[hardtootell-2]

Record murders. Probably more dangerous than Iraq or Columbia-IMHO link

The murder rate in Ciudad Juarez on the Mexico-US border has reached an all-time high amid battles between rival drug cartels, Mexican officials say. Up to mid-October, there were 1,986 killings in Juarez on the US-Mexico border - 815 more than last year.

The drug cartels are fighting to control smuggling routes into the US but also the city's own drug market. Thousands of troops have been deployed in Juarez and across Mexico since late 2006 to try to tackle the drug gangs.

The murder rate for 2009 in Ciudad Juarez, a city of some 1.5 million people, is averaging about seven a day. So far this month there have been 195 killings alone, officials said.

The upsurge in murders in Juarez is a result of an escalating turf war between the Sinaloa cartel, run by Mexico's most-wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the Juarez cartel, according to Victor Valencia, the public security secretary in the state of Chihuahua.

[hardtootell-2]

Southwest USA border fence photoessay

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 77,00.html

[Tyler_JC]

Mexico's problem is political, not geological.

Mexico could have another peak but it would require billions in investments that won't be made by the government-run oil company.

Mexico Needs to Find New Revenue Sources, S&P Says

Mexico is a classic example of the resource curse. 40% of the Mexican government's annual budget is funded by petroleum. Forty Percent. That's an insanely high number for a country that has such a large non-oil economy.

It would be like France getting 40% of its government revenue from the wine industry.

Mexico must liberalize its oil industry and allow some foreign investment into the country. Moreover, they need to shift the tax burden away from petroleum and stop subsidizing gasoline.

[hardtootell-2]

What is the root of Mexico's problems? IMHO

1) Too many people- and a belief structure that ensures plenty more
2) Declining resources- energy and water especially
3) Corruption is rife
4) A Northern neighbor in decline

I know this is simplistic, but there it is in a nutshell. Watching struggling countries like Mexico can be instructive for getting our heads around how a slow crash will look. It looks like a textbook case already. I would be very surprised if it could be turned around.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hardtootell-2', 'A')ctually Mexico has a fine reputation for producing Anything the world produces. And if not #1, like tequila, beer, silver, then #2 horses, saddles, clothing, wine, food. Used to be #2 in oil. ;}
PS I think Mexico is #2 in billionaires. Have to look that up.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', 'A')ctually Mexico has a fine reputation for producing Anything the world produces. And if not #1, like tequila, beer, silver, then #2 horses, saddles, clothing, wine, food. Used to be #2 in oil. PS I think Mexico is #2 in billionaires. Have to look that up.

[Tyler_JC]

Actually, Mexico's fertility rate is roughly at replacement and relatively soon, they will have an older median age than the United States.

Mexican Immigration Will Solve Itself

[UncoveringTruths]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'A')ctually, Mexico's fertility rate is roughly at replacement and relatively soon, they will have an older median age than the United States.
Mexican Immigration Will Solve Itself

[rangerone314]

Anchor babies: good reason why there should be a Constitutional amendment stating that if you are born in the US you need for atleast one parent to be a citizen to gain citizenship.

We are past carrying capacity.

[OutOfGas]

We had better get the border fence completed and fortified. When SHTF in Mexico we will have millions more coming North in an unstoppable wave of humanity.

We don't have much time as Mexico will disinigrate as the Oil revenue continues to decline.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', 'A')nchor babies: good reason why there should be a Constitutional amendment stating that if you are born in the US you need for atleast one parent to be a citizen to gain citizenship.

We are past carrying capacity.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OutOfGas', 'W')e had better get the border fence completed and fortified. When SHTF in Mexico we will have millions more coming North in an unstoppable wave of humanity.

We don't have much time as Mexico will disinigrate as the Oil revenue continues to decline.

[Cynus]

In case you don't check the border patrol weekly blotter (located here: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_secur ... y_blotter/) here are this week's highlights:

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sells, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for attempted sex abuse in the State of Oregon, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape by force in the State of California, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Peru near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the State of Idaho, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sierra Vista, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sexual assault and burglary in the State of Colorado, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Tucson, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sex with a minor in the State of California, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

El Centro Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Indio, California. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for child molestation in the State of California, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the State of Washington, and had also been previously removed from the United States.

[hardtootell-2]

Problems with Mexican dept reflected in Bond ratings

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... k1LsTWSly0

Investors are unloading Mexican bonds as the opposition- controlled congress challenges Calderon’s plan to increase taxes and narrow a budget gap that RBS Securities Inc. says will grow to the widest in two decades on tumbling oil revenue. The legislative fight compounds concerns after the economy was the hardest hit in Latin America by the global recession that started in the U.S., the buyer of 80 percent of Mexican exports.

“Mexico is more vulnerable than the rest,” said Jonathan Binder, who manages $350 million of emerging-market debt at Consilium Investment Management in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and sold his Mexican holdings in the past three months on concern the ratings will be cut. “I expect more underperformance

[hardtootell-2]

along the same lines as previous post with an explicit reference to falling oil revenues

http://www.forexyard.com/en/reuters_inn ... G-ANALYSIS

MEXICO CITY, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Mexico is running a high risk of getting a downgrade on its debt rating after lawmakers watered down President Felipe Calderon's proposal to raise taxes and reduce a reliance on falling oil output.

Many investors, banks and economists think Wall Street rating agencies will not be impressed by a plan approved by Mexico's Senate that would make public coffers depend more on high oil prices than Calderon had proposed.

Senators approved lifting the value-added tax, or VAT, to 16 percent, raising the income tax for high earners to 30 percent and putting a 3 percent tax on some telecoms services. But Congress threw out Calderon's initial idea of a sweeping 2 percent sales tax that would hit currently exempt food and medicines and be designated for anti-poverty programs.

"I don't think it's enough. They are going to get the downgrade," said Rogelio Gallegos, a fund manager at Actinver-Lloyd in Mexico City.

Battered by a recession that has slammed tax collection and a steady plunge in crude oil output, Mexico has been seen by investors all year as more likely to default on its debt than is Brazil despite Mexico's higher debt rating, according to data on credit default swaps.

[hardtootell-2]

And of course more drug killings

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=109475

Maybe I'm just a weak wristed pacifist but that looks like a whole lot of serious killing stuff laid out in that press pic.

[Cloud9]

I thought the Mexicans had gun abolition i.e. control.

[jbrovont]

I caught this on the related article list from your post:

Gun battle at border crossing

Violence spilling over the border. What struck me was the total disregard for US border control forces.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hardtootell-2', 'A')nd of course more drug killings

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=109475

Maybe I'm just a weak wristed pacifist but that looks like a whole lot of serious killing stuff laid out in that press pic.

[Cloud9]

A couple of 50 cals would put a stop to that crap. An armed invasion is an armed invasion.

[Cynus]

Another week on the border...

El Centro Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for an attempt to commit sexual abuse in the State of Oregon, and had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Naco, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for a sexual offense in the State of Washington, and had been previously removed from the United States.

El Paso Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sexual contact without consent in the State of Colorado. He had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Guatemala near Tombstone, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for statutory rape, and had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had an active warrant of arrest for aggravated sexual battery of a victim less than 13 years old in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

El Centro Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sex with a minor in the State of California, and had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Nogales, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had been charged with sexual contact and indecency with a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and was a registered sex offender in the State of Texas. He had also been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sonoita, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had prior convictions for rape and kidnapping in the State of California, and had been previously removed from the United States.

El Paso Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Fabens, Texas. Records checks revealed the subject was a registered sex offender in the State of Minnesota, and had been previously removed from the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Casa Grande, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sexual battery in the State of California and had an arrest warrant for failure to appear. He had also been previously removed from the United States.