Mexico Trucker Online Articles

Mexican Congress allows foreign investment in oil giant PEMEX

<h4>Lawmakers defy AMLO leftists protesting measures supporters say will overhaul industry as production declines</h4>

 Ignoring thousands of left-wing demonstrators. lawmakers Tuesday and passed constitutional reforms aimed at allowing foreigners limited investment in Mexico’s vulnerable petroleum industry.

After debating over the protests of leftist legislators who had taken over the podium in the Chamber of Deputies, the lawmakers passed the measures 395-82.

“With this reform the national economy wins; all Mexicans win,” President Felipe Calderon said in a nationally televised message several hours after the vote. “And it’s particularly important that Mexicans have reached agreement at a time when the world economy goes through a particularly adverse situation.”
Read more

US Consulate in Monterrey attacked with guns and grenade

Unknown gunmen shot at the US Consulate in Monterrey and threw a grenade at the building, which did not explode. No one was injured according to a Consulate spokesman.

Two unidentified men approached the US Consulate General. One of them fired several times hitting the gates and a window. The second man threw a hand grenade which did not explode because the man forgot to pull the pin, according to the statement issued concerning Sunday mornings incident.

Six bullet casings from the pistol were found at the scene.

Local Police and US Federal investigators scoured the scene looking for more evidence, but at this time, no motive had been determined.

Read more

Panic selling drives Mexican peso above 13-per-dollar mark

Traders are falling over themselves this week to unload Mexico’s currency, on fears that a U.S. economic downturn would savage Mexico’s economy.

The peso plunged to nearly 13.2 per dollar on Thursday from 12.3 on Wednesday and 10.9 at the end of September.

The latest dive has occurred despite heavy intervention by Mexico’s central bank to stem the rout. It’s the peso’s biggest drop in value since the country’s 1994 devaluation.

This is panic behavior,” said Alberto Bernal, head of emerging-markets research at Bulltick Capital Markets in Miami. “It has nothing to do with Mexico and everything to do with the U.S.”

Bernal said investors and currency traders naturally fear that the turmoil roiling financial markets in the U.S., Mexico’s largest trading partner, will have painful consequences for Mexico: falling exports, falling oil prices and falling remittances.

It all adds up to fewer dollars flowing south of the border, leading to an abrupt re-pricing of the peso.

The peso is just one of many emerging-market currencies that have slumped against the dollar in recent weeks, as investors have pulled funds from markets deemed high risks.

But the turnabout has been particularly hard on the peso, which in early August was below 10 per dollar — the strongest the Mexican currency had been since 2002.

Read more

Mexican drug initiative – Rehab for users, harsher penalties for dealers

Turning to Mexico’s increasing narcotics consumption, President Felipe Calderon has proposed stiffer penalties for small-time drug dealers while suspending punishment for addicts who agree to enter rehabilitation.

“Drugs are the slavery of this century,” Calderon said in a speech Friday. “Criminals seek to make slaves of children and youths. They seek to place drugs, sometimes free of charge, in schools, in neighborhoods, to create addictions, to generate dependency.”

Calderon’s initiative, part of a package of proposals aimed at bolstering his offensive against the country’s powerful drug traffickers, also includes procedures for cleaning up Mexico’s police forces and getting them to better coordinate enforcement efforts.

Read more

Mexico’s 10 percent plan for guns

Mexico’s government plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling, the attorney general said Tuesday.

Most illegal weapons in Mexico come from the United States, according to officials in both countries.

Many end up in the hands of powerful drug cartels who supply most of the cocaine entering the United States from South America.

Read more

In Mexico, trailers over 46′ to be restricted to toll road

The Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT) announced the immediate prohibition of trucks pulling trailers in access of 46 feet, effectively putting all of the Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey freight movements onto the toll road.

In the past, Mexican truckers have opted to take the “free road” to save on tolls that begin at $58.00 for a truck pulling a 53′ trailer. Exceptions are when the shipper agrees to the additional charges to be included in the rate of haul.

Luis Roberto Moreno Sesma, Nuevo Laredo manager for CANACAR (the Mexican counterpart to OOIDA and about as effective) immediately asked for a moratorium on the rule in order to give a period of adjustment to truckers and customers as well as to add the appropriate surcharges to compensate for increased costs.

Violations of the new rule will result in fines levied against those caught averaging $30,000 pesos or about $300 dollars in addition to the $4000 pesos ($400.00) average for the tow truck to remove the offenders.

Enforcement will be by the PFP or Federal Highway Police which oversee compliance of Mexico’s motor carrier regs and hours of service regulations.

The rate for movement of freight between the border and Monterrey and it’s suburbs is currently $350.00 for the 145 mile trip. Expect to add $75.00 to that shortly to cover the additional costs.

President Calderon announces opening of bids for Punta Colonet Mega Port Project

Punto Colonet Mega Container port in Baja California

ENSENADA – Traveling to a remote coastal community 150 miles from the U.S. border yesterday, President Felipe Calderón formally announced the bidding for Mexico’s $5 billion rail-and-seaport project at Punta Colonet.

Billed as the most ambitious infrastructure project of Calderón’s administration, the port would open a new trans-Pacific route for Asian products headed to the American heartland. It would capture some of the trade that now heads to ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles, which both face congestion.

The Punta Colonet container ship project “is one of those that truly transforms and revolutionizes the productivity of the country,” Calderón said in a speech at the port of Ensenada after his visit to Punta Colonet, a rural area with about 3,500 residents.

Mexico’s federal Secretariat of Communications and Transportation is expected to publish the bid specifications next week. The winning bidder, to be announced in 2009, would receive a 45-year concession to operate the port and rail line to the U.S. border.

Read more

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans protest crime nationwide

Demonstrators hold up candles at the main Zocalo square in Mexico City during a protest against the tide of killings, kidnappings and shootouts sweeping the country, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. More than 13 anti-crime groups planned for tens of thousands of people to join marches in all 32 Mexican states Saturday evening, urging people to walk in silence with candles or lanterns.

Hundreds of thousands of frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of kidnapped loved ones, marched across the country Saturday to demand government action against a relentless tide of killings, abductions and shootouts.

The mass candlelight protests were a challenge to the government of President Felipe Calderon, who has made fighting crime a priority and deployed more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police to wrest territory from powerful drug cartels.

Cries of “enough” and “long live Mexico” rose up from sea of white-clad demonstrators filling Mexico City’s enormous Zocalo square. The protesters held candles twinkling in the darkness as they sang the national anthem before dispersing.

“I’ve had enough. Kidnapping, corrupt police, a rotten judicial system,” said Ricardo Robledo, a 43-year-old music producer who said he had been robbed numerous times. “This may begin a change.”

City officials refused to give a crowd estimate, but the Zocalo can hold nearly 100,000 people. Tens of thousands overflowed into the surrounding streets, unable to squeeze into the square. Thousands more protested in cities across the country.

Read more