Car-makers building new assembly plants in Mexico

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Aug 232011
 

Two major Japanese car-makers—Mazda and Honda—have announced expansion plans in Mexico in recent months. They will help ensure that Mexico remains the 9th largest car manufacturer in the world, and the 6th largest vehicle exporter. In addition, Italian auto-maker Fiat is expanding its plant in Toluca. Mazda plant in Salamanca Mazda is building a new […]

Chiapas: carbon capture program or indigenous people?

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Aug 222011
 
Chiapas: carbon capture program or indigenous people?

The proposed implementation of a United Nations-supported carbon storage program (REDD) in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas is provoking plenty of controversy. The debate is hotting up because a follow-up program called REDD+ is due to start in 2012. A good summary of the situation is provided by REDD rag to indigenous forest dwellers. […]

Which cities have the best and worst water systems in Mexico?

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Aug 182011
 

The Water Advisory Council (CCA), a Mexican NGO specializing in water research, education and policy, has published its 2011 report on Mexico’s water management, sewerage and sanitation. The report looks at data for 50 Mexican cities, each of which has a population in excess of 250,000. The report —Gestión del Agua en las Ciudades de […]

Interactive maps offering some insights into Mexico-USA migration channels

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Aug 162011
 
Interactive maps offering some insights into Mexico-USA migration channels

In several previous posts we have looked at specific migration channels connecting Mexico to the USA: From Morelos to Minnesota; case study of a migrant channel between Mexico and USA Migration channels between Mexico and the USA, or how distant towns are linked through migration Over half a million natives of the state of Puebla […]

The extraordinary ecological recovery of Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo Marine Park

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Aug 152011
 
The extraordinary ecological recovery of Mexico's Cabo Pulmo Marine Park

In an earlier post—Can Mexico’s Environmental Agency protect Mexico’s coastline?— we took a critical look at proposals for a tourism mega-development near Cabo Pulmo on the eastern side of the Baja California Peninsula. Cabo Pulmo (see map), a village of about 120 people, is about an hour north of San José del Cabo, and on […]

Aviation history as Mexico’s Aeroméxico uses biofuel for transatlantic passenger flight

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Aug 132011
 
Aviation history as Mexico's Aeroméxico uses biofuel for transatlantic passenger flight

Aeroméxico, Mexico’s major international airline, made aviation history in July. Aeroméxico flight AM1, from Mexico City to Madrid, was the first ever commercial transatlantic passenger flight using bio-fuel. The Boeing 777 flew on a mixture of biofuel and regular jet fuel. Earlier this year, another Mexican airline, Interjet, began using renewable jatropha-based biofuel for flights […]

US firms are near-shoring jobs from China to Mexico

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Aug 112011
 

 Near-shoring means “the transfer of business or IT processes to companies in a nearby country, often sharing a border with your own country” (definition from SourcingMag.com). It is closely related to offshoring, now usually limited to similar transfers as near-shoring, but to more distant locations. Among the best examples of near-shoring are the hundreds of […]

The Transnational Metropolitan Areas of Mexico-USA

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Aug 092011
 
The Transnational Metropolitan Areas of Mexico-USA

Mexico shares a 3,169 km (1,969 miles) border with the USA. This is one of the most heavily guarded and frequently patrolled  land borders in the world, and a rare example of a land border that separates two countries with very different levels of economic development. These differences in development have, of course, prompted many Mexicans […]

The geography of scorpions in Mexico

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Aug 082011
 
The geography of scorpions in Mexico

Durango has long been considered the scorpion capital of Mexico (even the local soccer team became known as Los Alacranes, the Scorpions). At one point in the past, the city paid a bounty for each scorpion killed. Some historical accounts suggest that the scorpion catch rose dramatically, until the local authorities realized that some families […]

Updated facts and figures for the Mexican diaspora in the USA

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Aug 062011
 

The 2010 censuses in the USA and Mexico have led to numerous reports on either side of the border. This post looks mainly at recent reports from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of Pew Research Center, which describes itself as”a nonpartisan ‘fact tank’ that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America […]

Could Southern California’s water woes be eased by a desalination plant in Mexico?

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Aug 042011
 

Southern California water officials are reportedly considering helping to finance a desalination plant in Mexico as a partial solution to their on-going water issues. A desalination plant proposed by San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and planned for north of the border in Carlsbad (San Diego County) has been […]

Mexico’s changing society: the phenomenon of “los ninis”

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Aug 022011
 
Mexico's changing society: the phenomenon of "los ninis”

Los ninis are young people (aged 15-29) that “ni trabaja, ni estudia” (neither work nor study). They have become the focus of much press attention in the past couple of years, often accompanied by the phrase “Mexico’s lost generation”. This El Universal article cites Education Ministry (SEP) figures that there are more than 7 million […]

The troubled rise of the Green Movement in Mexico

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Aug 012011
 
The troubled rise of the Green Movement in Mexico

Two specific events helped stimulate the rapid growth of Mexico’s green movement in the 1980s: the government’s role in the giant 1984 Pemex explosion its ineffective response to the disastrous 1985 earthquake These motivated many citizens to take direct action. Membership in Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) surged, as “green brigades” aided the victims. Two months […]

Sharp decline in number of cruise ships visiting Mexico

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Jul 302011
 
Sharp decline in number of cruise ships visiting Mexico

According to data from Mexico’s Tourism Secretariat, the number of cruise ship passengers peaked in 2007, but has since declined, although their average spending has increased. The graph shows the number of passengers arriving on cruise ships to Mexican ports since 1995. This segment of Mexico’s tourism industry grew rapidly between 1995 and 2005. Cruise […]

Driving in Mexico: is it safe relative to other countries?

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Jul 282011
 
Driving in Mexico: is it safe relative to other countries?

About 24,000 people were killed last year in traffic accidents in Mexico according to Ángel Martínez, Director of the Mexican Traffic Safety Research Center (Spanish acronym CESVI) . In the USA, the number was about 33,000 in 2010. Does this mean that is safer to drive in Mexico than the USA? The simple answer is […]

From Morelos to Minnesota; case study of a migrant channel between Mexico and USA

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Jul 262011
 
From Morelos to Minnesota; case study of a migrant channel between Mexico and USA

Axochiapan is a town and municipality in the small state of Morelos in central Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the population of Axochiapan municipality has grown only slowly over the past decade, from 30,436 in 2000 to 33,695 inhabitants in 2010, half of them living in the eponymous cabecera municipal (the main town of […]

Mexico’s Pemex: the government cash cow that environmentalists love to hate

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Jul 252011
 
Mexico's Pemex: the government cash cow that environmentalists love to hate

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the giant, state-owned petroleum company, is a symbol of national pride with revenues of over $100 billion in 2008. However, it is cash poor because most of its revenue goes to the government, covering 40% of the national budget. Pemex is $40 billion in debt and its maintenance budget is insufficient to […]

Ziplines from Guatemala to Mexico: illegal migration or adventure tourism?

 Mexico's geography in the Press  1 Response »
Jul 242011
 

This week’s “Sunday short” is about ziplines across the Guatemala-Mexico border, between El Carmen (Guatemala) and Talisman (Mexico). The story was reported by Mexico’s Televisa (a CNN affiliate). What might at first glance appear to be an enterprising form of adventure tourism is actually a means for undocumented migrants to enter Mexico on their way […]

Mexico has forty UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves

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Jul 232011
 
Mexico has forty UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves

A surprising percentage of Mexico’s land area is protected in one form or another. A very large number of sites of archaeological or historical importance are managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, more commonly known by its acronym INAH. In theory, all buildings more than 100 years old have some degree of […]

Mexico D.F. administration offers amnesty to illegal water users

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Jul 202011
 

According to a recent report in Ooska News (8 June 2011), Mexico City authorities have announced an amnesty for people who regularize illegal water connections. No fines will be levied, and they will be encouraged to pay only 600 dollars (a 50% discount) for registering connections and connecting to the waste water drainage network. There […]

How will reduced out-migration impact Mexico’s total population?

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Jul 192011
 

As described in an earlier post –Is massive Mexican migration to the USA a thing of the past?– we examined a 6 July 2011 New York Times article which indicated that Mexican migration to the USA had slowed to barely a trickle. If this is correct, Mexico’s population will be considerably higher in future years. […]

Drug violence: is it safe to travel to Mexico?

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Jul 182011
 

With so much media attention focused on drug violence in Mexico, many potential tourists and tour operators are canceling planned trips to Mexico. Are such decisions rational? The analysis below indicates that travel to Mexico is considerably safer than risking vehicle traffic in the USA. The US State Department has issued numerous travel advisories concerning […]

The Durango-Mazatlán highway in Mexico should open in 2012

 Mexico's geography in the Press  4 Responses »
Jul 172011
 

Update: New Durango-Mazatlán highway officially open (Oct 2013) Update: October 2012: Despite earlier claims that the Durango-Mazatlán highway would be completed before the end of this year, government officials have now confirmed that the highway will not be finished, and will not open, until sometime in 2013. The Durango-Mazatlán highway in Mexico should open in […]

The spacing of central places in Mexico

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Jul 162011
 
The spacing of central places in Mexico

Central place theory may work quite well in Mexico in terms of the relative numbers of settlements of different size, but the theory also suggests that those places on the same level of the urban hierarchy should form a distinctive spatial pattern and be roughly equidistant from one another. In essence, this means that each […]

Exhibition of National Geographic images of Mexico at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C.

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Jul 152011
 
Exhibition of National Geographic images of Mexico at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C.

 If you’re visiting Washington D.C. this summer, don’t miss the exhibition entitled Mexico Through the Lens of National Geographic: celebrating a century of visual exploration, on at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C. through October 22. The exhibition features more than 130 National Geographic images of Mexico taken from feature articles published in […]

Round-up of recent developments in Mexico’s Drug War

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Jul 142011
 
Round-up of recent developments in Mexico’s Drug War

Drugs smugglers are getting more and more creative in trying to circumvent drug trafficking and money laundering regulations either side of the Mexico-USA border. Flows of drugs northwards are counterbalanced by flows of cash southwards, since drug shipments have to be paid for somehow. What a shame that drug traffickers’ incredible ingenuity is not channeled […]

Mexico’s GDP/person reaches all-time high

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Jul 132011
 

According to the National Statistics agency (INEGI), Mexico’s GDP/person broke all records in the first quarter of 2011 to reach 9,985 dollars/person, 15% higher than the equivalent period of 2010. The rise is due to continuing economic growth, coupled with the strength of the Mexican peso against the US dollar and other major currencies. Mexico […]

The hierarchy of central places in Mexico

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Jul 132011
 

How well does central place theory fit the Mexican situation? In terms of the relative numbers of settlements of different size, it fits quite well. The theory suggests that there will be a regular (geometric) progression between the number of settlements of each successive size. The hierarchy of central places in Mexico is quite similar […]

Is massive migration of Mexicans to the USA a thing of the past?

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Jul 122011
 
Is massive migration of Mexicans to the USA a thing of the past?

Many people in the USA continue to blame undocumented Mexican immigrants for the country’s unemployment problems. These complainers do not seem to realize that the flow of undocumented Mexicans across the border has slowed to barely a tickle. The total number of Mexican immigrants peaked at about 550,000 in 2006 [see chapter 26 of Geo-Mexico: […]

The “Cosmic Race” (La “Raza Cósmica”) excludes Mexico’s African heritage

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Jul 112011
 
The "Cosmic Race" (La "Raza Cósmica”) excludes Mexico’s African heritage

Many Chicano activists refer to Mexicans as “La Raza”, literally “the race”. “Dia de la Raza” is celebrated on Columbus Day (October 12) as the day the Mexican indigenous population started their resistance against the European invasion. The term “La Raza” derives from a 1948 book “La Raza Cósmica.” The author Jose Vasconcelos’ thesis is […]

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