Seniors return to work bagging groceries in Mexico City

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May 27, 2021

Baggers are back at work at a Chedraui store in Mexico City.

Seniors have returned to supermarkets in Mexico City to bag groceries for customers’ tips after a year and a half off work due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chedraui is one store that has brought back their grocery baggers while Mexico City remains yellow on the coronavirus stoplight risk map, but other supermarkets are waiting for the capital to go green.

All of the “cerillitos,” as the baggers are affectionately known, need to be vaccinated and wear a face mask in order to return, according to the newspaper Milenio.

One grocery bagger said that returning to work would provide health benefits. “My family is happy that I’ve come back to work. They said it will help not to be sitting all day, and that it will improve my circulation,” he said.

He also attested to the health measures enforced by the store. “I already have my two vaccinations. In fact, the company spoke to me and asked me if I was inoculated, so we returned with all the sanitary measures,” he said.

Another grocery bagger, Don Rafael, 65, was happy to get back to work on Tuesday to supplement his pension.

“I’ve returned with a lot of energy. I was hoping to get out of the house and have more income, because the pension that the government gives me isn’t enough to pay rent, food and household expenses. Now more than ever I won’t pass up this opportunity,” he said.

Don Rafael’s streak continued when a customer handed him a scratch card as a tip, revealing a 100 peso prize. “I’m very lucky, now I can be calmer now that I will take more money home,” he said.

However, one senior, Don Lució Salazar, said he felt nostalgic for colleagues that would not be returning to work after falling victim to the pandemic. “I’m happy to be here, but I no longer see many friends. Don Otto from the morning shift who passed away, or Doña Luisa who will also be greatly missed here,” he said.

Walmart, Bodega Aurrera and Soriana are waiting for Mexico City to go green on the coronavirus risk map before inviting grocery baggers back.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Green Party candidate for governor is first to campaign in battle-weary Aguililla

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MND Staff

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May 27, 2021

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Michoacán gubernatorial candidate Juan Antonio Magaña, in the dark vest, takes a triumphant stance with his campaign team on Aguililla's streets on Wednesday. photos from Facebook

A Green Party (PVEM) candidate for governor of Michoacán has become the first person among those vying for the state’s top job to visit Aguililla, a violence-plagued municipality in the Tierra Caliente region.

Juan Antonio Magaña, a state Supreme Court judge and a former attorney general for the state, spent two hours in the municipal seat on Wednesday, where he held a campaign rally.

He is one of seven candidates contesting the June 6 election for governor. Morena party candidate Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla is currently ahead in the polls.

According to a report by the newspaper Milenio, Magaña told a woman selling aguas frescas (flavored beverages) at a gas station on the outskirts of Apatzingán that he was heading to Aguililla, where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Cárteles Unidos are fighting each other for control.

“Do you have a bulletproof vest?” the vendor inquired. “No,” responded the candidate, “but whoever wants to be governor has to travel through Michoacán, and Aguililla is Michoacán.”

Magaña told Milenio that members of his family and campaign team tried to persuade him to reschedule his visit to the municipality because there was a gunfight there early on Wednesday. But he refused, confident that his “goodwill” would protect him.

The PVEM candidate did make it in and out safely, but he wasn’t able to completely avoid criminal activity.

On the Apatzingán-Aguililla highway — blocked for about four months by trenches, stones and vehicles before it was cleared by police last month — Magaña and his entourage, accompanied by state police, encountered a blockade in the form of a tractor-trailer that had been set alight by a criminal group.

“It angers me. It angers me as a citizen because this cannot happen in my state,” the candidate said.

When he arrived in the city, Magaña didn’t come across a bustling town but one replete with shuttered businesses, their facades scarred with bullet holes.

“… About half the town has left,” Antonio Navarrete, who attended the candidate’s rally, told Milenio, referring to the exodus of Aguililla residents due to the violence. “There are shootouts every day, … last night it was from two to three or four in the morning, and that’s the way it is every day.”

Despite the dangers, Magaña criticized his fellow candidates for not visiting Aguililla and listening to the concerns of residents.

“Aguililla is also Michoacán, and those of us who aspire to govern the state must travel through all its territory,” he said.

Doing just that after leaving the troubled town, Magaña encountered another blockade near the community of El Terrero. It consisted of a group of some 200 people protesting against the National Guard and state police, whom they accused of allowing organized crime to operate in the Tierra Caliente region.

The PVEM candidate remained in his vehicle despite calls for him to join the protest. The disgruntled residents eventually allowed his car and others to pass.

Some 200 state police are currently deployed to the Tierra Caliente region as part of a Michoacán government operation to combat organized crime. But criminal groups are still in control, Milenio reported, and acts of violence remain a common occurrence.

Source: Milenio (sp)

When the medical diagnosis is given in Spanish, that’s when the fun begins

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Joseph Sorrentino

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May 26, 2021

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Mexican doctor explaining EKG — Dr. Jiménez tried several times to explain to the writer what he saw on his EKG. He left hoping it wasn't anything serious. Miguel Ángel Gómez Cabrera

I’ve been trying to get medical insurance that will cover me here in Mexico. I say, “trying” because I’ve not actually been able to get it yet. But I am making progress. Sort of.

The insurance agent sent me a list of tests I have to have in order to be approved — blood tests, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, and an electrocardiogram (EKG).

I was able to find a doctor — after two unsuccessful previous attempts — who understood what I needed, and I had the blood tests and EKG done. I was told I had to pick up the results and that they’d be ready in three days.

I have learned from previous experiences that when someone says “three days,” I should give them five. Or more.

The results still weren’t ready when I showed up a week later, but when we finally neared the two-week mark, I had them in hand and brought them to the doctor’s office.

That’s when the fun really began.

One interesting thing is that, so far, I’ve not needed to make an appointment at the local clinic to see a doctor. I walk in, try as best I can to tell them why I’m there and get ushered in.

On this occasion, I saw a Dr. Jiménez, a really nice man who wanted to make sure I understood everything in the results. Mind you, this is all being done in Spanish, and although my Spanish is proficient, there are instances where I simply don’t have the vocabulary necessary to understand what’s being said. Like in a doctor’s office, for example.

I should have brought a friend fluent in Spanish with me, but where’s the fun in that?

Dr. Jiménez pulled out my EKG, studied it for a moment and then laid it in front of me. He pointed to the peaks and valleys on the chart and said something I didn’t even come close to understanding.

So he wrote p, q, r, s, t on different peaks and valleys of the EKG and then proceeded to say the letters as he pointed at them. How saying the letters aloud was going to get me to understand what they meant wasn’t at all clear.

But he was very earnest, and at the end of the first round of pointing and naming the letters (there would be several), he smiled and said, “¿Verdad?” which means true.

I must have had a completely confused look on my face because he launched into a second round of pointing at the peaks and valleys and rattling off the letters, after which he looked at me again, smiled and yet again said, “¿Verdad?” I didn’t want to disappoint him — he was a really nice man — so I smiled back and said, “Sí” because I had no idea what else to say.

But, perhaps concerned that I still wasn’t fully appreciating what he was trying to convey, he then drew the same peaks and valleys on a piece of paper, labeled them with the same letters and proceeded to say them aloud again, smiling as always. Then, on another piece of paper, he drew another series of much larger peaks and valleys (I have no idea why), pointed to them and then to mine.

“¿Verdad?” he asked.

“Sí, verdad,” was my reply.

That seemed to satisfy him because he then started to pack up my results. I had to remind him that I needed him to fill out the paperwork the insurance agent had sent me (this was all I actually wanted from the beginning, but he had insisted on explaining things to me). The form was in Spanish, but he seemed to have a hard time understanding what was needed — he stared at it for some time — so I told him again that I just needed the form filled out.

I explained it as well as I could (I was the one doing the pointing this time), and I guess he understood because he called in his assistant and had her read the information from the tests out loud. Why he needed to have them read aloud is anybody’s guess, but it got things moving along nicely.

He wrote down the results on the form, but for some reason, he skipped some. When he handed me the paper, I had to point this out, gently insisting that he please fill out the entire form. Which he finally did.

Completed paperwork in hand, I paid 300 pesos (about US $15) and headed out wondering what the heck was going on with that EKG.

Despite the fact that he was smiling broadly the entire time, I hoped he wasn’t trying to tell me I had some potentially fatal disease.

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer, photographer and author of the book San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmvisiones and of Stinky Island Tales: Some Stories from an Italian-American Childhood, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.

AMLO says refinery purchase will be paid off in 2-3 years

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Pemex Deer Park refinery near Houston, Texas. — The Deer Park refinery near Houston, Texas, is Pemex's only refinery outside of Mexico. (File photo)

The federal government will recover its almost US $600 million investment to buy Shell Oil Company’s 50.1% share in the Deer Park oil refinery near Houston, Texas, in two to three years, President López Obrador said Wednesday.

“The specific financial analysis for this is already done. [Purchasing the refinery] is good business for the country,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

López Obrador announced Monday that Pemex had reached a deal to buy Shell’s share in the refinery, which has been a joint venture since 1993.

The sale, worth some $596 million, will help Mexico achieve self-sufficiency in fuel by 2023, according to the president.

Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said Wednesday that up to $490 million of the transaction cost will go toward paying down the joint venture’s debt. Approximately $106 million will go toward servicing a loan received in January by Shell Oil Company, the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell.

López Obrador said Monday that the government will complete the purchase with savings generated by the government’s austerity drive and elimination of corruption. He stressed that the government is not taking on any debt to purchase the controlling stake in the U.S. refinery.

Romero said the British bank Barclays helped to structure the deal. Negotiations with Shell started last August, he said.

The $596-million price tag doesn’t include the value of oil inventories, which was estimated at $250 million to $350 million in a report prepared by the investment firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Romero said that the Deer Park refinery — which has the capacity to process 340,000 barrels of crude per day but only operated at 78.5% capacity last year — reported a loss in 2020 but noted that the profits of most U.S. refineries were affected by the coronavirus-induced decline in demand for fuel.

The Pemex CEO said the purchase of Shell’s 50% stake is an important step toward energy self-sufficiency. The government is also modernizing the six existing Pemex refineries and building a new one on the Tabasco coast at a cost of $8.9 billion.

López Orador, a staunch energy nationalist who has sought to strengthen state control of the sector, said that Pemex needed to find a way to process an additional 200,000 barrels per day in order to achieve self-sufficiency.

“Our options were restarting a refining train at Cangrejera [a petrochemical complex in Veracruz] to process 100,0000 barrels [per day] or buying Deer Park,” he said.

“… In the future we’re not going to sell crude oil and buy gasoline, we’re going to produce in Mexico. Pemex will have the capacity to produce the fuels needed in the country.”

Source: Reuters (en)

Chief justice’s meetings with AMLO in violation of code of ethics

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar leaving the National Palace — Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar leaves the National Palace after meeting with President López Obrador on May 6.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court has violated the federal judiciary’s code of ethics by meeting privately with President López Obrador at the National Palace.

According to a report by the newspaper Reforma, Arturo Zaldívar — considered an ally of the president — has met twice with López Obrador over the past month to discuss legal matters such as injunction requests against the government’s electricity and hydrocarbon reforms.

Supreme Court judges Yasmín Esquivel Mossa and Juan Luis González Alcántara, both of whom were nominated by López Obrador, were also present at one of the meetings, according to the president.

In meeting with AMLO, as the president is commonly known, Zaldívar and the other Supreme Court justices violated the federal judiciary’s code of ethics, which states that judges should avoid meetings outside their workplace with people involved in or related to legal matters before the court in which they work or which they could hear in the future.

One clause in the code states that judges must avoid making or accepting invitations in which their impartiality could be compromised.

Zaldívar’s recent meetings with López Obrador came after Congress approved a law backed by the president to extend the chief justice’s term by two years, a move that has been described by critics as an “assault on justice” and a coup d’etat by the government against the judiciary.

AMLO has defended the decision to extend Zaldívar’s term — even though the Mexican constitution restricts the maximum term of a chief justice to four years — on the grounds that only the chief justice is capable of implementing the government’s laws to overhaul the judicial power.

Reforma said that meetings between a sitting president and Supreme Court judges were considered scandalous in the past.

The newspaper recalled that former president Vicente Fox arranged a meeting at his official residence in 2004 with then chief justice Mariano Azuela to seek his opinion on the possibility of having López Obrador, who was mayor of Mexico City at the time, stripped of his immunity from prosecution, a process known as desafuero.

López Obrador criticized Fox and Azuela at a desafuero trial in federal Congress. He accused Fox of acting dishonorably at a time when Mexico was a “fledgling democracy” and charged that Azuela had subordinated “the high commissions of the constitution to mere political orders.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

When narcos are choosing our politicians, what solutions are left?

By

Sarah DeVries

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May 26, 2021

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Funeral for murdered Cajeme, Sonora, mayoral candidate Abel Murrieta, who is believed to have been gunned down on May 13 by organized crime.

It’s campaign season in my city right now.

The way I know this is because every once in a while I’ll go outside and there will be what appears to be a small but enthusiastic parade of people in matching t-shirts and flags, often complete with a drumline and dancers.

These events always amuse me, and I often ask myself where they get all the people to participate in them. When it comes to politics, most people don’t seem to be “joiners.” So, my only guess is that they’re mostly made up of people who work in the campaign offices or are otherwise connected to the candidate or party.

Since I am not a citizen of Mexico and cannot vote, I don’t pay quite as much attention to the more minor campaigns for local office. But even as someone on the periphery of local Mexican politics, it’s clear to me that some care very much about who wins since an extensive list of promises for funding of certain projects and posts are made during campaigns.

This was made extremely clear to me when I read about the recent murder of mayoral candidate Abel Murrieta as he was campaigning in Ciudad Obregón, the 32nd candidate to be killed in this period leading up to the June 6 elections. (As of publication, 34 candidates for public office have been murdered.)

It makes you wonder why anyone decides to run for office at all.

Common wisdom (and real data from Etellekt Consultores, which tracks these gruesome crimes) is that most victims are mayoral candidates running against incumbents and do not have permission to do so from the local criminals in charge.

Not to be cynical, but for me, this begs the question: does this mean that the ones who do run “safely” and manage not to get gunned down are doing so with the permission of crime bosses and their political friends? If so, what does that imply for the work they’d do once elected?

Violence in Mexico, of course, is nothing new, especially since president Felipe Calderón whacked the hive of narcos back in 2006 by declaring war on them. Since then, getting those crime and murder rates back down has been about as easy and achievable as putting aerosol air freshener back into its container, and no one seems to have come up with a solution for it yet.

What needs to happen? Is there a solution?

It’s no secret that narcos have been running things in ways both scary and embarrassing for a while now. And while I found myself nodding in agreement with navy chief José Rafael Ojeda when he complained that some members of the judiciary seemed to be on the side of criminals, I was also alarmed, along with Human Rights Watch Americas, that he’d go so far as call judges “the enemy.”

Doing so, especially with the president at his side, simply seemed to echo the latter’s own alarming tendency to demonize anyone who appears to contradict him, including the Supreme Court and a great number of individual journalists and entire publications.

But let’s suppose that the courts are indeed corrupt and that even if judges wanted to do things “right,” they risk the murder of themselves and their families for not obeying orders from those who run things with their weapons and extensive network of lackeys. Is there anything to be done about it really?

After all, much of our newly formed National Guard is being used as border patrol instead of taking communities back from narco control. And though President López Obrador insisted that he was wrong, it’s hard for anyone to really argue against a United States general’s claim that a third of Mexico is essentially “ungoverned” (by the country of Mexico, anyway).

And it’s hard to believe in the president’s true opposition to corruption and loyalty to justice when he moved to immediately exonerate General Cienfuegos upon repatriation to Mexico.

But back to the narcos.

These criminal organizations are no longer about simply moving their drugs up to the hungry U.S., although that is still part of their business. They’re diversifying into terror at the local level, involving themselves in human trafficking, “pay for protection” schemes and, of course, more types of drugs.

The saddest truth of all this is that in so many areas, they’re the best, most stable employment opportunities for young people in town (and even if they weren’t, if the option is “work for us or we kill you,” you can guess what most people would choose).

As some analysts have said, narco organizations have taken on the structure of multinational corporations rather than simply criminal gangs at this point. They’re sophisticated and they’re well-funded … more so than the justice system at all levels, a fact that they use to their advantage.

Where the Mexican rule of law is lacking, they fill up the available space. And let me tell you, they’ve shown us a lot of holes.

So what can we do about it? For once, I’ve got few ideas.

Strengthen the police force or strengthen the legal system? But how could we make them corruption-proof? More money would be a good start, I suppose, as it always is.

But can we put more money into them than the narcos are putting into their own organizations? Can we take money away from criminal organizations? Close bank accounts?

When it comes to sophistication and organization, they seem to have us beat, or at least be on the same level. They’ve infiltrated nearly every level of society and have made the government system work for them.

Hearts and minds (hugs, not bullets) was worth a try, but it’s not getting us anywhere. Time to majorly step up our game.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.

Candidates for mayor under attack in Guerrero and Tamaulipas

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Bullet holes in the windshield of a car in which a candidate for mayor of Acapulco was traveling.

Two mayoral candidates have been the target of armed attacks in the space of 12 hours, but with no injuries reported.

The Force for Mexico candidate for Acapulco, José Alberto Alonso Gutiérrez, was attacked in the Guerrero city Wednesday morning while en route to a campaign event, while farther north Jesús Galván, the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) candidate for San Fernando, Tampaulipas, was the target of a gunman who opened fire Tuesday evening on vehicles in his entourage.

In Acapulco, Gutiérrez’s driver said the convoy in which they were traveling was intercepted and fired on from a motorcycle with two people on it. The vehicle transporting the candidate was hit by at least nine bullets.

Force for Mexico spokesman Fernando Manuel Haces Barba said the candidate went into “shock and panic. Thank God he’s fine, he’s stable and they’ve put him on a serum with medicine to calm him down,” he said, adding that the party will demand municipal authorities enact security measures to protect candidates.

Tamaulipas candidate Galván said that although the considered the shooting to be a direct threat, he would continue with the campaign until the June 6 election.

The president of the PRI’s national executive committee, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas, condemned the intimidation suffered by Galván. “Federal and security authorities have to take seriously this crisis that threatens democracy; against citizens and against those who seek to represent them with dignity through a vote, regardless of the party to which they belong,” read a message on Twitter.

The incidents follow two other attacks on Tuesday in Guanajuato and Michoacán. In the former, Alma Barragán, candidate for mayor of Moroleón, was killed while campaigning while Omar Plancarte Hernández was kidnapped in Jiménez.

Source: Milenio (sp)

National Action Party politician files defamation complaint against AMLO

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Former PAN party lawmaker Diego Fernández de Cevallos — Former National Action Party lawmaker Diego Fernández: 'I oppose the government but with my own resources.'

A former National Action Party (PAN) lawmaker and the party’s candidate for president in the 1994 election has filed a defamation complaint against President López Obrador.

Diego Fernández de Cevallos announced on Twitter that he personally filed the complaint at the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) on Tuesday.

The 80-year-old former politician, neither friend nor admirer of the president, said his complaint is related to recent accusations made against him by “the corrupt predator who currently sullies the National Palace.”

Fernández’s complaint, which he published on Twitter, says López Obrador – “using the assets and resources of the state” – has accused him of “serious crimes.”

He objected to the president’s claim that he is “linked to a group opposed to his government” — Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) — “that receives funding from the United States government.”

Fernández wrote that López Obrador has accused MCCI of opposing the use of public resources for the benefit of Mexico’s poorest.

“In his words, he described that conduct as a crime of treason,” the ex-politician wrote. He denied any involvement with MCCI.

“… It’s false … that I am – or have been – directly or indirectly ‘linked’ to Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (an organization that already gave a clear and deserved response to the slanderer).”

“… It’s false … that with resources of a [foreign] government or of third parties I oppose the government of López Obrador. The truth is that I oppose it … in exercise of my right, with my own resources, … openly expressing my profound repudiation of [the president’s] conduct, taking into account that he doesn’t respect the power invested in him, makes a mockery of the law and scorns those he governs because he is solely obsessed with destroying, defaming and distracting.”

Fernández also took umbrage at López Obrador’s accusation that he committed an “illegal and immoral maneuver” as a lawyer in a case in which the beverage company Jugos del Valle was awarded a large tax refund from the federal tax agency, the SAT.

Fernández acknowledged that he represented Jugos del Valle in the case but denied the president’s allegation that he was involved in underhanded dealings.

He noted that he had demanded that López Obrador present proof of his allegations and report them to the FGR. But the president refused in both cases, Fernández wrote.

Fernández asked Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero to summon López Obrador for an interview if he considers his complaint to be “legal and appropriate.”

The president should be interviewed about the content of the complaint and asked to provide proof for his accusations, the former lawmaker wrote.

Widely known as “El Jefe Diego,” or “Diego the Chief,” Fernández said in a radio interview that it was “very possible” that López Obrador is not only guilty of defamation but also of improper and abusive exercise of public office. He predicted that the president will “shield himself like a coward” and avoid accountability for the accusations he made against him.

Fernández, who was runner-up in the 1994 presidential election to Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Ernesto Zedillo, called on citizens to turn out in massive numbers at the June 6 elections and vote against the ruling Morena party so that Mexicans don’t have to live subjugated to “the whims of a rogue” intent on dividing and distracting the nation.

Source: El Universal (sp)

250 bodies to be exhumed in search for missing in Coahuila

By

MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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The exhumation process began Monday in Torreón.

A mass exhumation began on Monday in Torreón, Coahuila, where at least 250 bodies of people presumed missing are to be raised from 161 common graves. Once the work has been completed, specialists will attempt to identify the bodies.

The Regional Center for Human Identification (CRIH) will work with the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala for 33 days at Torreón Cemetery No. 1.

The first mass exhumation at the site was in March, when 148 bodies were raised over 17 days at Cemetery No. 2.

CRIH head Yezka Garza Ramírez said she was motivated to serve the victims. “Our obligation is to guarantee the right to be searched for to the highest level, and to return the bodies home with dignity,” she said.

Ramírez added that specialists are working alongside international organizations and the families of the disappeared. DNA samples will be collected from the bodies and compared to the CRIH gene database.

The post mortem analysis of the 148 bodies raised in the March exhumation has been completed, and bone samples will now be analyzed to form genetic profiles. Those will be entered into the gene database to search for a match.

The formation of genetic profiles from bone analysis is expected to take three to four months.

Sources: El Universal (sp), La Vanguardia (sp)

Candidates in crosshairs: 1 killed in Guanajuato, another kidnapped in Michoacán

By

MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Alma Barragán in Morolón, Guanajuato — Alma Barragán at a campaign event in Moroleón, Guanajuato.

The political violence plaguing Mexico in the lead-up to elections on June 6 continued on Tuesday: one candidate for mayor was murdered in Guanajuato and another was kidnapped in Michoacán.

Alma Barragán, the Citizens Movement party candidate for mayor of Moroleón, Guanajuato, was killed during a campaign event in that municipality, located in the south of the state on the border with Michoacán.

According to witnesses, armed men arrived at the event and opened fire at the candidate. Two other people were wounded, the newspaper Milenio reported. No arrests were reported.

The Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office (FGE) condemned the attack in a Twitter post. It said the attorney general had assigned a team from the Guanajuato Criminal Investigation Agency to assist the homicide squad’s investigation and efforts to detain the aggressors.

Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue also condemned the attack and called on the FGE to carry out a “prompt investigation.”

crime scene Moroleón, Guanajuato — Police guard the crime scene in Moreleón, Guanajuato, where mayoral candidate Alma Barragán was killed by armed men who shot her during a campaign event.

Citizens Movement national leader Clemente Castañeda offered the party’s solidarity and support to the victims and their families and urged authorities to “investigate and guarantee justice for this brutal attack.”

With the murder of Barragán, 88 politicians have been killed during the current electoral season, according to the risk analysis firm Etellekt Consultores, which tracks campaign violence. Thirty-four of those killed were candidates in the upcoming June 6 elections.

Just an hour before she was killed, Barragán uploaded a video to her Facebook page in which she invited residents of Moroleón to attend her campaign event.

“… Come and listen to my proposals, … I’ll wait for you here,” she said.

Earlier that day, a group of armed men kidnapped Omar Plancarte Hernández, Ecological Green Party of Mexico candidate for mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán.

Plancarte, an avocado producer, was abducted at approximately 2:00 p.m. on a property he owns in the municipality of Jiménez, located about 110 kilometers northeast of Uruapan, Michoacán’s second-largest city.

Uruapan, Michoacán, Ecological Green Party mayoral candidate Omar Plancarte, seen here at a campaign event, was kidnapped Tuesday.

Michoacán police launched a search for the candidate but failed to locate him. Plancarte’s whereabouts remained unknown at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday.

Two of the candidate’s children were abducted and presumably killed in 2012. Plancarte blamed drug traffickers from the state of Jalisco for that crime.

Politically motivated violence is a major problem in Michoacán, where several criminal groups, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, are seeking to influence municipal, state and federal elections.

The situation is particularly bad in the state’s Tierra Caliente region, but violence has also occurred in Morelia, Michoacán’s capital and largest city. Two members of the campaign team of Institutional Revolutionary Party mayoral candidate Guillermo Valencia Reyes were wounded earlier this month in a gun attack whose apparent aim was to kill Valencia.

The latest attack on a candidate occurred Wednesday morning in Acapulco, where mayoral candidate José Alberto Alonso Gutiérrez was shot in Costera Vieja, in the port city’s tourist zone, while driving near the Acapulco Convention Center. According to the newspaper El Imparcial, the Force for Mexico party candidate was taken to a nearby hospital but was unhurt in the attack.

This electoral season, which officially began last September, is the second-most violent in Mexico this century, according to Etellekt. There were almost 500 acts of aggression against politicians, candidates, their collaborators and their families between September 7, 2020 and April 30, 2021, the firm said in a report published May 5.

Source: Milenio (sp), Expansión Política (sp), El Universal(sp)