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BUSINESS
Energy
• Chevron Texaco Gets One Permit for Mexico Plant
• Pemex Has Sold US$2.2 Billion More Than in 2003
• Nuevo Leon Giants Veer Away from Natural Gas
• Dragados Gets $535 Mln Contract at Pemex Refinery
• Pemex Gets $1.8 Billion in Largest Latin American Company Bond Sale
• Secretary Details Energy Advances
• Pemex is Heading Down Wrong Path, says Muñoz Leos


Entertainment
• New Imax Theaters


Trade
• Japan Signs Trade Deal with Mexico


Banking
• Mexico’s Bansefi Aims at Neglected Sector
• Spanish Bank Buys Laredo National to Court Hispanic Customers in United States


Investments
• Sarbanes Law Causes Further Spending
• Darby Overseas Joins Demet
• Comex Seeks Purchase in the U.S.
• North American Plan for Competitive Equality Needed
• Mexican Companies That Shine


Mining
• Mexico Plans on Copper Minning Group, Soon to Quote on the NYSE


Transport
• Port Corridor Set Up
• TFM Expecting Positive Resolution


Industrial
• Rivals Crank up Pressure on Mexican Bottler KOF (Femsa)



Construction
• ICA Regains Strength Thanks to Public Contracts
• Construction Companies to Benefit from Infrastructure Works




Tourism
• Grupo Posadas to Place Debt
• Mexico Gets New Flights




Immigrants & Border
• Toyota Motor is One of Baja California’s Newest Employers
• Mexico Has a Right to Demand Agreements from the U.S.- Kissinger
• U.S.-Mexico Talks Set Off Alarms
• 10,000 in U.S. Forced Into Labor, Study Says
• IFE Urges Reform Approvals That Will Allow Voting From Abroad
• “Governator” Vetoes Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants




Politics
• Encinas Praised in Washington
• México and Chile to Jointly Pursue Latin America’s Leadership




Other
• Mexico Celebrates Its Independence Day on September 16th

    Gabriela Roldan
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    Juan Casillas
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   Susana Cervantes
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ChevronTexaco's plans for a liquid natural gas terminal in Baja California got a boost Friday, when the Mexican government granted the company an environmental permit. The San Ramon oil giant now awaits two other critical approvals before it can go ahead with construction.

The plant, to be located on a platform 8 miles off the coast of Baja, has generated intense criticism from environmental groups, including Greenpeace. They fear that the facility will harm marine life and seabird colonies on the nearby Coronado Islands.

ChevronTexaco plans to import liquid natural gas to the terminal to meet the growing demand of power plants in the United States and Mexico. Several other companies have proposed similar facilities along the Pacific coasts of California and Mexico.

PEMEX obtained US$13.2 billion from January-August of this year by selling an average of 1’831,000 barrels of crude oil daily, that is to say US$2.2 billion more vs. the same period of last year. The average price was US$29.60 per barrel, amount that represented an increase of US$4.75 vs. the value reported in the same period of 2003.

Due to the high cost of energy products used by industry, Nuevo Leon companies like Vitro, AHMSA, Hylsamex and Cemex have plans to substitute gas for fuels like coal and fuel oil, which could generate great savings. Glassmaker Vitro, which uses large amounts of energy, has invested US$30 million since 2003 to develop technology to use alternative fuels in its glass-melting ovens. Mr. Chico, head of communications at the firm said that this was expected to create savings of US$30 million this year. Steelmaker Altos Hornos de México SA (AHMSA) spends more than US$20 million a month on energy and this is 25-30% of its total costs. Mr. Orduña, communications director at the firm, said that it has been developing plants using granulated coal from Coahuila instead of natural gas and that this was saving the firm US$4 million annually. Cement manufacturer Cemex has been using petroleum coke instead of gas, and this has reduced its exposure to the fluctuating price of the latter fuel. Now, 92% of the firm's energy comes from coke.

Grupo Dragados SA, a Spanish builder owned by Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, won a 6.1 billion pesos ($535 million) contract to upgrade a refinery owned by Petroleos Mexicanos.

Dragados won the contract to build three plants in the refinery of Minatitlan, located close to the city of Veracruz, after it offered the lowest bid, the newspaper said quoting

Compranet, the government procurement system. Another 43 companies bid for the contract.

Petroleos Mexicanos, raised $1.8 billion in Latin America's biggest company bond sale, as borrowing costs tumble for emerging-market issuers. Pemex received $4.9 billion from orders for the so-called perpetual bonds, which don't have a definite maturity, according to an e-mail sent to investors and seen by Bloomberg. The e-mail was sent by Merrill Lynch & Co., which arranged the sale with Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc.

Under the administration of Mexico's President Vicente Fox, the country has invested 575bn pesos (US$50.4bn) into its long-term Pidiregas financing scheme, energy secretary Fernando Elizondo said in a speech comparing the current government's commitment to energy with that of former President Ernesto Zedillo.

OIL - Since taking office in December 2000, the Fox administration has pumped 403bn pesos into the country's oil sector, allowing for production to increase and new deposits to be found. Deposits holding nearly 2.5 billion barrels have been identified between 2000 and 2004, which represents 60% more new reserves than were found in 1996-2000.

Mexico's reserve recovery rate was 21% in 2000, largely due to insufficient investment throughout the 1990s and production levels were the same as in 1997, according to Elizondo. The reserve recovery rate is now at about 45%, despite a 13% increase in barrel-a-day production levels.

GASOLINE - In 2000, 31% of domestic gasoline consumption had to be met through imports. Yet over the last four years, domestic gasoline output has increased by 21% to 475,000 barrels a day. Also, a low sulfur gasoline has been introduced that has 300 instead of 500 parts of sulfur per million parts. Elizondo did not say what proportion of domestic gasoline consumption still needs to be imported.

NATURAL GAS - Mexico's demand for natural gas is growing at over 5% a year, so the government has implemented a strategic gas program that aims to increase production 33% to 6 billion cubic feet a day by end-2006. The two rounds of multiple service contracts (MSCs) in the Burgos basin, which have been offered by state oil company Pemex, will help in reaching this goal, the minister said.

Moreover in the second MSC round, Pemex is calling for bids on the smaller scale Monclova and Pirineo blocks, as an initiative to increase participation of domestic companies in Mexico's energy sector tenders, Elizondo said.

Also, Pemex awarded 91% of the 20 platform construction contracts that were bid on in 1H04 to local companies.

ELECTRICITY - Since 2000, 27 power plants have started operations, totaling some 8,900MW capacity. Moreover, works in progress representing some 30bn pesos are underway and scheduled to start operations by end-2006 such as El Cajón, Altamira V and La Laguna II.

Rural electrification has increased six-fold under the current administration as electricity has been brought to 12,000 areas, Elizondo said.

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The changes that need to be made within the country's oil industry are huge and of significant importance, stated Raúl Muñoz Leos, general director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The official warned that in order to ensure larger production capacities in the short term, emphasis must be shifted from field exploitation and development to exploration and restitution of reserves. "Although [oil] production is Pemex's main business this does not mean that other activities, which are also profitable, should not be taken into consideration, especially with the participation of private companies" explained the official. Muñoz also made reference to the fact that the greater demand for petroleum products, "no matter how you look at it, is winning the race," which means that more efforts need to be focused on refining and petrochemical activities. The general director also stated that Pemex needs to move away from being a State-owned monopoly that feeds on public resources by opening up the sector to private, domestic and foreign investments.

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Canadian-American IMAX Corporation, one of the leaders in large format and 3D cinemas, signed an agreement with Mexican Cinepolis to install 3 cinemas with IMAX technology. The first will be open at the end of this year in Mexico City.

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Japan has signed a bilateral trade treaty with Mexico that could lead to many more such deals between Tokyo and Asian countries.

The treaty, signed at the weekend by Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister and Mexican President Vicente Fox during a visit to Mexico City, made important concessions on access to Japan's agricultural sector. This demonstrates Tokyo's willingness to take on the domestic farm lobby. A trade ministry estimate put the financial damage suffered from the absence of a trade pact with Mexico at US$3.6 billion a year.

Mexico hopes to ease its reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more factories. Japan is counting on the accord to reduce and eventually eliminate tariffs on electronics, auto imports and steel. Mexico has signed 11 free trade agreements with 42 countries, including the European Union.

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An Internet alliance of small banks is delivering government benefits and foreign remittances directly into savings accounts, bringing millions into the formal system.

With Mexico’s President Vicente Fox having struggled to implement structural economic reforms, social reform may yet be his most lasting legacy. This is so largely because, thanks to an overhaul of the informal sector that handles grassroots savings operations, millions of Mexicans now have direct, easy access to a range of financial services, benefiting bankers as well as retailers and their suppliers.

Long neglected by Mexico’s traditional banking sector, poor and low-income families can now receive government benefits payments and foreign remittances directly into savings accounts created by an alliance of small financial entities. Led by Banco del Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros (Bansefi), “la red de la gente”, or popular network (lareddelagente.com.mx), currently incorporates 19 such institutions. Another 43 are expected to join shortly, and by year end the popular network will link together more than 1,000 branches spread throughout the country. In total, it has opened close to 3m accounts thus far.

Already the reform has succeeded in encouraging Mexico’s poor to save. The system has also reduced graft and corruption in such government welfare programs as Procampo and Oportunidades, and helped to expand coverage of government reforms in housing and healthcare. Handling of foreign remittances is another target market.

Under a new law for savings and “popular” credits approved in July 2001, entities providing such services have until June 2005 to reorganize their operations into one of the two setups that are virtually identical in their corporate mission of facilitating access to financial services and promoting savings among Mexico’s poorer populace. The key difference is in their profit structure, one being classified as nonprofit with its earnings recycled to the community for projects such as roads and schools.

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Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) said on Tuesday that it would buy a south Texas banking group, Laredo National Bancshares, heating up the race by global banks to serve Hispanics living in the U.S. BBVA said the $850 million purchase would give it access to a potential market of some five million Hispanics in south Texas. One of the chief attractions is the flow in remittances from migrants working there to relatives back home.

BBVA has so far expanded into the U.S. mostly through its ownership of BBVA Bancomer, Mexico's largest bank. Bancomer's money transfer business, Bancomer Transfer Services, known as BTS, said it moved 40% of remittances to Mexico.

Laredo claims a market share of 23% in the Texas-Mexico border region through its banks, Laredo National Bank and South Texas National Bank, which are controlled by Mexican magnate Carlos Hank Rhon, with assets of $3.4 billion and 110,000 customers. Laredo also owns a national mortgage lender.

Last week, BBVA Bancomer also bought Mexico's largest mortgage finance company, Hipotecaria Nacional, for $375 million. Earlier this year, Hipotecaria Nacional introduced a plan through which migrants in the U.S. can make mortgage payments on homes in Mexico.

Global banks have established a presence in Mexico and are now introducing cross-border services with an eye to making inroads in the Hispanic market in the U.S. The Hispanic market is the fastest growing in the U.S., with a purchasing power of $700 billion that is expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2010, according to HispanIntelligence, the research division of Hispanic Business.

Among other large banks wooing the Hispanic consumer, Citigroup, which owns Mexico's second-largest bank, Banamex, last month bought First American Bank, a bank based in Bryan, Tex., with 102 branches around the state, to focus on the Mexican-American community. The price was not disclosed.

Bank of America bought around 25% of Banco Santander Serfin, for $1.6 billion, from Banco Santander Central Hispano of Spain, in 2002 and has used the alliance to design cross-border products, beginning with money transfers through A.T.M.'s.

Wells Fargo earlier this month said it would buy First Community Capital Corporation, based in Houston, for $124 million. Wells Fargo has also joined forces with the Mexican subsidiary of HSBC to offer money transfers to Mexico.

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Auditing expenses of Mexican companies quoting in the United States which must be met by 2005 as per the Sarbanes-Oxley Law so as to avoid financial frauds, will be increased around 35%, experts agreed. At a time of distrust and skepticism generated by U.S. financial scandals, public companies in that country and in others, including Mexico, must comply with the laws that require keeping certain documents for a period of 30 years or more to avoid them from being erased or modified.

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Darby Overseas Investment Ltd has contributed $165 million pesos in order to participate with homebuilder and developer Demet. The investment was made via Darby-BBVA Latin America Private Equity Fund. Darby’s Jaime Salinas will join Demet’s board of adviser. Darby has invested before in Mexico in Banorte, Viz Group, Promotora Ambiental and ISA.

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After researching potential buy’s in the U.S., Mexico’s paint company Comex is in the process of acquiring Professional Paint of Lone Tree Colorado, in a deal worth an estimated $400 million USD. Comex sells half its production in Mexico to the construction sector and is hoping that in the U.S. market, which has a per capita consumption of paint which triples Mexico’s, local residents as well as residents of Hispanic background involved in construction, will favor brands they are familiar with.

The expansion comes after Comex severed its relationship with US Aneron last year.


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In order for Mexico to recover its competitiveness, actions the country can carry out are not enough, the collaboration and support of its main trading partners, the U.S. and Canada, are needed, noticed former Commerce and Finance Minister, Jose Angel Gurría, while participating in the II Businesses Summit in Veracruz. According to the vice-president of the analytical company, Sovereign Debt Solutions, the issue of Mexico’s competitiveness should concern the U.S., since it is an issue of regional importance.

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Mexican companies Cemex, America Movil, Bimbo, Gruma, Savia, IMSA and Cintra were ranked among the 50 transnational non-finance companies of developing countries, with the greatest amount of assets abroad, prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Cemex registered assets abroad of US$12.2 billion, America Movil US$ 2 billion, Bimbo group US$1.4 billion; Gruma, US$1.1 billion; Savia, US$941 million; IMSA, US$831 million, and Cintra, US$784 million.

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Grupo Mexico (GMexico) is looking forward to creating the biggest private mining company in the world, by merging Minera Mexico and their Peruvian subsidiary Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SPCC), jointly they will have a reserve capacity of 46 million tons of copper and will be the third producer of this metal in the world.

Juan Rebolledo, vice-president of International Affairs, informed that a special committee of independent directors is analyzing the creation of the new company and the proposal is to be presented to the Administration Board. The new company, to quote in New York Stock-Exchange, will be consolidated by a share exchange of the Minera Mexico securities to SPCC, he said.

Grupo Mexico is the owner of 99% of Minera Mexico and 54% of Southern Peru Copper Corporation.

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The port of Manzanillo will sign a commercial cooperation agreement with the port of Houston, Texas, today, in order to establish an axis with Singapore and to make Colima’s terminal the official bridge between Asia and the U.S. Eastern coast.

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The Government has no arguments by which to prevent TFM and Kansas City Southern from merging, and this is why TMM is confident that it will receive it’s authorization to do so by year end, according to the company’s spokesman who indicated that in the coming days, the companies will be seeking a review by the National Commission of Foreign Investment. If the resolution is affirmative, this group could become the largest railway firm in Mexico with nearly 10,000 kilometers of track, a number grater than Ferromex who holds about 7,000, and Ferrosur with about 1,500 kms.

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Coca-Cola Femsa, the world's No. 2 Coke bottler with operations in nine countries, is seeing its dominant share of its main Mexican market erode as competition heats up from Pepsi and smaller rivals.

Analysts said market share loss will weigh on third-quarter profits at Coca-Cola Femsa, also known as KOF and half owned by brewer and bottler Femsa (FMX.N) (FEMSAUBD.MX).

KOF makes half the Coke produced in Mexico and is also the largest bottler in Latin America.

High raw material costs are also squeezing margins at KOF and analysts are also worried about the lack of promised synergies from a major acquisition and weak water sales.

Partly from price wars, KOF is losing market share to Pepsi bottlers such as U.S.-based Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG.N), its main soft drinks rival in Mexico, as well as to small bottlers, like Peru-based Kola Real.

Pepsi Bottling Group, in contrast, said third-quarter Mexican volumes grew 3 percent on a small increase in soft drinks and an 18 percent leap in bottled water sales.

Analysts also see margin pressure on bottlers from higher raw material costs. Sugar prices are spiraling upward, as are prices for PET resin, plastic used in making bottles.

KOF management signaled in a recent conference call that around $50 million of expected synergies from the acquisition of Panamco for $2.7 billion plus debt would probably not materialize.

Competition like Kola Real, whose Big Kola brand has grabbed a 5 percent soft drinks market share in Mexico in two years, is hurting Mexican Coke bottlers Arca (ARCA.MX) and Contal (CONTAL.MX) more than they are hurting KOF.

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The federal Government has become ICA’s main endorsement with the three great contracts that the company has in the energy sector, plus another infrastructure project. After the allocation of the second package of reconfiguration of the Minatitlan refinery, ICA shares have rallied in the Mexican Stock Market and it has now become one of the most attractive companies. Only the assigned contracts in the energy sector come to have a value jointly of US$1.2 billion.

The company explores and exploits crude oil in the region of Chicontepec, builds the Hydroelectric El Cajon and now it will work on the plants of the Minatilan refinery. In addition to the bids won by ICA, having Carlos Slim as a share holder reinforces confidence in the company.

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The Mexican construction industry market has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, with the ending or near closing-down of several companies such as Tribasa, GMD, and Bufete Industrial, while the ones that experienced the 1995 crisis as Protexa, ICA, Gutsa, Facopsa and other 8,000 companies are reaping the rewards of major projects resumed by the Fox government. The Mexican construction chamber, CMIC, reports the disappearance of 1,500 construction companies since 1995, due to lack of major public works and investment. The sector registered negative growth in 2001 and 2002, a slight recovery in 2003, and prospects are brightening in 2004 with the Fox administration resuming investment in infrastructure works by 12%. It is nothing similar to the construction boom of the administrations of Salinas de Gortari (1988 - 1994) and Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000).

Among the projects considered by the current government is the construction of El Cajon hydroelectric plant, the revamping of the Pemex Minatitlan crude oil refinery, the construction of the Chicontepec oil field, while the erection of 47 offshore platforms and 56 pipelines is to cost US$6.7 bn over three years. The Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT) has scheduled 10 road concessions involving an investment of US$1.83 bn over the next 10 years, while the expansion of the Mexico City airport is to cost US$270 million over three years. The best opportunities are in housing construction with 500,000 mortgage loans as of 2004 representing an investment of US$12 bn.

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Grupo Posadas wants to issue and sell approximately US$150 million in debt bonds due on 2011 in a private issuing in the U.S. The resources obtained will be destined to eliminate liabilities contracted previously by the company.

“The company has 2005 & 2006 dues for approximately $2 billion pesos; therefore it is expected to pay this debt”, explained an analyst. According to Posadas, the debt will be guaranteed 100% by the main subsidiaries of the group.

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With the weak dollar and terrorism fears curtailing interest in Europe, airlines are rushing to add flights to Mexico, an increasingly popular destination for U.S travelers. Of the major U.S. airlines, Continental Airlines has led the way. The airline has increased its service to Mexico 25% since September 2003, according to a spokesperson.

The discount carriers also are moving in. America West Airlines started flying between Los Angeles and Puerto Vallarta and Los Angeles and Mazatlan in June. Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines also have recently announced increased service to Mexico.

On Mexico's east coast, some of the most popular emerging destinations include the Riviera Maya, anchored in Playa del Carmen. Near Cancun but more sedate, the Caribbean resort area offers Mayan culture, jungle exploration and an expanding urban center with the same kind of resort-lined strips that made Cancun famous. Another emerging destination is Huatulco, a Pacific coast town steeped in a history of violent pirate raids. While it previously hadn't caught on with tourists in the way places such as Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta had, the area is preparing for more traffic when a Continental flight from Houston starts this fall. In recent years, a half-dozen major resorts have been built in the area's nine bays.

In Manzanillo, a Pacific coast town known for sport fishing, tourism from the U.S. is rising because of increased air traffic, says Bob Koens, the chairman of a new $1 billion resort project called Cascadas de Manzanillo planned through Colima Development LLC of St. Paul, Minn. Manzanillo first became popular in 1979, when parts of the Bo Derek movie "10" were filmed there.

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TIJUANA – With 40,000 jobs created this year, Baja California is setting the trend for Mexico, President Vicente Fox said yesterday. "This is where we are showing that those who insist that Mexico doesn't have the competitiveness of other countries are wrong". Fox said during a tour of manufacturing plants in Tijuana and Mexicali, the state capital.

After a 3-year slump, the maquiladora industry has shown an especially dramatic recovery, and Baja California has been the state to benefit the most. One of the state's newest employers is Toyota Motor Corp., although it is not part of the maquiladora program of factories that uses duty-free imports to manufacture export goods. The Toyota factory, their first in Mexico has hired 586 people and plans to build its staff to 700. The company's presence also is indirectly creating 200 additional jobs in companies linked to Toyota. This factory is an important step for Tijuana, better known as an electronics manufacturing center.

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The Government of Mexico has the right to demand bilateral agreements from the U.S., mainly on migratory matters to avoid more immigrants from "suffering", said former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, when recriminating Washington for not having a foreign policy nor a future agenda focused on their nexus with Mexicans, during his participation in the II Business Summit in Veracruz, and said that “on the Mexican side, more requests for bilateral agreements are needed”.

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An effort by Mexico and the U.S. to help each other's expatriate workers avoid dual taxation while saving for retirement has put two of the most contentious U.S. political issues, immigration and Social Security, on a collision course.

Progress toward something called a "totalization" pact between Mexico and the U.S. is under attack from critics who say it will encourage more illegal immigration from Mexico while damaging the U.S. Social Security system.

In June, the heads of the U.S. and Mexican Social Security systems met to discuss putting treaty legislation before Congress as part of an immigration-overhaul initiative unveiled earlier by Presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox. The U.S. has 20 such pacts, mostly with distant trading partners. Under these pacts, companies pay an employee's Social Security taxes in only one jurisdiction, at the discretion of the worker. Employees, meanwhile, are allowed to combine ("totalize") the work credits they build in both countries.

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At least 10,000 people are working as forced laborers at any given time across the United States, according to a new report that details the nature and extent of "modern-day slavery." The study says the laborers are working for little or no pay on farms, in restaurants and sweatshops and as domestic servants and prostitutes.

The report, "Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States," is to be released today on Capitol Hill by the University of California at Berkeley's Human Rights Center and the Washington-based anti-slavery group Free the Slaves.

Forced labor has been documented in at least 90 U.S. cities, including some Washington area communities, and it is concentrated in poorly regulated industries with a high demand for cheap labor, the study says. Most victims are trafficked into the United States through force, fraud or coercion and are brought from more than three dozen countries, with China, Mexico and Vietnam topping the list, researchers said.

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The possibility that the 10 million Mexicans living abroad will be able to vote in 2006 presidential elections will be viable only if the House of Representatives approves, during its ordinary period of sessions, the constitutional reform that would allow for it, according to the president of the Electoral Federal Institute (IFE). “Integrating the list of the names and the issuing of credentials abroad must begin by January 15th”, he said.

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The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, kept his threat to veto the bill that proposed allowing the issuance of driving licenses to more than two million undocumented immigrants, which had been approved by the legislature on August 28th. The refusal has bashed down the efforts of the Hispanic Democratic block, which has already threatened to present a new bill in January 2005.

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The participation Mexico City’s Secretary of Government, Alejandro Encinas, in Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) was praised by members of the academic and business community. He had been invited to speak about the experiences of the PRD administration in Mexico City since 1997. Andrew Selle, of the Woodrow Wilson Center, said that Encinas “was very cautious regarding the presidential aspirations of the mayor, however he did indicated that several international relations and investment policies which provide security in these areas would experience continuity”. Regarding the stripping of immunity issue, Encinas said that if the House of Representatives votes on this affirmatively, Lopez Obrador would go to that legislative organization to defend himself.

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During President Ricardo Lagos visit to Mexico City, Mexico and Chile signed a political agreement for a strategic alliance that contemplates assuming votes and similar political positions on international conflicts that would lead them to a leadership position in Latin America.

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Wednesday night, Mexicans in Miami gathered, as they did around the world, to celebrate 194 years of independence from Spanish rule and to commemorate Father Miguel Hidalgo's legendary call for revolution by Mexican natives. ''Our struggle continues,'' was told to the audience. ``We are independent, but we have to keep fighting against other forms of slavery, such as poverty and ignorance.''

It was one of several events the Miami Consulate organizes to promote Mexican culture. South Florida's Mexican population has nearly doubled since 1991 and now numbers about 61,000. The presence and visibility of Mexicans in the region also has increased over the past three years, in part because of a large influx of Mexican professionals, entrepreneurs and artists who have bought homes and businesses in the area.

Two years ago, the Mexican government opened a cultural center in South Miami to showcase the country's contribution to the arts, political and economic life.

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