Mexican education reforms signed into law
“Professional merit must be the only way to be hired, remain and advance as a teacher,” Peña Nieto said upon signing the law on Monday.
The legislation strengthens the control of the federal government over the public education system and weakens the hand of the powerful National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE). The largest trade union in Latin America with around 1.5 million members, the SNTE has been led by the polemic Elba Esther Gordillo for the last 23 years.
Gordillo has largely controlled access to the profession, allowing teachers to sell or pass on their positions. This practice enabled thousands of people who no longer work as teachers to remain on the payroll, including, in one infamous case, Servando Gomez Martinez, a co-founder of the Familia Michoacana and Knights Templar cartels.
The new law will introduce a standardized process for the hiring, evaluating, promoting and retaining of teachers, as well as establishing a census to determine the exact number of schools, teachers and pupils in the country. The reforms also aim to raise the proportion of students who complete secondary school to 80 percent and the number who complete high school (preparatoria) to 40 percent.
Having been agreed upon by Mexico’s main political parties, the reforms were passed by the Chamber of Deputies in December and were later ratified by the Senate and over half of the country’s state congresses.
Gordillo, who was elected unopposed to another six-year term in October, was conspicuously absent from the ceremony on Monday but has vowed to oppose any action that she perceives to be an attack on teachers’ job security, including evaluations of their performances. A highly influential figure in Mexican politics and a former supporter of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), she left to form the New Alliance Party (PANAL) in 2005.
Jalisco near top of Mexico’s narco stats
From 2007 through to mid-2012, authorities charged 15,490 people for drug-related activities in Jalisco, more than in any other state aside from Baja California. Those charged range from suppliers and low-level traffickers to high-ranking members of criminal organizations.
Of 12,010 preliminary investigations into drug-related crimes in Jalisco during this period, 7,109 cases resulted in convictions, a rate of 59 percent. With 15,490 people accused of involvement in these crimes, the alleged criminals outnumber Jalisco’s municipal police, who total 13,135 officers according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
During the same period, 34,488 people were charged in Baja California, 13,493 in Sonora, 7,683 in Sinaloa and 7,290 in Guanajuato.
The latest alleged narcos to be arrested in Jalisco were three men identified as members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.
They were detained last Monday on the highway from Barra de Navidad to Autlan, at the junction for Casimiro Castillo. Police discovered an AK-47 assault rifle, three pistols and a fragmentation grenade stashed in secret compartments of the suspects’ pickup truck.
Police chief to carry on
Popular Jalisco Police Chief Carlos Najera will be the only member of Governor Emilio Gonzalez’s cabinet to retain his position under Aristoteles Sandoval.
Najera’s contract will not be renewed until it expires on February 28 but the Executive State Committee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has confirmed that he will continue as police chief.
President promises safer Mexico for tourists
“We will continue working to improve public safety, which is undoubtedly fundamental for promoting our country,” Peña Nieto said during a visit to the Banderas Bay area last week. Tourist safety requires not only a strong security presence, but also quality roads and health care, he added.
Under the president’s new tourism plans, the federal government will promote sustainable development and push for more private investment in the tourism sector.
“Mexico is much more than beautiful beaches, diversification of tourism is key to global competition,” Peña Nieto said, announcing six sectors into which tourism in Mexico can be divided: sun and sand tourism; cultural tourism; ecological and adventure tourism; health tourism; sports tourism; and special interest or luxury tourism.
Peña Nieto’s comments came a day after the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) announced that six men arrested for the rape of six Spanish tourists in Acapulco had confessed to the crime. The incident severely damaged Mexico’s international image, which has already suffered due to mounting drug-related violence in recent years.
Tourist police to return to Guadalajara
The head of Guadalajara’s Department of Tourism has announced the creation of a specialist tourist police unit to assist visitors to the city.
The officers must have university degrees and the ability to speak other languages, said Ramon Godinez Ortiz. Most of the officers are likely to be female, they will be specially trained in aiding tourists and they will not carry firearms, so as not to project an aggressive image, he added.
Mayor Alberto Mora Lopez first introduced a tourist police to Guadalajara in the early 1990s but it was scrapped by subsequent administrations.
Most recently, the city trained over 200 bilingual police officers to care for an anticipated influx of foreign visitors during the 2011 Pan American Games. This temporary tourist police force was formed of young graduates from the Police Academy who had been trained in at least two languages and in some cases taught first aid.
Working across the metropolitan zone, the officers provided guidance and tourist information to visitors and would even escort tourists to their hotels if their alcohol intake meant they could not drive or had to walk through areas of risk while inebriated.
The Tequila Files 