MEXICO/CUBA: Jailed Politician's Links To Cuba Alarm Many.

MIAMI HERALD/ JUAN TAMAYO/     Former Cancun mayor and gubernatorial candidate Gregorio Sanchez was arrested last month and jailed pending trial on charges of laundering bribes he allegedly received for protecting drug cartels in Cancún. The arrest alarmed analysts over the possible penetration of Cuban intelligence in his administration. Sánchez had many often murky Cuban connections and reportedly 150 Cubans on his payroll.

CUBA/MEXICO: Details Emerge On Human Smuggling In Q.Roo; Mayor Under Arrest Is Implicated.

MIAMIHERALD/CUBAN COLADA/     A lucrative human trafficking network that moved Cubans to the Yucatán peninsula and later the U.S. was reported by the newspaper El Diario of Ciudad Juárez. It started in January 2009 with tourist visas or official permits issued to the Cubans for a six-month stay in Mexico to appear in various artistic "shows" by a company managed by a local politician. They stayed until they could be taken to the U.S. border. The then-mayor of Benito Juárez City, Gregorio Sánchez Martínez, was an active supporter of that endeavor. He is in jail charged with organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

MEXICO: Cancun Police's $300 Phony Mordida...Repaid 8 Months Later.

NYTIMES/
An American tourist forced to pay a "mordida" of $300 for going one mile over the speed limit got his money back from the city's mayor, Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, 8 months after the extortion demand by 3 Cancun police officers.