Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’
March 28th, 2013
A new telecommunications reform that was presented in Mexico by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto has been heralded worldwide. The reform bill seeks to amend the Mexican Constitution and will open the telephony and television industries. The changes had been recommended last year by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which said the lack of competition in the telecommunications sector cost Mexico $25 billion dollars a year and offered among the highest prices in the world to consumers.
The Mexican Congress’ lower house approved the law on Thursday March 21 and the Mexican Senate is expected to approve it in April. The version approved opens radio, television and telecommunications to foreign investment. The reform was presented to Congress in February, a feat reached by the Pact for Mexico, a multi-party front that seeks to introduce major reforms in the country. In the Mexican Congress, the bill was revised considerably by legislators. For instance, at the onset, the proposal would have allowed 100 per cent foreign investment in radio, television and telecommunications. But after two weeks of congressional tinkering, the law was restricted. In the approved version of the bill, foreign investment in radio and television is now limited to 49 per cent, although it could be higher — if the foreign company is from a country that offers reciprocal treatment to Mexicans. Fixed line telephony and cellular phone is set at 100 percent. The bill will impact Carlos Slim, now owner of Telmex, a fixed line telephony company that controls most of the country’s fixed lines, and Telcel, the country’s largest cellular telephone company.
The multi-milllion dollar open, non-cable television spectrum in Mexico is controlled by two media giants, Televisa and Azteca Television, which have controlled open waves for several decades.
The bill also creates a new regulatory body that will be functioning in 2014.
Critics such as Ernesto Villanueva welcomed the bill’s recognition of community radio in Proseco Magazine, but worried about the future of such local media, because the law does not permit them to seek publicity. The World Association of Community Radios, AMARC, urged the Mexican Congress to protect the rights of marginalised communities.
When asked his opinion about the reform, Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, according to Forbes, said he welcomed the reform which will improve broadband, telephone and television and radio industries in Mexico. Since the reform was made public, stock prices for America Movil, Slim’s company plummeted causing $6 billion dollars in losses.
March 8th, 2013
Ciudad Acuña, a tiny town on the Mexican side of Del Rio, Texas, has been in the news regularly because of drug-related violence. The town, resides in the state of Coahuila, which has been dominated by the ultra-violent Zetas. A competing organised crime group, the Sinaloa Cartel has been trying to take control of this territory in recent months, creating a surge of violence. Just last October, Jose Eduardo Moreira Rodriguez, the son of Humberto Moreira, a high-ranking politician from the Partido Institucional Revolucionario (PRI) and former governor of the state of Cohauila was kidnapped and killed, a drug cartel with the cooperation of a top police official.
But police in this city have decided to focus on a more serious threat — miniskirts. General Javier Aguayo y Camargo, head of public security in this embattled border town and a retired army brigadier, has ordered a ban on women and men wearing miniskirts, imposing an 800 peso fine (about £42) on those who disobey.
He said the bill was aimed at transvestites and prostitutes, rather than women in general. Wearing miniskirts, according to Agudelo, violates the decency and well being of residents of Ciudad Acua, and can also be used to ”commit several sorts of crimes,” including luring kidnapping victims, and men using bathrooms intended for the opposite sex.
The police will allow prostitutes to wear mini skirts and other tiny attire in the red light district. But if they attempt to venture into downtown areas dressed in such a manner, they will be taken to jail for up to 36 hours, said local police.
About 50 people have been taken to jail since the edict was put into motion a few weeks ago. Aguayo y Camargo has deflected criticism, saying he is only following the law under Article 42 of the Public Morality code.
February 15th, 2013
Until a couple of months ago, few in Mexico City knew who Heydar Aliyev was, and even fewer of those were aware that a marble and bronze statue erected in his honour sat smack in the middle of Reforma Avenue, one of Mexico’s most recognised streets. A plaque standing before the statue detailed the former president of Azerbaijan’s “loyalty to the universal ideals of world peace”. But the presence of the dead dictator sparked controversy in Mexico City.
The conflict over how Mexico City accepted $5 million dollars from Azerbaijan to build the statue, as well as a park, has been brewing since November. The agreement to build the statue was reached by the leftist government of the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD) after some of its representatives traveled to Azerbaijan in an all expenses paid junket the previous year.
It wasn’t until the statue was up that there were rumblings from other European ambassadors. Aliyev’s not so clean past was revealed in the local press, including the fact that he had probably engaged in pogroms against Armenian citizens.
Mexicans began to consider whether they should bring down the statue. Initially the Azerbaijan ambassador, Ilgar Mukhtárov, threatened to break off relations if the statue was removed. The Christmas holidays slowed down the conflict. But finally, in late January, the Azerbaijan embassy and city officials agreed to move the statue to another more suitable place in Mexico City — a storage area.
November 16th, 2012
In Mexico drug cartels continue to dictate news agenda and in some areas, have even infiltrated the newsroom. A new investigation by Fundacion MEPI reveals the extent to which news outlets fear of cartel retaliation and a shortage of accurate government information keep the public in the dark
(more…)
June 26th, 2012
Mexican crime journalist Stephania Cardoso, who went missing with her two-year-old son on 8 June, is understood to be under the
protection of the federal government. Cardoso, a reporter with the Zócalo Saltillo newspaper in the state of Coahuila,
spoke to Radio Fórmula on 15 June, confirming she and her son were alive and well but gave no further details of her whereabouts or circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Colleagues last saw Cardoso and her son on 7 June during a Freedom of Expression Day celebration.
June 15th, 2012
The body of Mexican journalist Víctor Manuel Báez Chino was
found yesterday near the main square in Xalapa, capital of Veracruz state, making him the fourth journalist to be killed in Veracruz in the past two months. A state spokeswoman has said officials received reports that three armed men abducted Báez on Wednesday night, she also indicated that an organised crime cartel was responsible. Báez covered the crime beat in the state capital.
June 12th, 2012
A
Mexican reporter has
gone missing from her home in the state of Coahuila, along with her two-year-old son. Hypathia Stephanía Rodríguez Cardoso, crime reporter for Zócalo Saltillo newspaper, disappeared on Friday (8 June) after attending an event celebrating Freedom of Expression day. The journalist contacted colleagues around 2 AM Friday to tell them she had returned home safely, but did not turn up for work later that morning. According to relatives, her house had been ransacked. The disappearance comes less than three weeks after a crime journalist in Sonora,
Marco Antonio Ávila García, was kidnapped and later found tortured and killed.
June 8th, 2012
A constitutional amendment was given
final approval in Mexico yesterday [7 June] making attacks on the press a federal offence in Mexico. The amendment, passed by 16 state legislatures, allows federal authorities to investigate and punish crimes against journalists, persons or installations when the right to information or the right to expression is affected. Press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists heralded the “landmark legislation”, with the groups’s senior programme coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauría, deeming it a “first step to stop impunity in the killings of Mexican journalists.”
