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Frontera
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NUEVO LAREDO NEWS by Alma Jiménez Rodríguez and Doris Acevedo Barajas |
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Frontera
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NUEVO LAREDO NEWS by Alma Jiménez Rodríguez and Doris Acevedo Barajas |
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July 2, 2001 The Tamaulipas State Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia en el Estado, PGJE) gathered in the state capitol Ciudad Victoria, 40 of the 52 State Police (Policía Ministerial del Estado, PME) officers and their commanders that are stationed in Matamoros. The agents will be investigated to see if they participated in the June 21 raid on the Matamoros PME headquarters that resulted in the freeing of a kidnapping suspect. Police involvement in the raid is suspected because the group of 20-25 men that entered the building knew exactly where kidnapping suspect José Ramón Dávila López was being held in the police offices. Matamoros PME commander Jaime Yáñez Cantú said that the state director of the PME, Francisco Cayuela, is determined to make the PME more transparent. This includes ending corruption and getting rid of bad and unfit agents. In a further development in the story, Yáñez said that PME agent Rogelio García García resigned from the force for family reasons and because he feared the PGJE investigations which are wide ranging. El Bravo writes that its reporters have confirmed that Rogelio García García is the brother of Ricardo García García, who along with his wife Manuela "Melly" Peña was allegedly kidnapped by José Ramón Dávila López and others. FNS originally reported the names of the kidnapped couple as Ricardo González Chapa and Nelly Peña based on information from the Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo newspapers El Mañana. The State Attorney General Eduardo Garza Rivas has said that
the kidnapping was a typical "adjustment of accounts"
or move between warring factions of drug traffickers. June 28, 2001 Presenting at a Matamoros conference, "Drug Addiction: Illness of the 21st Century," to mark the Worldwide Day Against Addictions, Guajardo also stated that 20% of all crimes committed in Mexico are directly associated with drug use. Guajardo said that a united front against the growth of drug addiction must be formed. He stated that drug-use risk factors should be emphasized as much as law enforcement. The role of the family needs to be emphasized, adolescents need to be strengthened and society needs to take on the culture of violence, he said. Source: El Bravo (Matamoros), June 27, 2001. Article
by Víctor Manuel Villegas. To satisfy the city's increased demand for water Reynosa's Comisión Municipal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (City Drinking Water and Sewer Commission, Comapa) is about to begin the bidding process for a plant that will produce more drinking water for the city. The plant is to be built in the Rancho Grande area and will pump 50 liters of water per second according to Comapa general director Arnoldo González Elizondo. González also told Reynosa's newspaper El Mañana that Comapa has drilled three new water wells in the Lampacitos, Juárez Sur and Villas de Roble areas as part of emergency measures to keep adequate water pressure to new parts of the city. Some time in the next few days Comapa will begin drilling three more wells in the Rancho Grande sector of the city. González said that the city is fortunate in that it is located over aquifers. The construction of the Rancho Grande water plant will be the third such facility in the city. However, before things get better in Reynosa, González said that July's and August's high temperatures will only make the city's water shortages worse. Source: El Mañana, June 25, 2001. Dávila was being interrogated at the state police office because he is a suspect in the kidnapping of a married couple, Ricardo González Chapa and Nelly Peña. Garza said that the kidnapping was a typical "adjustment of accounts" between drug dealers. Garza denies that there is currently a drug war taking place in Tamaulipas. The kidnapped couple has yet to be located. Yesterday more than 500 federal agents arrived in Matamoros
to fight organized crime. So far the agents have searched alleged
narcohomes and warehouses but the results of their actions have
not yet been made public. The federal agents will also assist
in locating suspects in the raid on the PME offices. The Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Federal Consumer Protection Agency, Profeco) started its "Back-to-School Program" on June 18, 2001. It will continue through September 19 of this year. Jesús Gerardo Martínez Santoyo, Profeco director of monitoring and verification, says that the national program's goals are to prevent illegal pricing practices by businesses and to protect consumers from high prices. Over the next few months, as parents spend money to acquire the goods they need to send their children to school, there is traditionally high demand for school uniforms, shoes, and school materials. The first action that Profeco will take in its "Back-to-School Program" is to send appeals to businesses that sell high-demand products like school supplies, clothing and shoes. The appeals ask that businesses comply with the Ley General de Protección al Consumidor (General Law for Consumer Protection) and that they offer promotions, discounts and special offers that will insure savings to families. The program will also include continual price monitoring and the creation and distribution of reports on the quality of goods sold in Mexico. Profeco will also watch store sales and promotions to make sure that buyers are getting the deals they are promised. Prices on back-to-school supplies and school uniforms are
very important throughout Mexico because many families say that
they keep their kids out of school when they cannot afford to
buy them needed materials. Last year at this time the Matamoros
press ran stories stating that pawn shops are at their busiest
in these months because parents pawn jewelry and electronics
so as to be able to get their children enrolled in school. Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa, director of the Tamaulipas Secretaría de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Secude), told El Mañana that every year 22,000 students fail "secundaria" (the Mexican grade equivalent of junior high in the US). Hinojosa said the failure rate is a serious education problem that worries authorities. Across Mexico 27% of secundaria students are held back every year. In Tamaulipas the figure is 17 %. One possible solution that Hinojosa mentioned would be to raise the number of schools for parents from 400 to 1000. Better educated parents benefit children since kids can learn from their parents and parents know what their children need to learn. Hinojosa also stated that parents are always very concerned that their children attend preschool and elementary school but by the time their kids reach junior high they tend to not pay as much attention to their children's needs. However, according to Hinojosa, junior high is when children are most in need of their parents' help and support. Hinojosa says that 22,000 students failing junior high does not mean that this same number will not finish secundaria. The drop out rate in the state is between 3.8 and 4.0% percent and 83 out of 100 students finish junior high. Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), June 19, 2001. El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), June 19, 2001. June 18, 2001 INEGI data show that the largest gains in maquiladora employment for the first three months of 2001 were in Guanajuato (19.7%), Sonora (10.4%), Baja California (8.5%), Yucatán (6.7%), Puebla (5.6%) and the State of Mexico (5.2%). Other growth figures given were for Aguascalientes (2.5%) and Chihuahua (1.0%). Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Mexico City lost maquiladora employment as compared to the first three months of 2000. El Mañana also wrote that Tamaulipas officials
say that the state's 270 companies with maquiladoras in Tamaulipas
are not experiencing severe economic consequences from the US
slow down. To the contrary, state officials stated that US companies
are coming to Mexico looking for ways to lower operational costs
during the downturn of the US economy. June 14, 2001 According to Dr. Jim Earhart of the Laredo Community College (LCC), the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas is threatened by pollution stemming from population growth and the number of new warehouses located along its banks. Without giving specific figures, Earhart said that LCC studies have shown worrisome levels of mercury in Rio Grande fish and have seen mutations in animals and birds that are indicative of the presence of pollutants in the river. To keep the situation from worsening Earhart recommends that all new development in the area be kept as far away from the river as possible. Earhart also stated that large quantities of dangerous substances are stored in warehouses along the Rio Grande and are the major source of regional and Rio Grande pollution. New warehouses and development should be sent out toward Interstate 35, he suggested. Other sources of river pollution, according to Earhart, are both nations' industrial development in the Rio Grande basin and fifty years of agricultural pesticide spraying. The increase in industrial development on both sides of the river has led to more toxic exposure to the surrounding wildlife, he said. Earhart also stated that the Rio Grande is home to a diverse variety of species. Some of these species are endangered or threatened with extinction and could be further harmed by increases in pollutants. Source: El Mañana, June 13, 2001. Article by Raúl S. Llamas. June 12, 2001 In response to the increased use of air conditioners and refrigerators in Reynosa, Velázquez says that the CFE is accelerating work on new power substations. It is also working faster to complete expansions of existing facilities. Last week Matamoros, a city approximately 60 miles east of
Reynosa, lost power for six hours because of problems at the
nearby Río Bravo power station. Matamoros maquiladoras
later complained to the press that the blackout caused them financial
losses. June 7, 2001 The director of the ISSSTE hospital in Matamoros, José
Antonio García, told the Matamoros newspaper El Mañana
that he lacks the resources to take care of the 40,000 people
for whom he is responsible. The ISSSTE is the Instituto de Seguridad
y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado (State Workers
Social Security and Social Services Institute). The ISSSTE functions
as both health-care provider and hospital for state employees.
It also provides housing and retirement services for state workers. The ISSSTE's ambulances, acquired in 1990, are barely running,
according to García, and would not pass a vehicle inspection.
The hospital also lacks the cars it needs to perform its social
work and administrative duties. The ISSSTE website is at http://www.issste.gob.mx/ Source: El Mañana, June 5, 2001. Article by
Veronica Guzman. A six-hour blackout caused unknown losses to the Matamoros
business sector. Wenceslao Cantú, Cantú said that industry losses were immense and difficult to calculate. The blackout led to a production decrease because third-shift employees could not go to work. Factories that operate large electric furnaces also had great losses because it takes 8 hours for the furnaces to heat up fully. According to the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE ) the blackout was caused by an unknown problem at the Río Bravo power plant. Reynosa also lost power as well. The CFE stated that the power outage lasted only an hour and fifty minutes. Cantú said that blackout actually lasted six hours. Source: El Bravo, June 1, 2001. Article by Rosy Pereda. June 1, 2001 According to Rubén Carrillo De la Garza, president of the Centro Empresarial de Matamoros (Matamoros Business Center, CEM), maquiladoras in the Parque Industrial del Norte suspend operations every day for two hours at a time so as not to exceed the limits of the energy they are importing from the US. The maquiladoras have been receiving energy from the US for the past three weeks. Carrillo stated that production stoppages have not affected
the maquiladoras as they were already reducing output due to
the US economic slowdown. Every day 40 maquiladoras stop production
in Matamoros to help save energy. |