Manuel Torres Felix, the head of security for the Sinaloa Cartel, has been killed by the Mexican military – Oct. 13, 2012. Torres Felix, (photo left) was the brother of Javier “El JT” Torres Felix (photo right), who was the […]
Mexico
An interesting story in today’s El Debate, a daily newspaper in the state of Sinaloa, asks whether buchon style is here to stay. Buchon is a style of dress and speech — attitudes as well — that is from the […]
This morning’s news that Heriberto Lazcano (pictured here), leader of the bloodthirsty Zeta drug cartel in Mexico, may have been killed by the Mexican military reminded me of a song by Los Cenzontles, the Mexican roots-music band from the Bay […]
I attended the inauguration of the L.A. office of FIOB — Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Indigenous Front of Bi-national Organizations), which works to help Indians, mostly from Oaxaca, here in the U.S. and back home. Before the inauguration, a […]
I guess it was only a matter of time, but … Nazario Moreno, deceased leader of La Familia Michoacana, the narco-Catholic drug cartel now finding itself on hard times due to his death and that of others in the structure, […]
One of the great arts events in all Mexico takes place this Saturday in Tijuana. It is the Tijuana Opera Street Festival (Festival Opera en la Calle), now in its ninth year. I wrote about the robust opera scene in […]
If, as I’ve long thought, Mexican immigrants are terrific economic barometers, it seems the economy is recovering. Banco de Mexico reports that remittances sent home from the U.S. were higher in May than they’ve been in 43 months: rising to […]
Twelve years after peacefully voting out in a clean election the party that had ruled it as a political monopoly for seven decades, Mexicans returned the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power the same way, with not only a president […]
Once again, tuba thieves have struck. This time: Whittier High School. Four sousaphones. Last time, Saturday Night Live did a Weekend Update bit on the phenomenon. Lightheartedness aside, I find the topic interesting because tubas are the emblematic popular instrument […]
Years ago, I had a run-in with drug-smuggling Mennonites in the area around Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua in Mexico, and wrote about it, and the decay of traditional Mennonite communities there, in my second book, Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream. A recent […]
UCLA criminologists have published a study showing that most gang violence occurs where gang territories meet, and thus are where gangs are most likely to run into each other and be in competition — not, I would say, a surprising […]
Welcome to a new feature of my blog — podcast interviews — which I hope to do more of. The first one is a conversation with Juan Gutierrez, a Zapotec Indian from Oaxaca. His Panaderia Antequera in Santa Monica is […]
I’ll be talking about the Mexican presidential elections today on KPCC, with Larry Mantle, host of Air Talk, beginning at 11 a.m. Please tune in. Meanwhile, an interesting column from academic Guillermo Trejo about the rise of the Occupy-like student […]
Today is the birthday of Hernan Hernandez, bass player and singer for Los Tigres del Norte. I toured several times with the band to shows around Mexico, seeing parts of the country that I’d never have seen had it not […]
Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui interviews Laura Barranco about the money reportedly paid by presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto (of the PRI) to Televisa, the country’s television and entertainment conglomerate, to promote his image and campaign. Barranco is a former Televisa […]
In Mexico, ace freelance photographer Keith Dannemiller has been traveling the presidential campaign trail. He’s got many of the shots posted online. He paused long enough to add some comments on the job … On the campaign: I have been […]
Those interested in Mexico and its transition away from a one-party state should be glad to hear that Jo Tuckman, a former colleague, has published a book on the topic Mexico: Democracy Interrupted is just out. I found it in […]
Thursday’s poll in Reforma showing leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador within four points of front-running PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto continues to echo today. The PRI has redirected its focus at AMLO, according to Animal Politico, even as […]
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate of the leftist PRD, has drawn within four percentage points of frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto, candidate for the once-ruling PRI, according to a poll in Reforma in Mexico City. Josefina Vasquez Mota, of the […]
Sounds like cartels have entered the maquiladora business. The Mexican Navy has discovered a factory where cartels apparently made fake military uniforms, according to the BBC and other media outlets. The factory was in Piedras Negras, a border town in […]
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