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During the day in Nuevo Leon two men were hung from a bridge with hundreds of people watching and a child was shot dead. Shortly after 10:00 am, armed men came to the Bridge at Revolution and Chapultepec Avenue, located in Monterrey while it was extremely crowded.

It took the men about eight minutes, with hundreds of witnesses to hang their prisoners. There were three male persons in the vehicle; at first glance they were tortured. One was hoisted up with his hands tied and hung from the bridge, followed with another, while the third was forced to watch what they were doing and ran. While he was trying to escape from the gunmen, bullets hit him and he was killed while running. The victim has been identified as a young person aged between 12 and 13.

When they had hung the two young men, the gunmen proceeded to fire their weapons at them- they did not care that people were watching. Of course, the situation caused panic, and the murderers left the bridge without hurry.

Because hundreds of motorists were able to observe the cruel scene, the authorities did not take long as they received many calls for help. Some elements of the Ministerial Police managed to rescue one of the hanged men who survived, while the other was already dead. The survivor was taken aboard a state police patrol to an ambulance, where he received medical attention.

There was a hanging narcomessage directed to Los Zetas, signed by the Gulf Cartel, the text stated that this would happen to people who were supporting the Zeta’s, especially hawks and shopkeepers, ie those selling drugs. In addition to the hanging there was placed communication equipment, noting that they were hawks.

Forensic Medical Service personnel transferred the bodies to the amphitheater at the University Hospital, where they remain as unknown.

Read in Spanish Here

Read more by HS News Staff →

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will depart New York on Friday for a week-long trip that will take the United Nations chief to Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, the world body announced today.

Mr. Ban will meet with the leaders of each of the four Latin American countries, as well as senior Government officials and civil society representatives.

While in Colombia, he will also witness the signing into law of the landmark Victims’ Rights and Land Restitution Bill and take a helicopter flight over flooded areas and meet with those affected.

His visit to Argentina will include a stop at the International Center for the Promotion of Human Rights and a public address at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Included on the itinerary for Uruguay is a visit to the National School for Peacekeeping Operations, where he will meet troops who have participated in peacekeeping missions.

Mr. Ban’s final stop will be Brazil, which is the host for the Fourth UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, which will be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

Read more by HS News Staff →

Saturday, former Tijuana mayor, Jorge Hank Rhon was arrested after a tip led soldiers to his property, where they found 88 weapons. The arrest has sparked an outcry from members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), that claim their political opponents staged the arrest to taint the party’s name just before the 2012 elections.

In a statement, the National Defense Secretariat said soldiers in Tijuana raided Hank’s property just before dawn on Saturday, where 40 rifles, 48 handguns, and more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered. Hank and 10 other people believed to be employees and family members were turned over to state prosecutors of firearms violations, as Mexican law prohibits citizens from having these weapons.

The ex-mayor is a parent to 19 children, and operates gambling parlors and hotels all across Mexico. He’s known as one of the country’s most colorful politicians, and is even known to favor drinking his tequila garnished with scorpions and the rattle of a rattlesnake.

It has been alleged that Hank is involved in corruption, cronyism, and drug trafficking. Though he once said he was so rich that he was incorruptible.

A Wikileaks-obtained cable from 2009 stated that Hank is “widely believed to have been a corrupt mayor” and is thought “to be still involved in narco-trafficking.”

Political opponents of current president, Felipe Calderon, member of the National Action Party (PAN) are worried that he is using arrests like these to intimidate any political foes.

Read more at http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/04/2251423/arrest-of-tijuana-ex-mayor-sparks.html?story_link=email_msg

WATCH some of the most famous Colombians sport the latest hair fashion statement for Colombians in Mexico aka ‘Cholombian’.

Read more at Vice Magazine →

Hollywood actor Mel Gibson has arrived in Guatemala with a children’s charity to continue the work he started as part of his community service.

The Braveheart star struck a plea deal last year after he allegedly struck his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. As part of the plea, he was to serve 16 hours doing community service with the charity Mending Kids International.

TMZ has reported that Mel is continuing to work with the charity and is now in Guatemala with Mending, which helps to provide medical care to underprivileged children.

Mel’s estranged wife, Robyn Gibson once served as the charity’s president, but as of December she is no longer in that office, and is currently running the charity’s Malibu branch.

A rep. for Mending Kids International said. “Mel and Robyn Gibson have been tremendous supporters of Mending Kids International over the years and have provided life-changing surgeries to children across the globe.”

Read more at TMZ →

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents seized 15 luxury watches with an approximate market value of $1 million and 16 classic and collection cars, with an approximately value of $2.2 million, this morning from members of the Jose Figueroa-Agosto - aka Junior Capsula - drug trafficking organization.

Among the items seized is a Roger Dubois watch with an estimated value of $100,000 and a special edition Camaro with an engine that runs on jet fuel, valued at more than $75,000.

Jose Figueroa Agosto, 46, the leader of the largest drug trafficking organization in the Caribbean, and 12 other members of his organization were arrested by ICE HSI agents on Nov. 21, 2010.

The group was charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to import narcotics into the United States, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, and money laundering. The indictment also seeks to forfeit the proceeds obtained as a result of such offenses, up to an amount of $100 million.

According to the indictment, from 2005, the defendants conspired to import multi kilogram quantities of cocaine into Puerto Rico from places outside of the United States, mainly the Dominican Republic, all for significant financial gain and profit. They also conspired to possess, with intent to distribute, the multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine in Puerto Rico.

On July 17, 2010, José Figueroa-Agosto was arrested in Puerto Rico after being a fugitive since November 1999 when he used false documents to escape from a Puerto Rico correctional facility. He was subsequently charged with fraudulently obtaining a passport to travel to the Dominican Republic. As charged in the indictment, he continued his criminal enterprise of drug trafficking. At the time of his arrest, he was also arrested for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm for which charges are included in the indictment.

Read more at ICE

A group called Cog*nate Collective is using the question asked at the San Diego-Tijuana border,“What are you bringing from Mexico?” and turning it into an art exhibit.

Artists from both sides of the border will take part in “What are you bringing from Mexico?/Que traes de Mexico?” this weekend in hopes of reestablishing the Mercado de Artesanias de la Linea as a place for cultural exchange and dialogue.

The event will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. on Friday and Noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday. It will take place at the Mercado in Tijuana, and admission is free. The exhibit will feature art, music, and – of course – food.

Read more at Cog*nate Collective →

Univision has launched “Ufertas.com” a Spanish-language Groupon-type daily deal platform that takes its name from a combination of Univision and the Spanish word for offers, “ofertas.”

Ufertas launched Monday, and has since discounts for brands like MLS club the Houston Dynamo, and for the retailer Party Boy. It appears to be the first Spanish-language Groupon-like initiative for Spanish-speaking U.S. customers.

But Latino market columnist for ClickZ.com, Gustavo Razzetti, said, “I think basically Univision has a strong credibility among low acculturated Latinos and has the power and muscle to reach the Hispanic audience,” he said. “I think it doesn’t add much value to Univision’s overall business portfolio. Univision is about developing and distributing content. I don’t see the connection with this. Also, it puts them in a tough situation. They are selling consulting to help brands expand in the Hispanic consumer segment, and then they are going to start offering deals. It’s tough to convince advertisers that you can help build value, and at the same time you are offering a channel to offer products at a discounted price.”

Though a report released this past winter by BIA/Kelsey would lead one to believe there may be a “huge growth opportunity for deals platforms, perhaps including those focused on Latinos.”

Virginia-based company, The Chantilly found that consumers will spend $4 billion on Groupon, LivingSocial, KGB Deals, and other similar deal sites each year by 2015. If that research is correct, then from 2010, when BIA/Kelsey reports that daily deal sites garnered $873 million, there will be a compound annual growth rate of 35 percent over the next four years.

Read more at ClickZ →

Mexico’s Tourism Minister, who does not have an enviable job lately, is asking Texas to tone down its travel alerts to Mexico.

Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete is currently in Austin meeting with the Texas Secretary of State, Hope Andrade and state law enforcement in hopes of convincing them that resort areas remain safe.

Mexico is of the opinion that Texas, which sends many tourists to the country, issues very broad and countrywide travel warnings.  For example, this past Spring Break students were warned to stay away from Mexico period, not just violent border towns but also the popular beach resorts. 

Lopez-Negrete does strongly encourage the ‘common sense’ approach when traveling to Mexico or anywhere else, which he sees as the best travel advice. 

Read more at El Paso Times →

Greenpeace, an international organization that prioritizes global environmental campaigns, has accused Mexico’s government of promoting “speculation and the destruction of ecosystems,” in the country, and also says the government has promoted a “policy of tourism completely incompatible with protection of the environment.”

In a public release, Greenpeace stated, “Authorities of different government agencies are dedicated to approving projects that do not comply with environmental regulations and criteria, they exhaust the resources of fragile areas and, far from making communities wealthier, what they do is impoverish them with their contamination, putting pressure on aquifers and creating a demand for short-term services and economies.”

Just before World Environment Day, Greenpeace denounced the four projects being prepared in Baja California Sur, Nayarit, and Sinaloa. The project in Escuinapa, Sinaloa, according to Greenpeace, is damaging the area’s marshes, “the most important system of wetlands on Mexico’s Pacific coast.”

And recently, Spanish tourism company Hansa Urbana was awarded a permit for a 27,000-room tourist development which environmentalists say would damage Mexico’s semi-desert zone.

Despite Greenpeace’s objections, none of the four projects have been canceled by President Calderon administration, but the organization says the four are the “most relevant” in terms of “predatory tourism.”

Read more at LAHT →

At just 12 years of age, Cristian Fernandez could become the youngest person in America to be sentenced to life in prison after being the youngest person in Florida to be charged with first-degree murder for killing his 2-year-old brother in their Jacksonville, Florida home.

Fernandez was charged as an adult after Prosecutor Angela Corey said, “We have to protect the public from this young man.” At just 12, Fernandez already has a long history of violence and after reviewing said history, prosecutors decided it was in the public’s best interest to charge him as adult, since if charged as a juvenile and convicted Fernandez would be released by the time he is 21.

The 12-year-old is charged with punching his two-year-old brother, David Galarriago, to death back in March. The brother died two days after being admitted to the hospital.

An autopsy showed that the boy died from a fractured skull that caused bleeding on the brain. This blunt force trauma is consistent with being punched in the head.

“[This case is] one where you go, at what point do you step in, so you prevent another murder, and that’s how we felt in this case,” said State Attorney Angela Corey.

“If we don’t intervene now and do the tough thing. We have to protect the public from this young man.

“The fact that we indicted a 12-year-old in and of itself is a stunning event and a sad event in our prosecutorial lives that we had to do this, but it is the only legal mechanism that we can use to protect the community from this particular defendant at this point.”

Fernandez’s defense attorney has pointed to the boy’s traumatic family history, which includes sexual battery and the suicide of an abusive stepfather, as reasoning for his behavioral problems.

Adding to the familial issues, is the fact that the boys’ mother Biannela Susana, is only 25. She was just 12 years old when she had Cristian. She was also charged with negligent homicide for the death of her 2-year-old.

Fernandez was examined by two forensic psychologists that determined he was emotionally underdeveloped, but essentially had the ability to be reformed.

As for the mother, according to arrest reports, she left Fernandez to look after the younger child while she was out. When she returned, the toddler was unconscious. However, rather than calling an ambulance or immediately taking the boy to the hospital herself, she wiped the blood off of his face, changed his clothes, and put ice on his head. When he did not wake up after two hours, she finally drove him to St. Luke’s Hospital, said police. Doctors told police that if David had been taken to the hospital immediately, he would have survived.

In January, the toddler had suffered a broken leg caused by Fernandez, yet Susana initially lied and said it was caused by a fall from a jungle gym. She later admitted to the Florida Department of Children and Family Services that the older boy had broken the leg while he wrestled with the young child. Still, Susana allowed Fernandez to look after the 2-year-old while she was out.

She goes on trial for negligent homicide later this year.

Read more at Daily →

One of thieves purchased a single bus ticket and checked his bag into the compartment below the bus, the luggage bag containing his accomplice!

Spanish police had received several complaints from disgruntled bus riders that their goods had been stolen during the bus ride.

Police had a break in the case when a passenger thought she had seen a suspicious man speaking to his bag, and going through great efforts to load it.

Upon inspection, police found a man contorted inside; he had a smaller tote bag for loot, a sharp object used to open zippers and locks, and a cell phone in his hand. He said he didn’t have money for a pass.

Soon after, police apprehended the second man, who checked in the bag, and has filed charges against both men for a long string of luggage robberies.

Read more by HS News Staff →

The actor received the award only days before being named the Global Ambassador of the arts at Sunday’s National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Leguízamo began the night by joking with the crowd. He said there would be no lines for taking pictures with Mayor Bloomberg. “If you want, I’ll tweet you some of Anthony Weiner’s stuff,” Leguízamo said before adding “Relax, we are New Yorkers. Nothing shocks us anymore.”

Other ” Made in NY “awardees included actor Matt Damon, social media site Foursquare and Movie Pass CEO Stacey Spikes. The first “Made in NY” Mayor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement went to the late Sidney Lumet.

“The entertainment industry in this city represents over 100,000 jobs and brings in almost $5 billion annually to the city’s economy,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg during the award ceremony. “New York City is the entertainment capital of the world, the talent capital of the world, and the media capital of the world. And tonight we honor some of those who help make that so.”

This week, Leguízamo was also named the Global Ambassador of the Arts at Sunday’s National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

“I’ve never even met a regular ambassador, so even being named one is pretty intense,” the actor told New York Daily News.

“For me, the Puerto Rican Day Parade was something really huge, because it was the only time when I was a kid that you could celebrate being Latin and all the culture that we have and everything that we bring to America and to the world, To me, it still has this kind of powerful significance.”

Read more at New York Daily News, Hollywood Reporter →

The Latin American nations are celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, according to the custom of that continent, its reference point is the Solemnity of the Pentecost, following the same theme recommended for the whole world: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to prayers” (Acts 2:42).

The Week of Prayer in Argentina will be held from Sunday June 12 to Sunday, June 19. In the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires the main event, organized by the Ecumenical Commission of Christian Churches in Argentina (EICC), will be held on Thursday, June 16 at 7.30pm in the parish of Our Lady of Consolation.

In Bolivia the Week of Prayer is celebrated from June 5 to 12. The Archdiocese of Sucre has organized a series of activities and invited the community of believers to reflect on the proposed model of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles. The Archdiocese of Cochabamba held its first meeting on Monday, June 6 at the Parish Maria Auxiliadora (in Loreto) on the theme: “Many members in one body”.

The President of the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), the Bishop of Chapeco (SC), Mgr. Manoel João Francisco, and the General Secretary, Rev. Luiz Alberto Barbosa, have encouraged the participation of all communities in Brazil.

Between June 12 and 18 June throughout Colombia the week of prayer will take place, proposed by the Department of Doctrine and Ecumenism of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia (ECC). In collaboration with the existing historical churches in Colombia, the Department has organized various activities, adapting to local conditions the material prepared by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and the World Council of Churches.

Within the Week of Prayer, on Sunday, June 12 there will be an ecumenical service at 4pm, in the Greek-orthodox church, Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, in Bogotá.

Read more at Agencia Fides →

The Mexican government is alleging that the former Governor of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar, got very rich off of the tragedy of his own statesmen.

56-year-old Salazar who happens to also be an evangelical pastor was Governor of the improvished state of Chiapas from 2000 -2006.  In 2005 a devastating hurricane destroyed many Indian villages in the state and other structures, whereby then President Vicente Fox offered $780 million in relief funds.

The government is now alleging Salazar embezzled close to $9 million in relief funds and arrested him on those charges yesterday.  Many of the Indian villages that were suppose to be rebuilt never were and many protests over the issue have ensued. 

Read more at MSNBC →

Last night, law enforcement entities of the Caribbean Border Interagency Group intercepted seven undocumented aliens.

Late Thursday evening, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter detected a vessel traveling eastward without its required navigational lights and notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection to intercept.

CBP air interdiction agents maintained the vessel under surveillance, coordinating an interdiction by a Mayaguez CBP vessel who intercepted a 15 foot “yola” type wooden vessel five nautical miles near the coast of Aguadilla .

USCG personnel documented the incursion via biometrics, and Border Patrol Agents are interviewing the aliens.

According to the prosecutorial guidelines established by the Caribbean Border Interagency Group, the three alien subjects will be prosecuted and the USCG is scheduled to repatriate the remaining aliens later today.

Border Patrol Agents will assume custody of the undocumented aliens in Mayaguez for further immigration processing at the Ramey station.

Two of the undocumented aliens will face prosecution for attempting to re-enter the U.S. after a prior deportation and one subject will be processed for attempting to enter at a place not designated by immigration officers.

The Cuban alien will return to his place of departure under the “wet foot, dry foot policy.”

Read more by HS News Staff →

New research finds that gestational diabetes, or pregnancy-related diabetes, may not raise the risk of heart disease independent of other cardiovascular risk factors except in certain high-risk populations, such as Hispanics.

The results are being presented at The Endocrine Society’s 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

“The prevalence of gestational diabetes is increasing, and its impact for the mother can extend well beyond pregnancy by raising her risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease,” said study co-author Rhonda Bentley-Lewis, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where the study was performed.

“However, we found that gestational diabetes does not confer the same cardiovascular risk to every woman,” she said.

Bentley-Lewis called this large population study the first to examine the racial impact on the risk of heart disease after gestational diabetes. She and her colleagues studied more than 800 women who delivered infants and had a diagnosis of gestational diabetes between 1998 and 2007. The researchers compared these participants with a control group of more than 3,200 women who had no history of diabetes during pregnancy. They matched cases and controls by their total number of pregnancies.

After delivery, women were followed for a median of 11.9 years for the development of cardiovascular disease, specifically heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure, as indicated by medical records. Women who developed Type 2 diabetes during that time were excluded from further analysis.

The investigators found that gestational diabetes alone did not predict which women would get heart disease apart from other risk factors, such as older age and high blood pressure. However, when they analyzed the study participants by racial-ethnic group, black race and Hispanic ethnicity predicted heart disease even after adjusting for other risk factors. In particular, Hispanic women with past gestational diabetes were 70 percent more likely to develop heart disease than their Hispanic counterparts without pregnancy-related diabetes.

“Hispanic women with gestational diabetes developed heart disease to a greater degree than would be predicted,” Bentley-Lewis said, adding that more research is needed to learn why.

“Physicians should closely monitor women with a history of gestational diabetes, to control their heart disease risk factors,” she said. “Their risk for cardiovascular outcomes might differ by race or by factors that we didn’t evaluate.”

Funding for this research came from the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Read more at Science Daily →