FRESH AIR
Alejandro Junco de la Vega runs daily newspapers in three of Mexico’s largest cities: Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara and El Norte in Monterrey. Junco was born in Monterrey and earned his journalism degree from the University of Texas. He returned to Mexico to become the publisher of El Norte in 1973. Even at the beginning of his newspaper empire-building, Junco fought for freedom of the press — he hired a UT journalism professor to teach journalistic ethics and techniques to the reporters of El Norte. After El Norte became successful, Junco founded Reforma and Mural. Junco also owns the company Infosel, Mexico’s largest Internet provider and online finance and news service. Junco joins Fresh Air to discuss the escalating violence in Mexico. The rising murder rate, especially at the U.S. border, is associated with drug-cartel activity.
ALSO, New York Times journalist Randal C. Archibold says that violence caused by Mexican drug cartels has spread across North America, reaching much farther north than the immediate U.S.-Mexico border. In a Mar. 22 article for the Times, Archibold writes: “Law enforcement authorities say they believe traffickers distributing the cartels’ marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs are responsible for a rash of shootings in Vancouver, British Columbia, kidnappings in Phoenix, brutal assaults in Birmingham, Ala., and much more.” Although violence from drug trafficking is on the rise in the U.S., Archibold says the problem is even worse in Mexico, where more than 7,000 people have died since January 2008 and where torture and beheadings have become common. Archibold is a national correspondent for The New York Times. He previously reported and edited for The Los Angeles Times.
RADIO TIMES
The slow pace in building two casinos in Philadelphia, prompted Governor Ed Rendell to warn that he’ll move to cut off casino revenues to the city, if things don’t move faster. Our guests are CHRIS BRENNAN is a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and JOHN BAER, political columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Listen to the mp3
THE WORLD CAFE
Giant Sand mastermind Howe Gelb travels off the beaten path with the new southwestern roots album, proVISIONS. Giant Sand is an American rock band, based in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The name is shortened from the original Giant Sandworms, a reference to the creatures in the Dune books. Overseen by singer-songwriter Howe Gelb, its membership has shifted over the years—at times with each album. For a long while the band’s rhythm section consisted of John Convertino and Joey Burns who left the band when their side project, Calexico, grew more widely known than Giant Sand and, as Gelb characterized it in 2004, Calexico “began to work against Giant Sand and eat away at what the band was”[1].
GIANT SAND: Way To End The Day/Shrine