XM MLB Chat: Calderon refuses to establish a judicial system, even burned bodies deemed 'insufficient evidence' in Mexico

only 2% of people arrested in the city were charged with any crime, it says."...

12/17/10, BBC: "A Mexican woman who was campaigning for justice for

her murdered teenage daughter has herself been killed.

Marisela Escobedo was shot dead by masked gunmen outside the state governor's office in Chihuahua in northern Mexico, prosecutors said.

She had been protesting against

the release of the man accused of murdering her daughter in Ciudad Juarez in 2008.

Governor Cesar Duarte said he had no doubt the killing was an act of revenge by the alleged murderer.

He said he would seek to have the judges who released him removed from their posts.

Mrs Escobedo, 52, was shot in the head at close range by one of three masked men who approached her as she was protesting on Thursday evening. She died in hospital.

She had protested in Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez since April, when judges released the man suspected of killing her 17-year-old daughter Rubi,

saying there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Rubi's dismembered and burned body was found dumped in Ciudad Juarez in 2008.

The suspect, her boyfriend, joined the Zetas drug cartel after his release, Mrs Escobeda alleged in a newspaper interview last week.

Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte said the case filled him with "indignation".

"He confessed, he accepted guilt, and he revealed where the remains of Marisela's daughter's body could be found," the governor said....

Ciudad Juarez, on the US border, is Mexico's most violent city, with more than 3,000 killings so far this year, most of them linked to drug-trafficking gangs.

The city is also notorious for the murder of hundreds of women over the past two decades.

Most of the victims were young and poor, and many were sexually assaulted before they were killed.

Few of the killers have ever been brought to justice."

"Mexico murder protest mother killed," BBC

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12/17/10, BBC, "Mexico prisoners in 'mass jail break' near US border"

"It is not clear how the prisoners managed to escape, but some reports say

they walked out of the main gate."...

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12/17/10, "Growing numbers of companies are deciding to limit their investments

in Mexico because of spiraling drug-related violence in one of the world's most important emerging markets

The latest is Swedish appliance maker Electrolux AB, which said Thursday it had chosen

Memphis, Tenn., over locations in Mexico

for a $190 million appliance factory that will employ 1,200 people.

The decision involved a host of factors, including proximity to component suppliers, distribution centers and another Electrolux plant in Springfield, Tenn.

But Mexico's deteriorating security also played a role, the company said.

Mexico continues to lure foreign investment with its low wages, location next to the U.S. and the advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

One of the U.S.'s largest trade partners, Mexico attracted $14 billion in foreign direct investment in the year's first nine months, up 20% from a year ago, according to government figures. And some of Mexico's biggest investors, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are maintaining their investment plans.

But fights between rival drug cartels have claimed more than 31,000 lives in the past four years, including more than 11,000 this year. Other crimes like robbery, extortion and kidnapping also have climbed. ...

"We won't put a factory in Mexico until some of this violence gets addressed," said Ron DeFeo, chief executive of Terex Corp., a Westport, Conn., maker of construction cranes and other heavy equipment. "We just can't put our people at risk." ...

Owens-Illinois Inc., a Perrysburg, Ohio, maker of glass food and beverage containers, is also wary.

"We have been monitoring the Mexican market for a few years now, looking for the right opportunity to directly enter that market," said spokeswoman Stephanie Johnston. "The escalating violence has led us to be more cautious. We take the safety and security of our employees very seriously."

Concerns about safety in Mexico were a factor in a decision by Whirlpool Corp. earlier this year to build an oven and cook-top factory

in Cleveland, Tenn., rather than in Mexico,

Alan Holaday, vice president of North American manufacturing and quality, said in a recent interview. Security was only one of several factors in the decision about the plant, which will employ more than 1,600 workers, he said.

Drug-related violence in Mexico probably cost the country some $4 billion in foreign direct investment this year, estimated Gabriel Casillas, J.P. Morgan's chief economist for Mexico."...