Reuters – The Mexican government’s income wilted in January, as oil revenues plunged with the decline in oil prices, and the country’s fiscal deficit ballooned from a year earlier. Mexico had a fiscal deficit of 91.5 billion pesos ($6.1 billion) in January, compared with 4.9 billion pesos in January of last year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/mexico-economy-fiscal-idUSL1N0W42UR20150302
Silver Seeker – Mexico is the largest silver producer in the world. Peru and China follow. However, these countries trail Mexico by more than 50 million ounces. Mexico produced a record 186 million ounces of silver in 2013, but this declined to 184 in 2014.
Essential Retail – UK-based toy retailer Hamley’s will be opening a store in Mexico, the company’s first push into Latin America. In addition to the Hamley’s opening, British luxury carmakers Lotus and McLaren have unveiled plans to open showrooms in Mexico City,
EFE – Four suspected kidnappers were arrested in Juitepec, a city in the central Mexican state of Morelos, and a captive was rescued, the federal Attorney General’s Office said.
Sentido Comun – Interjet announced that it is acquiring 10 Superjet 100 aircraft, which will increase over the next two years its flotilla to 69 aircraft.
Sentido Comun – Gas Express Nieto, the owner of the pipe that caused the explosion at the maternity hospital said it has completed the process of compensating the families of the five people killed in the incident. The gas distributor gave no details of the terms of compensation paid.
El Economista – The head of the Superior Audit Office, Juan Manuel Portal Martinez, said factors contributing to Mexico’s corruption are governors resistance to transparency; asset declarations that do not detect illicit enrichment of officials; and impunity.
http://eleconomista.com.mx/sociedad/2015/03/02/necesario-que-legislacion-prevea-conflicto-interes-asf
El Universal – One of the greatest enigmas of Teotihuacan is how it worked socially and politically. A newly developed mathematical model supports the idea that a government co-distributed and composed of individuals of the same level could have achieved social optimal self-management, and even suggests the absence of a centralized by powerful rulers or an extensive bureaucracy.
El Sol de Torreon – After last weekend’s shooting of grupero singer Alfredo Olivas by a concertgoer, the singer’s condition is being reported as stable.
Global Research
For several years now, transnational food companies have understood that their main growth markets are in the South. To increase their profits they need to “dig into the pyramid”, as one company puts it, meaning they need to develop and sell products targeted at the millions of the world’s poor.
To get at these potential consumers, food companies are infiltrating, inundating and taking over traditional food distribution channels and replacing local foods with cheap, processed junk foods, often with the direct support of governments. Free trade and investment agreements have been critical to their success.
The case of Mexico provides a stark and horrific picture of the consequences for people.
In Mexico, poverty, hunger, obesity and disease go hand in hand. Mexicans are not only struggling to afford enough to eat; the food they eat is making them ill.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/free-trade-and-mexicos-junk-food-epidemic/5434350
Financial Times – Mexico is plagued by “incredulity and distrust,” President Enrique Peña Nieto has admitted, and his government must focus on improving law and order if its radical economic reform program is to work.
In his most candid admission since the disappearance and suspected murder of 43 students prompted horror at home and abroad, and a government rethink, Peña Nieto told the Financial Times that his administration must “reconsider where we are headed.”
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2f8d3c84-bea1-11e4-8d9e-00144feab7de.html#axzz3TEvA9wGH
Cycling News – Organizers of the 2015 Vuelta Mexico, which was scheduled to start on Tuesday, announced late Friday night that the UCI 2.2 race has been canceled this year.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/news-shorts-vuelta-mexico-cancelled
AP – Mexican authorities have fined Grupo Mexico about $1.5 million for an Aug. 7 spill of copper sulfate and heavy metals that contaminated two rivers at the Buenavista copper mine in the northern border state of Sonora.
http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-fines-mine-1-5-million-spill-lets-205332126.html
EFE – Former Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has resigned from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD. The former mayor said in a letter to PRD chairman Carlos Navarrete posted on Twitter that his successor, Miguel Angel Mancera, had blocked his efforts to run for the presidency, and the PRD had moved too close to the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2015/03/01/former-mexico-city-mayor-quits-prd/
Nearshore Americas -The World Bank’s ranking of the easiest and most difficult cities to do business in Mexico might come as a surprise to investors. The nation’s capital, Mexico City, is the most difficult place to do business, while the relatively unheralded western city of Colima is the easiest.
Reuters – Mexico is willing to extend an auto export quota pact with Brazil for up to two more years provided restrictions are eased when the current agreement ends at midnight on March 18, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/brazil-mexico-trade-autos-idUSL1N0W424420150302
Televisa – Hilario Villanueva Ramirez, mayor of San Blas, Nayarit, celebrated his birthday on Saturday. During the festivities, he danced with a young woman and in the presence of thousands of guests twice lifted her dress revealing her lingerie.
http://noticieros.televisa.com/mexico-estados/1503/alcalde-roba-poquito-levanta-vestido-mujer/
Entre Lineas – The debt of Mexican municipalities amounted to 51.314 billion pesos in 2014, which represented an increase of 10.2 percent over the previous year.
Contenido – Kia Motors Vice President Lee Soon Nam said Mexico is a strategic country for global investors, its geographical position and reforms in its economic structure. He said this is the main reason why his company decided to invest more than $3 billion in a Nuevo Leon auto plant.
http://contenido.com.mx/2015/03/mexico-pais-estrategico-para-kia-motors/
CNNExpansión – Grupo Herdez completed the acquisition of Nestlé’s Ice Cream division in Mexico. The transaction includes an ice cream plant in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, distribution equipment and freezers as well as a long-term exclusive license to market and sell Nestlé Ice Cream brands in Mexico.