The New York Times has a great piece online today about how just regular citizens are reacting to the drug war.
Tens of thousands of people of all social classes and ages marched across Mexico Saturday (August 30th 2008) in protest against high crime levels and rising kidnappings.
My sympathies were a hundred per cent with the animal, who was surrounded by humans mad with booze and testosterone.
The video and photography exhibition Laberinto de Miradas – Labyrinth of Glances – that opened in Mexico City last month in the Cultural Center of Spain – features the kind of images that we are used to seeing in relation to immigration.
On Tuesday, I waited for a man to die. Even though several people die every minute of every day, I’ve never known the name of the person that I knew was going to die; neither have I ever known so closely when they were going to die and how. But yesterday I knew.
The man’s name was Jose Ernesto Medellin, and now he is dead. On Tuesday, he was due to die at 6pm at the hands of the Texan government for the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls in 1993.
Following last week’s filming session in the Zócalo, where I was denied the chance to film closeup to the military whilst they were raising the ntaional flag, I managed to edit the move into a decent summary of the ritual.
Every morning in Mexico City’s Zocalo, the country’s military raise the national flag in a ceremony enjoyed by tourists and Mexicans alike. Many of the Mexican bystanders on their way to work stop and salute as the flag goes up. Sometimes it goes up at 6, sometimes at eight, and it usually comes down around 6 at night – timing tends to depend on the season and the weather.
A bitter debate on how to rescue Mexico’s troubled state-owned oil company went directly to the people on Sunday as capital residents voted on President Felipe Calderon’s plan to open some portions of Mexico’s nationalized petroleum industry to outsiders.
This video went with this Los Angeles Times report.
For those of my readers in London, this is for you.
If you’ve enjoyed the coverage you’ve seen here on the Lucha Libre over the last year, now’s your chance to see the real thing in the flesh because the Lucha Libre is coming to London this weekend, and this weekend only!
La Caminata Nocturna is a night-hike for tourists in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico that gives them a taste of the illegal immigrant experience. Watch the video here.
Last Thursday, Colombian popstar Shakira got a group of Latin American stars and businessmen together in the Mexican capital to launch ALAS (meaning “WINGS”), a Latin American initiative aimed at aiding the development of young children in the region.
Shakira, who recently got together with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, has been running her own foundation to help the poor since she was 18.
Leonora Carrington is a British surrealist artist from Lancashire who left Europe during the Second World War, on the run from the Nazis.
She finally settled in Mexico, and has produced an impressive body of work, some of which is currently on display on one of Mexico’s main thoroughfares – Paseo de Reforma.
MexicoReporter.com headed down to Insurgentes yesterday with the Los Angeles Times to cover a kind of peace rally organised by the leftist city government following the friction between emos and other youth groups, reported earlier this week.
The result was this blog post by correspondent Ken Ellingwood and myself featuring a video interview with 18-year-old Andrea Velazquez.
The Supreme Court judges who voted that the rights of Lydia Cacho were not violated enough when she was arrested, detained and tortured by Puebla’s police under the orders of Governor Mario Marin were paid off by Marin’s lawyers, according to the journalist.
Cacho made the accusation, which if true promises to scandalize Mexico’s Supreme Court, in a conference last night during which she launched her new book ‘Memorias de una infamia’.
In her latest publication, Cacho documents her maltreatment at the hands of Marin, local businessmen Kamel Nacif, Jean Succar Kuri and other Mexicans that she implicated in a pedophile ring in Cancun in her book, ‘Demonios del Eden’.
The pueblo of Santa Maria Aztahuacan in the sprawling working class municipality of Iztapalapa, Mexico City, got Semana Santa off to a rousing start this Saturday afternoon with dancing in the streets, tacos, tequila – and random gunfire.
The festival, which began this weekend, will run for the next month. MexicoReporter.com went along to get a taste of the action.
There is something odd about entering a modern, brilliantly choreographed and beautifully presented exhibition created in memory of one of the darkest episodes in a country’s modern history. Odd because the tragedy of Tlatelolco, depicted in such rich and excellently executed multi-media form here at at Mexico City’s Centro Cultural Universitario, has yet to be seriously investigated by the Mexican administration even after nearly forty years, and remains a painful scar for those that survived that terrible night and the families of those that didn’t.
Browsing through my feeds this morning, I came across this story on the Los Angeles Times which documents well the experiences many journalists working in Mexico covering the drug trade experience.
Although studies have found that violence against journalists stems as much from Government officials as it does from narco-traffic, Hector’s piece really gives some insight into the reality for many in the profession.
Read the story here:
Another commission from the Los Angeles Times, this time their first video blog news item on the ice rink in the Zocalo, Mexico.
This film was made for La Plaza – the Los Angeles Times blog on Latin America.
Wooden crosses bearing the bloodied effigy of Jesus and huge framed pictures of the la Virgen de Guadalupe are quite literally walking down Mexico City’s Calzada de Guadalupe. Boys with gelled hair labor with crosses strapped to their backs and middle-aged women lumber along the tree-lined avenue with enormous pictures roped to their shoulders in an image that brings to mind filmed depictions of the crucifixion itself.
The fight for press freedom in Mexico was dealt a serious blow this week after the country’s Supreme Court found that the rights of journalist Lydia Cacho were not violated enough by the state governor of Puebla, Mario Marin, for action to be taken against him.
The Court rejected a report by its own Commission on Tuesday that found that Marin and 29 of his officials had conspired to violate Cacho’s rights. Its ten judges voted 6-4 yesterday that although there was evidence of criminal acts, and some rights violations did take place, they did not meet the ‘standards necessary’ for the court to recommend action to be taken.
Local expats unhappy over Oaxaca story
An article published in this weekend’s Washington Post, called “Oaxaca: One Year Later” has prompted angry criticism from residents of the southern state. A year ago last Sunday, Oaxaca was the scene of huge civil unrest, violence and what has been described by some witnesses as ‘some of the worst human rights abuses in recent Mexican history; detaining, torturing, and raping men, women, and children who had taken to the streets demanding social and economic justice,’ by witnesses.
Journalists have got to stop ‘kow towing’ down to those in power if they are to do their job, according to veteran British war correspondent Robert Fisk.
Speaking at a meeting of the Frontline Club in New York this week – watch the film here – Fisk launched a scathing attack on what he called third rate journalism, saying: “As long as journalists kow tow to power and sucks at the hind tit of power, wants to be close to power because it wants access, American official sources say, official sources say…as long as it does that your newspapers won’t be read and it doesn’t deserve to be read.”
Witness, the human rights organization co-founded by Peter Gabriel, launched an online community portal last week encouraging people around the world –activities, journalists, students, organizations and the public – to witness and document human rights violations using video.
The online tool is capitalizing on the huge importance of the internet as an information channel and as an enabler for reportage.
Of all Mexicans that one might have known prior to arriving here, SubCommandante Marcos – or Delegado Cero as he now prefers to be known – is definitely one of them. His image abroad as the mask-wearing, pipe-smoking mestizo who fights for the indigenous cause rivals that of another Latin American icon – Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.
Tetela de Volcan is a small, traditional town in the state of Morelos, Mexico overlooked by the volcano Popocatepetl, also known as Popo. Here, the locals spend the days of November 1st and 2nd in their local cemeteries, tending to the graves of their loved ones and spending time with their families. In their homes, they build the traditional ofrendas to commemorate Dia de Muertos.
Brad Will was shot by an assailant (s) just 50 centimeters away, and not from a distance of 30 meters as originally thought, according to the latest findings of the investigation of the Attorney General on the case in Mexico.
Results from the investigation into the death of the American IndyMedia journalist, shot dead in Oaxaca just over a year ago, suggest that he could have been killed by fellow protesters or members of the People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), as well as government agents or infiltrators, according to newspaper reports in Mexico last week.
Dia de Muertos in Tetela de Volcan, originally uploaded by MexicoReporter.
MexicoReporter.com spent the Dia De Muertos festival in Tetela del Volcan. Click here for the photo story set.
MexicoReporter.com is in Mictlan, covering day of the dead outside DF. We’ll be back soon……
As many as 20,000 people gathered in Oaxaca City on Saturday this weekend to remember Brad Will, the American journalist shot dead a year ago.
The marchers also walked in memory of the Oaxacan teacher Alonso Fabian who was shot dead the same day during clashes between teachers and members of the APPO, and municipal police and government forces.
Mariachi Sonidos de America Feminil are defying Mexican tradition. A female band of Mariachis, the group of women musicians are confronting the macho culture of the Mariachi to give it a feminine touch. The group plays every night of the weekend in Mexico’s Plaza de Garibaldi.
Groups demanding justice for the murder of U.S journalist Brad Will, who was shot dead in Oaxaca, Mexico on this day last year, are opposing the $1.4 billion security proposal put forward by President George Bush this week as part of an initiative to help the country fight its illegal drugs trafficking problem.
El Chopo is a weekly fleamarket that has been going for 27 years in Mexico City. Punters can pick up anything from original Doc Marten boots to a copy of ‘London Calling’ by the Clash in the stalls that line the market streets.
José Carmelo is 33 years old and has been working outside the Arena de Mexico selling mascaras for 20 years. He got into this line of work thought his brothers, who used to have another shop outside another lucha venue – el Toreo de Cuatro Caminos. Click on the picture for more photos.
Ana Ignacia Rodriguez Marquez, now in her sixties, stood in La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas on Tuesday this week, October 2nd, in the same place that she had stood nearly 40 years ago. It was from that very spot that she saw students, men, women and children gunned down by state police and officials just after 6pm on October 2nd, 1968 as they gathered in peaceful protest in what has become known as the Tlatelolco Massacre – one of the darkest episodes in Mexico’s modern history.
This week – like they do every year – Mexicans young and old gathered to march to the city’s central Zocalo in memory of the hundred who died that day. Scores of people milled around the vast concrete square that is overlooked by the 14-storey Chihuahua building from which the students back then addressed the crowd.
It was rather an unlikely setting for a press conference with one of the world’s most famous rebel leaders, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army(EZLN). Mexico City’s Casa Lamm, a cultural centre and converted mansion in the Roma neighbourhood is the kind of place you expect to see expats and well-off Mexican families breakfasting, not Mexico’s guerilla army making its latest political statement.
Arriving on time to a room packed with journalists, activists, fans and onlookers of all ages, Sub Marcos – or Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero) as he now prefers to be known – took his seat at the end of a long table, replete with microphones and tall glasses of water, preceded by other members of the EZLN, including Comandante Miriam and Comandante Zebedeo.
A documentary film documenting the experiences of persecuted Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho Ribiera premiered in Mexico City on Saturday night.
The film, which was shown as part of the DocsDF film festival, documents the series of events set in motion following the publication of Cacho’s book, Los Demonios de Eden.
Hundreds of people showed up to the premier, which was screened at Cinemex Insurgentes on Saturday evening.
The World Press Photo awards exhibition opened in Mexico City’s beautiful Franz Meyer museum last night in collaboration with Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights.
The event was attended by hundreds, and features 200 photographs representing the best in press photography of last year. Images in the show range from photographs of conflict zones to wildlife.
Mexico City’s Military March – Independence Weekend
Mexico celebrated the anniversary of its independence this weekend. It was the first time that Felipe Calderon, the country’s current president, oversaw the celebrations since he took office in December last year following controversial elections.
Observers said that the military presence surrounding the annual event was much higher than past years, and the volume of the music being played by the enormous speakers around the square was painful to the ears.
MexicoReporter.com pays a visit to a Lucha Libre school in Mexico city, where the next generation of fighters are learning the art of the Lucha
Univision: Young angels in Juarez battle the city’s demons
AFP: Mexico City struggles with waste disposal
AFP: Activists under fire in Mexico
AFP: Ambulance attacked in Ciudad Juarez
Time: Evidence of Killings and Disappearances by Mexico’s Security Forces
AFP: Mexicans honor drug war victims on Day of the Dead