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Mexico Institute: May Highlights

Each month, the Mexico Institute will review and highlight the month’s activities and feature them here. Visitors will be able to watch the recap from our most recent events, browse our new publications, and read articles that feature key media appearances of the Mexico Institute staff.

Mexico Institute: May Highlights

Mexico Institute, May 2012

Each month, the Mexico Institute will review and highlight the month’s activities and feature them here. Visitors will be able to watch the recap from our most recent events, browse our new publications, and read articles that feature key media appearances of the Mexico Institute staff. We hope you will find this review useful and informative. Enjoy!

Analysis

  • May 16: “AL DÍA: U.S.-Mexico Goods and Services Trade Reaches Half Trillion Dollars,” by Christopher Wilson

Perhaps it is a metaphor for the bilateral economic relationship in general. Without celebration or even much recognition, U.S.-Mexico goods and services trade probably reached the major milestone of a half trillion dollars in 2011.

Read analysis here.

  • May 17: “Commentary on Female Participation in Mexican Politics,” by Eric L. Olson and Diana Murray Watts

Despite the small strides toward inclusion of women in Mexican politics, there remains much ground to be gained. The election of Josefina Vázquez Mota as the first female presidential candidate to run for a major political party (the PAN) marks a big step toward gender equality in politics.

Read analysis here.

  • May 29: “What Do Mexicans Want in Their Next President?” by Eric L. Olson and Diana Murray Watts

With just a few weeks left until election day, ideas about what Mexicans want in their next president are beginning to crystalize. According to a recent public opinion survey the majority  want their next president to be “strong, self-confident, organized and far-sighted.”

Read analysis here.

  • May: “The Week in Review” by Katie Putnam

Every week, Katie Putnam analyses and summarizes political events that have occurred in Mexico as the country prepares for its national elections in July. The reviews form part of the Mexico Institute’s Election’s Guide. February’s “Week in Review” includes the weeks of: May 7, May 14, May 21 and May 29.

Publications

  • “Re-Energizing the Border: Renewable Energy, Green Jobs and Border Infrastructure” by Duncan Wood

This report provides an overview of the prospects for renewable energy projects in Mexico’s border states, examining the development of wind, solar and municipal solid waste projects. This research also evaluates the potential impact of investment in these projects on border communities in terms of employment, infrastructure, human capital and social participation.

Read publication here.

With over 1,000 MW of wind energy capacity now installed and another 2,000 MW under construction, Mexico’s wind energy sector has grown dramatically since the early 1990s. This report examines the potential for creating economic benefits in border states from wind energy development, with particular attention paid to employment and infrastructure.

Read publication here.

This report recognizes the growing potential for bioenergy, which has attracted public and private sector interest in recent years. It has become clear that Mexico’s land and labor costs make the cross-border trade in renewable energy an exciting and potentially highly profitable sector. Of bioenergy feedstocks, municipal solid waste may represent the greatest potential for growth in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico transborder region.

Read publication here.

Mexican criminal organizations generate billions of dollars in revenues in the United States each year and have developed both sophisticated and low tech ways to “launder” their dirty money and continue trafficking.This paper outlines the use of the economic and financial instruments of national power aimed at degrading transnational criminal organizations in the U.S. and Mexico and increasing their cost of doing business. It will examine the major modes of money laundering employed by the TCOs, describe current U.S. and Mexican anti-money laundering measures, and offer some options for advancing the U.S.-Mexican fight against money laundering.

Read publication here.

This report is based on a binational dialogue that examined migration within a wide-ranging discussion of development. As such, it provides an introduction to what much of the world — including migrant leaders and organizations themselves — considers fundamental to understanding and constructively responding to migration.

Read publication here.

For a full list of publications by the Mexico Institute, click here.

Events

  • May 1:Mexico and the G-20 Leader’s Summit in Los Cabos 

The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and Program on America and the Global Economy held a discussion on Mexico’s particular approach to the G-20 presidency and the major issues on the agenda for the Los Cabos meeting.

View event here.

  • May 11:Energy in the Americas

The Mexico Institute and Latin American Program held a public discussion on Energy in the Americas where Ambassador Carlos Pascual gave a keynote address on hemispheric energy affairs and the development of renewable energy in the Americas. The Mexico Institute’s Senior Advisor for its Renewable Energy Initiative, Duncan Wood, also launched a series of new reports, Re-Energizing the Border: Renewable Energy, Green Jobs and Border Infrastructure.

View event here.

  • May 18: Disrupting Money Laundering by Mexican Transnational Organized Crime 

The Mexico Institute and Immigration Policy Center held a briefing by three experts in the field of law enforcement, organized crime, and money laundering about the latest trends in money laundering and recent efforts to disrupt the flow of dirty money to TOCs.

View event here.

For a full list of events by the Mexico Institute, click here.

News

  • May 10: “Border Patrol Changes Its National Strategy”

The Border Patrol released its new strategy, which focuses on intelligence based work, inter-agency collaboration, and putting repeat immigration law violators in the legal system rather than simply sending them back across the border. Mexico Institute Associate Chris Wilson commented on the new strategy.

Read news story here.

  • May 13: “Most Mexicans want U.S. to take a bigger role in fighting violence, poll finds”

Weary of the drug-stoked violence that has swept their country and buffeted the Texas border, more than half of Mexicans want the U.S. to take a more direct role here in battling organized crime.

Read news story here.

  • May 14: “NAFTA key to economic, social growth in Mexico”

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, has been the key driver of Mexico’s economic and social transformation of the past 20 years, analysts say.

Read news story here.

Related Program

Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more