|
|
|
 Editorials | At Issue
««« Click HERE for Recent Issues
Mexicans Find a Rough Welcome Mat in Canada
 Alan Freeman & Marina Jiménez
Tourists, being denied entry in increasing numbers, report harsh, insensitive, even racist treatment by Canadian border officials.
Inside a New Antiwar Campaign
 Eleanor Clift
Remember President Bush's summer from hell? Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan had camped out in Crawford, Texas, igniting the nascent antiwar movement. Two years later, as Congress heads off on its August recess, antiwar activists are waging their Iraq Summer campaign.
Fate of 5 in US Prisons Weighs on Cubans' Minds
 James C. McKinley Jr.
In Cuba, they call them "the five." Their faces are plastered on walls and billboards everywhere. Merely being a relative of the five grants celebrity status. They are not a boy band, they are middle-aged men who have been sentenced to long US prison terms for spying.
Antiwar Group on March With Old-School Tactics, Online Savvy
 Elana Schor
Every morning, in a downtown office tower dubbed "the other K Street" by its liberal tenants, the activists who steer Americans Against Escalation in Iraq sit down for a strategy call - and then postpone the strategizing.
Bush's Secret Spying on Americans
 Robert Parry
The dispute over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales committed perjury when he parsed words about George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program misses a larger point: the extraordinary secrecy surrounding these spying operations is not aimed at al-Qaeda, but at the American people.
Despite Outcry, Many Americans Can't Live Without China Goods
 Rob Lever
Even as protests grow about US imports from China, many Americans may find it hard to manage without the range of products that dominate or in some cases monopolize the marketplace.
Exposure to War Crimes May Stymie Efforts to Achieve Peace
 Tulane University
People who have been traumatized by exposure to war crimes have a tendency to choose violent means and reject nonviolent means to achieve peace, says a joint Tulane University/University of California-Berkeley study in the August 1 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
On Way To U.S., Child Migrants Go It Alone
 Sara Miller Llana
Youths from across Central America are increasingly migrating by themselves to Mexico. The trend concerns human rights advocates because they say that children are far less prepared to deal with the physical exhaustion, extortion, and violence that often greet them as they make their way through the back roads of Mexico to the US.
The Tragic Neglect of US Veterans
 David Lord
The same inept bureaucracy that crippled F.E.M.A. in its response after Hurricane Katrina is alive and well at the Veterans Administration. The difference is that the V.A. has been getting away with it for decades.
Tourist Guides - Let the Buyer Beware?
 Allan Wall
Francisco Madrid, an official with SECTUR, Mexico’s tourist bureaucracy, recently announced that Mexico lacks qualified tourist guides, saying that for every 27,000 tourists there is only one guide who complies with the rules established by SECTUR.
Teens at Work
 Joseph Contreras
Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart’s Mexican stores. The retail giant isn’t breaking any laws — but that doesn’t mean the government is happy with the practice.
Mexico's State of Discontent
 Dolly Mascarenas
Oaxaca is simmering in civil discord: the state has been torn by political strife and unrest since last year — all of which is now attenuated by contentious local elections pitting the conservative government against left-wing political groups scheduled for Sunday.
Mexican Meth Lord Abused Pharma Links
 Anna Lewcock
A Mexican pharmaceutical wholesaler abused his position to supply criminals with the raw materials to produce the illegal drug methamphetamine, according to US Department of Justice claims last week.
Attorney General Endorses Self-Censorship by Media
 CENCOS/IFEX
In the context of insufficient government protection for journalists, the Attorney General of Mexico, Eduardo Medina Mora, has said that he considers it a "good strategy" for journalists working on stories about organized crime not to sign their names to their reports, in order to protect themselves against possible retaliation.
Bush Authorized Multiple Spying Programs
 Dan Eggen
The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001.
Latinos Assimilate on Their Own Terms
 Hiram Soto
It is one of the ideas that anti-immigrant forces take advantage of: the notion that immigrants today do not assimilate and that other generations did. But it is not true.
Panel Probes Mexico's Role in Ex-Border Agents Case
 Michelle Mittelstadt
Bipartisan congressional anger flared Tuesday over the imprisonment of two Border Patrol agents for wounding a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler and concealing evidence of the shooting.
Amnesty Urges Mexico to Probe Suspected Abuses
 Reuters
Amnesty International urged the Mexican government on Tuesday to investigate suspected torture and abductions by state officials during months of protests in the city of Oaxaca last year.
Mexico's Other Migrant Problem
 ISSUES-BYLINE
Mexico spends so much time fuming over its border relations with the US that its own southern frontier – where tens of thousands of Central Americans cross each year in hopes of making it to the US – is quite often an afterthought.
Illegal Immigration to U.S. Flourishes in Desert
 Robin Emmott
Immigration experts say a "virtual fence" of towers, radars, cameras and sensors about to come into operation along the border near Tucson, will not make a significant difference in the number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. Southwest.
Mexican Drug Case Raises Official Questions
 Karin Brulliard
Dubbed "El Chino" - the Chinese man - by Mexican media, the man whose arrest at a Wheaton, Md., restaurant last week thrust him into the center of the U.S. drug war has for months been the notorious protagonist of what analysts here call the country's biggest political scandal in recent years.
Fewer See Balance in US Court's Decisions
 Robert Barnes & Jon Cohen
About half of the public thinks the Supreme Court is generally balanced in its decisions, but a growing number of Americans say the court has become "too conservative" in the two years since President Bush began nominating justices.
Mexico City Prison System Allows First Gay Conjugal Visit
 Mark Stevenson
Mexico City’s prison system has begun allowing gay conjugal visits, bowing to a recommendation by the country’s National Human Rights Commission, the commission announced on Sunday.
Migrant Workers Toil on Farms, Struggle for Union
 Guelph Mercury
A steady flow of migrant workers who toil Canada's farms and provide the cheap labour necessary for many to turn a profit are meeting bitter resistance as they try to unionize.
Migrant Arrests Dip; Is the Reason Deterrence or Economic Slip?
 Associated Press
President Bush and the Border Patrol have been citing dramatic declines in illegal immigrant apprehensions this year as evidence that their deterrence efforts are paying off by discouraging crossing attempts. But a number of people who observe border developments and migration flows dispute the reasons being given.
Travelers Face Greater Use of Personal Data
 Paul Lewis & Spencer S. Hsu
The United States and the European Union have agreed to expand a security program that shares personal data about millions of U.S.-bound airline passengers a year, potentially including information about a person's race, ethnicity, religion and health.
American Guns Help Fuel Mexico's Drug Trade Killings
 Louis E.V. Nevaer
For more than a decade, Mexico has had military checkpoints on all northbound highways leading to the US. It's part of the campaign to crack down on the incoming flow of drugs. This summer, things have changed, and Mexico's military is inspecting vehicles traveling on the southbound lanes, checking for shipments of weapons.
Should Canadian Farmers Cash in on Biofuel Boom?
 Nicole Tomlinson
Canadians will likely have to pay more for tequila as less agave is planted. But before drowning your sorrows in a few shots of Cuervo Gold, cursing those who dare destroy its staple ingredient, you might want to reconsider where you're placing the blame.
U.S., Mexico Near Deal on Drug War Aid
 Pablo Bachelet
Mexican President Felipe Calderón, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating a counter-drug aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, say several U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.
ACLU: US Constitution in Grave Danger
 United Press International
The American Civil Liberties Union this week said it is "do or die time" to save the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU in a statement urged the U.S. Congress to "vote to hold White House officials in contempt for refusing to cooperate with legitimate congressional subpoenas."
Small Loans Yield Big Payoffs
 Jim Landers
Commercial banks are beginning to show interest in uncollateralized small loans for the poor that until now were the province of philanthropists. Some of the philanthropists, meanwhile, are working to lure profit-seeking capital.
US House Moves to Free Border Patrol Agents
 Andrew Taylor & Suzanne Gamboa
The House on Wednesday approved a move by conservative Republicans to try to set free two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug dealer. After a long, emotional debate, the House voted by voice to block the Bureau of Prisons from keeping former agents Ignacio Ramos and Alonso Compean in federal prison.
Younger Vets Dissatisfied with Disability Pay
 David Lord
How do we compensate disabled Veterans for their sacrifice - and is it fair? This imbalance in disability compensation paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was a point of contention at a June 8 commission hearing.
On Army Base, a Plea to Give Each Death Its Due
 William Yardley
Twenty soldiers deployed to Iraq from Fort Lewis were killed in May, a monthly high. That same month, the base announced a change in how it would honor its dead: instead of units holding services after each death, they would be held collectively once a month. The anger and hurt were immediate.
Illegal Immigrants: Uncle Sam Wants You
 Deborah Davis
In the Iraq war, citizenship is being used as a recruiting tool aimed specifically at young immigrants, who are told that by enlisting, they will be able to quickly get citizenship for themselves (sometimes true) and their entire families (not true).
Human Rights Watch Demands Mexico Probe
 Julie Watson
A major international human rights group on Tuesday urged Oaxaca state officials to thoroughly investigate allegations police used excessive force to quell a violent anti-government protest last week.
US Agriculture Dependent on Migrant Workers
 Ed Stoddard
Driving through the Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas, it is clear that whatever labor is being done on a farm - be it driving a tractor or weeding a field - Latinos are doing it.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us
