Timeline Mexico (C) 1998-2008
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1998 Jan 2, Judge Maria Claudia Campuzano freed 5 suspects who were held in connection with the Dec 15 murder of John Peter Zarate. The judge claimed conflicting evidence as grounds for the release.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 5, Francisco Labastida took over as the chief of internal security after Emilio Chuayffet resigned under pressure from the Chiapas massacre.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 7, Chiapas Gov. Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro submitted his resignation due to the massacre in Acteal.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 12, Chiapas state police opened fire on stone-throwing Indian protestors and 1 woman was killed and 2 others wounded. The government said the army arrested 27 state police at the site of the shooting near Ocosingo. Separately Chiapas state police commander Felipe Vazquez Espinosa was indicted for helping arm the paramilitary gunmen of the Acteal massacre.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 24, Former Gen’l. Jorge Maldonado Vega was arrested for allegedly trying to arrange a pact between two of the largest drug cartels. Captain Rigoberto Silva Ortega was also charged.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.B12)
1998 Jan 28, Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa, a peasant organizer in Ocosingo, was gunned down in an ambush.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22)
1998 Jan 28, Federal police in Guerrero came upon the anti-kidnapping squad of Morelos with the tortured body of a 17-year-old member of a kidnapping gang. They suspected that the body was to be dumped and arrested the state officers that included Armando Martinez Salgado, chief of the squad.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 31, Three Indian villagers were found hanged in the Chiapas town of Ocosingo. Also Antonio Gomez Flores, an Ocosingo peasant leader, died when a truck smashed into his car as he left the funeral of Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22)
1998 Feb 9, It was reported that flash floods in Tijuana killed at least 13 people.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb, In Guadalajara Moises Padilla (33) was kidnapped and tortured with knives. He was left naked and bleeding with 68 wounds and told to "Stop saying bad things about the Servant of God." Padilla was a principal witness in charges against Samuel Joaquin Flores and his evangelical group the Light of the World."
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A8,10)
1998 Feb 26, The US certified Mexico as a fully cooperating partner in the war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb, Rodolfo Montiel and Bautista Martinez helped form the Organization of Peasant Ecologists of the Sierra of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan to stop logging and prevent consequent erosion.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.C4)
1998 Mar 3, Senator Layda Sansores discovered a government spy center in Campeche. 22 similar operations throughout the country were indicated by the records found.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 5, In Chiapas 46 prison inmates escaped after a labor group of taxi drivers marched into the Ocosingo jail in a protest demanding the release of some inmates and the withdrawal of government troops.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A13)
1998 Mar 14, The book "Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War" by Mexican scholar Jorge Castaneda was mentioned in connection with the recent death of Manuel Pineiro, spymaster of Cuba.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A19)
1998 Mar 20, A new law, the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 22, In Tijuana the national independent union, STIMAHCS, representing the workers of the Han Young auto parts factory, warned the company of a pending strike if negotiations were not fruitful.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 26, A mob in Huejutla lynched 2 suspected kidnappers after a judge ordered the 2 men freed on $600 bail. 30 residents were arrested in the lynching.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 27, Adrian Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal Judicial Police, was arrested on charges of being on the payroll of the Arellano Felix drug gang.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 29, Carol Janet Schlosberg, an American artist, was raped and beaten at Puerto Escondido. She was tossed into the Pacific and drowned. In 1999 Cirilo Olivera Lopez and Rosendo Marquez Gutierrez were convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C2)
1998 Mar, Pres. Zedillo issued a revised proposal of the 1996 San Andres Larrainzar accord on autonomy for indigenous people.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico began talking to reduce oil output. They pledged to take 2-3% of the world’s oil production off the market in what came to be called the Riyadh Pact.
(WSJ, 6/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 12, Authorities expelled 12 foreigners from Chiapas state saying they had engaged in activity in support of the Zapatista rebels. Two int’l. news photographers were beaten and police attempted to confiscate their film as they boarded a plane for Mexico City. The expelled group reported that they had witnessed a military operation to shut down a town council in Taniperlas, that was raided the previous day by 750 police and troops.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.C12)
1998 Apr 19, Octavio Paz (84), poet and essayist, died of cancer. His work included "The Labyrinth of Solitude" and the poem "Sun Stone."
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A17)(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 25, It was reported that an average of 20 tourists were attacked each day in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A8)
1998 May 5, A forest fire killed 19 firefighters and left 12 missing.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A1)
1998 May 8, Immigration authorities put a limit on human rights delegations to Chiapas. Groups of 10 people would only be allowed to stay 10 days.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 May 11, Mexico expelled 40 Italian human-rights activists, labeled as professional provocateurs, who spent 9 days in Chiapas and banned them from returning.
(WSJ, 5/12/98, p.A1)
1998 May 13, Impeachment procedures began for Jorge Carrillo Olea, governor of Morelos state.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A22)
1998 May 17, Mexico continued to suffer in its worst drought in 70 years. Some 50 people were reported to have died fighting fires caused by peasants clearing their fields.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A10)
1998 May 18, The US Customs Service ended a 3-year sting operation with the indictment of 3 Mexican banks and 107 people on charges of laundering millions of dollars for drug-smuggling cartels.
(SFC, 5/19/98, p.A1)
1998 May 21, In Cuernavaca, Mexico, police arrested the wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law of kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi Lopez. He was wanted for carrying out at least 18 bold and brutal kidnappings since 1996.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 May 22, In Tijuana the workers of the Han Young auto parts factory went on strike. An attempted strike break and political maneuverings by the company were unsuccessful and the case was to be put before a judge.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A10)
1998 May, The CFC began an investigation of the entire cement industry and after more than a year reported no absolute monopolistic behavior. Cement prices in Mexico were higher than in any other major global market.
(WSJ, 4/21/02, p.A12)
1998 Jun 2, The military leader of an anti-narcotics investigation was kidnapped and beaten by henchmen of Ramon Alcides Magana, aka El Metro. At the same time his office was robbed of evidence linking Yucatan Gov. Mario Villanueva Madrid to El Metro.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jun 3, Mexico announced that it would prosecute US customs officials for breaking numerous Mexican laws in the undercover Casablanca operation that was announced May 18.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 3, Chiapas Gov. Roberto Albores ordered a thousand police officers and soldiers into the town of Nicolas Ruiz where 141 people were arrested for supporting Zapatista rebels.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 4, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela agreed to cuts in oil production and exports for the 2nd time this year in order to raise prices.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 5, In Matamoros Salvador Gomez, a former policeman and drug cartel leader, was arrested.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 7, Army troops killed 11 leftist rebels of the EPR near Ayutla in Guerrero state. Another 5 were wounded and 21 were arrested. Erika Zamora Pardo, an EPR member, later testified that the guerrillas were shot when they surrendered with their hands up and that 12 were killed. She also testified that civilians trapped in a schoolhouse also tried to surrender, but that soldiers threw a fragmentation grenade in their midst.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A14)
1998 Jun 8, Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz resigned as chief mediator in peace negotiations with the Zapatista guerrillas. The committee that he led also resigned and accused the government of standing in the way of peace.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 10, In Mexico 9 people were killed in Chiapas when the army tried to retake control of El Bosque. 52 people were arrested.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 19, In Mexico the 37th annual US-Mexico Parliamentary Session opened.
(SFC, 6/22/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun, Adrian Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal Judicial Police, was allowed to travel to the US to testify. In Houston he told a grand jury that he had collected nearly $2 million in drug bribes in 1993-1994 and turned the money over to Mario Ruiz Massieu, who fled Mexico in 1995.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 5, Voters in Mexico elected governors in 10 states. The PRI won in Chihuahua with Patricio Martinez Garcia and in Durango. The PRD won in Zacatecas with Ricardo Monreal.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 7, Mexican courts ordered the attorney general’s office to rehire more than half the 826 agents dismissed 6 months ago for failed drug tests and alleged corruption.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 13, In Chiapas a technical junior high school in Oventic was inaugurated by Comandante Ezequiel and Peter Brown of the US. Brown was deported 2 weeks later for violating Mexican laws, i.e. building a school on a tourist visa.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 23, Three girls escaped capture by police in Mexico City. They had been held for 4 days and the two youngest were repeatedly raped. Sixteen officers were later arrested.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 2, Felipe Gonzalez of the National Action (PAN) led the lections in Aguascalientes.
(SFC, 8/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 3, It was reported that Mexico’s bill for preventing the collapse of its banking system in 1995 was up to $65 billion.
(SFC, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 12, Vincente Fox, governor of Guanajuato, announced plans to run for president in the year 2000 and to have every one of his state’s 4,500 communities provided with potable water, sewers, electricity, telephones and health services within a half hour for everyone.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 18, Near Mexico City police nabbed Daniel Arizmendi (39) and 9 others. Arizmendi was the leader of a kidnapping gang that sent the ears of victims to their families to pressure for ransom.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 22, Elena Garro (b. 1920), novelist, playwright and former wife of Octavio Paz, died at age 77. Her foremost novel was "Recuerdos del Porvenir" (Remembrances of the Future).
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.D4)
1998 Aug 24, Tropical Storm Charley dropped a foot of rain on South Texas and northern Mexico and left at least 14 people dead and over 60 missing.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug, The Tequila Express Train began running between Guadalajara and Tequila with a $40 round trip charge with complementary drinks.
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A1)
1998 Sep 8, In Mexico a flood in Chiapas left 25 people dead and Gov. Roberto Albores Guillen declared a disaster zone along the Pacific Coast. 6 other people were confirmed dead from flooding in Veracruz and Jalisco.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 11, The death toll in Chiapas reached over 100 as 20,000 people were forced from their homes due to the flooding from Tropical Storm Javier. the toll grew to 162 and 450,000 were left homeless.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A2,C18)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A13)
1998 Sep 17, In Ensenada, Mexico, 20 people were shot and 18 were killed by gunmen. The victims included 8 children. Fermin Castro (38), aka "The Ice Man," was the principal target and leader of one of 6 gangs linked to the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Castro, a native Pai Pai Indian, was tortured before being shot and was in a coma. In Dec. Tijuana police arrested Hector Flores Esquivias and Cruz Medina Perez, the wife of gang leader Marinez Gonzalez. In 2008 US immigration officials in Los Angeles arrested Jesus Ruben Moncada (33), believed to be one of the Ensenada gunmen, and turned him over to Mexican authorities.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A13)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
1998 Sep 18, A secret, 269 page Swiss report asserted that Raul Salinas assumed control of practically all drug shipments in Mexico in 1988 when his brother became president.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 28, In central Mexico heavy rains caused mudslides in Mexico City that left 6 people dead in the squatter hillsides south of the city.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 1, In central Mexico a flooded irrigation canal killed 12 people when it washed away tin and cardboard homes along its banks.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)
1998 Oct 4, In Mexico the Indians of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas boycotted the elections in protest for the jailing of 5 men accused of murder. They were jailed a year ago during a dispute between Catholic and Protestant converts.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.a10)(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 4, Hector Teran, governor of Baja California and leader of the opposition National Action Party, died at age 67.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 10, Gustavo Petricioli Iturbe, a former treasury secretary and ambassador to the US, died at age 70.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.D10)
1998 Oct 13, A gas explosion in Tultepec killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens. The blast was related to the manufacture of illegal fireworks.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 18, The Zapatista rebels called for talks with the Cocopa group, a multi-party peace commission set up in 1994.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 20, In Switzerland officials announced that they seized over $90 million from Raul Salinas after an investigations revealed that the money was received for protecting drug shipments. Swiss authorities requested that Britain seize an additional $23.4 million deposited in England.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A protest was planned at the Mexican border against plans to put low-level radioactive waste at Sierra Blanca in Texas, 16 miles from the border. This appeared to be in violation of the 1983 La Paz Treaty in which the US and Mexico agreed to reduce pollution within 60 miles of their common frontier.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 22-1998 Nov 9, Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. Later reports put the death toll in Honduras to 6,076. In Nicaragua the deaths reached 4,000, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Nov 8, The PRI led gubernatorial elections in Puebla and Sinaloa but lost in Tlaxcala Alfonso Sanchez Anaya of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 11, Carlos Cabal Peniche (42), accused of making some $700 million in loans from his banks to companies he owned, was arrested in Melbourne, Australia. He had vanished in 1994 just days before his Grupo Financiera Cremi-Union was seized by the government for fraud and mismanagement.
(SFC, 11/12/98, p.C18)
1998 Nov 18, Frederick McPhail (27), a graduate student from NYU, was found dead in a car in Mexico City. In 1999 13 current and former police officers were arrested as suspects in a gang that robbed and kidnapped tourists. In 2000 6 former police officers received sentences as long as 98 years for the death of McPhail, whom they robbed and forced to drink a bottle of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A7)
1998 Nov 21, It was reported that hundreds of people had been evacuated from villages near Volcan de Fuego, which threatened to erupt within days.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 23, In Mexico City detectives arrested 44 city officers on charges that included, murder, rape, extortion and abuse of power under orders by Police Chief Alejandro Gertz Manero, who took office in August.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 14, In Mexico the Senate approved a new law that ended restrictions limiting foreign ownership of the nation’s top banks.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 14, In Chiapas 11 former officials were barred from holding public office for 10 years for failing to stop the Dec 1997 massacre of 45 unarmed Indians.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 16, Philip True (50), a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, was found dead in a remote mountain range between Jalisco and Nayarit states in Mexico. He went hiking the area Nov 29 to photograph and write about the Huichol Indians and apparently fell into a deep ravine. A coroner’s report later indicated that he had been strangled and dropped into the ravine. In 2002 an appeals court overturned the acquittal of 2 Huichol Indians, who were arrested with True’s camera and backpack. In 2005 Robert Rivard authored “Trail of Feathers: Searching for Philip True."
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D6)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A22)(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.M2)
1998 Dec 18, Fifty military officers marched in Mexico City decrying corruption and injustice and attempted to present Pres. Zedillo a letter calling for reform. The officers called themselves the Patriotic Command to Raise the Consciousness of the People.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 27, In Mexico 2 Huichol Indians, Juan Chivarrer Lopez and Miguel Hernandez de la Cruz, were arrested for the murder of reporter Philip True.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Aline Hernandez, former wife of Sergio Andrade, published "To Glory Through Hell," an account of public accusations of sexual abuse of young starlets against pop music star Gloria Trevi and her manager Sergio Andrade.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A9)
1998 Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1998 High lead levels amongst children living near the Met-Mex Penoles silver refinery at Torreon were found. Met-Mex dispatched cleaning equipment and set up a mobile clinic and agreed to put $6.6 million in a trust fund for cleanup and medical costs. The 5,000-worker plant is the world's largest producer of refined silver.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A24)
1999 Jan 6, In Mexico police chief Alejandro Gertz fired 6 of his top 8 subordinates for failing to reduce crime and corruption.
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 8, In Mexico City 5 dissident army officers of the Patriotic Command to Raise the People's Consciousness were arrested. They had tried to present Pres. Zedillo with a letter on Dec. 18 complaining of abuses of soldiers by army commanders.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 14, Mexican officials authorized the first extradition of a major drug suspect to the US. Jesus Amezcua faced federal indictments for methamphetamine smuggling in California. His brother Adan Amezcua was released from prison on May 19 after a judge found he had committed no crime.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A15)(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)
1999 Jan 21, Raul Salinas de Gortari was convicted and sentenced to 50 years for the 1994 assassination of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 22, Pope John Paul II began a 5-day pilgrimage to Mexico and St. Louis. He was greeted by Pres. Zedillo some 2 dozen official sponsors who would help defray the $2 million costs of the 4-day visit.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 25, Abecnego Monje Ortiz (18) was shot in the back by a DEA agent as he crossed the Rio Grande in an inner tube with 14 others near Eagle Pass, Texas. In 2001 the DEA agreed to pay Ortiz $1.75 million to help pay medical costs. The DEA agent was sentenced in 2000 to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A14)
1999 Jan 27, In Mexico Jorge Aguirre Meza (39), president of the Sinaloa state bar and a human rights activist, was shot to death in Novalato.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 1, Hector Alejandro Galindo, film director, died at age 93. He directed or scripted over 70 films and won at least 8 Ariels, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.A25)
1999 Feb 2, Gov. Gray Davis on a visit to Mexico disclosed an agreement to get Mexico's leading telecommunications firm to relocate its US headquarters from Houston to San Diego. He negotiated the deal with Telmex chairman Carlos Slim Helu.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, Gov. Davis met with Fernando Canales Clariond, governor of Nuevo Leon, and witnessed a "Direct Line" meeting between the governor and citizens seeking direct action.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A2)
1999 Feb 4, The Mexican government revealed a new high-tech strategy against drug trafficking.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 7, The state governorship election in Baja California Sur elected Leonel Cota of the PRD to a landslide victory. The PRD lost in Guerrero and clamed fraud and campaign spending violations.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 10, In Mexico 4 armed seized teacher Roberto Mejia Guzman from a classroom at San Pedro Petlacala and killed him.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A18)
1999 Feb 14, Pres. Clinton traveled to Merida, Mexico, for talks with Pres. Ernesto Zedillo.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, President Clinton continued his whirlwind visit to Mexico, where he conferred with President Ernesto Zedillo. Clinton and Pres. Zedillo signed several accords on economic measures and the drug war.
(AP, 2/15/04)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Mexico armed men kidnapped Alvaro Campos, the father of soccer star Jorge Campos, near Acapulco. Campos was released after 6 days.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A15)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 22, Governor elections in Quintana Roo, Mexico, were held to replace Gov. Mario Villanueva, whose term was scheduled to end Apr 5. Federal authorities wished to charge the governor with drug money laundering, but he was immune while holding office. His Swiss bank account was said to hold $73 million. The PRI won the statehouse with just over 43% of the vote. In Hidalgo the PRI took the governorship with a 50% of the vote. Joaquin Hendricks won the election in Quintana Roo.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A23)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A14)(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 22, From Mexico it was reported that fisherman found 9 dead gray whales in the Magdalena Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 26, Mexico was certified as a US partner in the drug war by Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 27, Brazilian poet Haraldo de Campos (b.1929) won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing. His major works include "Chess Game of the Stars" and "The Education of the Five Senses."
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1999 Mar 3, The PRI announced that it would elect its candidate for year 2000 in a primary instead of the traditional "dedazo," i.e. presidential appointment.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C5)
1999 Mar 10, In Mexico a power failure at the Penitas hydroelectric plant cause a blackout across the Yucatan for several hours.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 12, The Mexican environmental Group of 100 reported a record number of dead gray whales near the Baha California peninsula. The ESSA salt works, a Mitsubishi-Mexican partnership, was blamed. Government officials proposed other reasons.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 14, The PRD held party elections, which were later revoked due to vote-rigging and corruption.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A4)
1999 Mar 19, Jaime Sabines (72), poet and politician, died. He served as a congressman for the PRI from 1976-1979 and in 1988.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A21)
1999 Mar 24, Fernando Hernandez Leyva was arrested near Cuernavaca for the suspected murders of some 137 people, 6 kidnappings and robberies. He was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of a former police officer.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Mar 27, Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva vanished 9 days before he was to leave office. In May 2001 he was arrested by Mexican police in Cancun.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A1,8)
1999 Mar 29, Two of the largest banks agreed to plead guilty to laundering millions of dollars for the Cali and Juarez drug cartels. Bancomer will pay $9.9 million in fines while Banca Serfin will pay $4.7 million.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F2)
1999 Mar 29, Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva failed to appear before anti-drug authorities in Mexico City and it was suspected that he had gone into hiding.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A14)
1999 Mar, Five Juarez bus drivers were charged with the murders of some 20 women. They all confessed but most later retracted their statements saying they were tortured by police.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A17)
1999 Apr 1, Effective on this day the midday break, siesta, for government was eliminated. Electricity savings were estimated to be $192 million.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C2)
1999 Apr 1, In Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Rene Juarez was sworn into office as governor while thousands protested that he won by fraud.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Apr 6, Jorge Madrazo, Attorney Gen'l. of Mexico, called for the arrest of former Gov. Mario Villanueva and over 100 public officials in Quintana Roo for narcotics corruption with the Juarez cartel.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.A12)
1999 Apr 20, Students at the National Univ. in Mexico City (UNAM) went on strike to protest a proposed increase in the cost of education from 2 cents to $200 per year. The majority of students did not support the strike but radical students forced the closure of classes and increased their demands with a call for the return of an 'Automatic promotion" rule that would give Univ. access regardless of academic performance.
(WSJ, 6/11/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 23, A truck with 55 passengers plunged into a ravine killing 46 people, 28 of them children from the hamlet of Chiquixvil in Chiapas.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.A9)
1999 May 2, Rodolfo Montiel, a peasant leader in a struggle to protect the forests of the southern Sierra Madre, was arrested, tortured and jailed on trumped-up drug and weapons charges for his battle against US and local logging companies. Teodoro Cabrera was also arrested. Pres. Fox ordered the release of Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on Nov 8, 2001.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A20)
1999 May 12, It was reported that a drought in northern Mexico was entering its 5th year and the governor of Sonora said that his state had only a 25 day supply of water.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A11)
1999 May 17, The PRI approved new party rules to select its presidential candidate in primary elections.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A1,11)
1999 May 18, Pres. Zedillo of Mexico planned a 3-day visit to California.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, The northern states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango and Sinaloa were declared disaster areas due to the ongoing drought.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)
1999 May, Jorge Castenada published "The Inheritance," an account of how the last 5 Mexican presidents named their successors.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A21)
1999 May, Altos Hornos de Mexico SA (Ahmsa) faced $2.4 billion in debt and filed for bankruptcy. The large steel maker company was taken private in 1991 by Alonso Ancira and Xavier Autrey. Ahmsa employed 17,000 people and accounted for almost 30% of the business activity in Coahuila state.
(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 1, Mexico planned to introduce a $15 per person entry fee for travel into the country beyond the border.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A21)
1999 Jun 7, In Mexico City Francisco "Paco" Stanley Albaitero (56), a popular TV and radio personality, was shot to death after leaving a restaurant. A parking attendant was also killed and 3 people were wounded by unknown gunmen. Traces of cocaine were later found in Stanley's car. Stanley was later reported to be in big debt to drug lord Luis Ignacio Amezcua Contreras, who ordered his murder. Stanley's sidekick, Mario Rodriguez Bezares, was indicted for the murder along with Contreras and Paola Durante (23), an aspiring actress.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C2)(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/22/00, p.A1)
1999 Jun 15, A 6.7 earthquake killed at least 12 people in Puebla. The death toll rose to 19 and 4,000 people were forced from their homes.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A12)(SFC, 6/18/99, p.D3)
1999 Jun 29, In Mexico City armed gunmen stole a $50,000 military payroll and killed an army colonel and a lieutenant 2 blocks from the residence of Pres. Zedillo.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 4, In Mexico City elections for governor were scheduled. Arturo Montiel (55), a PRI former congressman, faced Jose Luis Duran (38), a PAN mayor of Naucalpan. PRI candidate Arturo Montiel defeated Jose Luis Duran of the National Action Party. In Nayarit Antonuio Echeverria, a coalition candidate, led a victory over the PRI.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 6, It was reported that Angel Salvador "El Chava" Gomez, leader of the Gulf drug cartel, was killed execution style.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 16, A judge cut the 50 year prison sentence of Raul Salinas in half and a Swiss court overturned the seizure of his stashed fortune, though the money remained frozen pending further investigation.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A11)
1999 Aug 27, US prosecutors detailed a 25-count narcotics and money laundering indictment against former deputy attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 15, In New Jersey Mario Ruiz Massieu (48), former Mexican official indicted on drug charges, committed suicide. He left a suicide note that implicated Pres. Zedillo in the 1994 killing of his brother and presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.
(SFC, 9/16/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 22, The FBI hit a big Mexican drug ring, formerly run by Amado Carillo Fuentes, with 93 arrests in the US and the Dominican Republic.
(WSJ, 9/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 25, From Mexico it was reported that assaults on trucks had increased from 350 in 1993 to an estimated 40,000 a year.
(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 26, In Mexico 63 people were killed in a series of explosions in the city of Celaya, 120 miles northwest of Mexico City. Powder from fireworks was blamed. Three government officials were later arrested for abetting illegal sales of fireworks and officials seized some 14 tons of gunpowder. 6 government officials and 7 business owners were later arrested in connection with the explosion.
(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 26, In Coahuila PRI candidate Enrique Martinez won 60% of the vote and PRI mayors won in the cities of Saltillo, Torreon, Piedras Negras and Monclova.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.C16)
1999 Sep 28, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas stepped down as mayor of Mexico City to launch his 3rd bid for the presidency.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep 29, Rosario Robles was sworn in as the first female mayor of Mexico City.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)
1999 Sep 30, A 7.5 slab earthquake was centered in Oaxaca state and killed 12 people. The death toll rose to 20 and 3,850 buildings were reported damaged.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.A14)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A12)(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A15)
1999 Oct 5, Flooding from Tropical Depression No. 11 killed at least 83 people in ten states including 42 in Puebla after 7 rivers overflowed following heavy rains. The death toll soon reached at least 342. A large mudslide in Teziutlan left 72 confirmed dead and 30 people missing. The Catholic Church expected the toll to reach near 600.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A16)(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15)(SFC, 10/8/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A10)(SFC, 10/11/99, p.A12)(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 7, The Nahuatl village of Acalana was buried under a collapsed mountain killing all but 30 people. As many as 200 people had lived there.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 18, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, an explosion in a candy store that sold illegal fireworks killed at least 5 people.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct 22, Police arrested Jacobo Silva Nogales (41), aka Comandante Antonio, leader of the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People, ERPI.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1999 Oct 23, The first monarch butterflies arrived at sanctuaries in Michoacan in their annual migration.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)
1999 Oct 24, In Guadalajara Victor Castaneda Casas was detained for his alleged role in the kidnapping of an 18-year-old. He died in the attorney general's office after receiving 40 blows to the head, 2 broken ribs and a burst lung. Police denied any torture.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct 30, Police reported that Juan Jose Quintero Payan (57), a Juarez Cartel boss, was arrested in Guadalajara.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 1, Mexico announced plans to increase its border deposit for US registered vehicles from $11 to as much as $800 for new models for travel beyond the 15-mile border zone.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 7, Francisco Labastida, the PRI candidate, led the presidential primary elections far ahead of Roberto Madrazo. Labastida (57) won 272 of the 300 districts.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 9, A TAESA DC-9 jet exploded in flight near Uruapan and all 18 people onboard were killed.
(SFC, 11/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 23, Mexico suspended the operations of Taesa Airline.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C5)
1999 Nov 24, Mexico and the EU agreed on terms for a free trade treaty.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 29, Authorities worked with a US FBI team to unearth as many as 100 bodies of disappeared Mexicans and Americans near Ciudad Juarez. Drug traffickers were believed responsible. By Dec 7 eight bodies were recovered. Nine bodies were discovered after 3 weeks and initial estimates were deemed in error. In 2000 Vicente Carillo Fuentes, believed to be in charge of all drug trafficking in Ciudad Juarez, was charged with killing 10 people in the area.
(SFC, 11/30/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 12/18/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A18)
1999 Dec 1, Border deposits of as much as $800 for US registered cars began.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A18)
1999 Dec 2, Pres. Zedillo suspended the controversial border car-deposit program under angry opposition.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.D5)
1999 Dec 10, Masked men with guns attacked a prison in Chiapas and 44 of 239 inmates fled and a 5-month old child, whose mother was visiting her husband, was killed.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 14, A passenger bus collided head-on with a gas truck and at least 26 people were killed near Salvatierra in Guanajuato.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.B3)
1999 Ricardo Salinas Pliego used Mexico’s TV Azteca to fund cellphone start-up Unefon SA, despite assuring shareholders that he would not use the company to fund outside ventures.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2000 Jan 13, In Brazil Mexican singer Gloria Trevi was arrested with her manager Sergio Andrade and Maria Raquenal Portillo on Mexican charges of corrupting Karina Yapor (17). Trevi became pregnant in May and rape was suspected. Brasilia federal police chief Paulo Magalhaes was removed from his post in October.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A10)(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
1999 Manuel Gonzales published "Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States."
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.10)
1999 The documentary film "A Place Called Chiapas" was directed by Canadian Nettie Wild.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.E3)
2000 Jan 5, A student takeover of the El Mexe Rural Teachers College began in Tepatepec, Hidalgo.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 20, It was reported that the TV soap "The Candidate" used significant political events of the day as part of its show segments.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan-Mar, Some 2,300 head of cattle died on 92 ranches in Chiapas from rabies due to vampire bats.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 1, In Mexico 171 radical students were arrested in a skirmish with anti-strike students and security forces at a university-affiliated high school in Mexico City.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D5)
2000 Feb 1, In Chiapas 3 supporters of the Zapatista rebels were killed in an ambush at Chavajebal. Paramilitary supporters of the government were suspected.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D8)
2000 Feb 6, In Mexico City police raided the main campus of the university and arrested some 632 striking students including 8 student leaders.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 19, People in Tepatepec, Hidalgo, captured at least 65 policemen after state police raided the El Mexe Rural Teachers College. The police were later freed after the release of hundreds of students and supporters.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 21, Nicolas Caletri (44), kidnapping mastermind, was captured in southern Oaxaca.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.C1)
2000 Feb 27, In Tijuana municipal police chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez (49) was shot to death by assassins who sprayed his car with over 100 bullets.
(SFC, 2/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 8, Police announced that 6 suspects were arrested for the slaying of a police chief in Tijuana and 14 other people. The suspects were reported to be acting as hit men under orders from Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of a drug trafficker in Sinaloa.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 8, Juan Manuel Izabal, a top aide to the attorney general, was found dead from suicide. A stash of $700,000 was also found.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 12, Police captured Jesus Labra, leader of the Arellano Felix drug organization at a soccer game in Tijuana.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.11)
2000 Mar 15, Gustavo Galvez Reyes (32), the lawyer for Jesus Labra, was found slain in southern Mexico City. Labra, a Tijuana businessman and uncle of the Arellano Felix brothers, was in jail on narcotics charges.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C1)
2000 Apr 5, Rodolfo Montiel, an imprisoned peasant leader, was awarded the $125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts to protect the forests of the Sierra Madre.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 13, In Mexico 7 people died in a train carrying illegal immigrants from Central America in a bid to enter the US. 46 people were hospitalized from suffocating conditions.
(WSJ, 4/14/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr, The population reached 100 million this year.
(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr, Three Mexican special agents, probing the Arellano Felix cartel, were found killed along the Rumorosa Highway between Tijuana and Mexicali. In October 3 former federal police officers were arrested for the killing.
(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A12)
2000 May 3, Police arrested Ismael Higuera Guerrero, a senior member of the Arellano Felix drug gang, along with his son (15) and 8 others near Ensenada.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A15)
2000 May 11, Mexico reached a free-trade agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.D2)
2000 Jun 15, US federal agents made over 170 arrests in the breakup of a Mexican heroin ring based in Nayarit state. The US-based ringleader, Oscar Hernandez (35), and his wife, Maria Lopez (39), were arrested in Panorama City. Operation Tar Pit began last October in San Diego.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A5)
2000 Jun 16, American expatriates Norris (67) and Nancy (62) Price were found shot to death in Ajijic near Guadalajara. A land dispute was suspected.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun, In the weeks before the presidential elections Pemex illegally gave $120 million to its union which in turn turned it over to the PRI to help finance the campaign. It was later suspected that some or all of the money was diverted to private pockets.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A17)
2000 Jul 2, In Mexico Vincente Fox (58) and his national Action Party (PAN) claimed victory over the ruling PRI. This ended the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s 71-year reign. In 2004 Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon authored "Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy."
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/3/00, p.A8)(AP, 7/2/01)(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.M1)
2000 Jul 3, The elections showed 42.7% for Vincente Fox, 35.8% for Labastida, and 16.5% for Cardenas.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A11)
2000 Jul 4, President-elect Vincente Fox promised to fight corruption, to restart talks with the Zapatista rebels, and to strip the Interior Ministry of all functions but those involving political relations between the federal and state governments.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 10, In Mexico Augustin Vasquez Mendoza was arrested in Tehuacan. In 2005 he was extradited from Mexico to the United States to stand trial for his role in the murder of DEA Special Agent Richard Fass in Glendale, Arizona, on June 30, 1994.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A10)(http://crime.about.com/b/a/145527.htm)
2000 Jul 22, Mexican women staged a one-day strike, more symbolic than massive, over housework.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B16)
2000 Jul 31, Aides of Vincente Fox announced plans to transform the police and judiciary and to demilitarize the anti-narcotics programs.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 4, Ildefonso Salido Ibarra, owner of the El Debate newspaper, was kidnapped in Sinaloa state. He was released after 4 days.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/25oh9b)
2000 Aug 18, Fifteen people were killed when violence broke out during the inauguration of Mayor Jesus Tolentino in Chimalhuacan, a suburb of Mexico City and part of the area known as the misery belt. Tolentino defeated Guadalupe Buendia a PRI cacique (power broker). Buendia supporters battled with Antorcha Popular (Popular Torch), widely regarded as a paramilitary movement. [see Aug 27]
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 20, In Chiapas Pablo Salazar, an ally of Vincente Fox, was elected governor over Sami David of the PRI 57% to 42%.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 24, Pres. Clinton met with Pres.-elect Vincente Fox of Mexico. Fox promoted his ideas on an open border.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 27, Guadalupe Buendia, the defeated PRI mayor of Chimalhuacan known as the "She Wolf," was arrested for the earlier attack on a rival faction that killed 15 people. She had also reportedly emptied the city treasury. Buendia was the founder of the Organizacion de Pueblos y Colonias (OPC), an organization of villages and neighborhoods, and drew support from thousands of housewives and municipal workers.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 28, Rodolfo Montiel, winner of a 2000 Goldman environmental prize for fighting rampant deforestation, was convicted on drugs and weapons charges and sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in jail. Human rights groups allege that he was tortured and that the charges were trumped up.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 31, Retired Gen. Francisco Hermosillo and Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro were arrested for collaborating with the Juarez drug cartel.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 1, Pres. Zedillo gave his last State of the Nation address.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 5, Cuco Sanchez, singer, actor and composer, died at age 79.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.D5)
2000 Oct 6, In Reynosa, Mexico, a DC932 plane with 83 passengers overran a runway and crashed into a group of homes and then a canal. 6 people walking along the canal were killed.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 20, In Mexico City a fire at the Lohobombo salsa club killed at least 19 people.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 22, Manuel Andrade (PRI) was declared the winner of the governor’s race in Tabasco by 8,000 votes over Raul Ojeda. A federal court overturned the victory. New elections were held in 2001.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A16)(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
2000 Nov, Some 50,000 unionized sugar-mill workers went on a nation-wide strike. The industry was antiquated and in deep debt following years of PRI subsidies.
(WSJ, 11/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, Pres. Vicente Fox assumed office.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 2, In Chiapas Subcommander Marcos announced that he would begin talks with the government in Mexico City in Feb.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 5, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the new chief of the national security council, vowed to end illegal wiretapping.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico City Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador took office as mayor and vowed to delegate power and resources down to the 1,352 neighborhood governments. Obrador appointed women to 9 of his 15 cabinet seats.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 6, Pres. Fox submitted a tight $142 billion budget.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C9)
2000 Dec 15, Pres. Fox planned to be at border crossings to receive Mexicans returning home for the holidays. He planned to reduce or eliminate blackmailing and cheating by border guards.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 17, Thousands were ordered to evacuate the area around the Popocatepetl volcano due to the formation of a lava dome.
(WSJ, 12/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 18, Popocatepetl volcano began spraying hot rock and ashes in its biggest eruption in 1200 years.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A22)
2000 Dec 19, In Mexico over 30,000 people were evacuated from the area of the Popocatepetl volcano as the volcano resumed activity.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 22, In Mexico the army closed a base in Chiapas and continued to pull troops from the region.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 28, Congress voted to register millions of 2nd hand vehicles imported illegally in past years.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.B3)
2000 Dec 29, Congress approved a $140 million budget.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A10)
2000 Dec 29, A court ruled that the governor’s race in Tabasco was fatally marred and called for new elections.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A8)
2000 Dec 30, In Chiapas the head prosecutor freed 17 jailed Zapatista rebels.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 30, The legislature of Tabasco state amended the state constitution to delay the elections for 18 months.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 31, Pres. Fox ordered a 2nd military base closed in Chiapas.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2000 Dec 31, The outgoing Tabasco state Congress named Enrique Priego as acting governor.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2000 Dec, In Oaxaca state dozens of hooded men dressed in black stormed into the town of Nazareno de Etla and announced a "New Revolution." They called themselves the Armed Forces of the People’s Revolution (FARP).
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A16)
2000 Carlos Fuentes authored his novel "The Years with Laura Diaz," a chronicle of the 20th century through the eyes of a Mexican woman.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, BR p.3)
2000 Carlos Salinas, a former president, authored "Mexico: A Difficult Step Toward Modernity." Salinas blamed his successor Ernesto Zedillo, for Mexico’s 1995 financial crises.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A12)
2000 Imprisoned Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo contributed several chapters to the book "Always Near, Always Far: The Armed Forces in Mexico," which included proposed military reforms.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D3)
2000 The Mexican film “Amores Perros," a gritty tale of dogs, crime and violence, was produced.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.46)
2000 In Mexico Alberto Patishtan was arrested for the murder of seven policemen, who were killed in an ambush in Chiapas state. Although he denied committing the crime, he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. On Oct 31, 2013, he was released under a pardon by President Enrique Pena Nieto after the government found evidence the teacher's rights had been abused.
(Reuters, 10/31/13)
2000 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the Mexican tequila producer Viuda de Romero.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2001 Jan 1, In Tabasco opposition legislators from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party rejected the interim governor chosen the previous day by the outgoing legislature with a violent brawl.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 1, In Mexico rebels soon called for the closure all 7 military bases near rebel strongholds.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, In Acapulco 8 armed men charged into the home of journalist Jorge Torres Palacios and killed his father, brother and cousin. Police sought Abel Arizmendi Flores, the top elected official from the reporter’s village.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 2, In Tabasco opposition legislators elected a 2nd interim governor, Adan Lopez, sec.-gen. of the state PRI.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 10, The government shut down a 3rd military base in Chiapas.
(SFC, 1/11/01, p.A14)
2001 Jan 11, In Tabasco Adan Augusto Lopez stepped aside as governor and agreed to recognize rival Enrique Priego.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A18)
2001 Jan 17, Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez was wounded by a shot from Victoria Loya, a former police officer.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 18, The Supreme Court ruled 10-1 to allow the extradition to the US of 2 drug traffickers.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 19, Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka "El Chapo," escaped from the maximum-security prison in Jalisco state. Leonardo Beltran, the prison director, and 30 officers were detained for possible involvement in the cocaine trafficker’s escape. 78 people were later implicated.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 30, Rodolfo Morales, Oaxacan artist, died at age 75.
(SFC, 2/2/01, p.D7)
2001 Feb 2, Mexico agreed to sell a small amount of power to California.
(SFC, 2/3/01, p.A8)
2001 Feb 3, Mexico followed Canada and the US in a ban on beef from Brazil due to fears of mad cow disease.
(WSJ, 2/5/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 6, A trade tribunal ordered the US to allow Mexican trucks to cross the border following a NAFTA arbitration process.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 9, Pres. Fox inaugurated a $50 million aid plan for Chiapas. Yucatan’s PRI Gov. Victor Cervera refused to accept a state electoral commission.
(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A18)
2001 Feb 15, Hooded gunmen shot and killed 12 villagers in the village of Limoncito de Ayala in Sinaloa state.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.D2)
2001 Feb 16, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Fox in Mexico. They announced a joint agenda to expand trade, protect immigrant rights and reduce drug trafficking.
(SFC, 2/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 22, Jose Juarez Rosales (24) was arrested in Dallas for alleged multiple sexual assaults and murders in Ciudad Juarez.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A17)
2000 Feb 24, Zapatista rebel leader Subcommander Marcos began a 2,000-mile caravan to Mexico City to lobby for Indian rights.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 27, Some 30 protesters were injured and another 30 arrested near the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Cancun.
(SFC, 2/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb, It was reported that millions of monarch butterflies had died at a hilltop reserve in Michoacan. Insecticides were suspected while officials blamed cold weather.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.C6)
2001 Mar 11, Some 100,000 supporters filled the square of Mexico City as the Zapatista rebels arrived. "We are here to shout for and to demand democracy, liberty and justice."
(SFC, 3/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 12, The Fox administration announced its " Plan Puebla-Panama," an effort to close the economic gap between the north and poorer south.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 12, Zapatista rebels invaded the Naha nature preserve in southern Chiapas, home of Lacandon Indians, and took over some 250 acres of the 7,500-acre preserve.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 21, Pres. Vicente Fox arrived in California for his 1st foreign trip as President of Mexico. He appealed to Gov. Davis to allow Mexicans in California greater access to doors of opportunity.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 22, The Chamber of Deputies voted to allow Zapatista leaders to speak before an informal session of Congress.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D2)
2001 Mar 28, Zapatistas told the Mexican legislature that the military phase of their struggle was over and that political efforts would take precedence.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 3, US agents seized over 7 tons of marijuana from a tractor-trailer at the Tijuana border. It was believed to be the largest seizure along the US-Mexican border and was valued at $12.1 million.
(SFC, 4/5/01, p.A4)
2001 Apr 5, Brig. Gen. Ricardo Martinez was arrested with aides Capt. Pedro Maya and Lt. Javier Quevedo on drug trafficking charges.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 19, There was an execution style slaying of 8 peasants of the Fray Bartolome Alliance in the Chiapas village of Canalucum. [see Jun 25]
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Apr 21, Humberto Iribe Monroy (26) was arrested as a suspect in the Tijuana slayings of 2 US citizens, a 1998 killing of an American investigator, and the July murder of the son of singer Beatriz Adriana Flores.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 28, The Congress approved broad constitutional reforms granting autonomy and other rights to millions of indigenous people.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 30, Zapatista rebels broke off contact with the government due to the watered down Indian rights legislation.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.A9)
2001 May 3, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Fox of Mexico and discussed temporary visas for Mexican workers and plans for long-range energy development.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 4, In Putla, Oaxaca, Fidel Bautista Guerrero (33), a Mixtec Indian, was shot to death. He had organized Indian farmers to conserve forests. The killers were pursued to the ranch of timber baron Efrain Cruz Bruno and 8 men with AK 47s and other rifles were arrested.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.A10)
2001 May 17, It was reported that the Mexican government would provide survival kits to citizens planning to cross into the US illegally.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A1)
2001 May 23, In Arizona 12 illegal Mexican immigrants were found dead due to dehydration. 2 more were found dead the next day. In 2002 Jesus Lopez-Ramos, one of 3 smugglers, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In 2004 Luis Alberto Urrea authored "The Devil's Highway: A True Story," about the ill-fated crossing.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.M2)
2001 May 27, In gubernatorial elections in Yucatan Patricio Patron of the National Action Party led Orlando Paredes of the PRI.
(SFC, 5/28/01, p.B12)
2001 May 29, In Mexico City Jesus Ignacio Carrola Gutierrez, a former director of the judicial police, was found slain execution-style with his 2 brothers. Carrola had resigned in 1997 under pressure of alleged links to drug traffickers and human rights abuses by police under his command.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A12)
2001 May, Mexican police in Cancun arrested former Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva, who had vanished in 1999 just prior to the end of his term.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A1,8)
2001 Jun 12, Alcides Ramon Magana, former federal police officer and drug kingpin, was arrested in Villahermosa.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 15, Mexico’s Pres. Fox launched his Plan Puebla-Panama aimed at helping the poorer south and the poor countries of Central America. The program was launched June 15, but by 2007 only $4.5 billion of a projected $50 billion had been invested. In 2007 Pres. Calderon re-launched the program.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.41)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Puebla_Panama)
2001 Jun 22, The US and Mexico unveiled a new border safety pact with measures to prevent migrants from crossing at deadly transit points and planned to equip US agents with nonlethal weapons.
(SFC, 6/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 22, Ron Lavender (75), an Iowa-born real estate agent, was kidnapped in Acapulco. A ransom of $2.5 million was demanded. Lavender was released Oct 16 and refused to file a criminal complaint.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2001 Jun 25, In Chiapas some 300 police officers arrested 13 members of the leftist House of the People. They were suspected to be connected to the Apr 19 slaying of 8 peasants of the Fray Bartolome Alliance.
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Jul 2, Mexican President Vicente Fox married his spokeswoman and long-time love, Martha Sahagun, a year to the day after his election victory.
(AP, 7/2/02)
2001 Jul 5, The Security Ministry reported that Mexico’s police solved only 8% of the nation’s crimes.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 18, Congress gave final approval to an Indian rights law that was opposed by many Indian organizations.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A17)
2001 Jul 25, Carlos Pacheco Beltran was lynched in the Magdalena Petlacalpo neighborhood of Mexico City after trying to steal from the neighborhood church.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 2, Carlos Natividad Garibay (21), a suspected thief, died of skull injuries In Guadalajara after being beaten by shopkeepers.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 3, Banamex was acquired by Citigroup in a $12.5 billion deal.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 5, New governor elections were held in Tabasco with Manuel Andrade facing Raul Ojeda. Early results gave the victory to Andrade of the PRI.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)(SFC, 8/7/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 8, In Mexico City branches of Banamex were bombed. Police later arrested 5 alleged members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP).
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 22, Maria A. Caraveo of Brownsville was found shot to death with her 3 children, aged 9-13, outside Guadalajara. Police searched for Benito Martin Mar, Caraveo’s husband.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 30, On the Int’l. Day of the Disappeared relatives of some of the 500 people who disappeared from 1970 to 2000 filed a criminal complaint against the last 5 presidents.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.D6)
2001 Sep 1, Pres. Fox gave his 1st state-of-the-union address. He asked for more time to live up to promises and appealed to Congress for help.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 3, The government announced the expropriation of 27 of 60 privately owned sugar mills from some $110 million. All were on the brink of bankruptcy.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 4, The US and Mexico agreed on small measures to improve food safety, enhance law enforcement and fight money laundering as Pres. Fox came to visit with Pres. Bush.
(SFC, 9/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Sep 5, Maria de los Angeles Tames, attorney and daughter of a former senator, was killed. On Mar 5, 2002, Juan Antonio Dominguez, mayor of Atizapan, was arrested in connection with the slaying of the city council member, who had planned to reveal evidence of corruption and drug trafficking. On Apr 10, 2002 Dominguez and his former chief of staff Daniel Garcia were charged with masterminding the murder.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/12/02, p.A1)
2001 Sep 12, In Mexico a twin-engine LET 410 plane crashed in the Yucatan and all 19 people aboard were killed. The 16 passengers were all Seattle-area tourists on a Holland America cruise.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C3)(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 Oct 19, Digna Ochoa (38), a prominent human rights lawyer, was found shot to death in Mexico City. She was shot once in the left leg and again in the head. In 2003 a prosecutor said her death was a probable suicide.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A22)(AP, 7/19/03)
2001 Oct 22, The government selected a site in the lake Texcoco area for a new $2.3 billion airport for Mexico City. The decision had been deferred since 1968.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 30, Felipe Santander (68), playwright, died in Ocotepec. His work included "El Extensionista."
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A23)
2001 Oct, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that life in prison, or any term without guaranteed parole, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the constitution.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.A1)
2001 Nov 6, Authorities in Ciudad Juarez found the bodies of 3 young women. 5 more bodies were found the next day. Mexican authorities later built a somber memorial of concrete benches, a circular water fountain also made of concrete and a cement plaque with the names of the eight victims. The families of three of the women appealed in 2003 for the court, which is a body of the Organization of American States, to take up the case. On Nov 7, 2011, Mexico's government publicly apologized for failing to prevent the killings of the three women and for the negligence of officials in investigating the crimes.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A19)(AP, 11/7/11)
2001 Nov 11, Lazaro Cardena of the leftist PRD won 42% of the votes for governor in Michoacan state vs. 37% Alfredo Anaya of the PRI.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 27, The Nat’l. Human Rights Commission issued a 3,000 page report that acknowledged at least 275 leftists disappeared while in government hands during the 1970s. The names of 74 officials implicated in the forced disappearances were not made public.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 3, Gov. Davis of California met with Pres. Fox and Mexican legislators in Mexico City to discuss economic solutions on mutual interests.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 3, Juan Jose Arreola (83), nationalist author, died. His work included "La Feria" (1962).
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)
2001 Jorge Emilio Gonzalez took over leadership of Mexico’s Green Party from his father.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A10)
2002 Jan 3, Juan Garcia Esquivel, pianist and composer, died at age 83. He turned out 10 albums in the US from 1957-1963.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 6, It was reported that Mexico had a national service program that required participation by all university graduates and that medical students were required to work in disadvantaged communities for one year before being licensed.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 12, Amparo Montes (Amparo Meza Cruz), boleros singer, died in Mexico City. She was 77-81 years old.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.B5)
2002 Jan 12-13, A rain storm was followed by a freeze and as many as 270 million monarch butterflies were killed at the Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies in Michoacan state.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A4)(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 18, Feliz Alonso Fernandez Garcia, editor of the weekly Nueva Opcion magazine, was shot and killed after filing a report that linked former mayor Raul Rodriguez Barrera and drug traffickers.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 19, Federal officials froze the bank accounts 9 current and former executive of Petroleos Mexicano in a $120 million corruption scheme tied to the PRI.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 3, In Cuba Fidel Castro met with Pres. Fox of Mexico.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 4, In Havana Pres. Fox of Mexico met with 7 prominent dissidents.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 10, Sinaloa state police reportedly shot and killed drug boss Ramon Felix Arellano (37).
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A12)
2002 Feb 24, In Mexico City the PRI held its 1st ever open election for party leadership.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 4, The PRI named Roberto Madrazo, former gov. of Tabasco, as its new leader.
(WSJ, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 8, In Mexico Ines Fernandez and Valentina Rosendo, two indigenous Me'phaa women from the state of Guerrero, reported that they had been raped and tortured by members of the Mexican Army. Since then, they have been subject to a constant stream of threats to keep them from speaking about the incidents. On Dec 15, 2011, Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire offered what he called "the most sincere of apologies" to Valentina Rosendo.
(http://tinyurl.com/7bdvlyk)(AP, 12/16/11)
2002 Mar 9, In Pueblo police arrested Benjamin Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana drug cartel.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 13, Manuel Herrera Barraza, a senior member of the Arellano Felix gang, was arrested.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 21, A UN meeting on poverty, despair and violence opened in Mexico City.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 22, Pres. Bush addressed the UN meeting in Monterey, Mexico, and called on wealthy nations to link foreign aid to economic reform.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 24, Rosario Robles, former mayor of Mexico City, was declared head of the Democratic Revolution Party.
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 8, Pres. Fox and the Maquila and Export Industry Council signed an agreement to improve working conditions for female factory workers.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 9, In Mexico the Senate voted 71-41 to deny Pres. Fox permission to travel to the US and Canada next week. They wanted him to spend more time on domestic concerns.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 10, In Mexico 41 state and city police from Tijuana and Tecate were arrested in Baja on charges of corruption and smuggling during a meeting at the state police academy.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A10)(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A9)
2002 May 6, Jose Luis Nieto (56) raced his pickup into a crowd of toddlers in Ecatepec, near Mexico City, and killed 2 children aged 2 and 3. A daily school ceremony had blocked access to his house.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A12)
2002 May 10, Masked gunmen killed 11 people at a Mother’s Day party in Santiago de la Ajoya, 40 miles north of Mazatlan.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A11)
2002 May 10, A truck with 8 tons of sodium cyanide was hijacked in central Mexico. The truck was later found but 76 drums of the chemical were missing. Most of the drums were found dumped near the village of Honey following an 18-day search. All the drums were later recovered.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A7)(SFC, 5/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A11)
2002 May 13, Two police officers were killed in a shootout with suspected ERP rebels at a water treatment plant in Buena Vista de Cuellar, Guerrero state.
(SFC, 5/14/02, p.A13)
2002 May 24, In Mexico Pres. Fox announced that all of Mexico’s waters are a preserve for whales and off-limits to whale hunting.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2002 May 26, In Veracruz police arrested Jesus Albino Quintero Meraz along with 6 associates and a federal police officer for cocaine trafficking.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A9)
2002 May 31, In southern Mexico gunmen ambushed a truckload of people and killed 26 in Agua Fria. The dead were all from Santiago Xochiltepec and were victims of a land dispute. 16 suspects were later arrested.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A12)(SFC, 6/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 9, A farmer and his two grown children were hacked to death with machetes by their relatives in a family dispute over a plot of land in southern Oaxaca state.
(AP, 6/9/02)
2002 Jun 10, President Vicente Fox signed Mexico's first freedom of information law on Monday, exposing the government and its records to greater public scrutiny.
(AP, 6/10/02)
2002 Jun 19, President Vicente Fox is releasing nearly 80 million secret intelligence files collected over decades, vowing that Mexico's government will never again use spying and violence against its critics.
(AP, 6/19/02)
2002 Jun 28, In Mexico City gunmen with assault rifles tried to hold up an armored car, killing three guards and wounding two others, but getting no money.
(AP, 6/28/02)
2002 Jul 3, In western Mexico 5 people returning from a political rally, among them a 101-year-old man, were ambushed and shot to death.
(AP, 7/3/02)
2002 Jul 3, Brazil and Mexico signed a trade agreement that reduced import duties on some 800 products.
(WSJ, 7/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 5, In Mexico Katy Jurado (78), the actress who played a sultry wildcat in some of the top American films of the 1950s and gained an Academy Award nomination, died.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 12, In Mexico farmers desperate to keep their land from being seized for a new Mexico City airport threatened to kill about a dozen hostages and spark uprisings across the country.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 14, Mexican state officials freed 10 prisoners in hopes of winning freedom for hostages held by farmers protesting construction of a new Mexico City airport.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 15, In Mexico farmers ended their protest of a proposed new airport for Mexico City and released 19 hostages after the government promised to reconsider construction terms.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 26, Jose Juan Palafox, a regional director of Mexico's main intelligence agency was slain in the border city of Tijuana, the 11th person killed this week in what authorities say is an escalating drug war.
(AP, 7/27/02)
2002 Jul 30, Pope John Paul II began a three-day visit to Mexico to canonize Juan Diego, the first Indian saint. He arrived from Guatemala to a greeting by President Vicente Fox and tens of thousands of people lining Mexico City's streets.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Jul 31, Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, an Indian peasant to whom church tradition says the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago, in a ceremony in Mexico that drew more than 1 million believers into the streets.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Mexico 6 masked gunmen kidnapped a federal congressman from a town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Aug 1, In Mexico the government decided to yield to protests by machete-wielding farmers and radicals and cancelled plans to build a new international airport on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City.
(AP, 8/2/02)
2002 Aug 6, In western Mexico the brakes apparently failed on a 26-year-old bus before it plowed through a highway toll booth and slammed into a concrete wall, killing at least 33 people, 10 of them children, headed for a re-enactment of the Last Supper. About 20 people were injured.
(AP, 8/6/02)
2002 Aug 10, In northwestern Mexico a bus crashed through a railing and into a shallow river near Hermosillo, killing 16 passengers and injuring two dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 14, Mexican President Vicente Fox angrily canceled a scheduled meeting with President Bush hours after Texas executed a Mexican national for killing a Dallas police officer despite pleas from the Mexican leadership. Javier Suarez Medina, a Mexican national, was never told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his 1988 arrest, a violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations.
(AP, 8/14/03)(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 14, Texas Gov. Rick Perry denied a reprieve for Javier Suarez Medina and authorities in Huntsville gave Suarez a lethal injection as he sang the hymn "Amazing Grace."
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 15, Heavy rains caused the San Luis Potosi and Los Dolores dams to burst, sending a wave of floodwaters roaring over villages in central Mexico, where authorities said at least eight people were killed and six others were missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 15, A train in Tlaxcala, Mexico, struck and killed six young people (13-25) as they were walking along railroad tracks during a religious procession.
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 17, In Mexico 8 men and a woman were lined up against a wall and gunned down with assault rifles and pistols at a ranch in the western state of Michoacan in what reports said may have been a drug-related massacre.
(AP, 8/18/02)
2002 Aug 31, It was reported that Mexican police had arrested Juan Heriberto Carrillo Olivas, a Mexican citizen, headed a gang in El Paso, Texas, that used a fleet of tractor-trailers to transport cocaine to other U.S. cities.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 6, Mexico said it was withdrawing from the 1947 Inter-American Reciprocal Defense Treaty designed to protect the Americas against communism, a year after President Vicente Fox called the agreement obsolete.
(AP, 9/6/02)
2002 Sep 10, Radical farmers in San Salvador, Mexico, have declared this town outside Mexico City to be autonomous, two months after they forced the government to abandon plans for a new airport.
(AP, 9/11/02)
2002 Sep 23, Hurricane Isidore left two dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico’s Yucatan and moved toward the U.S. Gulf coast.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 26, In Mexico Martha Sahagun de Fox launched a conference of first ladies of the Americas with a promise to forge creative answers to the problem of child poverty.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Sep 27, A Mexican military court charged three army officers (Gen. Francisco Quiros Hermosillo, Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro and Maj. Francisco Barquin) with homicide in the killings of 143 leftist activists and revolutionaries, the first prosecution of soldiers for crimes committed during the so-called "dirty war" of the 1970s.
(AP, 9/27/02)(SFC, 9/28/02, p.A6)
2002 Oct 14, In New Mexico VP Cheney met with representatives of Bajagua, a start-up waste processing firm targeting waste water in Tijuana, Mexico. Waste from Tijuana flowed into San Diego County and its Tijuana River estuary. Bajagua spent $585,000 in lobbying efforts from 2001-2006. Estimates of costs to the US ranged from $580-780 million. A 1999 environmental impact statement called the Bajagua plan not feasible.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A15)
2002 Oct 15, Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will be paid $4.3 million plus expenses for a one-year contract to advise Mexico City's mayor on reducing crime.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2002 Oct 19, In Mexico Manuel Alvarez Bravo (100), a photographer whose remarkable 80-year portfolio contained everything from mystical portraits of a bygone era to the striking realism of murdered laborers, died.
(AP, 10/20/02)
2002 Oct 21, In Mexico officials said 25 people were arrested who had infiltrated the army, police and attorney general’s office on behalf of drug kingpins.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A11)
2002 Oct 25, Hurricane Kenna hit Mexico’s Pacific coast and over 150 people were injured in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa. 3 people were later reported killed. Damages were estimated in tens of millions.
(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A7)(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.A20)
2002 Nov 16, In Mexico unidentified assailants killed a family of five, including two children aged 8 and 14 and two of the family's servants, by slitting their throats or shooting them.
(AP, 11/17/02)
2002 Nov 22, In Mexico City thousands of teachers marched to protest the deaths and disappearances of some 152 teachers over the last 10 years.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A10)
2002 Nov 26, About 2,000 members of Mexico's former ruling party seized government buildings in two Guerrero state towns, claiming fraud in the recent election of the towns' mayors.
(AP, 11/27/02)
2002 Nov, Pres. Bush approved the annual US entry of some 30,000 Mexican trucks beyond the current 20-mile border zone. On Jan 16, 2003, a federal appeals court halted the plan for environmental reviews.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.A5)
2002 Dec 5, In Mexico City an angry mob beat to death two of three youths who allegedly tried to rob a taxi driver.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 11, Bank of America agreed to pay $1.6 billion for a 25% stake in Grupo Financiero Santander Serfin, one of Mexico’s largest banks.
(WSJ, 12/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 31, Mexico City's only English-language newspaper, The News, shut down along with its sister Spanish-language publication, Novedades, after more than 50 years in operation.
(AP, 12/31/02)
2002 Dec 31, In Mexico illegal fireworks stands ignited in the port city of Veracruz as revelers thronged a marketplace to buy New Year's supplies. The blaze quickly engulfed an entire city block and killed at least 28 people.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Dec, Gunmen hired by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, took control of a small UHF TV station in Mexico City.
(WSJ, 2/27/04, p.A1)
2002 Carlos Fuentes published his novel “La silla del aguila," in Mexico. In 2006 an English translation by Kristina Cordero was published as “The Eagle’s Throne."
(SSFC, 5/27/06, p.M1)
2002 Mexico began the 3x1 Program–Citizen Initiative. Later on it became the 3x1 Program for Migrants. some 5,500 public works were completed under the program until it was scrapped in 2019 by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(http://www.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/vrp/aparicio.pdf)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.23)
2002 Oportunidades, a government social assistance program later rebranded as Prospera, was designed to target poverty by providing cash payments to families in exchange for regular school attendance, health clinic visits, and nutrition support. It was scrapped in 2019 by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oportunidades)
2002 Mexico ended its visa requirement for Brazilians as both countries liberalized their trade regimes. Illegal immigration of Brazilians to the US via Mexico quickly increased.
(WSJ, 1/24/05, p.A16)
2003 Jan 6, In Mexico a bus with failing brakes swerved off a mountain highway and into a deep ravine in Zacatecas state, killing 18 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Jan 15, Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ended a two-day visit to Mexico's capital, declaring that fighting government corruption will be crucial in lowering crime.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 19, Alfredo Zalce (b.1908), Mexican revolutionary artist, died.
(www.zalce.com/)
2003 Jan 21, A 7.6-7.8 earthquake ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at least 29 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/21/04)
2003 Jan 21, Mexico appealed to the World Court to stop the execution of 51 of its citizens in the United States.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 28, In Mexico, gunmen in San Juan Chamula ambushed police trying to arrest murder suspects, sparking a gunbattle that left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Jan 31, In Mexico City tens of thousands of farmers clogged main streets, demanding greater protection against U.S. imports and seeking more government aid.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Feb 5, The World Court ruled that the United States must temporarily stay the execution of three Mexican citizens on U.S. death rows.
(AP, 2/5/03)
2003 Feb 10, Mexican army troops seized 2.2 tons of cocaine from a plane that landed in northern Mexico after it reported mechanical problems. The three men onboard were arrested.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 13, Thailand officials arrested SF financier Thomas Frank White at the request of the Mexican government for the rape of a teenage boy. In 2004 White was indicted in SF on 2 counts of sex tourism.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, Popocatepetl volcano southeast of Mexico City erupted but caused no significant damage.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 16, In Mexico’s central Mexico state voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in support of executing kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers.
(AP, 2/17/03)
2003 Feb 17, In Mexico the bodies of 3 women were found in the desert outside of Ciudad Juarez, the latest victims in a string of killings in the border city.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Mexico a court upheld the conviction of an Egyptian man, Abdel Latif Sharif, for one of the first in a series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, but lowered the man’s prison sentence to 20 years.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 10, Two helicopters from Mexico’s Attorney General’s office were shot down near Tlapa, Guerrero, in the nation’s western mountains during an anti-narcotics operation, killing all 5 officials on board.
(AP, 3/11/03)
2003 Mar 14, In Matamoros, Mexico, police arrested drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen (35), aka "El Loco."
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 24, Mexico City police chief Marcelo Ebrard said that Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of Palermo, Italy, will be hired to combat crime. His work will complement Rudolph Giuliani's who hired on for $4.3 million.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Texas a fire in a sugar-cane field killed 5 illegal Mexican immigrants hiding there.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, Mexican federal agents killed 2 suspected drug runners in a shootout near the Texas border.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 29, In Mexico a small government plane crashed in the mountains of southern Mexico, killing all five people aboard. Passengers included Porfirio Encino Hernandez, state sec. for Indian affairs; his son and brother; Berenice Lopez, the daughter of former Gov. Javier Lopez; and pilot Guadalupe Gil.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 2, In Mexico 9 people were found tortured and killed near the border city of Nuevo Laredo in apparent drug-related violence.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 4, Mexican police over the last 2 days arrested 9 members of the powerful Juarez Cartel during raids across the country.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 4, Adalberto Martinez (87), song and dance actor, died. He appeared in over 100 Mexican films and TV series from 1947-2000.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A23)
2003 Apr 7, Mexico said it would prepay $3.84 billion in the last outstanding Brady par bonds. They originally totaled $34 billion.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 9, Abraham Zabludovsky (78), Polish-born Mexican architect, died. His projects included the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A28)
2003 Apr 12, Mexican army troops manning a roadblock near the Arizona border seized a truck packed with more than four tons of marijuana.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 21, In Uruapan, western Mexico, gunmen disguised as police killed six members of a family in a suspected drug gang dispute.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 May 21, The Mexican Justice Department said that 258 women had been killed since 1993 in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 Jun 6, In Balastrera, Mexico, a landslide followed by the blast of a ruptured gas pipeline hit a truck-stop town between Mexico City and Veracruz. 15 people were missing from the area.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 12, The first-ever Mexican freedom of information law took effect, designed to expose the government and its once guarded records and secrets to greater public scrutiny.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 18, Andrew Luster, a convicted rapist who is heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested after 5 months on the run. He was picked up by Mexican police in Puerto Vallarta as he scuffled with bounty hunters who had trailed him from California.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Mexico gunmen in Las Choapas, Veracruz, killed a man believed to be a migrant trafficker and then fatally shot four bystanders, including a 12-year-old boy, apparently to avoid leaving witnesses.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 6, Mexican voters issued a severe judgment on Pres. Vicente Fox's first three years in office, electing another divided Congress in which his party will have fewer seats and increasing the power of the former ruling party and the leftist opposition.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2003 Jul 17, A US company launched Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a person's skin and used to confirm health history and identity.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Mexico a landslide triggered by heavy rains in the southern state of Oaxaca swept away two houses and killed nine people, including five children.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 30, The last Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Puebla, Mexico. The first Beetles had arrived in 1956. Mexico had begun producing its own version of the Beetle in 1964.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A10)
2003 Aug 1, Mexican soldiers used a bazooka to return fire against cars believed to be carrying drug traffickers during a wild pre-dawn battle, killing three suspects.
(AP, 8/1/03)
2003 Aug 4, Mexico's federal government dispatched some 650 federal agents to Tijuana in the latest attempt to curb smuggling and corruption in the rough border city.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 15, Mexican troops arrested one of the country's most-wanted drug-traffic suspects, Armando Valencia, along with seven top figures in his ring in Tlajomulco near Guadalajara.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 24, Hurricane Ignacio sideswiped the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug 29, In central Mexico a truck carrying sulphuric acid collided head-on with a sport-utility vehicle on a mountain road, killing five people and forcing dozens of people to hospitals after they inhaled the fumes.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Sep 3, It was reported that Lake Chapala in Jalisco state had lost some 80% of its water over the last 10 years due to heavy development in central Mexico and agricultural diversion of water from the Rio Lerma.
(WSJ, 9/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Sep 10, In Cancun, Mexico, the WTO began its fifth ministerial meeting, with trade ministers from 146 countries expected to attend a five-day gathering to thrash out many problems surrounding the latest "round" of trade liberalization talks.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 10, In Puebla, Mexico, a clandestine fireworks factory exploded, killing at least six people and injuring 12 others.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 14, In Cancun, Mexico, the WTO talks collapsed when delegates from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia walked out accusing wealthy nations of failing to offer sufficient compromises on agriculture and other issues.
(SFC, 9/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 9/14/08)
2003 Sep, British scientists found 40,000-year-old human footprints in central Mexico, shattering theories that mankind arrived in the Americas tens of thousands of years later from Asia. The footprints were found in an abandoned quarry close to the Cerro Toluquilla volcano and were subsequently studied and dated by a multinational team of scientists.
(AFP, 7/5/05)
2003 Oct 10, It was reported that members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of Nuevo Laredo. An estimated 31 of 350 members of the Special Air Mobile Force Group, posted to the border state of Tamaulipas in the 1990s, had deserted and joined the drug turf war.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 20, Pres. Bush met with Mexico's Pres. Vicente Fox in Thailand and asked him to set aside disputes over immigration and Iraq.
(AP, 10/20/03)
2003 Oct 24, In Mexico Mariano Diaz Mendez, a Pentecostal pastor of Indian descent, was shot twice inside the car in a roadside ditch in San Juan Chamula, a majority Catholic township just outside San Cristobal.
(AP, 10/25/03)
2003 Oct 27, The southern California fires crossed into Mexico. The death toll climbed to 15 and damages were estimated to top $500 million.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 28, In Mexico City high-level officials of the Organization of American States ended two day of talks with a new security agenda.
(AP, 10/29/03)
2003 Oct 29, A Mexican electoral court annulled the results of the July 6 elections for the governorship of the southern state of Colima after concluding that the outgoing governor interfered in the race.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Nov 4, In Arizona Mexican President Vicente Fox stressed the importance of continuing a dialogue on immigration issues with the United States as he started a tour of 3 border states.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 5, Mexican President Vicente Fox asked New Mexico state leaders for better treatment of illegal immigrants from his country.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 7, The defending champion US baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, losing to Mexico 2-1 in the quarterfinals of a qualifying tournament in Panama City, Panama.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2003 Nov 11, Mexican diplomat Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (1949-2005), gave a speech to students at Mexico City's Ibero-American University, in which he claimed that the political and intellectual class of the United States sees Mexico as "a country whose position is that of a back yard" (patio trasero) and that Washington was only interested in "a relationship of convenience and subordination" and "a weekend fling" (un noviazgo de fin de semana). President Fox requested his resignation on 18 November.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2003 Nov 12, Imelda Ortiz Abdala, a former Mexican consul to Lebanon, was arrested on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United States from Mexico. Federal agents over the previous 2 days arrested alleged ring leader Salim Boughader Mucharrafille along with alleged collaborators Melissa Ataja Valdez and Orlando Alfaro, in Tijuana. Ortiz Abdala was released in Feb 2005 after Foreign Relations Department officials testified that she acted properly and was never in a position to authorize visas on her own, according to Mexican court documents.
(AP, 11/13/03)(AP, 7/15/05)
2003 Nov 17, Mexico dismissed UN Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar following his comments that the US regards Mexico as a 2nd-class country.
(SFC, 11/19/03, p.A17)
2003 Nov 25, Sales of Mexican green onions plunged after a hepatitis outbreak in the US was traced to northwestern Mexico, forcing farmers in this valley to defend the safety of their produce and find ways to stay afloat financially.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Nov 27, Mexican government prosecutors said that they've uncovered a document showing that soldiers tortured suspected rebel prisoners during the 1970s, sometimes forcing them to drink gasoline and then setting them afire.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov 27, In Mexico City union members, left-wing activists and farmers by the thousand marched to the central plaza in a major display of opposition to the president's plans to raise taxes on food and medicine and sell state-owned assets.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov, Mexico broke a decades-old tradition of rejecting U.S. aid workers and decided to grant permission for the first group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers ever to work there.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2003 Dec 1, In Mexico Isidro Galeana (65), a former state judicials police commander, was declared a fugitive after a judge ordered his arrest on suspicion of kidnapping alleged leftists during the Mexican government's campaign against radical activists in 1974.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 9, In southern Mexico Salvatrucha gang members attacked illegal immigrants from Central America on a train, killing three people and wounding four in the latest in a series of violent incidents in the region. The Mara Salvatrucha spanned Central America. It was named for its Salvadoran founders, who claimed to be as wise as trout.
(AP, 12/10/03)(Econ, 5/22/04, p.31)
2003 Dec 12, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Mexico in a bid to extend a string of recent diplomatic and economic successes in North America. In 2002 China shipped $6.3 billion in goods to Mexico, undercutting many local goods.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A22)(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 13, Chinese Premier Web Jiabao sought to assure Mexican leaders that their country's economy is not threatened by China's lower wages and cheaper goods, saying the two nations are partners, not rivals.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 27, Juan Garcia Ponce (71), a renowned Mexican art critic, translator and prize-winning novelist, died. Ponce was born in Merida, the capital of Yucatan state, on Sept. 22, 1932. The author of at least 50 books, Ponce wrote novels, plays, screenplays and essays and was considered a master of erotic literature.
(AP, 12/28/03)(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A12)
2003 The Mexican housing industry built some 450,000 new homes, many of them near the town of Tecamac, north-east of Mexico City.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.33)
2003 Ricardo Salinas Pliego beat administrative insider-trading charges in Mexico on procedural grounds. Later he and a partner set up a shell company to buy Unefon debt for pennies and then resold the debt to Unefon, which they controlled, for the full price. The move netted them $109 million each at Unefon’s expense.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2003 Mexico passed legislation calling for native languages to be recognized as official languages of the state along with Spanish. Mexico also created a National Institute of Indigenous Languages, which began mapping where different indigenous languages were spoken.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A8)
2004 Jan 3, Isidro Galeana (65), a former state police commander and the first former government official to face arrest for his role in Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 5, In Mexico heavily armed men in military and police-style uniforms raided the western prison at Apatzingan in Michoacan state and freed 25 inmates.
(AP, 1/6/04)
2004 Jan 12, A 2-day meeting began for leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American States opened in Monterrey, Mexico.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Mexico the 34-nation Summit of the Americas ended. The United States reached out to its neighbors on free trade and battling corruption, smoothing tense relations with Latin American leaders.
(AP, 1/13/04)(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, In Mexico gunmen ambushed and shot to death two federal agents and an army captain as they drove along a Mexico City expressway.
(AP, 1/21/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican Army troops arrested Javier Torres Felix, an alleged leader of one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in western Mexico.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez said at least 11 bodies were found at a house that had been occupied by alleged drug lord Humberto Santillan Tabares.
(ST, 1/28/04, p.A8)
2004 Jan, La Gloria English School opened on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Maggie and Tom Washa of Wisconsin opened the school to help the local Mayan children.
(SSFC, 9/25/05, E5)
2004 Feb 1, In Tepeyac, Mexico, a fight broke out between two families at an illegal cockfighting den, and seven people were killed.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 6, In Mexico deputy ministers from 34 nations in the Americas failed to reach agreement on a framework for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, stymied by differences on the contentious issue of U.S. farm subsidies.
(AP, 2/6/04)
2004 Feb 11, The bodies of 2 Americans, Francisco A. Antonielli (33) and James F. Bowtte (43), were discovered in a parking garage at the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, the apparent victims of a drug-related gunbattle.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 17, Jose Lopez Portillo (83), former Mexican president (1976-1982) who governed through an oil-driven boom to a debt-induced bust, died of complications from pneumonia.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Mar 5, Pres. Bush welcomed Mexican Pres. Fox to his Texas ranch for a 2-day visit.
(SFC, 3/06/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 5, Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state. The video was publicly aired May10.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 Mar 6, It was reported that 4 compromising videos have been released showing Mexican political party leaders and public servants accepting briefcases full of cash, gambling at the high rollers' table in Las Vegas and offering to procure business contracts for millions of dollars.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 16, It was announced that Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s Telmex, planned to buy a controlling interest in Brazil’s biggest long distance operator, Embratel.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.64)
2004 Mar 19, A Mexican police raid led to the arrests of 42 immigration agents and other government employees accused of running a network that smuggled migrants into the US.
(AP, 3/23/04)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 27, Adan Sanchez (19), Mexican-American singer, died in a car crash in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was the son of narco-ballad singer Chalino Sanchez, murdered in 1992.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 29, In Mexico Pres. Fox unveiled a sweeping revision of the legal system.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A16)
2004 Mar 30, Cuba arrested Carlos Ahumada, a Mexican businessman, wanted in Mexico for his role in a graft scandal involving Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador. Ahumada was soon deported to Mexico.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 31, The International Court of Justice ruled that the United States violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2004 Mar, A biology professor said the monarch butterfly population wintering in Morelia, Mexico, was down 75%. Logging had severely impacted the area.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A10)
2004 Apr 5, A flash flood swept through two border communities in northern Mexico, flooding rivers, washing away houses and killing 15 people. Dozens more were reported missing.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 10, In Mexico a gas explosion leveled two buildings, killed at least six people and injured more than a dozen others in the border town of Nuevo Progreso.
(AP, 4/11/04)
2004 Apr 12, In Mexico Morelos state Gov. Sergio Estrada ordered the firing of all 552 state police officers following charges that commanders provided protection to drug traffickers.
(SFC, 4/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 15, In western Mexico, an explosion tore through a small fireworks store in Tonala, killing seven people including a small child.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 21, Otto Herrera (39), a Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as Central America's most-wanted drug smuggler, was captured by Mexican agents at Mexico City's Juarez Int'l. Airport. Mexico made the arrest at the request of U.S. authorities who had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 May 2, In Mexico a small plane carrying federal anti-narcotics agents crashed, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 5, Mexico celebrated the 142nd anniversary of its victory over French forces.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2004 May 6, A Mexican court sentenced eight drug-gang members to 40 years each in prison for their roles in the 1993 shooting of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and 6 others at a Guadalajara airport.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 10, In Matamoros, Mexico, drug outlaw Alberto Guerrero, his bodyguard and 3 teenage girls were killed by a spray of bullets outside the Wild West dance hall. Ex-army commandos turned traffickers, known as Zetas, were responsible.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.D3)
2004 May 22, Bombs exploded outside three banks in Jiutepec, central Mexico, heavily damaging them but causing no injuries. A note near the bombing sites signed by a group calling itself the Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo — in tribute to the peasant leader Ruben Jaramillo, who was murdered along with his family by state forces on May 23, 1962.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 27, Cuba and Mexico agreed to return their respective ambassadors following a dispute earlier this month.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2004 May 31, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's energy secretary resigned, a day after President Vicente Fox criticized him for an early jump into the 2006 presidential races.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 May, A small poll of Mexicans ranked Mexico’s Congress as the worst government institution. Lawmakers met for only 2 days a weeks and 21 weeks a year. The average deputy earned $146,000 plus benefits. 200 of 500 lower house deputies were picked by party leaders.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A10)
2004 Jun 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Mexico for talks with his Pres. Fox, who has said he hoped to increase military cooperation with Moscow. Putin, the 1st Russian head-of-state to visit Mexico, said the two major oil producing nations should share knowledge on oil exploration and the energy sector.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2004 Jun 7, The US Supreme court ordered US highways to be opened to long-haul Mexican trucks, rejecting objections by labor and environmental groups.
(SFC, 6/8/04, A1)
2004 Jun 16, Jose Fernando Jimenez Lecona, Mexico City police official, was shot to death outside his home. Lecona, head of a high-risk crimes unit, was investigating a string of brazen kidnappings.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 22, Francisco Ortiz Franco, Mexican newspaper, editor was shot to death in Tijuana.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2004 Jun 27, Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans wearing white staged a silent march through the heart of their nation's capital to protest kidnappings, violent crimes and the failures of law enforcement to curb them.
(AP, 6/27/04)
2004 Jul 5, Pres. Fox named Emilio Goicoechea Luna, a business chamber leader and senator, as the new chief of staff, and Ruben Aguilar Valenzuela, a presidential analyst, as media relations chief. The 2 positions were held by Alfonso Durazo who resigned saying that the first lady's political ambitions are out of control and Fox is acting like the autocrats he replaced.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, Voters in Zacatecas, Mexico, elected Amalia Garcia (PRD), the country's first female governor since the end of one-party dominance. Pres. Fox's National Action Party lost badly in Chihuahua and Durango. It finished a distant third in Zacatecas,
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 18, Mexico and Cuba said they will reinstate ambassadors in each other's countries at the end of the month.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 25, Carmen Gutierrez, a doctor who won Mexico's Woman of the Year award (1997), was found dead in a canal on the outskirts of Mexico City. She was kidnapped Jul 22.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2004 Jul, The ship Mary Nour, filled with Russian cement, was denied permission to unload its cargo in Mexican ports under pressure from Cemex SA.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 1, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (b.1958) was elected governor of Oaxaca, Mexico, by a narrow 2% margin. Defeated candidate Gabino Cue, nominated by an alliance mainly of Convergencia and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), repeatedly alleged electoral fraud.
(http://tinyurl.com/jnpk8)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.48)
2004 Aug 8, In San Juan Chamula, Mexico, hundreds of enraged residents of this impoverished Indian community locked the mayor and three other municipal officials in jail, claiming they embezzled funds from public works projects.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 22, Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, alleged leader of the powerful Arellano Felix drug gang, was arrested before dawn at a house in the border city of Mexicali.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 29, Mexico City's leftist Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led more than 150,000 demonstrators in a march to protest efforts to impeach him.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 30, Mexico’s state oil company said it believes that vast untapped oil reserves lie in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 31, In Mexico suspects beat to death Francisco Arratia Saldierna (55), a newspaper columnist and dumped his body outside the offices of the Red Cross in the border city of Matamoros.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Sep 1, Capping a day of angry street protests and a strike by some 200,000 health care workers, President Vicente Fox spent much of his state-of-the-nation speech urging Mexicans to not give up on democracy, saying its "inherent problems are not cause for discouragement.
(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 17, Mexico and Japan signed a free trade agreement that Mexicans hope will ease their reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more factories there. PM Junichiro Koizumi wrapped up a four-day Latin American trip then headed for New York to pitch for a permanent Japanese seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Oct 13, A Mexican judge found bus driver Victor Garcia Uribe, guilty of eight slayings, giving prosecutors their second conviction in the decade-long series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2004 Oct 21, Four gunmen abducted three U.S. citizens on a rural highway in southern Mexico, shot and killed two of them and left the third, a pregnant woman, bound and gagged. Her testimony led to arrests the next day of Isidro Diaz Pineda, Reynaldo Hernandez Ramirez, Francisco Velazquez Paredes and David Gaona Mondragon, all of Tierra Caliente.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 29, Mexican police and federal agents alleged Zetas leader Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana, alias "El Kelin," a top drug hit man during a fierce shootout in the border city of Matamoros. Scores of suspected assassins and drug smugglers used hand grenades and assault rifles to fire back at authorities.
(AP, 10/30/04)
2004 Nov 7, In central Mexico gunmen, identified as local police officers, opened fire on a group of revelers returning from a weekend dance, killing 7 people, including 2 children.
(AP, 11/9/04)
2004 Nov 12, Mexico and a US environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials said it was the largest conservation project in the country's history.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 15, Mexico's former ruling party, trying to fight its way back to the presidency, overwhelmingly won two gubernatorial elections and held razor-thin leads in two other races.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Nov 23, In Mexico City a mob angry about recent child abductions cornered plainclothes federal agents taking photos of students at a school and burned the officers alive, mistaking the agents for kidnappers.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Nov 25, In Mexico the bodies of 9 people, including three federal agents, were discovered at two sites outside Cancun, and police are blaming the killings on a drug turf war.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 25, Mexican federal investigators said that two Mexico City police and 27 other people face homicide charges in the horrific vigilante killings of two federal agents this week.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen killed Gregorio Rodriguez, a newspaper photographer, as he and his family ate in a restaurant the state of Sinaloa, the home turf of nearly all of Mexico's top drug bosses.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 2, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel announced authorities had arrested 224 street gang members during a weeklong sweep across Mexico.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres. Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas prior to his murder.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Dec 6, President Vicente Fox fired Mexico City's police chief for allegedly bungling the response to a mob attack that killed two federal police officers.
(AP, 12/6/04)(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/05, p.A3)
2004 Dec 19, It was reported that Pres. Vicente Fox’s administration had failed thus far to dent corruption inside Mexico’s 445 prisons and jails.
(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A21)
2004 Dec 22, In Mexico an explosion at a pumping station near Santiago Tuxtla caused a burst of high pressure that ruptured the oil line 70 miles away in Nanchital. 210,000 gallons of oil flowed into the Coatzacoalcos River, creating a 10-mile-long slick extending into the gulf.
(AP, 12/24/04)
2004 Dec 23, Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly will be fined as much as $200,000 and could face criminal charges for spilling 5,000 barrels of crude into a river leading to the Gulf of Mexico a day earlier.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Dec, The Mexican government began distributing a comic-book guide that warns would-be migrants about the perils of crossing illegally into the US and offers tips to stay safe.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2004 Jorge Hank (48) was elected major of Tijuana. His father was a former mayor of Mexico City and Jorge himself had amassed an estimated $1 billion fortune through hundreds of casinos and betting parlors throughout Latin America.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A15)
2004 Development began of the new Film Colony on the edge of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s 1st privately financed film studio complex.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.31)
2004 Mexico’s population grew almost 1.1 million in 2004 to 105,909,000.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Earl Shorris authored “The Life and Times of Mexico," a collective biography of the country’s people.
(SSFC, 12/12/04, p.E6)
2005 Jan 1, Mexico was forecast for 3.1% annual GDP growth with a population at 106.2 million and GDP per head at $6,300.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 6, President Vicente Fox announced that all Mexican children with cancer will receive free treatment as long as they need it.
(AP, 1/6/05)
2005 Jan 6, In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 10 alleged gang members were convicted in the killings of 12 women, some of the hundreds who have been found slain there in recent years. The Los Toltecas members were arrested in 1999, after the reputed leader of their group, Jesus Manuel Guardado, alias "El Tolteca," was identified by a 14-year-old girl as the man who sexually assaulted and tried to kill her.
(AP, 1/7/05)
2005 Jan 11, Mudslides in Tijuana, Mexico, killed 3 children and damaged 140 homes.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 14, Over 750 Mexican federal police and soldiers seized control over the nation's top-security prison amid reports of a planned escape, possible murder plots and a jailhouse alliance between two reputed drug trafficking kingpins.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 20, In Mexico 6 prison workers were shot to death and left outside their lockup in Matamoros, following a federal crackdown against drug gangs at lockups across the nation.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 22, Consuelo Velazquez (84), whose song "Besame Mucho" became a standard in many languages and styles of music, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Jan 24, China's vice president expressed a strong desire to increase economic and diplomatic cooperation with Mexico while meeting with Mexican lawmakers.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Feb 5, In Mexico assailants staged 3 nearly simultaneous guerrilla-style attacks in Acapulco, killing 3 police officers and a teenage boy a day before a tense gubernatorial election.
(AP, 2/6/05)
2005 Feb 6, Mexico's main leftist party, the Democratic Revolution Party, ended 76 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. Democratic Revolution held on to the governorship of Baja California Sur, while the PRI held on to Quintana Roo, the site of Cancun.
(AP, 2/7/05)
2005 Feb 15, In Mexico the bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were found in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, Two US Border Patrol agents in Texas stopped a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana and shot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an admitted Mexican drug smuggler, as he fled back across the Rio Grande. In 2006 agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison for offenses that included violating the smuggler’s civil rights and failure to report the shooting to superiors. In 2007 Latino gang members beat Ignacio Ramos at the Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex in Mississippi. Both agents were freed in 2009 following a commute of their sentences by outgoing Pres. George Bush.
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.A6)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A11)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.A6)
2005 Feb 23, Mexico’s high court blocked prosecution of ex-President Echeverria for “dirty war" crimes in the 1970s ruling that the statute of limitations has run out.
(WSJ, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 24, In western Mexico an executive jet crashed, killing the governor of Colima state and all five other people aboard.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, Mexican prosecutors charged 27 state, federal and local police in Cancun with running a drug ring or aiding in the murder of their fellow officers, busting one of Mexico's largest police-protection rackets and solving the mystery behind the killing of three federal agents in November.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 9, In southern Mexico a federal government helicopter searching for gunmen protecting drug plantations crashed into a mountain, killing all nine soldiers and two pilots onboard.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 13, Vigilantes in Oaxaca, Mexico, killed a state police officer setting him on fire in revenge for the shooting of a taxi driver in a barroom brawl.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 23, Pres. Bush, Pres. Fox, and PM Paul Martin at a one-day summit in Texas signed a deal that provides for sweeping co-operation between Canada, Mexico and the US on security, economic and health issues. There was no sign of progress on touchy trade disputes. They agreed to boost border security and forge common approaches on everything from cargo inspection to maritime and aviation safety.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 5, Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla (39), radio reporter, was wounded in the chest, abdomen, legs and arms during an attack in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. She died from her wounds April 16.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 7, Mexico City's leftist mayor formally declared his intention to run for president next year even as Congress was to decide whether he should face criminal charges for allegedly disobeying a court order in a land-use case.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Lawmakers stripped Mexico City's mayor of immunity from prosecution, clearing the way for criminal charges. The shaky legal case against Lopez Obrador alleges that in 2001, the city government failed for 11 months to obey a court order to vacate contested land that it had expropriated for the purpose of building a road.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Raul Gibb Guerrero, director of La Opinion of Poza Rica newspaper, was shot to death in an apparent ambush by drug hit men, the 2nd attack on Mexican journalists in a week.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Mexico 3 would-be casino developers were killed outside a popular Monterrey restaurant. The murders delayed a congressional vote to amend a gambling ban and sparked calls for stricter controls on the few places Mexicans are allowed to place bets.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients included Isidro Baldenegro (39) of Mexico for his efforts on land rights and forest protection for the Tarahumara Indians
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 20, Mexican prosecutors charged Mexico City's popular leftist mayor with abuse of authority in a case that could knock him out of the 2006 presidential race.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 24, Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators thronged Mexico City's central square and surrounding streets to protest the federal prosecution of the capital city mayor, a leading contender for president in 2006.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 13, Pres. Fox praised the dedication of Mexicans working in the US, saying they're willing to take jobs that "even blacks" won't do. Pres. Fox apologized for his comments a few days later saying he regretted any hurt feelings his statements may have caused.
(AP, 5/17/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A3)
2005 May 16, Mexican President Vicente Fox regretted any hurt feelings for saying that Mexicans in the United States were doing the work that even blacks wouldn't.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 24, In Mexico Eduardo Villalobos, the director of a state prison in the border city of Mexicali, was shot to death in an ambush outside his home.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 Jun 3, Oscar Espinosa Villarreal, former Mexico City mayor (1994-1998) and tourism secretary, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzling government funds and ordered to pay more than $26 million in reparations.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 5, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (b.1949), Mexican scholar and diplomat, died.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2005 Jun 8, In Mexico Alejandro Dominguez took office as police chief of Nuevo Laredo, saying he wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 10, In Mexico lawyers for the brother of a former Mexican president sought his release on bail after an appeals court threw out his 27-year murder sentence.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 11, In Mexico a plain clothes federal officer, sent to investigate the killing of the police chief of Nuevo Laredo, was shot and killed a local policeman. In response the government announced new program dubbed “Safe Mexico" to curb drug related violence and corruption.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.34)
2005 Jun 14, Raul Salinas, the brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was released on bail after 10 years in prison on charges he masterminded the 1994 killing of a political rival.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 15, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that former Mexican President Luis Echeverria can be charged with genocide for his alleged involvement in the 1971 massacre of student protesters.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 19, Mexico City introduced metrobus, a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A11)
2005 Jun 21, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Daniel Pena said that 150 police officers will be fired after failing a screening process that included background checks and drug testing. Former Mexican soldiers, turned into drug hit men (Zetas), have taken the border city to the brink of anarchy, infiltrating local police and threatening anyone who gets in their way.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, Consuelo Velazquez (b.1916), Mexican pianist and composer, died. Her music included Besame Mucho, first recorded in 1941 by Emilio Tuero. It was the romantic vision of a chaste, convent-educated teenager growing up in 1930s Mexico, and was inspired by the sight of a smooching couple in the street.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1)
2005 Jun 26, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 44 kidnap victims were freed in a series of raids by soldiers and federal agents. Deputy Attorney General Gilberto Higuera said those rescued were apparently "involved in criminal activities and were not victims of kidnappings" for ransom.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lawmakers overwhelming approved a law allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Mexico's Zapatista rebels suggested they would seek to open a political front with workers, farmers and students, a decision the government interpreted as a move toward joining mainstream politics and away from armed struggle.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, Mexico released a series of five stamps depicting a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico. The stamps depicted an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Pres. Fox signed a bill allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Honduras Central American leaders agreed to create a regional special forces unit to fight drug trafficking, gang violence and terrorism within their borders. The 2-day regional meeting included the presidents of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jul 3, In Mexico State the former ruling party (PRI) added momentum for the upcoming presidential race with a crushing victory.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Mexico Omar Pimentel (37), Nuevo Laredo's new police chief, survived his 1st day on the job with 3 bodyguards shadowing his every move, but one of his police officers was killed and 2 other policemen badly wounded by shots fired from a truck at their private car.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Acapulco, Mexico, gunmen fired a spray of bullets at Jose Ruben Robles Catalan, a former Guerrero state official as he entered a hotel lobby with his 6-year-old grandson, killing him and his chauffeur.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural southeastern Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Hugo Alberto Wallace (36), a divorced entrepreneur, was kidnapped as he left a movie theater in Mexico City. In 2007 Brenda Quevedo was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, after Maria Isabel Miranda, the mother of Wallace, received a tip and tracked her down. Frustrated with investigators' lack of progress in her son's 2005 kidnapping, Miranda launched her own investigation, tracking down five suspects. In 2009 Quevedo was extradited to Mexico.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/world/americas/04kidnapping.html)(AP, 9/26/09)
2005 Jul 18, Hurricane Emily slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a powerful Category 4 storm.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 20, In Mexico more than 1,000 people marched through the streets of the colonial capital of southern Oaxaca state to demand that picketers disband a blockade that has trapped journalists inside a newspaper building for about a month.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 20, Hurricane Emily slammed into northeastern Mexico with 125 mph winds.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 22, Mexican authorities raided a kidnapping ring that filmed its victims being held inside a cage and beaten. An abducted businessman was freed and five people were arrested. The gang operated in Mexico City and outlying areas in Puebla and Mexico State.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 31, In southern Mexico former soldier Oscar Flores (35) killed his wife, infant nephew and a police officer in a vicious rampage that left 10 people dead before being wounded by police and killed by an angry crowd.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 1, In Tonala, Mexico, assailants threw grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring before dawn, killing four people and wounding 25 others.
(AP, 8/2/05)
2005 Aug 6, Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine (b.1919), Mexican trade union leader and a long-serving legislator of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, died. He presided over the Workers' Confederation of Mexico (CTM) from July 21, 1997 until his death.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Alcaine)
2005 Aug 12, A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Gen. Francisco Quiros, accused of ordering the disappearance of leftist folk singer Rosendo Radilla on Aug 25, 1974. Quiros was already in prison serving a drug sentence.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, New regulations in Tijuana, Mexico, called for the city to issue electronic cards to replace pink, pocket-size health history books given to Tijuana's 4,700 registered prostitutes. The new standards were modeled after those in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Acapulco.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Aug 12, Peter Hommerson, a fugitive charged with killing a wealthy Illinois couple on Jan 23, 1996, was captured at a Mexican resort after tourists recognized him from a crime watch television program.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 25, In central Mexico a rain-swollen river overflowed its banks and flooded the town of Aguililla, leaving five people dead and five others missing.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug, Judi Werthein (38), Argentine-born artist, introduced special shoes at Insite, an art exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana, designed to help migrants cross the US-Mexico border. The “Brinco" sneakers were equipped with a compass, flashlight and other special features.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A2)
2005 Sep 1, President Vicente Fox, in his last state-of-the-nation address, urged citizens to stay committed to Mexico's newfound democracy and to remind them that they are in charge of the nation's future.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 3, In Tlacotepec, Mexico, 75 miles north of Acapulco, fireworks stored at a building that also illicitly sold gasoline exploded, killing seven people and injuring four.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 8, A Mexican army convoy began crossing into the US to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 8, El Salvador said that “Operation International" simultaneous raids this week in El Salvador, the US, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico netted 660 dangerous gang members.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 10, In Mexico 7 Guatemala men were caught near the Guatemalan border with six large-caliber rifles and 1,600 rounds of ammunition. They faced charges of weapons trafficking.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Sep 11, Mexico's ruling National Action Party gave former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon a surprise victory in the first round of its three-part presidential primary.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Mexico Chinese President Hu Jintao promised Mexican leaders that he would crack down on the millions of dollars worth of Chinese contraband entering their nation, goods that undermine Mexican businesses ranging from sandal makers to religious icon sellers.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 15, A fire engulfed Mexico's most famous fireworks market, setting off a chain of explosions in Tultepec, a town northeast of the nation's capital. The fire destroyed hundreds of open-air stands just ahead of Independence Day celebrations.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Volcano of Fire in western Mexico blasted ash and gas three miles high, with an explosion that was heard in villages 10 miles from the crater.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, In Mexico a special federal prosecutor sought the arrest of ex-President Luis Echeverria and other former officials for their alleged involvement in the massacre of student protesters in 1968.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 21, A cabinet minister who helped lead Mexico's anti-drug fight, his deputy and seven others died in a helicopter crash in the mountains west of Mexico City. The helicopter, carrying Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, Federal Preventive Police Chief Tomas Valencia, five other passengers and a crew of two, had taken off from a military parade ground in Mexico City.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 26-2005 Sep 27, Intense rains throughout southern Mexico and parts of Central America caused rivers to overflow, killing at least 3 people and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep, In Mexico Bishop Ramon Godinez declared that drug traffickers often donate to the church. He argued that the money is "purified" once it passes through parish doors.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 1, The outer bands of Hurricane Otis lashed the coast of western Mexico as the storm crawled toward the Baja California peninsula, forcing hundreds of families to evacuate their homes and flooding roads in Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 2, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's former energy secretary, appeared headed toward another victory in the 2nd round of the ruling National Action Party's 3-part presidential primary.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 4, Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico’s Gulf coast.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2005 Oct 5, Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central America. Officials in El Salvador said 49 people had been killed, mostly due to two days of mudslides sparked by rains. 9 people died in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadorians killed in a boat accident. Four deaths were reported in Honduras, three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 6-2005 Oct 8, In Guatemala rescue workers searched for victims of a mudslide near Lake Atitlan, a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists. Panabaj and Tzanchaz were entombed by a mudflow half a mile wide. The death toll in the region from flooding sparked by Hurricane Stan soon climbed to 617 with 42 dead in Mexico, 72 dead in El Salvador and 11 dead in Nicaragua.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 10/9/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.43)
2005 Oct 11, It was reported that a serial killer, dubbed the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer," was stalking Mexico City. The killer was said to wear women's clothes and strangled and battered old ladies in their homes.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 21, Hurricane Wilma slammed into the island of Cozumel, starting a long, grinding march across Mexico's resort-studded coastline. Wilma flooded streets, knocked out power and stranded thousands of tourists in sweltering shelters. Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, after killing 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica.
(AP, 10/21/05)(AP, 10/22/06)
2005 Oct 22, Hurricane Wilma crawled over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass.
(AP, 10/22/05)
2005 Oct 23, Mexico's ruling party chose Felipe Calderon, the nation's former energy secretary, as its candidate for presidential elections next July.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 23, Hurricane Wilma drifted northward away from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula where the storm left 8 people dead. In 2006 insurers put the damage from Wilma at $3 billion, the largest insured losses in Mexican history.
(AP, 10/23/05)(Econ, 10/29/05, p.38)(AP, 10/19/06)
2005 Oct 24, Luis Velasquez (51), A Roman Catholic parish priest was found shot to death in his car with his hands cuffed in the rough border city of Tijuana, in what police said appeared to be an organized-crime killing.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Oct 27, The Mexican government announced that former "bracero" guest workers, who labored in the United States between the 1942 and 1964, will get a one-time payment of about $3,500. The aging workers, who have protested for years, described the payment as insulting and said it should be at least $9,175.
(AP, 10/27/05)(SFC, 10/28/05, p.A22)
2005 Oct 28, Mexico became the 100th country to ratify the treaty founding the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, which the United States has opposed.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Argentina Mexico’s Pres. Vicente Fox said that a majority of nations in the Western Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to create a huge new free trade zone without the participation of dissenting countries like Venezuela.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, Mexico reported that consumer prices fell to a record low in October and that inflation was rapidly approaching the central bank’s target of 3%.
(WSJ, 11/10/05, p.A15)
2005 Nov 10, Mexican prosecutors announced they have filed kidnapping and organize crime charges against seven police officers accused of protecting hit men working for the feared Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, Mexican agents arrested Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a former medical student, who seized control of the remnants of the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 14, Mexico said it will sever diplomatic ties with Venezuela if Pres. Chavez doesn't apologize for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me." Mexico and Venezuela called their ambassadors home in a sharp dispute between presidents Hugo Chavez and Vicente Fox over the latter's relations with Washington.
(AP, 11/14/05)(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, In northwest Mexico a tanker truck hauling toxic ammonium chloride slammed into a passenger bus, killing 38 people as both vehicles plunged down an embankment.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 16, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that rape within marriage is a crime.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Nov 17, Mexico's Supreme Court voted 11-1 that the Pascual Cooperative, a bottler specializing in Mexico's traditional fruit-flavored and fruit-based soft drinks, did not rate protection as a public interest.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 28, Mexico changed its constitution to allow state and local police to pursue drug traffickers, removing a major stumbling block in anti-drug efforts that had long been the exclusive realm of federal officers.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Nov 29, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that suspects facing life in prison can be extradited, overturning a 4-year-old ban that had prevented many of the country's most notorious criminals from being sent to the United States.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Nov 29, CINTRA sold Mexicana airlines and its subsidiary, Click Mexicana, to the Mexican hotel chain Grupo Posadas for USD$165.5 million.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexicana_de_Aviaci%C3%B3n)
2005 Nov 30, Mexican officials said that they are investigating a homemade DVD purporting to show four drug hitmen for the Gulf Cartel being beaten and interrogated, then one of them being shot in the head.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, The Mexican Attorney General's office said 11 federal agents were charged with kidnapping for picking up four alleged drug hit men and possibly helping kill them.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 2, The Mexico City government said 5 federal agents arrested in connection with the videotaped torture and killing of drug hitmen have been released from prison for lack of evidence.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 10, Mexican police raided a house outside Mexico City, capturing two alleged kidnappers and rescuing three people, including an 8-year-old girl, who had been held for more than two months. Police detained Israel Vallarta, a Mexican, and Marie Louise Cassez Florence, a Frenchwoman. The two allegedly belonged to a gang called "The Zodiac," tied to at least 10 kidnappings and one murder. Florence Cassez was later sentenced to 60 years in prison for 3 kidnappings. In 2010 Florence Cassez released a book about her case. It describes a series of inconsistencies in the case that she says weren't taken into account.
(AP, 12/10/05)(AP, 3/10/09)(AP, 9/23/10)
2005 Dec 14, Officials said Mexico and the US broke up a counterfeiting ring that printed an estimated $5 million in fake $100 bills in Mexico and sold them across the border.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 14, Carlos Delgadillo Martinez died after losing his grip on an inner tube while trying to cross the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas. In 2011 jurors acquitted helicopter pilot James Peters (41) of lying about his role in Delgadillo’s death.
(SFC, 9/3/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3nzc2z7)
2005 Dec 15, A Mexican judge committed 8 relatives to the psychiatric ward of a prison for the ritualistic slayings of two young family members that shocked Mexico with their brutality. Officials said the parents, grandparents and aunts of a 7-month-old and 13-year-old hacked a baby to death and fatally stoned a teenager earlier this month after they became convinced the girls were demons or possessed by the devil.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 17, The Mexican government slammed the US Congress for approving an immigration bill that would tighten border controls and make it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 17, In Mexico 6 people were stabbed or battered to death during a prison gang fight in Ciudad Juarez, across the US border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 20, The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 29, Seven policemen in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were detained on suspicion of stealing relief packages intended for hurricane victims.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 31, Guillermo Martinez (18) died in a Tijuana hospital one day after he was shot by a US Border Patrol agent near a metal wall separating that city from San Diego. On Jan 2 Mexico opened an investigation into the killing saying he was shot while sneaking into California, using the death to draw attention to a contentious US anti-immigration measure. In 2008 the US Dept. of Justice cleared the Border Patrol agent of any wrongdoing.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A4)
2005 Dec, Mexico’s attorney general’s office released a report that said 1,493 of 7,000 federal agents had been investigated for possible wrongdoing and that 457 had been indicted.
(SFC, 12/28/05, p.A9)
2005 Dec, In Mexico Lydia Cacho, a journalist who wrote a book about pedophilia in Cancun, was arrested and charged with libel. Titled "The Demons of Eden," the book linked Jean Succar Kuri to a prominent businessman in the central state of Puebla. Cacho was freed on bail and Kuri was extradited from the US in 2006 to face charges in Mexico.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2005 The US SEC filed civil fraud charges against Ricardo Salinas Pliego and 2 other top executives at TV Azteca for allegedly failing to disclose their involvement in Unefon under a provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. Salinas pulled his companies from the NYSE.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2005 Mexico counted 1,600 murders this year linked to organized crime.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante Marcos (b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael Guillen, began a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate Zero." The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, railed against the government and free trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 6, Comandante Ramona (47), a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate for women's rights, died after a decade-long struggle with a kidney disease.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 9, Diplomats from Mexico and Central America demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a US proposal for tougher border enforcement.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 11, Felipe Calderon, ruling-party presidential hopeful, registered his campaign with election officials, saying he understands the problems facing common Mexicans and will stem the flow of migrants who head north in search of higher-paying jobs.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano (b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 23, Raul Osiel Marroquin was arrested in Mexico City. On Jan 26 he described killing four gay men. His arrest was the 1st confirmation of a serial killer targeting homosexuals.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican government commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, At least 10 men in Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the United States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed confrontation with Texas law officers near Neely's Crossing, Texas. The three sport utility vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south toward the border, a few miles away.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2006 Jan 25, Juana Barraza (48) was arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was slain. She was suspected to be the serial murderer known as the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer." Barraza's fingerprints matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders, plus at the scene of an attempted murder.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, US authorities discovered what they say is the largest and most sophisticated tunnel under their border with Mexico, one that was used by drug trafficking gangs. The tunnel began near Tijuana’s airport and ended 2,400 feet away in a warehouse on the US side of the border. The find included 2 tons of marijuana.
(AFP, 1/27/06)(SFC, 1/27/06, p.B14)
2006 Jan 26, Mexico said it will suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the US border illegally. An official said the decision was made because the maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would gather.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 27, Angel Hidalgo Espinosa, the leader of a farmers' group in Mexico's southern Chiapas state, was convicted in the 2001 slayings of 8 peasants and sentenced to 37 years in prison.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Mexico authorities got into a shootout with drug traffickers in Acapulco and at least 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 29, The Mexican government said the US Border Patrol in New Mexico arrested Francisco Javier Gutierrez, a Mexican immigration official, who was allegedly trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into the US.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 2, Mexican authorities captured Oscar Arriola Marquez, leader of the Arriola Marquez cartel, wanted in the US on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges, and ranked among the world's most-wanted fugitives.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, A three-day energy meeting in Mexico City wrapped up after moving to a Mexican-owned hotel. It was the first private-sector oil summit between Cuba and the US. The meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives was moved to another hotel after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the Cubans to leave. On Feb 6 Mexico launched an investigation into whether the US government pressured the American-owned hotel into expelling Cuban guests.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 7, The owner of a Mexican newspaper in Nuevo Laredo said there will be no more investigative coverage of drug gangs, a day after the paper's offices were sprayed with bullets and a reporter hospitalized with five gunshots.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Monterrey, Mexico, 2 police chiefs, Hector Ayala and Javier Garcia, were shot and killed within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the US where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes across the border.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, armed men forced their way into a hospital and killed a teenager under treatment for an earlier attempt on his life.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico a bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra Gorda mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 19, A gas explosion in a northern Mexico coal mine trapped 65 miners some 600 feet below ground with a limited supply of oxygen. In 2007 a judge ordered the arrest of 5 mine managers and inspectors on charges of negligent homicide in the deaths of the miners.
(AP, 2/19/06)(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Feb 21, In Cancun, Mexico, Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, of Woodbridge, Ont., were found in their hotel rooms at the all-inclusive five-star resort on the Mayan Riviera in the early morning. Their throats had been slashed. The crime apparently took place after a rehearsal dinner ahead of a wedding in which the Lily, one of the Ianieros' twin girls, was to be married at the resort. Prosecutors in Cancun said two Canadian women were suspected in the killing and had fled to Canada.
(CP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Mexico mining officials said there was little hope of finding any of miners alive from the Feb 19 gas explosion at the Industrial Minera Mexico mine near San Juan Sabinas.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 28, Mexico City officials moved to shut down a US-owned hotel that angered many Mexicans when it kicked out a Cuban delegation under pressure from Washington. The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel would be closed because it was in violation of building codes. The hotel could reopen when it had corrected the violations and paid a $15,000 fine. The threat of closure was dropped the next day.
(AP, 3/1/06)(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, Some 4,000 Mexican miners struck copper mines owned by the operator of the coal mine where 65 men died in an explosion last week.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Mexico Diego Santoy (21) was captured at a police roadblock in the southern state of Oaxaca, four days after he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Erika Pena, 18, strangled her 3-year-old sister and stabbed to death her 7-year-old brother.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 7, More than 20,000 union workers marched in downtown Mexico City, accusing the government of meddling in the affairs of the national miners union by seeking to oust its leader.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, heavily armed assailants killed a state police chief and an officer and wounded two more officers in a brazen midmorning ambush.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, An anchorman for a Mexican radio station was shot to death by gunmen waiting for him in the bushes in front of his house in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 13, Mexico’s attorney general said he will close a special prosecutor's office dedicated to investigating atrocities committed by the government during its two-decade campaign to weed out suspected guerrillas and leftists.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, Mexico announced a new deepwater oil discovery that could exceed the declining reserves at the giant offshore Cantarell field.
(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Mar 16, The 4th World Water Forum opened in Mexico City.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 4 plainclothes federal police agents were killed after an unknown number of gunmen sprayed the unmarked pickup truck they were riding in with more than 30 bullets. The slayings came a day after 600 new members of the Federal Preventative Police arrived in Nuevo Laredo as part of extra-security efforts.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 17, A bus carrying dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on the outskirts of Mexico's capital, killing 7 people and injuring at least 28.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Mexico Omar Pimentel (38), the police chief of the border city of Nuevo Laredo, resigned. He said he was tired from the stress of working in a city dominated by drug cartels fighting a bloody turf war.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, The Mexican government said a US-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for violating Mexican commerce law.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Mexico the bodies of six men, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death, were found packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 27, The US Senate Judiciary Committee approved a proposal to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas. Mexicans cheered the approval and credited huge marches of migrants across the US as the decisive factor behind the vote.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 28, A Mexican judge ordered an Argentine journalist to remove references to one of the first lady's sons in a book that claims he benefited financially from his family's political connections. The book "Cronicas Malditas," or roughly "Accursed Chronicles" (2005), alleged that two of Sahagun's three sons, principally Manuel Bribiesca, had used their connections to get preferential treatment on federal government work contracts during the administration of President Vicente Fox, which began in December 2000.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 30, Pres. Bush arrived in Cancun, Mexico, for 2 days of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks with Canadian PM Stephen Harper and Mexico’s Pres. Fox.
(Reuters, 3/30/06)(WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 30, Mexico’s Congress passed legislation dubbed the Televisa Law" confirming the country’s longstanding TV duopoly. President Vicente Fox officially signed off on controversial reforms to the country’s Federal Radio and Television law on April 11. In 2007 the legislation faced court actions.
(http://cbrayton.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/mexico-the-birth-of-the-televisa-law/)
2006 Mar 31, President Bush, closing a three-nation NAFTA summit, defended requiring secure documents from border-crossing Canadians and pushed Mexico to prevent more of its people from illegally entering America.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dozens of Mexican newspapers, frustrated by fruitless police probes of slain and missing journalists, simultaneously published the first in a series of reports on the cases.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Mexico hundreds of machete-wielding farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort for their Easter vacations.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The US Court of International Law ruled that US Customs violated a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in applying a law known as the Byrd amendment to antidumping and countervailing duties on goods from Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 10, Mexican soldiers seized 128 suitcases packed with 5.6 metric tons of cocaine worth more than $100 million from a commercial plane arriving from Venezuela. Smugglers had purchased the DC-9 plane with laundered funds transferred through US banks Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America. In 2010 court papers said a gang under Walid Makled operated the DC-9 and flew the cocaine from Simon Bolivar International to Campeche, Mexico. Makled was arrested Aug 19, 2010 in Colombia in the border city of Cucuta. In Nov 2010 Colombia denied an extradition request for Makled by the US, saying that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country.
(AP, 4/12/06)(SFC, 6/30/10, p.D1)(AP, 11/17/10)
2006 Apr 12, Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a restaurant and a shop owner was gunned down as violence shook towns on Mexico's resort-studded Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 16, The Rev. Cesar Torres (42) killed Veronica Andrade Salinas (22), who was pregnant, at his parish on Mexico City's eastern outskirts. He used a kitchen knife to cut off her head and hack her body to pieces, which he packed the pieces into plastic bags and dumped near a cemetery in Chimalhuacan. The couple had an 18-month-old daughter. Torres admitted to the murder on April 19.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Mexico an overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging more than 650 feet into a ravine near Maltrata, a town about 125 miles east of the capital. 58 people were killed. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, The Mexican Congress enacted a law that allows journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, In Mexico a violent confrontation between 800 federal and state police agents and more than 500 striking steelworkers left two workers dead and dozens of workers and police agents injured at the Siderurgica Lazaro Cardenas-Las Truchas, SA (Sicartsa) steel plant in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan. The decapitated heads of two police officials were found dumped in front of a government building in Acapulco.
(http://ww4report.com/node/1879)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 26, A Mexican boycott urged people to shun all products from U.S. businesses on May 1, a sort of "Day Without Americans," timed to coincide with the "Day Without Immigrants" boycott planned by activists north of the border.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southern Mexico a speeding truck loaded with Guatemalan migrants en route to the United States collided head-on with another truck, killing 10 migrants and injuring 16.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican lawmakers approved a bill that would allow people to possess small amounts of cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican police in Tijuana found the body of a US citizen kidnapped nearly 3 weeks earlier. They said he had been beaten, strangled, stripped naked and stashed in the trunk of a car. George Kwok Choi Chu, a seafood wholesaler, worked in Tijuana but lived across the border in San Diego.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 May 1, A day-long protest dubbed "A Day Without Gringos" drew thousands of Mexicans into the streets and kept many away from US-owned supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to support rallies in the United States demanding immigration reform.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 3, Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill, hours after US officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Mexico one person was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico City clashed with police, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails and briefly seizing six officers. The residents attacked police after several of their companions were arrested in the nearby town of Texcoco.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 14, Mexican President Vicente Fox telephoned President Bush to express his concern about the border between the two nations, a day before Bush's planned Oval Office speech on immigration.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 15, Pres. Bush endorsed a guest worker program and a program for citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. He also called for the development of a tamper-proof ID card for workers and pledged to send the National Guard to tighten security along the US border with Mexico.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A1)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said it had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce celebrating public Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance" following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 23, Mexico’s Pres. Fox began a five-day trip to the US in Utah before moving on to Washington state and California. Immigration was the major focus of Fox's trip as the US Senate considered legislation to strengthen border security
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Mexico 3 men were shot to death in two different attacks in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, bringing to at least 115 the number of people slain by violence this year.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, Mexican President Vicente Fox addressed the California legislature. He praised a US Senate which had just approved sweeping immigration reforms as a "monumental step forward" in the relationship between his country and the United States.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 Jun 1, California Gov. Schwarzenegger reluctantly reached an agreement with the federal government to deploy 1,000 members of the California National Guard along the US-Mexico border.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 5, Mexico proposed creating an environmental reserve (the Rio Bravo del Norte proposal) about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 8, The US offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, a reputed Mexican drug cartel chieftain, whose group allegedly smuggles tons of cocaine and marijuana north each year.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 14, In Mexico some 3000 elements of the state ministerial police, preventive police and Oaxaca state firemen began to violently remove a sit-in of 70,000 workers from Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) with tear gas, smoke grenades, stun grenades and firearms. Thus far there have been 13 reported arrests, 4 injuries, 5 bullet wounds, and between 6 and 9 deaths, as well as a break-in to the Teachers' Union building and the destruction of the installations of Radio Plantón (a free/non-licensed community radio station that has been a point of reference for social movements in Oaxaca).
(www.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/840911.shtml)
2006 Jun 17, Mexican authorities in Guadalajara arrested Pedro Castorena, the leader of a far-flung ring that allegedly made and distributed forged immigration and identification documents in the US. Castorena was indicted in Denver last July on charges of conspiracy, fraud, misuse of visas and money laundering.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 23, In Mexico Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the leader of about 70,000 striking teachers in southern Oaxaca state, said they won't interfere with the July 2 presidential election, and promised to meet with a civic commission to try to resolve their pay demands. The monthlong strike has left 1.3 million children in grade and high schools in Oaxaca without classes.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 26, In Mexico assailants armed with automatic rifles shot and killed a top policeman and his bodyguard as they drove home in the resort city of Cancun.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Gunmen shot and killed Ignacio Perales Gomez, a prominent Mexico City police investigator, outside his home. Perales was a lead investigator in several of the city's notable cases including that of jailed businessman Carlos Ahumada, a Mexico City construction mogul linked to a bribery scandal that rocked the country in 2004.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, Mexican police found a human head by the main entrance to Acapulco’s City Hall, the fourth such grisly discovery this year.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jun 30, Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria was placed under house arrest on genocide charges stemming from a 1968 student massacre, an unprecedented move coming just two days before the country elects a new president. Authorities found two more human heads in front of a government office in Acapulco, accompanied with threatening messages linked to the drug trade.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Mexico held presidential elections. Felipe Calderon (43) calling himself “the candidate of jobs," faced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “For everyone’s good, the poor first." Lopez Villanueva, head of the Francisco Villa Popular Front, arranged to have 10,000 members as poll watchers for Lopez Obrador. A tight race delayed the results to July 5. The per capita GDP was $10,000. Oil production was 3.35 million barrels per day. On July 6 Calderon was named the winner by 234,000 votes. The final outcome rested with the electoral court, Trife, and its decision was due by September 6.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)(WSJ, 6/28/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.35)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 3, Two bitter rivals declared themselves Mexico's next president, sparking fears of violence. Electoral officials said they wouldn't name a winner until a vote-by-vote hand count.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by 1 percentage point.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83% of the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, Felipe Calderon won the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race, a come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court. Calderon won 35.9% of the vote against Obrador’s 35.3%.
(AP, 7/7/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.4)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4 children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Mexico a man was shot to death in front of Acapulco's City Hall and a naval officer was abducted, the latest violence in this resort city hit by a wave of drug-related crime. The 2 men slain were later identified as military officers responsible for the mayor's security.
(AP, 7/11/06)(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties to associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in Mexico of child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of minors.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, In Mexico City Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led hundreds of thousands of marchers demanding a full recount of in the disputed election.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico, protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders said their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to repress dissent.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico supporters of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the Mexico City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until the top electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the disputed race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police found the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been killed by a blow to the head and thrown out of a moving car, was the 14th woman found dead in Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, In Oaxaca, Mexico, about 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a state-run television station and broadcast a homemade video that showed police kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last month. In southern Monte Orden village heavy rains caused a mountainside to give way, burying 2 homes and killing 11 people, 4 of them children.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Production at Cantarell, Mexico’s biggest oil field, was reported to be declining. The site accounted for about 60% of Mexico’s oil. A third of Mexico’s federal budget depended on oil sales.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 3, In Mexico Mrs. Alberta Alcantara Juan and Mrs. Teresa Gonzalez Cornelio were arrested (along with Jacinta Francisco Marcial) for events that supposedly occurred on March 26, 2006 when Federal Investigation Agents attempted to confiscate local merchants’ goods and damaged some of them. In 2010 Mexico's Supreme Court overturned kidnapping convictions and ordered the release of the two Otomi Indian market vendors whose case received international attention. Marcial was freed last year.
(http://tinyurl.com/373f25t)(AP, 4/28/10)
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died, bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly poisonous.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top electoral court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential election, ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist protesters camped in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally over their fraud allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos Caras, Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road about 10 miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized crime was likely behind the killing.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Mexico leftist activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the ballots from the disputed presidential election.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a recount confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador vowed to mount new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 14, US authorities arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (38) aboard a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted the significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has effectively lost much of its influence over the years. In 2007 Felix pleaded guilty to federal crimes that carried a mandatory life sentence. He agreed to forfeit $50 million and the yacht on which he was captured.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A3)
2006 Aug 15, US officials arrested Edgar Alvarez Cruz on immigration violations in Denver. He was suspected of participating in the rapes and killings of at least 10 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where more than 100 young women have been killed since 1993.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 19, Mexican prosecutors announced that they have charged two policemen with protecting the Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police said they had broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve of state elections.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Mexico’s Chiapas state Juan Sabines, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), held a razor-thin lead over Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who also is backed by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. Oaxaca sank further into chaos as protesters armed with machetes, pipes and clubs seized 12 private radio stations, cut off highways, and blockaded bus terminals and newspaper offices.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun in the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by about 6,300 votes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, Mexico’s top electoral court announced that a partial recount found no widespread evidence of fraud.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 29, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a court decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July 2 race and called on his supporters not to recognize a government led by Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 30, Hurricane John lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain as the dangerous Category 4 storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Mexico City riot police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address. Mexican lawmakers, protesting conservative Felipe Calderon's victory in the July 2 presidential election, stormed the congressional stage and refused to yield, making Fox the first president in modern Mexican history not to deliver his annual address to Congress. Fox handed in a written copy of his report and delivered it over television.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 5, The president of Mexico's top electoral court recommended that the full tribunal uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. Marcelo Garza, the top police investigator for Nuevo Leon, a northern Mexican state that borders Texas, was shot to death by a lone gunman outside an art gallery.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Mexico’s newly declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his government and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the disputed July 2 election. Gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico and tossed five human heads on the dance floor. An avalanche left 10 villagers dead in northern Mexico.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Mexico a landslide buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of Puebla and killed at least four travelers.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Mexico a small plane crash near Ensenada on the US-Mexico border killed three American medical volunteers.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of a law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox backed down from a confrontation with thousands of leftist sympathizers of Manuel Lopez Obrador, moving the annual Independence Day celebration away from Mexico City's main square to avoid protesters. Fox decided to move the ceremony to the central town of Dolores Hidalgo, where Miguel Hidalgo made the first call for independence from Spain in 1810. Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ended the street protest that clogged the heart of the capital for nearly seven weeks, but they vowed to find other ways to resist the incoming conservative president.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Mexico hundreds of thousands of supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador elected him the leader of a "parallel government" opposed to President-elect Felipe Calderon's administration. Mexico extradited accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the US, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face trial on drug charges. He later pleaded guilty to federal charges of selling cocaine in a San Diego motel. Hurricane Lane, a Category 3 storm, battered Mazatlan.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea, Turkey, and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 19, A group of sexual abuse survivors filed a lawsuit against Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera, claiming he hid evidence to protect a priest accused of molesting boys. A lawyer for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. Rivera, now Mexico's top-ranking cardinal, helped cover up abuse by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar involving 50 boys when Aguilar served as a parish priest in central Puebla state in 1987. Rivera was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state at the time.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Mexico the governor of Oaxaca state warned 70,000 striking teachers that they would be replaced and lose their pay unless they immediately returned to work.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 28, Mexico’s President-elect Felipe Calderon asked Congress to get tougher on criminals, create a universal health care system and generate jobs so millions of Mexicans do not have to migrate to the US to find work. Calderon also called for reducing the gap between rich and poor and called for a return to life sentences for hardened criminals, including violent kidnappers.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 29, In Mexico a judge and four jail guards were killed in separate attacks in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Oaxaca, Mexico, a teacher was hacked to death. A colleague claimed the man was killed for opposing a teachers' strike. Jaime Rene Calva Aragon was on his way to a meeting when he was killed by two assailants wielding hefty ice picks.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 14, In Mexico at least one man opened fire on protesters manning a roadblock in Oaxaca paralyzed by months of conflict, killing one demonstrator and wounding another.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Mexican authorities arrested a soldier accused of opening fire on a street barricade in Oaxaca, killing one demonstrator and wounding another. Elections in Mexico’s Tabasco state showed Andres Rafael Granier of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) defeating Democratic Revolution candidate Cesar Raul Ojeda by 10 points. The next day the PRD accused its rivals of fraud.
(AP, 10/15/06)(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 17, In central Mexico an explosion in an area packed with small fireworks factories Capulhuac, 20 miles west of Mexico City, left four people dead and a man with severe burns. In western Mexico 14 people were killed when a passenger bus crashed into the back of a tractor trailer. A spark touched off an explosion aboard a gasoline tanker ship at Pemex's Pajarito marine terminal in the city of Coatzacoalcos, killing eight people and injuring nine others.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, Mexican police discovered two human heads in a backpack in the Pacific state of Guerrero, the latest decapitation victims in a continuing wave of violence.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, Mexico's Senate ruled there was no reason to oust Oaxaca's embattled state governor, eliminating the last formal legal recourse for thousands of protesters who for months have demanded the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz. Jorge Bustos, a commander with the defunct Federal Security Directorate, was arrested in Mexico City in connection with the 1974 disappearance of six alleged guerrilla members. Bustos had arrested six members of the Brigada Lacandona, a 1970s guerrilla faction, who disappeared after Hidalgo state authorities turned them over to the federal intelligence agency.
(AP, 10/19/06)(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 20, In Mexico radical protesters and teachers, who have taken over the city of Oaxaca, appeared to be parting ways after the teachers' leaders agreed to end a strike and return to work.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Mexico’s Michoacan state, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 420 homicides were reported for this year, including 19 police chiefs and commanders. Juan Antonio Magana, the state's attorney general, said well over half the killings were drug-related.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 26, Teachers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca voted to end a five-month-old strike, allowing 1.3 million children to return to classes and potentially taking the sting out of anti-government protests besieging this historic city.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 26, President Bush signed a bill authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, In Oaxaca, Mexico, Bradley Roland Will (36), a US journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The clashes occurred as leftist protesters barricaded streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor. In 2008 two supporters of a protest movement in southern Mexico were arrested for the fatal shooting of the US journalist. Officials said Juan Manuel Martinez, was the gunman, and Octavio Perez was an accomplice who helped cover up the crime. Eight other alleged accomplices were still sought. In 2010 Juan Martinez Moreno was cleared by a federal court.
(AP, 10/28/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.48)(AP, 10/18/08)(AP, 2/17/10)
2006 Oct 28, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox announced he was sending federal police into the violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a US journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The bodies of 3 state police officers, one of whom had been decapitated, were found in a sport utility vehicle abandoned outside the resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 10/28/06)(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 29, In Mexico federal forces stormed Oaxaca and pushed protesters and striking teachers out of the city center they had occupied for five months, leaving the colonial city resembling a battleground, with riot police and burned vehicles lining the streets. At least one demonstrator was killed.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 30, The Mexican government authorized the extradition of ex-Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face embezzlement charges in his country.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Mexico youths roamed the streets of Oaxaca tossing gasoline bombs, hijacking vehicles and vowing to keep fighting for the state governor's ouster. Congress urged the governor to resign and leftist leaders urged national support for the movement.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 2, In Mexico, protesters besieging Oaxaca City forced federal police to retreat from the gates of the state university after six hours of pitched fighting and the rector's call for an end to the government "attack."
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 3, In Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refused to accept an election tribunal's decision that his opponent narrowly won the presidential election, named his "resistance" government Cabinet.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 6, In Mexico City simultaneous explosions hit the Federal Electoral Tribunal, a bank branch and the headquarters of the former ruling party early in the day. Authorities deactivated a homemade explosive device at a second bank branch.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, More than 15,000 white-clad supporters of Oaxaca's embattled governor marched through Oaxaca in their biggest show of strength in a six-month conflict that has left at least nine people dead.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 9, Mexico City's assembly passed legislation to legally recognize gay civil unions in the capital, the first such vote by a legislative body in the history of the conservative country.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 10, In Mexico Misael Tamayo Hernandez, editor of El Despertar de la Costa, was found dead in a hotel room in Zihuatanejo, a day after running stories about organized crime and corruption in the city government. Hector Gaxiola, a district police chief in the border city of Tijuana, was shot and killed a day after surviving another attempt on his life. His brother was found next to him. Both had been shot dozens of times.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 14, Second-grader Saul Arellano, a US citizen, appeared in Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop the deportation of his mother, an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge in a Chicago church. His efforts paid off with a resolution calling on the US Congress to suspend the deportation of Elvira Arellano (31) and any other illegal immigrant parents of US citizens. US officials said there is no right to sanctuary in a church under US law, and nothing to prevent them from arresting Elvira Arellano, who has lived at the church since Aug. 15, the day she was supposed to surrender for deportation.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 15, Aides to former leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will seek contributions from ordinary Mexicans to support a parallel, "legitimate" administration he declared after losing the July 2 elections to President-elect Felipe Calderon by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 16, Jose Manuel Nava (53), a former general manager of one of Mexico's oldest newspapers, was found slain in his apartment in the capital, officials said, a week after he went public with his book criticizing the federal government, the business community and newspaper employees.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 18, The Mexican government released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s. In Michoacan state at least three of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed after police raided the Mil Cumbres prison in Morelia to try to rescue them.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Mexico a public defender died of his injuries after being shot by inmates who took a group of lawyers hostage near the central Mexican city of Morelia, bringing the death toll in the incident to five.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 19, Mexican Gen. Francisco Quiros, imprisoned for drug trafficking and implicated in the disappearance of leftists during Mexico's "dirty war," died from cancer. In 2005 a judge ordered Quiros arrested for the 1974 kidnapping of singer Rosendo Radilla, who disappeared after being seized by soldiers at a roadblock.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910 revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 21, Roberto Marcos Garcia (50), chief reporter for the weekly Testimonio crime magazine in Mexico’s port city of Veracruz, was toppled from his motorcycle and run over by unidentified assailants who then shot him at close range.
(AP, 11/21/06)(SSFC, 12/10/06, p.A21)
2006 Nov 22, In Mexico a violent Mexican drug gang took out a rare, half-page ad in newspapers in which they claimed to be anti-crime vigilantes who wanted to stop kidnapping, robbery and the sale of methamphetamine in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 23, In Mexico Police chief Baltazar Gomez and Osvaldo Rodriguez, both of the Monterrey suburb of Santa Catarina, were killed just after midnight by a gunman who followed them inside a convenience store where they had gone after attending a funeral. Crusading journalist Jesus Blancornelas, who relentlessly investigated drug cartels and government corruption despite an attempt on his life and the killing of colleagues, died of a chronic illness in Tijuana.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Mexico singer Valentin Elizalde (27) was ambushed and gunned down along with his manager and driver following a performance in Reynosa. His ballads included narco-corridos, which honored the exploits of drug dealers.
(SSFC, 11/26/06, p.A19)
2006 Nov 26, In Mexico bands of youths rampaged through downtown Oaxaca, torching buildings and cars hours after federal police used tear gas to drive off a violent mob of leftists in the latest spasm of protests against the state governor. 30 to 40 armed men entered the La Barranca hunting ranch near the US border and kidnapped five men including 3 Texans. Librado Pina Jr. (49), owns the popular deer-hunting ranch near Hidalgo, was released on Dec 18. His son and 2 others had been released earlier. There was no word on the ranch's Mexican cook, Marco Ortiz.
(AP, 11/26/06)(AP, 11/29/06)(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Nov 26, Raul Velasco (73), who hosted one of Mexico's most popular and enduring television programs, "Siempre en Domingo," died at his home in Acapulco.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen attacked a police car in the border city of Tijuana, killing Gerardo Santiago Prado, the police chief of Mesa de Otay, his bodyguard and a secretary.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Nov 29, A Mexican court reinstated an arrest warrant for former President Luis Echeverria, just four months after a federal judge had dismissed the same charges of genocide in connection with a 1968 student massacre.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 30, Mexican police found the bullet-ridden bodies of two men, including a missing journalist, just days after the body of another slain reporter was found in the area. Police discovered the body of reporter Adolfo Sanchez Guzman (32) near Ciudad Mendoza, 75 miles west of Veracruz, not far from where his car was found abandoned on Nov 28. Police on Dec 1 arrested Juan Carlos Palestino (30) and Julian Rosas Palestino (34) after witnesses said the two brothers had been looking for Martinez. The brothers had accused Martinez of stealing their truck.
(AP, 12/1/06)(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Nov, In Mexico credit card interest rates averaged over 30% despite efforts by Guillermo Ortiz, head of the Central Bank, to get banks to lower their costs. 80% of the country’s banking assets were foreign owned.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.76)
2006 Dec 1, Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president amid jeers and whistles, in a chaotic ceremony before congress preceded by a brawl between lawmakers still divided over the nation's tight presidential election.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, Mexico's new president pledged to substantially raise the wages of the armed forces, calling them a crucial weapon against heavily armed drug gangs terrorizing the nation.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 3, Mexico’s newly sworn-in president Felipe Calderon decreed a 10% pay cut for himself and his cabinet members, echoing a central campaign promise of the leftist rival he beat by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres. Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start talks with the government.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 6, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon announced a program to help Mexico's 100 poorest communities, responding to leftist critics who accuse the conservative leader of wanting to help only the rich.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, In Mexico more than 100 prisoners escaped from a state penitentiary a few miles from Cancun's resort zone after hundreds of inmates overpowered guards with knives and bats. Police quickly recaptured most of the men, but there were still 17 at large. More than 250 federal police agents surrounded the offices of the Oaxaca state police force and seized its weapons to determine whether any were used in shootings during six months of demonstrations in Oaxaca City. Assailants shot dead an Indian activist in Mexico's conflict-ridden state of Oaxaca. The bullet-ridden corpse of Raul Marcial Perez was found on a road near the Mixtec Indian community of Agua Fria about 120 miles north of Oaxaca City.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 10, Leonel Cota, president of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Mexico's largest leftist party, led thousands of protesters in a march to the center Oaxaca, demanding the resignation of the state governor and the withdrawal of thousands of federal police.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 12, Mexico's new president launched his first major offensive against drug gangs, sending more than 6,500 federal forces to Michoacan, his violence-plagued home state, to crack down on turf wars that have left hundreds dead in a wave of execution-style killings and beheadings. The body of Luis Felipe Zavala, cousin of Mexico's first lady Margarita Zavala, was found in his minivan in the city of Naucalpan in Mexico State.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 13, A group of about 300 Mazahua Indians briefly seized a water treatment plant on Mexico City's western outskirts and temporarily cut off one of the main sources of water for the metropolis of 18 million people. The protest was motivated by demands for more government development aid. The government teamed up with doctors, academics and a US-based drug company to announce a campaign to reduce the number of smokers in Mexico by more than 10 percent in three years.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Mexico Elias Valencia, a suspected head of the Valencia cartel, was arrested along with four other people at a mountain ranch near the town of Aguililla in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 16, In Mexico hundreds of federal police officers packed up their tents and marched out of Oaxaca’s central square, ending their seven-week occupation to put down a lengthy protest by leftists that had left nine people dead. A Mexican air force plane crashed into the sea near the resort city of Acapulco and rescue teams were searching for its four crew members.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 19, Officials said thousands of soldiers sent to seize control of one of Mexico's top drug-producing regions have discovered widespread cultivation of a hybrid marijuana plant that is easy to grow and difficult to kill.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 28, In central Mexico a passenger bus collided with a freight train, killing 22 people.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Mexico’s Transportation and Communications Secretary Luis Tellez alleged in a recorded conversation that former President Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) stole from a secret government fund. The contents of the conversation were made public in February, 2009. Tellez resigned 2 weeks later following threats that other recordings would be revealed.
(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2006 In Mexico some Zetas, former military special-forces members, broke away from their Gulf cartel associations to form the La Familia organized crime group. La Familia was formed when the gang, then known as "The Business," broke off from the Gulf cartel and declared its independence by rolling the severed heads into a disco in the mountain city of Uruapan.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.34)(AP, 12/11/10)
2006 Mexico, the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, counted a population of some 106 million people. An estimated 500,000 Mexicans left the country each year in search of better opportunities.
(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.3,16)
2006 Mexico counted 2,200 murders this year linked to organized crime. Reporters Without Borders later counted 9 journalists killed this year in Mexico along with 3 missing.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.47)
2006-2010 Mexico seized some 55,000 assault weapons, most of which were bought legally in the United States.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.16)
2006-2011 In Mexico over 47,000 people were killed by violence associated with organized crime related to the drug trade.
(Econ, 6/27/15, p.73)
2007 Jan 2, Mexico said it is sending some 3,300 soldiers and federal police officers to fight drug gangs in the crime-plagued border city of Tijuana, which has become a major smuggling route for cocaine and methamphetamine entering the United States.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, Mexican officials in Michoacan state said they had found nine bodies in a shallow grave in the city of Uruapan.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 6, Mexican federal and state police manned checkpoints within Tijuana’s city limits as local police suspended their patrols because soldiers sent to crack down on drug gangs and corruption seized most of their guns on suspicion they aided traffickers.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 9, In Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has refused to accept his slim loss to President Felipe Calderon in July's election, launched a weekly TV show mocking the government's battle against crime and unemployment and promising to promote a law targeting Mexico's monopolies.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 12, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera (22) of Puebla, Mexico, was killed in a confrontation with the unidentified agent north of the US-Mexico border in Arizona between Bisbee and Douglas. On Jan 16 the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that swarms of locusts had descended on the Mexican state of Yucatan and threatened over 12,000 acres of vegetation.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 14, Gunmen burst into the home of Jaime Meraz Martinez, a political leader in the northern Mexican state of Durango, and fatally shot him, two family members and an employee.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 15, President Felipe Calderon launched a program to create jobs for young Mexicans and curb the flow of millions of migrants to the United States.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, Pedro Diaz Parada, a drug cartel leader, was arrested in the southern state of Oaxaca and taken to Mexico City. This was the first major drug arrest under the administration of President Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, President Felipe Calderon signed an accord with businesses to curb soaring tortilla prices and protect Mexico's poor from speculative sellers and a surge in the cost of corn driven by the US ethanol industry.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, Truck driver Albano Ramirez Santos tried to commit suicide by throwing himself onto the tracks of the Mexico City subway and was later beaten to death by police. Santos was reportedly despondent over the theft of his truck.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 19, Mexico extradited four major drug traffickers to the US, including Osiel Cardenas, head of the so-called Gulf Cartel. President Felipe Calderon announced that 7,600 soldiers have massed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero to go after drug gangs that have committed beheadings and other violence in the resort city of Acapulco in recent months.
(AP, 1/19/07)(AP, 1/20/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.p33)
2007 Jan 20, In Mexico Rodolfo Rincon (54), who worked for the newspaper Tabasco Hoy, was last seen after he reported on local drug dealers. In 2010 Mexican authorities said he was killed by a drug cartel's hit men who dissolved his body in acid.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2007 Jan 24, In southern Mexico a bus plunged into a ravine in remote mountains, killing at least 29 people.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, Six federal police officers involved in President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug operation were being investigated for extortion after they were videotaped taking money from a driver in the border city of Tijuana.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, Police in Tijuana, Mexico, got their guns back three weeks after they were forced to turn over weapons to federal authorities because of allegations they were colluding with drug traffickers.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico City some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico a lesbian couple registered what officials called Mexico's first gay civil union in the northern city of Saltillo.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon praised a new law that obligates federal and local authorities to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women, and he promised a "relentless" fight against gender-related abuse.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 3, In Mexico thousands of protesters marched in Oaxaca to demand the resignation of the state governor. A man's chopped up body was discovered in Acapulco dumped in plastic garbage bags.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 6, In Mexico more than a dozen armed assailants staged and videotaped simultaneous attacks against two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco, killing five agents and two secretaries.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 14, Mexican immigration agents allegedly locked 10 Guatemalan and two Salvadoran migrants in a trailer after they refused to pay a bribe against of $110 each. In late 2008 the country's National Human Rights Commission called for a government investigation.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2007 Feb 15, Assailants shot dead four police officers in the western Mexican city of Aguascalientes, the latest in a wave of slayings of law enforcement officers across Mexico.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 18, Officials said the Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states across the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that soldiers waging an offensive against drug traffickers will get a pay hike of 45 percent this year in a bid to insulate them from corruption. This coincided with a decision to lower his own pay by 10% and abolish pensions for Mexican presidents.
(AP, 2/19/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 22, The Bush administration announced its plan to have US inspectors oversee Mexican trucking companies that carry cargo across the border. Mexico responded to the US announcement by saying it will allow trucks from 100 US companies to travel across the border. The news that Mexican trucks will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the US drew an angry reaction the next day from labor leaders, safety advocates and members of Congress.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 26, Four Mexican soldiers were arrested and accused of raping and murdering a 73-year-old woman a day earlier in a case that outraged Indian groups in Soledad Atzompa in Veracruz state. In May a special prosecutor found no evidence that soldiers beat and raped Ernestina Ascensio Rosario. An autopsy on Ascensio's body showed that she died of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract.
(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Feb 27, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that the armed forces cannot kick out HIV-positive members because doing so is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Mexico's head of migration pledged to improve the agency's detention centers in response to criticism that Mexico fails to give Central American immigrants the same respect it demands for its own citizens in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 27, CompUSA said it will close 126 retail stores by the end of May. The restructure would leave 103 stores and include a $440 million cash infusion from parent company US Commercial Corp., a holding company in Mexico City controlled by Carlos Slim.
(SFC, 2/28/07, p.C3)
2007 Feb, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City’s newly elected mayor, sent 600 police on a raid to evict residents from 73 apartments in a building in Tepito, said to be a drug-dealing center. Raids there and nearby netted 2 kilos of cocaine, 30 tons of DVDs and 90 kilos of marijuana.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.34)
2007 Feb, Mexican customs agent Jorge Santillan seized a truck crossing from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico, carrying a grenade launcher and 17 grenades along with 18 rifles and 17 pistols. Days later, the agent was shot to death with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Mar 3, In southern Mexico gunmen killed two members of Mexico's former ruling party in the mountain city of Tlapa in Guerrero state.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, In Mexico gunmen wounded Gen. Francisco Fernandez, the top security official in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, and killed his driver.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 9, President Felipe Calderon proposed sweeping reforms to Mexico's justice system, including US-style trials and a unified criminal code. Mexican federal police detained 81 Chinese immigrants and 22 immigration agents after the Chinese were discovered hiding in the Cancun airport terminal, possibly with the protection of Mexican immigration officers.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 10, In northern Mexico 8 people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus slammed into a tractor trailer carrying aluminum beams.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 13, In Mexico Pres. Bush met with Pres. Felipe Calderon in Merida. Bush sought to soothe strained ties by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough US immigration policies, but Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized US plans for a 700-mile border fence. Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the US Embassy in Mexico City, attacking riot police with concrete blocks, metal bars and tearing down barricades to protest Bush's visit.
(AP, 3/14/07)(AP, 3/13/08)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec. The attorney general later said the $206 million in cash seized was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. The ring had been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who had gained Mexican citizenship. A recount put the cashed seized to over $207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Mexico an economist and a journalist became the first couple united under Mexico City's new gay civil union law.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, Hundreds of Mexican federal police and soldiers surrounded the headquarters of Tabasco's state police and arrested top current and former commanders in a raid apparently linked to an assassination attempt against the state's public safety secretary. Mireya Lopez Portillo, the daughter of a retired Mexican general, and her husband, a television network executive, were shot to death while traveling in a sport utility vehicle in Mexico City. This raised fears the army is being targeted for attacks because of its broadening role in law enforcement.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, The Arenitas waste water treatment plant, that Mexican officials say will help prevent pollution of US waterways, was inaugurated in the city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, Calif.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 26, An American border inspector was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for taking cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, Police in Mexico City kicked off a campaign to exchange guns for computers and other gifts in an attempt to reduce firearm deaths. Two bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags and sheets behind a television station in Mexico's port city of Veracruz, apparent victims of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In northern Mexico gunmen killed two police officers and six other people in less than 48 hours, the latest victims in a wave of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 30, A video purportedly showing the beheading of a drug cartel hit man appeared on video-sharing Web site YouTube, and its makers called on Mexicans to kill more members of the gang.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Monterrey, Mexico, a tractor-trailer lost its brakes and killed nine people as it plowed through a residential area. The driver of a tractor-trailer was charged with homicide after testing positive for drugs.
(AP, 4/2/07)(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Amado Ramirez, the Acapulco correspondent for Mexico's top television news network, was shot to death.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, A Mexican court ordered the reinstatement of ousted mineworkers union leader Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, more than a year after the government turned him out of office based on complaints of corruption.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a law eliminating prison sentences for libel or defamation, drawing praise from media watchdog groups.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, In Mexico a speeding bus crashed into a tractor-trailer outside the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 28 people and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 4/15/07)(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 15, A 14-year-old matador who left Spain to escape his home country's ban on young bullfighters was nearly gored to death in a Mexican City ring, his lung punctured by a 900-pound bull.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, Police found 17 bodies stuffed in cars or dumped on streets in garbage bags across Mexico in the latest wave of violence apparently triggered by warring drug gangs.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nicaraguan police announced the arrest of more than two dozen local members of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel but said they were still seeking the group's leader.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 18, Mexican police and soldiers battled gunmen at a hospital in Tijuana in violence that left at least three people dead before the authorities subdued the attackers. Authorities said next day that the gunmen were hit men for the city's Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Mexico a Durango state police commander was kidnapped and killed and two other officers were shot dead in a gun battle with his abductors.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 22, Marcos Leyes Perez, the son of the US consul in southern Oaxaca state, was stabbed during an apparent mugging.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 23, Eleazar Medina Rojas, described as a key member of the powerful Gulf drug cartel, was arrested in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, along with his father, four other cartel members and four women. Authorities reported the killing of Jorge Gonzalez, police chief of Cardenas, in the southern Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Mexican police found the body of Saul Noe Martinez Ortega (36), a newspaper editor abducted last week in the border city of Agua Prieta. He had been dead at least six days and was found in neighboring Chihuahua state.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, Mexico City lawmakers voted to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court battle.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, A new measure legalizing abortions in Mexico City was published into law, allowing doctors to almost immediately begin terminating pregnancies in their first trimester.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 30, US and Mexican law enforcement officials said Mexican druglords are taking over the business of smuggling migrants into the United States, using them as human decoys to divert authorities from billions of dollars in cocaine shipments across the same border.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr, Mexico’s CompartamosBanco went public as a lender to the poor. It was created in 1990 as a non-Governmental Organization (NGO). ACCION Int’l., a charity that has helped to spread microfinance since the 1970s, was an early investor and banked $140 million in the IPO, while retaining a 9% stake. ACCION had received funding from USAID.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.93)(http://tinyurl.com/46esnp)
2007 May 1, In Mexico 5 soldiers, including a colonel, and a suspected drug cartel enforcer were killed in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan, which has been plagued by drug violence and is the target of a military-led anti-drug offensive.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 6, More than 18,000 people stripped down and bared it all in Mexico City's vast main square for US photographer Spencer Tunick's biggest nude shoot yet.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 7, In western Mexico 4 purported drug smugglers were killed in a shootout with soldiers in Apatzingan, Michoacan state, the second deadly clash in a week between traffickers and troops in the same remote, mountainous region.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, In Mexico a severed head accompanied by a note of defiance from organized crime gangs and two hand grenades was found outside a military barracks in Veracruz state.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 14, In Mexico City gunmen fatally shot Jose Nemesio Lugo, Mexico’s new federal narcotics intelligence chief, as he was on his way to work at the Attorney General's Office.
(AP, 5/14/07)(SFC, 5/25/07, p.A1)
2007 May 15, A top Mexican anti-drug official said the US must do more to stop weapons from being smuggled into the hands of drug traffickers who are using them to kill Mexican soldiers and police.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, In Mexico over 40 armed men abducted and killed 4 police officers south of the Arizona border.
(SFC, 5/17/07, p.A3)
2007 May 16, Thomas Frank White, a US businessman, was convicted of raping a teenage boy and sentenced to more than 7 years in jail in Mexico. White, who founded the brokerage firm Thomas White & Co. in 1978, was arrested in Thailand in 2003 at the behest of Mexican officials and later extradited.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, Mexican police chased the remnants of a criminal assault force through the mountains of Sonora near the Arizona border after kidnappings and gunbattles that left at least 22 people dead.
(AP, 5/17/07)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2007 May 19, Assailants shot dead a police commander in a wealthy Monterrey suburb, the latest in a wave of killings of law enforcement officials across Mexico.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 23, In western Mexico a tractor-trailer loaded with sand smashed into a toll booth and rebounded into other vehicles, setting off a blaze that killed 10 people.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 25, In Mexico 2 members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), a Marxist guerrilla group, disappeared. A week later the group blamed the government and called for their safe return and warned of dire consequences. In July the group began blowing up natural gas pipelines. Attacks took place on July 6,10 and Sep 10.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.A1)
2007 May 27, In southern Mexico assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles shot dead six family members, including three children, as they ambushed a minivan on a country road.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City Riyo Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open an international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 31, Mexico's Televisa network, known around the world for its soap operas, said it plans to expand in China, following the lead of taco chains and other Mexican businesses looking for a slice of the Asian nation's market.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Mexican soldiers fired on a family traveling to a funeral when they failed to stop after being ordered to do so at the checkpoint near the village of La Joya. 19 Mexican soldiers were sent to a military prison June 4 for the shooting that killed two women and three children. In 2011 the commanding officer received a 40-year sentence in a court martial and another officer received 38 years. A judge gave 12 enlisted soldiers 16-year sentences.
(AP, 6/5/07)(AP, 11/3/11)
2007 Jun 3, In southern Mexico tons of bananas collapsed the false floor of a tractor-trailer smuggling migrants, killing 6 people hidden inside a secret compartment and wounding a dozen others.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 11, Mexican police and soldiers arrested three men during an operation to fight illegal logging in a mountain region south of Mexico City where environmentalist Aldo Zamora (21) was killed on May 15.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 14, Abel Diaz Lucas, also known as Jorge Guevara-Perez, was arrested in El Paso, Texas. The next day he was handed to Mexican authorities, who had been trying to find Diaz for five years. They accused him of running a central Mexico gang notorious for cutting off the fingers and ears of their victims and sending them to their families to demand ransom money.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Mexico the government of Oaxaca apologized for the first time for a police raid on protesters last year that led to the country's worst political unrest in years.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 19, Antonio Aguilar (88), Mexican mariachi singer and actor, died. He recorded more than 150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico's "Golden Era" of cinema. He appeared in 167 films, including "The Undefeated" starring John Wayne.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 21, Mario Villanueva, the former Mexican governor of Quintana Roo, was freed after six years behind bars and immediately re-arrested on a US extradition request in which he is accused of helping smuggle 200 tons of cocaine into the United States.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 25, Mexico temporarily removed all 284 of its top federal police officers from their jobs and is forcing them to undergo psychological reviews to prove they will not be corrupted in the fight against drug trafficking.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy rains triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town of Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers were thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu (67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an adjacent highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers assigned to the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 10, Mexico's government called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to the nation's democratic institutions and vowed to step up security after a guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In western Mexico Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut down their factories after rebels attacked a key natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, News reports said Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new 5,000- strong elite military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil refineries and dams in the wake of recent guerrilla attacks on pipelines operated by Pemex.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 13, Roman Robles-Cota (32), a police chief in the northern Mexican town of Sonoyta pleaded guilty to charges that he bribed a US Border Patrol agent in 2005 in an effort to help a smuggling operation.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Mexico police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since November.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 23, Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in a Maryland restaurant, four months after police discovered $207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what US officials have called the world's biggest seizure of drug cash. Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye Gon's extradition. Ye Gon has claimed that $150 million of the money belonged to Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during the 2006 presidential race. Ye Gon later told US prosecutors he had sold tons of a chemical used to make methamphetamine on the black market.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 10/23/09)
2007 Jul 30, The body of Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon, a Cuban-American who was under investigation in a migrant smuggling case, was found riddled with bullets along a road outside Cancun, Mexico.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, The Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) struck Grupo Mexico to demand wage increases and improved safety conditions. Striking workers occupied the Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora and continued into 2010.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.59)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1819816120100218)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the bodies of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug traffickers. The agents had taken part in a raid that discovered $205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe Osuna (51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for governor in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a former mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links to organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean roared toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 21, Hurricane Dean slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico as a roaring Category 5 hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two decades. Dean made landfall after killing 13 people in the Caribbean.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Hurricane Dean closed in on the Mexican mainland, battering oil platforms on the Bay of Campeche. Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm as it drenched central Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the US and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Mexico Tropical Storm Henriette dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, flooding streets and prompting officials to close more than 1,000 schools, while Tropical Storm Felix formed in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 5, Hurricane Henriette threatened Mexico's mainland after punishing the Los Cabos resorts.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Martin Villegas, Mexican boot maker to world leaders, including President Bush and Vicente Fox, was arrested in Colorado along with two other Mexican nationals and two US residents following a three-year undercover operation by US Fish and Wildlife Service agents. The five allegedly made 25 illegal shipments of banned skins into the US since 2005.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 9, In northern Mexico a truck carrying 25 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up after colliding with another vehicle, killing at least 37 people, including three reporters who came to the scene near Sacramento.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.40)
2007 Sep 10, Several explosions in Veracruz state, believed to be the work of saboteurs, ripped apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico's state oil monopoly. The explosions forced the evacuation of some 12,000 people. The so-called People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 10, In central Mexico a bus carrying worshippers on a pilgrimage to a famous shrine plunged into a valley, killing nine passengers and leaving 38 injured.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 11, Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited India's technology hub of Bangalore to get a feel for the success of its outsourcing companies, and to encourage them to invest more in Mexico.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 15, In western Mexico a bus carrying tourists including passengers of a flight from Phoenix crashed, killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 28, In Mexico City more than 30 federal agents arrested Avila Beltran (46), who allegedly spent more than a decade working her way to the top echelons of Mexico's male-dominated drug trade.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Sep 28, Hurricane Lorenzo crashed into Mexico's Gulf coast before dawn, ripping apart shacks, uprooting trees and sending billboards flying through the air. At least 5 people died.
(AP, 9/28/07)(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 8, Police in Mexico City arrested Jose Luis Calva, an aspiring horror novelist, after discovering his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Police had come to Calva's apartment to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 18, Teenage pop star Belinda (18), who starred in the Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls 2," won the video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in Mexico City. The native of Madrid, Spain, who grew up in Mexico, also won best solo artist.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from Guatemala with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the end of the week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was believed to be carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 22, The US announced the Merida Initiative. It was signed into law on June 30, 2008. It is a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)
2007 Oct 22, Pres. Bush asked Congress for $196.4 billion for the Iraq war. This included $500 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers as Mexico and the US announced plans for a $1.4 billion aid package to fight drug trafficking and other organized crime south of the border.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A7)(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex said the workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven employees of the subcontractor company that operated the rig, at least one rescue boat crew member, and six others who worked for other companies. On Dec 16 Pemex announced that the well was finally capped. Roughly 420 barrels of oil per day had spilled from the damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct, Mexican officials seized 23.5 tons of cocaine this month, the largest seizure ever reported in Mexico. A US report, commissioned by Sen. Lugar, later estimated that 530-710 tons of cocaine crossed annually into the US.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.45)
2007 Nov 2, Rescuers in boats and helicopters worked to evacuate people stranded by a flood the president called "one of the worst natural disasters" to hit Mexico. A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, leaving 70 percent of the Gulf state of Tabasco underwater. Gov. Andres Granier estimated the damage at $5 billion. The death toll reached to about 25.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Nov 4, In Mexico a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped San Juan Grijalva, in Chiapas near the Tabasco border, off the map. 15 bodies were later recovered with 9 left missing. The floods killed at least 8 others in Tabasco and elsewhere in Chiapas.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/13/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 14, A broad electoral reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry by barring political parties from buying radio and television advertisements took effect.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Mexico Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, was abducted, tortured and strangled to death. His body was found the next day. A day earlier Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones was killed execution-style at the hospital where she was recovering from neck surgery for a shooting on Nov 30, in which 2 other people were killed. Fears rose that singers, whether they have any links to drug cartels or not, get routinely "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
(AP, 12/5/07)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.E3)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen shot and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border city of Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, In southern Mexico Jose Luis Aquino (33), a trumpet player, was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head, in what authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a musician in less than a week.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Former Mexican Pres. Fox authored his ghost-written memoir “Revolution of Hope." It was published in English prior to a Spanish version.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2007 Sam Quinines authored “Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration."
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M1)
2007 Gregory Rodriguez authored “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.102)
2007 Alberto Nava, a California cave diver, and two Mexican dive budies discovered a human skeleton in a deep underwater cave in Mexico’s Yucatan jungle. In 2014 scientists said the skeleton was that of a young girl who probably fell into the cave over 12,000 years ago. DNA evidence linked her to modern native Americans.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.D8)
2008 Jan 1, In Mexico import tariffs on maize, beans, sugar and milk were eliminated.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.38)
2008 Jan 7, A shootout between Mexican authorities and suspected criminals just across the border from Texas left three people dead and eight injured.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, In Mexico 3 US residents and seven others linked to the powerful Gulf drug cartel were arrested following a deadly shootout in Rio Bravo just across the border from Texas. In a second shootout, two federal agents were killed and three more injured when they clashed with a group of suspects in the nearby city of Reynosa.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 10, In Mexico gunmen shot dead two federal agents and a civilian in the central state of Michoacan.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 11, In central Mexico a helicopter carrying volunteers on a mission to distribute toys to needy children crashed, killing eight people, including a government official.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 14, In Mexico Tijuana District Commander Jose de Jesus Arias Rico and his assistant Elbert Escobedo Marquez were riddled with bullets as they traveled in a private vehicle after finishing their shift. A car chase and shootout between Tijuana municipal police and at least two people who allegedly tried to rob an armored car after it made a cash pickup at a bank. One suspect was killed and another was wounded.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Mexico before dawn Margarito Saldana, Tijuana district commander, was shot dead while he slept in his home.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 17, In Mexico officials found six bodies inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a shootout with soldiers and police.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 19, In southern California a Hummer, suspected of carrying drugs and heading to Mexico, cut through a campground and hit and killed Luis Aguilar (32), a US Border Patrol, as he threw a spike strip in front of the vehicle. On Jan 23 Jesus Navarro Montes (22) was arrested in the northern state of Sonora for hitting Aguilar. On April 12, 2011, Navarro was found guilty of drug charges and second degree murder for killing Aguilar. On July 1 Navarro was sentenced to life in prison and was given an additional 80 years in prison on drug charges.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A3)(AP, 1/23/08)(Reuters, 4/13/11)(SFC, 7/2/11, p.A5)
2008 Jan 21, Mexico's army captured Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of the Sinaloa cartel. He allegedly commanded squads of hit men and organized drug shipments north.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, In Mexico 11 alleged hit men for a powerful drug cartel were captured at two Mexico City mansions stocked with grenades and automatic weapons, a day after Mexican authorities reported nabbing one of the cartel's reputed leaders.
(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 29, In Mexico City Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights, rallied support for Flor Crisostomo (28), another woman now seeking refuge in the same building. Four Mexican military officers and one soldier, were turned over to prosecutors for alleged links to Alfredo Beltran Leyva, but their cases weren't made public until Oct 31.
(AP, 1/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Jan 30, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (b.1920), Mexican Roman Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement (1941), died in Texas.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/americas/01maciel.html)
2008 Jan 31, In Mexico tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City to protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff protections for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 7, Mexican soldiers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana, a machine gun, scores of assault rifles and three grenades in a raid just across the border from Texas.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Mexico City a bomb exploded near the police headquarters killing one man. A singer and two members of his staff were tortured and killed just south of the California border, apparently the latest victims in a string of slayings of Mexican musicians. The border killings were not reported until Feb 20.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mexican lawmakers approved judicial reform that would introduce public, oral trials and guarantee the presumption of innocence, even as lawmakers deleted a proposal to allow police to search homes without a warrant. Mexico's Senate approved a law that would ban smoking in workplaces, public buildings and public transportation across the country, allowing it in private businesses only if special, ventilated smoking areas are set up. Investigators found parts from at least 8 bodies in a series of backyard pits at a house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. In March the body count increased to 36.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/26/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 7, Mexican soldiers seized assault rifles, grenades, marijuana and bulletproof vests bearing police insignia after a brief shootout in the border city of Tijuana. Police commander Ricardo Rodriguez was shot dead in a city plaza by gunmen who opened fire with assault rifles from a moving car. Six gunmen were also killed in the shootout.
(AP, 3/7/08)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 10, In Mexico a researcher said satellite photographs show illegal loggers have clear-cut large swathes of trees in the heart of a monarch butterfly reserve, threatening the insects' habitat. The images show illegal loggers chopped 1,100 acres of trees since 2004 in the core of a wooded park in Michoacan state.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 10, In central Mexico a sports utility vehicle fell into a canal, killing nine small children but leaving their teacher unharmed.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 11, Mexico's federal attorney general's office announced an investigation into allegations of corruption against Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, a confidant of the president who holds the government's second highest profile job.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 13, Cuba and Mexico declared their once-chilly relations fully restored, and Cuba's foreign minister said he will soon deliver a formal invitation for Mexico's president to visit the island.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 13, In central Mexico 6 people were shot and killed inside a private law office in Guadalajara.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 25, In eastern Guatemala at least nine people were killed and seven wounded in a shootout that is likely tied to drug traffickers. Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose "Juancho" Leon was summoned by Mexican traffickers for what he was told was business. Instead, dozens of attackers ambushed his entourage with grenades and assault rifles, killing Leon and 10 others in a brazen demonstration of power.
(AP, 3/25/08)(AP, 7/21/09)
2008 Mar 26, In Mexico a confrontation in Sinaloa state left four civilians and two soldiers dead. A military judge later issued an arrest warrant for 5 soldiers considered as suspects.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Mar 27, The Mexican government said it has sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to curb soaring violence in a border state across from Texas and New Mexico.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Mexico Juana Barraza (50), a former female wrestler who terrorized Mexico City as the "Little Old Lady Killer," was sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing 16 elderly women.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Mexico two soldiers deserted and were later killed during a gunbattle with police in the state of Nuevo Leon. 3 state police officers and a civilian also died in the violence. The Mexican army said soldiers looking for drug traffickers found $6 million in cash inside a truck near the US border and arrested five men at the scene. The daily El Universal reported that five soldiers had been arrested for passing information to the Sinaloa alliance of Pacific Coast smugglers.
(AP, 4/5/08)(Reuters, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 6, In southern Mexico a truck carrying Central American migrants in a hidden compartment plunged into a reservoir, killing at least eight people. Most of the migrants were believed to be from Guatemala.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Mexico Pres. Calderon said he would ease some bureaucratic barriers, and allow Pemex to pay outside contractors a "bonus," not a percentage cut, for oil found in deep-water reserves.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, Leftist lawmakers took over both chambers of Mexico's Congress to protest President Felipe Calderon's energy reform bill, which would make it easier for the state oil company to seek outside help to develop oil fields.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Mexico police, working with FBI agents in the small town of Tacambaro, arrested Cpl. Cesar Laurean (21). He is charged with first-degree murder in the December, 2007, death at Camp Lejeune, NC, of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of this year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos (43) of Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group promoting sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation; Marina Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which forced the rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo Fajardo (35) and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the Amazon Defense Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping oil and wastewater into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of Puerto Rico, head of a movement to protect the Las Cicharillas Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of Belgium, head of a movement to establish Belgium’s 1st and only national park; Jesus Leon (42) of Mexico, co-founder of the Center for Integral Small Farmer Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 15, In Mexico gunmen held up a family of US tourists in Baha and made off with their small plane from a hotel airstrip in Mulege.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 17, Chief Juan Muniz, the Mexican police chief of the border city of Reynosa, was arrested for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18, In western Mexico a military helicopter crashed, killing 11 soldiers and seriously injuring another.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 22, In New Orleans Pres. Bush ended a 2-day meeting with PM Harper of Canada and Pres. Calderon of Mexico as all three defended NAFTA. Bush denied the US is in recession calling the current economic situation a slowdown.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said the US is scrapping a $20 million virtual fence, developed by Boeing Corp., on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system failed to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 26, In Mexico running gunbattles between suspected drug traffickers broke out on the streets of the border city of Tijuana, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 29, Migrant rights activists applauded a vote by Mexico's Congress to remove long-standing criminal penalties for undocumented migrants found in the country. President Felipe Calderon's office declined to say whether he would sign the popular measure into law.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 May 1, Roberto Velasco, head of Mexico’s federal police organized crime division, was murdered. Police later said the murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 5, In southern Mexico a prominent cattle rancher hid from gunmen who killed two of his sons and kidnapped his daughter in weekend attacks that left 17 people dead.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 7, In Mexico a leftist rebel group (EPR) linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on rejected an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The People's Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe Calderon because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve crimes allegedly committed by current and past administrations against its members.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, Edgar Millan Gomez (42), Mexico's acting federal police chief, was shot dead outside his Mexico City apartment complex, as drug traffickers increasingly lashed back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Bodyguards at the scene arrested Alejandro Ramirez (34). Edgar Guzman, the son of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman, was shot dead in Culiacan, Sinaloa state. Also killed in the attack was Arturo Meza Cazares, the son of Blanca Margarita Cazares, whom the US has identified as a key money launderer for the cartel. Police later said Millan’s murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/9/08)(SFC, 5/9/08, p.A16)(http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/xarticle/ajc8708.htm)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 10, Juan Antonio Roman Garcia, the No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across from Texas, was shot dead, the latest high-ranking official killed in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown. Gunman sprayed Garcia's car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Mexican authorities said a police officer and four other people, with suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel, have been arrested in the May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, the acting federal police chief.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Mexico more than 2,700 soldiers and federal agents were sent to Sinaloa state as part of a crackdown on drug-related violence.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In Mexico 2 police officers were shot and killed in Torreon, Coahuila state, when they tried to stop gunmen from kidnapping a family. Assailants opened fire and threw grenades at a police station in Guamuchil in the northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 15, In Mexico Pres. Calderon held a signing ceremony for an agreement with Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the national teacher’s union, to promote the “Alliance for Educational Quality, an effort to improve teacher quality.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.55)
2008 May 18, An American woman (28) was among four people found dead in the Mexican beach town of Playas de Rosarito, near border with California.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In Mexico the military took over the town of Zirandaro near Texas after all 20 of its police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 20, In Mexico’s Durango state two rival groups opened fire at each other with pistols and assault rifles on a highway, killing eight people. Officials said the Mexican military took over the police department of Villa Ahumada this week because all 20 officers on the force have either been killed, run out of town or quit. The body of Victor Enrique Payan, 2nd in command of police in Morelos, was found with a second, unidentified Morelos state police officer in the trunk of a car south of Mexico City.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Mexico's attorney general said homicides related to organized crime jumped 47 percent in 2008, in a rare confirmation of how bad violence has become.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Mexican federal officials said they plan to clean up Acapulco's bay, where an estimated 400 gallons (1,700 liters) of sewage spews into the Pacific ocean every second.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 27, In Mexico 7 federal police and a suspected hit man were killed in a shootout as authorities surrounded a suspected drug safe house in Culiacan, home to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 31, Tropical Storm Arthur the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season, kicked up surf when it made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border and headed west.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In western Mexico Marcelo Ibarra, the mayor of Villa Madero, was forced from his car and shot dead. Officials believed the killing was an attempted robbery, although they haven't ruled out other motives.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Mexico Claudio Conti (53) was reportedly kidnapped along Zicatela beach in Puerto Escondido, where he operated the Da Claudio restaurant and a hotel. On Feb 28, 2009, Mexican police said they had captured four men suspected of kidnapping the Italian businessman, and that one of the men told police the victim had been ordered killed, though it was not clear if the slaying was carried out.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor (1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking, overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot dead while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city where drug gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 9, A note threatening a Mexican journalist was found outside the office of a newspaper in southern Mexico, two days after someone left a severed head there. The letter was directed at Juan Padilla, editor of El Correo de Tabasco, which recently carried reports about migrant smuggling and kidnapping in the area.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, In southern Mexico armed men hijacked a bus carrying 33 Cubans and four Central American migrants detained after forcing immigration agents away at gunpoint. The seized Cubans and Central Americans were being taken to an immigration processing center in the nearby city of Tapachula when the attack occurred. Mexican immigration agents are normally unarmed on such assignments.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 15, In Sonora, Mexico, one state police officer and two federal agents were killed in a running battle with dozens of gunmen that lasted several hours. One of the gunmen was wounded.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 17, Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon signed a constitutional amendment that threw open the doors to its judicial system, allowing US-style public trials and creating a presumption of innocence.
(AP, 6/18/08)(WSJ, 6/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Jun 18, Food manufacturers promised Mexico's government that they would freeze prices on more than 150 food products to help families cope with rising costs.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, Panicked youths rushed for the exits during a police raid on a Mexico City nightclub, leaving 12 people dead in the crush of bodies. The dead included 3 underage teens and 3 police officers. Prosecutors later charged the police commander who led a botched raid with 12 counts of homicide.
(AP, 6/21/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 21, Mexican soldiers captured at least 10 suspected members of a Tijuana-based drug cartel in a raid on a child's baptism party in Tijuana. A total of 61 people were arrested in the sweep, including the band hired to play the party and three city police officers.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 25, In Mexico state police spokesman Cesar Ramirez said 20 people have been killed in less than three days in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Guerrero state authorities agreed to pay 490,000 pesos (US$48,000) in compensation to 14 indigenous Mexican men coerced into having vasectomies. The men said that state health workers showed up in the southern village of El Camalote in 1998 and demanded that men with more than four children must have vasectomies.
(AP, 6/25/08)(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Mexico gunmen killed Igor Labastida, a top federal police official, and his bodyguard as they ate lunch in Mexico City.
(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Piedras Negras, Mexico, Chad Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, attended a tree planting ceremony for the first of 400,000 trees which will form a "green wall" in protest of the fence the US is building along the border with Mexico.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 30, The US signed into law the Merida Initiative announced last Oct 22. The security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico gives Mexico $139 million a year to fight gangs, strengthen the rule of law and improve border security.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.31)
2008 Jul 1, In Mexico videos showing Leon police practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer and dragging another through vomit at the instruction of a US adviser created an uproar, which has struggled to eliminate torture in law enforcement.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Mexico 4 decapitated bodies were found on a street in Culiacan, blocks away from their severed heads. Four gunmen were killed hours later, after opening fire on federal police patrolling Culiacan, a center for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Under attack, police shot back at the home where the gunmen were holed up, killing the four assailants and capturing two others.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 6, In northern Mexico a plane carrying a load of auto parts crashed s it was trying to land, killing the pilot and severely injuring the co-pilot.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police found six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody weekend that left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, In northern Mexico, 6 bullet-ridden bodies were found inside the auto body shop in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and three more bodies were found on the street just outside the business. A police investigator was found shot to death in his truck near Culiacan's police headquarters.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on four cars on a busy street in Guamuchil, killing eight people. Among the victims were a girl (11), two 17-year-old boys and two women aged 18 and 19. On July 16 Mexico's government offered a reward of nearly US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of the gunmen.
(AP, 7/14/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Mexico commander Gerardo Valdes, the head of kidnapping and organized crime investigations in the border state of Coahuila, was seized by at least six men when he was driving in Saltillo. An unidentified man called police and said that Valdes had been grabbed by the Juarez Cartel.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast and arrested its four-man crew.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Mexico's president replaced a 1791 time capsule discovered atop Mexico City's cathedral with a new one containing messages from golf star Lorena Ochoa, novelist Carlos Fuentes and a boy genius.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued an advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers after it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town warehouse that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella that was earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 22, In Mexico a measure took effect eliminating jail times for illegal immigrants caught in Mexico.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Dolly was upgraded to hurricane status as it headed toward the US-Mexican border.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 23, Hurricane Dolly toppled trees and sent billboards flying in the Mexican city of Matamoros, and authorities south of the US border warned of possible flooding. Dolly also hit south Texas, but by evening it had weakened to a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/24/08)(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also killed. 3 other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 27, Mexico City residents voted against the president's proposal to give private companies a bigger role in the country's state-run oil industry in a nonbinding referendum.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Mexico a family of six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state, allegedly targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four victims, including two children, were shot in the head. A teenage boy's throat was slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic bag.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Jul 30, Mexican police captured Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian cartel operative who represented Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel in dealings with Mexico's Beltran Leyva gang. He had escaped from a Colombian prison in 2001 and was wanted on drug charges in the US.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 30, US federal health officials said the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of serrano peppers at a Mexican farm in Nuevo Leon. Mexico's Agriculture Department rejected the FDA's conclusion saying "The farm unit in question ended its harvest more than a month ago, so the sample they say they have lacks scientific validity" because the sample "was taken recently from a tank holding rain water that was not used in production."
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, The body of Fernando Marti, the 14-year-old son of a prominent businessman, was found in the trunk of a car in Mexico City. He had been kidnapped in June. The kidnap and murder prompted a wave of anti-crime protests across the nation. In September police detained five suspects including Sergio Ortiz, a former agent of a now-disbanded city detective force, who led the "Flower Gang" responsible for kidnapping Marti in June. In July, 2009, Jose Montiel (34) and Noe Robles (31) were arrested for the kidnapping. They were believed to be members of a Mexico City gang responsible for at least 23 abductions.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 7/18/09)
2008 Aug 4, A shootout between Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal immigrants left 2 people dead near Agua Dulce.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, Texas executed Jose Medellin (33) for the 1993 rape and killing of two teenage girls in Houston. Mexico protested the execution, which took place despite a world court ruling for a new hearing, and expressed concern for the rights of other Mexicans detained in the US. On Jan 19, 2009, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the US defied its order when authorities in Texas last year executed a Mexican convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 8/6/08)(AP, 1/19/09)
2008 Aug 11, In Acapulco, Mexico, gunmen traveling in a sport utility vehicle fired at a hardware store killing a girl (14) and a man (35).
(AP, 8/12/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402108,00.html)
2008 Aug 13, In Mexico a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said 6 federal agents have been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of powerful drug lords.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB rejected Venezuela’s bid for the company’s assets in Venezuela. At midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex facilities around the country.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 21, In Mexico Pres. Calderon, congressional leaders, all state governors and a bevy of others signed a “National Agreement for Security."
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 22, Mexican police captured a man believed to be Ruben Rios Estrada, a key gunman for the Arellano-Felix cocaine cartel, at the Caliente racetrack casino in Tijuana after a chase through the city streets. Another suspected gang member also was arrested. The bullet-riddled body of Jesus Blanco Cano (40) was found at a ranch near Villa Ahumada in Chihuahua state. He had just been on the job for one day as police chief of Villa Ahumada.
(AP, 8/23/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 26, In Mexico 3 decapitated bodies were found in an empty lot on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana. The bodies had messages written on their backs in permanent marker saying they worked for "the weakened 'engineer,'" a nickname for Francisco Sanchez Arellano, a top lieutenant in Tijuana's powerful Arellano Felix drug cartel. A day earlier 2 bodies were found in Tijuana, one with the head placed on the upper back.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 27, In Mexico a 38-year-old man from Oregon was arrested in San Jose del Cabo following a fight at an apartment complex. He died in jail hours later. On Aug 31 six Mexican officers placed under house arrest on suspicion of homicide.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 28, Mexico's Supreme Court upheld the capital's abortion law, setting a precedent for the rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities. Twelve decapitated bodies bearing signs of torture were found in eastern Mexico and authorities were still looking for the heads. 11 of the bodies were found in a suburb of Merida, a 12th in Buctzotz, 70 km to the northeast.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, Hundreds of thousands of frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of kidnapped loved ones, marched across the country to demand government action against a relentless tide of killings, abductions and shootouts. Hours before the protests, the severed heads of two women were found near the attorney general's offices in the city of Durango.
(AP, 8/31/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 30, Gilberto Rincon Gallardo (69), a former socialist presidential candidate who gained respect in Mexico for defending the rights of the disabled, gays and other marginalized groups, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon promised to adopt several proposals from civic groups who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings and killings.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Mexico two 18th century paintings, "The Adoration of the Three Kings" and "The Birth of the Virgin," were stolen from the Santa Matilde church in Pachuca, the capital of central Hidalgo state. In February, 2010, they were found in an art gallery in Tlaquepaque, a town near the city of Guadalajara, where they were on sale for $35,000.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2008 Sep 10, A regulatory filing revealed that Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman, and his family had purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.78)
2008 Sep 12, Mexican police found the bodies of 24 men with their hands bound and shot to death execution-style outside the capital. On Nov 27 prosecutors charged a municipal police commander and an alleged drug cartel member with homicide in the September massacre.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Sep 14, Mexico's military seized US$26.2 million in cash believed to belong to members of the Sinaloa drug cartel. This was the 2nd biggest seizure since March 2007, when police seized US$207 million linked to a trafficking ring for pseudoephedrine.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 15, Mexican police and soldiers quelled a riot at a Tijuana prison that left 4 inmates dead and at least 31 prisoners and officials injured.
(AP, 9/16/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Oaxaca, Mexico, Omar Yoguez Singu (32) allegedly had consensual sex with Marcella Grace Eiler (20) of Eugene, Oregon. He then killed her with a machete after an argument. Her badly decomposed body was found Sep 24 in a shack 80 miles south of Oaxaca City. Friends of Singu beat him up after he confessed to the crime and on Sep 24 turned him over to police.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Mexico explosions at an Independence Day celebration killed 7 people and injured 101 in the city of Morelia. Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said organized crime was responsible.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, A second riot in three days at an infamous Tijuana prison left close to 2 dozen people dead and 12 injured. 2 American inmates were among the dead. Inmates at La Mesa prison rioted again because they have not been given food or water since Sep 14, when a separate riot led to the deaths of at least three inmates.
(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 20, It was reported that Mexican officers and prison guards in Michoacan state can now get special deals on houses and financing through a pilot program designed to keep them out of the pockets of organized crime.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 23, Mexico said it plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 25, Mexican federal prosecutors in Apatzingan, a drug stronghold in the western state of Michoacan, arrested three drug gang members accused of throwing grenades into crowds of Independence Day revelers. They belonged to a group of infamous Gulf Cartel hit men known as the Zetas.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 25, In southeastern Mexico storms flooded hundreds of people out of their homes and caused the death of a woman and 4 children whose car plunged into a swollen irrigation ditch in Nanchital, Veracruz state.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 29, In Mexico the bodies of 11 men and one woman, some with their tongues cut out, were found dumped in an empty lot next to a Tijuana elementary school, an hour before children were scheduled to arrive. A message nearby, written on a white piece of cardboard, read: "This is going to happen to all of those who are with 'The Engineer' for being blabbermouths." Minutes later four other bodies were found in another empty lot in Tijuana. Two other bodies were discovered the day before in a lot next to a factory.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico 20 heavily armed men in Sinaloa state stole five small planes that the army had seized in anti-drug operations. Officials on Oct 3 said the planes were found on a ranch in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, a hotbed of drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/1/08)(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico Ramiro Guillen Tapia (65), leader of a farmers' group seeking government mediation in a dispute over 620 acres (250 hectares) of land in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, set himself on fire. Tapia died the next day with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 3, Mexican police clashed with hundreds of villagers who seized the entrance to a Mayan archaeological site and six protesters were killed. Hundreds of villagers had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for nearly a month, saying they were protesting excessive entrance fees and a lack of investment in the area. 2 men were found shot to death in Tijuana in the same empty lot near the elementary school where the 12 bodies were found on sep 29.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, In Mexico gunmen killed Salvador Vegara, the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a resort town southwest of Mexico City. Vegara was in a car with two other people when the gunmen opened fire from another vehicle. The bodies of 5 men were found asphyxiated in a car in the eastern part of Tijuana. The men were beaten and had their hands bound. The bodies of two beheaded men were found wrapped in blankets on a road elsewhere in the city. The heads were in black plastic bags nearby.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 5, In southern Mexico 5 state police officers were arrested in connection with a deadly raid to dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site. Mexican authorities seized 7 million pills of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient used to make methamphetamine, at the Guadalajara airport. More than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of the pills were found packed in 24 boxes on a shipment from Calcutta, India. Three separate shipments of more than a ton each were confiscated last month at Mexico City's airport. Those also originated in Calcutta.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Mexico extradited former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face corruption charges, and the ex-leader told a judge there is no evidence to support the allegations against him.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, gunmen killed police commander Rodolfo Barragan (38) in a hail of bullets at a hotel parking lot.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 7, Tropical Storm Marco roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force winds, prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms and forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 people.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, President Felipe Calderon unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis. Mexican authorities said that 16 people were killed over the last 24 hours in Baha California across the US border from California. State officials blamed warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel for the killings and other homicides plaguing the area in recent weeks. 5 state police officers were killed in the western state of Jalisco by grenade-lobbing gunmen who fired more than 800 bullets in the attack.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, In northern Mexico gunmen opened fire in a bar in Chihuahua, killing 11 people. The body of Miguel Angel Villagomez, editor of La Noticia newspaper in the western state of Michoacan, was found shot dead on the side of a highway in neighboring Guerrero state.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Mexico's central bank auctioned foreign reserves in 3 auctions in an increasingly aggressive bid to push the peso stronger. In all, the bank sold off $6.4 billion.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Mexico authorities in Tijuana reported that a total of 91 people had been killed in a wave of gangland homicides since Sept. 26.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Mexico gunmen killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez. In Tijuana federal police arrested seven reputed members of a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, including a city police officer.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Hurricane Norbert hit Mexico as a Category 1 storm and left 4 people dead in the Baha peninsula and Sonora state.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 16, In Mexico six people were lined up and gunned down outside a business in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Mexico 334 police officers were ousted in ciudad Juarez after they failed psychological, background and other checks as part of a clean-up campaign meant to root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating with drug traffickers. The border city sent police recruiters across the country as it tries to replace nearly half a police force gutted by firings and retirements.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10 non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 18, Mexican federal authorities raided a “narco-mansion" in Mexico City and arrested 15 alleged traffickers during the middle of a party. A mini menagerie was also found at the site that included 2 African lions, 2 white tigers and 2 black panthers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/mexico-wildlife)
2008 Oct 20, Mexico agreed to deport Cubans who sneak illegally through Mexican territory to reach the US, a step toward cutting off an increasingly violent and heavily used human trafficking route. 21 prisoners died in a fight between inmates at a prison across the border from McAllen, Texas. Police said two soldiers and a security guard were found stabbed to death at a housing construction site in the village of Las Margaritas, northern Mexico. The body of a federal policeman was found riddled with gunshot wounds in Tijuana.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Police in northern Mexico reported receiving an ice chest packed with four human heads. The chest arrived at the Ascencion police station in Chihuahua state was marked "vaccines," but wasn't claimed for a week. Jesus Zambada was among 16 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel arrested after a shootout in Mexico City. Zambada is the brother of Ismael Zambada, who allegedly heads the Sinaloa cartel along with one of Mexico's most wanted men, Joaquin Guzman.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, four men were shot inside a go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park. Elsewhere in the city, a used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main boulevard hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a protest against kidnappings and extortion. In Tijuana a 1-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver tried to flee a gunbattle. In northern Mexico 10 gunmen were killed in running battles with state police in the city of Nogales. Outside the northeastern city of Monterrey, a soldier, the director of a security firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a highway.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Mexico 2 people were found dead in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California, including a badly burned corpse left in a trash bin.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 24, In central Mexico 2 human heads were found with threatening messages. 2 adults were killed when assailants riddled their pickup truck with bullets on a Tijuana street. A 1-year-old girl riding with them was hit by multiple rounds from an assault rifle and was hospitalized in critical condition. Police also found nine people shot to death in Playas de Rosarito, just south of Tijuana.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 25, In Mexico soldiers and federal police arrested Eduardo Arellano Felix (52), a reputed leader of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, after a shootout in the border city across from San Diego.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Mexico City kidnappers grabbed Javier Morena (5), the son of poor fruit sellers, with the intent to ask for a $23,000 ransom. The boy was killed with an injection of acid and buried outside the city. 5 suspects in the kidnapping were later arrested and confessed to the killing.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.11)
2008 Oct 27, Mexican prosecutors said a major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican attorney general's office and may have paid a spy inside the US Embassy for details of DEA operations. 5 officials of the attorney general’s organized crime unit were arrested on allegations they served as informants for the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 27, A US officials announced that Francisco Celaya Carrilo, a Mexican immigration officer, had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 28, Mexico's Congress passed a watered-down energy industry reform that enables private contractors to participate in the state-owned oil business but won't likely draw enough investment to reverse declining production.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Mexico police arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf drug cartel for the border city of Reynosa, in the northern city of Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and organized crime.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, The top officer of Mexico's federal police force quit amid allegations that drug gangs have infiltrated senior levels of crime-fighting agencies. Acting federal police Commissioner Gerardo Garay said he was stepping aside "to place myself at the orders of legal judicial authorities to clear up any accusation against me."
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 2, Mexican prosecutors said 11 policemen have been shot to death near Mexico City in a three-day string of drug-gang attacks. In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California, police found two decapitated bodies wrapped in blankets in a vacant lot.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 4, One of Mexico's top pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government jet crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of vehicles. The loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others thinned the ranks of Mexico's already embattled leadership. 9 people on the plane were killed as well as 5 people on the ground. A 15th victim died 2 weeks later. A 16th victim died in On Dec 11. Three alleged hitmen suspected in the killing of a top border-state police official died in a gunbattle with police in Nogales. They were suspected of having helped kill Sonora state police chief Juan Manuel Pavon on Nov 2. One Sonora state police officer died in the shootout. A suspect in Pavon's killing was taken into custody.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Nov 6, Mexican authorities detained Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the No. 2 official in the Federal Agency of Investigation from 2003-2005, suspected of aiding drug traffickers, and Jaime Gonzalez Duran, alleged founder of a vicious gang of drug-cartel hit men. A cache of 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT were seized at a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. This was the largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons in Mexico's history. In the northeast, police mistakenly opened fire on a family of six, seriously wounding a teenage girl. In the west, inmates rioted, killing six. And police in Tijuana found three more bodies accompanied by messages that appeared to be from drug traffickers.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 10, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon chose Fernando Gomez-Mont as the new Secretary of the Interior. 7 people were found dead in a string of gruesome attacks in the border city of Juarez. Police there chased a truck that opened fire on a state vehicle, causing a car crash that killed a bystander and injured four others. In northwestern Mexico 27 farmworkers who were kidnapped by dozens of heavily armed men wearing military-style uniforms. Local news media reported that a drug gang may have kidnapped the men to make them work growing marijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Mexico 21 police were arrested in the northern border city of Tijuana on suspicion of working with criminal gangs. The body of a 28-year-old man was dumped in an empty lot in the beach resort of Rosarito, outside Tijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Mexico Armando Rodriguez, a crime reporter in the border city of Juarez, was killed, adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where newspapers are so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence. With his death, 24 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, at least seven of them in direct reprisal for their reports on crime, and seven others have disappeared since 2005.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Mexico City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said that the government will start handing out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Mexico 2 bullet-ridden bodies were found at the foot of a monument in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, one of them partially stuffed into a large pot. Four scuba divers died while performing maintenance in an aqueduct that supplies Mexico City.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Mexico more than 1,500 demonstrators marched through the violence-plagued border city of Tijuana to protest the current of killings and kidnappings. Two people were shot to death at a Tijuana taco restaurant. 4 men and a woman were shot to death at a pool hall. A girl (14) and two men were shot down in a Tijuana street just before midnight.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, A Mexican newspaper's offices were damaged by two grenades in the violence-plagued city of Culiacan in northwestern Mexico.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Mexico Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters that Noe Ramirez, Mexico’s former drug czar, accepted $450,000 from drug traffickers, and that cartel leaders offered to pay him monthly for alerting them to planned police operations. In 2013 the case against Ramirez was dropped due to lack of evidence. In Tijuana 3 gunmen burst into the Bar Utopia, a bar popular with university students and opened fire. 2 men and a woman died instantly and 3 others died the next day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)(AP, 4/24/13)
2008 Nov 25, In Mexico 7 bodies were dumped before dawn at a school soccer field in the border city of Juarez.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 27, A sport utility vehicle carrying 8 people from Texas plunged off an unfinished bridge into a river in northern Mexico, causing the death of three adults and four children.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Mexico at least 12 masked gunmen opened fire inside a restaurant in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing eight.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon pledged to clean up corruption within his administration and vowed that his government would never negotiate with drug lords. The bodies of 9 decapitated men were found in a vacant lot in Tijuana, part of a wave of violence that claimed at least 23 lives over the weekend in this border city plagued by warring traffickers.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Guatemala Mexican and Guatemalan drug traffickers, arguing about a horse race in the rural border town of Santa Ana Huista, began a series of gunbattles in which 17 people died.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Mexico Tijuana's anti-corruption police chief was fired and replaced with an army officer, following three days of violence that left 37 people dead in this border city plagued by warring drug gangs. In southern Mexico Fabian Ramirez shot his 50-year-old mother in the back Monday, wounding her. He then allegedly killed three police officers who arrived at the scene, including Iguala's police chief. Police captured Ramirez, but four armed men broke into the jail and took him away by force. The next day Ramirez was found beheaded.
(AP, 12/1/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, The US government released the first part of a $400 million aid package to support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels. Jesus Martin Huerta, the No. 2 federal prosecutor in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, was shot dead.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay, Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Mexican soldiers found at least eight bodies buried in a shallow grave in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10 suspected drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles in southern Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican government Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico, killing two pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a federally owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Victor Hugo Moneda, a senior Mexico City police commander, was slain in a drive-by shooting outside his home. He had overseen raids in the capital's gang-filled Tepito neighborhood.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, Mexico's Congress voted to broaden police powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to use undercover agents and taped conversations as evidence in a bid to help them fight increasingly bloody drug cartels. In the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, soldiers detained 11 police officers from four towns for questioning on suspicion of aiding the Gulf drug cartel. In the northern city of Tijuana four bodies were found.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Mexico a shootout between rival gangs killed 10 people in Sinaloa state, home of the powerful cartel of the same name. US security consultant Felix Batista was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila state, while there to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom. He claimed to have helped resolve nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases.
(AP, 12/11/08)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 11, Esther Chavez, a women's rights activist, was named the winner of Mexico's National Human Rights Award. She first drew attention to the slayings of young women in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez in the early 1990s.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 11, Mexican soldiers shot to death Silvia Arzate (35), a pregnant woman, after she reportedly failed to stop at a highway checkpoint in the northern state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 14, In Mexico gunmen staged four attacks on police within a half-hour period, killing four officers in Ciudad Juarez, the border city overrun by drug violence.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Mexico 3 gunmen were killed following a shootout with army troops in the southern state of Guerrero.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 19, In northern Mexico a small plane carrying government officials and television reporters crashed in northern Mexico and all five people on board are in serious condition. The plane was carrying state water commission chief Rafael Reyes, his assistant and two TV Azteca reporters. They were hospitalized along with the pilot.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Mexican Authorities found the decapitated bodies of 12 men in the southern state of Guerrero, and some of the victims have been identified as soldiers.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 22, Laura Zuniga (23), a reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition. Soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in US currency.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 23, Mexican authorities in southern Chiapas state said 8 bodies were found stuffed in plastic garbage bags and dumped on a rural road near the Guatemalan border in an area plagued by drug violence.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexican soldiers arrested the deputy police chief in the resort town of Zihuatanejo and six other officers who were allegedly protecting drug cartel members at a cock fight. Soldiers also seized 59 packets of cocaine, 40 bags of marijuana and 20 assault rifles.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexico began blocking imports of meat from at least 30 US meat processing plants due to a new US law that required food retailers to label or display the country of origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of nuts. The law, effective as of Sep 30, was part of the 2008 Farm Bill.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 25, In Mexico, at least four people were killed in a gun battle between suspected drug traffickers in a remote mountain area of Sinaloa.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In Mexico a gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight. Dr. Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was staffing in Jalisco state. Police soon arrested Ricardo Garcia Barajas (25), a farm worker, who allegedly hacked the doctor to death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AP, 1/2/09)
2008 Dec 28, In Mexico 7 people were killed in a series of shootings in the border city of Tijuana over the last 2 days.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 31, Mexico sent 10 alleged drug smugglers to the United States, capping an already record year for extraditions between the two countries. 2 Canadian tourists were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after assailants opened fire at a nightclub in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Gabriel Zaid, Mexican writer, authored “The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter in an Age of Distraction."
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.E5)
2008 Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that all Mexicans have a "right to the free development of personality".
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.29)
2008 In Mexico drug related violence this year left 6,268 people dead. The killings were concentrated in just 3 states, and most of those in 3 cities: Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Tijuana in Baja California, and Culiacan in Sinaloa.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.30, 31)
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1998 Jan 2, Judge Maria Claudia Campuzano freed 5 suspects who were held in connection with the Dec 15 murder of John Peter Zarate. The judge claimed conflicting evidence as grounds for the release.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 5, Francisco Labastida took over as the chief of internal security after Emilio Chuayffet resigned under pressure from the Chiapas massacre.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 7, Chiapas Gov. Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro submitted his resignation due to the massacre in Acteal.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 12, Chiapas state police opened fire on stone-throwing Indian protestors and 1 woman was killed and 2 others wounded. The government said the army arrested 27 state police at the site of the shooting near Ocosingo. Separately Chiapas state police commander Felipe Vazquez Espinosa was indicted for helping arm the paramilitary gunmen of the Acteal massacre.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 24, Former Gen’l. Jorge Maldonado Vega was arrested for allegedly trying to arrange a pact between two of the largest drug cartels. Captain Rigoberto Silva Ortega was also charged.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.B12)
1998 Jan 28, Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa, a peasant organizer in Ocosingo, was gunned down in an ambush.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22)
1998 Jan 28, Federal police in Guerrero came upon the anti-kidnapping squad of Morelos with the tortured body of a 17-year-old member of a kidnapping gang. They suspected that the body was to be dumped and arrested the state officers that included Armando Martinez Salgado, chief of the squad.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 31, Three Indian villagers were found hanged in the Chiapas town of Ocosingo. Also Antonio Gomez Flores, an Ocosingo peasant leader, died when a truck smashed into his car as he left the funeral of Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22)
1998 Feb 9, It was reported that flash floods in Tijuana killed at least 13 people.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb, In Guadalajara Moises Padilla (33) was kidnapped and tortured with knives. He was left naked and bleeding with 68 wounds and told to "Stop saying bad things about the Servant of God." Padilla was a principal witness in charges against Samuel Joaquin Flores and his evangelical group the Light of the World."
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A8,10)
1998 Feb 26, The US certified Mexico as a fully cooperating partner in the war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb, Rodolfo Montiel and Bautista Martinez helped form the Organization of Peasant Ecologists of the Sierra of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan to stop logging and prevent consequent erosion.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.C4)
1998 Mar 3, Senator Layda Sansores discovered a government spy center in Campeche. 22 similar operations throughout the country were indicated by the records found.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 5, In Chiapas 46 prison inmates escaped after a labor group of taxi drivers marched into the Ocosingo jail in a protest demanding the release of some inmates and the withdrawal of government troops.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A13)
1998 Mar 14, The book "Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War" by Mexican scholar Jorge Castaneda was mentioned in connection with the recent death of Manuel Pineiro, spymaster of Cuba.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A19)
1998 Mar 20, A new law, the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 22, In Tijuana the national independent union, STIMAHCS, representing the workers of the Han Young auto parts factory, warned the company of a pending strike if negotiations were not fruitful.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 26, A mob in Huejutla lynched 2 suspected kidnappers after a judge ordered the 2 men freed on $600 bail. 30 residents were arrested in the lynching.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 27, Adrian Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal Judicial Police, was arrested on charges of being on the payroll of the Arellano Felix drug gang.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 29, Carol Janet Schlosberg, an American artist, was raped and beaten at Puerto Escondido. She was tossed into the Pacific and drowned. In 1999 Cirilo Olivera Lopez and Rosendo Marquez Gutierrez were convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C2)
1998 Mar, Pres. Zedillo issued a revised proposal of the 1996 San Andres Larrainzar accord on autonomy for indigenous people.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico began talking to reduce oil output. They pledged to take 2-3% of the world’s oil production off the market in what came to be called the Riyadh Pact.
(WSJ, 6/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 12, Authorities expelled 12 foreigners from Chiapas state saying they had engaged in activity in support of the Zapatista rebels. Two int’l. news photographers were beaten and police attempted to confiscate their film as they boarded a plane for Mexico City. The expelled group reported that they had witnessed a military operation to shut down a town council in Taniperlas, that was raided the previous day by 750 police and troops.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.C12)
1998 Apr 19, Octavio Paz (84), poet and essayist, died of cancer. His work included "The Labyrinth of Solitude" and the poem "Sun Stone."
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A17)(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 25, It was reported that an average of 20 tourists were attacked each day in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A8)
1998 May 5, A forest fire killed 19 firefighters and left 12 missing.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A1)
1998 May 8, Immigration authorities put a limit on human rights delegations to Chiapas. Groups of 10 people would only be allowed to stay 10 days.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 May 11, Mexico expelled 40 Italian human-rights activists, labeled as professional provocateurs, who spent 9 days in Chiapas and banned them from returning.
(WSJ, 5/12/98, p.A1)
1998 May 13, Impeachment procedures began for Jorge Carrillo Olea, governor of Morelos state.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A22)
1998 May 17, Mexico continued to suffer in its worst drought in 70 years. Some 50 people were reported to have died fighting fires caused by peasants clearing their fields.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A10)
1998 May 18, The US Customs Service ended a 3-year sting operation with the indictment of 3 Mexican banks and 107 people on charges of laundering millions of dollars for drug-smuggling cartels.
(SFC, 5/19/98, p.A1)
1998 May 21, In Cuernavaca, Mexico, police arrested the wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law of kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi Lopez. He was wanted for carrying out at least 18 bold and brutal kidnappings since 1996.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 May 22, In Tijuana the workers of the Han Young auto parts factory went on strike. An attempted strike break and political maneuverings by the company were unsuccessful and the case was to be put before a judge.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A10)
1998 May, The CFC began an investigation of the entire cement industry and after more than a year reported no absolute monopolistic behavior. Cement prices in Mexico were higher than in any other major global market.
(WSJ, 4/21/02, p.A12)
1998 Jun 2, The military leader of an anti-narcotics investigation was kidnapped and beaten by henchmen of Ramon Alcides Magana, aka El Metro. At the same time his office was robbed of evidence linking Yucatan Gov. Mario Villanueva Madrid to El Metro.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jun 3, Mexico announced that it would prosecute US customs officials for breaking numerous Mexican laws in the undercover Casablanca operation that was announced May 18.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 3, Chiapas Gov. Roberto Albores ordered a thousand police officers and soldiers into the town of Nicolas Ruiz where 141 people were arrested for supporting Zapatista rebels.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 4, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela agreed to cuts in oil production and exports for the 2nd time this year in order to raise prices.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 5, In Matamoros Salvador Gomez, a former policeman and drug cartel leader, was arrested.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 7, Army troops killed 11 leftist rebels of the EPR near Ayutla in Guerrero state. Another 5 were wounded and 21 were arrested. Erika Zamora Pardo, an EPR member, later testified that the guerrillas were shot when they surrendered with their hands up and that 12 were killed. She also testified that civilians trapped in a schoolhouse also tried to surrender, but that soldiers threw a fragmentation grenade in their midst.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A14)
1998 Jun 8, Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruiz resigned as chief mediator in peace negotiations with the Zapatista guerrillas. The committee that he led also resigned and accused the government of standing in the way of peace.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 10, In Mexico 9 people were killed in Chiapas when the army tried to retake control of El Bosque. 52 people were arrested.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 19, In Mexico the 37th annual US-Mexico Parliamentary Session opened.
(SFC, 6/22/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun, Adrian Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal Judicial Police, was allowed to travel to the US to testify. In Houston he told a grand jury that he had collected nearly $2 million in drug bribes in 1993-1994 and turned the money over to Mario Ruiz Massieu, who fled Mexico in 1995.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 5, Voters in Mexico elected governors in 10 states. The PRI won in Chihuahua with Patricio Martinez Garcia and in Durango. The PRD won in Zacatecas with Ricardo Monreal.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 7, Mexican courts ordered the attorney general’s office to rehire more than half the 826 agents dismissed 6 months ago for failed drug tests and alleged corruption.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 13, In Chiapas a technical junior high school in Oventic was inaugurated by Comandante Ezequiel and Peter Brown of the US. Brown was deported 2 weeks later for violating Mexican laws, i.e. building a school on a tourist visa.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 23, Three girls escaped capture by police in Mexico City. They had been held for 4 days and the two youngest were repeatedly raped. Sixteen officers were later arrested.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 2, Felipe Gonzalez of the National Action (PAN) led the lections in Aguascalientes.
(SFC, 8/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 3, It was reported that Mexico’s bill for preventing the collapse of its banking system in 1995 was up to $65 billion.
(SFC, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 12, Vincente Fox, governor of Guanajuato, announced plans to run for president in the year 2000 and to have every one of his state’s 4,500 communities provided with potable water, sewers, electricity, telephones and health services within a half hour for everyone.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 18, Near Mexico City police nabbed Daniel Arizmendi (39) and 9 others. Arizmendi was the leader of a kidnapping gang that sent the ears of victims to their families to pressure for ransom.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 22, Elena Garro (b. 1920), novelist, playwright and former wife of Octavio Paz, died at age 77. Her foremost novel was "Recuerdos del Porvenir" (Remembrances of the Future).
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.D4)
1998 Aug 24, Tropical Storm Charley dropped a foot of rain on South Texas and northern Mexico and left at least 14 people dead and over 60 missing.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug, The Tequila Express Train began running between Guadalajara and Tequila with a $40 round trip charge with complementary drinks.
(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A1)
1998 Sep 8, In Mexico a flood in Chiapas left 25 people dead and Gov. Roberto Albores Guillen declared a disaster zone along the Pacific Coast. 6 other people were confirmed dead from flooding in Veracruz and Jalisco.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 11, The death toll in Chiapas reached over 100 as 20,000 people were forced from their homes due to the flooding from Tropical Storm Javier. the toll grew to 162 and 450,000 were left homeless.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A2,C18)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A13)
1998 Sep 17, In Ensenada, Mexico, 20 people were shot and 18 were killed by gunmen. The victims included 8 children. Fermin Castro (38), aka "The Ice Man," was the principal target and leader of one of 6 gangs linked to the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Castro, a native Pai Pai Indian, was tortured before being shot and was in a coma. In Dec. Tijuana police arrested Hector Flores Esquivias and Cruz Medina Perez, the wife of gang leader Marinez Gonzalez. In 2008 US immigration officials in Los Angeles arrested Jesus Ruben Moncada (33), believed to be one of the Ensenada gunmen, and turned him over to Mexican authorities.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A13)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
1998 Sep 18, A secret, 269 page Swiss report asserted that Raul Salinas assumed control of practically all drug shipments in Mexico in 1988 when his brother became president.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 28, In central Mexico heavy rains caused mudslides in Mexico City that left 6 people dead in the squatter hillsides south of the city.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 1, In central Mexico a flooded irrigation canal killed 12 people when it washed away tin and cardboard homes along its banks.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)
1998 Oct 4, In Mexico the Indians of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas boycotted the elections in protest for the jailing of 5 men accused of murder. They were jailed a year ago during a dispute between Catholic and Protestant converts.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.a10)(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 4, Hector Teran, governor of Baja California and leader of the opposition National Action Party, died at age 67.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 10, Gustavo Petricioli Iturbe, a former treasury secretary and ambassador to the US, died at age 70.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.D10)
1998 Oct 13, A gas explosion in Tultepec killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens. The blast was related to the manufacture of illegal fireworks.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 18, The Zapatista rebels called for talks with the Cocopa group, a multi-party peace commission set up in 1994.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 20, In Switzerland officials announced that they seized over $90 million from Raul Salinas after an investigations revealed that the money was received for protecting drug shipments. Swiss authorities requested that Britain seize an additional $23.4 million deposited in England.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A protest was planned at the Mexican border against plans to put low-level radioactive waste at Sierra Blanca in Texas, 16 miles from the border. This appeared to be in violation of the 1983 La Paz Treaty in which the US and Mexico agreed to reduce pollution within 60 miles of their common frontier.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 22-1998 Nov 9, Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. Later reports put the death toll in Honduras to 6,076. In Nicaragua the deaths reached 4,000, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Nov 8, The PRI led gubernatorial elections in Puebla and Sinaloa but lost in Tlaxcala Alfonso Sanchez Anaya of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 11, Carlos Cabal Peniche (42), accused of making some $700 million in loans from his banks to companies he owned, was arrested in Melbourne, Australia. He had vanished in 1994 just days before his Grupo Financiera Cremi-Union was seized by the government for fraud and mismanagement.
(SFC, 11/12/98, p.C18)
1998 Nov 18, Frederick McPhail (27), a graduate student from NYU, was found dead in a car in Mexico City. In 1999 13 current and former police officers were arrested as suspects in a gang that robbed and kidnapped tourists. In 2000 6 former police officers received sentences as long as 98 years for the death of McPhail, whom they robbed and forced to drink a bottle of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A7)
1998 Nov 21, It was reported that hundreds of people had been evacuated from villages near Volcan de Fuego, which threatened to erupt within days.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 23, In Mexico City detectives arrested 44 city officers on charges that included, murder, rape, extortion and abuse of power under orders by Police Chief Alejandro Gertz Manero, who took office in August.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 14, In Mexico the Senate approved a new law that ended restrictions limiting foreign ownership of the nation’s top banks.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 14, In Chiapas 11 former officials were barred from holding public office for 10 years for failing to stop the Dec 1997 massacre of 45 unarmed Indians.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 16, Philip True (50), a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, was found dead in a remote mountain range between Jalisco and Nayarit states in Mexico. He went hiking the area Nov 29 to photograph and write about the Huichol Indians and apparently fell into a deep ravine. A coroner’s report later indicated that he had been strangled and dropped into the ravine. In 2002 an appeals court overturned the acquittal of 2 Huichol Indians, who were arrested with True’s camera and backpack. In 2005 Robert Rivard authored “Trail of Feathers: Searching for Philip True."
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D6)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A22)(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.M2)
1998 Dec 18, Fifty military officers marched in Mexico City decrying corruption and injustice and attempted to present Pres. Zedillo a letter calling for reform. The officers called themselves the Patriotic Command to Raise the Consciousness of the People.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 27, In Mexico 2 Huichol Indians, Juan Chivarrer Lopez and Miguel Hernandez de la Cruz, were arrested for the murder of reporter Philip True.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Aline Hernandez, former wife of Sergio Andrade, published "To Glory Through Hell," an account of public accusations of sexual abuse of young starlets against pop music star Gloria Trevi and her manager Sergio Andrade.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A9)
1998 Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1998 High lead levels amongst children living near the Met-Mex Penoles silver refinery at Torreon were found. Met-Mex dispatched cleaning equipment and set up a mobile clinic and agreed to put $6.6 million in a trust fund for cleanup and medical costs. The 5,000-worker plant is the world's largest producer of refined silver.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A24)
1999 Jan 6, In Mexico police chief Alejandro Gertz fired 6 of his top 8 subordinates for failing to reduce crime and corruption.
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 8, In Mexico City 5 dissident army officers of the Patriotic Command to Raise the People's Consciousness were arrested. They had tried to present Pres. Zedillo with a letter on Dec. 18 complaining of abuses of soldiers by army commanders.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 14, Mexican officials authorized the first extradition of a major drug suspect to the US. Jesus Amezcua faced federal indictments for methamphetamine smuggling in California. His brother Adan Amezcua was released from prison on May 19 after a judge found he had committed no crime.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A15)(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)
1999 Jan 21, Raul Salinas de Gortari was convicted and sentenced to 50 years for the 1994 assassination of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 22, Pope John Paul II began a 5-day pilgrimage to Mexico and St. Louis. He was greeted by Pres. Zedillo some 2 dozen official sponsors who would help defray the $2 million costs of the 4-day visit.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 25, Abecnego Monje Ortiz (18) was shot in the back by a DEA agent as he crossed the Rio Grande in an inner tube with 14 others near Eagle Pass, Texas. In 2001 the DEA agreed to pay Ortiz $1.75 million to help pay medical costs. The DEA agent was sentenced in 2000 to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A14)
1999 Jan 27, In Mexico Jorge Aguirre Meza (39), president of the Sinaloa state bar and a human rights activist, was shot to death in Novalato.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 1, Hector Alejandro Galindo, film director, died at age 93. He directed or scripted over 70 films and won at least 8 Ariels, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.A25)
1999 Feb 2, Gov. Gray Davis on a visit to Mexico disclosed an agreement to get Mexico's leading telecommunications firm to relocate its US headquarters from Houston to San Diego. He negotiated the deal with Telmex chairman Carlos Slim Helu.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, Gov. Davis met with Fernando Canales Clariond, governor of Nuevo Leon, and witnessed a "Direct Line" meeting between the governor and citizens seeking direct action.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A2)
1999 Feb 4, The Mexican government revealed a new high-tech strategy against drug trafficking.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 7, The state governorship election in Baja California Sur elected Leonel Cota of the PRD to a landslide victory. The PRD lost in Guerrero and clamed fraud and campaign spending violations.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 10, In Mexico 4 armed seized teacher Roberto Mejia Guzman from a classroom at San Pedro Petlacala and killed him.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A18)
1999 Feb 14, Pres. Clinton traveled to Merida, Mexico, for talks with Pres. Ernesto Zedillo.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, President Clinton continued his whirlwind visit to Mexico, where he conferred with President Ernesto Zedillo. Clinton and Pres. Zedillo signed several accords on economic measures and the drug war.
(AP, 2/15/04)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Mexico armed men kidnapped Alvaro Campos, the father of soccer star Jorge Campos, near Acapulco. Campos was released after 6 days.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A15)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 22, Governor elections in Quintana Roo, Mexico, were held to replace Gov. Mario Villanueva, whose term was scheduled to end Apr 5. Federal authorities wished to charge the governor with drug money laundering, but he was immune while holding office. His Swiss bank account was said to hold $73 million. The PRI won the statehouse with just over 43% of the vote. In Hidalgo the PRI took the governorship with a 50% of the vote. Joaquin Hendricks won the election in Quintana Roo.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A23)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A14)(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 22, From Mexico it was reported that fisherman found 9 dead gray whales in the Magdalena Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 26, Mexico was certified as a US partner in the drug war by Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 27, Brazilian poet Haraldo de Campos (b.1929) won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing. His major works include "Chess Game of the Stars" and "The Education of the Five Senses."
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1999 Mar 3, The PRI announced that it would elect its candidate for year 2000 in a primary instead of the traditional "dedazo," i.e. presidential appointment.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C5)
1999 Mar 10, In Mexico a power failure at the Penitas hydroelectric plant cause a blackout across the Yucatan for several hours.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 12, The Mexican environmental Group of 100 reported a record number of dead gray whales near the Baha California peninsula. The ESSA salt works, a Mitsubishi-Mexican partnership, was blamed. Government officials proposed other reasons.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 14, The PRD held party elections, which were later revoked due to vote-rigging and corruption.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A4)
1999 Mar 19, Jaime Sabines (72), poet and politician, died. He served as a congressman for the PRI from 1976-1979 and in 1988.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A21)
1999 Mar 24, Fernando Hernandez Leyva was arrested near Cuernavaca for the suspected murders of some 137 people, 6 kidnappings and robberies. He was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of a former police officer.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Mar 27, Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva vanished 9 days before he was to leave office. In May 2001 he was arrested by Mexican police in Cancun.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A1,8)
1999 Mar 29, Two of the largest banks agreed to plead guilty to laundering millions of dollars for the Cali and Juarez drug cartels. Bancomer will pay $9.9 million in fines while Banca Serfin will pay $4.7 million.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F2)
1999 Mar 29, Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva failed to appear before anti-drug authorities in Mexico City and it was suspected that he had gone into hiding.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A14)
1999 Mar, Five Juarez bus drivers were charged with the murders of some 20 women. They all confessed but most later retracted their statements saying they were tortured by police.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A17)
1999 Apr 1, Effective on this day the midday break, siesta, for government was eliminated. Electricity savings were estimated to be $192 million.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C2)
1999 Apr 1, In Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Rene Juarez was sworn into office as governor while thousands protested that he won by fraud.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Apr 6, Jorge Madrazo, Attorney Gen'l. of Mexico, called for the arrest of former Gov. Mario Villanueva and over 100 public officials in Quintana Roo for narcotics corruption with the Juarez cartel.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.A12)
1999 Apr 20, Students at the National Univ. in Mexico City (UNAM) went on strike to protest a proposed increase in the cost of education from 2 cents to $200 per year. The majority of students did not support the strike but radical students forced the closure of classes and increased their demands with a call for the return of an 'Automatic promotion" rule that would give Univ. access regardless of academic performance.
(WSJ, 6/11/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 23, A truck with 55 passengers plunged into a ravine killing 46 people, 28 of them children from the hamlet of Chiquixvil in Chiapas.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.A9)
1999 May 2, Rodolfo Montiel, a peasant leader in a struggle to protect the forests of the southern Sierra Madre, was arrested, tortured and jailed on trumped-up drug and weapons charges for his battle against US and local logging companies. Teodoro Cabrera was also arrested. Pres. Fox ordered the release of Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on Nov 8, 2001.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A20)
1999 May 12, It was reported that a drought in northern Mexico was entering its 5th year and the governor of Sonora said that his state had only a 25 day supply of water.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A11)
1999 May 17, The PRI approved new party rules to select its presidential candidate in primary elections.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A1,11)
1999 May 18, Pres. Zedillo of Mexico planned a 3-day visit to California.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, The northern states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango and Sinaloa were declared disaster areas due to the ongoing drought.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)
1999 May, Jorge Castenada published "The Inheritance," an account of how the last 5 Mexican presidents named their successors.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A21)
1999 May, Altos Hornos de Mexico SA (Ahmsa) faced $2.4 billion in debt and filed for bankruptcy. The large steel maker company was taken private in 1991 by Alonso Ancira and Xavier Autrey. Ahmsa employed 17,000 people and accounted for almost 30% of the business activity in Coahuila state.
(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 1, Mexico planned to introduce a $15 per person entry fee for travel into the country beyond the border.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A21)
1999 Jun 7, In Mexico City Francisco "Paco" Stanley Albaitero (56), a popular TV and radio personality, was shot to death after leaving a restaurant. A parking attendant was also killed and 3 people were wounded by unknown gunmen. Traces of cocaine were later found in Stanley's car. Stanley was later reported to be in big debt to drug lord Luis Ignacio Amezcua Contreras, who ordered his murder. Stanley's sidekick, Mario Rodriguez Bezares, was indicted for the murder along with Contreras and Paola Durante (23), an aspiring actress.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C2)(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/22/00, p.A1)
1999 Jun 15, A 6.7 earthquake killed at least 12 people in Puebla. The death toll rose to 19 and 4,000 people were forced from their homes.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A12)(SFC, 6/18/99, p.D3)
1999 Jun 29, In Mexico City armed gunmen stole a $50,000 military payroll and killed an army colonel and a lieutenant 2 blocks from the residence of Pres. Zedillo.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 4, In Mexico City elections for governor were scheduled. Arturo Montiel (55), a PRI former congressman, faced Jose Luis Duran (38), a PAN mayor of Naucalpan. PRI candidate Arturo Montiel defeated Jose Luis Duran of the National Action Party. In Nayarit Antonuio Echeverria, a coalition candidate, led a victory over the PRI.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 6, It was reported that Angel Salvador "El Chava" Gomez, leader of the Gulf drug cartel, was killed execution style.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 16, A judge cut the 50 year prison sentence of Raul Salinas in half and a Swiss court overturned the seizure of his stashed fortune, though the money remained frozen pending further investigation.
(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A11)
1999 Aug 27, US prosecutors detailed a 25-count narcotics and money laundering indictment against former deputy attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 15, In New Jersey Mario Ruiz Massieu (48), former Mexican official indicted on drug charges, committed suicide. He left a suicide note that implicated Pres. Zedillo in the 1994 killing of his brother and presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.
(SFC, 9/16/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 22, The FBI hit a big Mexican drug ring, formerly run by Amado Carillo Fuentes, with 93 arrests in the US and the Dominican Republic.
(WSJ, 9/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 25, From Mexico it was reported that assaults on trucks had increased from 350 in 1993 to an estimated 40,000 a year.
(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 26, In Mexico 63 people were killed in a series of explosions in the city of Celaya, 120 miles northwest of Mexico City. Powder from fireworks was blamed. Three government officials were later arrested for abetting illegal sales of fireworks and officials seized some 14 tons of gunpowder. 6 government officials and 7 business owners were later arrested in connection with the explosion.
(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 26, In Coahuila PRI candidate Enrique Martinez won 60% of the vote and PRI mayors won in the cities of Saltillo, Torreon, Piedras Negras and Monclova.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.C16)
1999 Sep 28, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas stepped down as mayor of Mexico City to launch his 3rd bid for the presidency.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep 29, Rosario Robles was sworn in as the first female mayor of Mexico City.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)
1999 Sep 30, A 7.5 slab earthquake was centered in Oaxaca state and killed 12 people. The death toll rose to 20 and 3,850 buildings were reported damaged.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.A14)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A12)(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A15)
1999 Oct 5, Flooding from Tropical Depression No. 11 killed at least 83 people in ten states including 42 in Puebla after 7 rivers overflowed following heavy rains. The death toll soon reached at least 342. A large mudslide in Teziutlan left 72 confirmed dead and 30 people missing. The Catholic Church expected the toll to reach near 600.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A16)(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15)(SFC, 10/8/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A10)(SFC, 10/11/99, p.A12)(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 7, The Nahuatl village of Acalana was buried under a collapsed mountain killing all but 30 people. As many as 200 people had lived there.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 18, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, an explosion in a candy store that sold illegal fireworks killed at least 5 people.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct 22, Police arrested Jacobo Silva Nogales (41), aka Comandante Antonio, leader of the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People, ERPI.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B2)
1999 Oct 23, The first monarch butterflies arrived at sanctuaries in Michoacan in their annual migration.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)
1999 Oct 24, In Guadalajara Victor Castaneda Casas was detained for his alleged role in the kidnapping of an 18-year-old. He died in the attorney general's office after receiving 40 blows to the head, 2 broken ribs and a burst lung. Police denied any torture.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B3)
1999 Oct 30, Police reported that Juan Jose Quintero Payan (57), a Juarez Cartel boss, was arrested in Guadalajara.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 1, Mexico announced plans to increase its border deposit for US registered vehicles from $11 to as much as $800 for new models for travel beyond the 15-mile border zone.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 7, Francisco Labastida, the PRI candidate, led the presidential primary elections far ahead of Roberto Madrazo. Labastida (57) won 272 of the 300 districts.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 9, A TAESA DC-9 jet exploded in flight near Uruapan and all 18 people onboard were killed.
(SFC, 11/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 23, Mexico suspended the operations of Taesa Airline.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C5)
1999 Nov 24, Mexico and the EU agreed on terms for a free trade treaty.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 29, Authorities worked with a US FBI team to unearth as many as 100 bodies of disappeared Mexicans and Americans near Ciudad Juarez. Drug traffickers were believed responsible. By Dec 7 eight bodies were recovered. Nine bodies were discovered after 3 weeks and initial estimates were deemed in error. In 2000 Vicente Carillo Fuentes, believed to be in charge of all drug trafficking in Ciudad Juarez, was charged with killing 10 people in the area.
(SFC, 11/30/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 12/18/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A18)
1999 Dec 1, Border deposits of as much as $800 for US registered cars began.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A18)
1999 Dec 2, Pres. Zedillo suspended the controversial border car-deposit program under angry opposition.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.D5)
1999 Dec 10, Masked men with guns attacked a prison in Chiapas and 44 of 239 inmates fled and a 5-month old child, whose mother was visiting her husband, was killed.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 14, A passenger bus collided head-on with a gas truck and at least 26 people were killed near Salvatierra in Guanajuato.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.B3)
1999 Ricardo Salinas Pliego used Mexico’s TV Azteca to fund cellphone start-up Unefon SA, despite assuring shareholders that he would not use the company to fund outside ventures.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2000 Jan 13, In Brazil Mexican singer Gloria Trevi was arrested with her manager Sergio Andrade and Maria Raquenal Portillo on Mexican charges of corrupting Karina Yapor (17). Trevi became pregnant in May and rape was suspected. Brasilia federal police chief Paulo Magalhaes was removed from his post in October.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A10)(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
1999 Manuel Gonzales published "Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States."
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.10)
1999 The documentary film "A Place Called Chiapas" was directed by Canadian Nettie Wild.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.E3)
2000 Jan 5, A student takeover of the El Mexe Rural Teachers College began in Tepatepec, Hidalgo.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 20, It was reported that the TV soap "The Candidate" used significant political events of the day as part of its show segments.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan-Mar, Some 2,300 head of cattle died on 92 ranches in Chiapas from rabies due to vampire bats.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 1, In Mexico 171 radical students were arrested in a skirmish with anti-strike students and security forces at a university-affiliated high school in Mexico City.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D5)
2000 Feb 1, In Chiapas 3 supporters of the Zapatista rebels were killed in an ambush at Chavajebal. Paramilitary supporters of the government were suspected.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D8)
2000 Feb 6, In Mexico City police raided the main campus of the university and arrested some 632 striking students including 8 student leaders.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 19, People in Tepatepec, Hidalgo, captured at least 65 policemen after state police raided the El Mexe Rural Teachers College. The police were later freed after the release of hundreds of students and supporters.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 21, Nicolas Caletri (44), kidnapping mastermind, was captured in southern Oaxaca.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.C1)
2000 Feb 27, In Tijuana municipal police chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez (49) was shot to death by assassins who sprayed his car with over 100 bullets.
(SFC, 2/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 8, Police announced that 6 suspects were arrested for the slaying of a police chief in Tijuana and 14 other people. The suspects were reported to be acting as hit men under orders from Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of a drug trafficker in Sinaloa.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 8, Juan Manuel Izabal, a top aide to the attorney general, was found dead from suicide. A stash of $700,000 was also found.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 12, Police captured Jesus Labra, leader of the Arellano Felix drug organization at a soccer game in Tijuana.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.11)
2000 Mar 15, Gustavo Galvez Reyes (32), the lawyer for Jesus Labra, was found slain in southern Mexico City. Labra, a Tijuana businessman and uncle of the Arellano Felix brothers, was in jail on narcotics charges.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C1)
2000 Apr 5, Rodolfo Montiel, an imprisoned peasant leader, was awarded the $125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts to protect the forests of the Sierra Madre.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 13, In Mexico 7 people died in a train carrying illegal immigrants from Central America in a bid to enter the US. 46 people were hospitalized from suffocating conditions.
(WSJ, 4/14/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr, The population reached 100 million this year.
(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr, Three Mexican special agents, probing the Arellano Felix cartel, were found killed along the Rumorosa Highway between Tijuana and Mexicali. In October 3 former federal police officers were arrested for the killing.
(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A12)
2000 May 3, Police arrested Ismael Higuera Guerrero, a senior member of the Arellano Felix drug gang, along with his son (15) and 8 others near Ensenada.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A15)
2000 May 11, Mexico reached a free-trade agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.D2)
2000 Jun 15, US federal agents made over 170 arrests in the breakup of a Mexican heroin ring based in Nayarit state. The US-based ringleader, Oscar Hernandez (35), and his wife, Maria Lopez (39), were arrested in Panorama City. Operation Tar Pit began last October in San Diego.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A5)
2000 Jun 16, American expatriates Norris (67) and Nancy (62) Price were found shot to death in Ajijic near Guadalajara. A land dispute was suspected.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun, In the weeks before the presidential elections Pemex illegally gave $120 million to its union which in turn turned it over to the PRI to help finance the campaign. It was later suspected that some or all of the money was diverted to private pockets.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A17)
2000 Jul 2, In Mexico Vincente Fox (58) and his national Action Party (PAN) claimed victory over the ruling PRI. This ended the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s 71-year reign. In 2004 Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon authored "Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy."
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/3/00, p.A8)(AP, 7/2/01)(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.M1)
2000 Jul 3, The elections showed 42.7% for Vincente Fox, 35.8% for Labastida, and 16.5% for Cardenas.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A11)
2000 Jul 4, President-elect Vincente Fox promised to fight corruption, to restart talks with the Zapatista rebels, and to strip the Interior Ministry of all functions but those involving political relations between the federal and state governments.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 10, In Mexico Augustin Vasquez Mendoza was arrested in Tehuacan. In 2005 he was extradited from Mexico to the United States to stand trial for his role in the murder of DEA Special Agent Richard Fass in Glendale, Arizona, on June 30, 1994.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A10)(http://crime.about.com/b/a/145527.htm)
2000 Jul 22, Mexican women staged a one-day strike, more symbolic than massive, over housework.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B16)
2000 Jul 31, Aides of Vincente Fox announced plans to transform the police and judiciary and to demilitarize the anti-narcotics programs.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 4, Ildefonso Salido Ibarra, owner of the El Debate newspaper, was kidnapped in Sinaloa state. He was released after 4 days.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/25oh9b)
2000 Aug 18, Fifteen people were killed when violence broke out during the inauguration of Mayor Jesus Tolentino in Chimalhuacan, a suburb of Mexico City and part of the area known as the misery belt. Tolentino defeated Guadalupe Buendia a PRI cacique (power broker). Buendia supporters battled with Antorcha Popular (Popular Torch), widely regarded as a paramilitary movement. [see Aug 27]
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 20, In Chiapas Pablo Salazar, an ally of Vincente Fox, was elected governor over Sami David of the PRI 57% to 42%.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 24, Pres. Clinton met with Pres.-elect Vincente Fox of Mexico. Fox promoted his ideas on an open border.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 27, Guadalupe Buendia, the defeated PRI mayor of Chimalhuacan known as the "She Wolf," was arrested for the earlier attack on a rival faction that killed 15 people. She had also reportedly emptied the city treasury. Buendia was the founder of the Organizacion de Pueblos y Colonias (OPC), an organization of villages and neighborhoods, and drew support from thousands of housewives and municipal workers.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 28, Rodolfo Montiel, winner of a 2000 Goldman environmental prize for fighting rampant deforestation, was convicted on drugs and weapons charges and sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in jail. Human rights groups allege that he was tortured and that the charges were trumped up.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 31, Retired Gen. Francisco Hermosillo and Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro were arrested for collaborating with the Juarez drug cartel.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 1, Pres. Zedillo gave his last State of the Nation address.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 5, Cuco Sanchez, singer, actor and composer, died at age 79.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.D5)
2000 Oct 6, In Reynosa, Mexico, a DC932 plane with 83 passengers overran a runway and crashed into a group of homes and then a canal. 6 people walking along the canal were killed.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 20, In Mexico City a fire at the Lohobombo salsa club killed at least 19 people.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 22, Manuel Andrade (PRI) was declared the winner of the governor’s race in Tabasco by 8,000 votes over Raul Ojeda. A federal court overturned the victory. New elections were held in 2001.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A16)(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
2000 Nov, Some 50,000 unionized sugar-mill workers went on a nation-wide strike. The industry was antiquated and in deep debt following years of PRI subsidies.
(WSJ, 11/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, Pres. Vicente Fox assumed office.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 2, In Chiapas Subcommander Marcos announced that he would begin talks with the government in Mexico City in Feb.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 5, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the new chief of the national security council, vowed to end illegal wiretapping.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 5, In Mexico City Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador took office as mayor and vowed to delegate power and resources down to the 1,352 neighborhood governments. Obrador appointed women to 9 of his 15 cabinet seats.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 6, Pres. Fox submitted a tight $142 billion budget.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C9)
2000 Dec 15, Pres. Fox planned to be at border crossings to receive Mexicans returning home for the holidays. He planned to reduce or eliminate blackmailing and cheating by border guards.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 17, Thousands were ordered to evacuate the area around the Popocatepetl volcano due to the formation of a lava dome.
(WSJ, 12/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 18, Popocatepetl volcano began spraying hot rock and ashes in its biggest eruption in 1200 years.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A22)
2000 Dec 19, In Mexico over 30,000 people were evacuated from the area of the Popocatepetl volcano as the volcano resumed activity.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 22, In Mexico the army closed a base in Chiapas and continued to pull troops from the region.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 28, Congress voted to register millions of 2nd hand vehicles imported illegally in past years.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.B3)
2000 Dec 29, Congress approved a $140 million budget.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A10)
2000 Dec 29, A court ruled that the governor’s race in Tabasco was fatally marred and called for new elections.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A8)
2000 Dec 30, In Chiapas the head prosecutor freed 17 jailed Zapatista rebels.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 30, The legislature of Tabasco state amended the state constitution to delay the elections for 18 months.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 31, Pres. Fox ordered a 2nd military base closed in Chiapas.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2000 Dec 31, The outgoing Tabasco state Congress named Enrique Priego as acting governor.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2000 Dec, In Oaxaca state dozens of hooded men dressed in black stormed into the town of Nazareno de Etla and announced a "New Revolution." They called themselves the Armed Forces of the People’s Revolution (FARP).
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A16)
2000 Carlos Fuentes authored his novel "The Years with Laura Diaz," a chronicle of the 20th century through the eyes of a Mexican woman.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, BR p.3)
2000 Carlos Salinas, a former president, authored "Mexico: A Difficult Step Toward Modernity." Salinas blamed his successor Ernesto Zedillo, for Mexico’s 1995 financial crises.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A12)
2000 Imprisoned Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo contributed several chapters to the book "Always Near, Always Far: The Armed Forces in Mexico," which included proposed military reforms.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D3)
2000 The Mexican film “Amores Perros," a gritty tale of dogs, crime and violence, was produced.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.46)
2000 In Mexico Alberto Patishtan was arrested for the murder of seven policemen, who were killed in an ambush in Chiapas state. Although he denied committing the crime, he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. On Oct 31, 2013, he was released under a pardon by President Enrique Pena Nieto after the government found evidence the teacher's rights had been abused.
(Reuters, 10/31/13)
2000 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the Mexican tequila producer Viuda de Romero.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2001 Jan 1, In Tabasco opposition legislators from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party rejected the interim governor chosen the previous day by the outgoing legislature with a violent brawl.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 1, In Mexico rebels soon called for the closure all 7 military bases near rebel strongholds.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, In Acapulco 8 armed men charged into the home of journalist Jorge Torres Palacios and killed his father, brother and cousin. Police sought Abel Arizmendi Flores, the top elected official from the reporter’s village.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 2, In Tabasco opposition legislators elected a 2nd interim governor, Adan Lopez, sec.-gen. of the state PRI.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 10, The government shut down a 3rd military base in Chiapas.
(SFC, 1/11/01, p.A14)
2001 Jan 11, In Tabasco Adan Augusto Lopez stepped aside as governor and agreed to recognize rival Enrique Priego.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A18)
2001 Jan 17, Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez was wounded by a shot from Victoria Loya, a former police officer.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 18, The Supreme Court ruled 10-1 to allow the extradition to the US of 2 drug traffickers.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 19, Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka "El Chapo," escaped from the maximum-security prison in Jalisco state. Leonardo Beltran, the prison director, and 30 officers were detained for possible involvement in the cocaine trafficker’s escape. 78 people were later implicated.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 30, Rodolfo Morales, Oaxacan artist, died at age 75.
(SFC, 2/2/01, p.D7)
2001 Feb 2, Mexico agreed to sell a small amount of power to California.
(SFC, 2/3/01, p.A8)
2001 Feb 3, Mexico followed Canada and the US in a ban on beef from Brazil due to fears of mad cow disease.
(WSJ, 2/5/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 6, A trade tribunal ordered the US to allow Mexican trucks to cross the border following a NAFTA arbitration process.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 9, Pres. Fox inaugurated a $50 million aid plan for Chiapas. Yucatan’s PRI Gov. Victor Cervera refused to accept a state electoral commission.
(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A18)
2001 Feb 15, Hooded gunmen shot and killed 12 villagers in the village of Limoncito de Ayala in Sinaloa state.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.D2)
2001 Feb 16, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Fox in Mexico. They announced a joint agenda to expand trade, protect immigrant rights and reduce drug trafficking.
(SFC, 2/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 22, Jose Juarez Rosales (24) was arrested in Dallas for alleged multiple sexual assaults and murders in Ciudad Juarez.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A17)
2000 Feb 24, Zapatista rebel leader Subcommander Marcos began a 2,000-mile caravan to Mexico City to lobby for Indian rights.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 27, Some 30 protesters were injured and another 30 arrested near the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Cancun.
(SFC, 2/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb, It was reported that millions of monarch butterflies had died at a hilltop reserve in Michoacan. Insecticides were suspected while officials blamed cold weather.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.C6)
2001 Mar 11, Some 100,000 supporters filled the square of Mexico City as the Zapatista rebels arrived. "We are here to shout for and to demand democracy, liberty and justice."
(SFC, 3/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 12, The Fox administration announced its " Plan Puebla-Panama," an effort to close the economic gap between the north and poorer south.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 12, Zapatista rebels invaded the Naha nature preserve in southern Chiapas, home of Lacandon Indians, and took over some 250 acres of the 7,500-acre preserve.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 21, Pres. Vicente Fox arrived in California for his 1st foreign trip as President of Mexico. He appealed to Gov. Davis to allow Mexicans in California greater access to doors of opportunity.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 22, The Chamber of Deputies voted to allow Zapatista leaders to speak before an informal session of Congress.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D2)
2001 Mar 28, Zapatistas told the Mexican legislature that the military phase of their struggle was over and that political efforts would take precedence.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 3, US agents seized over 7 tons of marijuana from a tractor-trailer at the Tijuana border. It was believed to be the largest seizure along the US-Mexican border and was valued at $12.1 million.
(SFC, 4/5/01, p.A4)
2001 Apr 5, Brig. Gen. Ricardo Martinez was arrested with aides Capt. Pedro Maya and Lt. Javier Quevedo on drug trafficking charges.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 19, There was an execution style slaying of 8 peasants of the Fray Bartolome Alliance in the Chiapas village of Canalucum. [see Jun 25]
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Apr 21, Humberto Iribe Monroy (26) was arrested as a suspect in the Tijuana slayings of 2 US citizens, a 1998 killing of an American investigator, and the July murder of the son of singer Beatriz Adriana Flores.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 28, The Congress approved broad constitutional reforms granting autonomy and other rights to millions of indigenous people.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 30, Zapatista rebels broke off contact with the government due to the watered down Indian rights legislation.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.A9)
2001 May 3, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Fox of Mexico and discussed temporary visas for Mexican workers and plans for long-range energy development.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)
2001 May 4, In Putla, Oaxaca, Fidel Bautista Guerrero (33), a Mixtec Indian, was shot to death. He had organized Indian farmers to conserve forests. The killers were pursued to the ranch of timber baron Efrain Cruz Bruno and 8 men with AK 47s and other rifles were arrested.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.A10)
2001 May 17, It was reported that the Mexican government would provide survival kits to citizens planning to cross into the US illegally.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A1)
2001 May 23, In Arizona 12 illegal Mexican immigrants were found dead due to dehydration. 2 more were found dead the next day. In 2002 Jesus Lopez-Ramos, one of 3 smugglers, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In 2004 Luis Alberto Urrea authored "The Devil's Highway: A True Story," about the ill-fated crossing.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.M2)
2001 May 27, In gubernatorial elections in Yucatan Patricio Patron of the National Action Party led Orlando Paredes of the PRI.
(SFC, 5/28/01, p.B12)
2001 May 29, In Mexico City Jesus Ignacio Carrola Gutierrez, a former director of the judicial police, was found slain execution-style with his 2 brothers. Carrola had resigned in 1997 under pressure of alleged links to drug traffickers and human rights abuses by police under his command.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A12)
2001 May, Mexican police in Cancun arrested former Quintana Roo Gov. Mario Villanueva, who had vanished in 1999 just prior to the end of his term.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A1,8)
2001 Jun 12, Alcides Ramon Magana, former federal police officer and drug kingpin, was arrested in Villahermosa.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 15, Mexico’s Pres. Fox launched his Plan Puebla-Panama aimed at helping the poorer south and the poor countries of Central America. The program was launched June 15, but by 2007 only $4.5 billion of a projected $50 billion had been invested. In 2007 Pres. Calderon re-launched the program.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.41)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Puebla_Panama)
2001 Jun 22, The US and Mexico unveiled a new border safety pact with measures to prevent migrants from crossing at deadly transit points and planned to equip US agents with nonlethal weapons.
(SFC, 6/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 22, Ron Lavender (75), an Iowa-born real estate agent, was kidnapped in Acapulco. A ransom of $2.5 million was demanded. Lavender was released Oct 16 and refused to file a criminal complaint.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2001 Jun 25, In Chiapas some 300 police officers arrested 13 members of the leftist House of the People. They were suspected to be connected to the Apr 19 slaying of 8 peasants of the Fray Bartolome Alliance.
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Jul 2, Mexican President Vicente Fox married his spokeswoman and long-time love, Martha Sahagun, a year to the day after his election victory.
(AP, 7/2/02)
2001 Jul 5, The Security Ministry reported that Mexico’s police solved only 8% of the nation’s crimes.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 18, Congress gave final approval to an Indian rights law that was opposed by many Indian organizations.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A17)
2001 Jul 25, Carlos Pacheco Beltran was lynched in the Magdalena Petlacalpo neighborhood of Mexico City after trying to steal from the neighborhood church.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 2, Carlos Natividad Garibay (21), a suspected thief, died of skull injuries In Guadalajara after being beaten by shopkeepers.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 3, Banamex was acquired by Citigroup in a $12.5 billion deal.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 5, New governor elections were held in Tabasco with Manuel Andrade facing Raul Ojeda. Early results gave the victory to Andrade of the PRI.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)(SFC, 8/7/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 8, In Mexico City branches of Banamex were bombed. Police later arrested 5 alleged members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP).
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 22, Maria A. Caraveo of Brownsville was found shot to death with her 3 children, aged 9-13, outside Guadalajara. Police searched for Benito Martin Mar, Caraveo’s husband.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 30, On the Int’l. Day of the Disappeared relatives of some of the 500 people who disappeared from 1970 to 2000 filed a criminal complaint against the last 5 presidents.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.D6)
2001 Sep 1, Pres. Fox gave his 1st state-of-the-union address. He asked for more time to live up to promises and appealed to Congress for help.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 3, The government announced the expropriation of 27 of 60 privately owned sugar mills from some $110 million. All were on the brink of bankruptcy.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 4, The US and Mexico agreed on small measures to improve food safety, enhance law enforcement and fight money laundering as Pres. Fox came to visit with Pres. Bush.
(SFC, 9/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Sep 5, Maria de los Angeles Tames, attorney and daughter of a former senator, was killed. On Mar 5, 2002, Juan Antonio Dominguez, mayor of Atizapan, was arrested in connection with the slaying of the city council member, who had planned to reveal evidence of corruption and drug trafficking. On Apr 10, 2002 Dominguez and his former chief of staff Daniel Garcia were charged with masterminding the murder.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/12/02, p.A1)
2001 Sep 12, In Mexico a twin-engine LET 410 plane crashed in the Yucatan and all 19 people aboard were killed. The 16 passengers were all Seattle-area tourists on a Holland America cruise.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C3)(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 Oct 19, Digna Ochoa (38), a prominent human rights lawyer, was found shot to death in Mexico City. She was shot once in the left leg and again in the head. In 2003 a prosecutor said her death was a probable suicide.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A22)(AP, 7/19/03)
2001 Oct 22, The government selected a site in the lake Texcoco area for a new $2.3 billion airport for Mexico City. The decision had been deferred since 1968.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 30, Felipe Santander (68), playwright, died in Ocotepec. His work included "El Extensionista."
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A23)
2001 Oct, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that life in prison, or any term without guaranteed parole, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the constitution.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.A1)
2001 Nov 6, Authorities in Ciudad Juarez found the bodies of 3 young women. 5 more bodies were found the next day. Mexican authorities later built a somber memorial of concrete benches, a circular water fountain also made of concrete and a cement plaque with the names of the eight victims. The families of three of the women appealed in 2003 for the court, which is a body of the Organization of American States, to take up the case. On Nov 7, 2011, Mexico's government publicly apologized for failing to prevent the killings of the three women and for the negligence of officials in investigating the crimes.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A19)(AP, 11/7/11)
2001 Nov 11, Lazaro Cardena of the leftist PRD won 42% of the votes for governor in Michoacan state vs. 37% Alfredo Anaya of the PRI.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 27, The Nat’l. Human Rights Commission issued a 3,000 page report that acknowledged at least 275 leftists disappeared while in government hands during the 1970s. The names of 74 officials implicated in the forced disappearances were not made public.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 3, Gov. Davis of California met with Pres. Fox and Mexican legislators in Mexico City to discuss economic solutions on mutual interests.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 3, Juan Jose Arreola (83), nationalist author, died. His work included "La Feria" (1962).
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)
2001 Jorge Emilio Gonzalez took over leadership of Mexico’s Green Party from his father.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A10)
2002 Jan 3, Juan Garcia Esquivel, pianist and composer, died at age 83. He turned out 10 albums in the US from 1957-1963.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 6, It was reported that Mexico had a national service program that required participation by all university graduates and that medical students were required to work in disadvantaged communities for one year before being licensed.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 12, Amparo Montes (Amparo Meza Cruz), boleros singer, died in Mexico City. She was 77-81 years old.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.B5)
2002 Jan 12-13, A rain storm was followed by a freeze and as many as 270 million monarch butterflies were killed at the Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies in Michoacan state.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A4)(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 18, Feliz Alonso Fernandez Garcia, editor of the weekly Nueva Opcion magazine, was shot and killed after filing a report that linked former mayor Raul Rodriguez Barrera and drug traffickers.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 19, Federal officials froze the bank accounts 9 current and former executive of Petroleos Mexicano in a $120 million corruption scheme tied to the PRI.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 3, In Cuba Fidel Castro met with Pres. Fox of Mexico.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 4, In Havana Pres. Fox of Mexico met with 7 prominent dissidents.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 10, Sinaloa state police reportedly shot and killed drug boss Ramon Felix Arellano (37).
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A12)
2002 Feb 24, In Mexico City the PRI held its 1st ever open election for party leadership.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 4, The PRI named Roberto Madrazo, former gov. of Tabasco, as its new leader.
(WSJ, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 8, In Mexico Ines Fernandez and Valentina Rosendo, two indigenous Me'phaa women from the state of Guerrero, reported that they had been raped and tortured by members of the Mexican Army. Since then, they have been subject to a constant stream of threats to keep them from speaking about the incidents. On Dec 15, 2011, Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire offered what he called "the most sincere of apologies" to Valentina Rosendo.
(http://tinyurl.com/7bdvlyk)(AP, 12/16/11)
2002 Mar 9, In Pueblo police arrested Benjamin Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana drug cartel.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 13, Manuel Herrera Barraza, a senior member of the Arellano Felix gang, was arrested.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 21, A UN meeting on poverty, despair and violence opened in Mexico City.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 22, Pres. Bush addressed the UN meeting in Monterey, Mexico, and called on wealthy nations to link foreign aid to economic reform.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 24, Rosario Robles, former mayor of Mexico City, was declared head of the Democratic Revolution Party.
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 8, Pres. Fox and the Maquila and Export Industry Council signed an agreement to improve working conditions for female factory workers.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 9, In Mexico the Senate voted 71-41 to deny Pres. Fox permission to travel to the US and Canada next week. They wanted him to spend more time on domestic concerns.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 10, In Mexico 41 state and city police from Tijuana and Tecate were arrested in Baja on charges of corruption and smuggling during a meeting at the state police academy.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A10)(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A9)
2002 May 6, Jose Luis Nieto (56) raced his pickup into a crowd of toddlers in Ecatepec, near Mexico City, and killed 2 children aged 2 and 3. A daily school ceremony had blocked access to his house.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A12)
2002 May 10, Masked gunmen killed 11 people at a Mother’s Day party in Santiago de la Ajoya, 40 miles north of Mazatlan.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A11)
2002 May 10, A truck with 8 tons of sodium cyanide was hijacked in central Mexico. The truck was later found but 76 drums of the chemical were missing. Most of the drums were found dumped near the village of Honey following an 18-day search. All the drums were later recovered.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A7)(SFC, 5/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A11)
2002 May 13, Two police officers were killed in a shootout with suspected ERP rebels at a water treatment plant in Buena Vista de Cuellar, Guerrero state.
(SFC, 5/14/02, p.A13)
2002 May 24, In Mexico Pres. Fox announced that all of Mexico’s waters are a preserve for whales and off-limits to whale hunting.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2002 May 26, In Veracruz police arrested Jesus Albino Quintero Meraz along with 6 associates and a federal police officer for cocaine trafficking.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A9)
2002 May 31, In southern Mexico gunmen ambushed a truckload of people and killed 26 in Agua Fria. The dead were all from Santiago Xochiltepec and were victims of a land dispute. 16 suspects were later arrested.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A12)(SFC, 6/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 9, A farmer and his two grown children were hacked to death with machetes by their relatives in a family dispute over a plot of land in southern Oaxaca state.
(AP, 6/9/02)
2002 Jun 10, President Vicente Fox signed Mexico's first freedom of information law on Monday, exposing the government and its records to greater public scrutiny.
(AP, 6/10/02)
2002 Jun 19, President Vicente Fox is releasing nearly 80 million secret intelligence files collected over decades, vowing that Mexico's government will never again use spying and violence against its critics.
(AP, 6/19/02)
2002 Jun 28, In Mexico City gunmen with assault rifles tried to hold up an armored car, killing three guards and wounding two others, but getting no money.
(AP, 6/28/02)
2002 Jul 3, In western Mexico 5 people returning from a political rally, among them a 101-year-old man, were ambushed and shot to death.
(AP, 7/3/02)
2002 Jul 3, Brazil and Mexico signed a trade agreement that reduced import duties on some 800 products.
(WSJ, 7/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 5, In Mexico Katy Jurado (78), the actress who played a sultry wildcat in some of the top American films of the 1950s and gained an Academy Award nomination, died.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 12, In Mexico farmers desperate to keep their land from being seized for a new Mexico City airport threatened to kill about a dozen hostages and spark uprisings across the country.
(AP, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 14, Mexican state officials freed 10 prisoners in hopes of winning freedom for hostages held by farmers protesting construction of a new Mexico City airport.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 15, In Mexico farmers ended their protest of a proposed new airport for Mexico City and released 19 hostages after the government promised to reconsider construction terms.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 26, Jose Juan Palafox, a regional director of Mexico's main intelligence agency was slain in the border city of Tijuana, the 11th person killed this week in what authorities say is an escalating drug war.
(AP, 7/27/02)
2002 Jul 30, Pope John Paul II began a three-day visit to Mexico to canonize Juan Diego, the first Indian saint. He arrived from Guatemala to a greeting by President Vicente Fox and tens of thousands of people lining Mexico City's streets.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Jul 31, Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, an Indian peasant to whom church tradition says the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago, in a ceremony in Mexico that drew more than 1 million believers into the streets.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Mexico 6 masked gunmen kidnapped a federal congressman from a town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Aug 1, In Mexico the government decided to yield to protests by machete-wielding farmers and radicals and cancelled plans to build a new international airport on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City.
(AP, 8/2/02)
2002 Aug 6, In western Mexico the brakes apparently failed on a 26-year-old bus before it plowed through a highway toll booth and slammed into a concrete wall, killing at least 33 people, 10 of them children, headed for a re-enactment of the Last Supper. About 20 people were injured.
(AP, 8/6/02)
2002 Aug 10, In northwestern Mexico a bus crashed through a railing and into a shallow river near Hermosillo, killing 16 passengers and injuring two dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 14, Mexican President Vicente Fox angrily canceled a scheduled meeting with President Bush hours after Texas executed a Mexican national for killing a Dallas police officer despite pleas from the Mexican leadership. Javier Suarez Medina, a Mexican national, was never told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his 1988 arrest, a violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations.
(AP, 8/14/03)(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 14, Texas Gov. Rick Perry denied a reprieve for Javier Suarez Medina and authorities in Huntsville gave Suarez a lethal injection as he sang the hymn "Amazing Grace."
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 15, Heavy rains caused the San Luis Potosi and Los Dolores dams to burst, sending a wave of floodwaters roaring over villages in central Mexico, where authorities said at least eight people were killed and six others were missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 15, A train in Tlaxcala, Mexico, struck and killed six young people (13-25) as they were walking along railroad tracks during a religious procession.
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 17, In Mexico 8 men and a woman were lined up against a wall and gunned down with assault rifles and pistols at a ranch in the western state of Michoacan in what reports said may have been a drug-related massacre.
(AP, 8/18/02)
2002 Aug 31, It was reported that Mexican police had arrested Juan Heriberto Carrillo Olivas, a Mexican citizen, headed a gang in El Paso, Texas, that used a fleet of tractor-trailers to transport cocaine to other U.S. cities.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 6, Mexico said it was withdrawing from the 1947 Inter-American Reciprocal Defense Treaty designed to protect the Americas against communism, a year after President Vicente Fox called the agreement obsolete.
(AP, 9/6/02)
2002 Sep 10, Radical farmers in San Salvador, Mexico, have declared this town outside Mexico City to be autonomous, two months after they forced the government to abandon plans for a new airport.
(AP, 9/11/02)
2002 Sep 23, Hurricane Isidore left two dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico’s Yucatan and moved toward the U.S. Gulf coast.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 26, In Mexico Martha Sahagun de Fox launched a conference of first ladies of the Americas with a promise to forge creative answers to the problem of child poverty.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Sep 27, A Mexican military court charged three army officers (Gen. Francisco Quiros Hermosillo, Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro and Maj. Francisco Barquin) with homicide in the killings of 143 leftist activists and revolutionaries, the first prosecution of soldiers for crimes committed during the so-called "dirty war" of the 1970s.
(AP, 9/27/02)(SFC, 9/28/02, p.A6)
2002 Oct 14, In New Mexico VP Cheney met with representatives of Bajagua, a start-up waste processing firm targeting waste water in Tijuana, Mexico. Waste from Tijuana flowed into San Diego County and its Tijuana River estuary. Bajagua spent $585,000 in lobbying efforts from 2001-2006. Estimates of costs to the US ranged from $580-780 million. A 1999 environmental impact statement called the Bajagua plan not feasible.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A15)
2002 Oct 15, Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will be paid $4.3 million plus expenses for a one-year contract to advise Mexico City's mayor on reducing crime.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2002 Oct 19, In Mexico Manuel Alvarez Bravo (100), a photographer whose remarkable 80-year portfolio contained everything from mystical portraits of a bygone era to the striking realism of murdered laborers, died.
(AP, 10/20/02)
2002 Oct 21, In Mexico officials said 25 people were arrested who had infiltrated the army, police and attorney general’s office on behalf of drug kingpins.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A11)
2002 Oct 25, Hurricane Kenna hit Mexico’s Pacific coast and over 150 people were injured in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa. 3 people were later reported killed. Damages were estimated in tens of millions.
(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A7)(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.A20)
2002 Nov 16, In Mexico unidentified assailants killed a family of five, including two children aged 8 and 14 and two of the family's servants, by slitting their throats or shooting them.
(AP, 11/17/02)
2002 Nov 22, In Mexico City thousands of teachers marched to protest the deaths and disappearances of some 152 teachers over the last 10 years.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A10)
2002 Nov 26, About 2,000 members of Mexico's former ruling party seized government buildings in two Guerrero state towns, claiming fraud in the recent election of the towns' mayors.
(AP, 11/27/02)
2002 Nov, Pres. Bush approved the annual US entry of some 30,000 Mexican trucks beyond the current 20-mile border zone. On Jan 16, 2003, a federal appeals court halted the plan for environmental reviews.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.A5)
2002 Dec 5, In Mexico City an angry mob beat to death two of three youths who allegedly tried to rob a taxi driver.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 11, Bank of America agreed to pay $1.6 billion for a 25% stake in Grupo Financiero Santander Serfin, one of Mexico’s largest banks.
(WSJ, 12/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 31, Mexico City's only English-language newspaper, The News, shut down along with its sister Spanish-language publication, Novedades, after more than 50 years in operation.
(AP, 12/31/02)
2002 Dec 31, In Mexico illegal fireworks stands ignited in the port city of Veracruz as revelers thronged a marketplace to buy New Year's supplies. The blaze quickly engulfed an entire city block and killed at least 28 people.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Dec, Gunmen hired by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, took control of a small UHF TV station in Mexico City.
(WSJ, 2/27/04, p.A1)
2002 Carlos Fuentes published his novel “La silla del aguila," in Mexico. In 2006 an English translation by Kristina Cordero was published as “The Eagle’s Throne."
(SSFC, 5/27/06, p.M1)
2002 Mexico began the 3x1 Program–Citizen Initiative. Later on it became the 3x1 Program for Migrants. some 5,500 public works were completed under the program until it was scrapped in 2019 by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(http://www.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/vrp/aparicio.pdf)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.23)
2002 Oportunidades, a government social assistance program later rebranded as Prospera, was designed to target poverty by providing cash payments to families in exchange for regular school attendance, health clinic visits, and nutrition support. It was scrapped in 2019 by Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oportunidades)
2002 Mexico ended its visa requirement for Brazilians as both countries liberalized their trade regimes. Illegal immigration of Brazilians to the US via Mexico quickly increased.
(WSJ, 1/24/05, p.A16)
2003 Jan 6, In Mexico a bus with failing brakes swerved off a mountain highway and into a deep ravine in Zacatecas state, killing 18 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Jan 15, Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ended a two-day visit to Mexico's capital, declaring that fighting government corruption will be crucial in lowering crime.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 19, Alfredo Zalce (b.1908), Mexican revolutionary artist, died.
(www.zalce.com/)
2003 Jan 21, A 7.6-7.8 earthquake ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at least 29 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/21/04)
2003 Jan 21, Mexico appealed to the World Court to stop the execution of 51 of its citizens in the United States.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 28, In Mexico, gunmen in San Juan Chamula ambushed police trying to arrest murder suspects, sparking a gunbattle that left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Jan 31, In Mexico City tens of thousands of farmers clogged main streets, demanding greater protection against U.S. imports and seeking more government aid.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Feb 5, The World Court ruled that the United States must temporarily stay the execution of three Mexican citizens on U.S. death rows.
(AP, 2/5/03)
2003 Feb 10, Mexican army troops seized 2.2 tons of cocaine from a plane that landed in northern Mexico after it reported mechanical problems. The three men onboard were arrested.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 13, Thailand officials arrested SF financier Thomas Frank White at the request of the Mexican government for the rape of a teenage boy. In 2004 White was indicted in SF on 2 counts of sex tourism.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, Popocatepetl volcano southeast of Mexico City erupted but caused no significant damage.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 16, In Mexico’s central Mexico state voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in support of executing kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers.
(AP, 2/17/03)
2003 Feb 17, In Mexico the bodies of 3 women were found in the desert outside of Ciudad Juarez, the latest victims in a string of killings in the border city.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Mexico a court upheld the conviction of an Egyptian man, Abdel Latif Sharif, for one of the first in a series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, but lowered the man’s prison sentence to 20 years.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 10, Two helicopters from Mexico’s Attorney General’s office were shot down near Tlapa, Guerrero, in the nation’s western mountains during an anti-narcotics operation, killing all 5 officials on board.
(AP, 3/11/03)
2003 Mar 14, In Matamoros, Mexico, police arrested drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen (35), aka "El Loco."
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 24, Mexico City police chief Marcelo Ebrard said that Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of Palermo, Italy, will be hired to combat crime. His work will complement Rudolph Giuliani's who hired on for $4.3 million.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Texas a fire in a sugar-cane field killed 5 illegal Mexican immigrants hiding there.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, Mexican federal agents killed 2 suspected drug runners in a shootout near the Texas border.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 29, In Mexico a small government plane crashed in the mountains of southern Mexico, killing all five people aboard. Passengers included Porfirio Encino Hernandez, state sec. for Indian affairs; his son and brother; Berenice Lopez, the daughter of former Gov. Javier Lopez; and pilot Guadalupe Gil.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 2, In Mexico 9 people were found tortured and killed near the border city of Nuevo Laredo in apparent drug-related violence.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 4, Mexican police over the last 2 days arrested 9 members of the powerful Juarez Cartel during raids across the country.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 4, Adalberto Martinez (87), song and dance actor, died. He appeared in over 100 Mexican films and TV series from 1947-2000.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A23)
2003 Apr 7, Mexico said it would prepay $3.84 billion in the last outstanding Brady par bonds. They originally totaled $34 billion.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 9, Abraham Zabludovsky (78), Polish-born Mexican architect, died. His projects included the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A28)
2003 Apr 12, Mexican army troops manning a roadblock near the Arizona border seized a truck packed with more than four tons of marijuana.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 21, In Uruapan, western Mexico, gunmen disguised as police killed six members of a family in a suspected drug gang dispute.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 May 21, The Mexican Justice Department said that 258 women had been killed since 1993 in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 Jun 6, In Balastrera, Mexico, a landslide followed by the blast of a ruptured gas pipeline hit a truck-stop town between Mexico City and Veracruz. 15 people were missing from the area.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 12, The first-ever Mexican freedom of information law took effect, designed to expose the government and its once guarded records and secrets to greater public scrutiny.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 18, Andrew Luster, a convicted rapist who is heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested after 5 months on the run. He was picked up by Mexican police in Puerto Vallarta as he scuffled with bounty hunters who had trailed him from California.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Mexico gunmen in Las Choapas, Veracruz, killed a man believed to be a migrant trafficker and then fatally shot four bystanders, including a 12-year-old boy, apparently to avoid leaving witnesses.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 6, Mexican voters issued a severe judgment on Pres. Vicente Fox's first three years in office, electing another divided Congress in which his party will have fewer seats and increasing the power of the former ruling party and the leftist opposition.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2003 Jul 17, A US company launched Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a person's skin and used to confirm health history and identity.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Mexico a landslide triggered by heavy rains in the southern state of Oaxaca swept away two houses and killed nine people, including five children.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 30, The last Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Puebla, Mexico. The first Beetles had arrived in 1956. Mexico had begun producing its own version of the Beetle in 1964.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A10)
2003 Aug 1, Mexican soldiers used a bazooka to return fire against cars believed to be carrying drug traffickers during a wild pre-dawn battle, killing three suspects.
(AP, 8/1/03)
2003 Aug 4, Mexico's federal government dispatched some 650 federal agents to Tijuana in the latest attempt to curb smuggling and corruption in the rough border city.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 15, Mexican troops arrested one of the country's most-wanted drug-traffic suspects, Armando Valencia, along with seven top figures in his ring in Tlajomulco near Guadalajara.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 24, Hurricane Ignacio sideswiped the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug 29, In central Mexico a truck carrying sulphuric acid collided head-on with a sport-utility vehicle on a mountain road, killing five people and forcing dozens of people to hospitals after they inhaled the fumes.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Sep 3, It was reported that Lake Chapala in Jalisco state had lost some 80% of its water over the last 10 years due to heavy development in central Mexico and agricultural diversion of water from the Rio Lerma.
(WSJ, 9/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Sep 10, In Cancun, Mexico, the WTO began its fifth ministerial meeting, with trade ministers from 146 countries expected to attend a five-day gathering to thrash out many problems surrounding the latest "round" of trade liberalization talks.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 10, In Puebla, Mexico, a clandestine fireworks factory exploded, killing at least six people and injuring 12 others.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 14, In Cancun, Mexico, the WTO talks collapsed when delegates from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia walked out accusing wealthy nations of failing to offer sufficient compromises on agriculture and other issues.
(SFC, 9/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 9/14/08)
2003 Sep, British scientists found 40,000-year-old human footprints in central Mexico, shattering theories that mankind arrived in the Americas tens of thousands of years later from Asia. The footprints were found in an abandoned quarry close to the Cerro Toluquilla volcano and were subsequently studied and dated by a multinational team of scientists.
(AFP, 7/5/05)
2003 Oct 10, It was reported that members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of Nuevo Laredo. An estimated 31 of 350 members of the Special Air Mobile Force Group, posted to the border state of Tamaulipas in the 1990s, had deserted and joined the drug turf war.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 20, Pres. Bush met with Mexico's Pres. Vicente Fox in Thailand and asked him to set aside disputes over immigration and Iraq.
(AP, 10/20/03)
2003 Oct 24, In Mexico Mariano Diaz Mendez, a Pentecostal pastor of Indian descent, was shot twice inside the car in a roadside ditch in San Juan Chamula, a majority Catholic township just outside San Cristobal.
(AP, 10/25/03)
2003 Oct 27, The southern California fires crossed into Mexico. The death toll climbed to 15 and damages were estimated to top $500 million.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 28, In Mexico City high-level officials of the Organization of American States ended two day of talks with a new security agenda.
(AP, 10/29/03)
2003 Oct 29, A Mexican electoral court annulled the results of the July 6 elections for the governorship of the southern state of Colima after concluding that the outgoing governor interfered in the race.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Nov 4, In Arizona Mexican President Vicente Fox stressed the importance of continuing a dialogue on immigration issues with the United States as he started a tour of 3 border states.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 5, Mexican President Vicente Fox asked New Mexico state leaders for better treatment of illegal immigrants from his country.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 7, The defending champion US baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, losing to Mexico 2-1 in the quarterfinals of a qualifying tournament in Panama City, Panama.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2003 Nov 11, Mexican diplomat Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (1949-2005), gave a speech to students at Mexico City's Ibero-American University, in which he claimed that the political and intellectual class of the United States sees Mexico as "a country whose position is that of a back yard" (patio trasero) and that Washington was only interested in "a relationship of convenience and subordination" and "a weekend fling" (un noviazgo de fin de semana). President Fox requested his resignation on 18 November.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2003 Nov 12, Imelda Ortiz Abdala, a former Mexican consul to Lebanon, was arrested on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United States from Mexico. Federal agents over the previous 2 days arrested alleged ring leader Salim Boughader Mucharrafille along with alleged collaborators Melissa Ataja Valdez and Orlando Alfaro, in Tijuana. Ortiz Abdala was released in Feb 2005 after Foreign Relations Department officials testified that she acted properly and was never in a position to authorize visas on her own, according to Mexican court documents.
(AP, 11/13/03)(AP, 7/15/05)
2003 Nov 17, Mexico dismissed UN Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar following his comments that the US regards Mexico as a 2nd-class country.
(SFC, 11/19/03, p.A17)
2003 Nov 25, Sales of Mexican green onions plunged after a hepatitis outbreak in the US was traced to northwestern Mexico, forcing farmers in this valley to defend the safety of their produce and find ways to stay afloat financially.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Nov 27, Mexican government prosecutors said that they've uncovered a document showing that soldiers tortured suspected rebel prisoners during the 1970s, sometimes forcing them to drink gasoline and then setting them afire.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov 27, In Mexico City union members, left-wing activists and farmers by the thousand marched to the central plaza in a major display of opposition to the president's plans to raise taxes on food and medicine and sell state-owned assets.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov, Mexico broke a decades-old tradition of rejecting U.S. aid workers and decided to grant permission for the first group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers ever to work there.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2003 Dec 1, In Mexico Isidro Galeana (65), a former state judicials police commander, was declared a fugitive after a judge ordered his arrest on suspicion of kidnapping alleged leftists during the Mexican government's campaign against radical activists in 1974.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 9, In southern Mexico Salvatrucha gang members attacked illegal immigrants from Central America on a train, killing three people and wounding four in the latest in a series of violent incidents in the region. The Mara Salvatrucha spanned Central America. It was named for its Salvadoran founders, who claimed to be as wise as trout.
(AP, 12/10/03)(Econ, 5/22/04, p.31)
2003 Dec 12, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Mexico in a bid to extend a string of recent diplomatic and economic successes in North America. In 2002 China shipped $6.3 billion in goods to Mexico, undercutting many local goods.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A22)(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 13, Chinese Premier Web Jiabao sought to assure Mexican leaders that their country's economy is not threatened by China's lower wages and cheaper goods, saying the two nations are partners, not rivals.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 27, Juan Garcia Ponce (71), a renowned Mexican art critic, translator and prize-winning novelist, died. Ponce was born in Merida, the capital of Yucatan state, on Sept. 22, 1932. The author of at least 50 books, Ponce wrote novels, plays, screenplays and essays and was considered a master of erotic literature.
(AP, 12/28/03)(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A12)
2003 The Mexican housing industry built some 450,000 new homes, many of them near the town of Tecamac, north-east of Mexico City.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.33)
2003 Ricardo Salinas Pliego beat administrative insider-trading charges in Mexico on procedural grounds. Later he and a partner set up a shell company to buy Unefon debt for pennies and then resold the debt to Unefon, which they controlled, for the full price. The move netted them $109 million each at Unefon’s expense.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2003 Mexico passed legislation calling for native languages to be recognized as official languages of the state along with Spanish. Mexico also created a National Institute of Indigenous Languages, which began mapping where different indigenous languages were spoken.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A8)
2004 Jan 3, Isidro Galeana (65), a former state police commander and the first former government official to face arrest for his role in Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 5, In Mexico heavily armed men in military and police-style uniforms raided the western prison at Apatzingan in Michoacan state and freed 25 inmates.
(AP, 1/6/04)
2004 Jan 12, A 2-day meeting began for leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American States opened in Monterrey, Mexico.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Mexico the 34-nation Summit of the Americas ended. The United States reached out to its neighbors on free trade and battling corruption, smoothing tense relations with Latin American leaders.
(AP, 1/13/04)(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, In Mexico gunmen ambushed and shot to death two federal agents and an army captain as they drove along a Mexico City expressway.
(AP, 1/21/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican Army troops arrested Javier Torres Felix, an alleged leader of one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in western Mexico.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez said at least 11 bodies were found at a house that had been occupied by alleged drug lord Humberto Santillan Tabares.
(ST, 1/28/04, p.A8)
2004 Jan, La Gloria English School opened on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Maggie and Tom Washa of Wisconsin opened the school to help the local Mayan children.
(SSFC, 9/25/05, E5)
2004 Feb 1, In Tepeyac, Mexico, a fight broke out between two families at an illegal cockfighting den, and seven people were killed.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 6, In Mexico deputy ministers from 34 nations in the Americas failed to reach agreement on a framework for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, stymied by differences on the contentious issue of U.S. farm subsidies.
(AP, 2/6/04)
2004 Feb 11, The bodies of 2 Americans, Francisco A. Antonielli (33) and James F. Bowtte (43), were discovered in a parking garage at the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, the apparent victims of a drug-related gunbattle.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 17, Jose Lopez Portillo (83), former Mexican president (1976-1982) who governed through an oil-driven boom to a debt-induced bust, died of complications from pneumonia.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Mar 5, Pres. Bush welcomed Mexican Pres. Fox to his Texas ranch for a 2-day visit.
(SFC, 3/06/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 5, Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state. The video was publicly aired May10.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 Mar 6, It was reported that 4 compromising videos have been released showing Mexican political party leaders and public servants accepting briefcases full of cash, gambling at the high rollers' table in Las Vegas and offering to procure business contracts for millions of dollars.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 16, It was announced that Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s Telmex, planned to buy a controlling interest in Brazil’s biggest long distance operator, Embratel.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.64)
2004 Mar 19, A Mexican police raid led to the arrests of 42 immigration agents and other government employees accused of running a network that smuggled migrants into the US.
(AP, 3/23/04)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 27, Adan Sanchez (19), Mexican-American singer, died in a car crash in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was the son of narco-ballad singer Chalino Sanchez, murdered in 1992.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 29, In Mexico Pres. Fox unveiled a sweeping revision of the legal system.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A16)
2004 Mar 30, Cuba arrested Carlos Ahumada, a Mexican businessman, wanted in Mexico for his role in a graft scandal involving Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador. Ahumada was soon deported to Mexico.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 31, The International Court of Justice ruled that the United States violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2004 Mar, A biology professor said the monarch butterfly population wintering in Morelia, Mexico, was down 75%. Logging had severely impacted the area.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A10)
2004 Apr 5, A flash flood swept through two border communities in northern Mexico, flooding rivers, washing away houses and killing 15 people. Dozens more were reported missing.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 10, In Mexico a gas explosion leveled two buildings, killed at least six people and injured more than a dozen others in the border town of Nuevo Progreso.
(AP, 4/11/04)
2004 Apr 12, In Mexico Morelos state Gov. Sergio Estrada ordered the firing of all 552 state police officers following charges that commanders provided protection to drug traffickers.
(SFC, 4/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 15, In western Mexico, an explosion tore through a small fireworks store in Tonala, killing seven people including a small child.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 21, Otto Herrera (39), a Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as Central America's most-wanted drug smuggler, was captured by Mexican agents at Mexico City's Juarez Int'l. Airport. Mexico made the arrest at the request of U.S. authorities who had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 May 2, In Mexico a small plane carrying federal anti-narcotics agents crashed, killing all seven people on board.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 5, Mexico celebrated the 142nd anniversary of its victory over French forces.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2004 May 6, A Mexican court sentenced eight drug-gang members to 40 years each in prison for their roles in the 1993 shooting of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and 6 others at a Guadalajara airport.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 10, In Matamoros, Mexico, drug outlaw Alberto Guerrero, his bodyguard and 3 teenage girls were killed by a spray of bullets outside the Wild West dance hall. Ex-army commandos turned traffickers, known as Zetas, were responsible.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.D3)
2004 May 22, Bombs exploded outside three banks in Jiutepec, central Mexico, heavily damaging them but causing no injuries. A note near the bombing sites signed by a group calling itself the Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo — in tribute to the peasant leader Ruben Jaramillo, who was murdered along with his family by state forces on May 23, 1962.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 27, Cuba and Mexico agreed to return their respective ambassadors following a dispute earlier this month.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2004 May 31, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's energy secretary resigned, a day after President Vicente Fox criticized him for an early jump into the 2006 presidential races.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 May, A small poll of Mexicans ranked Mexico’s Congress as the worst government institution. Lawmakers met for only 2 days a weeks and 21 weeks a year. The average deputy earned $146,000 plus benefits. 200 of 500 lower house deputies were picked by party leaders.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A10)
2004 Jun 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Mexico for talks with his Pres. Fox, who has said he hoped to increase military cooperation with Moscow. Putin, the 1st Russian head-of-state to visit Mexico, said the two major oil producing nations should share knowledge on oil exploration and the energy sector.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2004 Jun 7, The US Supreme court ordered US highways to be opened to long-haul Mexican trucks, rejecting objections by labor and environmental groups.
(SFC, 6/8/04, A1)
2004 Jun 16, Jose Fernando Jimenez Lecona, Mexico City police official, was shot to death outside his home. Lecona, head of a high-risk crimes unit, was investigating a string of brazen kidnappings.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 22, Francisco Ortiz Franco, Mexican newspaper, editor was shot to death in Tijuana.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2004 Jun 27, Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans wearing white staged a silent march through the heart of their nation's capital to protest kidnappings, violent crimes and the failures of law enforcement to curb them.
(AP, 6/27/04)
2004 Jul 5, Pres. Fox named Emilio Goicoechea Luna, a business chamber leader and senator, as the new chief of staff, and Ruben Aguilar Valenzuela, a presidential analyst, as media relations chief. The 2 positions were held by Alfonso Durazo who resigned saying that the first lady's political ambitions are out of control and Fox is acting like the autocrats he replaced.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, Voters in Zacatecas, Mexico, elected Amalia Garcia (PRD), the country's first female governor since the end of one-party dominance. Pres. Fox's National Action Party lost badly in Chihuahua and Durango. It finished a distant third in Zacatecas,
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 18, Mexico and Cuba said they will reinstate ambassadors in each other's countries at the end of the month.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 25, Carmen Gutierrez, a doctor who won Mexico's Woman of the Year award (1997), was found dead in a canal on the outskirts of Mexico City. She was kidnapped Jul 22.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2004 Jul, The ship Mary Nour, filled with Russian cement, was denied permission to unload its cargo in Mexican ports under pressure from Cemex SA.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 1, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (b.1958) was elected governor of Oaxaca, Mexico, by a narrow 2% margin. Defeated candidate Gabino Cue, nominated by an alliance mainly of Convergencia and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), repeatedly alleged electoral fraud.
(http://tinyurl.com/jnpk8)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.48)
2004 Aug 8, In San Juan Chamula, Mexico, hundreds of enraged residents of this impoverished Indian community locked the mayor and three other municipal officials in jail, claiming they embezzled funds from public works projects.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 22, Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, alleged leader of the powerful Arellano Felix drug gang, was arrested before dawn at a house in the border city of Mexicali.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 29, Mexico City's leftist Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led more than 150,000 demonstrators in a march to protest efforts to impeach him.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 30, Mexico’s state oil company said it believes that vast untapped oil reserves lie in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 31, In Mexico suspects beat to death Francisco Arratia Saldierna (55), a newspaper columnist and dumped his body outside the offices of the Red Cross in the border city of Matamoros.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Sep 1, Capping a day of angry street protests and a strike by some 200,000 health care workers, President Vicente Fox spent much of his state-of-the-nation speech urging Mexicans to not give up on democracy, saying its "inherent problems are not cause for discouragement.
(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 17, Mexico and Japan signed a free trade agreement that Mexicans hope will ease their reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more factories there. PM Junichiro Koizumi wrapped up a four-day Latin American trip then headed for New York to pitch for a permanent Japanese seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Oct 13, A Mexican judge found bus driver Victor Garcia Uribe, guilty of eight slayings, giving prosecutors their second conviction in the decade-long series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2004 Oct 21, Four gunmen abducted three U.S. citizens on a rural highway in southern Mexico, shot and killed two of them and left the third, a pregnant woman, bound and gagged. Her testimony led to arrests the next day of Isidro Diaz Pineda, Reynaldo Hernandez Ramirez, Francisco Velazquez Paredes and David Gaona Mondragon, all of Tierra Caliente.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 29, Mexican police and federal agents alleged Zetas leader Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana, alias "El Kelin," a top drug hit man during a fierce shootout in the border city of Matamoros. Scores of suspected assassins and drug smugglers used hand grenades and assault rifles to fire back at authorities.
(AP, 10/30/04)
2004 Nov 7, In central Mexico gunmen, identified as local police officers, opened fire on a group of revelers returning from a weekend dance, killing 7 people, including 2 children.
(AP, 11/9/04)
2004 Nov 12, Mexico and a US environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials said it was the largest conservation project in the country's history.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 15, Mexico's former ruling party, trying to fight its way back to the presidency, overwhelmingly won two gubernatorial elections and held razor-thin leads in two other races.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Nov 23, In Mexico City a mob angry about recent child abductions cornered plainclothes federal agents taking photos of students at a school and burned the officers alive, mistaking the agents for kidnappers.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Nov 25, In Mexico the bodies of 9 people, including three federal agents, were discovered at two sites outside Cancun, and police are blaming the killings on a drug turf war.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 25, Mexican federal investigators said that two Mexico City police and 27 other people face homicide charges in the horrific vigilante killings of two federal agents this week.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen killed Gregorio Rodriguez, a newspaper photographer, as he and his family ate in a restaurant the state of Sinaloa, the home turf of nearly all of Mexico's top drug bosses.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 2, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel announced authorities had arrested 224 street gang members during a weeklong sweep across Mexico.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres. Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas prior to his murder.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Dec 6, President Vicente Fox fired Mexico City's police chief for allegedly bungling the response to a mob attack that killed two federal police officers.
(AP, 12/6/04)(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/05, p.A3)
2004 Dec 19, It was reported that Pres. Vicente Fox’s administration had failed thus far to dent corruption inside Mexico’s 445 prisons and jails.
(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A21)
2004 Dec 22, In Mexico an explosion at a pumping station near Santiago Tuxtla caused a burst of high pressure that ruptured the oil line 70 miles away in Nanchital. 210,000 gallons of oil flowed into the Coatzacoalcos River, creating a 10-mile-long slick extending into the gulf.
(AP, 12/24/04)
2004 Dec 23, Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly will be fined as much as $200,000 and could face criminal charges for spilling 5,000 barrels of crude into a river leading to the Gulf of Mexico a day earlier.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Dec, The Mexican government began distributing a comic-book guide that warns would-be migrants about the perils of crossing illegally into the US and offers tips to stay safe.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2004 Jorge Hank (48) was elected major of Tijuana. His father was a former mayor of Mexico City and Jorge himself had amassed an estimated $1 billion fortune through hundreds of casinos and betting parlors throughout Latin America.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A15)
2004 Development began of the new Film Colony on the edge of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s 1st privately financed film studio complex.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.31)
2004 Mexico’s population grew almost 1.1 million in 2004 to 105,909,000.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Earl Shorris authored “The Life and Times of Mexico," a collective biography of the country’s people.
(SSFC, 12/12/04, p.E6)
2005 Jan 1, Mexico was forecast for 3.1% annual GDP growth with a population at 106.2 million and GDP per head at $6,300.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 6, President Vicente Fox announced that all Mexican children with cancer will receive free treatment as long as they need it.
(AP, 1/6/05)
2005 Jan 6, In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 10 alleged gang members were convicted in the killings of 12 women, some of the hundreds who have been found slain there in recent years. The Los Toltecas members were arrested in 1999, after the reputed leader of their group, Jesus Manuel Guardado, alias "El Tolteca," was identified by a 14-year-old girl as the man who sexually assaulted and tried to kill her.
(AP, 1/7/05)
2005 Jan 11, Mudslides in Tijuana, Mexico, killed 3 children and damaged 140 homes.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 14, Over 750 Mexican federal police and soldiers seized control over the nation's top-security prison amid reports of a planned escape, possible murder plots and a jailhouse alliance between two reputed drug trafficking kingpins.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 20, In Mexico 6 prison workers were shot to death and left outside their lockup in Matamoros, following a federal crackdown against drug gangs at lockups across the nation.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 22, Consuelo Velazquez (84), whose song "Besame Mucho" became a standard in many languages and styles of music, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Jan 24, China's vice president expressed a strong desire to increase economic and diplomatic cooperation with Mexico while meeting with Mexican lawmakers.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Feb 5, In Mexico assailants staged 3 nearly simultaneous guerrilla-style attacks in Acapulco, killing 3 police officers and a teenage boy a day before a tense gubernatorial election.
(AP, 2/6/05)
2005 Feb 6, Mexico's main leftist party, the Democratic Revolution Party, ended 76 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. Democratic Revolution held on to the governorship of Baja California Sur, while the PRI held on to Quintana Roo, the site of Cancun.
(AP, 2/7/05)
2005 Feb 15, In Mexico the bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were found in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, Two US Border Patrol agents in Texas stopped a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana and shot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an admitted Mexican drug smuggler, as he fled back across the Rio Grande. In 2006 agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison for offenses that included violating the smuggler’s civil rights and failure to report the shooting to superiors. In 2007 Latino gang members beat Ignacio Ramos at the Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex in Mississippi. Both agents were freed in 2009 following a commute of their sentences by outgoing Pres. George Bush.
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.A6)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A11)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.A6)
2005 Feb 23, Mexico’s high court blocked prosecution of ex-President Echeverria for “dirty war" crimes in the 1970s ruling that the statute of limitations has run out.
(WSJ, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 24, In western Mexico an executive jet crashed, killing the governor of Colima state and all five other people aboard.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, Mexican prosecutors charged 27 state, federal and local police in Cancun with running a drug ring or aiding in the murder of their fellow officers, busting one of Mexico's largest police-protection rackets and solving the mystery behind the killing of three federal agents in November.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 9, In southern Mexico a federal government helicopter searching for gunmen protecting drug plantations crashed into a mountain, killing all nine soldiers and two pilots onboard.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 13, Vigilantes in Oaxaca, Mexico, killed a state police officer setting him on fire in revenge for the shooting of a taxi driver in a barroom brawl.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 23, Pres. Bush, Pres. Fox, and PM Paul Martin at a one-day summit in Texas signed a deal that provides for sweeping co-operation between Canada, Mexico and the US on security, economic and health issues. There was no sign of progress on touchy trade disputes. They agreed to boost border security and forge common approaches on everything from cargo inspection to maritime and aviation safety.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 5, Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla (39), radio reporter, was wounded in the chest, abdomen, legs and arms during an attack in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. She died from her wounds April 16.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 7, Mexico City's leftist mayor formally declared his intention to run for president next year even as Congress was to decide whether he should face criminal charges for allegedly disobeying a court order in a land-use case.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Lawmakers stripped Mexico City's mayor of immunity from prosecution, clearing the way for criminal charges. The shaky legal case against Lopez Obrador alleges that in 2001, the city government failed for 11 months to obey a court order to vacate contested land that it had expropriated for the purpose of building a road.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Raul Gibb Guerrero, director of La Opinion of Poza Rica newspaper, was shot to death in an apparent ambush by drug hit men, the 2nd attack on Mexican journalists in a week.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Mexico 3 would-be casino developers were killed outside a popular Monterrey restaurant. The murders delayed a congressional vote to amend a gambling ban and sparked calls for stricter controls on the few places Mexicans are allowed to place bets.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients included Isidro Baldenegro (39) of Mexico for his efforts on land rights and forest protection for the Tarahumara Indians
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 20, Mexican prosecutors charged Mexico City's popular leftist mayor with abuse of authority in a case that could knock him out of the 2006 presidential race.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 24, Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators thronged Mexico City's central square and surrounding streets to protest the federal prosecution of the capital city mayor, a leading contender for president in 2006.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 13, Pres. Fox praised the dedication of Mexicans working in the US, saying they're willing to take jobs that "even blacks" won't do. Pres. Fox apologized for his comments a few days later saying he regretted any hurt feelings his statements may have caused.
(AP, 5/17/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A3)
2005 May 16, Mexican President Vicente Fox regretted any hurt feelings for saying that Mexicans in the United States were doing the work that even blacks wouldn't.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 24, In Mexico Eduardo Villalobos, the director of a state prison in the border city of Mexicali, was shot to death in an ambush outside his home.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 Jun 3, Oscar Espinosa Villarreal, former Mexico City mayor (1994-1998) and tourism secretary, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzling government funds and ordered to pay more than $26 million in reparations.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 5, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (b.1949), Mexican scholar and diplomat, died.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2005 Jun 8, In Mexico Alejandro Dominguez took office as police chief of Nuevo Laredo, saying he wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 10, In Mexico lawyers for the brother of a former Mexican president sought his release on bail after an appeals court threw out his 27-year murder sentence.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 11, In Mexico a plain clothes federal officer, sent to investigate the killing of the police chief of Nuevo Laredo, was shot and killed a local policeman. In response the government announced new program dubbed “Safe Mexico" to curb drug related violence and corruption.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.34)
2005 Jun 14, Raul Salinas, the brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was released on bail after 10 years in prison on charges he masterminded the 1994 killing of a political rival.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 15, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that former Mexican President Luis Echeverria can be charged with genocide for his alleged involvement in the 1971 massacre of student protesters.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 19, Mexico City introduced metrobus, a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A11)
2005 Jun 21, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Daniel Pena said that 150 police officers will be fired after failing a screening process that included background checks and drug testing. Former Mexican soldiers, turned into drug hit men (Zetas), have taken the border city to the brink of anarchy, infiltrating local police and threatening anyone who gets in their way.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, Consuelo Velazquez (b.1916), Mexican pianist and composer, died. Her music included Besame Mucho, first recorded in 1941 by Emilio Tuero. It was the romantic vision of a chaste, convent-educated teenager growing up in 1930s Mexico, and was inspired by the sight of a smooching couple in the street.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1)
2005 Jun 26, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 44 kidnap victims were freed in a series of raids by soldiers and federal agents. Deputy Attorney General Gilberto Higuera said those rescued were apparently "involved in criminal activities and were not victims of kidnappings" for ransom.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lawmakers overwhelming approved a law allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Mexico's Zapatista rebels suggested they would seek to open a political front with workers, farmers and students, a decision the government interpreted as a move toward joining mainstream politics and away from armed struggle.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, Mexico released a series of five stamps depicting a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico. The stamps depicted an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Pres. Fox signed a bill allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Honduras Central American leaders agreed to create a regional special forces unit to fight drug trafficking, gang violence and terrorism within their borders. The 2-day regional meeting included the presidents of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jul 3, In Mexico State the former ruling party (PRI) added momentum for the upcoming presidential race with a crushing victory.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Mexico Omar Pimentel (37), Nuevo Laredo's new police chief, survived his 1st day on the job with 3 bodyguards shadowing his every move, but one of his police officers was killed and 2 other policemen badly wounded by shots fired from a truck at their private car.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Acapulco, Mexico, gunmen fired a spray of bullets at Jose Ruben Robles Catalan, a former Guerrero state official as he entered a hotel lobby with his 6-year-old grandson, killing him and his chauffeur.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural southeastern Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Hugo Alberto Wallace (36), a divorced entrepreneur, was kidnapped as he left a movie theater in Mexico City. In 2007 Brenda Quevedo was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, after Maria Isabel Miranda, the mother of Wallace, received a tip and tracked her down. Frustrated with investigators' lack of progress in her son's 2005 kidnapping, Miranda launched her own investigation, tracking down five suspects. In 2009 Quevedo was extradited to Mexico.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/world/americas/04kidnapping.html)(AP, 9/26/09)
2005 Jul 18, Hurricane Emily slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a powerful Category 4 storm.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 20, In Mexico more than 1,000 people marched through the streets of the colonial capital of southern Oaxaca state to demand that picketers disband a blockade that has trapped journalists inside a newspaper building for about a month.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 20, Hurricane Emily slammed into northeastern Mexico with 125 mph winds.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 22, Mexican authorities raided a kidnapping ring that filmed its victims being held inside a cage and beaten. An abducted businessman was freed and five people were arrested. The gang operated in Mexico City and outlying areas in Puebla and Mexico State.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 31, In southern Mexico former soldier Oscar Flores (35) killed his wife, infant nephew and a police officer in a vicious rampage that left 10 people dead before being wounded by police and killed by an angry crowd.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 1, In Tonala, Mexico, assailants threw grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring before dawn, killing four people and wounding 25 others.
(AP, 8/2/05)
2005 Aug 6, Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine (b.1919), Mexican trade union leader and a long-serving legislator of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, died. He presided over the Workers' Confederation of Mexico (CTM) from July 21, 1997 until his death.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Alcaine)
2005 Aug 12, A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Gen. Francisco Quiros, accused of ordering the disappearance of leftist folk singer Rosendo Radilla on Aug 25, 1974. Quiros was already in prison serving a drug sentence.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, New regulations in Tijuana, Mexico, called for the city to issue electronic cards to replace pink, pocket-size health history books given to Tijuana's 4,700 registered prostitutes. The new standards were modeled after those in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Acapulco.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Aug 12, Peter Hommerson, a fugitive charged with killing a wealthy Illinois couple on Jan 23, 1996, was captured at a Mexican resort after tourists recognized him from a crime watch television program.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 25, In central Mexico a rain-swollen river overflowed its banks and flooded the town of Aguililla, leaving five people dead and five others missing.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug, Judi Werthein (38), Argentine-born artist, introduced special shoes at Insite, an art exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana, designed to help migrants cross the US-Mexico border. The “Brinco" sneakers were equipped with a compass, flashlight and other special features.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A2)
2005 Sep 1, President Vicente Fox, in his last state-of-the-nation address, urged citizens to stay committed to Mexico's newfound democracy and to remind them that they are in charge of the nation's future.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 3, In Tlacotepec, Mexico, 75 miles north of Acapulco, fireworks stored at a building that also illicitly sold gasoline exploded, killing seven people and injuring four.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 8, A Mexican army convoy began crossing into the US to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 8, El Salvador said that “Operation International" simultaneous raids this week in El Salvador, the US, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico netted 660 dangerous gang members.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 10, In Mexico 7 Guatemala men were caught near the Guatemalan border with six large-caliber rifles and 1,600 rounds of ammunition. They faced charges of weapons trafficking.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Sep 11, Mexico's ruling National Action Party gave former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon a surprise victory in the first round of its three-part presidential primary.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Mexico Chinese President Hu Jintao promised Mexican leaders that he would crack down on the millions of dollars worth of Chinese contraband entering their nation, goods that undermine Mexican businesses ranging from sandal makers to religious icon sellers.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 15, A fire engulfed Mexico's most famous fireworks market, setting off a chain of explosions in Tultepec, a town northeast of the nation's capital. The fire destroyed hundreds of open-air stands just ahead of Independence Day celebrations.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Volcano of Fire in western Mexico blasted ash and gas three miles high, with an explosion that was heard in villages 10 miles from the crater.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, In Mexico a special federal prosecutor sought the arrest of ex-President Luis Echeverria and other former officials for their alleged involvement in the massacre of student protesters in 1968.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 21, A cabinet minister who helped lead Mexico's anti-drug fight, his deputy and seven others died in a helicopter crash in the mountains west of Mexico City. The helicopter, carrying Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, Federal Preventive Police Chief Tomas Valencia, five other passengers and a crew of two, had taken off from a military parade ground in Mexico City.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 26-2005 Sep 27, Intense rains throughout southern Mexico and parts of Central America caused rivers to overflow, killing at least 3 people and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep, In Mexico Bishop Ramon Godinez declared that drug traffickers often donate to the church. He argued that the money is "purified" once it passes through parish doors.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 1, The outer bands of Hurricane Otis lashed the coast of western Mexico as the storm crawled toward the Baja California peninsula, forcing hundreds of families to evacuate their homes and flooding roads in Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 2, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's former energy secretary, appeared headed toward another victory in the 2nd round of the ruling National Action Party's 3-part presidential primary.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 4, Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico’s Gulf coast.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2005 Oct 5, Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central America. Officials in El Salvador said 49 people had been killed, mostly due to two days of mudslides sparked by rains. 9 people died in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadorians killed in a boat accident. Four deaths were reported in Honduras, three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 6-2005 Oct 8, In Guatemala rescue workers searched for victims of a mudslide near Lake Atitlan, a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists. Panabaj and Tzanchaz were entombed by a mudflow half a mile wide. The death toll in the region from flooding sparked by Hurricane Stan soon climbed to 617 with 42 dead in Mexico, 72 dead in El Salvador and 11 dead in Nicaragua.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 10/9/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.43)
2005 Oct 11, It was reported that a serial killer, dubbed the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer," was stalking Mexico City. The killer was said to wear women's clothes and strangled and battered old ladies in their homes.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 21, Hurricane Wilma slammed into the island of Cozumel, starting a long, grinding march across Mexico's resort-studded coastline. Wilma flooded streets, knocked out power and stranded thousands of tourists in sweltering shelters. Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, after killing 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica.
(AP, 10/21/05)(AP, 10/22/06)
2005 Oct 22, Hurricane Wilma crawled over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass.
(AP, 10/22/05)
2005 Oct 23, Mexico's ruling party chose Felipe Calderon, the nation's former energy secretary, as its candidate for presidential elections next July.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 23, Hurricane Wilma drifted northward away from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula where the storm left 8 people dead. In 2006 insurers put the damage from Wilma at $3 billion, the largest insured losses in Mexican history.
(AP, 10/23/05)(Econ, 10/29/05, p.38)(AP, 10/19/06)
2005 Oct 24, Luis Velasquez (51), A Roman Catholic parish priest was found shot to death in his car with his hands cuffed in the rough border city of Tijuana, in what police said appeared to be an organized-crime killing.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Oct 27, The Mexican government announced that former "bracero" guest workers, who labored in the United States between the 1942 and 1964, will get a one-time payment of about $3,500. The aging workers, who have protested for years, described the payment as insulting and said it should be at least $9,175.
(AP, 10/27/05)(SFC, 10/28/05, p.A22)
2005 Oct 28, Mexico became the 100th country to ratify the treaty founding the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, which the United States has opposed.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Argentina Mexico’s Pres. Vicente Fox said that a majority of nations in the Western Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to create a huge new free trade zone without the participation of dissenting countries like Venezuela.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, Mexico reported that consumer prices fell to a record low in October and that inflation was rapidly approaching the central bank’s target of 3%.
(WSJ, 11/10/05, p.A15)
2005 Nov 10, Mexican prosecutors announced they have filed kidnapping and organize crime charges against seven police officers accused of protecting hit men working for the feared Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, Mexican agents arrested Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a former medical student, who seized control of the remnants of the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 14, Mexico said it will sever diplomatic ties with Venezuela if Pres. Chavez doesn't apologize for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me." Mexico and Venezuela called their ambassadors home in a sharp dispute between presidents Hugo Chavez and Vicente Fox over the latter's relations with Washington.
(AP, 11/14/05)(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, In northwest Mexico a tanker truck hauling toxic ammonium chloride slammed into a passenger bus, killing 38 people as both vehicles plunged down an embankment.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 16, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that rape within marriage is a crime.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Nov 17, Mexico's Supreme Court voted 11-1 that the Pascual Cooperative, a bottler specializing in Mexico's traditional fruit-flavored and fruit-based soft drinks, did not rate protection as a public interest.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 28, Mexico changed its constitution to allow state and local police to pursue drug traffickers, removing a major stumbling block in anti-drug efforts that had long been the exclusive realm of federal officers.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Nov 29, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that suspects facing life in prison can be extradited, overturning a 4-year-old ban that had prevented many of the country's most notorious criminals from being sent to the United States.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Nov 29, CINTRA sold Mexicana airlines and its subsidiary, Click Mexicana, to the Mexican hotel chain Grupo Posadas for USD$165.5 million.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexicana_de_Aviaci%C3%B3n)
2005 Nov 30, Mexican officials said that they are investigating a homemade DVD purporting to show four drug hitmen for the Gulf Cartel being beaten and interrogated, then one of them being shot in the head.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, The Mexican Attorney General's office said 11 federal agents were charged with kidnapping for picking up four alleged drug hit men and possibly helping kill them.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 2, The Mexico City government said 5 federal agents arrested in connection with the videotaped torture and killing of drug hitmen have been released from prison for lack of evidence.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 10, Mexican police raided a house outside Mexico City, capturing two alleged kidnappers and rescuing three people, including an 8-year-old girl, who had been held for more than two months. Police detained Israel Vallarta, a Mexican, and Marie Louise Cassez Florence, a Frenchwoman. The two allegedly belonged to a gang called "The Zodiac," tied to at least 10 kidnappings and one murder. Florence Cassez was later sentenced to 60 years in prison for 3 kidnappings. In 2010 Florence Cassez released a book about her case. It describes a series of inconsistencies in the case that she says weren't taken into account.
(AP, 12/10/05)(AP, 3/10/09)(AP, 9/23/10)
2005 Dec 14, Officials said Mexico and the US broke up a counterfeiting ring that printed an estimated $5 million in fake $100 bills in Mexico and sold them across the border.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 14, Carlos Delgadillo Martinez died after losing his grip on an inner tube while trying to cross the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas. In 2011 jurors acquitted helicopter pilot James Peters (41) of lying about his role in Delgadillo’s death.
(SFC, 9/3/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3nzc2z7)
2005 Dec 15, A Mexican judge committed 8 relatives to the psychiatric ward of a prison for the ritualistic slayings of two young family members that shocked Mexico with their brutality. Officials said the parents, grandparents and aunts of a 7-month-old and 13-year-old hacked a baby to death and fatally stoned a teenager earlier this month after they became convinced the girls were demons or possessed by the devil.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 17, The Mexican government slammed the US Congress for approving an immigration bill that would tighten border controls and make it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 17, In Mexico 6 people were stabbed or battered to death during a prison gang fight in Ciudad Juarez, across the US border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 20, The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 29, Seven policemen in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were detained on suspicion of stealing relief packages intended for hurricane victims.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 31, Guillermo Martinez (18) died in a Tijuana hospital one day after he was shot by a US Border Patrol agent near a metal wall separating that city from San Diego. On Jan 2 Mexico opened an investigation into the killing saying he was shot while sneaking into California, using the death to draw attention to a contentious US anti-immigration measure. In 2008 the US Dept. of Justice cleared the Border Patrol agent of any wrongdoing.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A4)
2005 Dec, Mexico’s attorney general’s office released a report that said 1,493 of 7,000 federal agents had been investigated for possible wrongdoing and that 457 had been indicted.
(SFC, 12/28/05, p.A9)
2005 Dec, In Mexico Lydia Cacho, a journalist who wrote a book about pedophilia in Cancun, was arrested and charged with libel. Titled "The Demons of Eden," the book linked Jean Succar Kuri to a prominent businessman in the central state of Puebla. Cacho was freed on bail and Kuri was extradited from the US in 2006 to face charges in Mexico.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2005 The US SEC filed civil fraud charges against Ricardo Salinas Pliego and 2 other top executives at TV Azteca for allegedly failing to disclose their involvement in Unefon under a provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. Salinas pulled his companies from the NYSE.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2005 Mexico counted 1,600 murders this year linked to organized crime.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante Marcos (b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael Guillen, began a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate Zero." The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, railed against the government and free trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 6, Comandante Ramona (47), a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate for women's rights, died after a decade-long struggle with a kidney disease.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 9, Diplomats from Mexico and Central America demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a US proposal for tougher border enforcement.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 11, Felipe Calderon, ruling-party presidential hopeful, registered his campaign with election officials, saying he understands the problems facing common Mexicans and will stem the flow of migrants who head north in search of higher-paying jobs.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano (b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 23, Raul Osiel Marroquin was arrested in Mexico City. On Jan 26 he described killing four gay men. His arrest was the 1st confirmation of a serial killer targeting homosexuals.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican government commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, At least 10 men in Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the United States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed confrontation with Texas law officers near Neely's Crossing, Texas. The three sport utility vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south toward the border, a few miles away.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2006 Jan 25, Juana Barraza (48) was arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was slain. She was suspected to be the serial murderer known as the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer." Barraza's fingerprints matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders, plus at the scene of an attempted murder.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, US authorities discovered what they say is the largest and most sophisticated tunnel under their border with Mexico, one that was used by drug trafficking gangs. The tunnel began near Tijuana’s airport and ended 2,400 feet away in a warehouse on the US side of the border. The find included 2 tons of marijuana.
(AFP, 1/27/06)(SFC, 1/27/06, p.B14)
2006 Jan 26, Mexico said it will suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the US border illegally. An official said the decision was made because the maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would gather.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 27, Angel Hidalgo Espinosa, the leader of a farmers' group in Mexico's southern Chiapas state, was convicted in the 2001 slayings of 8 peasants and sentenced to 37 years in prison.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Mexico authorities got into a shootout with drug traffickers in Acapulco and at least 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 29, The Mexican government said the US Border Patrol in New Mexico arrested Francisco Javier Gutierrez, a Mexican immigration official, who was allegedly trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into the US.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 2, Mexican authorities captured Oscar Arriola Marquez, leader of the Arriola Marquez cartel, wanted in the US on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges, and ranked among the world's most-wanted fugitives.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, A three-day energy meeting in Mexico City wrapped up after moving to a Mexican-owned hotel. It was the first private-sector oil summit between Cuba and the US. The meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives was moved to another hotel after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the Cubans to leave. On Feb 6 Mexico launched an investigation into whether the US government pressured the American-owned hotel into expelling Cuban guests.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 7, The owner of a Mexican newspaper in Nuevo Laredo said there will be no more investigative coverage of drug gangs, a day after the paper's offices were sprayed with bullets and a reporter hospitalized with five gunshots.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Monterrey, Mexico, 2 police chiefs, Hector Ayala and Javier Garcia, were shot and killed within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the US where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes across the border.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, armed men forced their way into a hospital and killed a teenager under treatment for an earlier attempt on his life.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico a bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra Gorda mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 19, A gas explosion in a northern Mexico coal mine trapped 65 miners some 600 feet below ground with a limited supply of oxygen. In 2007 a judge ordered the arrest of 5 mine managers and inspectors on charges of negligent homicide in the deaths of the miners.
(AP, 2/19/06)(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Feb 21, In Cancun, Mexico, Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, of Woodbridge, Ont., were found in their hotel rooms at the all-inclusive five-star resort on the Mayan Riviera in the early morning. Their throats had been slashed. The crime apparently took place after a rehearsal dinner ahead of a wedding in which the Lily, one of the Ianieros' twin girls, was to be married at the resort. Prosecutors in Cancun said two Canadian women were suspected in the killing and had fled to Canada.
(CP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Mexico mining officials said there was little hope of finding any of miners alive from the Feb 19 gas explosion at the Industrial Minera Mexico mine near San Juan Sabinas.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 28, Mexico City officials moved to shut down a US-owned hotel that angered many Mexicans when it kicked out a Cuban delegation under pressure from Washington. The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel would be closed because it was in violation of building codes. The hotel could reopen when it had corrected the violations and paid a $15,000 fine. The threat of closure was dropped the next day.
(AP, 3/1/06)(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, Some 4,000 Mexican miners struck copper mines owned by the operator of the coal mine where 65 men died in an explosion last week.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Mexico Diego Santoy (21) was captured at a police roadblock in the southern state of Oaxaca, four days after he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Erika Pena, 18, strangled her 3-year-old sister and stabbed to death her 7-year-old brother.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 7, More than 20,000 union workers marched in downtown Mexico City, accusing the government of meddling in the affairs of the national miners union by seeking to oust its leader.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, heavily armed assailants killed a state police chief and an officer and wounded two more officers in a brazen midmorning ambush.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, An anchorman for a Mexican radio station was shot to death by gunmen waiting for him in the bushes in front of his house in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 13, Mexico’s attorney general said he will close a special prosecutor's office dedicated to investigating atrocities committed by the government during its two-decade campaign to weed out suspected guerrillas and leftists.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, Mexico announced a new deepwater oil discovery that could exceed the declining reserves at the giant offshore Cantarell field.
(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Mar 16, The 4th World Water Forum opened in Mexico City.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 4 plainclothes federal police agents were killed after an unknown number of gunmen sprayed the unmarked pickup truck they were riding in with more than 30 bullets. The slayings came a day after 600 new members of the Federal Preventative Police arrived in Nuevo Laredo as part of extra-security efforts.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 17, A bus carrying dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on the outskirts of Mexico's capital, killing 7 people and injuring at least 28.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Mexico Omar Pimentel (38), the police chief of the border city of Nuevo Laredo, resigned. He said he was tired from the stress of working in a city dominated by drug cartels fighting a bloody turf war.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, The Mexican government said a US-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for violating Mexican commerce law.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Mexico the bodies of six men, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death, were found packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 27, The US Senate Judiciary Committee approved a proposal to legalize undocumented migrants and provide temporary work visas. Mexicans cheered the approval and credited huge marches of migrants across the US as the decisive factor behind the vote.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 28, A Mexican judge ordered an Argentine journalist to remove references to one of the first lady's sons in a book that claims he benefited financially from his family's political connections. The book "Cronicas Malditas," or roughly "Accursed Chronicles" (2005), alleged that two of Sahagun's three sons, principally Manuel Bribiesca, had used their connections to get preferential treatment on federal government work contracts during the administration of President Vicente Fox, which began in December 2000.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 30, Pres. Bush arrived in Cancun, Mexico, for 2 days of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks with Canadian PM Stephen Harper and Mexico’s Pres. Fox.
(Reuters, 3/30/06)(WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 30, Mexico’s Congress passed legislation dubbed the Televisa Law" confirming the country’s longstanding TV duopoly. President Vicente Fox officially signed off on controversial reforms to the country’s Federal Radio and Television law on April 11. In 2007 the legislation faced court actions.
(http://cbrayton.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/mexico-the-birth-of-the-televisa-law/)
2006 Mar 31, President Bush, closing a three-nation NAFTA summit, defended requiring secure documents from border-crossing Canadians and pushed Mexico to prevent more of its people from illegally entering America.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dozens of Mexican newspapers, frustrated by fruitless police probes of slain and missing journalists, simultaneously published the first in a series of reports on the cases.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Mexico hundreds of machete-wielding farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort for their Easter vacations.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The US Court of International Law ruled that US Customs violated a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in applying a law known as the Byrd amendment to antidumping and countervailing duties on goods from Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 10, Mexican soldiers seized 128 suitcases packed with 5.6 metric tons of cocaine worth more than $100 million from a commercial plane arriving from Venezuela. Smugglers had purchased the DC-9 plane with laundered funds transferred through US banks Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America. In 2010 court papers said a gang under Walid Makled operated the DC-9 and flew the cocaine from Simon Bolivar International to Campeche, Mexico. Makled was arrested Aug 19, 2010 in Colombia in the border city of Cucuta. In Nov 2010 Colombia denied an extradition request for Makled by the US, saying that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country.
(AP, 4/12/06)(SFC, 6/30/10, p.D1)(AP, 11/17/10)
2006 Apr 12, Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a restaurant and a shop owner was gunned down as violence shook towns on Mexico's resort-studded Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 16, The Rev. Cesar Torres (42) killed Veronica Andrade Salinas (22), who was pregnant, at his parish on Mexico City's eastern outskirts. He used a kitchen knife to cut off her head and hack her body to pieces, which he packed the pieces into plastic bags and dumped near a cemetery in Chimalhuacan. The couple had an 18-month-old daughter. Torres admitted to the murder on April 19.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Mexico an overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging more than 650 feet into a ravine near Maltrata, a town about 125 miles east of the capital. 58 people were killed. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, The Mexican Congress enacted a law that allows journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, In Mexico a violent confrontation between 800 federal and state police agents and more than 500 striking steelworkers left two workers dead and dozens of workers and police agents injured at the Siderurgica Lazaro Cardenas-Las Truchas, SA (Sicartsa) steel plant in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan. The decapitated heads of two police officials were found dumped in front of a government building in Acapulco.
(http://ww4report.com/node/1879)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 26, A Mexican boycott urged people to shun all products from U.S. businesses on May 1, a sort of "Day Without Americans," timed to coincide with the "Day Without Immigrants" boycott planned by activists north of the border.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southern Mexico a speeding truck loaded with Guatemalan migrants en route to the United States collided head-on with another truck, killing 10 migrants and injuring 16.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican lawmakers approved a bill that would allow people to possess small amounts of cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican police in Tijuana found the body of a US citizen kidnapped nearly 3 weeks earlier. They said he had been beaten, strangled, stripped naked and stashed in the trunk of a car. George Kwok Choi Chu, a seafood wholesaler, worked in Tijuana but lived across the border in San Diego.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 May 1, A day-long protest dubbed "A Day Without Gringos" drew thousands of Mexicans into the streets and kept many away from US-owned supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to support rallies in the United States demanding immigration reform.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 3, Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill, hours after US officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Mexico one person was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico City clashed with police, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails and briefly seizing six officers. The residents attacked police after several of their companions were arrested in the nearby town of Texcoco.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 14, Mexican President Vicente Fox telephoned President Bush to express his concern about the border between the two nations, a day before Bush's planned Oval Office speech on immigration.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 15, Pres. Bush endorsed a guest worker program and a program for citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. He also called for the development of a tamper-proof ID card for workers and pledged to send the National Guard to tighten security along the US border with Mexico.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A1)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said it had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce celebrating public Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance" following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 23, Mexico’s Pres. Fox began a five-day trip to the US in Utah before moving on to Washington state and California. Immigration was the major focus of Fox's trip as the US Senate considered legislation to strengthen border security
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Mexico 3 men were shot to death in two different attacks in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, bringing to at least 115 the number of people slain by violence this year.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, Mexican President Vicente Fox addressed the California legislature. He praised a US Senate which had just approved sweeping immigration reforms as a "monumental step forward" in the relationship between his country and the United States.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 Jun 1, California Gov. Schwarzenegger reluctantly reached an agreement with the federal government to deploy 1,000 members of the California National Guard along the US-Mexico border.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 5, Mexico proposed creating an environmental reserve (the Rio Bravo del Norte proposal) about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 8, The US offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, a reputed Mexican drug cartel chieftain, whose group allegedly smuggles tons of cocaine and marijuana north each year.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 14, In Mexico some 3000 elements of the state ministerial police, preventive police and Oaxaca state firemen began to violently remove a sit-in of 70,000 workers from Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) with tear gas, smoke grenades, stun grenades and firearms. Thus far there have been 13 reported arrests, 4 injuries, 5 bullet wounds, and between 6 and 9 deaths, as well as a break-in to the Teachers' Union building and the destruction of the installations of Radio Plantón (a free/non-licensed community radio station that has been a point of reference for social movements in Oaxaca).
(www.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/840911.shtml)
2006 Jun 17, Mexican authorities in Guadalajara arrested Pedro Castorena, the leader of a far-flung ring that allegedly made and distributed forged immigration and identification documents in the US. Castorena was indicted in Denver last July on charges of conspiracy, fraud, misuse of visas and money laundering.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 23, In Mexico Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the leader of about 70,000 striking teachers in southern Oaxaca state, said they won't interfere with the July 2 presidential election, and promised to meet with a civic commission to try to resolve their pay demands. The monthlong strike has left 1.3 million children in grade and high schools in Oaxaca without classes.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 26, In Mexico assailants armed with automatic rifles shot and killed a top policeman and his bodyguard as they drove home in the resort city of Cancun.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Gunmen shot and killed Ignacio Perales Gomez, a prominent Mexico City police investigator, outside his home. Perales was a lead investigator in several of the city's notable cases including that of jailed businessman Carlos Ahumada, a Mexico City construction mogul linked to a bribery scandal that rocked the country in 2004.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, Mexican police found a human head by the main entrance to Acapulco’s City Hall, the fourth such grisly discovery this year.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jun 30, Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria was placed under house arrest on genocide charges stemming from a 1968 student massacre, an unprecedented move coming just two days before the country elects a new president. Authorities found two more human heads in front of a government office in Acapulco, accompanied with threatening messages linked to the drug trade.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Mexico held presidential elections. Felipe Calderon (43) calling himself “the candidate of jobs," faced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “For everyone’s good, the poor first." Lopez Villanueva, head of the Francisco Villa Popular Front, arranged to have 10,000 members as poll watchers for Lopez Obrador. A tight race delayed the results to July 5. The per capita GDP was $10,000. Oil production was 3.35 million barrels per day. On July 6 Calderon was named the winner by 234,000 votes. The final outcome rested with the electoral court, Trife, and its decision was due by September 6.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)(WSJ, 6/28/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.35)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 3, Two bitter rivals declared themselves Mexico's next president, sparking fears of violence. Electoral officials said they wouldn't name a winner until a vote-by-vote hand count.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by 1 percentage point.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83% of the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, Felipe Calderon won the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race, a come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court. Calderon won 35.9% of the vote against Obrador’s 35.3%.
(AP, 7/7/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.4)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4 children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Mexico a man was shot to death in front of Acapulco's City Hall and a naval officer was abducted, the latest violence in this resort city hit by a wave of drug-related crime. The 2 men slain were later identified as military officers responsible for the mayor's security.
(AP, 7/11/06)(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties to associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in Mexico of child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of minors.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, In Mexico City Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led hundreds of thousands of marchers demanding a full recount of in the disputed election.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico, protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders said their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to repress dissent.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico supporters of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the Mexico City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until the top electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the disputed race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police found the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been killed by a blow to the head and thrown out of a moving car, was the 14th woman found dead in Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, In Oaxaca, Mexico, about 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a state-run television station and broadcast a homemade video that showed police kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last month. In southern Monte Orden village heavy rains caused a mountainside to give way, burying 2 homes and killing 11 people, 4 of them children.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Production at Cantarell, Mexico’s biggest oil field, was reported to be declining. The site accounted for about 60% of Mexico’s oil. A third of Mexico’s federal budget depended on oil sales.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 3, In Mexico Mrs. Alberta Alcantara Juan and Mrs. Teresa Gonzalez Cornelio were arrested (along with Jacinta Francisco Marcial) for events that supposedly occurred on March 26, 2006 when Federal Investigation Agents attempted to confiscate local merchants’ goods and damaged some of them. In 2010 Mexico's Supreme Court overturned kidnapping convictions and ordered the release of the two Otomi Indian market vendors whose case received international attention. Marcial was freed last year.
(http://tinyurl.com/373f25t)(AP, 4/28/10)
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died, bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly poisonous.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top electoral court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential election, ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist protesters camped in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally over their fraud allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos Caras, Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road about 10 miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized crime was likely behind the killing.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Mexico leftist activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the ballots from the disputed presidential election.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a recount confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador vowed to mount new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 14, US authorities arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (38) aboard a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted the significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has effectively lost much of its influence over the years. In 2007 Felix pleaded guilty to federal crimes that carried a mandatory life sentence. He agreed to forfeit $50 million and the yacht on which he was captured.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A3)
2006 Aug 15, US officials arrested Edgar Alvarez Cruz on immigration violations in Denver. He was suspected of participating in the rapes and killings of at least 10 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where more than 100 young women have been killed since 1993.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 19, Mexican prosecutors announced that they have charged two policemen with protecting the Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police said they had broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve of state elections.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Mexico’s Chiapas state Juan Sabines, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), held a razor-thin lead over Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who also is backed by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. Oaxaca sank further into chaos as protesters armed with machetes, pipes and clubs seized 12 private radio stations, cut off highways, and blockaded bus terminals and newspaper offices.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun in the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by about 6,300 votes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, Mexico’s top electoral court announced that a partial recount found no widespread evidence of fraud.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 29, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a court decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July 2 race and called on his supporters not to recognize a government led by Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 30, Hurricane John lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain as the dangerous Category 4 storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Mexico City riot police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address. Mexican lawmakers, protesting conservative Felipe Calderon's victory in the July 2 presidential election, stormed the congressional stage and refused to yield, making Fox the first president in modern Mexican history not to deliver his annual address to Congress. Fox handed in a written copy of his report and delivered it over television.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 5, The president of Mexico's top electoral court recommended that the full tribunal uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. Marcelo Garza, the top police investigator for Nuevo Leon, a northern Mexican state that borders Texas, was shot to death by a lone gunman outside an art gallery.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Mexico’s newly declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his government and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the disputed July 2 election. Gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico and tossed five human heads on the dance floor. An avalanche left 10 villagers dead in northern Mexico.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Mexico a landslide buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of Puebla and killed at least four travelers.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Mexico a small plane crash near Ensenada on the US-Mexico border killed three American medical volunteers.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of a law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox backed down from a confrontation with thousands of leftist sympathizers of Manuel Lopez Obrador, moving the annual Independence Day celebration away from Mexico City's main square to avoid protesters. Fox decided to move the ceremony to the central town of Dolores Hidalgo, where Miguel Hidalgo made the first call for independence from Spain in 1810. Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ended the street protest that clogged the heart of the capital for nearly seven weeks, but they vowed to find other ways to resist the incoming conservative president.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Mexico hundreds of thousands of supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador elected him the leader of a "parallel government" opposed to President-elect Felipe Calderon's administration. Mexico extradited accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the US, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face trial on drug charges. He later pleaded guilty to federal charges of selling cocaine in a San Diego motel. Hurricane Lane, a Category 3 storm, battered Mazatlan.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea, Turkey, and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 19, A group of sexual abuse survivors filed a lawsuit against Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera, claiming he hid evidence to protect a priest accused of molesting boys. A lawyer for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. Rivera, now Mexico's top-ranking cardinal, helped cover up abuse by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar involving 50 boys when Aguilar served as a parish priest in central Puebla state in 1987. Rivera was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state at the time.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Mexico the governor of Oaxaca state warned 70,000 striking teachers that they would be replaced and lose their pay unless they immediately returned to work.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 28, Mexico’s President-elect Felipe Calderon asked Congress to get tougher on criminals, create a universal health care system and generate jobs so millions of Mexicans do not have to migrate to the US to find work. Calderon also called for reducing the gap between rich and poor and called for a return to life sentences for hardened criminals, including violent kidnappers.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 29, In Mexico a judge and four jail guards were killed in separate attacks in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Oaxaca, Mexico, a teacher was hacked to death. A colleague claimed the man was killed for opposing a teachers' strike. Jaime Rene Calva Aragon was on his way to a meeting when he was killed by two assailants wielding hefty ice picks.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 14, In Mexico at least one man opened fire on protesters manning a roadblock in Oaxaca paralyzed by months of conflict, killing one demonstrator and wounding another.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Mexican authorities arrested a soldier accused of opening fire on a street barricade in Oaxaca, killing one demonstrator and wounding another. Elections in Mexico’s Tabasco state showed Andres Rafael Granier of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) defeating Democratic Revolution candidate Cesar Raul Ojeda by 10 points. The next day the PRD accused its rivals of fraud.
(AP, 10/15/06)(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 17, In central Mexico an explosion in an area packed with small fireworks factories Capulhuac, 20 miles west of Mexico City, left four people dead and a man with severe burns. In western Mexico 14 people were killed when a passenger bus crashed into the back of a tractor trailer. A spark touched off an explosion aboard a gasoline tanker ship at Pemex's Pajarito marine terminal in the city of Coatzacoalcos, killing eight people and injuring nine others.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, Mexican police discovered two human heads in a backpack in the Pacific state of Guerrero, the latest decapitation victims in a continuing wave of violence.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, Mexico's Senate ruled there was no reason to oust Oaxaca's embattled state governor, eliminating the last formal legal recourse for thousands of protesters who for months have demanded the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz. Jorge Bustos, a commander with the defunct Federal Security Directorate, was arrested in Mexico City in connection with the 1974 disappearance of six alleged guerrilla members. Bustos had arrested six members of the Brigada Lacandona, a 1970s guerrilla faction, who disappeared after Hidalgo state authorities turned them over to the federal intelligence agency.
(AP, 10/19/06)(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 20, In Mexico radical protesters and teachers, who have taken over the city of Oaxaca, appeared to be parting ways after the teachers' leaders agreed to end a strike and return to work.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Mexico’s Michoacan state, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 420 homicides were reported for this year, including 19 police chiefs and commanders. Juan Antonio Magana, the state's attorney general, said well over half the killings were drug-related.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 26, Teachers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca voted to end a five-month-old strike, allowing 1.3 million children to return to classes and potentially taking the sting out of anti-government protests besieging this historic city.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 26, President Bush signed a bill authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, In Oaxaca, Mexico, Bradley Roland Will (36), a US journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The clashes occurred as leftist protesters barricaded streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor. In 2008 two supporters of a protest movement in southern Mexico were arrested for the fatal shooting of the US journalist. Officials said Juan Manuel Martinez, was the gunman, and Octavio Perez was an accomplice who helped cover up the crime. Eight other alleged accomplices were still sought. In 2010 Juan Martinez Moreno was cleared by a federal court.
(AP, 10/28/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.48)(AP, 10/18/08)(AP, 2/17/10)
2006 Oct 28, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox announced he was sending federal police into the violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a US journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The bodies of 3 state police officers, one of whom had been decapitated, were found in a sport utility vehicle abandoned outside the resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 10/28/06)(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 29, In Mexico federal forces stormed Oaxaca and pushed protesters and striking teachers out of the city center they had occupied for five months, leaving the colonial city resembling a battleground, with riot police and burned vehicles lining the streets. At least one demonstrator was killed.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 30, The Mexican government authorized the extradition of ex-Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face embezzlement charges in his country.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Mexico youths roamed the streets of Oaxaca tossing gasoline bombs, hijacking vehicles and vowing to keep fighting for the state governor's ouster. Congress urged the governor to resign and leftist leaders urged national support for the movement.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 2, In Mexico, protesters besieging Oaxaca City forced federal police to retreat from the gates of the state university after six hours of pitched fighting and the rector's call for an end to the government "attack."
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 3, In Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refused to accept an election tribunal's decision that his opponent narrowly won the presidential election, named his "resistance" government Cabinet.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 6, In Mexico City simultaneous explosions hit the Federal Electoral Tribunal, a bank branch and the headquarters of the former ruling party early in the day. Authorities deactivated a homemade explosive device at a second bank branch.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, More than 15,000 white-clad supporters of Oaxaca's embattled governor marched through Oaxaca in their biggest show of strength in a six-month conflict that has left at least nine people dead.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 9, Mexico City's assembly passed legislation to legally recognize gay civil unions in the capital, the first such vote by a legislative body in the history of the conservative country.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 10, In Mexico Misael Tamayo Hernandez, editor of El Despertar de la Costa, was found dead in a hotel room in Zihuatanejo, a day after running stories about organized crime and corruption in the city government. Hector Gaxiola, a district police chief in the border city of Tijuana, was shot and killed a day after surviving another attempt on his life. His brother was found next to him. Both had been shot dozens of times.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 14, Second-grader Saul Arellano, a US citizen, appeared in Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop the deportation of his mother, an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge in a Chicago church. His efforts paid off with a resolution calling on the US Congress to suspend the deportation of Elvira Arellano (31) and any other illegal immigrant parents of US citizens. US officials said there is no right to sanctuary in a church under US law, and nothing to prevent them from arresting Elvira Arellano, who has lived at the church since Aug. 15, the day she was supposed to surrender for deportation.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 15, Aides to former leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will seek contributions from ordinary Mexicans to support a parallel, "legitimate" administration he declared after losing the July 2 elections to President-elect Felipe Calderon by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 16, Jose Manuel Nava (53), a former general manager of one of Mexico's oldest newspapers, was found slain in his apartment in the capital, officials said, a week after he went public with his book criticizing the federal government, the business community and newspaper employees.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 18, The Mexican government released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s. In Michoacan state at least three of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed after police raided the Mil Cumbres prison in Morelia to try to rescue them.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Mexico a public defender died of his injuries after being shot by inmates who took a group of lawyers hostage near the central Mexican city of Morelia, bringing the death toll in the incident to five.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 19, Mexican Gen. Francisco Quiros, imprisoned for drug trafficking and implicated in the disappearance of leftists during Mexico's "dirty war," died from cancer. In 2005 a judge ordered Quiros arrested for the 1974 kidnapping of singer Rosendo Radilla, who disappeared after being seized by soldiers at a roadblock.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910 revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 21, Roberto Marcos Garcia (50), chief reporter for the weekly Testimonio crime magazine in Mexico’s port city of Veracruz, was toppled from his motorcycle and run over by unidentified assailants who then shot him at close range.
(AP, 11/21/06)(SSFC, 12/10/06, p.A21)
2006 Nov 22, In Mexico a violent Mexican drug gang took out a rare, half-page ad in newspapers in which they claimed to be anti-crime vigilantes who wanted to stop kidnapping, robbery and the sale of methamphetamine in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 23, In Mexico Police chief Baltazar Gomez and Osvaldo Rodriguez, both of the Monterrey suburb of Santa Catarina, were killed just after midnight by a gunman who followed them inside a convenience store where they had gone after attending a funeral. Crusading journalist Jesus Blancornelas, who relentlessly investigated drug cartels and government corruption despite an attempt on his life and the killing of colleagues, died of a chronic illness in Tijuana.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Mexico singer Valentin Elizalde (27) was ambushed and gunned down along with his manager and driver following a performance in Reynosa. His ballads included narco-corridos, which honored the exploits of drug dealers.
(SSFC, 11/26/06, p.A19)
2006 Nov 26, In Mexico bands of youths rampaged through downtown Oaxaca, torching buildings and cars hours after federal police used tear gas to drive off a violent mob of leftists in the latest spasm of protests against the state governor. 30 to 40 armed men entered the La Barranca hunting ranch near the US border and kidnapped five men including 3 Texans. Librado Pina Jr. (49), owns the popular deer-hunting ranch near Hidalgo, was released on Dec 18. His son and 2 others had been released earlier. There was no word on the ranch's Mexican cook, Marco Ortiz.
(AP, 11/26/06)(AP, 11/29/06)(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Nov 26, Raul Velasco (73), who hosted one of Mexico's most popular and enduring television programs, "Siempre en Domingo," died at his home in Acapulco.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen attacked a police car in the border city of Tijuana, killing Gerardo Santiago Prado, the police chief of Mesa de Otay, his bodyguard and a secretary.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Nov 29, A Mexican court reinstated an arrest warrant for former President Luis Echeverria, just four months after a federal judge had dismissed the same charges of genocide in connection with a 1968 student massacre.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 30, Mexican police found the bullet-ridden bodies of two men, including a missing journalist, just days after the body of another slain reporter was found in the area. Police discovered the body of reporter Adolfo Sanchez Guzman (32) near Ciudad Mendoza, 75 miles west of Veracruz, not far from where his car was found abandoned on Nov 28. Police on Dec 1 arrested Juan Carlos Palestino (30) and Julian Rosas Palestino (34) after witnesses said the two brothers had been looking for Martinez. The brothers had accused Martinez of stealing their truck.
(AP, 12/1/06)(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Nov, In Mexico credit card interest rates averaged over 30% despite efforts by Guillermo Ortiz, head of the Central Bank, to get banks to lower their costs. 80% of the country’s banking assets were foreign owned.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.76)
2006 Dec 1, Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president amid jeers and whistles, in a chaotic ceremony before congress preceded by a brawl between lawmakers still divided over the nation's tight presidential election.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, Mexico's new president pledged to substantially raise the wages of the armed forces, calling them a crucial weapon against heavily armed drug gangs terrorizing the nation.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 3, Mexico’s newly sworn-in president Felipe Calderon decreed a 10% pay cut for himself and his cabinet members, echoing a central campaign promise of the leftist rival he beat by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres. Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start talks with the government.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 6, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon announced a program to help Mexico's 100 poorest communities, responding to leftist critics who accuse the conservative leader of wanting to help only the rich.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, In Mexico more than 100 prisoners escaped from a state penitentiary a few miles from Cancun's resort zone after hundreds of inmates overpowered guards with knives and bats. Police quickly recaptured most of the men, but there were still 17 at large. More than 250 federal police agents surrounded the offices of the Oaxaca state police force and seized its weapons to determine whether any were used in shootings during six months of demonstrations in Oaxaca City. Assailants shot dead an Indian activist in Mexico's conflict-ridden state of Oaxaca. The bullet-ridden corpse of Raul Marcial Perez was found on a road near the Mixtec Indian community of Agua Fria about 120 miles north of Oaxaca City.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 10, Leonel Cota, president of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Mexico's largest leftist party, led thousands of protesters in a march to the center Oaxaca, demanding the resignation of the state governor and the withdrawal of thousands of federal police.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 12, Mexico's new president launched his first major offensive against drug gangs, sending more than 6,500 federal forces to Michoacan, his violence-plagued home state, to crack down on turf wars that have left hundreds dead in a wave of execution-style killings and beheadings. The body of Luis Felipe Zavala, cousin of Mexico's first lady Margarita Zavala, was found in his minivan in the city of Naucalpan in Mexico State.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 13, A group of about 300 Mazahua Indians briefly seized a water treatment plant on Mexico City's western outskirts and temporarily cut off one of the main sources of water for the metropolis of 18 million people. The protest was motivated by demands for more government development aid. The government teamed up with doctors, academics and a US-based drug company to announce a campaign to reduce the number of smokers in Mexico by more than 10 percent in three years.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Mexico Elias Valencia, a suspected head of the Valencia cartel, was arrested along with four other people at a mountain ranch near the town of Aguililla in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 16, In Mexico hundreds of federal police officers packed up their tents and marched out of Oaxaca’s central square, ending their seven-week occupation to put down a lengthy protest by leftists that had left nine people dead. A Mexican air force plane crashed into the sea near the resort city of Acapulco and rescue teams were searching for its four crew members.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 19, Officials said thousands of soldiers sent to seize control of one of Mexico's top drug-producing regions have discovered widespread cultivation of a hybrid marijuana plant that is easy to grow and difficult to kill.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 28, In central Mexico a passenger bus collided with a freight train, killing 22 people.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Mexico’s Transportation and Communications Secretary Luis Tellez alleged in a recorded conversation that former President Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) stole from a secret government fund. The contents of the conversation were made public in February, 2009. Tellez resigned 2 weeks later following threats that other recordings would be revealed.
(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2006 In Mexico some Zetas, former military special-forces members, broke away from their Gulf cartel associations to form the La Familia organized crime group. La Familia was formed when the gang, then known as "The Business," broke off from the Gulf cartel and declared its independence by rolling the severed heads into a disco in the mountain city of Uruapan.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.34)(AP, 12/11/10)
2006 Mexico, the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, counted a population of some 106 million people. An estimated 500,000 Mexicans left the country each year in search of better opportunities.
(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.3,16)
2006 Mexico counted 2,200 murders this year linked to organized crime. Reporters Without Borders later counted 9 journalists killed this year in Mexico along with 3 missing.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.47)
2006-2010 Mexico seized some 55,000 assault weapons, most of which were bought legally in the United States.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.16)
2006-2011 In Mexico over 47,000 people were killed by violence associated with organized crime related to the drug trade.
(Econ, 6/27/15, p.73)
2007 Jan 2, Mexico said it is sending some 3,300 soldiers and federal police officers to fight drug gangs in the crime-plagued border city of Tijuana, which has become a major smuggling route for cocaine and methamphetamine entering the United States.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, Mexican officials in Michoacan state said they had found nine bodies in a shallow grave in the city of Uruapan.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 6, Mexican federal and state police manned checkpoints within Tijuana’s city limits as local police suspended their patrols because soldiers sent to crack down on drug gangs and corruption seized most of their guns on suspicion they aided traffickers.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 9, In Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has refused to accept his slim loss to President Felipe Calderon in July's election, launched a weekly TV show mocking the government's battle against crime and unemployment and promising to promote a law targeting Mexico's monopolies.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 12, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera (22) of Puebla, Mexico, was killed in a confrontation with the unidentified agent north of the US-Mexico border in Arizona between Bisbee and Douglas. On Jan 16 the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that swarms of locusts had descended on the Mexican state of Yucatan and threatened over 12,000 acres of vegetation.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 14, Gunmen burst into the home of Jaime Meraz Martinez, a political leader in the northern Mexican state of Durango, and fatally shot him, two family members and an employee.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 15, President Felipe Calderon launched a program to create jobs for young Mexicans and curb the flow of millions of migrants to the United States.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, Pedro Diaz Parada, a drug cartel leader, was arrested in the southern state of Oaxaca and taken to Mexico City. This was the first major drug arrest under the administration of President Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, President Felipe Calderon signed an accord with businesses to curb soaring tortilla prices and protect Mexico's poor from speculative sellers and a surge in the cost of corn driven by the US ethanol industry.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, Truck driver Albano Ramirez Santos tried to commit suicide by throwing himself onto the tracks of the Mexico City subway and was later beaten to death by police. Santos was reportedly despondent over the theft of his truck.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 19, Mexico extradited four major drug traffickers to the US, including Osiel Cardenas, head of the so-called Gulf Cartel. President Felipe Calderon announced that 7,600 soldiers have massed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero to go after drug gangs that have committed beheadings and other violence in the resort city of Acapulco in recent months.
(AP, 1/19/07)(AP, 1/20/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.p33)
2007 Jan 20, In Mexico Rodolfo Rincon (54), who worked for the newspaper Tabasco Hoy, was last seen after he reported on local drug dealers. In 2010 Mexican authorities said he was killed by a drug cartel's hit men who dissolved his body in acid.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2007 Jan 24, In southern Mexico a bus plunged into a ravine in remote mountains, killing at least 29 people.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, Six federal police officers involved in President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug operation were being investigated for extortion after they were videotaped taking money from a driver in the border city of Tijuana.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, Police in Tijuana, Mexico, got their guns back three weeks after they were forced to turn over weapons to federal authorities because of allegations they were colluding with drug traffickers.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico City some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico a lesbian couple registered what officials called Mexico's first gay civil union in the northern city of Saltillo.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon praised a new law that obligates federal and local authorities to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women, and he promised a "relentless" fight against gender-related abuse.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 3, In Mexico thousands of protesters marched in Oaxaca to demand the resignation of the state governor. A man's chopped up body was discovered in Acapulco dumped in plastic garbage bags.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 6, In Mexico more than a dozen armed assailants staged and videotaped simultaneous attacks against two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco, killing five agents and two secretaries.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 14, Mexican immigration agents allegedly locked 10 Guatemalan and two Salvadoran migrants in a trailer after they refused to pay a bribe against of $110 each. In late 2008 the country's National Human Rights Commission called for a government investigation.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2007 Feb 15, Assailants shot dead four police officers in the western Mexican city of Aguascalientes, the latest in a wave of slayings of law enforcement officers across Mexico.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 18, Officials said the Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states across the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that soldiers waging an offensive against drug traffickers will get a pay hike of 45 percent this year in a bid to insulate them from corruption. This coincided with a decision to lower his own pay by 10% and abolish pensions for Mexican presidents.
(AP, 2/19/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 22, The Bush administration announced its plan to have US inspectors oversee Mexican trucking companies that carry cargo across the border. Mexico responded to the US announcement by saying it will allow trucks from 100 US companies to travel across the border. The news that Mexican trucks will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the US drew an angry reaction the next day from labor leaders, safety advocates and members of Congress.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 26, Four Mexican soldiers were arrested and accused of raping and murdering a 73-year-old woman a day earlier in a case that outraged Indian groups in Soledad Atzompa in Veracruz state. In May a special prosecutor found no evidence that soldiers beat and raped Ernestina Ascensio Rosario. An autopsy on Ascensio's body showed that she died of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract.
(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Feb 27, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that the armed forces cannot kick out HIV-positive members because doing so is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Mexico's head of migration pledged to improve the agency's detention centers in response to criticism that Mexico fails to give Central American immigrants the same respect it demands for its own citizens in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 27, CompUSA said it will close 126 retail stores by the end of May. The restructure would leave 103 stores and include a $440 million cash infusion from parent company US Commercial Corp., a holding company in Mexico City controlled by Carlos Slim.
(SFC, 2/28/07, p.C3)
2007 Feb, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City’s newly elected mayor, sent 600 police on a raid to evict residents from 73 apartments in a building in Tepito, said to be a drug-dealing center. Raids there and nearby netted 2 kilos of cocaine, 30 tons of DVDs and 90 kilos of marijuana.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.34)
2007 Feb, Mexican customs agent Jorge Santillan seized a truck crossing from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico, carrying a grenade launcher and 17 grenades along with 18 rifles and 17 pistols. Days later, the agent was shot to death with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Mar 3, In southern Mexico gunmen killed two members of Mexico's former ruling party in the mountain city of Tlapa in Guerrero state.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, In Mexico gunmen wounded Gen. Francisco Fernandez, the top security official in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, and killed his driver.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 9, President Felipe Calderon proposed sweeping reforms to Mexico's justice system, including US-style trials and a unified criminal code. Mexican federal police detained 81 Chinese immigrants and 22 immigration agents after the Chinese were discovered hiding in the Cancun airport terminal, possibly with the protection of Mexican immigration officers.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 10, In northern Mexico 8 people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus slammed into a tractor trailer carrying aluminum beams.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 13, In Mexico Pres. Bush met with Pres. Felipe Calderon in Merida. Bush sought to soothe strained ties by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough US immigration policies, but Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized US plans for a 700-mile border fence. Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the US Embassy in Mexico City, attacking riot police with concrete blocks, metal bars and tearing down barricades to protest Bush's visit.
(AP, 3/14/07)(AP, 3/13/08)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec. The attorney general later said the $206 million in cash seized was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. The ring had been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who had gained Mexican citizenship. A recount put the cashed seized to over $207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Mexico an economist and a journalist became the first couple united under Mexico City's new gay civil union law.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, Hundreds of Mexican federal police and soldiers surrounded the headquarters of Tabasco's state police and arrested top current and former commanders in a raid apparently linked to an assassination attempt against the state's public safety secretary. Mireya Lopez Portillo, the daughter of a retired Mexican general, and her husband, a television network executive, were shot to death while traveling in a sport utility vehicle in Mexico City. This raised fears the army is being targeted for attacks because of its broadening role in law enforcement.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, The Arenitas waste water treatment plant, that Mexican officials say will help prevent pollution of US waterways, was inaugurated in the city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, Calif.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 26, An American border inspector was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for taking cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, Police in Mexico City kicked off a campaign to exchange guns for computers and other gifts in an attempt to reduce firearm deaths. Two bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags and sheets behind a television station in Mexico's port city of Veracruz, apparent victims of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In northern Mexico gunmen killed two police officers and six other people in less than 48 hours, the latest victims in a wave of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 30, A video purportedly showing the beheading of a drug cartel hit man appeared on video-sharing Web site YouTube, and its makers called on Mexicans to kill more members of the gang.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Monterrey, Mexico, a tractor-trailer lost its brakes and killed nine people as it plowed through a residential area. The driver of a tractor-trailer was charged with homicide after testing positive for drugs.
(AP, 4/2/07)(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Amado Ramirez, the Acapulco correspondent for Mexico's top television news network, was shot to death.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, A Mexican court ordered the reinstatement of ousted mineworkers union leader Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, more than a year after the government turned him out of office based on complaints of corruption.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a law eliminating prison sentences for libel or defamation, drawing praise from media watchdog groups.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, In Mexico a speeding bus crashed into a tractor-trailer outside the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 28 people and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 4/15/07)(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 15, A 14-year-old matador who left Spain to escape his home country's ban on young bullfighters was nearly gored to death in a Mexican City ring, his lung punctured by a 900-pound bull.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, Police found 17 bodies stuffed in cars or dumped on streets in garbage bags across Mexico in the latest wave of violence apparently triggered by warring drug gangs.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nicaraguan police announced the arrest of more than two dozen local members of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel but said they were still seeking the group's leader.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 18, Mexican police and soldiers battled gunmen at a hospital in Tijuana in violence that left at least three people dead before the authorities subdued the attackers. Authorities said next day that the gunmen were hit men for the city's Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Mexico a Durango state police commander was kidnapped and killed and two other officers were shot dead in a gun battle with his abductors.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 22, Marcos Leyes Perez, the son of the US consul in southern Oaxaca state, was stabbed during an apparent mugging.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 23, Eleazar Medina Rojas, described as a key member of the powerful Gulf drug cartel, was arrested in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, along with his father, four other cartel members and four women. Authorities reported the killing of Jorge Gonzalez, police chief of Cardenas, in the southern Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Mexican police found the body of Saul Noe Martinez Ortega (36), a newspaper editor abducted last week in the border city of Agua Prieta. He had been dead at least six days and was found in neighboring Chihuahua state.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, Mexico City lawmakers voted to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court battle.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, A new measure legalizing abortions in Mexico City was published into law, allowing doctors to almost immediately begin terminating pregnancies in their first trimester.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 30, US and Mexican law enforcement officials said Mexican druglords are taking over the business of smuggling migrants into the United States, using them as human decoys to divert authorities from billions of dollars in cocaine shipments across the same border.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr, Mexico’s CompartamosBanco went public as a lender to the poor. It was created in 1990 as a non-Governmental Organization (NGO). ACCION Int’l., a charity that has helped to spread microfinance since the 1970s, was an early investor and banked $140 million in the IPO, while retaining a 9% stake. ACCION had received funding from USAID.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.93)(http://tinyurl.com/46esnp)
2007 May 1, In Mexico 5 soldiers, including a colonel, and a suspected drug cartel enforcer were killed in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan, which has been plagued by drug violence and is the target of a military-led anti-drug offensive.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 6, More than 18,000 people stripped down and bared it all in Mexico City's vast main square for US photographer Spencer Tunick's biggest nude shoot yet.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 7, In western Mexico 4 purported drug smugglers were killed in a shootout with soldiers in Apatzingan, Michoacan state, the second deadly clash in a week between traffickers and troops in the same remote, mountainous region.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, In Mexico a severed head accompanied by a note of defiance from organized crime gangs and two hand grenades was found outside a military barracks in Veracruz state.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 14, In Mexico City gunmen fatally shot Jose Nemesio Lugo, Mexico’s new federal narcotics intelligence chief, as he was on his way to work at the Attorney General's Office.
(AP, 5/14/07)(SFC, 5/25/07, p.A1)
2007 May 15, A top Mexican anti-drug official said the US must do more to stop weapons from being smuggled into the hands of drug traffickers who are using them to kill Mexican soldiers and police.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, In Mexico over 40 armed men abducted and killed 4 police officers south of the Arizona border.
(SFC, 5/17/07, p.A3)
2007 May 16, Thomas Frank White, a US businessman, was convicted of raping a teenage boy and sentenced to more than 7 years in jail in Mexico. White, who founded the brokerage firm Thomas White & Co. in 1978, was arrested in Thailand in 2003 at the behest of Mexican officials and later extradited.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, Mexican police chased the remnants of a criminal assault force through the mountains of Sonora near the Arizona border after kidnappings and gunbattles that left at least 22 people dead.
(AP, 5/17/07)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2007 May 19, Assailants shot dead a police commander in a wealthy Monterrey suburb, the latest in a wave of killings of law enforcement officials across Mexico.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 23, In western Mexico a tractor-trailer loaded with sand smashed into a toll booth and rebounded into other vehicles, setting off a blaze that killed 10 people.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 25, In Mexico 2 members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), a Marxist guerrilla group, disappeared. A week later the group blamed the government and called for their safe return and warned of dire consequences. In July the group began blowing up natural gas pipelines. Attacks took place on July 6,10 and Sep 10.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.A1)
2007 May 27, In southern Mexico assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles shot dead six family members, including three children, as they ambushed a minivan on a country road.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City Riyo Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open an international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 31, Mexico's Televisa network, known around the world for its soap operas, said it plans to expand in China, following the lead of taco chains and other Mexican businesses looking for a slice of the Asian nation's market.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Mexican soldiers fired on a family traveling to a funeral when they failed to stop after being ordered to do so at the checkpoint near the village of La Joya. 19 Mexican soldiers were sent to a military prison June 4 for the shooting that killed two women and three children. In 2011 the commanding officer received a 40-year sentence in a court martial and another officer received 38 years. A judge gave 12 enlisted soldiers 16-year sentences.
(AP, 6/5/07)(AP, 11/3/11)
2007 Jun 3, In southern Mexico tons of bananas collapsed the false floor of a tractor-trailer smuggling migrants, killing 6 people hidden inside a secret compartment and wounding a dozen others.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 11, Mexican police and soldiers arrested three men during an operation to fight illegal logging in a mountain region south of Mexico City where environmentalist Aldo Zamora (21) was killed on May 15.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 14, Abel Diaz Lucas, also known as Jorge Guevara-Perez, was arrested in El Paso, Texas. The next day he was handed to Mexican authorities, who had been trying to find Diaz for five years. They accused him of running a central Mexico gang notorious for cutting off the fingers and ears of their victims and sending them to their families to demand ransom money.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Mexico the government of Oaxaca apologized for the first time for a police raid on protesters last year that led to the country's worst political unrest in years.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 19, Antonio Aguilar (88), Mexican mariachi singer and actor, died. He recorded more than 150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico's "Golden Era" of cinema. He appeared in 167 films, including "The Undefeated" starring John Wayne.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 21, Mario Villanueva, the former Mexican governor of Quintana Roo, was freed after six years behind bars and immediately re-arrested on a US extradition request in which he is accused of helping smuggle 200 tons of cocaine into the United States.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 25, Mexico temporarily removed all 284 of its top federal police officers from their jobs and is forcing them to undergo psychological reviews to prove they will not be corrupted in the fight against drug trafficking.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy rains triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town of Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers were thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu (67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an adjacent highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers assigned to the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 10, Mexico's government called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to the nation's democratic institutions and vowed to step up security after a guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In western Mexico Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut down their factories after rebels attacked a key natural gas pipeline.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, News reports said Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new 5,000- strong elite military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil refineries and dams in the wake of recent guerrilla attacks on pipelines operated by Pemex.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 13, Roman Robles-Cota (32), a police chief in the northern Mexican town of Sonoyta pleaded guilty to charges that he bribed a US Border Patrol agent in 2005 in an effort to help a smuggling operation.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Mexico police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since November.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 23, Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in a Maryland restaurant, four months after police discovered $207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what US officials have called the world's biggest seizure of drug cash. Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye Gon's extradition. Ye Gon has claimed that $150 million of the money belonged to Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during the 2006 presidential race. Ye Gon later told US prosecutors he had sold tons of a chemical used to make methamphetamine on the black market.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 10/23/09)
2007 Jul 30, The body of Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon, a Cuban-American who was under investigation in a migrant smuggling case, was found riddled with bullets along a road outside Cancun, Mexico.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, The Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) struck Grupo Mexico to demand wage increases and improved safety conditions. Striking workers occupied the Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora and continued into 2010.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.59)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1819816120100218)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the bodies of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug traffickers. The agents had taken part in a raid that discovered $205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe Osuna (51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for governor in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a former mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links to organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean roared toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 21, Hurricane Dean slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico as a roaring Category 5 hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two decades. Dean made landfall after killing 13 people in the Caribbean.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Hurricane Dean closed in on the Mexican mainland, battering oil platforms on the Bay of Campeche. Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm as it drenched central Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the US and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Mexico Tropical Storm Henriette dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, flooding streets and prompting officials to close more than 1,000 schools, while Tropical Storm Felix formed in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 5, Hurricane Henriette threatened Mexico's mainland after punishing the Los Cabos resorts.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Martin Villegas, Mexican boot maker to world leaders, including President Bush and Vicente Fox, was arrested in Colorado along with two other Mexican nationals and two US residents following a three-year undercover operation by US Fish and Wildlife Service agents. The five allegedly made 25 illegal shipments of banned skins into the US since 2005.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 9, In northern Mexico a truck carrying 25 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up after colliding with another vehicle, killing at least 37 people, including three reporters who came to the scene near Sacramento.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.40)
2007 Sep 10, Several explosions in Veracruz state, believed to be the work of saboteurs, ripped apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico's state oil monopoly. The explosions forced the evacuation of some 12,000 people. The so-called People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 10, In central Mexico a bus carrying worshippers on a pilgrimage to a famous shrine plunged into a valley, killing nine passengers and leaving 38 injured.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 11, Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited India's technology hub of Bangalore to get a feel for the success of its outsourcing companies, and to encourage them to invest more in Mexico.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 15, In western Mexico a bus carrying tourists including passengers of a flight from Phoenix crashed, killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 28, In Mexico City more than 30 federal agents arrested Avila Beltran (46), who allegedly spent more than a decade working her way to the top echelons of Mexico's male-dominated drug trade.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Sep 28, Hurricane Lorenzo crashed into Mexico's Gulf coast before dawn, ripping apart shacks, uprooting trees and sending billboards flying through the air. At least 5 people died.
(AP, 9/28/07)(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 8, Police in Mexico City arrested Jose Luis Calva, an aspiring horror novelist, after discovering his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Police had come to Calva's apartment to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 18, Teenage pop star Belinda (18), who starred in the Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls 2," won the video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in Mexico City. The native of Madrid, Spain, who grew up in Mexico, also won best solo artist.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from Guatemala with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the end of the week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was believed to be carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 22, The US announced the Merida Initiative. It was signed into law on June 30, 2008. It is a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)
2007 Oct 22, Pres. Bush asked Congress for $196.4 billion for the Iraq war. This included $500 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers as Mexico and the US announced plans for a $1.4 billion aid package to fight drug trafficking and other organized crime south of the border.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A7)(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex said the workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven employees of the subcontractor company that operated the rig, at least one rescue boat crew member, and six others who worked for other companies. On Dec 16 Pemex announced that the well was finally capped. Roughly 420 barrels of oil per day had spilled from the damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct, Mexican officials seized 23.5 tons of cocaine this month, the largest seizure ever reported in Mexico. A US report, commissioned by Sen. Lugar, later estimated that 530-710 tons of cocaine crossed annually into the US.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.45)
2007 Nov 2, Rescuers in boats and helicopters worked to evacuate people stranded by a flood the president called "one of the worst natural disasters" to hit Mexico. A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, leaving 70 percent of the Gulf state of Tabasco underwater. Gov. Andres Granier estimated the damage at $5 billion. The death toll reached to about 25.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Nov 4, In Mexico a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped San Juan Grijalva, in Chiapas near the Tabasco border, off the map. 15 bodies were later recovered with 9 left missing. The floods killed at least 8 others in Tabasco and elsewhere in Chiapas.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/13/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 14, A broad electoral reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry by barring political parties from buying radio and television advertisements took effect.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Mexico Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, was abducted, tortured and strangled to death. His body was found the next day. A day earlier Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones was killed execution-style at the hospital where she was recovering from neck surgery for a shooting on Nov 30, in which 2 other people were killed. Fears rose that singers, whether they have any links to drug cartels or not, get routinely "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
(AP, 12/5/07)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.E3)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen shot and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border city of Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, In southern Mexico Jose Luis Aquino (33), a trumpet player, was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head, in what authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a musician in less than a week.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Former Mexican Pres. Fox authored his ghost-written memoir “Revolution of Hope." It was published in English prior to a Spanish version.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2007 Sam Quinines authored “Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration."
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M1)
2007 Gregory Rodriguez authored “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America."
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.102)
2007 Alberto Nava, a California cave diver, and two Mexican dive budies discovered a human skeleton in a deep underwater cave in Mexico’s Yucatan jungle. In 2014 scientists said the skeleton was that of a young girl who probably fell into the cave over 12,000 years ago. DNA evidence linked her to modern native Americans.
(SFC, 5/16/14, p.D8)
2008 Jan 1, In Mexico import tariffs on maize, beans, sugar and milk were eliminated.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.38)
2008 Jan 7, A shootout between Mexican authorities and suspected criminals just across the border from Texas left three people dead and eight injured.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, In Mexico 3 US residents and seven others linked to the powerful Gulf drug cartel were arrested following a deadly shootout in Rio Bravo just across the border from Texas. In a second shootout, two federal agents were killed and three more injured when they clashed with a group of suspects in the nearby city of Reynosa.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 10, In Mexico gunmen shot dead two federal agents and a civilian in the central state of Michoacan.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 11, In central Mexico a helicopter carrying volunteers on a mission to distribute toys to needy children crashed, killing eight people, including a government official.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 14, In Mexico Tijuana District Commander Jose de Jesus Arias Rico and his assistant Elbert Escobedo Marquez were riddled with bullets as they traveled in a private vehicle after finishing their shift. A car chase and shootout between Tijuana municipal police and at least two people who allegedly tried to rob an armored car after it made a cash pickup at a bank. One suspect was killed and another was wounded.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Mexico before dawn Margarito Saldana, Tijuana district commander, was shot dead while he slept in his home.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 17, In Mexico officials found six bodies inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a shootout with soldiers and police.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 19, In southern California a Hummer, suspected of carrying drugs and heading to Mexico, cut through a campground and hit and killed Luis Aguilar (32), a US Border Patrol, as he threw a spike strip in front of the vehicle. On Jan 23 Jesus Navarro Montes (22) was arrested in the northern state of Sonora for hitting Aguilar. On April 12, 2011, Navarro was found guilty of drug charges and second degree murder for killing Aguilar. On July 1 Navarro was sentenced to life in prison and was given an additional 80 years in prison on drug charges.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A3)(AP, 1/23/08)(Reuters, 4/13/11)(SFC, 7/2/11, p.A5)
2008 Jan 21, Mexico's army captured Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of the Sinaloa cartel. He allegedly commanded squads of hit men and organized drug shipments north.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, In Mexico 11 alleged hit men for a powerful drug cartel were captured at two Mexico City mansions stocked with grenades and automatic weapons, a day after Mexican authorities reported nabbing one of the cartel's reputed leaders.
(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 29, In Mexico City Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights, rallied support for Flor Crisostomo (28), another woman now seeking refuge in the same building. Four Mexican military officers and one soldier, were turned over to prosecutors for alleged links to Alfredo Beltran Leyva, but their cases weren't made public until Oct 31.
(AP, 1/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Jan 30, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (b.1920), Mexican Roman Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement (1941), died in Texas.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/americas/01maciel.html)
2008 Jan 31, In Mexico tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City to protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff protections for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 7, Mexican soldiers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana, a machine gun, scores of assault rifles and three grenades in a raid just across the border from Texas.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Mexico City a bomb exploded near the police headquarters killing one man. A singer and two members of his staff were tortured and killed just south of the California border, apparently the latest victims in a string of slayings of Mexican musicians. The border killings were not reported until Feb 20.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mexican lawmakers approved judicial reform that would introduce public, oral trials and guarantee the presumption of innocence, even as lawmakers deleted a proposal to allow police to search homes without a warrant. Mexico's Senate approved a law that would ban smoking in workplaces, public buildings and public transportation across the country, allowing it in private businesses only if special, ventilated smoking areas are set up. Investigators found parts from at least 8 bodies in a series of backyard pits at a house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. In March the body count increased to 36.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/26/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 7, Mexican soldiers seized assault rifles, grenades, marijuana and bulletproof vests bearing police insignia after a brief shootout in the border city of Tijuana. Police commander Ricardo Rodriguez was shot dead in a city plaza by gunmen who opened fire with assault rifles from a moving car. Six gunmen were also killed in the shootout.
(AP, 3/7/08)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 10, In Mexico a researcher said satellite photographs show illegal loggers have clear-cut large swathes of trees in the heart of a monarch butterfly reserve, threatening the insects' habitat. The images show illegal loggers chopped 1,100 acres of trees since 2004 in the core of a wooded park in Michoacan state.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 10, In central Mexico a sports utility vehicle fell into a canal, killing nine small children but leaving their teacher unharmed.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 11, Mexico's federal attorney general's office announced an investigation into allegations of corruption against Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, a confidant of the president who holds the government's second highest profile job.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 13, Cuba and Mexico declared their once-chilly relations fully restored, and Cuba's foreign minister said he will soon deliver a formal invitation for Mexico's president to visit the island.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 13, In central Mexico 6 people were shot and killed inside a private law office in Guadalajara.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 25, In eastern Guatemala at least nine people were killed and seven wounded in a shootout that is likely tied to drug traffickers. Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose "Juancho" Leon was summoned by Mexican traffickers for what he was told was business. Instead, dozens of attackers ambushed his entourage with grenades and assault rifles, killing Leon and 10 others in a brazen demonstration of power.
(AP, 3/25/08)(AP, 7/21/09)
2008 Mar 26, In Mexico a confrontation in Sinaloa state left four civilians and two soldiers dead. A military judge later issued an arrest warrant for 5 soldiers considered as suspects.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Mar 27, The Mexican government said it has sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to curb soaring violence in a border state across from Texas and New Mexico.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Mexico Juana Barraza (50), a former female wrestler who terrorized Mexico City as the "Little Old Lady Killer," was sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing 16 elderly women.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Mexico two soldiers deserted and were later killed during a gunbattle with police in the state of Nuevo Leon. 3 state police officers and a civilian also died in the violence. The Mexican army said soldiers looking for drug traffickers found $6 million in cash inside a truck near the US border and arrested five men at the scene. The daily El Universal reported that five soldiers had been arrested for passing information to the Sinaloa alliance of Pacific Coast smugglers.
(AP, 4/5/08)(Reuters, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 6, In southern Mexico a truck carrying Central American migrants in a hidden compartment plunged into a reservoir, killing at least eight people. Most of the migrants were believed to be from Guatemala.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Mexico Pres. Calderon said he would ease some bureaucratic barriers, and allow Pemex to pay outside contractors a "bonus," not a percentage cut, for oil found in deep-water reserves.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, Leftist lawmakers took over both chambers of Mexico's Congress to protest President Felipe Calderon's energy reform bill, which would make it easier for the state oil company to seek outside help to develop oil fields.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Mexico police, working with FBI agents in the small town of Tacambaro, arrested Cpl. Cesar Laurean (21). He is charged with first-degree murder in the December, 2007, death at Camp Lejeune, NC, of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of this year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos (43) of Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group promoting sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation; Marina Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which forced the rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo Fajardo (35) and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the Amazon Defense Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping oil and wastewater into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of Puerto Rico, head of a movement to protect the Las Cicharillas Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of Belgium, head of a movement to establish Belgium’s 1st and only national park; Jesus Leon (42) of Mexico, co-founder of the Center for Integral Small Farmer Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 15, In Mexico gunmen held up a family of US tourists in Baha and made off with their small plane from a hotel airstrip in Mulege.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 17, Chief Juan Muniz, the Mexican police chief of the border city of Reynosa, was arrested for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18, In western Mexico a military helicopter crashed, killing 11 soldiers and seriously injuring another.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 22, In New Orleans Pres. Bush ended a 2-day meeting with PM Harper of Canada and Pres. Calderon of Mexico as all three defended NAFTA. Bush denied the US is in recession calling the current economic situation a slowdown.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said the US is scrapping a $20 million virtual fence, developed by Boeing Corp., on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system failed to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 26, In Mexico running gunbattles between suspected drug traffickers broke out on the streets of the border city of Tijuana, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 29, Migrant rights activists applauded a vote by Mexico's Congress to remove long-standing criminal penalties for undocumented migrants found in the country. President Felipe Calderon's office declined to say whether he would sign the popular measure into law.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 May 1, Roberto Velasco, head of Mexico’s federal police organized crime division, was murdered. Police later said the murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 5, In southern Mexico a prominent cattle rancher hid from gunmen who killed two of his sons and kidnapped his daughter in weekend attacks that left 17 people dead.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 7, In Mexico a leftist rebel group (EPR) linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on rejected an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The People's Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe Calderon because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve crimes allegedly committed by current and past administrations against its members.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, Edgar Millan Gomez (42), Mexico's acting federal police chief, was shot dead outside his Mexico City apartment complex, as drug traffickers increasingly lashed back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Bodyguards at the scene arrested Alejandro Ramirez (34). Edgar Guzman, the son of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman, was shot dead in Culiacan, Sinaloa state. Also killed in the attack was Arturo Meza Cazares, the son of Blanca Margarita Cazares, whom the US has identified as a key money launderer for the cartel. Police later said Millan’s murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/9/08)(SFC, 5/9/08, p.A16)(http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/xarticle/ajc8708.htm)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 10, Juan Antonio Roman Garcia, the No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across from Texas, was shot dead, the latest high-ranking official killed in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown. Gunman sprayed Garcia's car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Mexican authorities said a police officer and four other people, with suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel, have been arrested in the May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, the acting federal police chief.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Mexico more than 2,700 soldiers and federal agents were sent to Sinaloa state as part of a crackdown on drug-related violence.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In Mexico 2 police officers were shot and killed in Torreon, Coahuila state, when they tried to stop gunmen from kidnapping a family. Assailants opened fire and threw grenades at a police station in Guamuchil in the northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 15, In Mexico Pres. Calderon held a signing ceremony for an agreement with Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the national teacher’s union, to promote the “Alliance for Educational Quality, an effort to improve teacher quality.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.55)
2008 May 18, An American woman (28) was among four people found dead in the Mexican beach town of Playas de Rosarito, near border with California.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In Mexico the military took over the town of Zirandaro near Texas after all 20 of its police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 20, In Mexico’s Durango state two rival groups opened fire at each other with pistols and assault rifles on a highway, killing eight people. Officials said the Mexican military took over the police department of Villa Ahumada this week because all 20 officers on the force have either been killed, run out of town or quit. The body of Victor Enrique Payan, 2nd in command of police in Morelos, was found with a second, unidentified Morelos state police officer in the trunk of a car south of Mexico City.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Mexico's attorney general said homicides related to organized crime jumped 47 percent in 2008, in a rare confirmation of how bad violence has become.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Mexican federal officials said they plan to clean up Acapulco's bay, where an estimated 400 gallons (1,700 liters) of sewage spews into the Pacific ocean every second.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 27, In Mexico 7 federal police and a suspected hit man were killed in a shootout as authorities surrounded a suspected drug safe house in Culiacan, home to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 31, Tropical Storm Arthur the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season, kicked up surf when it made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border and headed west.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In western Mexico Marcelo Ibarra, the mayor of Villa Madero, was forced from his car and shot dead. Officials believed the killing was an attempted robbery, although they haven't ruled out other motives.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Mexico Claudio Conti (53) was reportedly kidnapped along Zicatela beach in Puerto Escondido, where he operated the Da Claudio restaurant and a hotel. On Feb 28, 2009, Mexican police said they had captured four men suspected of kidnapping the Italian businessman, and that one of the men told police the victim had been ordered killed, though it was not clear if the slaying was carried out.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor (1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking, overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot dead while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city where drug gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 9, A note threatening a Mexican journalist was found outside the office of a newspaper in southern Mexico, two days after someone left a severed head there. The letter was directed at Juan Padilla, editor of El Correo de Tabasco, which recently carried reports about migrant smuggling and kidnapping in the area.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, In southern Mexico armed men hijacked a bus carrying 33 Cubans and four Central American migrants detained after forcing immigration agents away at gunpoint. The seized Cubans and Central Americans were being taken to an immigration processing center in the nearby city of Tapachula when the attack occurred. Mexican immigration agents are normally unarmed on such assignments.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 15, In Sonora, Mexico, one state police officer and two federal agents were killed in a running battle with dozens of gunmen that lasted several hours. One of the gunmen was wounded.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 17, Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon signed a constitutional amendment that threw open the doors to its judicial system, allowing US-style public trials and creating a presumption of innocence.
(AP, 6/18/08)(WSJ, 6/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Jun 18, Food manufacturers promised Mexico's government that they would freeze prices on more than 150 food products to help families cope with rising costs.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, Panicked youths rushed for the exits during a police raid on a Mexico City nightclub, leaving 12 people dead in the crush of bodies. The dead included 3 underage teens and 3 police officers. Prosecutors later charged the police commander who led a botched raid with 12 counts of homicide.
(AP, 6/21/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 21, Mexican soldiers captured at least 10 suspected members of a Tijuana-based drug cartel in a raid on a child's baptism party in Tijuana. A total of 61 people were arrested in the sweep, including the band hired to play the party and three city police officers.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 25, In Mexico state police spokesman Cesar Ramirez said 20 people have been killed in less than three days in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Guerrero state authorities agreed to pay 490,000 pesos (US$48,000) in compensation to 14 indigenous Mexican men coerced into having vasectomies. The men said that state health workers showed up in the southern village of El Camalote in 1998 and demanded that men with more than four children must have vasectomies.
(AP, 6/25/08)(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Mexico gunmen killed Igor Labastida, a top federal police official, and his bodyguard as they ate lunch in Mexico City.
(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Piedras Negras, Mexico, Chad Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, attended a tree planting ceremony for the first of 400,000 trees which will form a "green wall" in protest of the fence the US is building along the border with Mexico.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 30, The US signed into law the Merida Initiative announced last Oct 22. The security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico gives Mexico $139 million a year to fight gangs, strengthen the rule of law and improve border security.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)(Econ, 1/28/17, p.31)
2008 Jul 1, In Mexico videos showing Leon police practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer and dragging another through vomit at the instruction of a US adviser created an uproar, which has struggled to eliminate torture in law enforcement.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Mexico 4 decapitated bodies were found on a street in Culiacan, blocks away from their severed heads. Four gunmen were killed hours later, after opening fire on federal police patrolling Culiacan, a center for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Under attack, police shot back at the home where the gunmen were holed up, killing the four assailants and capturing two others.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 6, In northern Mexico a plane carrying a load of auto parts crashed s it was trying to land, killing the pilot and severely injuring the co-pilot.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police found six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody weekend that left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, In northern Mexico, 6 bullet-ridden bodies were found inside the auto body shop in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and three more bodies were found on the street just outside the business. A police investigator was found shot to death in his truck near Culiacan's police headquarters.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on four cars on a busy street in Guamuchil, killing eight people. Among the victims were a girl (11), two 17-year-old boys and two women aged 18 and 19. On July 16 Mexico's government offered a reward of nearly US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of the gunmen.
(AP, 7/14/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Mexico commander Gerardo Valdes, the head of kidnapping and organized crime investigations in the border state of Coahuila, was seized by at least six men when he was driving in Saltillo. An unidentified man called police and said that Valdes had been grabbed by the Juarez Cartel.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast and arrested its four-man crew.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Mexico's president replaced a 1791 time capsule discovered atop Mexico City's cathedral with a new one containing messages from golf star Lorena Ochoa, novelist Carlos Fuentes and a boy genius.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued an advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers after it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town warehouse that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella that was earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 22, In Mexico a measure took effect eliminating jail times for illegal immigrants caught in Mexico.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Dolly was upgraded to hurricane status as it headed toward the US-Mexican border.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 23, Hurricane Dolly toppled trees and sent billboards flying in the Mexican city of Matamoros, and authorities south of the US border warned of possible flooding. Dolly also hit south Texas, but by evening it had weakened to a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/24/08)(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also killed. 3 other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 27, Mexico City residents voted against the president's proposal to give private companies a bigger role in the country's state-run oil industry in a nonbinding referendum.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Mexico a family of six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state, allegedly targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four victims, including two children, were shot in the head. A teenage boy's throat was slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic bag.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Jul 30, Mexican police captured Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian cartel operative who represented Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel in dealings with Mexico's Beltran Leyva gang. He had escaped from a Colombian prison in 2001 and was wanted on drug charges in the US.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 30, US federal health officials said the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of serrano peppers at a Mexican farm in Nuevo Leon. Mexico's Agriculture Department rejected the FDA's conclusion saying "The farm unit in question ended its harvest more than a month ago, so the sample they say they have lacks scientific validity" because the sample "was taken recently from a tank holding rain water that was not used in production."
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, The body of Fernando Marti, the 14-year-old son of a prominent businessman, was found in the trunk of a car in Mexico City. He had been kidnapped in June. The kidnap and murder prompted a wave of anti-crime protests across the nation. In September police detained five suspects including Sergio Ortiz, a former agent of a now-disbanded city detective force, who led the "Flower Gang" responsible for kidnapping Marti in June. In July, 2009, Jose Montiel (34) and Noe Robles (31) were arrested for the kidnapping. They were believed to be members of a Mexico City gang responsible for at least 23 abductions.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 7/18/09)
2008 Aug 4, A shootout between Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal immigrants left 2 people dead near Agua Dulce.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, Texas executed Jose Medellin (33) for the 1993 rape and killing of two teenage girls in Houston. Mexico protested the execution, which took place despite a world court ruling for a new hearing, and expressed concern for the rights of other Mexicans detained in the US. On Jan 19, 2009, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the US defied its order when authorities in Texas last year executed a Mexican convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 8/6/08)(AP, 1/19/09)
2008 Aug 11, In Acapulco, Mexico, gunmen traveling in a sport utility vehicle fired at a hardware store killing a girl (14) and a man (35).
(AP, 8/12/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402108,00.html)
2008 Aug 13, In Mexico a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said 6 federal agents have been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of powerful drug lords.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB rejected Venezuela’s bid for the company’s assets in Venezuela. At midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex facilities around the country.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 21, In Mexico Pres. Calderon, congressional leaders, all state governors and a bevy of others signed a “National Agreement for Security."
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 22, Mexican police captured a man believed to be Ruben Rios Estrada, a key gunman for the Arellano-Felix cocaine cartel, at the Caliente racetrack casino in Tijuana after a chase through the city streets. Another suspected gang member also was arrested. The bullet-riddled body of Jesus Blanco Cano (40) was found at a ranch near Villa Ahumada in Chihuahua state. He had just been on the job for one day as police chief of Villa Ahumada.
(AP, 8/23/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 26, In Mexico 3 decapitated bodies were found in an empty lot on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana. The bodies had messages written on their backs in permanent marker saying they worked for "the weakened 'engineer,'" a nickname for Francisco Sanchez Arellano, a top lieutenant in Tijuana's powerful Arellano Felix drug cartel. A day earlier 2 bodies were found in Tijuana, one with the head placed on the upper back.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 27, In Mexico a 38-year-old man from Oregon was arrested in San Jose del Cabo following a fight at an apartment complex. He died in jail hours later. On Aug 31 six Mexican officers placed under house arrest on suspicion of homicide.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 28, Mexico's Supreme Court upheld the capital's abortion law, setting a precedent for the rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities. Twelve decapitated bodies bearing signs of torture were found in eastern Mexico and authorities were still looking for the heads. 11 of the bodies were found in a suburb of Merida, a 12th in Buctzotz, 70 km to the northeast.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, Hundreds of thousands of frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of kidnapped loved ones, marched across the country to demand government action against a relentless tide of killings, abductions and shootouts. Hours before the protests, the severed heads of two women were found near the attorney general's offices in the city of Durango.
(AP, 8/31/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 30, Gilberto Rincon Gallardo (69), a former socialist presidential candidate who gained respect in Mexico for defending the rights of the disabled, gays and other marginalized groups, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon promised to adopt several proposals from civic groups who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings and killings.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Mexico two 18th century paintings, "The Adoration of the Three Kings" and "The Birth of the Virgin," were stolen from the Santa Matilde church in Pachuca, the capital of central Hidalgo state. In February, 2010, they were found in an art gallery in Tlaquepaque, a town near the city of Guadalajara, where they were on sale for $35,000.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2008 Sep 10, A regulatory filing revealed that Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman, and his family had purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.78)
2008 Sep 12, Mexican police found the bodies of 24 men with their hands bound and shot to death execution-style outside the capital. On Nov 27 prosecutors charged a municipal police commander and an alleged drug cartel member with homicide in the September massacre.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Sep 14, Mexico's military seized US$26.2 million in cash believed to belong to members of the Sinaloa drug cartel. This was the 2nd biggest seizure since March 2007, when police seized US$207 million linked to a trafficking ring for pseudoephedrine.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 15, Mexican police and soldiers quelled a riot at a Tijuana prison that left 4 inmates dead and at least 31 prisoners and officials injured.
(AP, 9/16/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Oaxaca, Mexico, Omar Yoguez Singu (32) allegedly had consensual sex with Marcella Grace Eiler (20) of Eugene, Oregon. He then killed her with a machete after an argument. Her badly decomposed body was found Sep 24 in a shack 80 miles south of Oaxaca City. Friends of Singu beat him up after he confessed to the crime and on Sep 24 turned him over to police.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Mexico explosions at an Independence Day celebration killed 7 people and injured 101 in the city of Morelia. Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said organized crime was responsible.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, A second riot in three days at an infamous Tijuana prison left close to 2 dozen people dead and 12 injured. 2 American inmates were among the dead. Inmates at La Mesa prison rioted again because they have not been given food or water since Sep 14, when a separate riot led to the deaths of at least three inmates.
(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 20, It was reported that Mexican officers and prison guards in Michoacan state can now get special deals on houses and financing through a pilot program designed to keep them out of the pockets of organized crime.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 23, Mexico said it plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 25, Mexican federal prosecutors in Apatzingan, a drug stronghold in the western state of Michoacan, arrested three drug gang members accused of throwing grenades into crowds of Independence Day revelers. They belonged to a group of infamous Gulf Cartel hit men known as the Zetas.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 25, In southeastern Mexico storms flooded hundreds of people out of their homes and caused the death of a woman and 4 children whose car plunged into a swollen irrigation ditch in Nanchital, Veracruz state.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 29, In Mexico the bodies of 11 men and one woman, some with their tongues cut out, were found dumped in an empty lot next to a Tijuana elementary school, an hour before children were scheduled to arrive. A message nearby, written on a white piece of cardboard, read: "This is going to happen to all of those who are with 'The Engineer' for being blabbermouths." Minutes later four other bodies were found in another empty lot in Tijuana. Two other bodies were discovered the day before in a lot next to a factory.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico 20 heavily armed men in Sinaloa state stole five small planes that the army had seized in anti-drug operations. Officials on Oct 3 said the planes were found on a ranch in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, a hotbed of drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/1/08)(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico Ramiro Guillen Tapia (65), leader of a farmers' group seeking government mediation in a dispute over 620 acres (250 hectares) of land in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, set himself on fire. Tapia died the next day with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 3, Mexican police clashed with hundreds of villagers who seized the entrance to a Mayan archaeological site and six protesters were killed. Hundreds of villagers had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for nearly a month, saying they were protesting excessive entrance fees and a lack of investment in the area. 2 men were found shot to death in Tijuana in the same empty lot near the elementary school where the 12 bodies were found on sep 29.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, In Mexico gunmen killed Salvador Vegara, the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a resort town southwest of Mexico City. Vegara was in a car with two other people when the gunmen opened fire from another vehicle. The bodies of 5 men were found asphyxiated in a car in the eastern part of Tijuana. The men were beaten and had their hands bound. The bodies of two beheaded men were found wrapped in blankets on a road elsewhere in the city. The heads were in black plastic bags nearby.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 5, In southern Mexico 5 state police officers were arrested in connection with a deadly raid to dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site. Mexican authorities seized 7 million pills of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient used to make methamphetamine, at the Guadalajara airport. More than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of the pills were found packed in 24 boxes on a shipment from Calcutta, India. Three separate shipments of more than a ton each were confiscated last month at Mexico City's airport. Those also originated in Calcutta.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Mexico extradited former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face corruption charges, and the ex-leader told a judge there is no evidence to support the allegations against him.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, gunmen killed police commander Rodolfo Barragan (38) in a hail of bullets at a hotel parking lot.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 7, Tropical Storm Marco roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force winds, prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms and forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 people.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, President Felipe Calderon unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis. Mexican authorities said that 16 people were killed over the last 24 hours in Baha California across the US border from California. State officials blamed warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel for the killings and other homicides plaguing the area in recent weeks. 5 state police officers were killed in the western state of Jalisco by grenade-lobbing gunmen who fired more than 800 bullets in the attack.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, In northern Mexico gunmen opened fire in a bar in Chihuahua, killing 11 people. The body of Miguel Angel Villagomez, editor of La Noticia newspaper in the western state of Michoacan, was found shot dead on the side of a highway in neighboring Guerrero state.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Mexico's central bank auctioned foreign reserves in 3 auctions in an increasingly aggressive bid to push the peso stronger. In all, the bank sold off $6.4 billion.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Mexico authorities in Tijuana reported that a total of 91 people had been killed in a wave of gangland homicides since Sept. 26.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Mexico gunmen killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez. In Tijuana federal police arrested seven reputed members of a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, including a city police officer.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Hurricane Norbert hit Mexico as a Category 1 storm and left 4 people dead in the Baha peninsula and Sonora state.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 16, In Mexico six people were lined up and gunned down outside a business in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Mexico 334 police officers were ousted in ciudad Juarez after they failed psychological, background and other checks as part of a clean-up campaign meant to root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating with drug traffickers. The border city sent police recruiters across the country as it tries to replace nearly half a police force gutted by firings and retirements.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10 non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 18, Mexican federal authorities raided a “narco-mansion" in Mexico City and arrested 15 alleged traffickers during the middle of a party. A mini menagerie was also found at the site that included 2 African lions, 2 white tigers and 2 black panthers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/mexico-wildlife)
2008 Oct 20, Mexico agreed to deport Cubans who sneak illegally through Mexican territory to reach the US, a step toward cutting off an increasingly violent and heavily used human trafficking route. 21 prisoners died in a fight between inmates at a prison across the border from McAllen, Texas. Police said two soldiers and a security guard were found stabbed to death at a housing construction site in the village of Las Margaritas, northern Mexico. The body of a federal policeman was found riddled with gunshot wounds in Tijuana.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Police in northern Mexico reported receiving an ice chest packed with four human heads. The chest arrived at the Ascencion police station in Chihuahua state was marked "vaccines," but wasn't claimed for a week. Jesus Zambada was among 16 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel arrested after a shootout in Mexico City. Zambada is the brother of Ismael Zambada, who allegedly heads the Sinaloa cartel along with one of Mexico's most wanted men, Joaquin Guzman.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, four men were shot inside a go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park. Elsewhere in the city, a used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main boulevard hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a protest against kidnappings and extortion. In Tijuana a 1-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver tried to flee a gunbattle. In northern Mexico 10 gunmen were killed in running battles with state police in the city of Nogales. Outside the northeastern city of Monterrey, a soldier, the director of a security firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a highway.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Mexico 2 people were found dead in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California, including a badly burned corpse left in a trash bin.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 24, In central Mexico 2 human heads were found with threatening messages. 2 adults were killed when assailants riddled their pickup truck with bullets on a Tijuana street. A 1-year-old girl riding with them was hit by multiple rounds from an assault rifle and was hospitalized in critical condition. Police also found nine people shot to death in Playas de Rosarito, just south of Tijuana.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 25, In Mexico soldiers and federal police arrested Eduardo Arellano Felix (52), a reputed leader of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, after a shootout in the border city across from San Diego.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Mexico City kidnappers grabbed Javier Morena (5), the son of poor fruit sellers, with the intent to ask for a $23,000 ransom. The boy was killed with an injection of acid and buried outside the city. 5 suspects in the kidnapping were later arrested and confessed to the killing.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.11)
2008 Oct 27, Mexican prosecutors said a major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican attorney general's office and may have paid a spy inside the US Embassy for details of DEA operations. 5 officials of the attorney general’s organized crime unit were arrested on allegations they served as informants for the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 27, A US officials announced that Francisco Celaya Carrilo, a Mexican immigration officer, had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 28, Mexico's Congress passed a watered-down energy industry reform that enables private contractors to participate in the state-owned oil business but won't likely draw enough investment to reverse declining production.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Mexico police arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf drug cartel for the border city of Reynosa, in the northern city of Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and organized crime.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, The top officer of Mexico's federal police force quit amid allegations that drug gangs have infiltrated senior levels of crime-fighting agencies. Acting federal police Commissioner Gerardo Garay said he was stepping aside "to place myself at the orders of legal judicial authorities to clear up any accusation against me."
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 2, Mexican prosecutors said 11 policemen have been shot to death near Mexico City in a three-day string of drug-gang attacks. In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California, police found two decapitated bodies wrapped in blankets in a vacant lot.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 4, One of Mexico's top pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government jet crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of vehicles. The loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others thinned the ranks of Mexico's already embattled leadership. 9 people on the plane were killed as well as 5 people on the ground. A 15th victim died 2 weeks later. A 16th victim died in On Dec 11. Three alleged hitmen suspected in the killing of a top border-state police official died in a gunbattle with police in Nogales. They were suspected of having helped kill Sonora state police chief Juan Manuel Pavon on Nov 2. One Sonora state police officer died in the shootout. A suspect in Pavon's killing was taken into custody.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Nov 6, Mexican authorities detained Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the No. 2 official in the Federal Agency of Investigation from 2003-2005, suspected of aiding drug traffickers, and Jaime Gonzalez Duran, alleged founder of a vicious gang of drug-cartel hit men. A cache of 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT were seized at a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. This was the largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons in Mexico's history. In the northeast, police mistakenly opened fire on a family of six, seriously wounding a teenage girl. In the west, inmates rioted, killing six. And police in Tijuana found three more bodies accompanied by messages that appeared to be from drug traffickers.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 10, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon chose Fernando Gomez-Mont as the new Secretary of the Interior. 7 people were found dead in a string of gruesome attacks in the border city of Juarez. Police there chased a truck that opened fire on a state vehicle, causing a car crash that killed a bystander and injured four others. In northwestern Mexico 27 farmworkers who were kidnapped by dozens of heavily armed men wearing military-style uniforms. Local news media reported that a drug gang may have kidnapped the men to make them work growing marijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Mexico 21 police were arrested in the northern border city of Tijuana on suspicion of working with criminal gangs. The body of a 28-year-old man was dumped in an empty lot in the beach resort of Rosarito, outside Tijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Mexico Armando Rodriguez, a crime reporter in the border city of Juarez, was killed, adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where newspapers are so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence. With his death, 24 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, at least seven of them in direct reprisal for their reports on crime, and seven others have disappeared since 2005.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Mexico City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said that the government will start handing out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Mexico 2 bullet-ridden bodies were found at the foot of a monument in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, one of them partially stuffed into a large pot. Four scuba divers died while performing maintenance in an aqueduct that supplies Mexico City.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Mexico more than 1,500 demonstrators marched through the violence-plagued border city of Tijuana to protest the current of killings and kidnappings. Two people were shot to death at a Tijuana taco restaurant. 4 men and a woman were shot to death at a pool hall. A girl (14) and two men were shot down in a Tijuana street just before midnight.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, A Mexican newspaper's offices were damaged by two grenades in the violence-plagued city of Culiacan in northwestern Mexico.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Mexico Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters that Noe Ramirez, Mexico’s former drug czar, accepted $450,000 from drug traffickers, and that cartel leaders offered to pay him monthly for alerting them to planned police operations. In 2013 the case against Ramirez was dropped due to lack of evidence. In Tijuana 3 gunmen burst into the Bar Utopia, a bar popular with university students and opened fire. 2 men and a woman died instantly and 3 others died the next day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)(AP, 4/24/13)
2008 Nov 25, In Mexico 7 bodies were dumped before dawn at a school soccer field in the border city of Juarez.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 27, A sport utility vehicle carrying 8 people from Texas plunged off an unfinished bridge into a river in northern Mexico, causing the death of three adults and four children.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Mexico at least 12 masked gunmen opened fire inside a restaurant in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing eight.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon pledged to clean up corruption within his administration and vowed that his government would never negotiate with drug lords. The bodies of 9 decapitated men were found in a vacant lot in Tijuana, part of a wave of violence that claimed at least 23 lives over the weekend in this border city plagued by warring traffickers.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Guatemala Mexican and Guatemalan drug traffickers, arguing about a horse race in the rural border town of Santa Ana Huista, began a series of gunbattles in which 17 people died.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Mexico Tijuana's anti-corruption police chief was fired and replaced with an army officer, following three days of violence that left 37 people dead in this border city plagued by warring drug gangs. In southern Mexico Fabian Ramirez shot his 50-year-old mother in the back Monday, wounding her. He then allegedly killed three police officers who arrived at the scene, including Iguala's police chief. Police captured Ramirez, but four armed men broke into the jail and took him away by force. The next day Ramirez was found beheaded.
(AP, 12/1/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, The US government released the first part of a $400 million aid package to support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels. Jesus Martin Huerta, the No. 2 federal prosecutor in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, was shot dead.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay, Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Mexican soldiers found at least eight bodies buried in a shallow grave in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10 suspected drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles in southern Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican government Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico, killing two pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a federally owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Victor Hugo Moneda, a senior Mexico City police commander, was slain in a drive-by shooting outside his home. He had overseen raids in the capital's gang-filled Tepito neighborhood.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, Mexico's Congress voted to broaden police powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to use undercover agents and taped conversations as evidence in a bid to help them fight increasingly bloody drug cartels. In the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, soldiers detained 11 police officers from four towns for questioning on suspicion of aiding the Gulf drug cartel. In the northern city of Tijuana four bodies were found.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Mexico a shootout between rival gangs killed 10 people in Sinaloa state, home of the powerful cartel of the same name. US security consultant Felix Batista was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila state, while there to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom. He claimed to have helped resolve nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases.
(AP, 12/11/08)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 11, Esther Chavez, a women's rights activist, was named the winner of Mexico's National Human Rights Award. She first drew attention to the slayings of young women in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez in the early 1990s.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 11, Mexican soldiers shot to death Silvia Arzate (35), a pregnant woman, after she reportedly failed to stop at a highway checkpoint in the northern state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 14, In Mexico gunmen staged four attacks on police within a half-hour period, killing four officers in Ciudad Juarez, the border city overrun by drug violence.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Mexico 3 gunmen were killed following a shootout with army troops in the southern state of Guerrero.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 19, In northern Mexico a small plane carrying government officials and television reporters crashed in northern Mexico and all five people on board are in serious condition. The plane was carrying state water commission chief Rafael Reyes, his assistant and two TV Azteca reporters. They were hospitalized along with the pilot.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Mexican Authorities found the decapitated bodies of 12 men in the southern state of Guerrero, and some of the victims have been identified as soldiers.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 22, Laura Zuniga (23), a reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition. Soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in US currency.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 23, Mexican authorities in southern Chiapas state said 8 bodies were found stuffed in plastic garbage bags and dumped on a rural road near the Guatemalan border in an area plagued by drug violence.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexican soldiers arrested the deputy police chief in the resort town of Zihuatanejo and six other officers who were allegedly protecting drug cartel members at a cock fight. Soldiers also seized 59 packets of cocaine, 40 bags of marijuana and 20 assault rifles.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexico began blocking imports of meat from at least 30 US meat processing plants due to a new US law that required food retailers to label or display the country of origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of nuts. The law, effective as of Sep 30, was part of the 2008 Farm Bill.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 25, In Mexico, at least four people were killed in a gun battle between suspected drug traffickers in a remote mountain area of Sinaloa.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In Mexico a gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight. Dr. Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was staffing in Jalisco state. Police soon arrested Ricardo Garcia Barajas (25), a farm worker, who allegedly hacked the doctor to death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AP, 1/2/09)
2008 Dec 28, In Mexico 7 people were killed in a series of shootings in the border city of Tijuana over the last 2 days.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 31, Mexico sent 10 alleged drug smugglers to the United States, capping an already record year for extraditions between the two countries. 2 Canadian tourists were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after assailants opened fire at a nightclub in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Gabriel Zaid, Mexican writer, authored “The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter in an Age of Distraction."
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.E5)
2008 Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that all Mexicans have a "right to the free development of personality".
(Econ., 11/21/20, p.29)
2008 In Mexico drug related violence this year left 6,268 people dead. The killings were concentrated in just 3 states, and most of those in 3 cities: Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Tijuana in Baja California, and Culiacan in Sinaloa.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.30, 31)
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Subject = Mexico
Go to Mexico 2003
