Yeah I know it's Sunday but here I am:
- NYT reports on the Calderon crack-down. I will lay my biases right on the table I don't like NYT's James McKinley Jr. He has a difficulty with his own biases unfortunately he has a problem acknowledging his. He's not exactly Walter Duranty or Herbert Matthews but he still leaves me feeling dirty. It isn't so much what he says but how he says things. He begins his story by saying Calderon's campaign had promised to focus on jobs but he was focusing on something else security. Calderon has been beating the security drum since before his inauguration when violence escalated throughout the border towns and even Monterrey. He then casts the move of unarming the Tijuana police as a move motivated by suspicious federal officials and raising concerns of anarchy in Tijuana. First of all federal gov't officials are not the only people who "think" that the Tijuana police is corrupt. The general populace and basically the rest of the country know that elements if not most of the Tijuana police is corrupt or open to corruption. As for the charge of anarchy no story emanating from Tijuana reflected this view until McKinley threw it out there. If anything the people of Tijuana were thrilled at the disarmament of it's police force. McKinley also fails to mention that the police returned to patroling the streets of Tijuana
- A more balanced assesment of Calderon's drug fight can be found in the HoustonChron. The cold hard fact is that Calderon has no choice but to use the military, but the military alone is not the answer.
- LAT notes that roads used by Tijuana smugglers have been effectively cleaned out by Mexican troops.
- Venezuela demands that the OAS Gen-Sec take back his comments.
- A prison riot in El Salvador leaves 17 dead.
- The other ETA victim returns home.
- 31 dead in Brazilian mudslide.
- Evo is blasted by oppo leader Jorge Quiroga for Venezuelan military involvement in Ecuador. (en esp).
- Rising copper prices have got some Chileans eager to spend on public goods.
- NYT has a story on how "Ugly Betty" changed when she came to America. Actually she changed when she went to Mexico too. Let me just state for the record that my knowledge of telenovelas was forced upon me.
- NYT notes the rather odd name choices used by Venezuelans.
- Further proof that the Herald sucks - I've noticed that my local paper has tendency to recycle old stories from other papers on Sunday. This week they publish a story on a cactus factory run by Oaxacan women that I linked to on December 27.
