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BUSINESS
Energy
• CFE Looks to Become Natural Gas Supplier
• Gas Pipelines to be Built in Mexico
• Tension Mounts in Mexico Over Pemex's $680-mil Deal With Union
• Mexican Treasury Minister Warns Against Contract with Pemex Union
• Mexico Proposes Oil Sales to China to Reduce Trade Deficit


Mining
• Peñoles Seeks to Purchase Zinc Mine in Peru


Trade
• Rexam to Purchase Remaining Vitro-American in Mexico
• WTO Reviews Trade Conflicts
• Great Potential for Fishing Firm to Sell to Japan
• Business Leaders Crack Down on Piracy


Trade Agricultural
• Beef Exports to Strengthen
• Report Could Put a Crimp in Corn Exports; Caution Urged for Transgenic Crop


Banking
• Wells Fargo Boosts Sites for Wire Transfers in Mexico


Industry
• Cemex to Buy U.K.'s RMC Group for 2.3 Billion Pounds
• CEMEX on Watch Negative After Acquisition Announcement
• Mexico’s Cemex Shares Tumble 8% after RMC Deal


• Mexico Cemex Gives Up Buying Argentine Loma Negra
• Investors keen to buy Cemex stake in Indonesia's Semen Gresik
• Can Maker Rexam Buys Rest of Mexico's Vitro-American for $26.5 Million


Investment
• Daimler Chrysler to Invests US$210 million
• Mexican Stock Exchange Ends at Record High


Transportation
• Mexico-U.S. Trade 70% By Road
• Shipping Industry Upset


Construction
• ICA Fluor Wins Pemex Cryogenic Contract Worth US$134mn



Tourism
• Texas and Veracruz To Join Forces




Immigrants & Border
• Migrants Organize Boycott vs. Schwarzenegger & Complaint Filed
• Three Mexican Women Lose Life Crossing Rio Grande
• Complaints Filed in the U.S. for Immigrants’ Death
• Truckers Call to End Effort at Opening Border and Focus on Operations
• P$3 billion to be Invested in Customs Modernization
• U.S. Agents May Face Charges in Drug Related Killings
• Rain Allows Payment of Partial Water Debt to the U.S.




Politics
• Major Surgery Sought for Political System
• Mexican Party is Poised to Win Again
• Slim Warns on Populism
• Mexico Releases Report on Crisis with Cuba
• Lopez Obrador, “An Unconventional Leftist”
• No Split in PRD from Lopez Obrador – Cárdenas Race
• Mexico’s Fox and Leftist Mayor Meet Face-to-Face
• Mayor Accused of Killing Opponent
• Mayor Accused of Killing Opponent
• Mayor Accused of Killing Opponent
• Mayor Accused of Killing Opponent




Other
• U.S. Returns Stolen Mexican Altarpiece
• Aztec Cosmo-vision at the Guggenheim
• In LA Mexican American Cultural Center, To Open As Soon As 2007
• Mexico to Welcome Dalai Lama

    Gabriela Roldan
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    Juan Casillas
  +011-5255-5281-8297

   Susana Cervantes
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The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is looking to tear down legal barriers preventing private companies from transferring contracts signed with Pemex, with regards to natural gas supplies, to the CFE, stated Alfredo Elías Ayub, general director of CFE. "The problem is that in the old contracts there are a series of legal limitations for transferring them [from Pemex to the CFE], and we are seeing if there is a way to get around this," stated the official. He explained that in contracts signed in the last 2-3 years, it is already established that the CFE is the supplier of this fuel. If contracts, signed before this period, were transferred to the CFE, both the State-owned electricity firm and independent producers would enjoy greater flexibility in terms of natural gas use.

In addition, the CFE could even boost its income, given that if it generated extra electricity, the surplus could be exported to the U.S.

The American company, El Paso Corp, signed an agreement to build gas pipelines in Sonora to convey natural gas to electrical plants in that region from a projected import terminal to be built in the Gulf of California. By this agreement, El Paso Corp, along with DKRW Energy, will structure the lines more than 500 kms long in Sonora, where the liquefied natural gas terminal will be installed. This is one of the three that will be built in northern Mexico and that will help to meet the demand in the U.S.

Tension mounted Tuesday between the government and the powerful Mexican Oil Workers' Union over an accord last month in which state-owned Pemex had promised to provide the union with financial support and grants totaling $680-mil. Santiago Creel, who as secretary of the interior is head of President Vicente Fox's cabinet, denied that he had approved the deal, which has been strongly criticized by the finance secretary, Francisco Gil. Creel told local radio that he was awaiting instructions from Fox on whether to launch talks with the union on a revision of the accord, but a union spokesman said there was no room for negotiation. "It's a done deal," union spokesman Victor Garcia said. "It's been approved by the Labor Ministry's Conciliation Board and what the board says is law. There's no going back." The $680-mil includes some $400-mil in loan guarantees for workers' housing.

Though Pemex regularly contributes to workers' welfare projects, the 2004 allocation far exceeds those of previous years.

Mexico's treasury minister cautioned President Vicente Fox that if a new contract between state oil company Pemex and the petroleum workers' union is ratified, it could void further legal action against the union for misuse of funds. In a letter to Fox, Treasury Minister Francisco Gil issued several warnings concerning the contract signed in July by oil giant Pemex and the union, which is led by militants from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

According to Gil, the 7.7 billion peso (approximately $675.4 million) contract to be ratified in October "weakens the criminal case against the union and practically voids it."

Union leaders and former Pemex directors were accused of diverting funds from the state-run monopoly to the PRI's presidential campaign in 2000, when the election was won by the PAN.

The daily said the minister is worried about what he sees as excessive liquidity being given the union under the new contract. Milenio also recalled that the PRI - which would like to return to power in 2006 - "is bankrupt" due to the fine imposed by electoral authorities in the "Pemexgate" case.

Former Pemex director Rogelio Montemayor, who days ago was extradited from the United States, is accused of diverting millions in funds from Pemex, of which 500 million pesos (approximately $43 million) were sent to the PRI in the form of loans to the union.

For this action, electoral authorities imposed a billion peso ($87.7 million) fine on the PRI, which is to pay it this year.

"Different procedures are in the works, both administrative and criminal, based on the probable illegality of agreements in which Pemex provided money to the union from March through October 2000," the minister said, warning that the new contract contains a cause stipulating that these "agreements were legally signed and paid"."It's probable that this recognition by Pemex will benefit all those allegedly responsible for the acts cited in the criminal proceedings," the letter said.

Mexico has proposed selling oil to China as part of a plan to reduce a trade deficit with China that Mexico calculates at around $9-bil each year, a senior official from Mexico's Economy ministry said Wednesday. The proposal comes after Chinese officials offered to promote Mexican products in their country and asked for a list of suggestions. "We proposed several products. Oil was one of them, along with tequila and farm products. But it is up to Pemex [the state oil company] to decide whether the sales go ahead," said Gerardo Traslosheros, director of multilateral trade negotiations. Traslosheros heads a newly formed bilateral working group that he said aims to "turn China into a trading partner rather than a threat." Chinese oil companies are already active in Mexico.

Great Wall Drilling Co is fulfilling two onshore contracts for Pemex in the southern state of Tabasco, while another Chinese company, BGP International, has been carrying out seismic studies further north.

Industrias Penoles SA (PE&OLES* MM), the world's biggest silver miner, rose 1.84 soles, or 3.7 percent, to 51.42 pesos.

The company said yesterday it offered to buy 51 percent of Peru's fourth-biggest zinc miner Cia. Minera Milpo SA.

Rexam Plc, the world's largest beverage-can maker, agreed to buy the 50% of Vitro-American National Can SA it doesn't own from Vitro SA for $26.5 million.

VanCan, with one plant in Queretaro, Mexico, had sales of $70 million last year and employs about 140 people, London-based Rexam said in a Regulatory News Service statement. “This deal represents another step in our commitment to extend our position in growing markets,'' Stefan Angwald, Rexam's chief executive, said.

Rexam gets about 80% of revenue from selling cans to companies including Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and PepsiCo Inc.

The WTO is reviewing Mexico-U.S. trade conflicts as to Mexican cement and steel pipes, and U.S. fructose and rice. The final resolution for these 4 cases is expected to come between the 1st. and 2nd. quarters of 2005.

The Economic Association Agreement reached with Japan opened the doors of the country that consumes the most fish and seafood in the world. But there also exists possibility for the fishing industry to revive the domestic market. In view of this scenario, the fish industrialists are ready to launch a promotional campaign that will motivate consumption of national products, also including other markets such as the U.S., where it will seek to differentiate Mexican products from those of China, Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Ecuador.

Mexican business leaders angry at competition from stolen, counterfeit and smuggled goods launched a campaign to stamp out the vast informal economy.

Heads of several major business chambers joined politicians and anti-piracy activists in announcing an Alliance for a Legal Mexico, calling for the government to push millions of Mexicans into the legal, taxpaying sector.

Roberto Castaneda Franco, president of the Alliance Against Piracy, said illegal businesses were estimated to account for as much as 25% of Mexico's gross domestic product.

Agriculture Minister, Javier Usabiaga, inaugurated the TIF Plant (Federal Inspection Type) 151 in Tamaulipas State, which already has the “Mexico - Supreme Quality” seal, and by November expects to hold certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Even before its release, a report addressing the potential impact of genetically altered U.S. corn exports to Mexico has stirred up a dust of controversy, including fears that the Bush administration is trying to bury it. The report by a group of distinguished scientists and policy experts urges caution in trade policies that send millions of tons of corn to Mexico from Illinois and other states, including a recommendation to grind it up first. The report also could influence a global debate over the safety of modified food. Originally scheduled to be made public in June, has not been released. Last week, the agency managing the report, the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, handed it privately to the U.S., Mexican and Canadian governments, which have 60 days to decide whether it should be published at all.

The delay has angered the study's authors and environmentalists, some of whom allege that U.S. officials have pressured the CEC, a watchdog agency associated with the North American Free Trade Agreement, to keep the report under wraps.

The critics note that the 60-day period could postpone the report's release until after the November presidential election, when votes from corn-farming states such as Iowa will be crucial.

The draft report recommended that Mexico reinforce a national ban on planting and experimenting with modified corn and educate peasant farmers not to plant it, the EPA letter said.

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Wells Fargo & Co., California's second-biggest bank, said Tuesday that it had formed a partnership with Grupo Financiero Banorte to increase its wire-transfer outlets by more than a third in Mexico. The agreement will allow customers to send money to Banorte's 1,000 bank branches and access the cash at 2,500 automated teller machines throughout the country, the San Francisco-based company said. That brings the total number of Mexican remittance sites for Wells Fargo customers to more than 4,000 offices and 10,700 ATMs.

Immigrants send more money to Latin America from California than from any other state, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank. Last year, Mexico received about $14.5 billion in remittances, most of which came from the U.S., the development bank said.

Wells Fargo, the nation's fourth-biggest bank, charges $8 to send as much as $3,000 to Mexico, the “best price, by much as 75% bellow some of our competitors” according to a spokesman for Banorte. Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Western Union Financial Services Inc., a division of First Data Corp., offer similar services.

In addition to Banorte, Mexico's fourth-biggest bank, Wells Fargo has money transfer partnerships with HSBC Mexico, a unit of HSBC Holdings, and Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer, Mexico's biggest bank

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Cemex SA of Mexico, the world's third-largest cement company, agreed to buy Britain's RMC Group Plc for 2.3 billion pounds ($4.15 billion) to double revenue and expand in concrete markets in Europe and the U.S.

Including debt, the purchase is valued at $5.8 billion, making it the biggest-ever acquisition by a Mexican company.

The deal entitles RMC shareholders to receive $15.44 per share in cash, which represents a premium of 39% to the average RMC share price of $11.10 over the 30 days ending Friday, and a premium of 43 percent to Friday's closing price of $10.82.

RMC operates more than 1,500 concrete plants, 400 sand and, gravel quarries and 50 cement plants in countries including France, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Malaysia. Two-thirds of RMC's 2003 sales came from Europe and 23 percent from the U.S.

Cemex's agreed offer is the biggest in the building-materials industry since Lafarge SA of France acquired the U.K.'s Blue Circle Industries in 2001 for 4.7 billion pounds to become the No.1 cement company.

Cemex Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Zambrano, 60, said in a July interview that he was looking to make a purchase to help boost sales growth to as much as 14 percent annually.

The acquisition is the largest for Cemex since its creation in 1906, surpassing its $2.8 billion purchase of Houston-based Southdown Inc. in 2000. It will generate $200 million in annual savings, Cemex said.

Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are advising the Mexican company and have underwritten the debt financing for the purchase.


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Fitch Ratings has placed the 'BBB' senior unsecured foreign currency and local currency ratings of CEMEX, S.A. de C.V. (CEMEX) and of its wholly owned subsidiary CEMEX Espana S.A., as well as the 'AA+(mex)' national scale rating on CEMEX, on Watch Negative following the announcement this morning that the company intends to purchase RMC Group p.l.c. (RMC), a producer of ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and cement, based in the UK and with operations in 26 countries, primarily in Western and Eastern Europe and in the U.S. RMC is the world's largest producer of ready-mix concrete and the 10th largest cement-maker. If the acquisition is completed, the resulting company will become the second largest cement producer based on revenues and the largest ready-mix producer in the world. CEMEX announced that it intends to purchase RMC for US$5.8 billion, consisting of US$4.1 billion in cash, US$1.5 billion in debt assumption, and US$200 million in transaction costs.

The acquisition will be financed with debt in the form of bank facilities that have been committed by Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Fitch expects the acquisition debt to be repaid over the next few years from free cash flow resulting from combined operations and anticipated synergies. Nonetheless, CEMEX may face challenges integrating this large and multinational entity, which could delay projected improvement in credit protection measures.

Strategically, the acquisition of RMC is positive. It should improve CEMEX's operating profile by reducing the proportion of EBITDA sourced from non-investment-grade countries, as well as the proportion of EBITDA derived from Mexican operations, which would drop from one-half of 2003 EBITDA to roughly one-third. The acquisition would reduce the volatility of cash flows of consolidated results as it provides further geographic revenue diversification to CEMEX's existing operations. The assets of RCM are mostly located in areas that strategically fit and complement CEMEX's existing assets.

The acquisition would turn CEMEX into the largest ready-mix producer in the world and an important player in aggregates, complementing the company's strong business position in cement.

At June 30, 2004, CEMEX had total debt of US$5.3 billion and estimated 2004 EBITDA of US$2.4 million. RMC has outstanding debt of approximately US$1.5 billion and generated EBITDA in excess of US$800 million during 2003.

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Shares of Cemex slumped more than 8% in early trade on Monday after the world's No. 3 cement maker agreed to buy Britain's RMC Group for 2.3 billion pounds.

In the first minutes of trading on the Mexican stock market, Cemex's shares dropped 8.37 percent to 63.20 pesos.

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Mexican cement group Cementos Mexicanos SA (Cemex) gave up plans to buy Argentina's largest cement producer Loma Negra, it was reported on September 27, 2004.

Cemex, the world's third largest cement maker, gave up its plans to buy Loma Negra, because it considered more important to lower its own debt, said Lorenzo Zambrano, chairman and chief executive of Cemex. Cemex debt is expected to rise to $10 bln (8.13 bln euro) after the planned acquisition of British building materials producer RMC Group Plc.

Cemex was planning to buy Loma Negra for $350 mln (284.6 mln euro), and to assume the Loma Negra's $430 mln (349.7 mln euro) debt.

Loma Negra currently controls some 48 pct of the Argentine cement market.

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JAKARTA - A number of local and foreign investors have expressed interest in acquiring Mexico-based Cemex SA's 25.5 pct stake in Indonesia's largest cement maker, PT Semen Gresik, The Jakarta Post reported, quoting State Enterprises Minister Laksamana Sukardi. "Several local and international cement producers are interested in buying Cemex's stake in Semen Gresik because of projected strong demand for cement," Sukardi said. "However, they are waiting for the settlement of a legal dispute between Cemex and the Indonesian government at the arbitration court to ensure legal certainty of their future investment here," he added. Sukardi earlier said Cemex had accepted a proposal to sell its 25.5 pct stake back to the government due to the unresolved dispute over the option to allow the Mexican company to increase its stake in Semen Gresik to 51 pct. The prolonged uncertainties surrounding the sale prompted Cemex to file an arbitration petition against the government at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington.

Analysts doubt if Cemex will eventually agree to sell its stake as the government's offer is unlikely to be sufficiently attractive and because such move will open up the door for Holcim Ltd or Lafarge SA to purchase the stake eventually.

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Rexam Plc, the world's largest beverage-can maker, agreed to buy the 50 percent of Vitro-American National Can SA it did not own from Vitro SA for $26.5 million.

The business, known as VanCan, has one plant in Queretaro, Mexico, had sales of $70 million last year and employs about 140 people, London-based Rexam said in a Regulatory News Service statement.

Rexam last month won regulatory approval to buy Alcoa Inc.'s Latasa unit, a Sao Paulo-based can maker with lines in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Rexam gets about 80 percent of revenue from selling cans to companies including Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and PepsiCo Inc.

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Daimler Chrysler AG, the third automobile firm in the world, announced that it would invest US$210 million to undertake improvements at its pickup factory in Saltillo, Coahuila, so as to be able to produce other models.

“The Company will increase the number of automated machines from 160 to 360, as part of the changes that will allow the plant to manufacture other models, in addition to the Dodge Ram pickup that it currently produces,” stated Peter Rosenfeld, Purchasing and Supply Executive Vice President of Daimler Chrysler.

The firm intends to produce a cargo truck as of April and a pickup with a cabin as of August.

The factory will produce close to 80,000 units of the new models annually, which will increase its production 50%. Building multiple models at each plant, something that the Asian manufacturers already do, will allow Chrysler to change the production quicker based on changes in demand, making the factories more efficient.

The President of Grupo Chrysler, Dieter Zetsche, said that he want to catch up with Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motoc Co., and Nissan Motor Co. in manufacturing quality and efficiency by 2007.

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The Mexican Stock Exchange ended with gains and posted a new maximum historic high for a closing, supported by favorable expectations for the companies’ reports and the inflows to the Latin American region.

The Price and Quotations Index (IPC) rose 120.89 points, 110% compared to the previous closing, to stand at 11,078.26 units.

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In 2003, close to 70% of the Mexico-U.S trade in merchandise was transported by road, according to the Forum on Trade Transportation Statistics of North America. The Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT) announced that Forum data also reveal that 37% of the bilateral trade between Mexico and Canada was moved by road, a higher percentage than the 33% that was moved by railways. This report indicates that as to Mexico’s foreign trade with the rest of the world, 40% corresponds to operations using marine transportation.

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The shipping industry is upset about the price increase in harbor operations. In July, the International Code for Ship and Harbor Facilities Protection took effect, an agreement reached by Mexico and the U.S., who had demanded it, to protect ports and ships against terrorists. Now, Mexican terminals want to charge US$10 per container received. The intent of the surcharge would be to cover the US$30,000 that the Formation and Training of Merchant Marine Personnel Trust is charging them.

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A subsidiary of US-based Fluor and Mexico's Empresas ICA Sociedad Controladora, ICA Fluor, said Friday it has won a $134 million contract from Pemex Gas y Petroquimica Basica to design and engineer a modular cryogenic plant and a fuel terminal in Reynosa, Mexico.

The plant, which will have a 200 MMcf/d capacity and 98.5% propane recovery capability, will cool feed gas so that liquid hydrocarbons can be separated and recovered. The consortium formed by ICA Fluor and Linde Process Plants will develop the project, which is scheduled to be completed by mid 2006.

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As of the 2nd week in October, a tourist route via ferry from Corpus Christi, Texas, to the port of Veracruz will begin operations. This will potentially serve 22 million visitors. The tourist ferry will have capacity for 600 passengers and 500 cars, and the cruise will be made more pleasant with amenities such as a casino, a show and a bar.

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Nativo Lopez, President of the “Mexican Brotherhood”, announced that he will promote a new Latin boycott in the State of California to protest for governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s refusal to grant driver licenses to more than 2 million undocumented persons. The PRI party representative in the Lower Chamber of Congress also requested the Foreign Affairs Ministry to appeal this decision diplomatically.

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Three women from the state of Guanajuato, drowned in the Rio Grande. When they had first arrived to the U.S. side of the border, U.S. Border Patrol agents stoned them and then had forced them to return to the river. The Mexican Consul in Eagle Pass, Texas, Jorge Ernesto Espejel, requested Paul Bert, charged with that sector of the river in Texas, to investigate the case.

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The Government of Guanajuato, through the Mexican Consulate in Texas, filed a compliant to the U.S. for the death of the three women in the Rio Grande. “It is totally reproachable. This lack of respect for the dignity of human life and Human Rights cannot be accepted”, governor Romero Hicks said, while Guanajuato’s secretary of Social and Human Development announced that the State Government will advise the victims’ relatives so that they, in turn, may file a complaint in the U.S. to demand jail time for the agents responsible for this and a compensation for the relatives.

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The National Chamber for Motor Cargo Transportation (Canacar) proposed that Mexico stop seeking the opening to this sector and negotiate the regulation of border transportation with the U.S. and Canada. Every month, there are 398 thousand border crossings, which means, more than 13,000 daily, said Canacar’s president, and the only thing that is being requested is that there be clear rules so that the carriers do not have problems with tow interchanges or fines, because “we have paid up to US$100,000 monthly in fines from all the crossings”, he added.

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The General Customs Administrator announced that he has budgeted the investment of P$3 billion for infrastructure works in the Customs Offices at the Mexican border to be carried out in the next 21/2 years. He explained that this year US$1.5 million would be invested in the Mexican Customs Offices.

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Immigration informant helped kill drug trafficker, officials say

WASHINGTON – Three U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are expected to face criminal charges in the death of a suspected drug trafficker killed with the help of an agency informant, according to officials close to the investigation.

The veteran agents, who dealt directly with the informant, will probably be charged with criminal negligence and, if convicted, could face prison time, the U.S. officials said.

ICE's own investigation shows that the agency's informant, known as Lalo, assigned corrupt Mexican police officers their roles in several killings, called in gravediggers to bury bodies, and paid off killers.

At issue, the officials said, is whether the agents had advance knowledge of the killings and did nothing to stop them.

A U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the three agents did not act independently, but were following supervisors' orders.

"These agents are small people in the whole game, ... they were regular people who took assignments, who took orders from higher-ups."

The killing in question was of Durango lawyer and suspected drug trafficker Fernando Reyes Aguado. In the documents obtained by The News, Lalo described in detail how he helped kill the man, along with Mexican police "officers who ... strangled Fernando then struck him in the back of the head with a shovel, which was later used to bury him in the back yard of the house where he was killed."

An audio recording of the slaying was made by unidentified ICE agents, some of whom apparently were on the phone with Lalo at the time, a U.S. official has said.

Lalo participated in at least five killings and over a six-month period was aware of at least seven more – all involving victims of the Juárez drug cartel, according to ICE documents and an affidavit the informant provided to Mexican authorities in Dallas.

The same documents show that ICE recorded at least four conversations between the informant and cartel members in which criminal activity was discussed, including the planning of murders.

In January, Lalo led U.S. and Mexican authorities to a grave behind a house in Juárez where the bodies of 12 men were unearthed.

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The general manager of Mexico’s National Water Commission announced that, due to the heavy rains registered this year in the north of the country, Mexico has been able to pay 250 million cubic meters of water as part of the water owed to the U.S.

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Politicians proposed "major surgery" to the Government regime so as to reorder relations and find mechanisms to reach a consensus between the Legislative and Executive Powers. Industrialists, politicians, researchers and analysts attended to the 2nd day of the forum, “Democratic Government: What Reforms?” organized by the Chamber of Deputies and the Autonomous National University of Mexico.

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Mexico's largest political party says it is choking on debt after an unprecedented $92 million fine, but it is winning apparent support from voters as it aims to retake the presidency in 2006. The independent Federal Electoral Institute, which oversees elections, imposed the fine on the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in March 2003 because the party illegally accepted nearly $200 million in undeclared contributions from union workers of the oil monopoly Pemex during the 2000 presidential race. The PRI still has money to operate, and its officials say they are learning to save. Despite its financial woes, the party recently won several state elections, which are seen as tests for the presidential race.

Political observers say the PRI is unbeatable in organizing campaigns. It also controls most unions, rewards voters and has a long tradition of chumminess with rich PRI members. While the Federal Electoral Institute controls federal elections, state electoral groups oversee local elections and are more susceptible to pressure to ignore irregularities.

Vicente Fox of the conservative PAN party won the presidency, ending the PRI's 71-year rule.

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Mexican industrialist, Carlos Slim, said he was “concerned” about the resurgence of “nostalgia for populism” in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, because it puts at risk the democratic progress made at the end of the 80’s and in the 90’s.

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Forced by a freedom-of-information request, Mexico's government has released a report giving a sketchy outline of its reasons for a near-break of its relations with Cuba earlier this year, the newspaper El Universal reported, and said that roughly a fourth of the material had been blacked out by censors on national security grounds, leaving several questions unanswered. It was produced by the government intelligence agency, which operates under the interior minister.

"Since the start of the current administration, Mexico has suffered constant pressure and interference in internal affairs from Cuban authorities," it said, referring to efforts to sway Mexico away from voting to criticize Cuba at the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

The portions of the document that were published did not refer to the unspecified acts by Cuban officials.

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Through Alejandro Encinas, secretary of Mexico City’s Government, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico City Mayor, introduced himself to the U.S. as an “unconventional leftist leader”, in his initial presentation to the U.S. academic and power circles, on September 22nd, at the Center for International Strategic Studies. Lopez Obrador requested “he not be portrayed as being similar” as the presidents of Venezuela and Brazil. The organizer of the encounter in Washington, Armand Peschard, said that Lopez Obrador’s speech, sent through Encinas, was of interest to private investment and contained a serious intent to establish commitments with entrepreneurs.

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The ex- presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cardenas Solórzano joined, together with industrialist Carlos Slim and other diverse private sector representatives, in the concern over the 2006 electoral political scenario and the possible reinstatement of a populist government in Mexico.

Cuauhtemoc Cardenas also considered he has “greater advantage” over Mexico City’s Mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to reach the Presidency of Mexico in 2006, but he indicated that, in the end, “this for the citizens to decide”.

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President Vicente Fox and Mexico City's leftist mayor emerged tight-lipped from a highly anticipated meeting on Wednesday to discuss a legal dispute that could bar the popular mayor from running for president. Neither apparently ceded any ground during the one-hour meeting at the presidential residence, their first in more than a year. Presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had planned to press his argument with the conservative president that the government's case against him is politically motivated.

The attorney general requested that Lopez Obrador be stripped of legal immunity so he can be tried for contempt of court in a land dispute. If convicted, he would be barred from running for president.

Fox's office denied any political motives in a brief statement after the meeting and made it clear that the legal process would continue. Fox's office described the meeting as respectful and said the two had agreed to hold more talks.

The mayor is popular for cash handouts to poor elderly people. But his reputation has been tarnished by corruption scandals involving two close allies. Mexican conservatives cast Lopez Obrador as a populist, but worry he will win votes from a public disillusioned by Fox's failure to enact promised reforms or create jobs.

Wall Street is nervous about the idea of a leftist taking control of one of Latin America's largest economies, especially when analysts say reforms are badly needed to boost fiscal income and open up the cash-strapped energy sector.

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A small-town mayor in Mexico shot to death an opposition party candidate for his job, the Oaxaca state attorney general's office said. Mayor Candido Palacios fled after the shooting in San Jose Estancia Grande and was still being sought.

Attorney Guadalupe Avila Salinas, the left-leaning PRD Party's candidate in Sunday's election, had threatened to audit the books of Palacio's administration, accusing him of misusing city funds. Witnesses said Avila was making a campaign appearance at a clinic when she was shot four times.

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Last week, at the New York seat of the U.N., Germany, Brazil, India and Japan said that would support themselves mutually in their quest to become permanent members of the Security Council. In our case, the Mexican government does not seem to recognize that Brazil is the obvious Latin American option for an expanded Security Council. Since Angel Gurria’s time, there have been sporadic manifestations in the sense of not accepting as natural the Brazilian candidacy, but Mexico has not either expounded clear diplomacy by which another possibility could be validated. This responds to the faltering Mexican attitude on whether to take part or not in the Security Council, a sub-product of the alternative between realism and idealism in foreign policy.

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Washington - New polling data scheduled to be released this week will bear troubling news for the Bush administration's Latin American policymakers. They show that the U.S. image has continued to fall dramatically in three key countries -- Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Granted, the 18-country poll by Latinobarómetro, a Chile-based firm, shows that there are other Latin American countries where the U.S. image has risen significantly, including Colombia, the five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic.

But when it comes to Latin America's three biggest countries, there is increasingly less sympathy for the United States, especially among its most educated people. The poll's overall trends were first released last month by The Economist magazine, but a new detailed section on Latin American relations with the United States will be made public Friday at The Herald's Americas Conference.

What is likely to raise more eyebrows in Washington is the record decline in pro-American sentiment in Mexico, by far the most important country in the region for the United States in terms of border security, trade, oil supplies, illegal migration, drugs and environmental issues.

Mexicans' positive opinion about the United States has plummeted from 72 percent in 2000 to a low of 41 percent this year, the poll shows. And when asked whether they agree with U.S. actions in Iraq, only 4 percent of Mexicans responded positively, one of the lowest percentages in the region.

By comparison, 62 percent of Mexicans have a positive opinion of the 25-country European Union.

Mexicans may be expressing a beware-of-thy-neighbor sentiment. There are also domestic political reasons behind Mexico's growing anti-Americanism. President Vicente Fox may have oversold the idea that good ties with Washington would immediately speed up economic growth. And the two biggest opposition parties, the once ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, have reverted to leftist populism and anti-Americanism as a way to stress their differences with the Fox government.

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From Canada to Mexico, from London and Paris to Jakarta and Beijing, U.S. President George W. Bush is widely unpopular as a candidate for re-election, according to surveys and interviews conducted in 20 countries.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry appears to be the runaway favorite overseas, even though few people outside the U.S. know much about the Massachusetts Democrat or his positions on foreign-policy questions. "If foreigners could vote, there's no question what the result would be," said Guillaume Parmentier, director of the French Center on the United States. "Bush's image, even before the war in Iraq, was not good. The way he comports himself, the vocabulary he uses -- good versus evil, God and all that -- even his body language, most people think is not presidential." He added, "I've never seen such hostility."

Mr. Kerry's foreign fans say they like his attitude about consulting allies and respecting their views. To them, he seems worldly, with an African-born wife. He attended school in Geneva and speaks French. A first cousin of Mr. Kerry's, Brice Lalonde, is a Green Party mayor of a small town in western France.

Mr. Bush appears to have strong support in such places as Israel and Singapore for his stance against radical Islamic groups, and in some countries that are benefiting from world trade, such as India, for his free-market views. But elsewhere, a majority of people appear to be hoping he loses.

In the Arab world, Mr. Bush is widely despised for launching the Iraq war, supporting Israel and shoring up corrupt Arab governments in exchange for their help in the region. And in the Muslim world as a whole, Mr. Bush's Middle East policies are often seen not as targeting terrorism but the Islamic faith.

Elsewhere, the American president is viewed as too quick to use force, with no concern for the consequences to others.

In Canada, a public-opinion poll by the Globe and Mail newspaper conducted in July found Canadians favored Mr. Kerry over Mr. Bush 60% to 29%. In Japan, an earlier opinion poll published in the Mainichi newspaper, conducted before Democrats had chosen a candidate, showed only 31% of respondents supporting Mr. Bush and 57% against him.

In Russia, an opinion poll showed Russians preferring Mr. Kerry by a ratio of almost four to one.

The deep antipathy has produced a round of Bush-bashing magazine covers, books and television debates that many foreign-policy observers say is unprecedented.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, shortly after his upset victory in March, said he hoped Americans would follow Spain's electoral example and replace the incumbent president.

The most obvious reason for these views is the war in Iraq, which remains almost universally unpopular, even in countries whose governments have sent troops there as part of the U.S.-led multinational force. But Bush-bashing predates the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Many policy analysts date it to the administration's decision in its early days in office to reject the Kyoto protocol on climate change. That move affronted many people, in part due to perceptions that it was announced in a high-handed way with no concern for world objections. His subsequent renunciation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty provoked similar dismay overseas.

There was an outpouring of sympathy following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and much of the world rallied to America's side in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But that goodwill flagged when the U.S. filled its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with suspected terrorists and allowed them no access to the legal system.

Political leaders of many nations who supported Mr. Bush in Iraq now find their own political fates tied to his. Australians go to the polls on Oct. 9, with conservative Prime Minister John Howard, a Bush supporter who sent Australian troops to Iraq, trying to fight off a strong challenge by the Labor Party leader, Mark Latham.

In Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's support has plummeted to an all-time low of 40%, in part because of his strong association with Mr. Bush. Analysts cite the Iraq war in explaining the dismal showing of the British Labour Party of Prime Minister Tony Blair in recent European parliamentary and local elections.

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The U.S. ambassador formally returned a 300-year-old wooden altarpiece to Mexico on Tuesday that thieves had tried to sell in the United States.

Tony Garza returned the carved and gilded altarpiece three years after it was stolen from a Mexican convent. The thieves had hoped to sell it at a Santa Fe, N.M., art gallery for $255,000.

"The return of this work of art restores a priceless part of the cultural and religious heritage to the people of Mexico," Garza said as he symbolically returned the massive panel that's carved from a single piece of wood.

Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said professional thieves had stolen the piece from a chapel at the former Franciscan Convent in the tiny central Mexican village of Tochimilco.

The altarpiece measures about 5 feet by 7 feet, weighs over 400 pounds, and depicts St. Francis receiving stigmas after having a vision of Jesus Christ. It was found on display at a Santa Fe gallery in April and seized as stolen goods. The gallery's staff was unaware it had been stolen.

The altarpiece is believed to have been carved between 1675 and the early 1700s. Mexican law prohibits the export of almost all such artworks from the 1521-1821 colonial period.

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More than 450 pieces, among sculptures, religious jewels and objects, form the sample of the Aztec Empire that will be exhibited starting October 15th at the New York Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition will be on display from October 15th 2004 until February 13th 2005.

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Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina has faithfully socked away money the county gives each supervisor to pay for community projects during the past 9 pears, amassing about $15 million to transform this decaying complex beside the historic Olvera Street plaza into a Mexican American cultural center.

The $70-million Plaza de Cultura y Artes, which the Board of Supervisors approved Sept. 14, could open as soon as 2007, bringing art studios and exhibition space, concerts, films and even a teaching kitchen to the spot near where Mexican settlers founded Los Angeles in 1781.

For Molina -- the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants and the first Latina elected to the state Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council and, in 1991, the Board of Supervisors -- the project is inexcusably overdue in a county where 47% of the people are Latino.

A number of cities with smaller Mexican American populations have such centers that offer a model for Los Angeles.

The center in New Mexico is featuring an exhibition called "Corridos sin Fronteras: A New World Ballad Tradition," exploring 200 years of the narrative folk ballad in Mexico and the Southwest through recordings, photos, posters and musical instruments.

The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum of Chicago is displaying indigenous Mexican textiles from the first half of the 20th century, and the Mexican Museum in San Francisco has just unveiled its "House of the Spirits" exhibition of popular art created for the annual Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebration.

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MEXICO CITY - The Dalai Lama brought his message of peace to presidential offices across Central America this week, urging harmony in a world he says is in crisis because of war, fear and intolerance.

But when he arrives in Mexico on Sunday, a meeting with President Vicente Fox won't be on the itinerary.

Instead, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel will meet the 68-year-old exiled spiritual leader of Tibet on behalf of Mexico, which has been quick to say it views the Dalai Lama as a religious leader -- not a political one.

The issue is sensitive for this country, which has a long tradition of not taking sides in international conflicts and is trying to expand political and economic relations with China.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of waging a campaign for Tibet's independence. The Buddhist leader has lived in exile in Dharamsala, India, since a failed Tibetan uprising against China in 1959. He has visited 52 countries, and last came to Mexico in 1989.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, will address Mexico's lower House of Congress as an invited guest. The visit prompted China to send a letter of protest to the House's leadership committee in May, asking its members to rescind their offer to the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Legislators responded with a missive saying "the presence of the religious leader is not a foreign affairs issue."

In Central America, a region that doesn't have Mexico's isolationist traditions, little objection was raised when the Dalai Lama met with current and former heads of state in El Salvador and Costa Rica.

On Thursday, he chatted with Salvadoran religious leaders and was scheduled to travel to Guatemala on Friday.

Aides said his trip to Mexico would be a success even without meeting Fox.

The Dalai Lama has acknowledged that Tibet is part of China, but Beijing now demands the Dalai Lama also declare Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China.

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