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 Editorials | At Issue
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A New Spin on the CIA Tape Scandal
 Capitol Hill Blue
The new Republican spin on the destruction of CIA tapes that showed torture of terrorism suspects has a familiar ring to it: An underling took it upon himself to take criminal action against the wishes of his superiors.
Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families’ Way of Life Along
 Erik Eckholm
Here, where the northern swells of the Appalachians lap the southern fringe of the Rust Belt, thousands of people who long had tough but sustainable lives are being wrenched into the working poor.
 How the Pentagon Planted a False Story
 Gareth Porter
Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the January 6 US-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.
US, Mexico Set Sights on Stopping Flow of Weapons to Cartels
 Alfredo Corchado & Laurence Iliff
Faced with spiraling drug violence along the border, senior U.S. officials met with their Mexican counterparts Wednesday and announced steps to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico.
On the Border: A Dangerous Game
 J.B. Smith
By the time you get this far, you have left almost everything behind. Kin and country. Tuna tins and empty backpacks. Spent water bottles, cans of Red Bull energy drink, ripped jeans, socks full of thorns, all strewn across the red desert floor.
For Republicans, a Big Jumbled Mess
 Libby Quaid
Now, after Romney won Michigan on Tuesday, the GOP contest is more up in the air than ever just four days before the South Carolina primary and Nevada caucuses. For more than a year, the field has lacked a clear favorite as polls indicate unhappiness with the bevvy of Republican candidates.
In Mexico, the State Struggles for Control
 Bernd Debusmann
Among the indicators of a country in trouble is the widespread acceptance of insecurity as a way of life, the norm rather than the exception. As in the following dialogue heard in an upscale restaurant in Mexico City's bustling historical centre: "I had my car taken at gunpoint after the robbers took me to an automatic teller machine and forced me to empty my account." The reply: "Ah, well, good thing nothing happened to you."
Illegal Immigrants Increasingly Go North
 Robin Emmott
Illegal immigrants from Latin America are heading deeper into the United States to find work and avoid deportation as crackdowns in border states like Texas and Arizona make life more difficult for them.
Juárez's Homicide Rate Doubles in New Year
 Louie Gilot
With four shootings on Monday, there have been 24 homicides in Juárez in the first 14 days of 2008 - or 1.7 homicide per day, double the average of 0.8 homicides per day last year.
Underworld Queenpin
 Joe Contreras
Suspected drug traffickers usually don't look quite like this. But Sandra Avila Beltrán is no run-of-the-mill narco-thug. Sexy, stylish and female. Meet Mexico's unlikely druglord suspect.
Catholic Shelters Help Migrants into US Amid Immigration Controversy
 CNA
A Catholic-run shelter in Nuevo Laredo, just south of the border with Laredo, Texas, hosts dozens of Latin American migrants, providing them meals and rest before they attempt to cross into the United States by swimming the Rio Grande.
Latin America: ‘Operation Condor’ Was No Mystery to Washington
 Ángel Páez
The intelligence services of Peru and Argentina kept Washington informed in real time about a 1980 joint clandestine operation in which four alleged members of Argentina’s Montoneros guerrilla movement were "disappeared," according to documents declassified in the United States.
In Mexico's Drug Trade, no Glitter for Grunts
 Héctor Tobar & Cecilia Sánchez
Drug traffickers are mythologized throughout Mexico by a subculture that portrays them as lavishly paid gunslingers. But most of the 5,000 who have lost their lives in the last two years in the business are people of limited horizons who die in relative anonymity.
US Health Plans Leave Out Border
 Kevin Sieff
As presidential candidates in both parties work to distinguish themselves from their competitors before upcoming primaries, a panoply of proposed health care plans will likely become subject to serious dissection.
Chew on This: Food Issues are a Growing Concern
 Tom Ford
Food has long been a siren, tempting and enticing us. Now, it's going to cost us more money. Food's social aspects are well-known: Too many of us eat too much of the wrong foods - and exercise too little. The result is obesity. At the same time, starvation is stalking thousands of Africans.
What the Candidates Stand For
 Guardian Unlimited
Mark Tran analyses the positions of the main US presidential hopefuls on the key campaign issues.
Preserving the Integrity of the Vote
 Bob Huff
You may be surprised at the following information: to vote in Mexico, a citizen must provide not only photo identification, but a thumbprint. This system has been praised by many and was credited with producing the first President from the opposition party.
Elvira Arellano: Sanctuary's Human Face
 Aarti Shahani
Elvira Arellano met with Felipe Calderon in his salon. These household names from Michoacán, Mexico followed starkly different paths to celebrity: the latter, a Harvard graduate, had just taken the Mexican presidency with only a .58-percent margin of victory and amidst fervent dissent; the former, a cleaning lady, had just been deported from the United States after taking sanctuary to evade immigration laws.
US Issues National ID Standards, Setting Stage for a Showdown
 Matthew L. Wald
The federal government issued national standards on Friday that states would have to meet in order for driver's licenses they issue to qualify as identification at airports and federal buildings, setting the stage for a confrontation with states that have voted not to cooperate.
U.S., Mexico Trumpet NAFTA Changes but Farmers Balk
 Missy Ryan & Mica Rosenberg
U.S. officials trumpeted an end to farm trade restrictions under NAFTA, the controversial North American trade deal, on Friday, while Mexican farmers vowed to take to the streets to protest liberalization they fear will run them into the ground.
Bush Administration Rebuffed in a Ruling on Deportation
 Neela Banerjee
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Thursday blocked the government's efforts to deport a Coptic Christian who said he would be tortured if he were returned to Egypt. The ruling was a rebuff to the Bush administration's practice of relying on confidential assurances to send people to countries that have been known to practice torture.
Fight Doesn't Stall Trucks at Border
 Meena Thiruvengadam
In the latest battle over cross-border trucking, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Teamsters and Congress are at loggerheads over whether to allow trucks from Mexico to cross freely into the United States.
Catholics Play Vital Role in Helping Migrants to U.S
 Robin Emmott
A Nuevo Laredo shelter has been granted a papal blessing in a Vatican certificate that hangs proudly on the wall. After long treks to the border, often from as far away as Central America, men, women and children at the shelter swap their torn clothes for fresh ones, heal their injuries and telephone family members for cash for their crossing.
African-Indian First Black President in North America
 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The first Black president in North America led Mexico some 173 years ago. Vicente Guerrero - a decorated revolutionary hero - helped write the Mexican constitution.
Mexico Takes Fight to Zeta Drug Gang
 Laurence Iliff
Thousands of soldiers and federal police have mounted a new operation along the Mexico-Texas border designed to break up cells of the Zetas paramilitary drug gang, with two bloody firefights just this week, in what Mexican and U.S. officials are calling a new strategy in the drug fight.
US Concedes Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats
Martha Raddatz & Jonathan Karl
Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship
Report: Border Patrol Confirms 29 Incursions by Mexican Officials into US in 2006
 Olga R. Rodriguez
The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed 29 recorded incursions into the U.S. by Mexican military or other government agents in the last 12 months, according to a report made public Wednesday by a watchdog group.
Will Arizona's Immigration Law Work?
 Froma Harrop
What would happen if the United States seriously enforced the ban on hiring undocumented workers? We may find out now that Arizona promises to do it locally.
U.S. Plans Outline a Subsidized Pan-American Highway
 JonesReport.com
The U.S. has cooperated with Latin America on highway systems since the first Pan American Highway Congress in Buenos Aires in 1925, but footing all the costs for infrastructure can't be a good sign for expanded globalization to come.
Army, Paramilitary Build-Up in Zapatista Stronghold
 Diego Cevallos
The Zapatista guerrillas and their supporters in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas are experiencing the worst onslaught by state forces in the last 10 years, although most people are unaware of the fact, according to reports from a research centre working in the area.
Richardson Quits Democratic Race
 365Gay.com
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson who has been generally supportive of LGBT civil rights but ran afoul of the community over a comment about nurture versus nature has dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Chile Senate Protests U.S.-Mexico Border Wall
 Leigh Shadko
Chile's Senate passed a resolution on last Wednesday formally protesting the United States government's construction of a wall along the United States-Mexico border
Mexico Rebukes US Candidates on Migrant Issues
 Manuel Roig-Franzia
Mexico's foreign minister accused U.S. presidential candidates Monday of worsening an already "adverse climate" for Mexican migrants and vowed to redouble efforts to protect the rights of her country's citizens living and working in the United States.
McCain & Clinton: The Comeback Duo
 Capitol Hill Blue
A lot of people who thought they knew something about the political process woke up with a hangover this morning - their minds muddled by the intoxication of arrogance and the failed belief that they - not the voters - decide elections.
One Generation Got Old, One Generation Got Soul
 Rachel Aviv
Sixteen students sat around a table in the Manhattan cafeteria of the New School discussing where commas should go. They were rewriting, for the third time, a mission statement for their chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the activist group that had been dormant for nearly 40 years.
If Your Hard Drive Could Testify ...
 Adam Liptak
A couple of years ago, Michael T. Arnold landed at the Los Angeles International Airport after a 20-hour flight from the Philippines. He had his laptop with him, and a customs officer took a look at what was on his hard drive. Clicking on folders called “Kodak pictures” and “Kodak memories,” the officer found child pornography.
Latin America: Young People on the Fringes of Society
 Fabiana Frayssinet
Seven million young Brazilians and nearly 800,000 youngsters in Argentina swell the ranks of a veritable army of Latin American youths who neither work nor study - a phenomenon that threatens to continue reproducing poverty unless effective measures are urgently taken to integrate them in society, say experts.
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