Climate Havoc Crosses Borders
For the second year in a row, residents of New Mexico and neighboring Chihuahua, Mexico, find themselves in the throes of severe drought. On May 15, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez issued an emergency drought declaration, citing in part a forecast from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center that warned of persistent or intensified drought in the state.
As an example of deepe More »
The New Mexico Scandal Net Gets Bigger
A state audit of the municipal government of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has uncovered not only sloppy accounting practices but widespread violations of New Mexico state law and city spending regulations. While some former officials implicated in wrongdoing have already been charged in related criminal cases, the audit casts a larger net that could land other individuals in and out of Sunland Park More »
International Bank Considers Ciudad Juarez Redevelopment Loan
Representatives of the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) scouted out downtown Ciudad Juarez last week in anticipation of a possible loan package. The tour was promoted by the Chihuahua state and Ciudad Juarez municipal governments as part of a $50 million investment drive to revive the Mexican border city’s long decaying downtown core.
The visit’s purpose was to obtai More »
More Bleak News for Rio Grande Irrigators
Editor’s Note: Frontera NorteSur’s special coverage of the southern New Mexico borderland is made possible in part by a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation
Dependent on melting snowpack in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico for much of their water, Rio Grande irrigators in the Paso del Norte borderland are in for more bad news. In their just-released water supply forecast for More »
Mothers March on Mexico City
Special Report
Mothers of women and men missing in Mexico embarked May 8 on a national march/caravan that will culminate in protests and meetings in the nation’s capital this week. Like last year’s caravans organized by poet Javier Sicilia and other relatives of violence victims, the mobilizations will remind Mexicans of the deep emotional wounds and unhealed psychological scars that devo More »
Soccer, Mexican Politics and a Media Mogul
A large Mexican television network is wagering that more of its viewers will watch a soccer match than the May 6 presidential candidates’ debate. And the media managers might well be right. But TV Azteca’s announcement that it would broadcast the Tigres-Morelia game instead of the first televised showdown between Mexico’s four presidential contenders provoked a storm of criticism and dem More »
The Winds of May Day: 2006-2012
Revived in the United States on a mass scale by the immigrant rights movement six years ago, the annual commemoration of International Workers’ Day is fast becoming an established tradition across the country. And if anything captured the essence of the 2012 celebrations, it was the convergence of issues popularized by Occupy Wall Street-influenced movements with demands for justice long pushed More »
Colorado River Activism Grows
Flowing through the canyons and mesas of the U.S. Southwest to the Mexican border, the Colorado River and its tributaries form the lifeblood of growing cities, struggling rural communities and spectacular populations of wildlife of all kinds. A 1944 agreement between the U.S. and Mexico guarantees the delivery of water south of the border. Yet mounting consumption and persistent drought are seriou More »
Last Stand in Lomas de Poleo
Descending down the long road that curves down from the heights of Lomas de Poleo, a panoramic view of the borderland dazzles the eyes. Below the now-paved Anapra highway sits the town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, with its big border landfill, racetrack and casino, El Paso Electric plant and scandal-ridden politics. In the background, barren but striking mountains rise up in a hot April sky that b More »
The Victims Shall Not be Forgotten
FNS Feature
Every night this week, a street in central El Paso will light up with the names of more than 10,000 people killed in the violence that’s ravaged Ciudad Juarez and Mexico since 2008. Sponsored by Annunciation House, the nightly projection/vigil is part of a week-long series of activities that will culminate with a dinner honoring in person the Mexican poet and anti-violence activis More »
Sunland Park: The Surprise that Keeps Surprising
Editor’s Note: Frontera NorteSur’s special coverage of the southern New Mexico borderland is made possible in part by a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation. Today’s story is about the latest developments in the troubled New Mexico border town of Sunland Park.
FNS Special Feature
In a stunning political development, the often-fractious Sunland Park City Council took action April More »
Fanny and 1,700 Disappeared People
The new top law enforcement official for the northern Mexican border state of Coahuila said this past weekend that 1,700 people have been forcibly disappeared in the entity since 2000.
At a press event attended by Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira Valdez, the state’s newly-named attorney general announced that committees will be formed to investigate the disappearances. The working groups will More »
Ciudad Juarez’s Revolutionary Jewel
Next, month Ciudad Juarez’s new historical-cultural gem will celebrate its first anniversary. Built as part of the 2010 Bicentennial/Centennial commemoration of the 1810 War of Independence and 1910 Revolution, the Museum of the Border Revolution (Muref) offers visitors a unique glimpse of Mexico’s early 20th century revolutionary upheaval, especially the strategic role Ciudad Juarez played More »
New Mexico’s Burgeoning Border Scandal
Special Report
A local political scandal in a small New Mexico border town keeps getting bigger, with the trails of alleged crime crossing the state line into Texas and over the international border into Mexico. In a spider-like web of intrigue and seething corruption, the saga of Sunland Park implicates New Mexico politicians, border business interests, local press people and possibly even Mex More »
Mexican Candidates Blast the Airwaves, Stir up the Social Networks
As Mexicans took off from work and school for the long Holy Week-Easter holiday celebrations, the country’s presidential and congressional candidates inundated electronic media with new ads designed to win over the voters.
A sampling of spots aired on Ciudad Juarez’s public radio station 106.7 FM over the Easter weekend zoomed in on several themes that are hot points of debate in the weeks More »
A Reminder to Teachers
For educators focused on New Mexico and borderlands history in general, Frontera NorteSur offers resources for the classroom. A trip to the FNS website will open a link to our special section on the New Mexico Centennial commemoration currently underway this year.
Located on the menu to the left of the page, the New Mexico Centennial section contains stories on farmworker history and struggles More »
Casino Meeting Scheduled
A public meeting on a proposed border-area casino is scheduled for April 4 in the southern New Mexico town of Deming west of Las Cruces. The event will focus on plans by Oklahoma’s Fort Sill Apaches to establish a gaming palace on a new reservation in Luna County bordering Mexico.
According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, Luna County has the highest percentage of joblessn More »
A Deadly Syndrome Stalks the Mexican Elections
Special Report
Call it the Michoacan Plus Syndrome. Exposed during last fall’s elections in the Mexican state of Michoacan, kidnappings and other crimes against actual or potential political candidates are now surfacing in Mexico’s state and federal elections scheduled for July 1.
In a recent meeting with the Interior Ministry, leaders of the Progressive Movement coalition denounced vi More »
Court Upholds Indigenous Rights
In a little-noticed decision with possible national repercussions, Mexico’s high court has come out in favor of an indigenous community in the state of Chihuahua. In a ruling publicized this month, Mexican Supreme Court justices determined that the community of Huitosachi has a right to participate in the decision-making of the Copper Canyon Trust Fund, an organization spearheading tourism devel More »
Border Security Outsourcing under Fire
A Texas state senator is calling for an investigation of border security contracts granted to a private, Virginia-based firm. In a letter earlier this month, state Senator Jose Rodriguez requested that the Texas State Comptroller probe a series of no-bid contracts awarded by the administration of Republican Governor Rick Perry to Abrams Learning and Information Systems (ALIS) since 2006.
Valued More »
Is Ciudad Juarez Turning Around?
More than four years after a so-called narco war exploded and then devastated Ciudad Juarez, a different atmosphere is perceptible on the streets of the border city. While still very high by historic standards, the rate of murders is way down from the height of the killing two years ago. Some restaurants are doing a brisk business, and locals are reviving the once-famed night life in the More »