Sustainable climate solutions require facts, not strong beliefs

By

-

February 23, 2021

Leonardo DiCaprio at the People’s Climate March in 2014.

After Harvard Business Review christened science as the “sexiest job of the 21st century,” data science stirred the general public’s interest. Many people wondered how to become a scientist. But a Ph.D. requisite and an IQ of around 150 was daunting for the postmodern mind, and so some found solace in faking it.

The disbelief of metanarratives, the triviality of facts, and mass culture have become a de facto axiom. Complexity has been reduced to despotic displays of authority.

Void rhetoric juxtaposes two mutually exclusive world views: one based on facts and mostly reliable representations of these facts, and another that posits a post-factual world full of fake news and disinformation, in which rivaling versions of reality are constantly competing.

I have been involved in impact and sustainability now for a couple of decades. The well-intended yet Sisyphean United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) cousin are at the forefront of my activities to generate as much positive impact as possible.

This postmodern preamble is critical for understanding what is going on these days in the energy ecosystem.

The use of alarming words generates climate panic. Under a scientific rhetoric facade, politicians and movie stars are manipulating the passions of the masses, exaggerating environmental dangers and lying for emotional effect. Even serious scientists engage in this sort of morbid display. Lately, we devote ourselves to destroying what works for something that will hopefully work.

I am an optimist, but to play with humanity’s future for the sake of politically correct ideas should not be our first choice.

In the climate ecosystem, you either agree or you are fired — or worse. This happened to award-winning Princeton University physicist Dr. Will Happer, whom former vice president Al Gore fired for failing to adhere to Gore’s scientific views.

Happer is convinced that the current state of alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken.

“Over the past 500 million years since the Cambrian [Period], when fossils of multicellular life first became abundant, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been much higher than current levels, about three times higher on average. Life on Earth flourished with these higher levels of carbon dioxide,” he said. “Computer models used to generate frightening scenarios from increasing levels of carbon dioxide have scant credibility.”

Happer, a former director of energy research at the United States Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993, has published over 200 scientific papers and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences. He is part of over 650 (and growing) dissenting international scientists disputing anthropogenic climate fears.

I am not a scientist; I model ESG financial portfolios. Yet, I follow science and understand numbers well. Information such as Happer’s findings is of extreme interest to me.

I also appreciate the virtuosity and simplicity of the Copenhagen Consensus Center’s Bjørn Lomborg and journalist Michael Shellenberger’s narratives for solving humanity’s acute problems. Both are experts in sustainable solutions, the best of the best, in my opinion.

Lomborg’s work uses the cutting-edge research of more than 60 eminent economists, including four Nobel laureates. Shellenberger collaborates with world-class academics, including Ted Nordhaus, coauthor of the book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility and An Ecomodernist Manifesto with Shellenberger.

With different shades of gray, both define clear, pragmatic solutions: progress, more energy not less, and cheaper sustainable options. Long story short, they consider a very imperfect world and the best way to deal with it. According to The Brookings Institute, damaging the world’s economy for the sake of energy transition is not the way to deal with climate change.

As of today, there is no substitute for oil. Throughout history, energy use has progressed from less concentrated forms of energy, such as biomass, to more concentrated forms. Coal, oil and natural gas allowed rapid growth in industrial processes, agriculture and transportation. Human health and welfare improved markedly, and the global population grew from 1 billion in the 19th century to 8 billion today.

The first documented energy transition was from wood and charcoal to coal. Worth mentioning, coal has three times the energy density by weight of dry wood. Energy density is critical in the transportation sector, for example. A vehicle must carry its fuel while it travels, so, clearly, fuel weight and volume are crucial.

Lately, electric vehicles are a praised solution for replacing oil. Pound for pound, gasoline or diesel fuel contains about 40 times as much energy as a state-of-the-art battery. For lightweight vehicles that can often refuel, this penalty is not a big deal. However, for aviation, maritime shipping or long-haul trucking, where the vehicle must carry heavy loads for long distances without refueling, the difference in energy density between fossil fuels and batteries is a deal-breaker for electric vehicles.

An electric car battery weighs 1,000 pounds. Manufacturing one requires digging up, removing, and processing more than 500,000 pounds of materials. Producing one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete, and 45 tons of plastic. Solar power requires far more cement, steel and glass — not to mention other metals and rare-earth elements — that are not rare but are rarely mined in America.

We are currently in the middle of a very different transition. I call it the postmodern transition, which is the negation of most, if not all, traditional methods that helped advance our civilization but are based on in-group identities, fake news, and the disregard of the poor.

The world is ready for cleaner energy, one that is abundant, clean, cheap and efficient. This is highly desirable for the rich and a life-or-death sentence for the poor. Shouldn’t we help the fossil industry make energy cleaner — way cleaner?

Or else rethinking atomics will probably be the solution.

The writer heads Swiss-based asset manager Point5 Family Office and ESG-LAB, which promotes the use of environmental, social and governance metrics to determine risks and opportunities in the performance of investments and companies. He was named one of the Top 100 People in Finance in 2018 by The Top 100 magazine. He holds Mexican and U.S. citizenship.

Debate rages on over Morena candidate accused of sexual assault

By

Jude Webber

-

February 23, 2021

0

Women march against gender violence at a Mexico City protest in 2019.

A growing scandal has engulfed President López Obrador after he refused to criticize a candidate for a state governorship who is accused of sexually assaulting five women, including one who says she was drugged and then raped.

The political fallout over veteran politician Félix Salgado Macedonio’s candidacy to lead the state of Guerrero in June 6 midterm elections has caused widespread outrage in a country where some 11 women are murdered per day and more than 40% say they have suffered sexual violence.

López Obrador, who says he has “the greatest respect” for the feminist movement, sparked a fierce backlash from women in his own Morena party — especially after he called criticism of Salgado Macedonio’s candidacy a politically motivated “lynching.”

A wave of recent “MeToo” accusations against a leading intellectual, Andrés Roemer, have further highlighted the country’s problems with gender-based violence.

“This is a very hard battle — we are not being heard . . . violence against women has been so normalized,” said Arussi Unda, spokeswoman for Brujas del Mar, a feminist collective which organized a women’s strike on March 9 last year to draw attention to abuses against women.

Salgado is the frontrunner in the Guerrero gubernatorial race — one of 15 up for grabs as López Obrador’s party seeks to boost its share of governorships from its current six.

López Obrador refused to criticize the candidacy on three successive days at his daily news conference, on one occasion cutting off discussion with the colloquial phrase “ya chole” — which translates as “don’t bug me any more about this.”

A poll in the Reforma newspaper found 71% of respondents rejected Salgado’s candidacy.

In a letter to party leaders, a group of female politicians from Morena slammed what they called “the absolute irresponsibility to defend candidacies of unpresentable people.” It was signed by almost 600 women and more than 100 men.

“This shouldn’t even be up for discussion — the simple fact that there are these allegations should be enough [to block his candidacy],” said Patricia Olamendi, a lawyer for Basilia Castañeda. The latter, a Morena party founder member from Guerrero, alleges Salgado raped her in 1998 when she was a teenager.

“Why is the president betting his political capital like this? Why is he getting involved?” Olamendi said.

In a separate set of allegations, a woman claimed Salgado had drugged, raped and beaten her with a belt.

Politicians and demonstrators also took to social media to demand an end to what they called “the pact” — the patriarchal order in Mexico, where women work more and earn less than men and where the vast majority of violent crimes against women go unpunished. Unda called López Obrador’s stance a “revictimization” of abused women.

“The good thing about this is that it’s sparked a public debate,” said Marta Lamas, a leading feminist and professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University.

Salgado, 64, has revelled in a reputation as a party-loving womanizer and once declared that “everything they say about me is true . . . I have more negatives than positives.” He has, however, denied the sexual allegations.

With the row over Salgado raging, additional accusers have come forward against Roemer in recent days claiming he had invited women to his home and abused them.

The 57-year-old Harvard-educated writer and former Unesco goodwill ambassador has faced allegations from 11 women, including a dancer, Itzel Schnaas.

Roemer has “categorically denied” abusing Schnaas and in media reports has denied all other abuse allegations. Billionaire businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, an adviser to López Obrador and head of the Grupo Azteca business empire where Roemer is a broadcaster, slammed the MeToo allegations as “blackmail and lies.”

The scandals meant “we can’t take our eye off the ball . . . we can’t allow aggressors to continue enjoying impunity,” said Yolitzin Jaimes, spokeswoman for the “No Aggressor in Power” collective.

Electoral authorities have until March 4 to rule on the validity of Salgado’s candidacy. If he is allowed to stand, she forecast that International Women’s Day commemorations on March 8 would turn ugly. In November, police in Cancún fired bullets at a women’s protest.

“We’re an inch away from things erupting .. and with their indifference, they’re forcing us to break everything, to burn everything,” Jaimes said.

Electricity law could represent another blow for foreign investment: analysts

By

MND Staff

-

February 23, 2021

0

power-plant — The bill favors the electricity commission's dirtier and more expensive energy sources.

A proposed law that would overhaul Mexico’s electricity market to favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will scare off foreign and domestic investment, according to analysts who spoke to the newspaper El Financiero.

A reform to the Electricity Industry Law was to be put to a vote in the lower house of Congress on Tuesday.

The bill, which would prioritize the injection of CFE-generated power to the national grid over that generated by private companies, is expected to be approved by Congress because the ruling Morena party leads a coalition with majorities in both houses.

Private companies, which generate cleaner and cheaper power than the CFE, are currently at the front of the queue.

Analysts told El Financiero that the bill, if passed, would eliminate confidence about the prevalence of the rule of law in Mexico. They also criticized the plan to put the CFE in such a privileged position when it has shown that it lacks the resources and capacity to invest in new technology.

Paul Sánchez, an independent energy consultant, said the biggest consequence of the reform will be the stifling of confidence to invest in the electricity sector. The government has already been widely criticized for changing the rules of the game in the energy sector, which was opened up to foreign and private investment by the previous federal government.

“Nobody is going to want to invest in the country while there’s no solid and firm guarantee of the rule of law,” Sánchez said.

He raised concerns about a clause in the proposed law that states that energy storage permits that were obtained fraudulently must be revoked. Sánchez suggested that existing permit-holders could be unfairly stripped of their right to operate energy storage facilities.

“Who is going to determine what is fraud of the law?” he asked.

Verónica Irastorza, director of NERA Economic Consulting, expressed reservations about a clause that states that existing electricity generation and supply contracts between the government and private companies must be reviewed to check their legality and to ensure that they comply with the former’s “profitability requirement.”

The profitability requirement aspect of the clause is unclear, Irastorza said, adding that it “could be subject to arbitrary criteria that could generate a lot of uncertainty.”

Casiopea Ramírez — Ramírez: Government is turning its back on both alternative energy sources and private investment.

She questioned why contracts have to be reviewed when they were “the result of public tenders in which the winners, in theory, offered the best price for the CFE.”

Diana Pineda, partner at law firm González Calvillo, said that some clauses in the proposed law have only served to generate uncertainty when what investors need is long-term confidence.

Casiopea Ramírez, partner at Fresh Energy Consulting, said the government is turning its back on both alternative energy sources and private investment.

“They’re limiting access to cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy because the diversification of [energy] sources is being avoided, not just in terms of generation but also investment,” she said.

Mexican Banking Association President Luis Niño de Rivera was critical of the plan to prioritize power generated by the CFE, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, over renewable energy.

“Unfortunately the intention of this initiative is to first use [the power] that the Federal Electricity Commission generates and not … cheaper energy. … The private sector in Mexico and the whole world are transitioning to renewable energy, wind and solar mainly,” while the CFE is doing the opposite, he told a recent press conference.

Meanwhile, President López Obrador took aim on Monday at Mexican lawyers who are working to defend foreign companies against the impact of the government’s energy sector shake-up.

“[It’s] a disgrace that Mexican lawyers are hired by foreign companies that want to continue looting Mexico. Of course, they’re free [to do so] but hopefully they’ll internalize that it’s treason,” he said.

Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador said last week’s natural gas crisis – which caused a major power outage in northern Mexico – served as additional evidence that the state must take the lead in guaranteeing electricity supply.

The wellbeing of the Mexican people cannot be left in the hands of private companies, he said, adding that it’s a fallacy that the free market has the capacity to resolve all problems.

The president accused previous governments of wanting to tear down CFE plants for scrap metal and put the sector in private hands whereas his administration is “rescuing” the state-owned firm.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp)

Soldiers find 4-hectare coca plantation in Guerrero

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

February 23, 2021

0

A soldier burns coca plants found in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero.

The military announced Monday that it had discovered and destroyed four hectares of coca leaf fields located near a cocaine manufacturing lab in Guerrero, about 150 kilometers north of Acapulco.

According to military officials, it marked the first time that operations for growing and manufacturing cocaine have been found in Guerrero.

“We’ve never found the cultivation of these crops in the state,” said Lt. Col. Enrique Benítez Campoy. “For that reason, it’s relevant. It’s the first that’s ever been found.”

Authorities said the plants had been harvested and processed at least four months ago. The lab contained abandoned items for manufacturing cocaine, leading them to believe that the crops had been processed there.

The military said that the carefully organized plantings were hidden in the hills of the rural community of El Porvenir y El Limón. The site also had many hundreds of meters of irrigation pipes that led to a nearby stream.

Federal authorities said they believed an organized crime group in the Tierra Caliente region was behind the site, but did not specify which.

Benítez said that each hectare of the coca leaves would have yielded five to seven kilograms of cocaine. He estimated the total value of the final product at approximately US $12,500.

Another cocaine plantation was discovered in 2014 in Chiapas.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Federal auditor detects 67 billion pesos in irregularities during AMLO’s first year

By

MND Staff

-

February 23, 2021

0

The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) detected almost 67.5 billion pesos (US $3.3 billion) in government spending irregularities during President López Obrador’s first full year in office.

Detected as a result of the ASF’s audit of the 2019 public accounts and outlined by Chief Auditor David Colmenares in a virtual appearance before Congress, the irregularities include welfare payments to deceased beneficiaries, payments for services whose delivery was not supported by documentary evidence and duplicate payments.

The old age pension scheme, an apprenticeship scheme known as “Youths Building the Future” and four educational scholarship schemes were among the welfare programs whose spending was deemed irregular.

The auditor’s office found that 458 people and/or companies were unable to provide documentation that proved they had delivered the services the government paid them to deliver in 2019. The ASF also detected irregularities in contracts between service providers and the government.

More than 22.3 billion pesos in irregularities were detected in spending by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation, more than in any other government department.

Outlays of almost 4.6 billion pesos by the Agriculture Ministry were red-flagged as were nearly 3.4 billion pesos in expenditures by the Welfare Ministry.

More than 28.9 billion pesos in irregularities corresponded to spending by state and municipal governments with federal funds.

Colmenares said the ASF has launched more than 1,400 investigations to establish responsibility for the apparent misuse of the funds. Government departments that allegedly misused resources have been asked to provide explanations about their spending to the ASF.

Colmenares also said there was only “limited” cooperation from federal departments on transparency and auditing matters during López Obrador’s first year in office, even though the president has pledged to lead a transparent, corruption-free government.

“Auditing tasks have been affected” because “the audited entities have limited their communication with the ASF with regard to the exchange of documentation and information,” he told lawmakers.

The ASF also said it had determined that the cost of canceling the previous government’s airport project would be more than three times higher than an amount cited by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation in 2019.

López Obrador rejected the 332-billion- peso (US $16.1 billion) figure cited by the ASF, describing it as an “exaggeration,” and called on it to explain how it was reached. The Auditor’s Office subsequently said that it had made errors in its calculation and the real cancellation cost was lower.

The National Action Party (PAN), currently the main opposition party, accused López Obrador of pressuring and threatening the ASF after it published its airport cancellation cost estimate.

“Our total support for the [chief] auditor and all of the team at the Federal Auditor’s Office. … We remind the president that the ASF is autonomous, it doesn’t depend on the federal executive,” said PAN national president Marko Cortés.

He called on López Obrador to govern in lieu of threatening and trying to intimidate the autonomous body.

The auditor’s office identified nearly 51 billion pesos in questionable spending in its report on 2018, the last year of president Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term.

Source: Infobae (sp), Proceso (sp), LatinUs (sp), El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp)

Private schools plan to reopen March 1, going against federal government

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

February 23, 2021

0

Students at work at a home in México state.

Arguing that it is meeting students’ constitutional right to education, a large private school association has called upon private schools to reopen in-person classes starting March 1, despite edicts by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education (SEP) for schools to remain closed.

“We have the right to provide education according to the third article of the constitution, and no one will restrict those rights,” said Alfredo Villar, president of the National Association of Private Schools.

Opening is optional for each school, Villar said. The association expects about 65% of students to return to in-person classes.

According to SEP figures from last year, 5.3 million K-12 students in Mexico were enrolled in private schools.

The association says it is making the call to reopen because many private schools are at the point of collapse due to the distance learning scheme instituted by SEP. Many schools are completely closed and may never reopen, it said on its website.

Soon after the SEP announced last August that distance learning would continue for the 2020-2021 school year, the association estimated that about 18,600 private schools in Mexico would likely end up closing permanently as a result.

The association accuses the Mexican government of “indolence” in finding a solution for schools to return to in-person classes, a situation which has created chaos in the country’s private schools, it said.

“Currently, many of these schools find themselves completely closed or at the point of bankruptcy, which will leave millions of users of the national education system defenseless,” the association said.

When the SEP announced in August that classes for public students would be broadcast on television, many parents with children in private schools began deregistering them, Villar told the news outlet Infobae.

“Many parents didn’t think it was necessary to pay tuition,” he said.

According to the SEP, over 465,000 teachers at 46,675 private schools are currently being paid a fraction of their salaries because many parents have not paid full tuition since the pandemic began.

Many private schools in Mexico charge tuition by the month, and some parents at these schools are paying only the minimum to maintain access the schools’ online teaching platforms.

Carla Maseli is one such parent. She told the newspaper El País that she continues to pay for her 10-year-old son’s access to online classes at a private school, but she sometimes doesn’t see the point, she said.

“At the end of the day, I see that my son hasn’t understood anything since he’s distracted a lot because the space that he uses to play at home now is his place to study,” she said. “A 45-minute class ends up being less than 10 due to connection problems, and they end up watching a video on YouTube.”

A cascade of private schools permanently closing would negatively affect Mexico’s public school system, the association asserts. It said that public schools would suddenly see their student populations greatly increase due to an influx of former private school students.

Sources: El País (sp), Infobae (sp)

Federal auditor admits errors in calculation of airport cost; figures are being revised

By

MND Staff

-

February 23, 2021

0

The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) has admitted that there were errors in its calculation of the cost to cancel the previous government’s Mexico City airport project.

The ASF said Saturday that canceling the partially built project at Texcoco, México state, would cost almost 332 billion pesos (US $16.1 billion), an estimate more than three times higher than that of the federal government.

President López Obrador, who took the decision to cancel the project after a legally questionable public consultation in 2018, rejected the ASF’s estimate on Monday, saying that the figure was “wrong” and “exaggerated” and that he had “other information.”

He also called on the auditor’s office to explain how it reached its figure.

In a statement issued later on Monday, the ASF said there were “inconsistencies” in its calculation and that its content is undergoing “exhaustive revision.”

“Up until now it has been detected that said amount [the estimated cancellation cost] is less than initially estimated due to a methodological deficiency,” it said.

The calculation currently under revision “considers past and future flows [of money] to carry out the cancellation of the contracted obligations,” the ASF said. That movement of money “doesn’t represent a cost but it does represent an outflow,” it said.

The ASF also said there were miscalculations with regard to costs associated with liquidating airport bonds. It said that the final result of the revision will be announced when it has been completed.

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation estimated in a 2019 document that the canceation of the US $15-billion airport would cost 100 billion pesos (US $4.8 billion).

López Obrador has said that scrapping the project in favor of converting the Santa Lucía Air Force base into a commercial airport will save the government about 130 billion pesos.

According to the government, the total cost of the new airport– whose first stage, a new military base, was inaugurated earlier this month – is projected to be 75 billion pesos (US $3.7 billion), or 230 billion pesos less than what the former administration’s airport would have cost.

The estimated 130-billion-peso saving includes a cost of 100 billion pesos to cancel the Texcoco project.

“It was a great decision we took, a wise decision,” López Obrador said at the military base inauguration, referring to scrapping the project, which was about one-third complete when it was abandoned.

The president long argued that the previous government’s flagship infrastructure project was corrupt, too expensive and geologically unsound. His alternative, the Santa Lucía airport, is slated to open in March 2022.

Source: EFE (sp)

Excess deaths well above those of other countries; coronavirus czar unsurprised

By

Jude Webber

-

February 23, 2021

0

covid funeral — There were 52% more deaths last year than in previous years.

Deaths in Mexico last year were 52% higher than in previous years, putting the rate of excess deaths during the coronavirus pandemic well above that in some countries seen as suffering the worst outbreaks in the world, including the U.S., U.K. and Brazil.

New official data showed Mexico has registered 977,081 deaths since March 2020, compared with an expected 641,556 for the same period based on the 2015-2019 death tolls. Since the start of the epidemic, Mexico has officially confirmed more than 2 million cases and 181,000 deaths from Covid-19.

Total so-called excess deaths per million in Mexico last year were 2,602 — 52% higher than 1,713 in the U.S. and nearly twice as high as Brazil’s 1,047, according to Eugenio Sánchez, a Mexican statistician who has examined world mortality data compiled by Israeli economist Ariel Karlinsky and Russian researcher Dmitry Kobak. Compared with the U.K., Mexico’s toll is 75% higher.

Peru was the world’s worst-hit nation, according to that data, and Ecuador and Bolivia have also been hard hit in terms of excess deaths during the pandemic, underscoring the virus’s heavy human toll on Latin America.

The tally of excess deaths in Mexico has called into question whether its largely hands-off approach was the right one. But Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s coronavirus czar, told the Financial Times in an interview that his “conscience is very clear.”

“We all agree that excess mortality in 2020 compared with previous years is explained by Covid, directly or indirectly,” López-Gatell said.

He blamed political opponents for trying to twist facts. “It’s a pandemic. It would be senseless to think life would be normal. It’s a human drama. What is happening is very sad,” he said.

“But the public narrative tends to be that there’s something strange and hidden going on that’s different to what the government says. We have nothing to hide . . . It sometimes appears that we’ve been found out and we are irremediably trying to cover things up. That is not the case. Our conscience is very clear.”

Mexico imposed a nationwide lockdown from March to June 2020 but has not enforced confinement measures, enacted travel bans or made mask-wearing mandatory, arguing that draconian measures could not work in a country with millions in informal jobs needing to work in order to eat.

But officials have sometimes ignored their own data — for instance, imposing tougher restrictions in Mexico City last December two weeks after its own indicators on hospitalizations, cases and deaths indicated it should. It recently bowed to pressure from businesses to allow shops and restaurants to reopen even as hospital occupancy was trending upwards.

Analysts said that was a tacit acknowledgment that the cost in lives lost was regrettable but inevitable, given the low level of government support despite the deepest economic recession since 1932.

Coronavirus point man López-Gatell: Was the hands-off approach the right one?

“These are the consequences of a strategy based on trying to do nothing to reduce the damage instead of trying to prevent the consequences,” said Máximo Jaramillo-Molina, a fellow at the London School of Economics who researches inequality. He found that the death toll in Mexico City had disproportionately hit poorest neighbourhoods.

Independent researchers Laurianne Despeghel and Mario Romero reckon that Mexico City has the highest level of excess deaths of any city in the world, at 8,411 deaths per million inhabitants.

Their research found Mexico City’s excess deaths tally per million was 46% higher than the next worst city, Lima; 157% above New York; 190% above Madrid; and some 349% higher than London, according to Mexican data and the Financial Times’ coronavirus tracker.

Despeghel said the nationwide excess mortality data could yet be revised higher since reporting from some states experiences delays.

“The reason there are lots of deaths is that there have been lots of infections,” she said. “Mexico didn’t close its borders or do mass testing and isolation.”

But López-Gatell said the decision not to conduct mass testing was “absolutely” validated. At the start of the epidemic “an idea, that has no scientific basis, was positioned in the public narrative that the more you test, the better you control the epidemic,” he told the Times.

He said opposition politicians and columnists “sowed these ideas systematically” and were seeking to “discredit the government … in political terms that have nothing to do with science.”

On Saturday, López-Gatell disclosed on Twitter that he had caught Covid-19, writing that his symptoms were “mild” and he would continue to work from home.

Mexico says hospital occupancy has now been trending down for three weeks. President López Obrador, who said last April that Mexico had tamed the virus, has said the country will bounce back quickly.

“If you’re serious and rigorous, there are always lessons to be learned in managing the epidemic,” López-Gatell said. “The danger is to enumerate those lessons … because they get simplified and taken as if they were mistakes.”

El Chapo’s wife arrested in US for drug trafficking, conspiring in husband’s jailbreak

By

MND Staff

-

February 23, 2021

0

Alleged Sinaloa Cartel operator Emma Coronel.

The wife of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested in the United States on Monday on charges related to international drug trafficking and conspiring to aid her husband’s 2015 jailbreak.

The United States Department of Justice said that Emma Coronel Aispuro, mother of twin daughters to the former Sinaloa Cartel leader, was arrested at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia and that she will appear in federal court on Tuesday via video conference.

Coronel, a 31-year-old dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, is charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana for importation into the United States, according to court documents.

She is also alleged to have helped plan Guzmán’s escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison in México state in 2015. In addition, Coronel is accused of planning another prison escape after Guzmán was captured in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, in early 2016.

According to an affidavit written by United States Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Eric S. McGuire, Coronel was immersed in the drug trafficking world from a young age.

Her father and brother, both of whom are in prison for marijuana trafficking, were members of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Coronel grew up with knowledge of the narcotics trafficking industry, and married Guzmán when she was a teenager. Based upon my investigation, I know Coronel understood the scope of the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking. Coronel knows and understands the Sinaloa Cartel is the most prolific cartel in Mexico,” the affidavit said.

McGuire, who has extensively investigated the cartel, said “Coronel was aware of multi-ton cocaine shipments, multi-kilo heroin production, multi-ton marijuana shipments, and ton quantity methamphetamine shipments,” adding that she “understood the drug proceeds she controlled during her marriage to Guzmán were derived from these shipments.”

The affidavit also said that from 2012 to 2014 “Coronel relayed messages on behalf of Guzmán in furtherance of drug trafficking activities while Guzmán attempted to avoid capture by Mexican authorities,” adding that “once Guzmán was arrested in February 2014, Coronel continued to deliver messages she received from Guzmán during her prison visits.”

Mcguire said he had reviewed a letter from Guzmán to Coronel, which allegedly serves as evidence of the latter’s involvement in drug trafficking.

“Regarding Cleto, increase the production so that it yields. Say hi to Cleto. Tell him to please give me a hand, so that the first sale will be my part … because I have a lot of expenses here,” read a pertinent part of the letter, according to the affidavit.

emma coronel and el chapo — Coronel during Guzmán’s trial in New York and the drug lord after his arrest in 2011.

Guzmán likely wrote the letter, which McGuire said had been authenticated by multiple witnesses, while in the Altiplano prison between 2014 and 2015. The expenses to which he referred were bribes he paid to prison staff and support for his family, the affidavit said.

Cleto is a drug trafficker in Durango who produces heroin, McGuire said, explaining that he had established that fact via his investigation.

“I know from cooperating witness 1 as well as other sources that Cleto produced heroin for Guzmán. …. I know from my investigation that Cleto and cooperating witness 1 provided Coronel drug proceeds from more than 5 kilograms of heroin,” the affidavit said.

Cooperating witness 1 was not identified but it is possible that the person is Dámaso López, a former Sinaloa Cartel boss who testified against Guzmán at his 2018-2019 trial and said that Coronel knew of El Chapo’s plan to escape from the Altiplano prison.

According to the affidavit, Coronel visited Guzmán at the prison on multiple occasions after his arrest in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in February 2014.

“According to cooperating witness 1, he/she received communications from Coronel on behalf of Guzmán while Guzmán was detained in Altiplano prison in 2014 and 2015. Furthermore, cooperating witness 1 told me Coronel agreed to help facilitate Guzmán to escape from Altiplano via an underground tunnel,” the affidavit said.

Four of Guzmán’s son’s along with Coronel and witness 1 “agreed to organize the construction of an underground tunnel linked to Altiplano in order to facilitate Guzmán’s escape from prison,” it said.

El Chapo escaped from the jail in July 2015 via a tunnel with an entry beneath the shower in his cell. He remained at large until his capture in Los Mochis six months later.

“I … know that while he was a fugitive, he continued to lead the Sinaloa Cartel with [Ismael “El Mayo”] Zambada,” McGuire said.

The special agent said that according to witness 1, he/she met with Coronel approximately one month after Guzmán’s January 2016 arrest.

“Coronel told cooperating witness 1 that Guzmán again wanted to escape and wanted to know whether [the witness] again would assist in the escape. Cooperating witness 1 agreed,” the affidavit said.

Coronel allegedly gave the witness approximately US $1 million to aid the escape plan, including money to purchase property in the vicinity of the Altiplano prison.

A photo of Coronel posted in December to her Instagram account.

However, El Chapo was transferred to a prison in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, scuttling the escape plan. According to the affidavit, Coronel subsequently told witness 1 that approximately US $2 million had been paid to an official who oversaw the Mexican prison system to facilitate Guzmán’s transfer back to Altiplano.

But the transfer never went ahead and El Chapo was extradited to the United States in January 2017. He was found guilty of trafficking in February 2019 after a three-month trial and sentenced to life in prison in July of the same year.

Coronel, a Culiacán resident who was born in California in 1989, attended almost every day of her husband’s trial and said that the evidence presented – including tales of grisly killings, political payoffs, high living and a massive drug-smuggling operation – did nothing to change her opinion of him.

“Everything that has been said in court about Joaquín, the good and the bad, has done nothing to change how I think about him after years of knowing him,” she said in an Instagram post in January 2019.

“I don’t know my husband as the person they are trying to show him as,” Coronel told the New York Times in an interview. “But rather I admire him as the human being that I met, and the one I married.”

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

120-year-old’s key to longevity: eat lots of enchiladas

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

February 22, 2021

0

Doña María Antonia remembers hearing the shooting during the Revolution.

Doña María Antonia doesn’t remember all the events that she has lived through in her 120 years on Earth, but she does remember vividly the day she married her husband, the day they built the first school in her small Veracruz town, and constantly hearing shootouts between fighters during the Mexican Revolution.

Born on June 13, 1900, the grandmother of 44 and great-grandmother to 130 became a celebrity when the Ministry of Well-Being recently shared photos showing her living through another memorable life moment: receiving her Covid-19 vaccination.

“I am well. I feel good,” she said from her home in Platón Sánchez. “The only thing that bothered me a bit is when they gave me the vaccine, but … now that I’ve received the vaccine, I’m content. But then I’m always in good spirts,” she said in a Náhuatl dialect that her relatives had to translate for the Milenio newspaper reporter who interviewed her.

She understands Spanish, but does not speak it, her family said.

She also doesn’t really get all the fuss over her, she said.

The centenarian and a great-granddaughter. — The supercentenarian and a great-granddaughter.

Sitting on an easy chair, she told a reporter about growing up in a farming family and making crafts. She also talked about the hardships in her life: her parents died early during an epidemic. She also remembers vividly when she lost her 3-month-old child not long after she had lost her husband.

Asked about her memories of the Revolution, which she lived through as a young child, Maria Antonia said she mainly remembers everyone being terrified of encountering any of the soldiers they heard engaged in warfare off in the distance.

Her parents would take the entire family to hide in the hills at night.

“We heard the shootouts, and we always were worried that at any moment they would come across us,” she said. “Most everyone was afraid, and we all hurried to finish our work so that we could eat early and leave for the hills. Our parents gave my siblings and me tortillas, but they were tortillas made from tree seeds, not corn.”

However, despite some of the tough times she’s gone through, she maintains a sunny disposition, she said. On her 120th birthday, she danced with her grandchildren.

Asked about her secrets to longevity, one of her grandchildren told Milenio that Maria Antonia eats very healthily, “no junk food or soda.”

The supercentenarian herself, however, had clarifications to add:

“I like to eat everything,” she said. “And I eat a lot of enchiladas. I like them.”

Source: Milenio (sp)