7/5/13, "Seven severed heads found by highway in central Mexico," Reuters
"Authorities have found seven severed heads stuffed in plastic bags on the edge of a highway near the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco state prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The gruesome discovery about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from the country's second-biggest city is a reminder of the criminal violence still plaguing Mexico, despite assurances from the government that the murder rate is falling.
More than 60,000 people died in violence linked to warring drug cartels during the 2006-2012 presidency of Felipe Calderon. An average of 1,000 people per month have been killed under his successor, Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office December.
Jalisco, the home of tequila and mariachi music, has been hard hit by the ongoing violence. Murders were up more than 5 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to Mexican police.
The bodies of two schoolboys suspected of bullying the son of a powerful drug trafficker were found in Jalisco this week.
In March Jalisco's tourism minister was shot dead in Guadalajara just a week after taking office."
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5/4/13, "Mexicans slam Obama for being out of touch on economic issues," Daily Caller, P. Howley
"President Obama’s speech in Mexico City Friday was slammed by Mexican observers who wondered which country Obama was describing with his soaring, optimistic rhetoric.
Obama’s speech at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City Friday afternoon, in which he said that Mexico is “creating new prosperity,” was sharply criticized by those in attendance.
“[That was] a really good speech
by President Obama, but what Mexico was he talking about?” said 24-year
old graduate student Jose Carlos Cruz, according to the Los Angeles Times.
adviser acknowledged that the administration hopes to partner with
Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto on its second-term immigration
reform push.Obama arrived in Mexico Thursday to conduct a private meeting with Nieto, after which Obama and Nieto held an hour-long press conference in which they reportedly focused on economic issues rather than border security concerns.
But the president’s lofty language, in the face of Mexico’s awful conditions, raises concern about the effectiveness of his three-day Latin American trip.
“Obama is a great speaker — its really impossible not to feel excited. However, the reality is different in Mexico. We need more action and fewer speeches,” said 26-year old economics student Alberto Rios Lara.
“Unfortunately in our country, the situation is terrible: There’s poverty, unemployment
,
and even worse, the future is anything but promising,” the unhappy
graduate student Cruz said. “How nice that he came to give inspiring
speeches, but what’s happening in Mexico is far from what he talked
about today.”White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes suggested that Obama’s visit to Mexico was motivated by his desire to pass sweeping immigration reform in his second term.
“Mexico is an important partner in immigration reform given that we work with them every day to secure our border,” Rhodes said.
“Economic development in Mexico
will also ultimately get at the root cause of illegal immigration to the
United States, so that’s another benefit of the economic growth
underway in Mexico,” Rhodes added.
Obama’s recent rhetoric on Mexico has been criticized as well. In his 2013 State of the Union address, Obama only mentioned Mexico once, to state, “Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico.”
Pena Nieto, 46, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, was elected president of Mexico in 2012 with 38 percent of the vote."
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