Americans Mexico

The last of about 75 Americans caught in a property dispute in a Baja California seaside community south of Ensenada are expected to abandon their houses today, in what is believed to be Mexico's largest eviction of U.S. homeowners on record, with about $25 million worth of property involved. In August, about 200 residents of the 250-acre community, known as Punta Banda, were ordered off the land by today.

MEXICO CITY - Officially the game ended in a tie. But try telling that to the U.S. and Mexico, which fought to a scoreless draw in a World Cup qualifying match that left both teams heading in different directions. For the U.S., Tuesday's result felt like a win - especially since it came at a sold-out Estadio Azteca, a place where the Americans have never won a World Cup qualifier. Plus it leaves the U.S. in third place three games into the six-nation, 10-game qualifying tournament for Brazil 2014.

Don and Carole Moore of Poway, Calif., just wanted a place in the Mexican sun, and thought they had found it when they laid eyes on a beautiful beachfront lot 10 miles south of here. So they forked over $250,000 in cash for a dream house and looked forward to a retirement punctuated by surf and sea gulls.

President Bush's nephew, campaigning for overseas votes in Mexico on Saturday, said the federal policy of arming U.S. Border Patrol agents with plastic pellet guns was "reprehensible." Speaking a mix of English and Spanish, George P. Bush said his uncle was not to blame for the gun policy. He instead blamed it on "some local INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] guy who's trying to be tough, act macho."

Seven years ago, the body of first-grader Lisa Ann Rosales was found dumped in a ditch near her home in Pacoima. She had been sexually molested and strangled. The case was not an easy one for the Los Angeles Police Department--it took a tip five years later for detectives to identify a suspect, and then they discovered that the man had fled to his native Mexico. In previous years, the case might have ended there, with police thwarted because the suspect was beyond the reach of U.S. laws.

A man suspected of arranging the killing of the owner of Los Angeles' Central Wholesale Market has been deported by Mexican authorities after a prolonged legal battle in Guadalajara and Mexico City. Los Angeles police detectives flew to Ft. Worth on Wednesday to bring back the suspect, Rene Cruz Reynoso, on charges of arranging the May 16, 1991, slaying of Ronald B. Ordin on the National Boulevard off-ramp of the Santa Monica Freeway.

A Buena Park man accused of using a high-powered rifle to ambush cars with California license plates was being held by Mexican police Wednesday in Tijuana in the killing of a Southern California woman. Dennis Albert Macchione, 33, denied in a jailhouse interview that he was the sniper who opened fire last weekend along a Baja California highway crowded with American tourists. Macchione blamed the shootings on a drunken friend, whom he refused to identify.

Armed men have kidnapped one of the leading U.S. businessmen in Acapulco, officials said. Real estate agent Ron Lavender was in a car on the resort city's waterfront when it was intercepted by two vehicles. Lavender was forced to get into one of the vehicles, City Councilwoman Gloria Maria Sierra said. Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca also confirmed Lavender's abduction. Lavender, an Iowa native, moved to Acapulco in 1954 and is one of its best-known real estate agents.

WE ARE NO STRANGERS TO MACHISMO. We are two women journalists, an American and a Colombian, living in Mexico. There are many macho countries, but this is one that brags of its macho ways through pistol-toting movie idols and popular ranchera songs like "Turning Away." Mariachis in black pants with silver studs sing: "You go because I want you to go. At the time I want I'll get you back . . . Whether you like it or not, I'm your owner."

In a ruling that stunned U.S. authorities and cast a fresh blot on this nation's fragile justice system, a judge has freed a man who reportedly admitted to killing a U.S. businessman here. The decision, which also freed four other suspects, outraged Mexican officials, who are under pressure to respond to a crime wave that is terrorizing the capital's residents, and appears to be claiming an increasing number of American victims.

The U.S. men's basketball team cruised to a 132-58 victory over Mexico Monday in the opening game of round-robin play in the Goodwill Games at Brisbane, Australia. Rashard Lewis led all scores with 21 points and Wally Szczerbiak added 20. The total points and the 74-point margin of victory were the largest in Goodwill Games history. After a close first quarter, the U.S. closed with a 6-0 run for a 31-22 lead, then routed Mexico in the second period for a 71-33 halftime lead.

Three young American girls and their Mexican mother were shot to death and dumped in a cornfield outside Mexico's western city of Guadalajara, officials said Thursday, and police said they were seeking the father for questioning. The bodies were found early Wednesday with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. The four had been returning from a trip to the beach. Authorities found dozens of 9-millimeter shell casings next to towels, empty soft drink bottles and pairs of sandals.

After 17 months in a Mexico City prison and two harrowing nights in a nearby immigration detention center, American cosmetologist Joseph Pantuso was given his freedom and permission to continue living in Mexico. Although immigration officials ruled that Pantuso, 59, can stay in the country, it is unclear whether he will be able to resume his chemical face-peeling business.

Just after Joseph Pantuso finally walked out of prison early Tuesday following an appeals court decision overturning his murder conviction, the former Californian was detained by Mexican immigration officials and moved to an even less pleasant cell. Pantuso, 59, is expected to be released from the immigration detention center today.

Three Americans killed when a glass-bottom boat capsized off Cabo San Lucas were cruise-ship passengers who sailed to Mexico from Los Angeles, Carnival Cruise Lines said Saturday. Paulina Armijo, 54, of New Mexico, Elizabeth Steven, 64, of Alaska, and Dorothy Farnman, 32, whose home state was unknown, drowned Friday after the small boat capsized near the Stone Arch, a coastal landmark near the popular tourist spot in Baja California.

For an evening, the "Tomato King" reigned. Andres Bermudez, the first U.S. citizen to win elected office in Mexico, took a weekend victory lap through Southern California to the thunderous applause of fellow natives of Mexico's central Zacatecas state. Bermudez, a Yolo County vegetable producer known as the "Tomato King," was elected mayor of Jerez, Zacatecas, on July 1, a victory that signals increasing flexibility in Mexico's political system.

The parents of a 13-month-old Costa Mesa boy who nearly died of a scorpion sting in Mexico last weekend said he is recovering quickly. "The little guy is a miracle story," Diane Bjella said on Tuesday, a day after her son, Anders, was flown by an ambulance jet from Puerto Vallarta to Children's Hospital in San Diego. "He's breathing on his own. The brain looks good," she said from the hospital. "Everything's being monitored closely."

Mexican authorities said Saturday that they have arrested four men in connection with the shooting death last week of a Newport Beach businessman vacationing in Baja California. Claude Falkenstein, 58, founder and president of Mass Media Marketing Inc., was killed in his seafront cottage halfway between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, the latest victim in a string of robbery attacks against American tourists there, Mexican state police said.

For an evening, "the Tomato King" reigned. Andres Bermudez, the first U.S. citizen to win elected office in Mexico, took a victory lap through Southern California this weekend to the thunderous applause of fellow natives of Mexico's central Zacatecas state. Bermudez, a Yolo County farmer known as the Tomato King, was elected mayor of Jerez, Zacatecas, on July 1, a victory that signals increasing flexibility in Mexico's political system.

There's no foreign service job quite like it. At the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, death and disorder are daily fare, and diplomacy is conducted more often at the jailhouse than at fancy official soirees. So it is not surprising that this consulate comes in for its share of criticism. In recent years, a spate of serious incidents involving U.S. citizens in Baja have redoubled complaints of bureaucratic indifference and inaction.