From YourSite.com

January 21, 2010 News

Posted in: News

By Sabrina Lear
Jan 24, 2010 - 10:42:52 PM

January 24, 2010 News

LOCAL
Sra Maria Flores Castro is in the San Jose General Hospital and needs O positive blood, you can call the Sta Josefina Blood Bank to donate at 105 0354 and please state that Sra Flores' social worker is Marta Vizcaino in San Jose.

... And Pete Kelly of Los Barriles is in the hospital in Cabo San Lucas, and is in need of O-neg blood. Please call the Blood Bank at 105 0354, you must be under 65 years old and meet strict donor requirements. That's 105 0354, and we wish Sra Flores and Pete Kelly speedy recoveries.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

Cabo Mil's English Programming would like to pass on the following Information on donating to HAITI RELIEF

Cruz Roja Mexicana has two accounts for Haitian relief:

Banorte Cuenta: 0000000065

BANAMEX Suc. 557 Cuenta:65

By TELEPHONE:

Telmex subscribers can call *7777 to make donations (added to your telephone bill) of 100, 200, 300, 400 or 500 pesos. Carlos Slim’s foundation will match your contribution.

TELCEL donations (for those with monthly plans) *8888

If you are living or visiting in Mexico — walk into any HSBC branch anywhere in the country, and make a deposit in the Haitian Embassy’s “Centro de acopio” — emergency relief warehouse account.
HSBC Account #4042482604

Because so many of us in Mexico do not have credit cards or paypal accounts, direct deposits are the normal procedure for making donations to charities and emergency relief funds.

The President of the Mexican Red Cross said yesterday that overall 320 tons of aid has been collected and experts are already on the scene. The Carlos Slim Foundation announced it will double every donation to help the Haitian people received via phone and text message service through Telmex and Telcel. This solidarity of the people of Mexico with Haiti far exceeded expectations to such an extent that according to the Spanish-language daily, Frontera, that the UN Headquarters had to make room to house the three tons of humanitarian aid it has received from Mexico so far.

If you are missing relatives or friends in Haiti, please call 01-55 3686 5883 for assistance.

Thank you to Richard Grabman's most excellent mexfiles.net sitefor sharing this important Haiti Relief information.

Cabo Mil has been reporting, in Spanish and in English, on the Paredones Amarillos open pit gold mine operation in the Sierra de La Laguna Biosphere Reserve, owned by Vista Gold of Denver, Colorado and operated by a Mexican sister company. They had been issued preliminary permits to open pit mine for gold, which will use approximately several hundred million pounds of cyanide to extract the gold over the life of the mine, projected to be 9.5 years. Arsenic is also used heavily in the production of gold. Many citizens strongly oppose the mine and the potential threat from cyanide and arsenic runoff to the aquifers that provide our drinking water. For more information on Paredones Amarillos, visit:

English: www.vistagoldno.com
Spanish: www.paredonesamarillosno.com
Spanish: www.bionero.org

Headlines from Mexico Today online...

United Nations officials in Haiti said two Mexican female diplomats working for the U.N. in Port-au-Prince are missing… They are believed to have been inside the U.N. building in Haiti when the quake struck…. The building collapsed. Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Patricia Espinosa said the mission in Haiti has intensified efforts to locate 58 of the 138 Mexican nationals believed to have been in Haiti when the earthquake hit on January 12… One of those missing is Gerard Le Chevallier, French-Salvadoran husband of the head of the Puebla Women’s Institute Marcela Jiménez Avendaño. Le Chevallier, 53, has been head of Political Affairs at the U.N. mission in Haiti for the past six months.

An aftershock measuring 6 on the Richter scale struck Haiti spreading panic and causing thousands to flee from the capital… The aftershock made seven buildings collapse in Petit-Goave, the town on the coastline closest to the quake epicenter… There were no reports of people killed or trapped in the aftershock…

Mexican citizen Carlos Peralta Valle, who survived the earthquake in Haiti, arrived in Mexico… He was taken to the General Hospital where he was found to be in good condition and out of danger… Another 33 people, among them 12 Haitian citizens, arrived together with Peralta Valle…

The family of María Antonieta Castillo, a Mexican citizen in Haiti when the quake hit, accused officials at the Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretariat of providing incorrect information about their relative… The relatives charged that officials first they said she had been located and then, that her whereabouts were unknown…

The PAN wants the PRD to have its members recognize President Felipe Calderón as the country’s legitimate president if they want to forge electoral alliances…

The PRD said that PRI senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones’s criticisms of possible PRD alliances with the PAN are because the PRI fears it will lose the elections.

President Felipe Calderón said that in 2010 his government’s priority is to achieve economic recovery.

Haitian authorities said the number of people killed in the devastating earthquake last week has risen to 75,000… The Haitian government said 250,000 people were injured in the quake and another one million lost their homes.

Mexico’s Ambassador to Haiti Everardo Suárez said the body of Karen Valero, a Mexican killed in the earthquake, will shortly be sent back to Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderón pledged to locate all Mexicans who were in Haiti when the earthquake struck.

In other news… PRI Senate caucus leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones said that political alliances should be born from a sharing of political ideals, not for mere expediency at election time… He was apparently referring to a possible PAN-PRD alliance.

The director of the Mexican Social Security Institute Daniel Karam acknowledged that more than 220,000 jobs in the formal sector were lost in 2009.

50th Anniversary of ISSSTE, 50 Years of Serving Mexico

Earlier today, President Calderón led the event for the 50th Anniversary of the ISSSTE, "50 Years of Serving Mexico," held in the Adolfo López Mateos Hall of the official Los Pinos Residence in Mexico City.

Mexico's Telmex Rejects Union Movement To Demand Triple Play

MEXICO CITY --Mexican fixed-line phone company Telefonos de Mexico said Thursday it doesn't support a planned movement by unionized phone workers to demand the government let Telmex offer television service.

Telmex, the country's largest fixed-line operator and Internet provider, has been seeking government authorization to add video to its offerings, joining cable companies in providing "triple play" as the bundling of phone, TV and Internet is known.

Telmex said in a statement that it's seeking authorization through proper legal channels "and doesn't consider that marches or sit-ins are the right way to go about it."

The company said it has nothing to do with the decisions made by the Mexican Telephone Workers Union. It wouldn't be the first time the union has called for Telmex to be allowed to enter the triple play market.

During a walkout in November in support of the Mexican Electricians Union against the government's closure of state-run power distribution company Luz Y Fuerza del Centro, phone workers went to the Communications and Transport Ministry to demand triple play for Telmex.

The country's cable TV industry chamber Canitec is opposed to Telmex entering the television market, arguing for tighter regulation of Telmex before it's allowed to do so. While awaiting the chance to offer triple play, Telmex has formed an alliance in which it does billing for start-up satellite TV service Dish Mexico, a joint-venture of Mexico's MVS Comunicaciones and EchoStar Corp. (SATS).

Mexico unemployment rate for December
Median 5.10 percent in December vs 5.26 % in November. Mexican unemployment likely declined marginally in December compared to November thanks to increased activity in industry and the service sector as the country
started to recover from a deep recession. Gross domestic product in Mexico is seen expanding about 3percent in 2010 after plunging around 7 percent last year.

Mexico's sugar crop will miss forecast
MEXICO CITY, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Mexico's sugar crop will come in around 200,000 tonnes short of the official government forecast due to low yields and bad weather, the director of Czarnikow Sugar Mexico said late last week. Mario Bolivar said in an interview he saw the 2009/10 harvest at 4.75 million tonnes, less than the 4.97 million tonnes forecast by the national sugar committee, a government and industry panel that oversees the sector.

Three Rescued Crossing Tijuana River
SAN DIEGO—The US Border Patrol says three people have been rescued while trying to cross the storm-swollen Tijuana River from Tijuana.

Spokesman Daryl Reed says agents spotted about a dozen people who appeared to be illegal immigrants about a half-mile north of the border late Wednesday night.

He says three adults were swept away by the fast-moving current. Rescuers pulled them from the water and they were treated at a hospital for hypothermia.

Reed says a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter searched for several hours to make sure nobody else was carried away, ending the search before dawn Thursday. Nobody else was found.

Reed says a dozen people, including the three who were rescued, are in Border Patrol custody and may be sent back across the border.

Nine Mexican Migrants Missing in Shipwreck off California Coast

MEXICO CITY – Nine Mexican migrants are missing in the shipwreck that claimed the life of an illegal Mexican immigrant over the weekend in U.S. waters, the Foreign Relations Secretariat said.

The migrants tried to enter the United States early Saturday, but the 10-meter (33-foot) boat they were on went down near Torrey Pines, a beach community in San Diego County, California.

The secretariat said in a statement Sunday that 13 Mexicans and a Guatemalan woman were rescued. Three people were hospitalized and one of them, a Mexican, died, officials said. The Guatemalan woman is listed in critical condition and the third person is out of danger, the secretariat said.

The other 11 people aboard the boat were "unharmed and are being held at a migratory detention center" in the United States, pending completion of an investigation, the Foreign Relations Secretariat said.

"Based on the testimony of those rescued, nine other migrants are missing, all of them presumably Mexicans," the secretariat said. U.S. officials launched a search and rescue operation soon after the shipwreck, but the Coast Guard suspended the operation on Sunday. "The possibility, however, exists that some members of the group may have made it ashore," the secretariat said.

Officials estimate that some 300,000 to 500,000 Mexicans try to enter the United States illegally each year in search of better economic opportunities. Illegal crossings have fallen in recent years due to the severe recession in the United States and tighter border controls implemented by Washington. EFE

Mexican sports officials are searching for potential Olympic athletes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mexican sports officials are searching for potential Olympic athletes in the United States with family links to Mexico who might eventually compete for the Latin American country.

Mexico's sports minister Bernardo De la Garza said Wednesday that the first step in the identification process would be the so-called Mexican Games being held in Los Angeles in March. Competitions will be held in 12 Olympic disciplines and will be open to Mexicans, Mexican-Americans and Mexican-Canadians.

De la Garza used the example of Oscar De la Hoya, a retired American boxing champion of Mexican descent, as the kind of athlete the competition might unearth.

Mexico has traditionally done poorly in the Olympics, and De la Garza said the country was partly to blame. Mexico won only three medals in 2008 in Beijing -- two golds and one bronze.

"Historically, many Mexicans with sports talent have not had the chance," De la Garza said. "We didn't make it easy. We didn't stretch out our hand and help them so they could represent Mexico and not have to do it in other countries.

"What we can do for Mexican sports is open the door so they have the chance, so those who want to can represent their country in international events."

De la Garza said he was particularly interested in finding sprinters, and athletes in the javelin, shot put and discus.

"Traditionally, Mexico has not had sprinters," he said. "The field events also have not been a strength."

The games, officially know as the "Sports Games for Mexicans Abroad," will take place March 29-April 4 in Los Angeles. De la Garza said some talented foreigners from the games would be invited to the Mexico National Olympiad, which takes place annually in Mexico.