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May 29, 2002
All Tamaulipas Five-Year Olds to Go to School
The Tamaulipas Congress passed legislation to require public
or private schooling for all five-year old children. Currently,
25% of the state's five-year olds do not attend school.
With a current kindergarten enrollment of 81,591 students,
the state estimates that it will have to hire 677 new teachers
and build 268 new schools.
State and federal funding will pay for the new project.
In rural areas, where kindergarten programs were not previously
possible because of physical distances, local officials will
work with the federal government to decide how to meet the needs
of area residents.
Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), May 29, 2002.
May 28, 2002
Matamoros Military Checkpoints
An article in the Matamoros newspaper, El Bravo, states that
military checkpoints at the city's edges have become part of
everyday life for those people that have to go through them on
a regular basis.
Located along the major roads outside of Matamoros, each checkpoint
has an average of fifteen soldiers and the positions function
24 hours a day to catch people that are suspected of committing
crimes.
The checkpoint to the east of Matamoros, on the road to the Gulf
of Mexico, inspects traffic going both into and out of the city,
according the El Bravo article. When stopped, occupants are asked
to step out of their vehicles and show identification. They are
also asked what they are doing and where they are going. Additionally,
on the way back to Matamoros, people are asked to open their
car doors and trunks for inspection.
On the road that goes west of Matamoros, on the way to Reynosa,
soldiers only stop vehicles that are leaving the city.
Source: El Bravo (Matamoros), May 21, 2002. Article by Rosy Pereda
Rangel.
May 21, 2002
Border Asthma Study
A study of asthma in minors has been expanded from Laredo,
Texas to include Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, according to an article
in the Nuevo Laredo newspaper, El Mañana.
Gladys Cronfel-Keene, a Laredo doctor and the head of the
Respira (Breathe) project, said that the number of asthma cases
in Laredo have doubled over the past fifteen years and are a
serious problem for thousands of families. Additionally, the
number of minors that die every year from asthma is growing by
6%. Most of these deaths occur between the ages of 5 and 14.
Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children, says
Cronfel-Keene. It is also the number one reason for missing school
and not engaging in normal childhood activities.
Respira began its asthma study in February and hopes to finish
it within the next few months. The study's results will be used
to bolster requests for federal health funds.
To have their children checked for asthma and counted in the
study, parents fill out a form at their child's school. They
then get an appointment with a doctor.
Cronfel-Keene said that a 1997 study of asthma in Laredo found
that 26% of 95 children had symptoms suggestive of the disease.
Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), May 20, 2002. Article
by Francisco Díaz.
May 15, 2002
Nuevo Laredo Maquiladora Exports Down, Recovery on Horizon
Ignacio Guajardo Galindo, a federal delegate with the Secretaría
de Economía (Department of Economics), said that Nuevo
Laredo maquiladora exports dropped from 1.2 billion pesos (approximately
US$127 million) to 1 billion pesos between this year and last.
He also reported that city maquiladora employment is down 1,500
jobs since last year.
Although no new maquiladoras have opened this year in Nuevo
Laredo, according to Guajardo, seven existing plants have expanded
their operations. These expansions, plus the continued interest
of new companies in Nuevo Laredo, have led Guajardo to believe
that the maquiladora industry will begin a recovery in the second
half of this year.
The maquiladora industry is the biggest creator of new jobs in
Nuevo Laredo, says Guajardo. Other sectors which also create
employment are the city's customs agencies, transportation companies
and small businesses.
On April 30, 2002, the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario
reported that national maquiladora employment fell 17.8% between
February, 2001 and February, 2002. However, maquiladora workers'
salaries increased 6.9% over the same time period, according
to statistics from INEGI, the Mexican national institute for
statistics.
Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), May 12, 2002.
May 8, 2002
Massive Blackout Hits Matamoros
A blackout on Tuesday, April 30, at 11 p.m., has left some
parts of Matamoros with no electricity for more than a week.
While much of the city has had its power restored, the blackout
originally affected more than 50 neighborhoods and the city's
downtown, according to articles in the Matamoros newspaper El
Bravo.
Other consequences of the power system's failure were the
explosion of 320 transformers and the burning of power poles.
An uncertain number of homes were also destroyed by power overloads
that led to fires. Domestic appliances were destroyed and food
was lost in homes, restaurants and stores that lost their ability
to refrigerate food. Some of the city's maquiladora industry
also shut down because of the power outage, according to El Bravo.
Matamoros citizens were frustrated by what they saw as the
electric utility's slow response to the incident.
The city's electrical system, controlled by the Comisión
Federal de Electricidad (CFE), has said that it will not pay
its customers for lost food. Instead, it said that it will give
Matamoros residents 15 extra days to pay their bills.
The CFE will also stated that it will pay for appliances that
were destroyed by power surges. To receive this aid, customers
will have to take their appliances to an expert that can assure
the CFE that the appliances were destroyed by the power surge.
Source: El Bravo, May 2 & 7, 2002. Articles by Rosy Pereda
and Nannette Sedas.
April 23, 2002
Rio Bravo Citizens Protest Lack of Environmental Services
Residents of a Rio Bravo neighborhood told the Reynosa newspaper
that they throw trash in the street to protest the absence of
waste-removal services. The residents are also upset by what
the newspaper describes as an enormous pool of sewage that has
accumulated due to a break in a sewer line.
According to El Mañana, dozens of families have signed
letters sent to the city government that protest the neighborhood's
poor environmental conditions. However, the bad conditions in
the area around Coahuila and Galeana streets still persist. People
in the neighborhood began protesting to city government in 2001.
There is not yet a large accumulation of garbage in the neighborhood
because the wind blows much of it away. Other trash is sometimes
hauled off by private individuals that work for a small payment
or tip from residents, according to one person from the neighborhood
that did want to give his or her name.
Rio Bravo is a city of approximately 150,000 people located
between Reynosa and Matamoros, across from Pharr, Texas.
Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), April 23, 2002.
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