous scandals on its agenda, the Mexican Congress is now stepping in to hear government testimonies and conduct its own investigations of the Coahuila disaster. And like many other scandals in Mexico , the Pasta de Conchos disaster is now an international issue.

Mexico 's National Union of Highway and Bridge workers filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO) this week that charged the Fox Administration with not taking the adequate steps that could have avoided the catastrophe. Martin Curiel, the secretary-general of the union, said the purpose of the ILO complaint is to urgently correct “omissions”of international labor agreements signed by the Mexican government. The complaint was supported by Raul Vera, the Roman Catholic bishop of Saltillo , Coahuila, and several human rights and labor groups.

Meantime, family members express sorrow, outrage and a sense of betrayal. Reports that it may take weeks or months, if ever, before the miners' bodies are recovered, only enhanced the anguish. Besides educational scholarships and other forms of support, Grupo Mexico is offering miners' survivors between $75,000 and $100,000 dollars in compensation for their dead relatives. The dead miners left behind 162 children.

Javier Rojas, a Catholic priest advising families, is cautioning survivors against signing any agreement before all legal remedies all carefully examined. Reportedly, 54 of the 65 affected families have rejected any compensation until responsibilities for the tragic deaths of their loved ones are clarified. Interviewed on television, Leticia Carrillo, the wife of a killed miner, said she was confused by the company's offers and called on President Fox to come to the scene. Another family survivor who erected an altar outside the mine simply said, "My tears aren't going to end."

Sources: Nuevo Dia ( Nogales ), March 1, 2006. Lacronica (San Luis Rio Colorado ), March 1, 2006. Article by Zorayda Gallegos. El Universal, March 1 and 2, 2006. Articles by Julian Sanchez, Hilda Fernandez Valverde, Jorge Octavio Ochoa, and the Notimex and EFE news agencies. La Jornada, March 1 and 2, 2006. Articles by Patricia Munoz Rios and regional correspondents. Proceso/Apro, March 1, 2006. Article by Arturo Rodriguez Garcia. Univision, February 28 and March 1, 2006.

The Historic Lot of Coahuila's Miners

In a nation dazed by mounting political scandals, the fate of 65 trapped Mexican coal miners has refocused attention on basic human issues of suffering and solidarity. The tragedy began early on Sunday, February 19, when a suspected gas explosion hit a coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, a town situated about 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass , Texas , in the northern border state of Coahuila. Twelve injured miners were rescued but 65 of their comrades were trapped more than one mile below ground.

Filled with anguish and anger, distraught relatives of the workers soon gathered outside the mine to pray and await word of their loved ones. "I ask god to help those who are below as well the family members here," said Anita Reyes, a relative of a trapped miner.

The coal miners labored at the Pasta de Conchos facility run by the Mexican Industrial Mining company, a subsidiary of the large Grupo Mexico corporation. One of the largest mineral industry companies in the world, the Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico also owns the shut-down Asarco copper smelter in El Paso , Texas . The Pasta de Conchos mine reportedly employed 296 workers at the time of the February 19 disaster.

Already swamped by a stubborn wild fire elsewhere in Coahuila, the Coahuila state government's civil protection department dispatched personnel to San Juan de Sabinas to lead rescue efforts assisted by the Mexican army and firefighters. Notified of the emergency, Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira Valdes quickly arrived to the scene. Recovery efforts, however, were hampered by dangers posed to rescuers from possible poisonous gases and structural collapses.

"It's difficult to advance rapidly," acknowledged Sergio Robles, the chief of Coahuila Civil Protection. On February 21, the federal Ministry of Interior took over rescue coordination efforts, while mine disaster experts from West Virginia were reported on their way to San Juan de Sabinas.

Government authorities and Grupo Mexico personnel did not initially confirm the exact cause of the accident. However, suspicions fell on a possible build-up of methane gas. Juan Rebolledo, the vice-president of Grupo Mexico , said the company followed all national and international norms of mine safety, and passed an inspection carried out by Mexico 's federal Labor Ministry in early February. Rebolledo's position was backed up by the Labor Ministry and Luis Chavez, the general director of the mine department of Coahuila's Ministry of Economic Promotion, who rated the Pasta de Conchos mine as technologically advanced and "one of the safest."

On the other hand, some ex-miners and relatives of current miners contended that dangerous gas build-ups existed at the mine just prior to the accident. One unidentified mother of a trapped miner said her son had informed her about unsafe working conditions but couldn't officially denounce them because he was threatened with losing his job.

"I worked here five years and there was a lot of gas, "added Zacarias Cruz, a former miner. "It was a time bomb."

The miners were employed by Grupo Mexico and the General Company of Hullua, a Grupo Mexico contractor. Many did not receive benefits, and some workers reportedly earned as little as $5.50 per day. National Mine Workers Union Secretary General Napoleon Gomez said only 25 of the 65 trapped miners belonged to the union.

Gomez charged that miners' safety is frequently sacrificed for profits. "The companies are more interested in production, the market and prices," Gomez contended. "They neglect safety conditions, which provokes tragedies like the one that just happened."

Despite the occupational hazards of coal mining, hospitalized worker Fermin Rosales said the work was all he had to support his family. "It's a necessity," Rosales said. "As a parent, one has to get the family ahead,"

The Pasta de Conchos tragedy is not unique in the history of northern Coahuila's coal mining region, where about 5,000 miners are employed. Since 1902, 23 explosions have rocked mines in the area. The biggest loss of life happened in 1969, when 164 miners were killed in Barroteran. Twenty-five miners have perished in accidents since September 2001.

Governor Moreira, union leader Gomez and the federal Chamber of Deputies have all called for an investigation of the Pasta de Conchos disaster. As the days wore on, desperation about the fate of trapped miners grew. In the Coahuila border city of Ciudad Acuña , the Guadalupe and San Jose churches collected supplies for the vigil of miners' relatives. Urging mine owners to pay special attention to safety, Roman Catholic Bishop Alonso Garza Treviño of the Diocese of Piedras Negras added that tragedies like the one in San Juan de Sabinas should not "be possible" in the 21st century.

Sources: CNN en Espanol, February 19, 20, 21 and 22, 2006. La Jornada , February 20 and 21, 2006. Articles by Leopoldo Ramos and Patricia Muñoz Rios. zocalo.com.mx, February 20 and 21, 2006. Articles by Orquidea Lopez Allec, Sandra Cisneros and Enrique Gonzalez Correa. El Universal, February 21, 2006. Articles by Jorge Herrera and the Notimex news agency. Proceso/Apro, February 21, 2006. El Financiero, February 20, 2006. TV Azteca, February 20, 2006. Laredo Morning Times/AP, February 20, 2006. Article by Juan Montaño and Ioan Grillo.

Border City Scores Cell Phone Plant

The Tamaulipas border city of Reynosa will be hosting new jobs soon. The Finnish-owned mobile phone parts manufacturer Perlos Oyj recently announced the company plans to lay off 1,250 workers at its Fort Worth , Texas , plant and move the jobs the Reynosa . The announcement ended Perlos' 11-year production history in the United States . In 1995, Perlos opened the Fort Worth factory where it manufactured parts for the Nokia Corporation. The plant was the only production facility Perlos operated in the United States .

Unnamed Perlos officials said the lay-offs should be completed by June. A press statement released by the company cited red ink as playing a role in the plant relocation decision. According to Perlos officials, the company could save $18 million dollars annually from moving production to Mexico . The Perlos lay-offs join a list of other, recent mass lay-offs in the United States . The high-tech company Oracle, for instance, recently declared it was laying off 2,000 workers at its California Bay Area operations. Earlier, Ford Motor Company announced job cuts in the tens of thousands.

Located across the Rio Grande from McAllen , Texas , Reynosa has witnessed new growth in the industrial sector during the last two years, though the neighboring states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon have seen more openings of assembly-for-export factories known as maquiladoras. Last year, three new maquiladoras opened their doors in Reynosa .

Already growing rapidly from a combination of cross-border manufacturing growth, real estate sales and small business development, the economy of McAllen could further benefit from the Perlos relocation. Mexican nationals from Reynosa and Monterrey , Nuevo Leon , are credited by officials from both sides of the border for boosting McAllen 's economic performance. McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez recently said 36.9 cents of every dollar spent in his city's commercial establishments comes from residents of Reynosa or Monterrey . According to Reynosa Mayor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, pedestrian traffic between Reynosa and McAllen is up 40 percent in the last 12 months.

Camilo Martinez Cortez, the director of the Reynosa branch of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism, estimated that 80 percent of the homes valued above $200,000 dollars in the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen are owned by Mexicans, while 52 percent of McAllen 's bank assets are held by Mexicans. Martinez said Mexicans contribute "a considerable quantity" to McAllen´s economic numbers.

Sources: El Manana ( Nuevo Laredo ), February 13, 2006. Article by Carlos Vertti. El Manana ( Reynosa ), Februar y 13, 2006. El Diario de Juarez/Notimex, February 11, 2006. newsday.com/AP, February 9, 2006.