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As Maya Train gets another injunction, contract for rail cars signed

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MND Staff
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one of the Maya Train's rail cars.
A rendering of the interior of one of the Maya Train's rail cars.

A court in Mérida, Yucatán, has issued another provisional suspension order against the construction of the Maya Train railroad in Quintana Roo.

A second injunction against the Cancún-Tulum section of the 1,500-kilometer line was granted to Defendiendo el Derecho a un Medio Ambiente Sano (Defending the Right to a Healthy Environment), or DMAS, a Cancún-based environmental organization.

The court previously issued a provisional suspension order against section 5 of the project due to the “imminent risk” of “irreversible damage” to the Mayan jungle, caves, subterranean rivers and cenotes (natural sinkholes) and the absence of environmental studies and permits. A ruling on whether that order should be made definitive will be handed down on May 13.

In the second lawsuit, DMAS argued that the project violates constitutionally-enshrined rights to due process and a healthy environment.

“They say that without cenotes there is no paradise. We say that without an environmental impact process there mustn’t be a project,” it said in a statement.

There is significant opposition to the southern part of the Quintana Roo section of the railroad, which will run between Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

The federal government modified the route earlier this year, moving the section inland after the business community in Playa del Carmen complained about its construction through the center of the coastal resort city. Jungle has already been cleared for the construction of tracks, triggering protests both at the site of the deforestation and online.

Environment Minister María Luisa Albores acknowledged Monday that definitive environmental approval hasn’t been granted for the Cancún-Tulum leg as well as three other sections of the US $10 billion project. A decree issued by President López Obrador in November allows work to proceed with only provisional approval.

The government has overcome several previous injunctions issued against the railroad and is determined to complete the project next year.

López Obrador – its most prominent proponent – signed a contract on Monday to purchase 42 trains for the railroad, on which tourist, commuter and freight services will run through the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas.

The trains, consisting of a total of 210 rail cars, will be made in Mexico by Alstom, a French company that acquired Canadian-German rail transport manufacturer Bombardier Transportation early last year.

“Twenty years ago we signed a contract with Bombardier, now associated with Alstom, to buy 45 trains and 400 cars for the Mexico City Metro. Today we’re signing with the same companies for the purchase of 42 trains with 210 cars for the Maya Train,” López Obrador wrote on Twitter and Facebook.

“The construction was done and will be done in Ciudad Sahagún, [Hidalgo], always thinking of employment for Mexicans,” the president said.

The federal government announced almost a year ago that a consortium including Alstom was the successful bidder in an international tendering process for the acquisition of rolling stock and rail systems for the Maya Train railroad. The consortium submitted a bid of 36.6 billion pesos (US $1.8 billion) to supply rail systems and 42 trains.

Alstom was part of a consortium that built line 12 of the Mexico City Metro system, part of which collapsed a year ago today, causing an accident that claimed the lives of 26 people. Another member of that consortium was Carlos Slim’s Carso Infrastructure and Construction, which is building section 2 of the Maya Train.

With reports from Milenio

First-quarter remittances by Mexicans working abroad hit record US $12.5 billion

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MND Staff
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bank of mexico

Remittances sent to Mexico increased 18% to US $12.52 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a figure that represents a new record for the first three months of a year.

Reported by the Bank of México (Banxico) on Monday, the figure is $1.91 billion higher than in the first quarter of 2021 and comes after a new calendar year record of over $51 billion in remittances was sent to Mexico last year.

The vast majority come from the United States, where millions of Mexicans live and work.

The central bank reported that remittances totaled $4.68 billion in March, a 12.6% increase compared to the same month of 2021, and that remittances totaled $53.49 billion in the 12-month period to the end of March.

During the first three months of the year, 99% of all funds were sent via electronic transfer, Banxico said. Cash and payments in kind accounted for 0.7% of the $12.52 billion total while the other 0.3% was sent via money order.

The bank also reported a seasonally adjusted figure for remittances in the first quarter. The figure derived from that statistical method was a first quarter record of $13.91 billion, an 18.5% increase compared to the first three months of 2021.

In March, remittances were sent to Mexico in a total of 11.9 million transactions. An average of $393 was transferred in each one, a 6% increase compared to the same month of 2021.

Banxico also reported that remittances totaling $271 million were sent abroad from Mexico in the first three months of the year, an increase of 26.6% compared to the first quarter of 2021. Just over $1.1 billion in remittances left the country in the 12 months to March 31.

New records for incoming remittances were set in both 2020 and 2021 despite the negative impact the coronavirus pandemic had on the global economy.

The United States government’s extensive support for the U.S. economy during the pandemic was cited by many analysts as the main reason for the record remittance levels.

Mexico News Daily 

Security forces capture senior CJNG lieutenant

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MND Staff
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A billboard offers 500,000-peso reward for El Señorón.
A billboard offers 500,000-peso reward for El Señorón.

Federal security forces caught a senior lieutenant of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on Friday, the navy and Morelos Attorney General’s Office announced.

Francisco Rodríguez, known by the alias “El Señorón” (the big shot), was arrested in an operation by marines in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, outside a luxury apartment complex in the northwest of the city. He is thought to be a high-ranking member of the CJNG in Morelos.

In June, Rodríguez was identified as the leader of “Los Colombianos” (The Colombians), a criminal group of growing importance in Morelos, allied with the CJNG. Los Colombianos have been linked to homicide, kidnapping, extortion, money lending and drug trafficking. Its leader is believed to be one of the key people behind violence in the state.

Authorities offered a 500,000-peso (US $25,000) reward for information about Rodríguez in July.

Rodríguez is suspected of the murder of three doctors in April 2020, according to the Morelos Attorney General’s Office. An inter-state working group said security forces had an arrest warrant for murder, criminal association and generating violence in Morelos.

The navy said he controlled several synthetic drug laboratories, whose products were distributed in Cuernavaca, Jiutepec, Puente de Ixtla, Amacuzac, Emiliano Zapata, Cuautla, and Cocoyoc.

Morelos Governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco said a violent reaction to the arrest was expected from criminal groups in the state.

The head of CJNG, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, is one of the most wanted cartel leaders in the world. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has offered US $10 million for his arrest.

Late last year, security forces arrested his wife, Rosalinda González Valencia.

With reports from Reforma, CBS News and El Sol de Cuautla

Foreign minister accuses Texas governor of extortion

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MND Staff
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Marcelo Ebrard
Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard.

The foreign minister has accused the governor of Texas of extortion for his negotiation methods with Mexican governors, who wanted U.S. officials to lift stringent border checks on vehicles.

The inspection program on vehicles was introduced by Governor Greg Abbott at Texas’ almost 2,000-kilometer border with Mexico in early April, for authorities to conduct more thorough checks to detect drugs and migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

All commercial vehicles crossing the border into Texas were checked, causing lines of 24-30 hours and generating losses in Tamaulipas of at least 1 billion pesos (US $50.1 million) in the space of a single week, according to an umbrella group of business organizations.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that Abbott had attempted blackmail the governors, instead of looking for compromise. “It’s extortion. Closing the border and forcing you to sign whatever I say. That’s not an agreement, an agreement is when you and I agree on something,” he said.

“The migration problem is not Mexico’s problem,” Ebrard added, before saying that resolving problems around migration depended on the decisions of U.S. officials.

The governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, and the governors of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Chihuahua negotiated individually with Abbott to lift restrictions.

García promised to install migration checkpoints for vehicles before they reach the border and to activate patrols across 14 kilometers of the border. After the agreement was signed, traffic flow was revived between Nuevo León and Texas.

Ebrard said that he respected the governors’ decisions to cede to Abbott’s demands, but that he couldn’t take the same approach.

“I don’t judge. I think the governors have to do what they can. They had no alternative, but we are not going to allow a governor to extort Mexico, I will never allow that,” he said.

Ebrard added that Abbott’s behavior should be attributed in part to the his re-election campaign.

Two-way trade between Mexico and Texas was worth US $177.8 billion in 2020, according to the Foreign Ministry, with both sides benefiting almost equally from the cross-border exchange.

With reports from Milenio

Environment minister admits Maya Train lacks permits

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MND Staff
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A construction crew works on a section of the Maya Train in Yucatán.
A construction crew works on a section of the Maya Train in Yucatán.

Environment Minister María Luisa Albores acknowledged Monday that definitive environmental approval hasn’t been granted for four sections of the Maya Train railroad project.

She said that sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 only have provisional approval but their construction has been able to proceed thanks to a decree issued by President López Obrador in November.

The decree instructs government agencies to grant provisional authorizations and permits to projects deemed to be of public interest and national security in a maximum period of five working days so as to ensure their timely execution.

Speaking at López Obrador’s regular news conference, Albores said that sections 1, 2 and 3 of the 1,500-kilometer railroad have definitive environmental approval. They are the Palenque-Escárcega, Escárcega-Calkiní and Calkiní-Izamal sections.

The environment minister then admitted that the other four sections only have provisional approval. They are the Izamal-Cancún, Cancún-Tulum, Tulum-Chetumal and Chetumal-Escárcega sections.

Environment Minister María Luisa Albores talked about environmental issues related to the Maya Train at the president's Monday morning conference.
Environment Minister María Luisa Albores talked about environmental issues related to the Maya Train at the president’s Monday morning conference.

“What was done is that on November 22, 2021, there was a decree to issue provisional permits,” Albores said. “It doesn’t mean that … technical studies [and] environmental impact statements aren’t being done,” she said.

However, it is unclear when those studies – which are needed for full environmental approval to be granted – will be completed.

Albores – the country’s foremost environmental official – defended companies’ capacity to work on the US $10 billion project while the environmental studies are being carried out. She said that the National Tourism Promotion Fund, which is managing the ambitious project, has experts in the field who monitor work on the railroad to ensure that the environment isn’t adversely affected.

“We’re talking about more than 100 specialists who are in the territory [where the railroad is being built]. … They’re brigades that do everything related to looking after the environment,” she said.

Albores acknowledged that there has been significant opposition to the southern part of section 5, which will run between Playa del Carmen and Tulum, but claimed that work has continued, apparently before a judge suspended work due to environmental concerns and the lack of permits.

The protesters – which López Obrador has dubbed “pseudo-environmentalists” – have made a lot of noise, but it doesn’t mean work has stopped, she said.

Opponents of the Playa del Carmen-Tulum stretch have denounced the clearing of forested land without environmental permits having been granted and warned of irreversible damage to flora, fauna and subterranean rivers in Quintana Roo.

Albores said Monday that “only 300,000 trees” will be cut down to make way for the highly-controversial section before she asserted that over 143 million trees will be planted along the railroad route thanks to the government’s reforestation and employment program, called Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life).

While the environment minister argued that work on the Maya Train sections without definitive environmental approval was legal, given AMLO’s infrastructure decree, a National Autonomous University academic took a different view earlier this year.

Ana Esther Ceceña, an academic with the university’s Economic Research Institute, told the news website Animal Político in late March that environmental impact statements have to be completed before work on the different Maya Train sections can begin.

“That is by law, and they can’t be provisional permits,” she said. “… They haven’t done land or environment studies or even economic feasibility studies. They haven’t done them in advance, they are doing them on the fly,” Ceceña said.

López Obrador, who has consistently denied that the railroad project will damage the environment and has touted the economic benefits it will bring, claimed on March 31 that all environmental permits had already been issued for the Maya Train project – one of his signature infrastructure projects – but Animal Político ran a fact check on the assertion and declared it to be false.

With reports from Milenio and Animal Político

Becán’s remains hint at the story of an important pre-Hispanic trade center

By
Thilini Wijesinhe
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Structure X at Becan site in Campeche
The towering Structure IX at the ancient Maya archaeological site of Becán in Campeche.

If you are a fan of archaeology and history, Becán is yet another beautiful Maya site in Campeche that is a must-see!

Situated around 130 kilometers from Chetumal off Highway 186, you can combine a visit to Becán with a trip to the famous Maya site of Calakmul, and several other nearby ruins.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says the site’s first occupation dates to around 600–300 B.C., and it is believed to have been the capital of the Río Bec region in the late classic period (A.D. 600–900). Becán enjoyed a strategic location and controlled trade routes, according to INAH.

It was eventually abandoned around A.D. 1200–1400.

Becán is Yucatec Mayan for “trench.” It is also translated as “path (cavity) formed by running water” or “path of the serpent,” according to INAH. The name refers to a unique trench shielding its main buildings.

Becan archaeological site Campeche
This passageway was once a street.

With around a two-kilometer circumference covering an area of approximately 12 hectares, the trench has seven entrances, with bridges to access the enclosed area. The trench had different uses, including possibly for defense. Outside the shielded area, other constructions and residences of Becán’s population have been identified.

There are about 20 structures to see, so expect to spend a few hours exploring the site. Río Bec is one of the key architectural styles to observe here, featuring symbolic twin towers with decorative stairs and temples on top.

Remember to keep an eye out for traces of original paint on buildings.

Once you enter the site, you will see an interesting tunnel-like passage that was once used as a street. In ancient times, there had been a fake arch covering the length of this passage. The arch had included niches for offerings.

An absolute must-see section of the site is the Central Plaza. The magnificent structures here will help you envision the grand city that Becán was.

East of the plaza is Structure VIII, with a beautiful central area and two towers on either side. The main section’s entrance has columns, and a stela — a carved or inscribed stone slab or pillar — stands in the center. The stela probably commemorates a ruler’s official occasion, according to INAH. While some of the building’s rooms are identified as living quarters, there are others believed to have been used for storage or religious ceremonies, including possible self-sacrifices.

Structure IX at Becan site in Campeche
A burial chamber was found within Structure IX.

North of the Central Plaza is Becán’s tallest building, a large pyramid measuring around 32 meters in height. Named Structure IX, INAH says a burial chamber was found here. The pyramid has a large stairway that leads to a temple on top.

You can climb this pyramid, but the site notice says they will appreciate it if you do not — for preservation and to avoid accidents. You can observe the features of this pyramid from the plaza, however, even without climbing it.

West of the Central Plaza is an interesting building called Structure X that looks like a complex of buildings. It has many rooms across two levels and a temple on the top section. This temple’s facade had decorations representing the Maya creator god Itzamná, also called the Earth Monster, whose remains can be seen.

You can also see the remains of the roof comb — which was once decorated with stucco figures. Structure X has palace complexes that were likely the residences of the city’s key residents, according to INAH.

Towards the south end of Structure X is a magnificent stucco mask with remains of original colors, believed to be of a ruler or a notable person. In the past, this mask was displayed through a glass window, but during our visit, it was covered with a canvas to protect it from the sun. While it is not the same as seeing the real mask, the image on the canvas will help you visualize what it looks like.

Make time to explore the interesting rear of this complex to the west. Next to this complex is the West Plaza. A notable section here is the ball court where the Mayan ballgame believed to represent the recurring life and death cycle was played. It has the usual parallel rectangular platforms, but its playing area is wider than what’s seen on some sites. The ball rings are speculated to have been made of wood, but no traces of them exist.

The East Plaza, which you will see when entering the site, is worth exploring. There are several beautiful buildings surrounding this plaza; a notable one is the magnificent Structure I, identified as one of the oldest buildings on the site.

This structure has many rooms on two levels and two towers on each side measuring around 15 meters in height. INAH says the towers had openings that may have been used for astronomical observations, but they no longer exist.

Check out the round structure called the circular altar in this plaza. These types of constructions are thought to be linked to Kukulcán – the feathered serpent deity.

The palace-like Structure IV in the East Plaza is also worth seeing. Rulers are believed to have occupied certain rooms here. The benches in rooms are considered resting spaces. This building has remains of decorative masks.

There are several other buildings to explore onsite. Don’t forget to also enjoy the natural scenery: near Becán is the town of Xpujil, where you can explore more ruins and enjoy some local food.

Thilini Wijesinhe, a financial professional turned writer and entrepreneur, moved to Mexico in 2019 from Australia. She writes from Mérida, Yucatán. Her website can be found at https://momentsing.com/

Inflation: prices of 12 key food products up as much as 28% in first four months

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MND Staff
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basic basket of goods, Mexico
Prices for 12 basic food staples has shot up to more than double Banxico's target inflation rate.

The average price of 12 staple products leapt up as much as 28.6% in some parts of Mexico during the first four months of the year, according to data from the Economy Ministry and the consumer protection agency Profeco.

The products in question all feature in the shopping basket of essential items. Mexico uses this economic tool to track inflation, which was 7.72% in the first half of April, more than double the Bank of México’s target rate.

The 12 products included in the January-through-April calculation are limes, melons, serrano chiles, onions, apples, tortillas, tomatoes, milk, beans, rice, eggs and chicken. These 12 products are not the entire makeup of the basket, which includes several other foods and also cooking items such as oil, chocolate and some hygiene projects like soap and toothpaste.

The cost of limes, serrano chiles and melons all skyrocketed in the first four months of 2022, between 97% and 173%. Those price spikes were partially compensated by a drop in the price of beans (1.9%), chicken (16.2%) and rice (32.1%) over the same period.

Mexico City citizens were the worst affected, where a 28.6% spike in the cost of the 12 products was recorded. In Guadalajara, Jalisco, the items increased 27.9% in cost, while in Monterrey, Nuevo León, their prices jumped 18.1%.

shopping in Mexico City
Shoppers in Mexico City had it the worst with a 28.6% spike in prices for the 12 products.

President López Obrador announced last week that the government was seeking an agreement with private companies to limit price increases on basic food items.

“We are going to reach an agreement, which is already very advanced, with producers and business people,” he said. “We are going to guarantee a basic basket of food with fair prices so that people do not suffer …” he said. López Obrador added that the plan had the support of the business community.

However, opinions in that sector appear mixed.

The finance director of restaurant operator Alsea, Rafael Contreras, said the plan was workable in the short term.

“It’s a good thing in the short term for people who consume items from the [inflation] shopping basket, but in the long term, it could generate a shortage of those products. It’s something that will have to be defined as inflation grows to see if producers are willing to continue with it,” he said.

Rodolfo Ramos, the general director of poultry producer Bachoco, supported the government’s plan to facilitate product distribution. “The government said that it’s not going to control prices, which is very important, and that there is going to be some support for distribution, including reductions in taxes on gasoline and diesel, and there are some other proposals relating to … transportation,” he said.

Chickens at Bachoco
Chicken is one of several items contained in the basic shopping basket of food staples. Bachoco

The director-general of supermarket chain Chedraui, Antonio Chedraui Eguía, has voiced concerns that the government could try to keep prices low in the longer term.

The director of economic analysis at Banco Base, Gabriela Siller, said the strategy could end up being counterintuitive.

“Unifying prices [between states] implies that for some, prices will have to rise. Then you end up affecting people instead of helping them,” she said.

With reports from Milenio

Electoral reform is regression for democracy, warns elections chief

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MND Staff
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Lorenzo Cordova
At a Mexico City event Friday, INE chief Lorenzo Córdova spoke out against an electoral reform bill sent to Congress Thursday.

President López Obrador’s proposed electoral reform would sabotage democracy in Mexico, the head of the National Electoral Institute (INE) said Friday.

Sent to the lower house of Congress last Thursday, López Obrador’s constitutional reform bill would dissolve the INE and replace it with a less-well-funded, directly elected body.

It would also cut public funding to political parties, loosen electoral campaigning rules, reduce the number of federal and state lawmakers and introduce electronic voting.

As it seeks to change the constitution, the reform — which López Obrador says would generate huge savings — requires support from two-thirds of lawmakers to pass Congress. The ruling Morena party and its allies have a majority in both houses but don’t command a supermajority in either, meaning the bill is unlikely to be approved in its current form.

Speaking to reporters at an event in Mexico City last Friday, INE president Lorenzo Córdova described the proposed reform as a threat to democracy because it entails a “democratic regression.”

He acknowledged that the rules governing elections in Mexico could be improved but asserted that the current system is an international example of how to guarantee democratic certainty.

Lawmakers who support the bill without seeking to change even a comma would be sabotaging the country’s transition to democracy, Córdova said.

That transition, many scholars argue, was completed in 2000 when the National Action Party won control of the federal government after over more than 70 uninterrupted years of Institutional Revolutionary Party rule.

Córdova said that electoral changes over the past 30 years were made in response to shared needs and problems. There was a consensus about how to respond to those needs and confront those problems, he said, before implying that there is now no such agreement between the country’s political parties.

López Obrador, an outspoken critic of the INE who has clashed with its chief on several occasions, said Thursday that “there is no intention to impose a single party” with the proposed reform and “what we want is for there to be an authentic, true democracy in the country and to end electoral fraud.”

But Córdova questioned the need to overhaul the electoral system given that the INE – one of the country’s most trusted institutions – has organized over 300 elections that guaranteed citizens’ right to freely choose their political representatives.

With reports from Infobae 

Navy expresses alarm; predicts massive arrival of 32,000 tonnes of sargassum

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MND Staff
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The stinky seaweed is both difficult and expensive to clean up.
The stinky seaweed is both difficult and expensive to clean up.

Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda warned Friday that over 30,000 tonnes of sargassum were located off the coast of Quintana Roo.

Speaking at President López Obrador’s morning press conference – held Friday in the Quintana Roo municipality of Isla Mujeres – Ojeda said the navy was monitoring an estimated 32,000 tonnes of the seaweed.

“We’re going to try to stop it from reaching the beaches,” he said, referring to the navy’s efforts to collect the seaweed at sea. If it does wash up on shore, it will be removed, the navy chief said.

“This sargassum reaches the Mexican Caribbean and a lot of the time continues its trajectory towards the Gulf of Mexico,” Ojeda said.

“We can say that the current situation is alarming, it’s a category 8 [situation],” he said, explaining that meant an excessive amount of sargassum could arrive on Quintana Roo beaches.

Monday morning's sargassum distribution map from the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network.
Monday morning’s sargassum distribution map from the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network. Facebook / Red de Monitoreo del Sargazo de Quintana Roo

The Quintana Roo sargassum monitoring network’s map shows that 34 beaches currently have excessive amounts of sargassum. Among those where excessive quantities of the smelly and unsightly seaweed have washed up are beaches in the Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum areas and beaches along the eastern coast of Cozumel.

Ojeda noted that the navy has removed 97 tonnes of sargassum from the sea since February 15 and cleared over 9,000 tonnes from beaches. He said that 328 marines, 11 sargassum-gathering vessels, 23 other boats and five air units are supporting the navy’s seaweed removal and collection efforts.

The navy chief said that sargassum affects the coastlines of a lot of countries but Mexico is the only one where federal, state and municipal authorities are working together to combat the problem.

“We would like the results to be better but in one way or another we are combating the problem,” Ojeda said.

The director of the Quintana Roo sargassum monitoring network disagrees, saying last month that Mexico’s anti-sargassum strategy doesn’t work.

“Over and over again the same deficiencies have been on display. For example, we’ve already seen that the barriers don’t work because the sargassum goes over [them]. They’re barriers designed for the contention of oil spills,” Esteban Amaro said.

Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda describes the navy's work to prevent the arrival of sargassum, last Friday.
Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda describes the navy’s work to prevent the arrival of sargassum, at Friday’s presidential press conference.

Removing sargassum from beaches is not only very hard work but also very expensive.

A study by the National Autonomous University’s reef systems unit in Puerto Morelos determined that removing sargassum from beaches costs authorities between 6 million and 10 million pesos (US $293,000 to $488,000) per kilometer per year.

Rosa Rodríguez, head of the unit, told the newspaper Milenio that the government should be encouraging the use of sargassum for industrial purposes.

“It’s worth investing [in sargassum] … research [and] management … and promoting the industry because sargassum has the potential to be used in different industries,” she said.

“But we need regulations … [and] fiscal incentives” to encourage its use, Rodríguez said.

With reports from Animal Político and Milenio

AMLO describes ‘cordial’ phone call with US president

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MND Staff
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President López Obrador and U.S. President Biden shake hands at a 2012 meeting, before either was elected to the presidency of their respective countries.
President López Obrador and U.S. President Biden shake hands at a 2012 meeting, before either was elected to the presidency of their respective countries.

Cooperation on development in southern Mexico and Central America was a key focus of President López Obrador’s phone call with United States President Joe Biden on Friday.

López Obrador said he had a “cordial” conversation with his U.S. counterpart, adding in a social media post that they spoke about “issues of interest in the bilateral relationship.”

The president also said they agreed that Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard would travel to Washington, D.C., on Monday to work with U.S. officials on “issues of cooperation for development” and the Summit of the Americas – a meeting of the heads of state of Western Hemisphere countries that will be held in Los Angeles in June.

The approximately 50-minute call came four months after Mexico and the United States entered into a new security agreement that superseded the 13-year-old Mérida initiative and as the U.S. remains concerned about its neighbor’s energy sector policies and plans, albeit less so because López Obrador’s nationalistic electricity bill failed to pass Congress last month.

In a statement, the Mexican president’s office said López Obrador and Biden reviewed progress on bilateral development cooperation in Central American and southern Mexico. Their cooperation is aimed at attending the root causes of migration to the United States, such as poverty, lack of opportunity and insecurity.

On Twitter, AMLO shared some of the topics covered in his “cordial” phone call with the U.S. leader.

Officials in Mexico and the United States are concerned that the cessation of Title 42 expulsions – a Donald Trump era public health order that allows the U.S. to expel migrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus – will lead to a surge in arrivals on the U.S. border. The order was to expire on May 23, but that is now in doubt due to a federal court ruling last week.

The president’s office said López Obrador and Biden “emphasized the importance of working together with other countries in the region to ensure safe and sustainable livelihoods for their respective citizens and migrant populations,” adding that they would continue to collaborate on job creation in Central America and efforts to expand legal migration pathways.

“They also committed to promoting these efforts with key regional partners and in multilateral forums … [with a view to making] a new and and solid declaration about migration and protection,” the statement said.

It also said that López Obrador and Biden spoke about progress in the strengthening of supply chains in North America and “the modernization of our shared border to further strengthen our agricultural and trade activity,” which was recently affected by Texas’s decision to ramp up inspections of trucks crossing the border from Mexico.

The president’s office also noted that López Obrador proposed that all Western Hemisphere countries be invited to the Summit of the Americas. Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are among U.S. antagonists in the region.

In a readout of the call between the two presidents, the White House said Biden spoke with López Obrador to “reaffirm the vision they laid out in the November 2021 North American Leaders’ Summit of a North America that remains the most competitive and dynamic region in the world.”

The politicians spoke about border infrastructure projects that aim to promote legal trade and stop the illegal flow of drugs and weapons.
The politicians spoke about border infrastructure projects that aim to promote legal trade and stop the illegal flow of drugs and weapons, the president’s office said in a statement.

“At a time of immense global challenges, from Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine to economic volatility, the leaders pledged to work together across the breadth and depth of the relationship between our nations,” the White House said.

“President Biden and President López Obrador discussed how our countries can continue to advance our shared economic, climate, energy, and migration management goals in line with the High-Level Economic Dialogue, with a special focus on shoring up North American supply chains.”

The readout said that “in view of the unprecedented flows of migrants from throughout the hemisphere to our two countries, the presidents reiterated the need to build stronger tools for managing regional migration surges.”

“To that end, they agreed to enhance our collaboration to support just, humane and effective efforts to reduce irregular migration and to advance our shared goal that countries throughout the region improve their ability to manage their borders in furtherance of humanitarian and security objectives,” the White House said.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Friday that the “majority of the conversation was about migration” and described the call as “very constructive.”

“This was not a call where President Biden was threatening the Mexican president in any way,” she said, seemingly making a veiled reference to former president Trump’s recent boast that Mexico “folded” and agreed to place troops on its northern border to stem illegal immigration to the U.S. when he threatened in 2019 to impose blanket tariffs on Mexican imports.

López Obrador has repeatedly said that the United States has treated Mexico with respect since he took office in late 2018.

Neither country said that López Obrador and Biden spoke about Mexico’s failure to impose sanctions on Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine, but a high-ranking U.S. official said before the call that “we obviously hope that they will join us in imposing a cost on the Kremlin for what it is doing … by working with us to enforce sanctions implemented by the United States and our partners.”

The official, who spoke with journalists on condition of anonymity, said the United States and Mexico would inevitably have “different approaches” to responding to Russia’s aggression but added that they had a “common vision” that Vladimir Putin’s war was unjustified.

Mexico has condemned Russia’s invasion, but last month abstained in a United Nations vote that suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights in Ukraine.”

With reports from Milenio and Reforma 

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