By RICARDO CASTILLO The possibilities of a student strike shutdown at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) grow day-by-day. As of midday Wednesday, Feb. 5, there were at least 60,000 students in eight different preparatory schools not attending classes. The problem is that their rebellion does not seem to have a cause. The situation actually began on Nov. 4,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The birthing pangs of Mexico’s new National Guard (GN) are being heard loud and clear across the country. But they do not come from within the newly created police deployed on the streets as of Sunday, June 30. The are from the nation’s Federal Police agents, who fear the changes that the GN represent. With the National
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Despite angry protests over the weekend and the as-of-yet unsolved Feb. 20 murder of the leader of an opposition movement against it, the opening of a controversial new hydroelectric plant in the central state of Morelos is set to continue as planned, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said Monday, Feb. 25. Announcing the results of
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced on Friday, Feb. 7, that his government will hold an open referendum on whether to allow the operation of a state-owned thermoelectric power plant in Yecapixtla, Morelos. The referendum will be held in all municipalities throughout the central Mexican state of Morelos, as well as in the neighboring states
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By RICARDO CASTILLO First, let me explain some Mexican meanings for the word “chocolate.” Chocolate is Mexico’s sweetest gift to humanity. That, however, does not mean that Mexicans use the word chocolate just to refer to confectionaries. In Mexican slang, chocolate can mean the contrary of sweet – bitterness or outright anger. Take, for instance, the phrase used in the title of
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Jan. 26 is Australia Day, the official national holiday of the Land Down Under. For the majority of Australians, that translates into a day of celebration, with public barbeques and the drinking of hardy stout. But for the country’s minority indigenous aboriginal peoples, who make up about 2.8 percent of the country’s 24.6 million-strong population, Australia Day is
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