Violence in Mexico - Another Thursday in Paradise

Last Thursday in my tiny Texas town of 30,000 - hundreds of miles from the border and three hours from any major American City:

1) Man blows away his wife in front of the kids then shoots himself. Two deaths. Two orphans.

2) Three drive-by shootings in the same apartment complex within three hours.

3) Over a dozen arrests in a raid on an apartment complex just two blocks from a public school and 5 blocks from the university - an apparent entire narco-apartment complex.

Welcome to rural, red-state, heartland, US of A.

Cinco

Mexico 5, US 0. Ouch.

Pawn Shops and Payday Loans - Gracias, Guanajuato

The invisible hand of the market is hard at work and Mexico is recognizing what the U.S. market demands - and it is responding with Efectivo Now. Respuesta Rapida is a Mexican pawn shop and loan company out of Guanajuato that recently located to Houston, Texas under the name Efectivo Now. There's hardly a poor neighborhood or declining urban area in the United States that doesn't have a wide selection of pay day loan joints or shabby pawn shops eating away at downtown development or replacing stores in strip malls.

Payday Loans cost Americans $4.2 Billion each year. If the US financial system is set up to rip off the American poor, why can't Mexico get a piece of that? Hmm hmm hmm, the market at work. Efectivo Now is opening up new offices in San Antonio, soon, and perhaps in a few years we'll see some Mexican business getting in on refund anticipation loans, another $1.2 billion scam perpertrated by banks and tax companies.

Ay, Coahuila! Mexican State Aims to Bailout Auto Industry

Coahuila is the #1 location for auto manufacturing in Mexico, and it appears the state is gearing up to try and keep GM and Chrysler plants from shutting down in that state. Marco Cantu, the promotions sub-secretary is working on the project. Vanguardia was stingy with specifics, but I'll keep an eye on this one.

Menonitas - This Time in South America

Mennonites held their world conference in Paraguay this week (where they fled to from the Soviet Union) as many Spanish Language news sources are taking a hard look at them. El Mundo ran a piece on conservative Altkolonier campos in Argentina, while Bolivia has been abuzz about Mennonite colonists in that country due government displacement of Mennonites there as well as a sexual assaults that occurred in one of the communities.

Many of the Mennonites in South America ran there after failing to make things work in Northern Mexico (meaning they ran out of land in Chihuahua and Durango or they decided they didn't want electricity and gas engines) and now we have a real dilema in the south. Business-friendly administrations were eager to take in these agricultural geniuses in the late 80s and early 90s, but now leftist governments are changing the rules and Mennonites are finding themselves on the outs in nations that embraced them - a 500 year old pattern for Mennonites by now.

Steve McCurry Kicks Me in the Teeth...Again

Photo rock star Steve McCurry, mostly of National Geographic fame, has kicked me in the teeth with a real gut-check photo. I don't have a location or description of where exactly McCurry got this, but I am going to try and track it down. I am assuming Colombia because I know he has done work there...but no guarantee. Go to his website. Buy his stuff. http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php

Trade in Latin America / Question on Venezuela and the Cayman Islands

Ok, there is a nice resource about commerce in Latin America found at The Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America. Great overview of trade, aid, and growth for each nation, as well.

And now the question....

Between 1998 and 2007 over 1/4 of investment in Venezuela came from the Cayman Islands. What's doing with that? I thought money routed through the Cayman Islands was a masking technique for the point of origin. I'd love to know what that money does and who it comes from.