Militarization: a lost war that has only brought ‘catastrophic’ results

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May 13, 2021

Mexico's National Guard — The National Guard is an example of how militarization has morphed from a supposedly temporary measure into a long-term strategy, says a new report.

The results of the militarized war on crime, launched by former president Felipe Calderón almost 15 years ago, have been “catastrophic,” the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) says in a new analysis.

Written by the research and advocacy organization’s director for Mexico and migrant rights, Stephanie Brewer, the analysis notes that Mexico has recorded approximately 350,000 homicides since Calderón deployed the armed forces to combat organized crime in December 2006.

It also notes that annual homicides have more than tripled since the intensification of the war on crime.

Published under the title Militarized Mexico: A Lost War that Has Not Brought Peace, the analysis acknowledges that former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who followed Calderón in 2012, perpetuated the militarized public security model with some differences.

And it notes that President López Obrador has failed to demilitarize public security despite his criticism of the militarized model before he became president and his pledge to take the armed forces off the streets.

“On the contrary, he has deepened various aspects of the militarized model,” Brewer writes, noting that this month marks the first anniversary of the president’s decree ordering the armed forces to continue carrying out public security tasks until 2024.

Mexico president Felipe Calderón — Former president Felipe Calderón in 2009 in Nuevo León for Day of the Army. Calderón began deploying the military to combat organized crime in 2006.

She also notes that while the National Guard, which was created by the current federal government, is officially part of the civilian Ministry of Security, it is in fact “a militarized force that operates under the coordination of the Ministry of Defense.”

“… Militarization has morphed from a supposedly temporary measure into a long-term strategy,” the analysis states, referring to the heavy reliance on the armed forces for public security tasks by Calderón, Peña Nieto and López Obrador.

“…The results of the militarized war on crime have been catastrophic. Homicides increased dramatically from the Calderón presidency onwards. Arrests and killings of kingpins have fostered the fragmentation of criminal groups, leading to increased violence. Shootouts with security forces trigger increases in local homicide rates. The overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of people the government reports as disappeared were taken in the past 15 years.”

Brewer notes that various analysts have identified a decrease in federal security forces’ levels of frontal combat against criminal groups over the past two years and describes their “scaling back the use of warlike tactics” as a positive step.

“However, this modification in the strategy has not been accompanied by appropriate and sufficient measures to address ongoing violence … Today, a range of criminal groups continues to victimize the population while homicides remain at record levels,” WOLA’s Mexico director writes.

Her analysis states that Mexican authorities have not used the nearly 15 years of militarization to implement sustainable and effective anti-violence measures across Mexico.

“Instead of buying time for authorities to implement solutions, militarization has become the addiction that postpones those solutions indefinitely,” Brewer writes.

She asserts that prioritizing the reform and professionalization of civilian police institutions is necessary to develop an effective security model.

“… Achieving this requires overcoming once and for all the historic lack of commitment to police reform at all three levels of government,” Brewer writes.

However, during the 2 1/2 years since the current federal government came to power, “the creation of the National Guard has been a much more visible priority than police reform,” she says.

Brewer also notes that the militarized war on crime triggered high levels of serious human rights violations such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and torture committed by security force members.

“… According to an analysis by the World Justice Project … 88% of people detained by the navy and 85% of people detained by the army from 2006–2016 reported torture or ill-treatment. According to the same official survey, 41% of women detained by the navy, 21% of women detained by the army, and 10%–13% of women detained by police forces reported having survived rape in the context of the detention,” the analysis states.

Member of Madres Buscadoras de Sonora with discovered remains — Member of the Madres Buscadoras de Sonora, which searches for missing family members in the state, with human remains found in February in the Hermosillo area.

Brewer notes that the armed forces are also currently engaged in a range of other nontraditional tasks, including the construction and administration of infrastructure projects, immigration control and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

“… In any country in Latin America — a region whose history has been marked by coups and military dictatorships — the delegation of civilian tasks to the armed forces raises red flags,” she writes.

“… Mexico’s experience has differed from that of other countries: throughout the wave of dictatorships in the region, Mexico suffered no military coups. However, the influence of Mexico’s armed forces within and beyond the security sphere may mean that a coup is not necessary in order for them to wield levels of power that, while falling short of a military government, hardly speak of a healthy democracy.”

Brewer writes that it appears unlikely that militarism in Mexico will decline in the near future given that “López Obrador sees the armed forces’ participation in government tasks as a strategy to fight corruption” and guarantee efficiency.

In that context, she warns that the president could also give the military responsibility for “an indefinite list of other civilian functions.”

In her conclusions, the WOLA director notes that it is the people of Mexico who have suffered the greatest losses during the country’s almost 15-year-long militarized war on crime.

Querétaro municipal police. — Mexico, the analysis says, has a “historic lack of commitment to police reform at all three levels of government.”

“The militarized model has increased violence without furthering effective security strategies,” Brewer writes.

“As WOLA and other organizations and experts have emphasized on numerous occasions over the past 15 years, no deployment of security forces will be sufficient to reverse violence as long as authorities are among criminal networks’ accomplices; as long as civilian police reform lacks commitment; as long as the country’s institutions do not make significant progress in investigating criminal phenomena; and as long as institutions charged with consolidating the rule of law tolerate human rights violations,” her analysis states.

“Addressing these factors — ensuring a constant focus on protecting the population — should be at the heart of Mexico’s anti-violence strategy. Such a strategy requires political will and close follow-up to take hold at the national level,” Brewer writes.

“What is concerning is that the government seems instead to be opting for a deepening and indefinite dependence on the armed forces.”

Mexico News Daily

New Pizza Hut in Guadalajara is location No. 1000 in Mexico

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MND Staff

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May 13, 2021

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Pizza Hut is to open its 1,000th site in Mexico in the same city where the chain was introduced 52 years ago.

Guadalajara, Jalisco, will see the new location on Manuel J. Clouthier avenue, a short distance from where it first welcomed Pizza Hut in 1969, at the Plaza del Sol shopping center.

The Clouthier site is the fifth new unit to open since the company formed a new strategy in 2019 to transform its Mexico-based locations.

It has remodeled six locations since then and expects to add 30 new restaurants and hundreds of new jobs in the region by the end of the year.

“Every new concept, design and innovation is driven by two core elements: our customers and their love for pizza and our team members and their passion and ability to fulfill that love,” said Oscar Peláez, global director of innovation at Pizza Hut International in a statement.

“How we bring that to market evolves based on culture, trends, and societal norms and needs,” he added.

The new location will be staffed by 14 employees.

The state of Jalisco has the second highest number of fast food restaurants after the state of México.

Pizza eateries only account for 9% of the country’s fast food outlets. However, sales from those locations account for 25% of all fast food sales, according to Seale & Associates’ 2018 Fast Food Industry report.

Source: Entrepreneur

OK, Google: what’s wrong with your algorithms since I moved to Mexico?

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Joseph Sorrentino

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May 12, 2021

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Dear Google, I get how smart you are. You have algorithms. You have reams of data based on my browsing habits, my shopping habits, whatever other habits I may have from which you’ve gleaned data. You know me better than I know myself.

I realize that’s a cliché, but in this instance, it’s true. You’ve been following me for years. Decades. Lifetimes, perhaps.

I realize my move to Mexico may have confused you a bit. I think this because when I’m “surfing the ʼnet,” you insist on only showing me websites featuring that lovely Spanish language. This despite the fact that I keep choosing search for English results only. Or the fact that I specify English in the Preferences option.

But I get it. You’re only trying to help me improve my language skills, and I appreciate it, I really do. But I gotta ask you: what the heck is up with the ads suggesting I buy women’s clothing and shoes?

I don’t buy women’s clothing. Nor do I buy women’s shoes. Well, I suppose I did buy some women’s clothing once or twice in the distant past. But that was for women. And I learned my lesson. The nicest thing a woman has ever said to me when I bought her clothes was “You don’t really expect me to wear this, do you?”

Again, that was the nicest thing. I won’t relay any of the other comments that have been hurled at me; I’m afraid they would make you blush (I’m assuming here you can blush. Can you?). If I did send you examples of other comments, they’d contain lots of things like # !! @ ***, etc. in them — if you know what I mean. And I’m sure you do since you’re omniscient.

Which is why I can’t understand why you keep sending me the ads for women’s clothing and accessories that are popping up on every goddamn site I visit. American sites, Mexican sites, doesn’t matter. Hell, I could probably go on a Padang, Indonesia, site and I’d probably still get ads for women’s clothing.

FYI, Indonesia’s the country farthest from Mexico, where I’m currently based. But I’m sure you know that since you track everything I search for.

You say the ads are based on the sites I visit. I don’t visit women’s clothing sites.

That might not be completely true. Maybe when things get really lonely — just maybe — I’ll take a very quick peek at Victoria’s Secret, but that’s it. Honestly (and in those instances, it’s just the quarantine that’s making me do it; the isolation’s getting to me).

I do not dress in women’s clothing. I’ll admit that I enjoy women’s clothing, but I enjoy women’s clothing on women. Not on me. And while those shoes popping up on my browser look fabulous and those stiletto heels do set my heart a-twitter, can you imagine me trying to walk in them? Not a pretty image and certainly not one to foist on the general public.

Nothing I do has been able to dissuade you from sending me these ads. No matter how many times I try to tell you — gently — that the ads are “inappropriate” or ones in which I’m “not interested,” you still see fit to tempt me with them. And now I’m beginning to believe you’ve gone just slightly off the rails.

Because now you’re sending me ads for feminine hygiene products. In Spanish. Even if I did enjoy dressing in women’s clothing — and let me say again, unequivocally, that I do not — to what use would I put those fine products? And where, as a man, would I put them? (Rhetorical question, that; no need to answer.)

I’ve started to wonder if there’s a parallel universe where there’s a female version of me who would happily stock up on revealing blouses and skimpy negligee, not to mention stiletto-heeled shoes and feminine hygiene products. If only she could see them. Instead, she’s seeing ads for football jerseys, beer and NASCAR.

So, please, let’s end the confusion. No more ads targeting women for me, and for my female doppelganger, no more ads targeting men. Send me some good ol’ fashion ads for men and, although I may not buy anything, I promise to peruse those sites. Fair enough?

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.

Energy projects worth US $35bn on hold as government withholds permits

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MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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Energy sector projects worth more than US $35 billion are stalled because they haven’t been granted government permits, according to a high-ranking official with Mexico’s most powerful business lobby.

Roger González, president of the Business Coordinating Council’s energy commission, said that 128 projects – among which are gas, fuel storage and electricity generation projects – are ready to start but can’t due to a lack of permits.

Speaking at an energy forum on Tuesday, González blamed the delays on government changes to energy policy.

He said the energy sector – which the government is attempting to overhaul to favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission and the state oil company Pemex – is facing legal uncertainty that has forced private sector companies to defend their interests in court when they should be building infrastructure, creating jobs and growing the economy.

“The objective of the private sector is not to dedicate itself to seeking injunctions or to be in legal battles,” González said.

However, private energy companies have had to file some 250 injunction requests and 80 applications for definitive suspensions of government policies, he said.

The business leader said that if the 128 stalled projects were granted approval, between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs would be created in the space of just two or three months.

“But they’re on pause and they extend across all of the country’s energy industry sectors,” González said.

He asserted that progress was made as a result of the 2013 energy reform, which opened up the sector to private and foreign companies for the first time in almost 80 years, but the momentum has now come to a halt.

For his part, the president of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers’ energy commission questioned why the government is still favoring the use of fossil fuels when much of the world is shifting toward the use of clean, renewable energy sources. Regulo Salinas said Mexico runs the risk of having tariffs imposed on its exports because it is not complying with its international climate commitments.

President López Obrador has said that he is committed to fighting global warming but proposals he presented at a world leaders’ climate summit last month were criticized by many environmentalists.

Three environmentalists who spoke to the Reforma newspaper said the president’s proposals were not serious, based on ideology more than reality and harked back to decades past.

Source: Dinero en Imagen (sp)

Security perceptions looking better in 4 Mexican tourism destinations

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MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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Citizens’ perceptions of insecurity have declined over the past year in several of Mexico’s most popular coastal tourism destinations, according to the results of a national survey.

Among the destinations where fewer residents felt unsafe in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier were Los Cabos, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mazatlán and Acapulco.

In Los Cabos, located on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, 39.7% of residents polled in the first quarter of 2020 by the national statistics agency (Inegi) said the resort city was unsafe. A year later, the percentage was 13.5 points lower at 26.2%.

Los Cabos was ranked as the most violent city in the world in 2017 by the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, a Mexican NGO, but the security situation in the popular destination has improved markedly since then.

A majority of residents of Guerrero’s Pacific coast resort towns of Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa still say the area is unsafe, but the percentage declined from 79.5% in the first quarter of 2020 to 60.1% a year later.

Tourists and tourism sector workers have occasionally been caught up in violence in the area: a United States man was murdered in Ixtapa in December 2017; a U.S. couple was killed in the municipality of Petatlán, which borders Zihuatanejo, in July 2019 and the then president of the Zihuatanejo Hoteliers’ Association was murdered the same month.

The percentage of residents who believe Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and Acapulco, Guerrero — the latter being a city that was once dubbed the murder capital of Mexico — are unsafe also declined. In Mazatlán, the percentage fell to 45.1% from 57.6%. In Acapulco, it dropped to 79%, whereas previously it had been 81.5%.

In contrast, the percentage of residents who believe Cancún and Puerto Vallarta are unsafe increased over the same period.

Cancún’s figure rose 0.5% to 86.1% in the first quarter of 2021. The destination, also a hive of cartel activity, ranked as the sixth most unsafe city among the 85 whose residents were surveyed by Inegi in the first quarter of 2021, although insecurity perceptions declined 2% from the previous quarter.

In Puerto Vallarta, located on Jalisco’s Pacific coast, the percentage of residents who believe the city is unsafe rose to 35.5%. Before, it had been 31.8%. The highest-profile case of violence in the city in the intervening period was the murder of former Jalisco governor Aristóteles Sandoval last December.

According to the president of the business-travel industry council Comir, the improvement in security perceptions in destinations such as Los Cabos and Mazatlán can be used to promote travel to Mexican beach destinations for leisure purposes and to attract business meetings and conferences. That promotion should occur both domestically and internationally, Alejandro Ramírez said.

The Comir chief acknowledged, however, that a lot still needs to be done to improve security in Mexico.

“The United States recently updated its alerts for Mexico and other countries. We also have to recognize that in the case of Cancún, even though there is an improvement [compared to the last quarter of 2020], the situation” remains concerning and requires urgent attention, Ramírez said.

“… Something must be done, … it’s necessary for the recovery of a lot of jobs.”

Source: El Heraldo de México (sp)

Metro accident payments help victims today but won’t prevent tomorrow’s

By

Sarah DeVries

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May 12, 2021

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Mexico City Metro Line 12 accident — While the accident’s cause has yet to be definitively determined, experts and union leaders have already suggested construction flaws and/or negligence are to blame.

When my mother died, my parents had long since gone through their savings after a spate of what some might call bad luck and what others would call just the predictable list of things that happen as you age: illness, inability to work with the same vigor and duration, unexpected expenses, unforeseen needs.

In the absence of personal savings or insurance for this inevitable occurrence, my sister and I were left to figure out how to get the money ($1,000 at the cheapest) for the cremation.

We ended up raising it fairly quickly, thank goodness, among friends and family through a GoFundMe campaign. As grateful as we were for the help, it would have been fantastic not to have worried about how we’d pay for the task of putting our mother to rest on top of the grief and the very unfair fact that life, jobs and one’s bills continue as if nothing has happened even in a crisis.

I’ve been thinking about those days from just a few years ago as I’ve read about the line 12 Metro overpass collapse in Mexico City that killed 26 people and injured more than 80 others.

The victims’ families will receive 700,000 pesos in compensation for their loved ones (injured victims will receive 10,000 pesos).

Money, of course, cannot replace the lives of those lost, and it does not make things “even” in any sense. But in this gruesome aftermath, after the fact of a tragedy that cannot be changed, it is the first right thing to do for now.

In the United States, a Federal Reserve survey revealed that almost 40% of people would not be able to come up with US $400 in an emergency. (Actually, those are prepandemic numbers from 2019; now, in the midst of an ongoing emergency, many have plunged into poverty on both sides of the border.)

I’d like to see similar survey results here: how many Mexicans would be able to come up with 4,000 pesos for an emergency?

I’m guessing not a lot, though many throughout the pandemic have been forced to come up with that, and much more, for sudden funeral expenses. At the very least, the families of the victims of the accident won’t have to face the added stress of finding funds for a funeral.

Still, though, this seems to have been a preventable tragedy. Currently, no one is prepared to take the blame as we wait for the results of an independent investigation.

Freak accidents are nothing new in Mexico, nor in the rest of the world, for that matter. But there are accidents that can be prevented, or at least made less bad, by taking precautions and ensuring that our physical infrastructure is up for the task.

A seatbelt can save your life. Anchoring your TV and large bookcases to the wall can ensure that they don’t fall on top of a curious, climbing child. A handrail on stairs can give us something to grab onto if we slip.

And making sure that problematic sections of infrastructure are definitively fixed before allowing them to operate can prevent the kind of tragedy that befell the city last week. The official stance was that the line had been constantly monitored, audited and repaired.

However, that contrasts with accounts by both Metro union members who’d been claiming for years that the line showed serious structural problems from the beginning and neighbors who claimed they’d seen the columns shake every time the train passed.

I’ve written before about my worries concerning badly constructed infrastructure and the shocking quantity of bridges in dire need of repair. This is still an area of great concern.

The Metro accident garnered a lot of attention because it was in the capital and because it involved a lot of people and was so shocking, dramatic and unexpected. Less attention is given to all of the individual accidents caused by faulty or unrepaired infrastructure that don’t involve large swaths of people in one fell swoop.

The safety of the public is not only a worthy investment, it’s a necessary investment. We pay taxes, in part, to fund our own collective safety. If we can’t be at least relatively assured of our safety when out and about, then what’s the government even for?

So keep wearing your seatbelts. Keep anchoring your heavy pieces of furniture to the wall. Keep using handrails, and keep poisonous household cleaning products out of the curious mouths of toddlers. But do your best to make sure the powers that be don’t forget to put in place the equivalent safety measures on a national level.

Life will never be risk-free; the coronavirus has taught us nothing if not that. But, good grief, people. Let’s at least try to improve our odds by ensuring that standing on a crowded train minding your own business on the way to work or school doesn’t put you in danger of plunging to your death.

The financial response to the families of the victims was the right one, but those in charge of infrastructure at the local and at the national level must go further by guaranteeing our right to safety and making sure that something like this does not happen again.

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

Mexico orders new GM union vote after US lawmakers question abuses

By

MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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GM Silao plant — Workers outside GM's auto manufacturing plant in Silao, Guanajuato. file photo

The federal Labor Ministry (STPS) on Tuesday ordered the General Motors (GM) union in Silao, Guanajuato, to hold a new vote to ratify a collective bargaining agreement following pressure from United States lawmakers for GM to address alleged abuses that could be in violation of the North American trade agreement.

Today, the United States government followed up by asking Mexico to review the alleged abuses at the pickup truck factory in Silao, a request that could lead to the imposition of tariffs on some of the automaker’s most profitable vehicles under the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The STPS said in a statement that it found “serious irregularities” in the worker vote, held on April 20 and 21, including the destruction of some ballots and the union’s refusal to hand over documentation of the vote tally to independent labor inspectors.

The irregularities in the vote — required under a new Mexican labor reform to ensure that workers are not subject to collective contracts that maintain low salaries —“violated the principles of safety and certainty that must govern every democratic process,” the ministry said.

“Due to the above, this labor authority declared the process null and ordered the union to repeat it within a period of 30 days …”

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai — United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, testifying before the US Senate on an unrelated matter on April 28.

The news agency Reuters reported that Hugo Varela, head of the Guanajuato branch of the powerful Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), to which the GM union belongs, didn’t respond to its request for comment on the STPS order. However, it noted that Varela previously said that the CTM was committed to complying with the law.

The STPS directive came after U.S. Democratic Party Representatives Dan Kildee, Bill Pascrell and Earl Blumenauer wrote to GM to seek answers about potential abuses at its plant in Silao, an industrial city 20 kilometers southwest of Guanajuato city.

In a letter to GM Chief Executive Mary Barra, the lawmakers said the United States’ largest automaker “has a responsibility to speak out against violations of labor and human rights abuses at the Silao GM plant,” which employs some 6,000 workers.

GM denied any wrongdoing and asserted that government-approved inspectors were not stopped from entering the site where last month’s worker vote was held. The company also said it condemns violations of labor rights and has retained a third-party firm to conduct an independent review of such allegations.

The Biden administration picked up on the lawmakers’ concerns and asked Mexico to review the alleged violations. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Wednesday that the U.S. had asked Mexico to review whether GM workers were being denied the right of free association and collective bargaining.

Her office said in a statement that “the request is the first time any country has used the novel Rapid Response Labor Mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

The mechanism allows countries to target worker rights violations at specific factories.

Tai said “today’s action shows the Biden-Harris administration’s serious commitment to workers and a worker-centered trade policy,” adding that “using USMCA to help protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico helps workers, both at home and in Mexico, by stopping a race to the bottom.”

She also said the United States’ request for a review of the situation in Silao “supports Mexico’s efforts to implement its recent labor law reforms.”

The concerns about GM come after the largest labor federation in the U.S., the AFL-CIO, sent a petition on Monday to the U.S. Department of Labor urging it to file a complaint with Mexico against Tridonex, which operates an auto parts plant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where workers were allegedly denied the right to independent union representation in violation of the USMCA.

Cathy Feingold, director of the international department of the AFL-CIO, which fought for the inclusion of improved workers’ rights provisions in the USMCA, said the Tridonex case will be precedent-setting and a test for the new system created by the new three-way trade agreement.

GM pickup made at Silao, Mexico plant — A pickup truck on the assembly line at GM’s Silao plant.

However, it now appears that it will be the GM case that will set the precedent with respect to compliance with workers’ rights provisions in the 10-month-old USMCA.

Vehicles made by GM in Silao could face 25% tariffs in the United States under the USMCA if a resolution in the case is not reached. Such tariffs would add thousands of dollars to the cost of pickups made in Guanajuato.

A key United States objective for the new regional free-trade pact — negotiated while Donald Trump was president — was to bolster unions in Mexico in order to help increase wages here and put the brakes on U.S. automakers shifting operations to south of the border.

However, “GM won key changes to USMCA that allowed it to continue to build hundreds of thousands of high-profit pickups in Mexico for export to the United States annually,” Reuters reported.

The Silao plant made more than 339,000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra large pickups in 2019, or 37% of GM’s total of those vehicles that year.

If the United States and Mexican governments cannot reach a resolution, Trade Representative Tai has the option to request a revision of the matter by a dispute settlement panel. The entire process following the United States’ request today for the Mexican government to review conditions at the GM plant should not take more than 90 days.

The U.S. request for review warns all automakers in Mexico that the Biden administration will not tolerate past Mexican labor practices that were allegedly designed to keep wages low.

General Motors has also angered the United Auto Workers (UAW) union with its recent announcement that it intends to invest heavily in the manufacture of electric vehicles at its Coahuila plant.

The UAW called on the U.S. government to limit electric vehicle manufacturing tax incentives to facilities producing them in the United States.

Source: Reuters (en)

Tlaxcala prepares to welcome visitors for firefly viewing season

By

MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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Fireflies at the Santuario de las Luciérnagas.

The firefly sanctuary in Nanacamilpa, Tlaxcala, will reopen this season at 30% capacity, after viewings were canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Twenty-six of the 30 viewing centers will welcome visitors from June 18 to August 15, where millions of luminescent insects will put on a dazzling display of lights at dusk.

In 2019 some 127,000 tourists flocked to the sanctuary, located around 80 kilometers east of Mexico City, and 34,000 are expected to attend this year.

Visitors must have a reservation to attend and prices could be as much as 400 pesos (US $20) due to high demand and restrictions on capacity.

The viewing season is expected to bring in 15 million pesos (US $746,000), generate around 800 jobs directly and 400 indirectly.

The president of the Association of Firefly Sanctuaries, Miguel Díaz Castro, has assured the state government of its commitment to operate in strict compliance with the biosecurity measures established by the World Health Organization.

He says staff have received training from state health authorities.

The cancellation last year meant an approximate loss of 48 million pesos to local tour operators and tourism-related businesses.

Tourism Minister Anabel Alvarado Varela said at the time that the cancellation would help the sanctuary come back even stronger by allowing the fireflies to reproduce unhindered by the distraction of visitors.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

10,000 march in Guadalajara to protest violence, insecurity

By

MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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Marchers turned out in large numbers in Guadalajara on Tuesday.

A protest against violence and insecurity was attended by 10,000 people in Guadalajara on Tuesday in reaction to the murder of three local siblings.

Ana Karen, 24, Luis Ángel, 29, and José Alberto González Moreno, 32, were kidnapped from their home in San Andrés on Friday night and found dead on the Colotlán highway on Sunday morning.

Organized by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), the march transversed two kilometers from the university rectory to the Monument to the Disappeared.

Academics, students and residents attended, many carrying photos of missing people, who number more than 12,000 in Jalisco alone, according to official data.

Rector Ricardo Villanueva Lomelí spoke to the crowd in front of the Monument to the Disappeared, lamenting the normalization of violence and demanding that the state ensure the security of its citizens.

The state Attorney General’s Office has said the murders could have been a case of mistaken identity.

Candidates from all parties seeking office on June 6 have offered comment as the case has become politicized.

At least one protester found their remarks expedient. Before the march, a banner was hung by the Monument to the Disappeared which read: “Don’t use the tragedy for your campaign.”

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

Mexico’s biggest mining company to build new power infrastructure in Baja

By

MND Staff

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May 12, 2021

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Grupo México's Buenavista copper mine in Sonora.

Mexico’s largest mining company will invest US $815 million to build major new transmission lines for the Baja California peninsula, according to the firm’s vice chairman.

In an interview with the news agency Reuters, Xavier García de Quevedo of Grupo México revealed new investments totaling $3.1 billion over six years for metals refining in Sonora and power infrastructure for the proposed El Arco copper mine in the municipality of Mulegé, Baja California Sur.

The latter project is expected to bring cheaper electricity to the Baja peninsula, including the Los Cabos tourist area. Power costs in the region are higher than in many other parts of Mexico.

García de Quevedo said the energy plans would benefit the El Arco mine — slated to produce 190,000 tonnes of copper annually starting in 2027 — as well as domestic and commercial electricity customers in the southern part of the peninsula.

Grupo México’s proposed power infrastructure includes a 500-kilometer transmission line running north to south in Baja California Sur.

“Baja California’s huge potential can’t be developed without electricity,” García de Quevedo said, citing electricity rates he claimed are about three times higher than the national average.

The executive, a five-decade veteran of the company owned by Mexico’s second-richest person, Germán Larrea, declined to say where the power to feed the new transmission line would originate.

Reuters reported that Grupo México’s six-year investment blueprint also includes $2.3 billion to increase smelting capacity in Sonora, where the company has major mines. It said that García de Quevedo outlined almost $9 billion in investments through 2027, including a previously-announced $2.8 billion for the El Arco mine. Other resources will go to additional infrastructure, two other Grupo México mines and additional zinc refining capacity.

García de Quevedo played down suggestions that political factors could have an impact on the company’s investment plans, saying said they have already been discussed with senior officials in the federal government, which has not been a wholehearted supporter of mining.

“This is something that the government knows very well,” the vice chairman told Reuters, adding that while permits are needed for the company’s planned projects, no new mining concessions are required. “We all trust that we could have all the authorizations very soon.”

President López Obrador and his government, now 2 1/2 years into its six-year term, have been widely criticized by the mining industry for being too slow to issue permits and approvals, a pattern of tardiness attributed to budget cuts at the Environment Ministry. The government has also faced criticism for its policy of not issuing any new mining concessions, a position the president has trumpeted proudly.

Before López Obrador came to power, Larrea warned that as president, he could seek to implement policies that “represent a backward step of decades and a return to an economic model that has been thoroughly proven not to have worked in several countries.”

In addition to its lucrative mining interests, Grupo México — the world’s fifth-largest copper producer and Mexico’s third-biggest company by market capitalization – operates a major rail freight business in Mexico and transports refined products by both rail and pipeline for Pemex, the state-owned oil company.

It was also awarded a contract with Spanish conglomerate Acciona to build a section of the government’s Maya Train railroad project, which will link towns and cities in Mexico’s southeast.

While Larrea and López Obrador have been critical of each other in the past, Grupo México is now willing to work closely with his administration, according to García de Quevedo. “What we want is to be an ally of the government,” he said.

Source: Reuters (en)