Mexico creates literary prize

Mexico is to give out a 250,000-USD prize every 11 November to a writer in Spanish, in memory of the country's late novelist Carlos Fuentes, the daily ABC reported on 4 July, citing EFE. The Carlos Fuentes Prize for Literary Creation in Spanish (Premio Internacional Carlos Fuentes a la Creación Literaria en Idioma Español) was to honour Fuentes who died on 15 May, but also part of a project to make Mexico an "intellectual platform for Spanish," the head of state arts council Conaculta (Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes) Consuelo Sáizar told the press in Mexico City on 3 July. The prize was envisaged for writers whose works have enriched "the literary heritage of humanity in Spanish," Conaculta's cultural and arts secretary Roberto Vázquez said. It would be determined by a jury of seven including four writers or academics and three members of the language academies of Spain, Mexico and a Latin American state. their decision would be made known on 16 October.

Left keeps Mexico City in elections

The candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) to become mayor of Mexico City Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, was reported to have won elections by a large margin, maintaining the Left's power in the capital after general elections on 1 July, El Universal reported on 2 July. Authorities said that with 90 per cent of votes counted on 2 July, the PRD was leading in the capital's 16 districts, Notimex reported.

Mexico City to expand free HIV treatment

Mexicans without social security or health insurance may have free access to HIV treatment in Mexico City according to a new city decree, El Universal reported on 21 June. The move is part of the city's new policies on preventing the spread of HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - and other sexually transmitted diseases; these would include providing assistance to a range of infected patients in vulnerable situations. The city had 38,400 people known to carry HIV in 2010, the daily reported, citing figures from Clínica Especializada Condesa, or 17 per cent of all those diagnosed with HIV in Mexico that year. The clinic estimated that yearly 2,100 people in Mexico City were infected with HIV.