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Tim Johnson

Mexico’s green party more interested in money than environment

Last updated Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - 9:02am

MEXICO CITY - The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico isn’t your garden-variety group advocating recycling and mass transportation. It’s swimming in cash, ideologically flexible and tainted by scandal.

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Mexico has exactly one gun shop where you can legally buy a firearm. It's on a military base in Mexico City, and it sells about 8,000 weapons a year, mostly small-caliber handguns. Army Col. Raul Manzano says they have 70-100 visitors a day. "The federal firearms law forbids us from advertising so as not to promote rampant gun buying," Manzano said. (Heriberto Rodriguez/MCT)

Mexico, awash in weapons, has just one legal gun store

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 12:11pm

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. If any of the nation's 112 million citizens want to buy firearms, there's only one store where they can do it legally. It's on a sprawling military base and run by the army.

That, however, hasn't stopped Mexicans from acquiring firearms. The country is awash in illegal guns, many of them assault weapons in the hands of merciless criminal gangs. President Felipe Calderon says authorities have seized more than 140,000 weapons since he came to office in late 2006. Many of them, Mexican officials assert, were purchased in the United States.

Guns, Mexico, Mexico violence, Weapons, International Read more Comments

Drug war death squads prowling Mexico

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Friday, October 7, 2011 - 5:06pm

MEXICO CITY -- The gruesome discovery of 32 bodies scattered in houses in the port city of Veracruz this week is the latest sign that Mexico's drug-fueled violence is entering a new phase in which murky paramilitary-style squads are carrying out mass exterminations.

Drug cartels, Mexico violence, International Read more Comments

Boxing, fading in United States, finds its heart in Mexico

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Sunday, July 10, 2011 - 4:22pm

MEXICO CITY -- The rapid staccato of boxing gloves smashing against leather speed bags resounded in the Romanza Gym, a facility that's down at the heels and redolent of sweat but that enjoys an outsized legacy as a "cradle of champions."

On a recent afternoon, an aficionado who'd slipped into the gym could hardly wipe the grin off his face: There was Juan Manuel "Dynamite" Marquez -- one of Mexico's most admired boxers -- sparring, his fists exploding.

Boxing, Sports, Mixed Martial Arts Read more Comments

Cartels escalate drug war with tanks

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Monday, June 6, 2011 - 7:17pm

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s rival crime gangs are in an arms race, and the latest sign of that are the homemade “Mad Max”-type heavily armored vehicles they deploy to withstand fierce clashes with each other.

Drug cartels, Drugs, Mexico, Mexico violence Read more Comments

Mexico's Calderon wants U.S. ambassador out

McClatchy Newspapers, Tim Johnson

Last updated Thursday, March 17, 2011 - 11:53am

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon is waging a harsh campaign against the U.S. ambassador here, repeatedly demanding over the past month that he be replaced in a tiff that has strained ties between the two countries.

Calderon is barely on speaking terms with U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual, whom he has said publicly he doesn't trust. Analysts say Calderon's anger stems from both Pascual's views critical of Mexico contained in secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website and the divorced ambassador's selection of a girlfriend -- the daughter of a key opposition legislator.

Pascual has won praise in Washington as the architect of a broad U.S. strategy to help Mexico fight soaring drug-related violence, and analysts say the White House expects Calderon's pique to blow over.

Government, Mexico, U.S. Ambassador, International Read more Comments

Heriberto Rodriguez/MCT
Gerardo Flores plays his portable barrel organ in a Mexico City's historical center street. This tradition has survived despite the economic crisis in Mexico.

As Mexico's organ grinders age, a love affair fades

McClatchy Newspapers, Tim Johnson

Last updated Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 4:29pm

MEXICO CITY -- Few sounds are so distinctive to this capital as the tinkling, whistling melodies that itinerant organ grinders coax from their portable wooden barrel organs.

Hardly a downtown street corner or park is without a grinder in a khaki uniform turning the crank on a hefty instrument that whistles its high notes and rumbles with a bass refrain. An assistant passes a hat among pedestrians, collecting change.

One of the signature sounds of Mexico City probably would never have taken hold if an itinerant family of Italian organ grinders hadn't turned up nearly a century ago in Berlin and begun to manufacture hand organs. The Frati family's handiwork ended up as a German gift to Mexico, sparking a love affair.

Features, Mexico Read more Comments

Female sports reporter from Mexico surprised she's focus of much controversy

McClatchy Newspapers, Tim Johnson

Last updated Wednesday, September 22, 2010 - 4:10pm

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican sports reporter who's at the center of a sexual harassment scandal with the NFL says those who promoted her case are setting back the cause of equal treatment for women.

NFL, Pro Football, Sports, Football, Sports Media Read more Comments

Mexico threatens to cut off millions of cell phone users to fight extortion schemes

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 8:22pm

MEXICO CITY -- Millions of cellular telephone users across Mexico face the threat that their service will be cut off as soon as Wednesday for failing to register their telephone numbers with the government -- a requirement aimed at curbing a rash of telephone extortion attempts.

Scams, International Read more Comments