Meanwhile, in Mexico

[temporal1]

This thread is a spin-off of the "Meanwhile, in Canada" thread.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=91&p=1514#p1514

It really would be nice to learn more about our two closest neighbors.

Mexico Chooses Traditional Marriage
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/mexic ... -398997117

[temporal1]

hoping Peregrino, now in Mexico, will contribute to this thread.

Peregrino wrote: (Welcome to MennoNet thread)
Hi, it's me again. (I was going to say it's just me but Rhoda has pretty much limited our options there. )

As far as why I'm here, I have to say I'm not sure. Maybe because sometimes I get lonely and I enjoy being irritated by watching some of the pointless arguments go around and around. Or maybe because a lot of you seem almost like some kind of extended family by now and I just can't resist staying in touch with you. Anyway I'm here now and I want to thank those who have put a lot of effort into reviving this little gathering.

T1, I'm glad to see you found us again. You've been a major contributor and I was worried you might not find the new group, not being quite as menno-connected as some of us. I only found out about this by meeting DanZ several weeks ago and he told me what happened to MD and mentioned the Facebook group, which led me here.

Peregrino, Page 1, Dan's Peacemaking thread -
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=46&p=593#p593

Peregrino wrote: "When people just walk away from it all" thread -
Pain and shame can also be very powerful forces in driving people to walk away from their identity and seek to re-create themselves as just a normal human being.

Would like to hear from Honduras Keiser, too.
maybe a "Meanwhile, in Honduras" thread is in MN's future?

Re: Welcome to MennoNet
by HondurasKeiser » Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:14 am

It's Keiser from Honduras. I'm here because after MD crashed I went through a sort of withdrawal, searching the internet for all things Mennonite/Anabaptist..I even went so far as to wander over to the Young Anabaptist Radicals just so that I could read something that claimed Anabaptism as it's mantle. That didn't work and I left there depressed and angry. So after googling "MennoDiscuss what happened?" for the 50th time I was redirected here and I felt a lightness in my heart that I haven't experienced since September. It's so good to see so many familiar names...

[temporal1]

2022

This reads “oddly U.S.” in every regrettable way.

“Mexico seizes 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal,
claiming they feature cartoons that breach laws designed to improve children's diets”
https://www.businessinsider.com/mexico- ... iet-2022-1

§ Officials in Mexico have seized 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, AP reported.

§ Cartoons featured on the boxes were thought to breach recent legislation to improve kids' diets.

§ The raid mainly took place at a warehouse located north of Mexico City.

Mexico has seized 380,000 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, including Corn Flakes and Special K, AP reported.

According to AP, officials raided 75 stores and seized batches of Kellogg's products.
Most of the raid took place at a warehouse located north of Mexico City.

The decision was made because the cartoon mascots on the boxes were thought to breach recent laws aimed at improving children's diets. The seized cereals may not necessarily contain high levels of sugar - - -
but the laws ban food companies from using marketing ploys to entice children, AP reported.

The health of Mexican residents is becoming an increasingly important area of concern for officials.

In 2020, the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca put measures in place to curb an obesity crisis in the country, which was underscored by high death tolls during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian reported.

Lawmakers in the region banned the sale of sugary drinks and high-calorie snacks to children
and proposed fines and potential closures for stores breaching these rules.

According to a 2020 study, about 73% of the Mexican population is considered overweight.

Kellogg's did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The cereal boxes that were seized in the raid also reportedly excluded nutritional information, Mexico's consumer protection agency told AP.

Last year, Kellogg's workers made headlines after 1,400 workers ended their 77-day long strike after voting on a new contract that included cost-of-living raises for employees.

Read the original article on Business Insider

[nett]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

[Ken]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

Which part? The gay marriage ban or the Kellogg's cereal ban?

What I think is that Mexico has a very different constitution and different legal system and their notions of state authority are very different from ours. Which is reflected in many ways, not just these two examples, but other things like gun control, nationalization of the petroleum industry, ownership of private property, right to trial by jury, protections against search and seizure, etc. etc. The right to gay marriage in the US is found in the 14th Amendment. Mexico has no 14th Amendment (or equivalent).

I'm always kind of amused when people here or elsewhere seek to move to Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America to get away from "oppression" in the US. Pretty much every country in Latin America has far more authoritarian traditions and legal systems than here in the US.

[nett]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

Which part? The gay marriage ban or the Kellogg's cereal ban?

What I think is that Mexico has a very different constitution and different legal system and their notions of state authority are very different from ours. Which is reflected in many ways, not just these two examples, but other things like gun control, nationalization of the petroleum industry, ownership of private property, right to trial by jury, protections against search and seizure, etc. etc. The right to gay marriage in the US is found in the 14th Amendment. Mexico has no 14th Amendment (or equivalent).

I'm always kind of amused when people here or elsewhere seek to move to Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America to get away from "oppression" in the US. Pretty much every country in Latin America has far more authoritarian traditions and legal systems than here in the US.

So it is a good thing or not for Mexico?

[Ken]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

Which part? The gay marriage ban or the Kellogg's cereal ban?

What I think is that Mexico has a very different constitution and different legal system and their notions of state authority are very different from ours. Which is reflected in many ways, not just these two examples, but other things like gun control, nationalization of the petroleum industry, ownership of private property, right to trial by jury, protections against search and seizure, etc. etc. The right to gay marriage in the US is found in the 14th Amendment. Mexico has no 14th Amendment (or equivalent).

I'm always kind of amused when people here or elsewhere seek to move to Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America to get away from "oppression" in the US. Pretty much every country in Latin America has far more authoritarian traditions and legal systems than here in the US.

So it is a good thing or not for Mexico?

All things being equal, I think a society with more freedom and equality is generally superior to one with less freedom and equality. But based on my somewhat limited knowledge of Mexico, I wouldn't put gay marriage in the top 20 or probably not even the top 50 list of most important issues to solve. They have much bigger problems to deal with than marriage equality. But perhaps that's easy for me to say since I'm not gay.

[temporal1]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

i do not share this particular curiosity you have.

The points in this article on LITIGATION over marketing to children, problems with widespread obesity, make me wonder about the very high prices of globalization. In the past, the U.S. was criticized for having an overly-litigious society, and, of course, obesity.

So many foreign students go to U.S. universities, including law schools. So, what can be expected? GIGO?

It makes me sad to see the ruination of small countries in the process.

Most Obese Countries
https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... -countries

[temporal1]

curious what Ken, and szdfan think of this.

i do not share this particular curiosity you have.

The points in this article on LITIGATION over marketing to children, problems with widespread obesity, make me wonder about the very high prices of globalization. In the past, the U.S. was criticized for having an overly-litigious society, and, of course, obesity.

So many foreign students go to U.S. universities, including law schools. So, what can be expected? GIGO?

It makes me sad to see the ruination of small countries in the process.

Most Obese Countries
https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... -countries

i could have been specific about the U.S. “marketing to children” case, that came to mind, Camel cigarettes:

“Joe Camel Advertising Campaign Violates Federal Law, FTC Says”
May 28, 1997
“Agency Charges R.J. Reynolds With Causing Substantial Injury to the Health and Safety of Children and Adolescents Under 18”
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-r ... w-ftc-says

Globalization, esp via large U.S. corporations, but, also, as i mentioned, through U.S. education, wreaks havoc.
Whether children’s sugary cereals or for-profit corporate abortion, or other politicized+bullied matter, wreaks global havoc.

[temporal1]

2023 / KIDNAPPINGS - MURDERS

Mexico abduction kills 2 Americans, 2 rescued near border
https://www.aol.com/news/official-2-ame ... src=aolapp

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery ended with two Americans dead — and two others found alive in a rural area near the Gulf coast — after a violent shootout and abduction that was captured on video, officials said Tuesday.

The surviving Americans were back on U.S. soil after being sped to the border near Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with mounted machine guns.

A relative of one of the victims said Monday that the four had traveled together from the Carolinas so one of them could get a tummy tuck surgery from a doctor in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where Friday’s abduction took place.

Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said the four were found in a wooden shack, where they were being guarded by a man who was arrested. Villarreal said the captive Americans had been moved around by their captors, and at one point were taken to a medical clinic “to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them.”

The two dead will be turned over to U.S. authorities following forensic work at the Matamoros morgue in the coming hours, the governor said.

Villareal said the wounded American, Eric Williams, had been shot in the left leg and the wound was not life threatening. The survivors were taken to Valley Regional Medical Center with an FBI escort, the Brownsville Herald reported. A spokesperson for the hospital referred all inquiries to the FBI.

“It’s quite a relief," said Robert Williams, Eric's brother, reached by phone in North Carolina. "I look forward to seeing him again and actually being able to talk to him.”

The U.S. citizens were found in a shack in rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote on the way to the Gulf coast known as “Bagdad Beach,” according to Tamaulipas state chief prosecutor Irving Barrios.

Shortly after entering Mexico Friday, the four were caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups in the city. Barrios said the hypothesis is “that it was confusion, not a direct attack.”

Video and photographs taken during and immediately after the abduction show the Americans’ white minivan sitting beside another vehicle, with at least one bullet hole in the driver's side window. A witness said the two vehicles had collided. Almost immediately, several men in tactical vests and toting assault rifles arrived in another vehicle to surround the scene.

The gunmen walked one of the Americans into the bed of a white pickup, then dragged and loaded the three others. Terrified civilian motorists sat silently in their cars, hoping not to draw their attention. Two of the victims appeared to be motionless.

Officials said a Mexican woman a block and a half away from the scene also died in Friday’s crossfire.

The shootings illustrate the terror that has prevailed for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the powerful Gulf drug cartel who often fight among themselves. Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared in Tamaulipas state alone.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the people responsible would be punished. He referenced arrests made in the 2019 killings of nine U.S.-Mexican dual citizens in Sonora near the U.S. border.

He complained about the U.S. media’s coverage of the missing Americans, accusing them of sensationalism. “It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States, they (the media) go quiet like mummies.”

“It’s very unfortunate, they (the U.S. government) have the right to protest like they have,” López Obrador said. “We really regret that this happens in our country.”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, said “The cartels are responsible for the deaths of Americans.” “The DEA and the FBI are doing everything possible to dismantle and disrupt and ultimately prosecute the leaders of the cartels and the entire networks that they depend on.”

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. is working with Mexican officials to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the killings.

The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the abductors.

Robert Williams said in a telephone interview that he and his brother, 38-year-old Eric Williams, are from South Carolina but now live in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina.

Williams described his brother as “easygoing” and “fun-spirited.”

He didn’t know his brother was traveling to Mexico until after the abduction hit the news. But from looking at his brother’s Facebook posts, he thinks his brother did not consider the trip dangerous.

“He thought it would be fun,” Williams said. He hadn’t heard anything about his brother’s whereabouts, he said.

Told that his brother was among the survivors Tuesday, Robert Williams said that when they meet, “I’ll just tell him how happy I am to see him, and how glad I am that he made it through, and that I love him.”

- - - - - - -

2021 / Haiti Kidnapping
viewtopic.php?t=4270