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February 28, 2001
Solar Panels for the Méxicali Valley
State authorities gave out contracts to companies on February
21 to provide solar panels to 160 families in the Méxicali
Valley. César Mancillas Amador, coordinator for Desarrollo
Social (Social Development), said that the Solar Panel Program
(Programa de Páneles Solares) started as a pilot program
in the south of the Ensenada district in 1999.
Mancillas said that the project's goal is to provide electricity
for all Baja California communities no matter how poor they are.
The indigenous communities of Santa Catarina, La Huerta and Kiliwas
as well as 17 Méxicali Valley agricultural areas are already
being provided with electrical systems.
Source: La Crónica, February 22, 2001. Article
by Jesús Jiménez Vega.
February 26, 2001
US Firm to Build Powerplant near Méxicali to Supply the
US Market
To supply the energy-hungry California market, San Diego-based
Sempra Energy is constructing a US$350 million, gas-fired, electricty-generating
plant 9 miles west of Méxicali and 3 miles from the US-Mexico
border. A $230 million natural-gas pipeline being developed by
Sempra and its US and Mexican partners will supply fuel to the
plant.
Sempra Energy International President Donald Felsinger said
that the new plant will eventually help in alleviating the California
energy crisis. Building in Mexico should also speed along help
to California as Felsinger stated that in Mexico all the necessary
building permits can be acquired in six months while it takes
12 to 18 months or longer in California to get all the necessary
permits.
It is believed that the plant will be the first in Mexico
to be entirely foreign owned and operated. Normally, all electrical
plants in Mexico are owned and operated by the Mexican government's
Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The Sempra plant
is exempt from this because it will not serve Mexican consumers.
The company still needs to get Mexican permission to export
energy to the US and US permission to import energy into the
US.
Sources: El Diario, February 17, 2001 and the Sempra website
http://www.sempra.com/atsempra/index.html
February 21, 2001
Alleged Arellano Cartel Members Arrested in Méxicali
A joint operation between the Procuraduría General
de la República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR)
and the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Secretary of
National Defense, Sedena) has resulted in the arrest of six alleged
members of the Arellano Félix drug cartel, also called
the Tijuana cartel, one of the most powerful drug-trafficking
organizations in Mexico. All the arrests took place in Méxicali
and law-enforcement officials hope that this has put an end to
the cartel's presence in that city.
José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, head of the PGR's Fiscalía
Especializada para la Atención de Delitos contra la Salud
(Anti-drug Taskforce, FEADS), said that a major break in the
case was the arrest of Miguel Angel García Serrano, a
Federal Judicial Police Antidrug agent that had been working
with the FEADS. He is charged with allegedly providing protection
and information for two members of the cartel.
Also arrested were other members of the cartel that allegedly
performed such functions as providing falsified documents to
the cartel and warehousing and moving drugs including cocaine
and marijuana.
Seized during the raid were eight homes with a value of US$2.5
million, 1,800 pounds of marijuana, police radios, 19 guns, ammunition,
18 cars and more.
Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 20, 2001. Article
by Arturo Loyola.
February 19, 2001
San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora Wants a Tire Recycling Facility
Julio Villarreal Urquídez, head of the Federación
Regional de Llanteros (Regional Tire Federation, FRL), says that
local, used-tire vendors generate 52,000 used tires per year
and that a tire recycling and grinding plant should be located
in San Luis Río Colorado to avoid health and environmental
costs associated with used tires.
According to Villarreal, used tires must currently be taken
to Méxicali where they go to the Hansen company to be
converted into supports for railroad tracks. Although Méxicali
and San Luis Río Colorado are only less than 30 miles
(50 kilometers) apart Villarreal states that it costs tire vendors
500,000 pesos (approximately US$50,000) per year to transport
the tires.
Villarreal asserts that if the tires could be ground up in
San Luis Río Colorado before they are moved to Méxicali
the cost of recycling would be much lower for the tire vendors.
He believes that this would encourage more tire recycling and
less tire dumping. Currently many tires are thrown away at illegal
dump sites near the city. These piles of tires can then become
fire and health hazards.
February 15, 2001
Río Nuevo Clean Up
Today's Méxicali newspaper La Crónica
reports on efforts in crossborder Calexico, CA to clean up the
Río Nuevo river.
The newspaper says that local officials that comprise the Río
Nuevo Committee have asked both Presidents Fox and Bush to find
a solution to the river's pollution. The committee's members
recently sent both leaders a letter that explains the river's
situation.
Luis Estrada, a member of the committee, stated that "Three
decades and three Mexican presidents have ignored this problem
that has caused the loss of millions of dollars and affects trade
and agriculture." Estrada added that the river's problems
stem from high levels of contamination that include dangerous
chemicals that threaten the community.
Hildy Carrillo, executive director of the Calexico Business Bureau,
criticized the fact that the river has been ignored, "We
don't want anymore studies. The river's water should be put into
pipes."
Source: La Crónica, February 15, 2001. Article
by Edgar Favián Chávez.
February 13, 2001
Four Arrested Near Méxicali for Allegedly Shooting at
US Border Patrol
Four residents of the Fronteriza colonia (neighborhood) near
Méxicali were arrested by city police after they allegedly
fired rifle shots at US Border Patrol agents at work in the US.
City police say that the four appear to be the same people involved
in shooting out video cameras installed along the border.
The four were taken into custody after Border Patrol called
the Méxicali city police to report that they were being
fired upon from Mexico. Soon after the call city police surrounded
the area and detained the four suspects.
The four are allegedly part of a group of human smugglers
operating in the area according to Méxicali Police. The
police also said that the shooting was done to scare away or
distract Border Patrol agents so that undocumented migrants can
cross the border without being caught.
Police say that the four were caught with a rifle, two doses
of crystal methamphetamine, a marijuana cigarette and baseball
bat.
Source: La Crónica, February 12, 2001. Article
by Marco Vinicio Blanco.
February 9, 2001
Student Shoots at Teacher in BC
A thirteen-year old Baja California student shot at his Civic
and Ethics Education teacher in what looks to be the internationalization
of what was once primarily a US manner of expressing teenage
anger and frustration. The unnamed student allegedly shot at
an unidentified teacher with a .22 pistol at the Escuela Secundaria
Número 20 in Ensenada, BC.
The gun was fired from within a backpack and the bullet struck
the floor and shattered sending shrapnel into a wall and a desk.
A student was grazed in the leg by the shrapnel but the wound
did not require medical attention.
The school principal, Tomás Huerta Olachea, interviewed
the boy who told him that the gun belonged to his father and
that he had only wanted to wound his instructor whom he did not
like. The principal also stated that the boy has been attending
the school for 6 months. He described him as quiet and respectful
but indifferent to his studies.
The boy is now in the custody of the State Police (Ministerio
Público) where he is being questioned and where his teacher
went to tell him he forgave him.
Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 9, 2001. Article
by Arturo López Juan.
February 7, 2001
Ruffo Claims SRE Is Blocking His Appointment to Border Czar Position
Ernesto Ruffo Appel has stated that the Secretaría
de Relaciones Exteriores (Department of Foreign Relations, SRE)
is trying to block his being named Commissioner of Northern Border
Affairs (Comisionado para Asuntos de la Frontera Norte) because
it fears that he may gain power over some aspects of foreign
affairs.
Ruffo criticized the SRE for the way in which it tries to
deal with all its problems with the US at one time. The US, he
says, prefers to work on issues separately, one at a time.
Speaking at an education conference on the subject of the
economic duties that were conferred on him earlier this year
by President Fox, Ruffo said that water is an economic problem
from Matamoros to Tijuana. Ruffo also stated that Tijuana needs
to increase its infrastructure building as the city grows by
5.5% per year.
Although his position has still to be approved, Ruffo also
indicated that perhaps the border should change from an assembly
zone to a manufacturing zone where fewer workers would be paid
better salaries. Ruffo said that to accomplish this workers would
need more training and education. Industry would need to invest
more and buy more heavy machinery.
Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 7, 2001. Article
by Kenia Rojas.
February 1, 2001
Investment Up in Méxicali
The Méxicali Industrial Development Commission (Comisión
de Desarrollo Industrial de Méxicali) said that investment
in the city for the year 2000 was US$534.9 million, an increase
over 1999's investment of US$390 million.
However, the number of new plants to arrive in Méxicali
was down for the year 2000 when 13 new plants opened. There were
23 new plants in the city in 1999.
The 25 plant expansions in 2000 were less than 1999's 38 plant
expansions, according to the Commission.
Source: La Crónica, January 30, 2001. Article
by Mariana Rivero.
January 30, 2001
BC Council Formed for July 8, 2001 Elections
The creation of voting and campaign procedures for the July
8, 2001 Baja California election of governor, deputies and mayors
has begun with the creation of a new State Election Council (Consejo
Estatal Electoral, CEE). A new CEE president has been sworn in
along with representatives from all of BC's major political parties,
the PRI, PAN, PRD, PT and PVEM. CEE meetings will be held the
last Wednesday of every month.
According to the new CEE president, Víctor Everardo
Beltrán Corona, among the council's responsibilities are
the guidance and protection of BC voters' political freedoms
which have developed a high degree of maturity in recent years
through the dependability of voting procedures and mechanisms.
With the help of the other council members, political parties
and candidates Beltrán will make an unprecedented effort
to raise voter participation in the July elections.
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