Free Republic

Artifacts could be from early galleon Mon Feb 26, 11:42 PM ET MEXICO CITY - Archeologists said Monday that porcelain plates and other artifacts found along the Baja California coast could be from the wreckage of a Spanish galleon that sailed between the Philippines and Mexico hundreds of years ago. Seals and other markings on some of the estimated 1,000 fragments of porcelain plates found at the site indicate they were made in China in the late 1500s, said archaeologist Luz Maria Mejia of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The site, near the port of Ensenada about 50...

Mexican police found a multi-drug shipment that included an astonishing 100 pounds (45.5 kilograms) of the synthetic opioid fentanyl in a vehicle near the city of Ensenada in Baja California, officials said Thursday. Fentanyl can be fatal in doses of just a few milligrams. To put the size of the haul in perspective, a seizure last year of 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) of fentanyl in Columbus, Ohio, was said by prosecutors to be enough to potentially kill the entire population of the city of 860,000 people.

The Utah Coal Lockup: A trillion dollar Lippo payoff? By: Sarah Foster When the President signed the Executive Order designating 1.7 million acres of land in southwest Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, his action placed the area off limits to mineral extraction and development. The New York Times reported that the monument encloses the largest coal field in the nation, the Kaiparowitz Plateau, which contains at least 7 billion tons of coal worth over $1 TRILLION. Kentucky-based company Andalux Resources, which holds leases on 3,400 acres in the area, was planning to open a huge operation (underground, not...

The End of the World A mile east of the Tijuana International Airport is an area police call El Fin del Mundo, the End of the World, where drug-cartel assassins dump their victims. Both Mexican and American citizens have been found there. On December 18, 2004, according to Sergeant Tom Bulow of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, San Marcos resident Noé Chávez García was lured to Tijuana by two acquaintances who shot him several times and left him in this corpse-disposal zone. He survived his wounds to tell his story to the FBI and Mexican officials. His is a...

A man suspected in the massacre of 19 men, woman and children during a Baja California drug war 10 years ago has been arrested in Los Angeles and returned to Mexico where he faces murder and other charges. 33-year-old Jesus Ruben Moncada was taken into custody Thursday night while taking out the garbage at his home in East L-A. He was allegedly a high-ranking member of the Felix Arellano drug cartel, who in 1998 helped gun down 19 people during a raid on an Ensenada ranch in search of a rival pot smuggler. Moncada was arrested on an immigration violation...

First Story that Broke: TWO KILLED TWO INJURED Two members of a television news crew have been killed and as many injured in a helicopter crash in the capital of Mexico's northernmost state of Baja California, Spanish news agency EFE reported Wednesday. According to state prosecutor Francisco Javier Alcazar Jimenez, the helicopter, carrying the news crew, crashed here Tuesday afternoon when it became tangled in high tension wires overhead and the pilot lost control of the aircraft. The news crew were to cover the 'Baja 1000 Road Race', in which some 500 teams from all over the world are participating...

SAN DIEGO – Sempra Energy proposed Monday to more than double capacity at its liquefied natural gas terminal under construction in Mexico, strengthening its position in the race to build the first such plant on North America's Pacific coast. Sempra is building in Mexico at a time when rivals seeking permission in California are stumbling over opposition from environmental and NIMBY – “not in my back yard” – groups. The expansion plan is a response to “significant interest we have received from a number of potential natural gas producers and marketers,” said Darcel Hulse, president of Sempra's LNG unit. Sempra...

ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) - In late 2003, Sempra Energy's bid to build the first liquefied natural gas terminal in western North America was in deep trouble. Plans to import gas from Bolivia sparked a popular uprising that killed dozens of people and toppled the government there. Today, Sempra is leading the race. It turned to Indonesia for the gas, and is building a $1-billion plant on Mexico's pristine coastline, just 50 miles south of San Diego. The terminal, to be completed in early 2008, will be a key fuel source for California homes and businesses for decades to come. The...

As Sempra Energy broke ground on its $800 million liquefied natural gas receiving terminal in Baja California this week, the state's legislature launched an official inquiry into the project. The investigation, which began yesterday, is led by Guillermo Aldrete Hass, the leader of the legislature's foreign affairs committee. He said he will ask federal officials to suspend the permits for the project while the investigation continues and legal challenges remain unresolved. "There hasn't been transparency from the beginning to the end," Aldrete said. "We want to know the economic and environmental impacts – both negative and positive." Of particular concern,...

Field between Tecate, Ensenada yields tools By Sandra Dibble UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 16, 2005 TIJUANA – For the first time in Baja California, archaeologists have found significant evidence of hunters who settled the region between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, known as INAH, announced the recent recovery of more than 150 stone knives, spearheads, cutting utensils and other carved items from an open field between Tecate and Ensenada. The items are being linked to the San Dieguito people acknowledged as the earliest settlers of the region. San Dieguito sites have been amply...

ENSENADA, Mexico (Reuters) - For years, Cristina Imana has gazed out from her clifftop porch near the Mexican resort town of Ensenada and watched migrating gray whales roll around with their babies in the glistening surf below. Now, with U.S. oil executives busy laying the foundations for a huge gas import terminal on the shoreline beneath her home, she fears those days are numbered. "It breaks my heart," she said of Sempra Energy's project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. ChevronTexaco plans an offshore terminal nearby. In a classic spat between big business and environmentalists, major oil companies...