Congress Passes 2010 Budget
MEXICO CITY - Congress approved the 2010 budget today that includes 3.18 trillion pesos ($244 billion dollars) of spending and the widest deficit in more than two decades.
The lower house of Congress voted 437 to 25 in favor of the spending bill that results in a deficit of 0.75 percent of gross domestic product, excluding debt from Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. The shortfall including Pemex debt will be 2.75 percent of Gross Domestic Product, the widest since 1989.
The budget bill, which now goes to Mexican President Felipe Calderon for signing, shifts 96.6 billion pesos of spending to infrastructure, agriculture, education, health and social programs from Calderon’s original proposal. The funds were taken mostly from executive-branch operational spending.
The bill outlines reductions in operational spending by capping salaries, eliminating positions through attrition, consolidating supply purchases and limiting the use of third- party consultants and services. The legislation mandates that savings the government achieves must be reported to the Congress every three months and posted publicly on the Finance Ministry’s Web site.
Mexico irked by recognition of 'El Chapo'
Mexico City - Mexicans were none too
pleased to read that their country's most-wanted cocaine kingpin has
been ranked by Forbes magazine Drug Lord Joaquin Guzman, alias El
Chapo -- Spanish for "Shorty" -- was listed by Forbes
magazine last week as No. 41 in 67 of the most powerful people in the
world.
A senior official with the Mexican attorney general's
office, Juan de Dios Castro, said the inclusion of Guzman was
"frivolous," and Mexican Ambassador to the United States
Arturo Sarukhan used his debut on Twitter to denounce it, according
to the Reforma newspaper. Sarukhan went on to suggest that it would
take social networks, such as Twitter, to paint a more positive
picture of Mexico than that portrayed by "traditional
media."
President Felipe Calderon lashed out in March
when Forbes named Guzman one of the world's top billionaires. Guzman
heads the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's oldest and largest
drug-trafficking organization.
The other Mexican to make the list
was Carlos Slim Helu, a telecom tycoon considered by Forbes to be the
third-richest man on Earth. He ranked No. 6 on the "powerful"
list, just ahead of Rupert Murdoch and above Bill Gates and the
pope.
"For a U.S. publication to distinguish Slim and El
Chapo, far from filling us with pride, should make us reflect,"
journalist Miguel Angel Granados noted in his Reforma column. "The
two figures embody our worst evils: Slim represents the extreme of
deep, growing inequality, and Guzman embodies the prosperous life of
crime and impunity" Granados said.
Free family flights to Mexico on AeroMexico
Aeromexico is taking a lesson from cell phone companies by introducing its own version of a family plan. Depending on where you are flying, buy three or four tickets on select routes between the U.S. and Mexico and receive one ticket — for an adult or a child —for free.
Some destinations included Los Cabos, Guadalajara, Cancun, Leon, Monterrey, and Mexico City. Fly from major U.S. cities like Las Vegas, Houston, New York, Miami, Seattle, and many more.
The Family Plan is an ongoing promotion, so you may travel whenever you wish, but some blackout dates apply and tickets must be purchased by December 15. However, for those planning a Christmas or New Years’ getaway, you’re in luck — this offer is valid throughout the holiday season.
Mexican Families Begin Sending Money to Relatives in U.S.
Mexico is expected to lose more than 700,000 jobs this year due to a slumping economy that may decline as much as 7.5%. Almost half of the country’s population lives in poverty, and yet, it is managing to reverse a trend of money that has traditionally flowed from north (the United States) to south.
While no statistics are yet available, plenty of anecdotal information suggests an increasing number of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are now receiving money from relatives in Mexico, instead of sending it. Unemployment is so bad in migrant communities in the U.S. Southwest that some families south of the border are hurting less than those they know in the United States, causing them to wire whatever money they can.
“It’s something that’s surprising, a symptom of the economic crisis,” Martín Zuvire Lucas, who heads a network of community banks in Oaxaca and other underserved Mexican states, told The New York Times. “We haven’t been able to measure it but we hear of more cases where money is going north.”