USAID Provides Assistance to Mexico Flood Victims
USAID is providing a total of $100,000 to the Mexican Red Cross and other implementing partners for the local purchase and distribution of emergency relief supplies in response to flooding and damage associated with Hurricane Stan.
On October 6, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza, Jr. issued a disaster declaration due to the magnitude of damage caused by the flooding.
On October 4, Hurricane Stan made landfall south of Veracruz, Mexico causing rivers to overflow and widespread flooding in the states of Veracruz, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabsco, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Guerrero. The flooding is responsible for 24 deaths and has affected more than 2 million residents. Approximated 250,000 people have been evacuated to shelters in the affected states.
USAID will continue to monitor the situation and provide additional updates as necessary.
More: usaid.gov
Mexico's flood of tired and poor divides America
LAST year the Pew Hispanic Centre polled Mexicans on their attitudes about migrating to the United States.
Asked if they would go to live in the US if they had the means and opportunity, more than four in 10 said yes. More than 20 per cent said they were inclined to go without authorisation.
Last year more than 1 million tried, but were caught. An unknown number succeeded.
Nobody knows how many unauthorised migrants are in the US. The Pew Centre, the most authoritative research organisation on Latino issues, estimates 11 million.
The issue has been a
Emergency in Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador: Luck Mervil Supports Efforts to Provide Assistance to Hurricane Stan Victims Who Have Been Forgotten by International Aid
The committee to aid Hurricane Stan victims, represented by Mario Rene Henández, treasurer of the Canada-Guatemala chamber of commerce, Ana Gloria Blanch, director of the Centre d'aide aux familles immigrantes (Mexico), Ramon Quintanilla, director of the CEDESAL chamber of commerce (El Salvador), Marcel Tremblay, special advisor to Mayor Gerald Tremblay and responsible for intercultural relations for the City of Montreal, Paolo Tamburello, mayor of the Villeray - Saint-Michel - Parc Extension borough, Luck Mervil, spokesperson
Rape Victims Denied Legal Abortion
Mexican officials actively prevent rape victims from gaining access to legal and safe abortion, and they fail to punish rape and sexual violence inside and outside the family, said Human Rights Watch in a report released today. The 92-page report, "The Second Assault: Obstructing Access to Legal Abortion after Rape in Mexico," details the disrespect, suspicion and apathy that pregnant rape victims encounter from public prosecutors and health workers. The report also exposes continuing and pervasive impunity for rape and other forms of sexual violence in states throughout Mexico.
"Pregnant rape victims are essentially assaulted twice,"
Mexico raids kidnapping ring that filmed victims in cages
Mexican authorities raided a kidnapping ring that filmed its victims being held inside a cage and beaten, federal authorities said Saturday. An abducted businessman was freed and five people were arrested.
Police also confiscated an iron cage in the raid Friday at two houses on the outskirts of Mexico City that led to the arrests of five men ages 18 to 31, the federal attorney general's office said.
The man freed had been held for ransom since May 19 by the group, which was known for filming its victims inside a cage
Mexico's Fox Says U.S. to Give Disaster Aid to Illegal Migrants
Mexico's President Vicente Fox helped persuade the U.S. government to relax controls on illegal immigrants so they can receive aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Any of the 145,000 Mexicans living in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who don't have documents will qualify for help finding family members, getting food and receiving other assistance even if they don't have proper documents, according to Fox's office in Mexico City.
About 11 million Mexicans live in the U.S., more than half illegally. Fox, 63, has responded to the devastation caused by Katrina
Mexico Army Brings Aid to Katrina Victims
A Mexican army convoy began crossing into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Carrying water treatment plants and mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people daily, the convoy bound for San Antonio is the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.
The first green tractor-trailers, with Mexican flags attached to the tops of their cabs, crossed the international bridge at Laredo at about 8:15 a.m. The rest of the 45-vehicle convoy was in a staging area on the U.S. side in about 15
Rains and flooding kill some 30 people in Mexico
Heavy rains and flooding from a series of storms have killed around 30 people in Mexico and left thousands homeless in coastal areas in the past week, with more rain forecast for the weekend.
Rains from Tropical Storm Jose, the 10th of the season, drenched Mexico's Gulf coast early in the week, forcing some 25,000 people from their homes in Veracruz state.
Seven people were killed in a landslide in a mountainous region of the state, and four died as rivers overflowed their banks in lower-lying areas, officials said on Thursday.
On the Pacific
Mexico leftist urges campaign cash for Stan victims
The leftist leading the race for Mexico's presidency urged political parties on Thursday to cut spending on elections next year and instead donate cash to victims of a hurricane that hit southern areas.
It was the latest in a series of gestures from Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, which have won him support from millions of Mexico's poor.
Lopez Obrador said his Party of the Democratic Revolution would ask Mexico's electoral watchdog IFE to reduce the amount it will spend on the election by 10 percent.
"We would be talking about
Mexico gearing up for Chinese tourism
Se habla Chinese? Apparently not enough Mexicans do, so the country's Tourism and Economy Departments are joining with the elite College of Mexico to prepare for a growing flow of tourists from the world's most populous nation.
The program outlined in a news release on Friday includes instruction in Chinese for tourism workers and the addition of Chinese-speakers at a telephone assistance number for visitors.
It also seeks to train tourism workers in Chinese culture so that they can meet the expectations of visitors in terms of food, recreation and courtesy.
More: signonsandiego.com
Flooding kills more than 160 in southern Mexico, Central America
Rescue workers were searching for victims of a mudslide near a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists in Guatemala, as the death toll from flooding sparked by heavy rains climbed to 79 across this country and 62 in neighboring El Salvador.
Downpours have battered much of Central America and southern Mexico since the weekend, and it was still raining in most areas, causing rivers to overflow and carry off homes and people and huge chunks of land to give way, burying everything in their path.
Forecasters at the U.S. Hurricane Center said
