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

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May 26, 2021

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)

Protest in La Paz after US citizen fires flare gun at fisherman

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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The sailboat from which a flare gun was allegedly fired at a fisherman. — The sailboat from which a flare gun was allegedly fired.

A U.S. citizen allegedly fired a flare gun at a fisherman on Sunday in La Paz, Baja California Sur, missing his target but sparking an immediate protest.

Michael Wolf, believed to be from California, had been involved in a verbal dispute with fishermen and demanded they stop passing near his boat, according to the newspaper El Sudcaliforniano.

Wolf has lived on a sailboat anchored in La Paz for some years and was previously detained in March 2020 after he fired an air rifle at fishermen in the same area, the report said.

A group of mainly female residents gathered on the beach in the community of Manglito to protest the flare gun incident and called municipal police. But they were unable to act as the assailant was on board his boat and technically out of their jurisdiction, the newspaper reported.

A navy patrol arrived around an hour after the gun was fired. A fishboat approached the patrol, only to be told that the navy’s mission was to keep peace between Wolf and the protesters.

Residents said Wolf has temporary residence status that runs out in July.

They planned to attend the public prosecutor’s office Tuesday morning to denounce the attack, and said they would request assistance from the federal Attorney General’s Office, the navy and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Some residents warned they will take justice into their own hands if authorities fail to act.
Flare guns are used by sailors to project a bright light as a warning or distress signal. They can reach a height of 20 to 200 meters depending on their caliber.

Source: El Sudcaliforniano (sp)

Opposition questions 1.7mn peso loan to AMLO’s brother

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MND Staff

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May 26, 2021

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Opposition lawmakers have questioned the legality of a 1.77-million-peso (US $89,000) government loan received by President López Obrador’s brother in 2019.

According to documents obtained by the newspaper El Universal via the government’s online transparency platform, the federal development bank Nacional Financiera granted José Ramiro López Obrador a loan when he was deputy minister for border affairs, migrants and human rights in the government of Tabasco.

Nacional Financiera offers financial support to people who work in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. López Obrador, who left his deputy minister position last October, owns cattle ranches in Macuspana, Tabasco, and Palenque, Chiapas.

The president’s brother also received federal government subsidies to offset insurance costs, according to El Universal.

Opposition lawmakers said that the case was one of double standards, noting that President López Obrador says that his administration is combatting corruption and nepotism but at the same time allows a family member to benefit from a government loan scheme.

National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Pilar Ortega said Tuesday that the parliamentary group of which she is part is drawing up a formal request for an investigation into the case. She said the request will be submitted to the Federal Auditor’s Office and the Ministry of Public Administration, which serves as the government’s internal corruption watchdog.

“[We’re going to] ask for an investigation in order to find out if this loan was granted within the framework of the law,” Ortega said, adding that the probe must also establish whether the funds were used for electoral purposes.

Institutional Revolutionary Party Deputy Fernando Galindo, secretary of the budget committee in the lower house of Congress, said that a review must be carried out to determine whether the granting of the loan complied with government rules.

Senator Julen Rementería, leader of the PAN in the upper house, said the case provides more evidence that President López Obrador’s government is the “most corrupt in the history of our country.”

Even Deputy Aleida Alavez of the ruling Morena party conceded that there are questions to be answered about the loan.

“It will have to be reviewed; it doesn’t sound appropriate that he received it, being a [government] official [at the time],” she said.

Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández, José Ramiro López Obrador’s boss at the time that he received the loan, declined to comment on the issue after a meeting with the president at the National Palace on Tuesday. “I have to go, thank you very much,” he told reporters.

It’s not the first time a brother of President López Obrador has been in the spotlight for receiving money. Pío López Obrador hit the headlines last year after video footage surfaced showing him receiving large amounts of cash from a Chiapas government adviser in 2015.

Pío López Obrador and the president denied allegations of corruption. The latter said that the payments were “contributions to strengthen the [Morena] movement” and came from ordinary people who supported the party, which he founded in 2014.

Both cases involving President López Obrador’s brothers were revealed by the journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, an outspoken critic of the federal government.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Construction continues at archaeological site despite stop-work order

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MND Staff

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May 25, 2021

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Despite orders to stop illegal construction projects on an outlying section of the Teotihuacán archaeological site in México state, the work continues.

And now the site, renowned for its two large pyramids, is at risk of losing its UNESCO World Heritage designation, according to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

In March, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) suspended projects being built on private land in Oztoyahualco, an area of the archaeological site that is known as the “old city” because it is believed that the Teotihuacán settlement began there.

Just over a month ago, INAH filed a complaint with the federal Attorney General’s Office against the illegal construction projects, one of which is believed to be an amusement park.

But construction work with heavy machinery continues, according to reports by the Reforma and El Universal newspapers.

Now, the Mexico branch of ICOMOS has written to federal Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto and México state Governor Alfredo del Mazo to demand urgent action to stop the work.

Teotihuacán site director Rogelio Rivera Chong said last month that there are bases of some 24 pre-Hispanic structures in the Oztoyahualco area that haven’t been excavated. All construction in zone B of the Teotihuacán site, of which Oztoyahualco is part, is prohibited.

Saúl Alcántara, president of ICOMOS-México told Reforma that if the construction work isn’t stopped, Teotihuacán – Mexico’s most visited archaeological site – could lose its World Heritage status.

In its letter, ICOMOS not only appealed to authorities to “stop the destruction” but also to prosecute those who are responsible for the “destruction and looting of relics of national heritage.”

“It’s very regrettable what’s happening at Teotihuacán, especially in the 21st century when everyone agrees with protecting pristine tangible heritage,” Alcántara said in an interview with El Universal.

He said that if the authorities fail to respond to the ICOMOS letter, the council will ask UNESCO to carry out a “technical mission” to determine whether Teotihuacán should be placed on the list of endangered world heritage sites, which could prompt government action.

“But first we have to exhaust the national authorities,” Alcántara said.

Source: El Universal (sp), Reforma (sp)

Parents of cancer victims reproach AMLO for dismissing claims of shortages

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MND Staff

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May 25, 2021

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A parent protests the shortage of cancer medications.

Parents of children with cancer have rejected President López Obrador’s claim that the federal government has brought an end to shortages of medications in the public health system.

The president said on Monday that his administration has bought medications in foreign countries whereas it wasn’t able to do so when he took office in late 2018.

“Medications have been bought abroad. … This decision was taken because when we came into the government, there were 10 companies that monopolized all sales of medications to the government, 10 companies. I remember there were three [companies] that sold about 80 billion pesos [worth of medications] to the government, … distributors; they weren’t even pharmaceutical companies, [they were] companies that were closely linked to politicians that dedicated themselves to selling medications at extremely high prices,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning news conference.

“Medications couldn’t be bought abroad. There were decrees, laws that prevented it. We resolved that in order to buy medications in any country of the world, only making sure that they were good, high-quality medications at a good price and that there was no corruption,” he said.

“We established an agreement with the United Nations, with UNOPS [the United Nations Office for Project Services], so that this institution would help us with the brokering with the world’s large pharmaceutical companies in order to make the purchases. … And now contracts have been signed, and we’re buying medications in better conditions.”

López Obrador went on to claim that there is a reliable supply of medications thanks to the collaboration with the UN.

“We went through very difficult situations because those who controlled the sale of medications, these monopolies linked to politicians, carried out actions of sabotage and a media campaign against the decisions we took. But it was the only way to guarantee that there was no shortage of medications, the only way,” he said.

“… [It was] a very painful situation. Imagine facing up to complaints from parents with children who are sick with cancer, to accusations that we weren’t attending to them and that there were no medications. In effect, there was a shortage of medications at the start [of my government] because there was sabotage,” López Obrador said.

Later on Monday, two associations of parents of children with cancer and the Cero Desabasto (Zero Shortage) collective, a group that monitors the availability of medications in the public health system and pressures the government to keep up the supply, issued a statement challenging the president’s claim that shortages have come to an end.

The shortages are well-documented on the Cero Desabasto website, the statement said. The collective’s most recent report, delivered to the federal government at the start of the year, clearly documents “the serious problem of the shortage of medications” in the public health system, it added.

The parents of cancer patients rebuked López Obrador for refusing to meet with them despite their repeated requests.

“Mr. President, you have never listened to us. You have never deigned to set foot in a hospital where children with cancer are treated. On the contrary, you have used all the power of the state to defame us and intimidate us; for this reason, with active indignation, we say to you that you lie … by asserting that everything is OK with respect to the supply of medications,” the statement said.

“First of all, Mr. President, we say to you that the victims are our children, who have been left without medicines,” the parents said, adding that the consequences for many young cancer sufferers have been “grave.”

Parents of children with cancer have protested on numerous occasions against the shortage of essential drugs and the deaths of some young cancer sufferers have been attributed to the lack of supply.

The newspaper Reforma reported in late March that medication shortages were still plaguing Mexico eight months after the government signed the agreement with UNOPS to collaborate on the international purchase of medicines, medical supplies and vaccines. Cero Desabasto said at the time that there were supply problems with one of every four medications the government purchased in 2020.

Source: El Universal (sp)

US proceeds with downgrade to Mexico’s aviation safety rating

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MND Staff

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May 25, 2021

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Volaris jet — The Federal Aviation Authority downgrade ends for now plans by Aeromexico and Volaris to expand US services.

The United States government downgraded Mexico’s aviation safety rating on Tuesday, a move that prevents Mexican airlines from adding new flights to the U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it downgraded Mexico from Category 1 to Category 2 after finding that it doesn’t meet standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.

“The FAA identified several areas of noncompliance with minimum ICAO safety standards,” the aviation authority said in a statement.

“A Category 2 rating means that the country’s laws or regulations lack the necessary requirements to oversee the country’s air carriers in accordance with minimum international safety standards, or the civil aviation authority is lacking in one or more areas such as technical expertise, trained personnel, recordkeeping, inspection procedures, or resolution of safety concerns.”

The downgrade, which places Mexico in a group of countries that includes Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand, means that U.S. airlines will be barred from selling seats on flights operated by Mexican airlines. That will mainly affect Delta Air Lines, which has a codesharing agreement with Aeroméxico.

Delta Airlines and Aeromexico — Delta Airlines president Glen Hauenstein said that Delta will remove its codes on Aeroméxico flights but the Mexican carrier can keep its codes on Delta flights.

Delta president Glen Hauenstein stressed Tuesday that the downgrade was not a reflection of Aeroméxico’s safety standards.

“This is not about Aeroméxico. This is about the Mexican version of the FAA not having some of the right protocols in place,” he said at a conference.

Hauenstein said that there will be “very little impact for our customers booking through Delta,” although the airline might have to issue new tickets to people who bought Aeroméxico flights through it.

What the downgrade does do is “restrict Aeromexico’s ability to grow into the United States,” he said.

Other Mexican airlines such as Volaris will also be prevented from adding new flights to the U.S. at a time when the tourism industry is starting to recover from the pandemic-induced slump.

Hauenstein said that Delta will have to remove its codes on Aeroméxico flights as a result of the downgrade, but the Mexican carrier will be able to keep its codes on Delta flights.

Members of Delta’s loyalty program will still be able to receive SkyMiles on Aeroméxico flights that would normally carry the Delta code, the airline chief added.

The FAA said that it will increase its scrutiny of Mexican airline flights to the United States, but existing flights to the U.S. won’t be immediately affected.

“The FAA is fully committed to helping the Mexican aviation authority improve its safety oversight system to a level that meets ICAO standards. To achieve this, the FAA is ready to provide expertise and resources in support of the Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil’s (AFAC) ongoing efforts to resolve the issues identified in the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) process,” the agency said.

“Both AFAC and FAA share a commitment to civil aviation safety. Sustained progress can help AFAC regain Category 1.”

According to one expert, Mexican aviation officials should attend air safety workshops to stay up to date with changes in the aviation sector. That could help Mexico to be better prepared for international air safety audits such as that carried out by the FAA, said Heriberto Salazar Eguiluz, president of the Pilots College of Mexico.

Speaking at a recent transport forum, Salazar said that Mexico is no longer a regional leader in the aviation sector and is now completely reactive to changes in the industry when it should be proactive.

“Not only is Mexico reactive, there has to be an external audit for us to do what we should have done 10 years ago,” he said.

Due to the dynamism of the aviation sector, when a country doesn’t stay up to date with requirements, it quickly becomes evident, Salazar said.

Mexican officials should participate in aviation workshops organized by the ICAO and various foreign governments, he said.

“For example, we know that there will be an amendment next year to one of the ICAO manuals. If Mexico was a participant in the workshops, we could prepare for the changes that are coming instead of waiting for the amendment to be published and then seeing how to carry out the changes,” Salazar said.

Source: AP (en), Reuters (en), A21 (sp)

Government can’t attend to drought due to election rules: AMLO

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MND Staff

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May 25, 2021

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Drought conditions are affecting much of Mexican territory.

President López Obrador said Tuesday that his government cannot react to the nationwide drought because election silence rules prevent it from doing so, and only after the June 6 elections can it attend to the emergency.

The dissemination of political propaganda is prohibited in the lead-up to an election.

“We are going to help but we are waiting for the electoral silence to pass, because we cannot now carry out any action, even in emergencies,” the president said.

“We want to be careful not to allow public money to be used, which is the people’s money and everyone’s money, for electoral purposes. The budget should not be used to help any party or any candidate and I don’t know of any pretext or excuse,” he added.

Yesterday, opposition legislators urged the government and Conagua to implement an emergency plan to mitigate the damage of the drought, which is considered the worst in 30 years.

Farmers have called on the Ministry of Agriculture to reallocate resources and the National Confederation of Livestock Organizations has called for help, since the policy of agricultural disaster insurance was discontinued by the current administration.

The president took the opportunity to denounce other forms of electoral corruption. “I take this opportunity to remind everyone that handouts should not be given to obtain votes. That is undemocratic and it is also a crime. Tell everyone to help, to report, if there are trucks or trailers with handouts, or to report if public money is being used to favor parties. We all have to ensure that there is democracy in Mexico, authentic democracy,” he said.

The president’s comments were made at this morning’s mañanera news briefing, an event which itself has come under scrutiny for breaching electoral rules.

The head of the National Electoral Institute (INE) previously called for broadcasts of the briefings to be suspended during the campaign, arguing that they violate electoral rules by dispersing government propaganda.

Broadcasts have continued, but the president was ordered to remove content on April 16 which promoted the government’s social projects. The INE then delivered a list of 11 topics that should not be discussed at the conference.

Mexico News Daily

Election observers issue alert over violence and illegal campaign funding

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MND Staff

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May 25, 2021

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The remains of a burned-out truck driven by Chilón, Chiapas, mayoral candidate Pedro Gutiérrez. — The remains of a truck in which Chilón, Chiapas, mayoral candidate Pedro Gutiérrez was killed with his son in March.

A Canadian nongovernmental organization has raised a range of concerns about the electoral process in Mexico, including the prevalence of political violence and the funding of campaigns with ill-gotten money.

Six election experts from Canada and the United States who work with the Delian Project — which describes itself as an NGO dedicated to helping jurisdictions implement positive change in the democratic voting process through the application of technology — participated in a virtual press conference on Monday to share their views about the current electoral season in Mexico.

Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, an international election observer and senior associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said three of the biggest concerns with regard to the period leading up to the June 6 elections are violence — more than 80 candidates and politicians have been killed since September, the infiltration of illicit money in candidates’ campaigns and tensions between the federal government and electoral authorities.

“The most concerning challenge in the Mexican election is the growing trend of political violence in Mexico, which has resulted in the murder of candidates and politicians … seeking reelection,” he said.

The Delian Project experts cited four reasons for the high levels of violence: the growing trend for criminal groups to “buy” or install candidates; the greater incursion of cartels into the electoral process, especially at the municipal and state levels; the absence of government control in certain parts of the country; and the weakening of political parties.

Peschard-Sverdrup said that even greater violence can be expected on election day, adding that winning candidates could be targeted in the period before they take office.

“This phenomenon [electoral violence] obviously occurs in countries where organized crime tries to influence the candidates” in order to protect their interests, he said.

“This type of violence has an impact on the foundations of democracy,” said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, an election observer and former chief of Elections Canada, the agency responsible for administering Canadian federal elections.

“And the people who perpetrate it are saying to Mexicans: ‘We don’t care about the electoral process, we don’t care about basic rights.’ It’s concerning because there are murders and physical intimidation. One candidate was kidnapped in broad daylight so that she wouldn’t participate in the [electoral] process; it’s unacceptable.”

To reduce the illicit funding of campaigns, Peschard-Sverdrup proposed the strengthening of authorities’ auditing of spending by political parties and candidates. He said that parties and candidates have made it more difficult for the National Electoral Institute (INE) to effectively audit their spending by using “irregular financing strategies such as the use of cash, triangulation [of resources], the simulation of services and false invoicing.”

Ann Ravel, former chair of the United States Federal Election Commission, said that auditing of campaign resources is fundamental in order to guarantee a level playing field for candidates and parties.

With regard to tensions between the government and the INE — President López Obrador lashed out at the institute for disqualifying two ruling party candidates for governor after they didn’t report their pre-campaign expenses, Kingsley said the strained relationship could cause some citizens to question the legitimacy of the elections. It could also have an impact on voter turnout, he said.

The Delian Project experts did identify some positives in Mexico’s electoral process, including the high participation of women and the planned implementation of health measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“The [Delian Project] delegation recognizes Mexico as one of the most progressive nations in terms of legislation to increase the participation of women in electoral positions,” said Laura Villalba, a senior principal consultant for the political consulting firm Politics and Policy, LLC, who served as an observer in Puebla’s 2019 election.

Richard W. Soudriette, founding president of the International Foundation for Election Systems, which has collaborated with Mexico’s electoral agencies — the INE and its predecessor, the Federal Electoral Institute — on election policy and reform since the 1990s, said the Covid-19 health protocols designed to keep citizens safe during the election are “amazing.”

“… It seems that it will be a very healthy election,” he said.

The delegation from the Delian Project arrived in Mexico April 19 and has met with representatives of the electoral institute, several other agencies and political parties. But requests to meet with the federal government and the ruling Morena party were ignored.

It sought meetings with Morena president Mario Delgado, Senator Ricardo Monreal and Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard but received no reply.

Source: El Economista (sp), Reforma (sp)

Cyclist on 4-year (and counting) trip to Alaska currently in Mexico

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Joseph Sorrentino

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May 25, 2021

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Uruguayan amateur bicyclist Tabaré Alonso — Tabaré Alonso began cycling from Uruguay to Alaska in 2017. He is currently traveling through Mexico.

When Tabaré Alonso first announced his plans to his friends, they doubted him. “They said, ‘Tabaré will be home in a month,’” he said.

He was living in José Enrique Rodó, a tiny pueblo in Soriano, Uruguay, and working in information technology.

“I was having what I would call an existential crisis,” he explained. “I worked, I bought things I did not need for no reason. I always saw the world from a screen — a computer screen or the television.

“I did not know Palenque, did not know Bolivia.” He paused and added, “What was I doing?”

So he decided he was going to make a change, one that was more than a little radical. He was going to ride a bike — alone — all the way from Uruguay to Alaska.

Tabaré Alonso explaining his planned route through Mexico on a map. Joseph Sorrentino

It really wasn’t surprising that his friends had doubts. He weighed about 260 pounds at the time that he made his plans, and he wasn’t a cyclist.

“I did not even know how to repair a bike,” he said. Yet, he was undaunted. “I wanted to live the process. I wanted to live on the road. The project is to document the Americas — all three.”

So he started pedaling from Uruguay in 2017. Fifteen countries, four years and 30,000 kilometers (18,600 miles) later, he found himself in Alemeda Park in Mexico City being peppered with questions by a writer who happened to pass by.

He arrived in Mexico City in early April.

“I was completely alone, and I slept in parks, outside [at first]. The cycling community opened doors for me,” he said. “I now have many brother cyclists in many places in Mexico City, and I’m grateful for this. Many people have opened their home to me.”

While his stay in the capital has been positive, he had challenges in other parts of the country. He had problems with police “everywhere” but was able to talk his way out of trouble. He was threatened with deportation by Mexican immigration agents.

“I have a visa to cross, but they wanted to deport me,” he said.

He was once asked for 1,000 pesos (US $50) but was let go when he showed agents the videos he was posting online. The agents then asked to take a photo with him. He had more problems in Lechería when immigration took his passport and phone and threatened to deport him until he gave them some money.

Police and immigration weren’t the only ones to give him trouble. His bike was stolen twice, once in Brazil and once in Honduras, although “the cycling community helped me get it back.”

And then there have been the internal battles and doubts to overcome.

“In the desert and in the Amazon, I had the most fear,” he said. “In Bolivia, in the salt desert, it was very cold. I almost abandoned the project, but I waited a day for the sun to come up, warmed up and continued.”

He has no set schedule, trying to take things as they come. Although he’s partly financing his trip by selling his book, there have been times when he ran out of money and was forced to stay in one place, working, as he has done throughout May in order to save money. He’s worked construction and on a fishboat to earn cash.

Uruguayan biker Tabaré Alonso in Mexico City — Alonso being treated to an impromptu meal and companionship by Mexico City cyclists. From Facebook

He’s been posting photographs and videos online and has published a book, Uruguay-Alaska: Un viaje por America en bicicleta.

Here in Mexico, he’s not taking the shortest, most direct route to reach Alaska. After Mexico City, he’ll head north to Querétaro, Guanajuato and several other states before taking a ferry to Baja California.

He figures it’ll take him about eight more months to reach the United States border, which he plans on crossing in Arizona.

There are certainly more challenges ahead for him. For example, at some point, he’ll face a winter in the U.S. Is he prepared for that?

“No,” he said simply, but apparently unconcerned. If the weather’s too bad, he said he’ll walk or wait.

He brushed off concerns about traveling during a pandemic.

“I am not afraid of the virus. I exercise, stay healthy,” he said.

He doesn’t plan on stopping when he finally does reach Alaska, which he figures will be about two years from now. His next trip will be to Russia, he’s decided, then Mongolia, China, and India.

After more than four years on the road, Alonso has learned something important about himself.

“I learned that, ‘Si, puedo’ [Yes, I can],” he said. “That if something is in my heart, I can do it. I always considered myself a failure because I never was able to complete my projects, [to achieve] my objectives. And to undertake this … to say, ‘I am going to the peak of Orizaba, I am going to Panama, I am going to Venezuela.’ Completing these stages fills the heart. If it is what you want from the heart, you can do it. That was the greatest teaching: Si, puedo.”

He also learned that having possessions isn’t what’s important in life. He has very little with him on the road—his bike, some clothes, some books and supplies in his saddlebags—but he’s happy.

“I have nothing,” he said, “but I feel rich.”

Cyclist Tabaré Alonso — Alonso said that while he has encountered harassment from police and immigration agents in Mexico, many locals have also shown him generosity. Joseph Sorrentino

• You can contact Alonso to purchase his book via his Facebook page. You can also see videos of him all over Latin American on his YouTube channel.

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.

Business seeks to revive Mexico’s Bajío region as a manufacturing hub

By

Jude Webber

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May 25, 2021

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Manufacturing has long been a mainstay of the economy in the Bajío.

From its silver mines of the 1500s to its modern high-tech factories, Mexico’s central Bajío region has long been a success story.

Georgetown University historian John Tutino credits it with fostering global capitalism by helping meet China’s demand for silver from the 16th century and as Mexico’s pre-eminent manufacturing region, it has enjoyed growth rates more than twice the national average for the past 20 years.

But even before Covid-19, the Bajío — spanning the states of Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes and part of Michoacán — was seeing that stellar growth evaporate. Instead of average annual expansion of 4% to 5%, most of the region’s economy shrank in 2019-2020.

Business people partly blame President López Obrador’s policies that they say are investor-unfriendly. They cite the cancellation of a partially built airport in Mexico City and a U.S.-owned brewery project in Mexicali as well as abrupt changes to energy rules to favour state companies.

Claudia Jañez, president of Mexico’s Executive Council of Global Businesses, last year complained that the uncertainty was making it increasingly difficult for companies to persuade their head offices to invest in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.

The Bajío has felt the uncertainty. Department store Liverpool had been planning to move back-office operations to Michoacán, where it has a call center, “but national politics put the brakes on that,” said Javier Olavarrieta, commercial director of the developer Grupo Tres Marías.

Add in rising violence — the state of Guanajuato is the murder capital of Mexico, with homicide levels nearly four times the national average — and the outlook for a region which concentrates more than a quarter of Mexico’s manufacturing GDP is looking considerably less bright than in the past.

Local business leaders have decided it is time to step up — the region accounts for nearly a tenth of national GDP, so a vibrant Bajío is good for everyone.

After López Obrador scrapped Mexico’s investment promotion agency to save money after taking power in 2018, “we thought we had to be more aggressive, from the private sector,” said Marcelo López, a former economic development secretary in Querétaro. He helped pioneer the state’s development as an aeronautics hub, now home to Airbus, Bombardier and Safran. “We want to be proud of this region again,” he said.

Federico Quinzaños, a marketing specialist behind a string of successful tourism campaigns, including the “Mexican Caribbean” logo, came up with a plan to unite the private sector and rebrand the region “The Great Bajío” “to propel it towards the future and towards the world.”

Free trade with the U.S. and Canada, updated in the USMCA trade pact, has long given the Bajío a pivotal role in North American supply chains, such as in the auto sector, where it boasts a dozen car plants including Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, BMW and Honda. The Bajío also churns out 4 million Gilette razors a day and three-quarters of the broccoli eaten in the U.S., according to Luis Hernández, economy secretary of Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato.

Locals now want to develop it further as a hub for information technology and biotech.

“We’ve just established three big data centers in our developments,” said Francisco Estrada, vice president of Vesta, Mexico’s leading provider of industrial parks, who added that he was seeing “exponential growth” in logistics and e-commerce in the Bajío.

But Diego Bocard, whose Grupo Argo is one of the major industrial parks suppliers in San Luis Potosí, said: “I’d venture to say that we’re still in diapers when it comes to logistics and data centers.”

Estrada saw evidence that reshoring from China, spurred by global trade tensions and the coronavirus pandemic, was also starting. And Bocard noted that while reshorers naturally wanted to be close to the U.S. border, the cost of acquiring land and rents “is much cheaper in the Bajío.”

With about 90% of lost pandemic jobs now recovered, the region is beginning to bounce back.

Midterm elections on June 6 could complicate the picture by boosting uncertainty: a strong showing could embolden the populist López Obrador; a poor one might prompt him to mount legal challenges to the results.

“However, I think we have to look at this as we did 30 years ago — for the long term,” said Hernández. “What we have built won’t disappear overnight and U.S. growth is going to create more opportunities.”