The US Supreme Court declined to stay the execution of a child raping murderer over a technical violation of a treaty.

Illegal immigration from Mexico is down substantially, and it has nothing to do with all those anti-immigration laws.

Via the BBC:  Bodies hung from bridge in Cuernavaca, Mexico The four men had been decapitated and mutilated before being hung by their ankles from the bridge outside Cuernavaca, in the state of Morelos. This appears to be linked to a contest for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel. The piece has this map showing [...]

While it is true, as Jacob Sullum puts it, On Drug Policy, Mexico’s President Has a Bigger Vocabulary Than Ours, it is also true as the headline at Gancho puts it he has Problems with the Legalization Debate (specifically in terms of popular opinion in Mexico).

NPR is starting a multi-part series on the drug war in Mexico.  Here’s the first part:  As Drug War Turns Into Quagmire, Fear Rules Mexico. And never forget, it is fundamentally about the money: In Mexico, more than 4 million people live in what the government terms "extreme poverty." For the cartels, this huge pool [...]

Via the BBC:  Mexico challenges Arizona’s immigration law: The Mexican government submitted arguments as a “friend of the court”, or amicus curiae, meaning it is not a party to the case, but is offering a legal opinion which it believes has bearing on it. It is in support of a case brought by a group [...]

President Obama is sending an additional 1200 soldiers to the Mexican border, a dangerous and token effort to placate Americans frustrated over illegal immigration. Randal Archibald, NYT (“Obama to Send Up to 1,200 Troops to Border“): President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on [...]

Ok, since there was some confusion generated by some of my previous posts on the drug war, let’s start to simply look at some basic information so that we can perhaps, over time, establish some foundational issues from which discussion can be held. My general position, so that it is clear, is that we are [...]

Here I am writing primarily about cocaine, although everything in this post can be applied to heroin as well.  It should be understood that both are plant-based drugs.  Cocaine’s most fundamental ingredient is the coca leaf, which grows almost exclusively in the Andean region of South America.  Heroin comes from the opium poppy, which grows [...]

I would highly recommend the following essay by Oscar Casares from the Austin Chronicle:  Holiday of Cinco de Mayo is minor event in Mexico.  If anything, it underscores how Cinco de Mayo is probably a bigger deal in the United States than it is in Mexico (although granted, it is more in terms of eating [...]

Foreign Policy editor Preeti Aroon highlights this factoid from the latest FP Quiz: If the United States deported all its illegal immigrants at once, how long would the bus convoy be? a) 18 miles b) 180 miles c) 1,800 miles Answer: C, 1,800. To deport the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States en [...]

Mexico is fighting back at an Arizona crackdown aimed at illegal aliens. Mexico’s government is warning its citizens about travel to Arizona because of a tough new immigration law there. The travel alert from the Foreign Relations Department urges Mexicans in Arizona to “act with prudence and respect the framework of local laws.” It says [...]

One of my commenters brought to my attention an issue that’s not receiving much attention:  Residents of several U.S. states could have to show their passports for domestic travel — or to enter a federal government building — starting January 1 because of the REAL ID Act.  Chris Strohm for Congress Daily: More than half [...]

Time for the Thursday OTB Caption ContestTM REUTERS/Eliana Aponte (MEXICO SOCIETY) Winners will be announced Monday PM

Continuing a long-running theme at his blog, Matt Yglesias laments that Senators from small states wield so much power.  The latest fuel is a NYT feature on six moderates who are supposedly the linchpins to putting together a bipartisan health care deal and who routinely hash out the details of same over snacks. [V]ast power [...]

Rebecca Frankel collects Joe Biden’s Top Five Political Gaffes, which make for an amusing list.  She rightly gives top honors to Biden’s comments on swine flu. In case you missed it (I’m catching up a bit myself), Biden said this Thursday morning: Appearing on NBC’s “Today Show,” Biden said he has already advised his family [...]

CNN Breaking News: “23-month-old Texas child confirmed as first U.S. swine flu death, according to Richard Besser, acting director, CDC.” [UPDATE:  CNN now reports that, while this is the first death in the U.S., the child was a Mexican citizen brought to Houston for treatment, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Department of [...]

In its JOE 2008 report the U. S. military’s Joint Operations Command singled out two countries as of particular concern in its worst-case scenarios. One of the countries should be no surprise: Pakistan. The other? Mexico: In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear [...]