Mexico in the News

                              Mexico is it Safe

Mexico — White beaches, colonial cities, Mayan pyramids, world-class cuisine — these are some of the obvious draws that bring 22 million foreigners to Mexico each year

 "Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year," said a State Department warning dated July 16 . It notes that roughly a million Americans live in Mexico , and that resort and tourist destinations don't see the violence of border areas or drug trafficking corridors.

  However, it adds that more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug-related violence since late 2006, and that gunfights are a feature of streets in a number of cities. Drug traffickers have "kidnapped guests out of reputable hotels" in the bustling city of Monterrey , it adds, and         drug-related murders climbed 

tenfold in Durango in recent years.

   On July 2nd 2010 a massive shootout between rival drug and people-smuggling gangs left 21 people dead just 12 miles south of the border with Arizona. The clash erupted in a remote area along a prime smuggling corridor in Sonora state.

Mexicans Dying in Desert 

Hotel California on the Arizona and Mexico border is where Mexican citizens congregate waiting to enter the US weather legally or illegally.

  The Arizona morgue

in Pima County is overflowing with bodies that will probably never be identified. The bodies of 57 suspected illegal immigrants found dead in the desert have been brought in so far this month, the highest number in 5 years. "We keep hoping we have seen the worst of this, of these migration deaths,"said  the county medical examiner . "Yet we still see a lot of remains.” The morgue handles bodies from Tucson and the surrounding deserts.

   A record-breaking heatwave may account for many of the desert deaths, but human rights advocates say tougher immigration enforcement is also to blame, as it pushes migrants trying to enter the US into more desolate areas where they need to walk for days to find a road.

  National Guard troops are headed to the Mexican border next month to beef up security along the border fence. As part of President Obama's new border plan, the 1,200 troops will spend a year in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where they'll help border patrol agents monitor and prevent illegal border crossings.

    

Gulf of Mexico Oil  Latest 

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become the largest accidental release of oil into water in history, according to figures from the federal government. Federal scientific teams estimated Monday that the ruptured BP well has spewed about 4.9 million barrels -- or 205.8 million gallons -- of oil. About 800,000 barrels, or 3.3 million gallons, of that were collected by vessels hired by BP to recover the oil.