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From CNNExpansion.com and El Semanario

The Canadian government yesterday detained two airplanes rented to Mexicana, saying it wants a review of the airline's financial sitution amidst rumors that it intends to declare bankruptcy.

In response, Mexicana criticized the seizure and said it was working with Canadian authorities to clarify the misunderstanding and prevent further disruption to its passengers.

"(...) These actions ... are not properly justified and are a direct reflection of misinformation published in various media," the airline said in a statement.

The airline said all passengers on canceled flights - between Montreal and Mexico City and Calgary and Mexico City - will be rebooked on other Mexicana flights or those of its alliance partners.

Mexicana is holding its shareholders meeting today at which the future of the company is to be determined. The airline, which was privatized in November 2005, encountered financial problems last year as a result of the global economic crisis and the influenza outbreak.

www.cnnexpansion.com/negocios/2010/07/29/mexicana-canada-aviones-cnnexpansion; http://www.elsemanario.com.mx/news/news_display.php

By Ioan Grillo
GlobalPost

In the heart of the Mexican capital a crowd of 100 activists stood silently outside the imperious American Embassy on Wednesday waiting for a judicial decision 1,800 miles away in Phoenix, Arizona.

When news was announced that Judge Susan Bolton had blocked the Arizona law’s most controversial provisions, the crowd burst into applause.

“Yes, we could do it. Yes, we could do it,” demonstrators shouted, echoing a chant used when Mexico’s national soccer team wins a match.

Similar celebrations were held across Mexico from the presidential palace to ramshackle villages that emit emigrant workers.

Divided by a bloody drug war and harsh recession, Mexicans had been temporarily united against the Arizona law, which they saw as knife in the gut of their paisanos over the border.

www.globalpost.com/dispatch/bolivia/100729/mexico-celebrates-ruling-arizona-law

VoANews.com - A U.S. judge Wednesday blocked controversial parts of an Arizona law aimed at curbing illegal immigration, one day before the law goes into effect.

The law's opponents are applauding the ruling, while Arizona governor Jan Brewer, who supports the law, calls it a bump in the road.

Judge Susan Bolton issued the temporary injunction against provisions of the law that would have required police to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally when they arrest or stop those people while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed a provision that would have required immigrants to carry documents at all times and another that would have prevented illegal immigrants from soliciting work in public places. She blocked a fourth provision that would have allowed warrant-less arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. The judge said the temporary injunction will allow the disputed issues to be decided in court

Arizona governor Jan Brewer said she will consult lawyers on a possible appeal.

www1.voanews.com/english/news/US-Judge-Blocks-Key-Parts-of-Arizona-Immigration-Law-99484044.html

El Economista

President Felipe Calderón today will announce the creation of a Council of Stability of the Financial System, a superagency that will be alert to macroeconomic and financial risks that could harm the country's economy.

Mexico's creation of the council will be first for the developing countries that are members of the G-20.

Unlike committees of financial stability that already have been created in the United States and Canada, the Mexican agency will not have to have legislative approval.

In countries where financial stability commissions (FSCs) have been created, the organisms typically oversee the supervision of the financial sector and financial services with a view to strengthening and institutionalising cooperation between nation's central banks and their banking regulatory agencies.

Economy Secretary Ernesto Cordero will serve as the head of the new Financial Stability Council.

eleconomista.com.mx/sistema-financiero/2010/07/28/consejo-estabilidad-sistema-financiero-listo

By Daisy Gutiérrez Palma
El Economista

Mexico's electrical service is of lower quality and costs more than many of the countries with which it competes internationally, according to a new study.

An investigation by Eduardo Martinez Chombo, a utilities expert at the Colegio de Mexico, ranked Mexico 16th of the 19 countries that were studied, putting it behind South Korea, the United States, Hungary, Portugal, Turkey, Brazil, China, Malaysia and Poland.

In the last decade, according to the study, average electricity prices in Mexico have passed those in the United States after staying below U.S. rates the previous 25 years.

The high cost in Mexico is explained partly by the high prices of the combustibles that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) uses to produce electricity, costs related to electricity theft and labor costs.

For CFE to improve costs and quality, said Mitra Energy's Alexander Alvarez, the utility needs a 20 percent increase in its 2011 budget.

eleconomista.com.mx/industrias/2010/07/27/electricidad-cfe-cara-mal-servicio

By Elisabeth Malkin

Prisoners in a northern Mexico jail were allowed out at night to carry out murder-for-hire jobs using jail guards’ weapons and vehicles, officials said Sunday, revealing a level of corruption that is stunning even in a country where prison breakouts are common as guards look the other way.

The prisoners carried out three massacres this year in the city of Torreón in which 35 people were killed, Ricardo Nájera, the spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said at a news conference.

Among them, the authorities said, was last week’s attack on birthday revelers at a party hall. The gang shot randomly into the crowd, they said, killing 17 people.

Ballistics studies confirmed that four guns used in the shooting were the same as those assigned to jail guards, Nájera said.

“The criminals carried out their executions as part of a settling of scores against members of rival gangs linked to organized crime,” he said.

www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/americas/26mexico.html

By Georgina Saldierna and Antonio Zúñiga
La Jornada

For the first time in 10 years, Mexico has lost its position among the 20 countries attracting the most foreign investment, the UN Conference on Commerce and Development (UNCTAD) reveals in its 2010 report.

Mexico's ranking as a foreign investment magnet fell to No. 24. The ranking has fluctuated over the the past decade, putting it mostly between No. 15 and No. 20 but reaching as high as No. 12.

The country lost its Top 20 ranking this year, said UN consultant Gregorio Channels, because it lost more investment during the global economic downturn than other countries, which moved higher in the ranking and displaced Mexico.

More than three-quarters of Mexico's foreign investment has been spent on mergers and acquisitions. That category experienced the biggest drop in 2009, Channels said.

The country also was hurt, he said, by the virtual disappearance of investment in Mexico's mostly foreign-owned maquiladora manufacturing factories. Their main market in the United States dried up when the U.S. recession eroded consumers' buying power.

www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/07/23/index.php

By Alexander Medina and Erick Zúñiga
El Semanario

A new scandal has erupted over the holdings of the Mexican Electrical Workers, the union that represented workers at Luz y Fuerza del Centro utility before the federal government dissolved the state utility.

El Semanario's weekly magazine, released today, contends that the EMS's value surpasses 6 billion pesos ($470.76 million) and says that it earns money not only from member dues but also from rent from 22 buildings in Mexico City, the state of Mexico, Morelos and Hidalgo, as well as from sports competitions.

The additional income, says the article, might boost the union's holdings to 31.25 billion pesos ($2.44 billion).

The scandal drives to the heart of an ongoing controversy over the wealth and power of unions at a time when there are calls for greater transparency among unions and for sweeping labor reforms.

The revelations have prompted some to predict that this will put an end to the career of Electrical Workers Union President Martin Esparza, who has challenged Luz y Fuerza's dissolution and led a hunger strike among union members.

www.elsemanario.com.mx/news/news_display.php

By Jonathan J. Levin
Bloomberg

The U.S. government has delivered only about 9 percent of the $1.6 billion in drug-war aid promised to Mexico and Central America as Mexican executives say increasing violence is the greatest threat to the economy.

U.S. agencies were forced to delay delivering training and equipment included in the 2008 Merida Initiative because they lacked staff and funding, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report that is to be released to the U.S. Congress today. The report also says there is little oversight to determine if the funds are doing any good.

The impact of violence is the biggest threat to the Mexican economy, according to 57 percent of Mexican executives, up from 49 percent in March and 22 percent in December 2009, a survey published yesterday by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu showed.

www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-21/u-s-anti-drug-aid-to-mexico-lags-1-6-billion-promise-as-violence-rages.html

By Margarita Vega
Reforma

The mounting violence in Mexico associated with the country's drug war has created another problem: how to deliver health services to a population that is vulnerable to crime, addiction and depression.

In Cuidad Juarez, the increase in the number of people wounded by firearms, for example, has stretched emergency services thin. The city's main hospital has had to dedicate 45 additional beds to such victims.

Doctors have complained that they cannot care for patients who have other types of injuries or disease because there is no room for them. Also, some will not come to facilities that are treating drug crime victims, said Mexico's Secretary of Health, Jose Angel Cordoba, during a working tour.

The situation is Juarez is replicated in other cities, like Reynosa, Monterrey, Torreon and Tijuana, that have been immersed in the drug war, he said.

In addition, Cordoba said, the insecurity has prompted doctors to flee the region, causing a shortage in those who can care for patients.

www.reforma.com/nacional/articulo/566/1131058/