WASHINGTON (AP) — American dairy farmers get more access to the Canadian market. U.S. drug companies can fend off generic competition for a few more years. Automakers are under pressure to build more cars where workers earn decent wages.
The North American trade agreement hammered out late Sunday between the United States and Canada, following an earlier U.S.-Mexico deal, shakes up — but likely won’t revolutionize — the way businesses operate within the three-country trade bloc.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Heavily armed Mexican marines and soldiers stormed on Tuesday the police force of violent port city Acapulco on suspicions of ties to organized crime, arresting two officers accused of homicide and seizing weapons and equipment.
Acapulco in southern Guerrero state, once a glamorous beach resort for Hollywood’s rich and famous, has fallen on hard times as entrenched drug crime has transformed it into one of the most murderous cities in the world.
Guerrero is a hub for opium poppy production and the scene of frequent violent clashes between warring drug cartels.
The military personnel, along with federal and state police and the Guerrero state’s attorney general’s office, disarmed Acapulco municipal police officers and arrested two of them for their “probable responsibility” in homicide, they said in a joint statement.
Acapulco’s other police officers are under investigation, the group said, without specifying how many, adding that weapons, bulletproof vests, ammunition and radios were seized.
There were over 30,000 murders across Mexico last year, the highest in records going back to 1997, as rival drug gangs splintered into smaller, more bloodthirsty groups following more than a decade of a military-led campaign to battle the cartels.
Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Jonathan Oatis.
(ESPN/NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — «Any time you get to play Mexico it’s a special day,» said U.S. captain Wil Trapp. «To be playing on 9/11 is even more powerful, emotional, exciting I think for all of us as players because of what that day means to our country, what it symbolizes in terms of what happened as well as the heroism that came out of it. It will be an exciting game for us as players, there will be a lot of emotions wrapped into it.»
(REMEZCLA, MEXICO CITY) – «A new Mexican Nike ad is looking to leverage the athletic motto into a 21st century woke anthem. The “Juntas Inseparables – Just Do It” ad aims to offer young women all across Mexico (and arguably Latin America and beyond) the chance to see a feminist spin on the iconic sneakers mantra. The video commercial is set during an interminable traffic jam in Mexico City. As annoyed Chilangos of all stripes sulk in their cars, Olympic athlete Paola Morán is seen running around slowly amassing a throng of women in Nike gear around her that eventually get to the root of the problem and find a way to keep moving forward.»
(CITY LAB, MEXICO CITY) – «The lemon juice traditionally used by Mexicans as a fixative for thick, bristly black hair has long been replaced by mousse, then gel, and now, wax. And the profession itself, long dominated by women into the 1970s, is now mostly occupied by men. Miguel Angel Garcia, 65, with 35 years of experience cutting the hair of the cultural and bureaucratic elites of Coyoacan, says the shift happened around the same time as unisex hairstylists started to appear. Beards have also come into fashion, coming to the capital from Mexico’s more rural states around 2015 and igniting a boom of barbershops.»
NEW YORK TIMES, MEXICO CITY — «Mexican authorities said Thursday they found a mass grave with 168 human skulls in Veracruz State, a somber reminder of the tens of thousands of people who have gone missing, presumably at the hands of organized crime members.
The remains and personal items found at the site, including 200 articles of clothing, suggested that the victims might have been killed two years ago, said Jorge Winckler Ortiz, the Veracruz attorney general.
It is one of the biggest clandestine graves found in Mexico in recent years.»
(The Guardian) «The San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego is the busiest land border crossing in the world, with an average of 135,000 people passing through each day. The port is a vital connection between two growing cities that are separated by politics but inextricably linked by history, culture and economics.
People cross for a variety of reasons – work, family, travel or even medical treatment. For daily commuters the international border is just another traffic jam, albeit one that has grown in recent decades as the US has tightened security.
A side effect of increased inspection on the US side means wait times have extended dramatically over the years, and can be as long as five hours during peak periods. This means more potential customers, which has in turn seen more people working the line. This is apparent in the mix of vendors, who come from across Mexico, South America and beyond.»
(The Guardian, San Francisco) – It was a verdict heard around the world. In a stunning blow to one of the world’s largest seed and chemical companies, jurors in San Francisco have told Monsanto it must pay $289m in damages to a man dying of cancer which he claims was caused by exposure to its herbicides.
Monsanto, which became a unit of Bayer AG in June, has spent decades convincing consumers, farmers, politicians and regulators to ignore mounting evidence linking its glyphosate-based herbicides to cancer and other health problems. The company has employed a range of tactics – some drawn from the same playbook used by the tobacco industry in defending the safety of cigarettes – to suppress and manipulate scientific literature, harass journalists and scientists who did not parrot the company’s propaganda, and arm-twist and collude with regulators.
(The Guardian – Mexico City) The UN human rights committee has rebuked Mexico for failing to protect its journalists in a ruling on the case of a prominent reporter who was kidnapped and threatened with rape by police acting at the behest of a powerful politician and one of his business backers.
The ruling was the committee’s first against Mexico, which has become one of the most murderous countries in the world for media workers.
The resolution found journalist Lydia Cacho was arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture and gender violence and had her right to free expression violated.
(NBC Sports – Mexico) – The Bulls will take part in the 2018 NBA Mexico City Games by playing a regular season game against the Orlando Magic in December, the team announced Tuesday.
The Magic will play the Bulls on Dec. 13 and the Utah Jazz two days later as part of the NBA’s continuing expansion of the game in Mexico. Since 1992 the NBA has played 26 games in Mexico, the most held in any country outside the United States and Canada.
Mexico Today USA 