UPDATE 2 ON POLLICE BOMBING

MEXICO CITY – Drug traffickers from outside Mexico City ordered the assassination of a top city police commander and contracted local cocaine distributors to carry out the botched bombing attempt early this month, authorities said Wednesday.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said in a TV interview that the drug hit was planned in retaliation for a series of police raids against drug cartel cells in the capital and the seizure of assault rifles, grenades and shoulder-fired rockets designed to penetrate armored vehicles.

Investigators don't know yet which drug cartel was behind the attack, the mayor said.

Both the Sinaloa cartel based in northern Mexico and the Gulf cartel that operates along the Mexico-Texas border are believed to have lost important operatives and weapons in the seizures, analysts and authorities have said.

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Importance: This is most likely the last story in this horrible situation. Finally, we find out that the attack was in response to numerous raids on drug cartels in Mexico City. Better yet, the attack was carried out by local cocaine dealers. The alleged men mentioned in the previous update were likely the ones who carried out the attack. However, the men behind the attack have not been identified and it is likely they will not be identified any time in the near future.

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Mexico offers reward for information in deadly blast

MEXICO CITY: Police have offered a US$9,300 (€6,300) reward for information leading to the arrest of additional suspects in the explosion of a homemade bomb allegedly intended for a police commander in Mexico City.

The bomb exploded last Friday just two blocks from police headquarters, killing the man believed to be carrying it and injuring a woman who was captured on videotape with him. The woman, 22-year-old Tania Vazquez, is being treated as a suspect.

Police are seeking "reliable information" that results in more arrests, the capital's police department said in a news release Wednesday night.

Authorities are seeking six additional suspects, according to Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Felix Cardenas, who is in charge of the investigation.

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Importance: In this situation, autorities are basically offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person behind the homemade bombs. This could prove to be a problem if they the problem is not taken well care of.

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Six-Year-Olds in Jail

What to do with children born to women serving time is a social dilemma that tests even the most advanced prison regimes.

In Mexico, the authorities believe they are starting to deal with the problem head on, with some dramatic results.

They have started allowing babies born in jail to stay with their mothers until they are six years old.

Compare that to England or Scotland, where typically mothers can only keep their babies until they are 18 months old, and then only in exceptional circumstances.

Or Canada, where historically children have only been allowed to stay until they are around three years old.

Sweden has traditionally taken an even more restrictive view, not allowing any children to stay in jail, arguing prison is not the place for them.

In part it is because these countries have unsuitable jails that were not designed to house children, but there is also a view that women should forfeit their rights when they are convicted, including those of parenting.

Countries such as Bolivia and India do allow children to stay with their mothers until a similar age to those in Mexico, but the difference with the Mexican experience is the time and effort is devoted to the mothers as well.

Importance: This program of keeping children in jail until the age of six seems to have many benefits, however, these benefits are more aimed at the mother than the child. While keeping the child with the mother, there are less separation issues and a decrease in repeated crimes, is jail really the best place for a developing child to, well, develop? It will be interesting to see the ramifications of being born and raised in jail in the lives of these children.

Investigating Crimes against Women

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico has created a new federal position to prosecute violence against women and human exploitation, as rights groups urge the government to do more to investigate the killings of women, especially along the U.S. border.

The position, announced on Thursday, will replace a similar post created in 2006 and will add migrant smuggling, child labor and other human exploitation to its caseload.

The new prosecutor, Guadalupe Morfin - who previously served in a similar post aimed at combatting violence against women in Ciudad Juarez - will report to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

The attorney general told Radio Formula that he welcomes the expanded role for his office.
Human exploitation "is a serious problem that we see daily, and we don't have the adequate structure to deal with it," Medina Mora said.

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Importance: Mexican citizens rising concern in human rights indicates the country's move into post-industrialism. In addition to the crimes many Mexican women have been subject to, many are also faced with a struggle for basic civil liberties garuanteed by the constitution, especially women from indigenous groups whose culture and traditions bar from such civic acts as voting. (Watch the video on the website).

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