Documentary drives Dole Food Co. bananas

In the eyes of Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, his documentary "Bananas!" is a balanced, nuanced depiction of a trial pitting Nicaraguan banana plantation workers and a prominent L.A. attorney against a powerful multinational agribusiness, reports Reed Johnson.

"It is a classical David-Goliath story," the director said in a phone interview last week.

In the eyes of Dole Food Co., Gertten's film is an egregiously flawed document based on what Dole lawyer Scott Edelman calls "a phony story" that has been discredited by the allegedly fraudulent conduct of Juan J. Dominguez, the L.A. attorney at the film's center. Dole, the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables, is vowing to sue the filmmaker and the Los Angeles Film Festival for defamation if it screens the movie this week.

Read more of Johnson's report here and watch the trailer above.

Mexico's only English-language daily sold; staff cut by two-thirds

Mexico’s only national English-language daily newspaper, the News, based in Mexico City, was bought by a Mexican media company, and dozens of staffers were laid off over the weekend, a development that left employees standing outside the newspaper’s offices “looking bewildered,” according to an editorial in the paper Monday morning.

The newspaper will continue publishing with a third of its original staff but will offer a smaller daily edition and will no longer publish on the weekends.

Schweppes pulls ad campaign after flu crack falls flat

Controversial ad campaigns about Mexico seem to keep popping up. 

This time, it was a campaign running in the UK from Coca-Cola Schweppes. The ad, which ran for just one day on May 15 in The Times (of London) newspapers, was quickly withdrawn after complaints from Mexico's embassy in London.

The soft drinks' advertising agency Mother London created a number of illustrations as part of a series of ads called "Experience Matters." 

 

The image in question featured an illustration of a man wearing a huge Mexican sombrero on London's Underground subway system, with a box of tissues by his side. 

The ad was intended to be a humorous take on the H1N1 influenza strain that was first detected in Mexico and has now spread to a number of countries, including the United Kingdom. According to the World Health Organization, the UK has reported 112 cases but no deaths from the virus.

Medical tourism considered by nearly 30% of Americans

You may remember the article we published last November about the issue of medical tourism in Mexico and around the world -- you can read it here. 

At the time, we also followed the case of Paul Hambleton, a Texan, who went to Monterrey, Mexico, for mild knee surgery. He said that the same operation in the United States would have cost him twice as much.

A survey from Gallup this week found that the availability of medical services in foreign countries isn't something that American consumers have failed to notice. 

Swine flu outbreak batters Mexico City restaurants

Fonda Garufa, a restaurant in the trendy Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, is feeling the effects of the swine flu outbreak.

Government restrictions have limited the restaurant and thousands of others in Mexico City to only providing takeout meals, and sales at Garufa have plummeted.

See the video for more. 

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Studios forced to delay Mexico movie openings

Claudia Eller and Reed Johnson report how Hollywood movie studios, about to enter the most crucial time of the year for ticket sales, are being forced to delay the Mexico releases of their big early-summer movies, including "Star Trek," "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "Angels & Demons," as theaters here close because of the swine flu epidemic sweeping the country. 

"Such a delay could cost the studios tens of millions in revenue at a time when they are increasingly relying on international box office to offset production and marketing expenses. Mexico ranks in the top 10 movie markets, accounting for about 6% of foreign ticket sales. It could also undercut the performance of movies when they eventually open in theaters by giving pirated DVD copies a chance to flood the market."

Read the full report here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexico City vendors feel the effects of swine flu

You can't have failed to notice that Mexico is in the grip of a swine flu outbreak. Schools, museums and theaters are shut, residents have been warned by the government not to kiss or shake hands when they say hello, and about half the people on the streets are wearing surgical face masks. 

But the swine flu outbreak isn't just taking its toll on people's health. Local businesses are also starting to suffer as customers stay away. Watch the video for more.

See our complete coverage of the swine flu public health emergencies in both Mexico and the United States here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

More Latino faces needed in film and TV?

On a breezy afternoon in Newport Beach, hundreds of Latino filmmakers descended upon the swanky Island Hotel to celebrate "A Decade of Influence" at the National Assn. of Latino Independent Producers' 10th annual conference.

Conversations varied, but participants agreed on one thing: Despite a noticeable improvement in Latino films and roles, there is much work left to do, reports the L.A. Times' Alicia Lozano.

"There are a lot of victories, a lot of solid successes," said Kathryn Galan, executive director of the association. She pointed to television shows such as "Ugly Betty," "The George Lopez Show" and "Resurrection Blvd." as triumphs in the industry, but lamented that many other segments of the film and television industry don't represent the 15% of the population that calls itself Latino.

"The inside thinks 'Three Amigos' is a diversity effort," Galan said. "Nothing reflects the voice of U.S.-born, English-speaking American Latinos."

Read more here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Burger King withdraws ad after Mexican objection

Fast-food giant Burger King issued an apology and retracted an advertising campaign yesterday after complaints over an ad that featured a short Mexican wrestler wearing a cape bearing a resemblance to the Mexican flag.

Reuters reports this morning that the chain issued a statement Tuesday saying that "the ads were meant to show a mixture of influences from the Southwestern United States and Mexico, not to poke fun at Mexican culture.'' The company added that it plans to replace them "as soon as commercially possible."

Mexican drug lord on Forbes list of richest, with $1 billion

Reuters reports that Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, who is blamed for thousands of deaths in the country's continuing drug war, has made it onto the Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people, with an estimated $1-billion fortune.

Forbes placed Guzman at 701 on its list, tied with dozens of others worldwide with riches of about $1 billion.

Our Tracy Wilkinson reported last year:

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug-trafficking fugitive, chalks up more sightings than Elvis. He is everywhere, and nowhere, a long-sought criminal always a step ahead of the law, yet always in sight or mind.

A mythology has developed around Guzman, the commander of Mexico's most powerful narcotics network, the so-called Sinaloa cartel, named for the Pacific coast state that is the historic cradle of Mexican drug trafficking. Narcocorridos, popular songs about traffickers, lionize him.

Go here for the full Forbes rich list and here for our complete coverage of the drug wars in Mexico.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City