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By Omar Brito
El Economista

A day after Mexico's Supreme Court exonerated three high-ranking Calderon administration officials from responsibility in the fire that killed 49 children at the ABC Day-care Center last July 5, a group of parents announced they are taking the case to international organizations.

The 5th of July Movement, formed by parents of the deceased children in the wake of the fire in Hermosillo, said the group is asking the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to intervene.

At a press conference, parents Jose Garci'a, Manuel Rodriguez and Patricia Duarte criticized the high court's ruling, saying it fell short and left a "bad taste in their mouths."

The ABC Day-care Center, which was operating in a converted warehouse, was federally funded, but privately operated. The Social Security Institute provided a contact for operation. Two state officials, whose wives co-owned the facility, resigned.

But the Supreme Court refused to place blame on Juan Molinar Horcasitas, current Secretary of Communications and Transport, Eduardo Bours, former Sonora governor, and IMSS director Daniel Karam.

“Partial and slanted justice is not justice," said Caesar Marquez, a spokesman for the 5th of July Movement.

eleconomista.com.mx/sociedad/2010/06/17/acuden-padres-onu-caso-guarderia-abc

By Alma Hernandez
Reforma

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says Pemex suffers from internal power struggles between federal government officals and the company's professional advisers.

As a result, says a report conducted by OECD at Pemex's request, the state-owned energy company is losing its strategic objective of creating value.

The influence of various federal agencies in Pemex operations, the report said, results in a general public perception that as Pemex board members, they use inside information for "patronage, nepotism, corruption and outright fraud."

With regard to professional advisors, created as a result of the oil reforms in 2008, the OECD reports that, far from helping in the decision-making, they have hampered the operation, using their positions on the board to check the decisions of Pemex's chief executive.

"The appointment of the four professional counselors does not seem to have changed much the status quo," the report said.

www.reforma.com/negocios/articulo/560/1119438/

By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times

In a step aimed at thwarting money laundering by drug cartels, the government of Mexico announced strict limits Tuesday on the deposit and exchange of U.S. dollars in banks, noting that the nation's economy is being flooded with illicit drug profits.

The money helps traffickers buy military-grade weapons used to kill tens of thousands of people and recruit small armies all over the country who battle rival gangs and government forces.

Failure to intercept the money has long been singled out as a major flaw in President Felipe Calderon's military-led offensive against the cartels.

In response, the government announced that it will limit individual bank account holders to deposits of $4,000 monthly in U.S. currency, while others without accounts will be allowed to exchange up to $1,500. Companies working along the border or in designated tourist areas can conduct bank transactions of up to $7,000 monthly.

Drug traffickers have long taken advantage of lax rules and the preponderance of cash transactions in Mexico to launder multibillion-dollar annual profits in Mexican banks and currency exchange houses. It is routine to see all-cash purchases of high-end items such as real estate, airplanes, horse farms and expensive art.

The new measures were announced in Mexico City by Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero, who said they are designed to reduce laundering by "closing the path to illicit resources" funneled into Mexican banks. He said that about $10 billion in surplus — and probably illicit — money has been detected annually in the Mexican banking system.

articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/15/world/la-fg-mexico-dollar-20100616

By Roberto Morales
El Economista

Grupo Mexico, one of the world's major copper producers, hopes to increase production of the metal by 64.5 percent in the next three years to reach 1.2 million tons in 2013.

To fulfill that goal, the company needs to restart operations at the Cananea open-pit copper mine in the first trimester of 2011 and achieve a production there of 180,000 tons annually, the company said in information given to the Mexican stock market.

Between 2011 and 2013, the company plans to add an annual production of 292,000 tons from its three mines of Peru: Cuajone (72,000 tons), Toquepala (100,000 tons) and Tia Maria (120,000 tons).

Grupo Mexico sold 505,000 tons of copper in 2009, mostly from full production at its La Caridad mine (125,000 tons) and Toquepala and Cuajone mines (387,000 tons together) in Mexico.

Additional future production also will come from the company's Asarco mine in Arizona, which it took control of on Dec. 10 after a long judicial battle. It hopes to extract about 220,000 tons of copper from that mine in 2010.

Although it has not yet authorized the required investments, Grupo Mexico, furthermore, expects to increase copper production at Los Chancas in Peru (80,000 tons), El Arco in Mexico (190,000 tons) and the expansion of Cananea (240,000 tons).
eleconomista.com.mx/industrias/2010/06/15/gmexico-crecera-645-su-produccion-cobre

El Universal

The Federal Electricity Commission has revealed that its Laguna Verde nuclear power plant has been operating for years with radiological equipment that is "obsolete, damaged or in poor condition."

According to the state-owned CFE in a report sent to the Finance Ministry, the equipment constitutes "a risk to radiation safety and, therefore, a precursor of errors that can lead to severe accidents that would harm our personnel and equipment."

The threat was identified in a request by CFE's Nuclear Power Plant Management to the ministry for additional funds to repair or replace the equipment.

The report said that 94 percent of the radiological equipment at the facility has been in operation for more than 14 years, increasing the risk of failure at the plant.

Of that equipment, the report said, 22 are "damaged" and eight are "obsolete."

The Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant is located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in Alto Lucero, Veracruz. It is the largest electric power generating nuclear plant in Mexico by power generation and produces from 3 percent to 4.5 percent of the country's electrical energy. It has an installed capacity of 1,365 Megawatts.

In the report, CFE says that in order to comply with radiation safety standards, resources, operating equipment and protection equipment must be provided.

babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url

By Paul Kiernan
Dow Jones Newswires  

Mexico's Communications and Transportation Ministry on Thursday awarded a fiber-optic lease to a consortium backed by media giant Grupo Televisa as the government seeks to loosen billionaire Carlos Slim's grip on the telecommunications market.

The investment group won a 20-year concession to lease 19,457 kilometers of unused fiber-optic capacity from state-run utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) by submitting the minimum required bid of 883.8 million pesos ($69.3 million), Minister Juan Molinar said at a press conference.

The auction's result came as little surprise given that the consortium - comprising in equal parts Televisa, cable-TV and telecom provider Megacable Holdings and a subsidiary of Spain's Telefonica - was the only bidder vetted by the authorities to participate.

The government auctioned the fiber-optic lease in hopes of bringing more competition to an industry dominated by incumbent fixed-line phone company Telefonos de Mexico, also known as Telmex, and mobile operator America Movil. Both companies are controlled by Slim.

America Movil's Telcel unit had 71 percent of the country's nearly 85 million wireless subscribers at the end of March, while former state monopoly Telmex controls about 82% of the country's 19.3 million fixed-phone lines.

Rivals frequently have to use Telmex's nationwide network to provide phone service to their clients. The fees they pay to connect to the Telmex network have been a source of conflict among carriers for years.

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100610-712704.html

By Dudley Althaus
Houston Chronicle

For a few delirious, nail-biting hours on Friday, Mexico's work life will grind to a halt as tens of millions gather to watch their national team battle South Africa in the World Cup's opening game.

Teachers have been told to bring televisions to school to keep students from playing hooky. Mexico City government will broadcast the game on an enormous screen in the Zocalo, the capital's yawning central plaza.

President Felipe Calderón will be joining an estimated 15,000 other Mexicans in South Africa — though officially, he is on business to strengthen ties with Africa.

Yeah, right.

At the heart of all the fervor is Mexico's young squad. Most are not even 25 years old yet, and they stand among the best the country has fielded in decades, analysts say.

The team's Spanish coach, Javier Aguirre, has World Cup experience, and many of the players have played for European teams. The Mexican players thrilled fans last week with a sensational warmup game win over Italy, considered one of the world's best teams.

“It will be crazy. We expect to be very busy,” said Alejandra Carrera, who manages a Starbucks in the courtyard of a large office and retail complex in south Mexico City. The courtyard boasts five flat-screen televisions on the surrounding walls.

Mexicans' fervor for their team, for soccer and for the World Cup is nearly impossible to exaggerate. Mexico, like much of the rest of the world, has a critical mass of fanatics. And the fever has been fanned for months.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7045355.html

From The News and El Economista
The Secretariat of Funcion Publica announced it spent five years to detect a 1.8 billion-peso ($140.32 million) fraud involving five ex-officials of the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México and four companies.

Salvador Vega Casillas, the SFP's director, said that Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico (FNM) held public auctions selling scrap metal on four occasions but never turned over the profits. He said the firm attempted to cover up the fraud in which 52 tons of metal scrap, including train tracks, screws, nails and other items, were reported to have been sold to the four companies.

The amount of materials stolen, he said, was “more than three times the size of (the materials used in) Mexico’s metro or seven times more metal than in the Eifel Tower.”

The business executives involved are Enrique Alejandro Rivas Zivy, a BANOBRAS special fudiciary also in charge of severance pay;  Efrén Alejandro del Pozo Castro, legal sub-director; Antonio Paredes Ruiz, sub-manager of special services; Saúl Román Tiburcio, chief of legal affairs; and Pedro Rodolfo Muriel Salazar, chief of a sub-management area.

The companies charged are Remetsa, owned by Juan Guzmán Goatherd, Claudius Arvizu Téllez and David White Reséndiz; Cicloaceros; and a couple of Sonora businesses owned by Jose Fernando Sanchez Alarcón.

All of the stolen iron was obtained in five different areas in the states of Chihuahua, Michoacán, and Puebla.

If proven guilty, the former officials could face up to seven years in prison, as well as being obligated to pay all the damages.

thenews.com.mx/articulo/fraud-in-fnm-is-denounced-1069; http://eleconomista.com.mx/sociedad/2010/06/08/sfp-revela-fraude-historico-ferrocarriles-nacionales

By Laurence Iliff
Dow Jones

President Felipe Calderón struck a blow against what his administration sees as intransigent labor unions by sending in federal police to evict miners from the Cananea copper complex in northern Mexico after a nearly three-year standoff.

Mexico's Interior Ministry said Monday that federal police evicted striking workers from the mine in Sonora state, nearly three years after miners seized it in a labor dispute.

Federal police also stood guard in Mexico City on Monday during a protest by an electricians' union in support of the Cananea miners.

The National Mining and Metal Workers union called the police action at Cananea illegal and asked organized labor to mount a series of protests. The union also said there were three people injured by gunfire as police evicted miners.

Recent threats by the union to blow up the mine only seem to have strengthened Calderón's resolve to take back Cananea, which had become a powerful symbol of the standoff between traditional unions and powerful companies backed by a pro-business government.

The union "holds the government of Felipe Calderón responsible for the violence and bloodshed that could come in the future and demands that this government turn back this illegal military invasion of the Cananea mine," the union said Monday.

Calderón faced similar demands from the Mexican Electricians Union after he ordered the surprise shuttering of state-owned electricity company Luz y Fuerza del Centro late last year. The union was an open opponent of government energy overhauls.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704749904575293020064001584.html

El Semanario

Federal and Sonora state police last night evacuated about 1,000 miners holding the Cananea mine in a fiery dispute with owner Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico.

According to a report by Sonora radio station 98.5, workers associated with the Mine Workers Union of Mexico were evicted at about midnight Sunday from Section 65 of the historic open-pit copper mine. There were clashes between the two parties, and several fires were set on the premises, it said.

The mine is now controlled by police, and a meeting is expected later today with representatives of Grupo Mexico.

Miners have been on strike for almost three years at Cananea, the site of a strike in June 1906 that, although settled, was a key event in the general unrest that emerged during the final years of the regime of President Porfirio Díaz and that prefigured the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

On Feb. 11, 2010, a Mexican Federal Court ruled in favor of SCC in its request to evict the miners. On April 21, Mexico's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from the union.

Subsequently, Southern Copper Corp. said it was ready to resume operations at the mine and to strike a new labor agreement.

Xavier Garcia de Quevedo, chief operating officer and president of Minera Mexico, said that the resumption of operations and a possible investment of $3.8 billion would boost the mine's production of copper from 180,000 tons to 460,000 tons annually and of molybdenum to 5,400 tons annually.

Until this weekend, union members had spoken in favor of resolving the conflict through dialogue.

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