Recent usmex items

El Congreso Constituyente de 1916-1917 y la justicia penal.

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

El Congreso Constituyente de 1916-1917 y la justicia penal.

Drug Trafficking Organizations and Counter-Drug Strategies in the U.S.-Mexican Context

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The proliferation and impunity of organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking in recent years is one of the most pressing public concerns in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. While the vast majority of this violence remains concentrated within Mexico, it has raised very serious concerns among U.S. observers about possible “spillover” into U.S. communities along the border. In response to these trends, Mexico and the United States have taken significant measures to try to address the phenomenon of transnational organized crime. However, this pattern accelerated greatly during the Fox and Calderón administrations. This chapter explores two fundamental questions pertaining to Mexico’s ongoing public security crisis. First, why has Mexico experienced this sudden increase in violence among trafficking organizations? Second, what are the current efforts and prospective strategies available to counter Mexican drug trafficking networks? In the process, we explore the...

Environmental Protection and Natural Resources

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental issues and the management of natural resources have become a significant element of the binational relationship between Mexico and the United States during the last three decades. The environmental challenges now shaping the bilateral agenda for environmental cooperation are formidable and their address engages a rich and diverse set of institutions and stakeholders at multiple levels of government across the international boundary. This chapter studies environmental issues relevant to the two countries in the 21st century and suggests policy strategies to address them. The first part of the chapter discuss relevant environmental issues common to Mexico and the United States and their potential implications for their relationship in the short and long term. The second part analyzes binational efforts created to manage environmental issues and provide a critical perspective of their strengths and shortcomings. The last section of the chapter suggests recommendations...

Process Management in the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Relationship

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In the absence of an overarching strategic framework, it is useful to conceive of the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Mexico as made up of a series of “baskets” of policies and programs. Each of these baskets constitutes a policy subsystem that responds to different arrays of institutions and interest groups; the relative priority of the baskets is typically weighed differently by different actors in each system; and the capacity of central governments to exercise influence varies across subsystems as well. This basket image obviously distorts and oversimplifies, but even so, the imagery conveys the complexity of the individual policy “whirlpools” and their interactions. The first section of the chapter traces the path in bilateral relations to the current setting; the second looks at the policy and programmatic issues associated with the rise to preeminence of security; and the third examines efforts to “rebalance” security with other issue areas. The last speculates...

The U.S.-Mexico Relationship: Towards a New Era?

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The U.S. and Mexico have been neighbors for more than two centuries. Despite intermittent attempts by Mexico to distance itself from the US out of a concern of US protectionism and its political, cultural and economic hegemony, a process of progressive economic and social integration has taken place among the two countries which expresses itself in high levels of trade, financial and labor flows. By 2001 some analysts and think tanks believed that sufficient progress had been achieved to propose a greater intensification of economic and social relations and even the creation of a North American Community. Multiple factors, however, have combined to dramatically transform the context of the relationship. The US and Mexico face a critical juncture in their economic, security, and social relations created by the US embarkation on a global War on International Terrorism after September 11, 2001, a sudden increase in levels of drug trade-related violence in Mexico, the US financial...

NAFTA, Trade, and Development

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In this chapter, we analyze the expectations and the realities about the economic impact of NAFTA on Mexico in terms of economic convergence, trade, investment, employment, wages, and income distribution. We show that NAFTA has basically failed to fulfill the promise of closing the Mexico-U.S. development gap, and we argue that this was due in part to the lack of deeper forms of regional integration or cooperation between Mexico and the United States. We also explore other factors that could explain this negative outcome, and we briefly discuss the opportunities for both Mexico and the United States to mutually benefit from a further economic integration process.

Mexican Sugarcane Growers: Economic Restructuring and Political Options

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Under the new agrarian policies and economic rules of Article 27, implemented in January 1992, the customary patters of political patronage and loyalty in the countryside no longer operate as before. Campesions now are challenged to think and act like entrepreneurs who assume investment risks in order to successfully participate in competitive markets. But most possess neither the economic resources nor worldviews to be the “campesino entrepreneurs” sought by the government or by the leaders of the Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC) and the Confederación Nacional de Productores Rurales (CNPR), the two campesino confederations affiliated to the ruling PRI. This contradiction between campesino worldviews and neoliberal economic reforms defines the unprecedented challenge to the traditional legitimacy held by both organizations. Sugarcane growers represent a distinct social group, and the essays in this volume will examine the particular implications of the current transformation...

Developing a Community Tradition of Migration: A Field Study in rural Zacatecas, Mexico, and California Settlement Areas

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This study sought to take a close-up look at cross-border Mexican migration by collecting detailed information about one binational migratory village-based community. five major findings have resulted from this investigation: 1. Migrants are generally poor rural or urban dwellers who depend on reciprocity networks of mutual exchange with their friends and relatives and not on public institutions for their survival. 2. Migratory networks undergo a maturation process over time. 3. Job and social mobility within these networks is a function of who you know, not what you know. 4. The skills, money, and goods repatriated to Mexico from the US tend to raise the consumptive not the productive level of the sending areas. 5. The continual introduction of new, immature kin networks and the inability of some older ones to obtain good job contacts in the US accentuates the dualism inherent in the US job market.

Issues in United States-Mexican Agricultural Relations: A Binational Consultation

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In February, 1981, the Center for US-Mexican Studies hosted a Binational Consultation on US-Mexican Agricultural Relations. The consultation sought to define the nature, causes, and consequences of flows of labor, capital, technology, and agricultural commodities across the US-Mexican border and to identify fruitful areas for additional research. Sections of the consultation were devoted to US-Mexican agricultural trade in an era of oil wealth and “food power”; Mexico’s crisis of production in the small-farm sector; public policy toward agriculture an rural development in Mexico; the Mexican Food System (SAM); Mexican labor in the US; the organization of farm workers in both countries; and the effects of migration on rural Mexican communities. Because of the publicity and controversy surrounding the initiation and performance of SAM, this monograph devotes special attention to the session of the consultation in which SAM was discussed and makes an effort to assess the experience...

Viva Zapata!: Generation, Gender, and Historical Consciousness in the Reception of Ejido Reform in Oaxaca

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The Zapatistas, in 1994, forced the world and certainly people within Mexico to pay attention to longstanding problems in land inequities and dissatisfaction with the December 1991 modifications to the agrarian reform codes embodied in Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution. To facilitate the proposed changes in landholdings in Mexico’s approximately 29,000 ejidos and indigenous communities, a new government office was created, the Procuraduría Agraria. This paper begins by first discussing the creation and functioning of the Procuraduría Agraria, the steps communities go through in the certification process, and the agrarian history of the three field sites chosen. It then focuses on how generational and gender differences have affected the reception of the certification program in the three field sites and ends by suggesting some possible long-term outcomes of the certification process and their meaning for men and women in the communities studied.

The Mexican Left, The Popular Movements, and the Politics of Austerity

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Although a severe economic crisis has rocked Mexico since 1981, neither left-wing political parties nor the organized working class and urban popular movements have managed to mount any serious challenge to Mexico’s political and economic system. A closer look at developments since 1981, however, shows that the responses by the Mexican left cannot be dismissed so simply. The gloominess of the overall picture conceals the development of new tactics, the emergence of major new social actors, and renewed struggle among groups with long-standing traditions of radicalism. These issues, as well as the Mexican left’s general response to the “politics of austerity,” occupied the attention of a workshop held in May 1984 at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). A representative group of Mexican socialists from both academic and mass-organization backgrounds attended the workshop to discuss the situation of the Mexican...

Planting Trouble: The Barzón Debtors’ Movement in Mexico

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This issue brief provides an introduction to the Barzón movement, including an overview of the factors that prompted its formation and an examination of how the movement went about organizing discontented farmers, businessmen, and urban consumers. It argues that the economic crisis following the 1994 currency crash disrupted economic activity such that people in very different situations came to have common complaints. It further contends that the Barzón movement in particular was able to recruit tens of thousands of members and capture public sympathy because of innovative organizing strategies and a rhetoric that invoked broadly accepted concepts of national salvation, personal pride, and social justice.

El campo queretano en transición

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Contributors to this volume examine how rural restructuring in Querétaro affects the organization of agroindustries and the productive strategies of small farmers in the ejido and private sectors, reshapes labor markets, and changes state-campesino relations. Contributors: Manuel Carlos, Alberto García Espejel, Juan José Gutiérrez Alvarez, Martha Otilia Olvera Estrada, Sergio Quesada Aldana, Gaspar Real Cabello, and Alfonso Serna Jiménez .

New Migrants vs. Old Migrants: Alternative Labor Market Structures in the California Citrus Industry

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Based on fieldwork conducted during 1981 in Ventura County, California, this study helps to explain the relationship between the relative abundance of Mexican nationals willing to pick citrus crops and the institutional forms which U.S. unions, employers, and governments have created to deal with Mexicans in California agriculture. The work should be of particular relevance to those interested in the mechanisms through which Mexican nationals enter U.S. jobs and in the impact that immigrants have on the work opportunities available to U.S. nationals.

The authors, a labor economist and an historian, utilized a combination of personal interviews, documentary research, and economic analysis to examine competition by Mexican migrants for jobs in the California citrus industry. Their research revealed that this competition—which has recently undermined attempts to stabilize the harvest labor market—involves virtually no U.S.-born workers. Rather, new waves of young, economically...

Economic Restructuring and Rural Subsistence in Mexico: Corn and the Crisis of the 1980s

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This book, and the seminar on which it is based, were conceived as elements of a dialogue on the future of the Mexican countryside. Rural Mexico, like the rest of Mexican society, is changing rapidly in response to a variety of circumstances, many of which are very imperfectly understood. This book focuses on a central element in the livelihood of most rural people - the production and consumption of maiz - and on a key component of macroeconomic policy reform, that which has been concerned with reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of the maize provisioning system of the country. The concerted effort to restructure the entire maize pricing and marketing system, which has gone forward in conjunction with a broad ranging agricultural policy reform, affects the economic options, as well as the levels of living, of many different kinds of people in the Mexican countryside, and it does so in complex ways.

El Campo Queretano En Transición

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Este libro consiste de algunos ensayos que tratan de los campesinos queretanos que están inmersos en los procesos que están transformando la sociedad rural mexicana. Los autores creen que el lector de estos ensayos obtendrá una visión amplia de los logros y los retos que definen al compo queretano hoy.

Migración Oaxaqueña a los Campos Agrícolas de California: Un Diálogo

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Esta publicación recoge los temas más importantes de la reunión en el mes de febrero de 1990 de más de cincuenta académicos, defensores de los trabajadores del campo, organizadores de sindicatos, y líderes de asociaciones populares de migrantes mixtecos. Ellos participaron en una reunión de trabajo para discutir la situación de los trabajadores agrícolas mixtecos en California, y conocer los esfuerzos que los líderes mixtecos están haciendo para mejorar sus condiciones de vida y trabajo. La reunión fue organizada por Carol Zabin, directora de un equipo de investigación que examina la incorporación de los mixtecos al mercado de trabajo agrícola de California. Su objetivo era intercambiar conocimiento y perspectivas entre académicos y líderes populares sobre aspectos de interés común y posibles vías de colaboración conjunta.

The Uncertain Connection: Free Trade and Mexico-U.S. Migration

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Will the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) decrease Mexican migration?

La Justicia Electoral Mexicana y la Anulación de Comicios:

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Este ensayo propone hacer un análisis de la justicia electoral de México en el periodo de octubre de 1996 a diciembre de 2005. El ensayo se divide en cuatro secciones. La primera es una revisión general de la reforma electoral de 1996. La segunda sección es un estudio cuantitativo de los 24 casos de anulación de comicios que ha decretado la justicia electoral mexicana en el periodo señalado. La tercera sección es un análisis de las consecuencias políticas en cuatro casos: dos gubernaturas estatales y dos distritos electorales federales de mayoría relativa. La cuarta sección es un balance general de las determinaciones para anular los comicios. La conclusión del estudio es que la justicia electoral de México ha declarado anulaciones por diversas causales y con distintas pruebas.

Non bis in idem: Mexican Regulation and International Standards

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most heated debates over Mexico’s ratification of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court dealt with a violation of the non bis in idem principle. Whether one agrees with the jurisdiction of the ICC or not, what came to light with this disagreement is that the Mexican Constitution might be at odds with international human rights standards with regard to this Principle. Consequently, there is a need to make a comparative assessment between both bodies of law. While the obvious starting point is Article 23 of the Mexican Constitution, which states this principle, an extensive study cannot stop there but must include its judicial interpretation. Furthermore, only the precedents that seem to stretch the application of the principle will be considered, because it is through these borderline cases that we can establish the extent of the Principle (It should be noted that this approach is not common, since there is no system of precedents in Mexico; however,...

Mobilizing Across Borders: The Case of the Laguna San Ignacio Saltworks Project

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This analysis outlines a successful binational campaign to protect critical grey whale habitat by using the rule of law in Mexico to hold the state and its representatives accountable to their constituencies, and thus to stop an industrial saltworks project in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Beginning with a review of the facts of the dispute over an industrial saltworks development at Laguna San Ignacio; then tracing the role of binational cooperation in the Campaign itself; and highlighting the ten most important coordinated actions taken by the binational coalition; followed by analysis of the outcome in light of the cooperation. An afterward will discuss the rule of law in relationship to the land easements recently put in place to further protect the lagoon. The Laguna San Ignacio campaign is one of the best case studies of the challenges and successes of cross-border, cross-sectoral, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Non Bis In Idem: Mexican Regulation and International Standards

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The role of regulatory improvement program in the strengthening of rule of law in Mexico

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This paper attempts to identify the role that regulatory improvement program play in the building of liberal democracy in Mexico. It argues that the use of regulatory improvement tools has strengthened the “rule of law” principle. The use of instruments such as Regulatory Impact Analysis or Public Consultation help to build an accountable government that informs and explains about their decisions. This article is divided into three main sections. The first part introduces the analytical framework to evaluate a liberal democracy. The second section explains how the regulatory reform program maintains and encourages the rule of law. Likewise, it analizes some of the mechanisms or instruments the Mexican government has envisioned to ensure the succes of the regulatory reform program. The final section evaluates this public policy from the Mexican experience.

Cooperation and Conflict between Firms, Communities, New Social Movements and the Role of Government

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Cerro de San Pedro is a semi-abandoned historic mining town located in the center of Mexico, the State of San Luis Potosi. Cerro de San Pedro is a small village 10 miles east of the City of San Luis Potosi, the Capital of the State of San Luis Potosi. Cerro de San Pedro is located in the mountains above the valley of San Luis Potosi and is part of the watershed area for the valley and its major cities. The valley is the source of 73% of the water for the area. It is a ghost town containing the ruins of shops, churches, estates and a hospital.

Neighborhood Organizations, Local Accountability and the Rule of Law in Two Mexican Municipalities

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This paper focuses on the role of neighborhood associations as the primary intermediaries between residents and municipal government. Drawing from fieldwork in two metropolitan municipalities of the State of México, it identifies the ways that residents interact with local government authorities as they express their concerns about public safety and policing, as well as their ideas and demands for responses to these issues. The research has important implications for all three aspects of the rule of law discussed in this volume. It touches on the ways that leaders of neighborhood associations perceive and respond to issues of public order within their jurisdictions; it considers the accountability of municipal officials to their constituents; and, by comparing conditions and patterns in two sharply contrasting localities (Huixquilucan and Nezahualcóyotl), it encompasses questions of access to justice on both individual and neighborhood bases. However, the paper concludes that...

An Evaluation of Process Rights Applying the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice and U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Study of Mexican Children

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this study was to analyze and compare process rights of minors applying the Beijing Rules and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and Juvenile Justice Law for minors in the (Mexico- U.S.) border state of Sonora. In order to determine what due process rights were enforced during juvenile process, a study was undertaken of the minors subject to process in January 2001. In this study, a checklist was used to determine variables regarding: the type and severity of the crime committed by the juvenile; the number and type of acts charged by the prosecuting attorney; the number of hours that the juvenile was kept under arrest before (s)he was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Council; the process in the Council; the actions of the defense attorney in the tutelary process; the existence of legal, psychological, social, and family foundations determining the initial and final resolutions; and the resolution issued by the Council. Results of this study show...

Rendición de cuentas y democratización. La revisión de las cuentas públicas municipales en el estado de Sonora

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This work has two main purposes: to analyze, from the point of view of information transparency and accessibility, the normative framework of how municipal authorities are held accountable in the state of Sonora and to briefly review and explore the assessments rendered over their accounts. Thus, the work revises March and Olsen’s neoinstitutionalist approach to accountability, then proposes a list of features for the information, the process and the social environment of public accounts, revises the normative framework of municipal accounts in the state of Sonora; describes the content of assessments of the year 2003; presents a sample of the observations and conclusions and reflects and comments on the observations, marks and sanctions made within the assessments. One of the main ideas of this work is that the democratization of the public accountability requires the development of a network of independent and interplaying public agencies, social groups and civic organizations...

When and Why “Law” and “Reality” Coincide? De Jure and De Facto Judicial Independence in Mexico, Argentina, and Chile

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Our central question is: Under what circumstances can we expect a theoretically informed and reproducible measure of judicial independence de jure to be a good proxy for what we can expect to happen in reality? We argue that whether the de jure measure can be considered a good proxy for, to overestimate or to underestimate, judicial independence in reality depends on the distribution of power among the ruling political groups. Having identified those political conditions, and what Supreme Court judges can expect from them, we explore what is the likely behavior of these judges regarding decisions on cases where the government violates the rule of law or horizontal accountability. Having laid out our theoretical expectations in six different scenarios, we proceed to illustrate them using Mexico Argentina, and Chile.

The Challenge of Transparency: A Review of the Regulations Governing Access to Public Information in Mexican States

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This text provides a critical review of the way in which access to public information began to be more open in Mexican states, as a result of the first state legislation on the matter. It compares the various models and procedures adopted by the states in light of an original theoretical proposal. The article is divided into two parts. The first describes the theoretical assumptions supporting the three levels of analysis used to

compare state laws: one concerning the normative conditions for beginning the process of opening up public information, another referring to the organizational problems associated with this process and a third defining the jurisdictional sphere.

In the second part, ten criteria drawn from these three levels of analysis are used to undertake a critical comparison of the status of access to public information in the Mexican federal regime. The conclusion is that this process is still incipient,

incomplete and fragmented.

El comportamiento del mercado de trabajo en América Latina en el contexto de la globalización económica

Tue, 3 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

En el contexto de la fase actual de globalización, las economías latinoamericanas han reaccionado a los retos a los que han de enfrentarse para competir en un entorno abierto, con ajustes intensos en sus respectivos mercados laborales. A pesar de la presencia de situaciones heterogéneas, este articulo desarrolla una hipótesis analítica que interpreta como el ajuste de los mercados laborales latinoamericanos se ha llevado a cabo a través de una triple vía que combina el ascenso del empleo informal, el incremento del desempleo abierto y la expansión de la brecha salarial, acompañando a la practica de una moderación intensa de los salarios reales en la región. La ausencia de dinamismo tecnológico propio en la región no facilita el desarrollo de otras alternativas de ajuste o adaptación a la globalización que promuevan economías más competitivas. De este modo, el tipo de ajuste llevado a cabo en estos años abre paso a un nuevo episodio de lo que hace décadas los economistas cepalinos...

Campaign Finance and Playing Field "Levelness" Issues in the Run-up to Mexico's July 2006 Presidential Election

Tue, 4 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

While Mexico made great gains in consolidating democracy in 1997 and 2000, these advances risk being severely undermined by doubts surrounding the 2006 election. This article contends that the 2006 pre-electoral environment is, if for different reasons, at least as fragile as that in 2000. If proper measures are not taken to improve electoral playing field transparency and levelness and to help ensure the winner’s selection through a process accepted by all and with broad participation, post-electoral mobilization and short-term ingovernability are possible outcomes. We focus on emerging challenges posed by profligate campaign spending and the lack of disclosure which threaten to delimit the presidential election outcome months ahead of the race. We conclude that greater international attention should be paid to these elections, and suggest that Mexico’s voters and international observers should heed important experimental civil society, media, and academic initiatives...

Análisis técnico de la propuesta de reforma al sistema de justicia mexicano

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Since 2002, the Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico has generated a thriving network of scholars and developed new important research on Mexico’s ailing criminal justice system. This project has brought together a multi-disciplinary coalition of well-respected scholars and experts from U.S. and Mexican institutions to analyze the single most important political policy challenge facing Mexico today: strengthening the rule of law. This project has been instrumental in promoting collaborative networks and in generating timely, useful analysis for public officials from the United States and Mexico. Through this project, the Center and the Senate’s Institute for Legislative Research co-hosted two multi-institutional briefings on justice reform legislation for the Mexican Senate. These briefings, held in January and March, provided legislators with a technical analysis of the set of major justice reform proposals presented by President Fox last year. In a...

Analyzing the Performance of Local Government in Mexico: A Political Explanation of Municipal Budgetary Choices

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the budgetary choices of municipal governments in Mexico. Using a panel data approach that includes most municipalities in the country throughout the 1990-2001 period, I investigate to what extent local democracy has stimulated municipal governments to increase their investments on basic infrastructure projects, rather than expanding their bureaucratic apparatuses. My findings suggest that only under a decentralized policy setting, the competitiveness of the electoral arena has a positive influence on the provision of local public goods. I also find evidence that basic infrastructure spending increases when local elections are held, and when the local mayor belongs to a different party than the state governor.

THE INSTITUTE OF MEXICANS ABROAD: THE DAY AFTER… AFTER 156 YEARS

Wed, 2 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This paper addresses the relationship between the Mexican government and the organized Mexican immigrant community in the United States from a historical perspective and within a framework of transnational politics. We argue that transnational relations between the Mexican government and Mexican immigrants in the United States are not new; however, these relations vary across time depending on political and economic circumstances that involve U.S.-Mexico relations. These historical links have provided the basis for the existence of current organizations of Mexican immigrants in the United States as well as the recent creation and development of the Mexican government’s institutions to manage this relationship. In recent years, we identify a change in Mexico’s traditional approach to migration issues in the bilateral agenda, as well as a shift in the relationship between the Mexican immigrant communities and the government. The process of institutionalization of this new relation...

Urban and Transnational Politics in America: Novus Ordo Seclorum?

Wed, 2 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

To what extent American cities are evolving towards a model in which their government is (or is not) adapting its structure to their growing Mexican immigrant population? What are the main factors for such transformation to take place? What is the role of the Mexican government in the process? This paper addresses these questions from two different perspectives, one local, and one transnational.

Tendencias recientes de las remesas de los migrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The flow of money sent home by Mexican migrants in the United States has grown impressively since 1990. New actors, new practices, as well as new economic and political interests have emerged around this process. This presentation will analyze recent trends in migrant remittances to Mexico as well as the socio-demographic, economic, and political developments associated with their growth. It will also examine the remittance behavior of Mexican migrants who settled in the U.S., and the official discourses disseminated by the Mexican state about the impact and role of migrant remittances in Mexico.

The Virgin, the Priest, and the Flag: Political Mobilization of Mexican Immigrants in Chicago, Houston, and New York

Thu, 3 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The author argues that in the mainstream study of ethnic American politics, the Mexican community cannot be considered anymore a monolithic group, whose political behavior is one and the same all over the United States. Mexican communities living in the United States have different origins in Mexico, and they go through different experiences of political mobilization, organization, and incorporation through their daily lives in American cities. The initiatives of the local Catholic Church to mobilize the community, the relations of the local church with the local government, and the use of religious symbols with political purposes, are the main components that make the difference.

Mucho Grande Problema: Is That Right Mr. Huntington?

Thu, 3 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In this brief piece, I would like to discuss some interesting aspects of Samuel P. Huntington’s article, “The Hispanic Challenge” (Foreign Policy, March/April 2004). I will focus mostly on the Mexican side of the story, with the aim to highlight confusing statements that any serious scholar can rarely afford to make, without expecting a strong reaction from his American peers, particularly, the Latino ones.

Guía básica de los procedimientos y garantías del sistema penal mexicano

Mon, 22 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

This document presents a work in progress for the Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice. The objective of this document is to provide general information describing Mexico’s judicial processes to provide greater information and access for ordinary citizens. In its final form this document will be produced as a pamphlet and distributed to interested legal professionals and citizens needing access to the justice system.

When Judges Go Public: The Selective Promotion of Case Results on the Mexican Supreme Court

Mon, 22 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Recent theory in judicial politics suggests that a normative public commitment to a state’s high court can undermine political constraints on judging induced by the separation-of-powers system. If public support affects judicial authority in this way, judges ought to care about influencing the information to which citizens have access, especially when they substitute their preferences for those of elected officials by invalidating public policies. This study attempts to simultaneously explain the Mexican Supreme Court’s merits decisions in constitutional cases and its choices to issue press releases summarizing those decisions for members of the national media. Using original data on the Supreme Court’s constitutional resolutions, I find that the Court was significantly more likely to publicize decisions striking down public policies than those upholding them. I also find that that the Court was most likely to publicize resolutions striking down important federal policies,...

Trabajo femenino, Empoderamiento y Bienestar de la Familia

Thu, 4 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

El objetivo que nos planteamos en este trabajo es examinar los posibles efectos que tanto el trabajo extra-doméstico femenino como el empoderamiento de la mujer puedan tener sobre dos aspectos particulares del bienestar familiar en México: la erradicación de la violencia hacia la mujer y la mayor participación de los hombres en el cuidado y crianza de los hijos.

The Chicago-Houston Report: Political Mobilization of Mexican Immigrants in American Cities

Mon, 1 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

This report is part of a major research project that seeks to explain, from an organizational standpoint, the causes and mechanisms that have led to different types and levels of political mobilization of Mexican immigrant communities in Houston and Chicago. How and why is political mobilization of Mexican immigrants different in Chicago and Houston? To address this question, the report assesses the role of both local and transnational structures in the process of migrant political mobilization.

Paradox of Mexican Firms' Modernization During the 1990s

Fri, 6 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +0000

During the 1990s, Mexico lived like most of Latin American countries, a process of transition that involved economic opening and the liberalization of their FDI regimes. The new policy was based on the assumption that under the global economy, this form of international capital could make important contributions to the country’s development. The effect of direct foreign investments on a country’s development, however, depends on the way in which FDI articulates to the local economic structure.

La Migración Centroamericana en la Frontera Sur: un Perfil del Riesgo en la Migración Indocumentada Internacional

Tue, 6 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000

La Migración Centroamericana en la Frontera Sur: un Perfil del Riesgo en la Migración Indocumentada Internacional

Managing Transborder Cooperation on Public Security: The Tijuana-San Diego Region

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper discuss some concern and challenges regards with the U.S-Mexico transborder cooperation, especially with the role of Mexican local governments to manage the transnational border issues, such as drug trafficking, public security and terrorism. The paper examines two main concerns: first, an overview on transborder cooperation along the U.S. Mexican border, focusing in the Tijuana San Diego region on matters relating to narcotrafficking, public security and terrorism and second, some border impacts on the Mexican local governments under the U.S. border security policy.

A Tale of Two Borders: the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada Lines After 9-11

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper I trace the changing practice and politics of North American border controls and analyze the implications of these changes for cross-border relations and continental integration. More than ever, I suggest, North American relations are driven by the politics of border control. I first examine U.S. border control initiatives before 9-11, and argue that these were politically successful policy failures: they succeeded in terms of their symbolic and image effects even while largely failing in terms of their deterrent effects. I then highlight the border-related economic, bureaucratic, and political repercussions of 9/11. I show why the task of border control has become significantly more difficult, cumbersome, and disruptive in the post-9-11 era, with significant ramifications for the North American integration project. I conclude by outlining three possible future border trajectories.

Binational Collaboration in Law Enforcement and Public Security Issues on the U.S.-Mexican Border

Mon, 8 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines law enforcement and security context of the U.S.-Mexican border region and the new challenges that have developed since September 11 as a result of new terrorist concerns. The authors explore the conventional understanding of U.S.-Mexican relations and the question of whether there is a “security community” along the border. The authors map the law enforcement and security structures that are of significance in shaping the U.S.-Mexican relationship, particularly the new Department of Homeland Security. The authors highlight successful instances of U.S.-Mexican collaboration in the San Diego-Tijuana region as possible models for best practices in other parts of the U.S.-Mexican border region.

The New Meaning of the Border: U.S.-Mexico Migration Since 9/11

Mon, 8 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the evolution of U.S. immigration policy since September 11, the new meaning of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the consequences of counterterrorist policies on Mexican migrants living in the U.S., and Mexico’s response to recent U.S. policy changes. Finally, it the paper examines at the future of a migration deal between the two nations.

Los Grandes Desafíos de la Educación Legal en México: El Programa de Derecho del CIDE

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000

La tarea de educar abogados, de formar capital humano, debe ser siempre un ejercicio prospectivo, esto es, debe procurar proyectar cuáles serán los retos que los egresados tendrán que enfrentar cuando se incorporen al mercado laboral. Ello a efecto de definir cuáles tienen que ser los conocimientos y destrezas que enfatice y procure sus 4 o 5 años de formación. En el caso de México, la apertura económica y política ha impactado, y lo seguirá haciendo, de forma asombrosa el mundo del derecho. La adecuación de los programas de licenciatura a estos cambios es, sin duda, uno de los grandes desafíos que enfrenta cualquier escuela de derecho en México. El programa de licenciatura del CIDE busca ser una respuesta a este desafío. En esta exposición voy a hablar de cuáles son las razones que motivaron o dieron origen nuestro programa de licenciatura, así como las características más sobresalientes del mismo.

Unweaving the Social Fabric: The Impact of Crime on Social Capital

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The intention of this paper is to go beyond the scattered research that has been done using public opinion surveys to compare victims to non-victims. Presently, there is a lack of surveys that allow this comparison, and include measurement of key social concepts (constructs) such as interpersonal trust, networking, membership, fear, well-being and institutional trust. For this paper, a survey instrument was specifically design to measure each concept using multiple items. The reliability of the concepts is tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Relations between concepts are shown using causal analysis assigning temporal precedence to the condition of being a victim (victimization experience).

Diferentes pero Iguales: los Pueblos Indígenas en México y el Acceso a la Justicia

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000

En este artículo discutiremos algunos retos para la construcción de un Estado multicultural en México y los avances alcanzados hasta la fecha en cuanto a las reformas del aparato legal que son necesarias para el pleno reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas. En una primera parte presentaremos el panorama general de pluralismo jurídico existente desde la época colonial y reconocido en 1992 por la Constitución mexicana (en el párrafo primero del artículo 4º constitucional). Después analizaremos las renuencias de los poderes legislativo y judicial a reconocer la diversidad cultural e incorporarla a las concepciones y prácticas del derecho. Posteriormente abordaremos un estudio de caso, para mostrar la manera en que los indígenas del estado de Guerrero, han desarrollado sus propias estrategias para resistir y negociar el derecho del Estado mediante sus prácticas locales de impartición de justicia. Finalizaremos nuestra exposición con algunas reflexiones en torno...

Educación y Entrenamiento Policial para la Democracia

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000

El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir, mediante la aportación de nuevos elementos de discusión, a que los sistemas de educación y entrenamiento de la policía en México funcionen como vehículo para la inducción de criterios, conocimiento científico y técnicas encaminados a satisfacer las normas y expectativas que sostienen la democracia.

La Investigación de los Delitos y la Subversión de los Principios del Subsistema Penal en México