Latest posts by Deborah Esch from April, 2011
Mexico: Felipe Calderon's Cabinet on Twitter
In mid-April, the government headed by Felipe Calderon announced with much fanfare that every member of the cabinet was now registered on Twitter, and prepared to deal more directly with the public via social media. The initiative, however, is shadowed by a concurrent report ranking Mexico just 78th out of 133 countries in terms of its effective use of information technology.
Mexico: Netizens Deploy the “Failed State” Meme
The idea of Mexico as an actual or potential "failed state," pending since its introduction into public discourse in 2008 following news of a report to this effect by the U.S. Joint Forces, has become a popular meme in its own right on the Internet, as bloggers and other netizens deploy the parlance (signaled on Twitter by the ubiquitous hashtag #estadofallido) for their own critical purposes.
Mexico: News of US Clandestine Operation Draws “Fast and Furious” Response
Mexican netizens take to their blogs and Twitter accounts as an interview with a former head of the ATF (the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) in Mexico makes public "Operation Fast and Furious," under which ATF officers secretly monitored - without intervening - as more than 2,000 weapons were purchased at outlets in Arizona and transported over the border into Mexico.
