‘Break the chauvinist pact:’ critics rally against candidate accused of rape

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February 18, 2021

break the pact — 'Break the pact:' The message has been trending on social media.

Thousands of Mexicans including actors, writers, politicians, activists and everyday citizens are demanding that President López Obrador withdraw his support for a gubernatorial candidate accused of rape, urging him to dump the political aspirant and “break the chauvinist pact.”

Félix Salgado Macedonio, a former senator accused of raping a teenage girl in 1998 and a woman in 2016, remains the ruling Morena party’s candidate for governor in Guerrero even though he is being investigated by authorities and is the subject of an internal party probe.

Sharp divisions have emerged within Morena over whether Salgado is the right person to contest the June 6 election but he retains the support of the party’s highest ranking official, national president Mario Delgado, and López Obrador.

AMLO, as the president is best known, has claimed that the accusations the 64-year-old former mayor of Acapulco faces are politically motivated and a product of the electoral season.

He presented a similar defense on Wednesday and again Thursday, calling on people to stop politicking and avoid “media lynchings” and asserting that people should trust the party process that was used to select Salgado as candidate.

“We have to have confidence in the people, it’s the people who decide. If polls are taken and and the people say ‘I agree with this colleague [being candidate],’ I think that must be respected. Politics is a matter for everyone, not just the elites,” López Obrador said.

After AMLO’s latest remarks, the hashtag #PresidenteRompaElPacto, or #PresidentBreakThePact, became a trending topic on Twitter as large numbers of people took to the social media platform to denounce his ongoing support for Salgado. Many Twitter users uploaded photos in which they appeared holding signs emblazoned with the same message.

“This is the opportunity for the president and Morena to show that they really are different and decent. Don’t make pacts with machismo endorsing a candidate like Félix Salgado,” wrote Alma Delia Murillo, a writer.

“To López Obrador and (Morena leader) Mario Delgado we say: break the pact #ARapistWon’tBeGovernor #NoAggressorInPower,” wrote Daniela Malpica, founder of Justicia Transicional México, an advocacy organization.

Feminist groups, actors such as Regina Blandón, Anabel Ferreira, José María Yazpik and Pedro de Tavira, lawmakers and thousands of ordinary Mexicans used the “break the pact” hashtag to demand support for Salgado be withdrawn.

“He [López Obrador] doesn’t just give him his complete support but also offends the victim, which is very disturbing,” said lawyer Patricia Olamendi, referring to remarks made by the president that called into question the veracity of the accusations against Salgado.

Female members of the National Action Party, the main opposition party, published a statement expressing their “complete rejection” of Salgado’s candidacy and denouncing the president’s support for an alleged rapist.

“We will not stop pointing out the violent chauvinism that both President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the national Morena leader, Mario Delgado, exercise by ignoring, minimizing and rejecting the accusations against Salgado Macedonio,” the statement said.

The newspaper Reforma reported that feminist collectives will file a challenge on Thursday against the Electoral Institute of Guerrero’s registration of Salgado as a candidate and hold a protest march against his candidacy.

Guerrero is one of 15 states where gubernatorial elections will be held on June 6. Citizens across Mexico will vote on the same date to renew the entire 500-seat lower house of Congress, in which a coalition led by Morena currently has a majority.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

Though it’s not easy work, the ancient art of brickmaking lives on in Cholula

By

Joseph Sorrentino

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February 17, 2021

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In Cholula, artisans make bricks by hand using sand, clay and soil. All photos by Joseph Sorrentino

Several miles from the zócalo and other tourist areas in Cholula, Puebla, small family-owned brickmaking businesses line streets, avenues and rutted dirt roads, businesses like the one started by Gabino Noselo 25 years ago.

“My wife and I worked little by little for 20 years, and thanks to our savings, we were able to buy land and share it with our children, together with this business,” he said. “I still work but no longer at the same pace; but I’m happy.”

There’s little wonder why he doesn’t work at the same pace. Noselo’s 85 years old. As he readily admitted, “The work of a ladrillero (brickmaker) has been very strenuous.”

The oldest bricks yet found on Earth — which were made from mud and then dried in the sun — date back almost 10,000 years and were uncovered in southern Turkey. Bricks have been used in many — and perhaps most — civilizations over millennia. Ancient Egyptians mixed straw with clay to make their bricks, and these were also left to harden in the sun.

In Mexico, adobe bricks, which are also made from clay and straw, were used for centuries and were used to make immense structures, including the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán.

At 85, Gabino Noselo still runs his 25-year-old business.

Early brickmaking was restricted to warm climates because it was necessary to have sufficient strong sunlight and heat to dry the bricks. Around B.C. 3500, a major breakthrough occurred when it was discovered that placing bricks in large ovens (kilns) and heating them to high temperatures with fire gave them greater strength. It also allowed them to be made in cooler climates.

These bricks, called fired bricks, are what are made in Cholula. They’re artisanal — all made by hand — a process that requires a keen eye and experience. Lots of experience.

The dirt used by Noselo and other brickmakers is a mixture of sand, clay and soil.

“Pure dirt does not work,” said Adolfo, Noselo’s grandson. “It will break.”

When there’s an order to be filled, the dirt is delivered in the early morning, and a large mound of it is made in the yard. A hole is scraped into the middle of the dirt, and then water is poured in and mixed with the dirt.

“I know when it is properly mixed from years of experience,” Noselo said. “We mix it until it has the consistency of butter — not too smooth or too lumpy.”

The brick oven requires a mountain of scrap wood as fuel.

The dirt is then placed into molds and patted down to completely fill them. This is all done by hand, so it’s pretty messy. The bricks, which are solid, are then laid out to dry in the sun.

“This takes five to seven days in the dry season,” said another brickmaker whose family business is a short distance from Noselo’s. (I’ve called him Miguel because he didn’t want his real name used.) “In the rainy season, three days extra,” he said.

His family has been making bricks for three generations.

When the bricks are dry, they’re stacked in the oven. The small one on Noselo’s property holds 20,000 bricks. The larger ones at Miguel’s hold up to 50,000. Once the oven’s filled, unfired bricks are placed on top of the roof and are used to seal the oven’s door. Then the real fun begins.

A small mountain of scrap wood is needed to fire the bricks because the temperature must reach between 1500 F and 2000 F. There are no thermometers; it’s all done by sight and experience.

“At first, the smoke is black, and as the temperature rises, it turns white,” Miguel said. “When the correct temperature is reached, there is almost no smoke.”

This wood-fired oven holds tens of thousands of bricks.

Noselo’s grandson throws bucket after bucket of wood into the three openings at the base of the oven. The fire must be fed constantly to maintain the high temperature. For the 20,000 bricks in that oven, that means adding wood for up to 24 hours.

“One can rest, but no one sleeps during the 20 hours or more,” Noselo said. “Three people work the fire. One cannot let the fire die down, or the bricks will not be good. I know from experience when the fire needs more or less firewood. I no longer work but watch and give instructions.”

For the larger ovens like Miguel’s the fire needs to be fed for 48 hours.

“It is about one hour for every 1,000 bricks,” he said.

When the bricks on top of the oven’s roof turn red, the ones inside are ready, and no more wood is added to the fire.

“It takes five days to be cool enough to remove the bricks at the door and on the roof,” Miguel said, “and then three more days to remove the bricks from inside.”

Gabino Noselo's grandson, Adolfo, seals the oven's door with unfired bricks. — Gabino Noselo’s grandson, Adolfo, seals the oven’s door with unfired bricks.

The bricks are then stacked in the yard or placed on a truck and shipped out.

Noselo has been working since he was 14. Although slowed a little by age, he continues his business. As he pointed out, a ladrillero’s labor is hard, but he must do it because he needs to earn a living.

“I started [this business] out of necessity, and I thought it was going to be highly paid,” he said, “but it is not.”

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer and photographer, 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.

Poverty levels moved up 3 points to 40.7% last year

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2021

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fruit and vegetable stand — The monthly cost of the basic food basket is about 1,700 pesos.

Poverty levels increased 3.4% to over 40% of the population in 2020, according to data published by the national social development agency Coneval.

In the final quarter of last year, the monthly income of 40.7% of the working age population was insufficient to purchase a canasta básica, a basic food basket consisting of a selection of foodstuffs including beans, rice, eggs, sugar and canned tuna. The monthly cost of the canasta is about 1,700 pesos (US $84) in urban areas and 1,200 pesos in rural parts of the country.

In the final quarter of 2019, 37.3% of the population was considered poor, and the figure dropped to 35.7% in the first quarter of 2020. However, the coronavirus pandemic caused many people to lose their jobs or see their incomes reduced, and poverty levels increased as a result, reaching a record 44.5% in the third quarter of last year before falling almost four points in the final quarter.

A 6.1% annual increase in the cost of the canasta básica in urban areas and a 7.6% spike in rural areas, as well as overall inflation of 3.5%, also contributed to poverty levels going up in 2020.

Poverty levels increased in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states with the biggest rises recorded in Quintana Roo (+14.7%), where many tourism sector workers lost their jobs last year, Tabasco (+10.4%), Mexico City (+10.4%) and Baja California Sur (+9.1%).

The eight states where poverty decreased were Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Querétaro and Nayarit.

With 64.3% of people unable to afford the canasta básica, Chiapas had the highest poverty level at the end of last year followed by Guerrero (58.6%) and Oaxaca (56.6%).

Nuevo León had the lowest poverty rate (24%) followed by Jalisco (25.1%) and Baja California (25.3%).

Source: Milenio (sp)

Morena party divided over candidate accused of sexual assault

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2021

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Salgado, left, has the support of Morena party leader Delgado.

Sharp divisions have emerged within the ruling Morena party over whether its candidate for governor of Guerrero, who faces sexual assault allegations, is the right person to contest the June 6 election.

Félix Salgado Macedonio, a former senator accused of raping a teenage girl in 1998 and a woman in 2016, remains Morena’s candidate even though he is being investigated by authorities and is the subject of an internal party probe.

The 64-year-old, who last month held a massive birthday party in violation of coronavirus restrictions, has the support of many of Morena’s most powerful figures, including President López Obrador and national party president Mario Delgado, but faces staunch opposition from some female lawmakers and rank and file members.

His support among the party’s elite and the alleged sympathy toward him by Morena’s honesty and justice commission have led some women to believe that Salgado is being protected and will never face justice for his alleged crimes.

López Obrador claimed last month that the sexual abuse allegations Salgado faces are politically motivated.

“It’s a partisan matter and product of the [electoral] season,” he said January 8. “There is competition in some states because the elections are coming; all this generates controversy and accusations. The only thing that I can say is that when there are elections or [political] competition, it’s about discrediting the opponent in one way or another.”

Delgado, who left the lower house of Congress last November to take up the national presidency of Morena, has defended Salgado’s candidacy on the grounds that he hasn’t been convicted of any crime and therefore maintains his right to stand for election.

“While Félix Salgado maintains his political rights, he’s our candidate,” he said recently. “There is no sentence from any authority that proves that he committed a crime.”

Female lawmakers and Morena members take a very different view with regard to Salgado’s right to contest the election. They have written to the party leadership to express their anger at his selection and to call for a review of the decision, and lawmakers have demanded that authorities in Guerrero expeditiously conclude their investigation into Salgado’s alleged crimes.

Morena secretary general Citlalli Hernández said in January that Salgado should be stripped of his candidacy, saying the party “cannot remain silent in the face of possible cases of rape and gender abuse.”

But she has so far been unable to convince enough of her high-ranking party colleagues to adopt the same view, and Salgado’s candidacy was accepted by Morena in Guerrero this week.

lopez obrador and salgado — President López Obrador claims the accusations are politically motivated.

In a statement published Monday, female members and supporters of the party called on its national leadership to put themselves on “the side of history, the side of victims, the side of women and the side of justice” and not allow a person facing “multiple accusations of violence” to be a candidate at any election.

Some female Morena members have said they will quit if Salgado is allowed to stand, while Carol Arriaga, women’s secretary on Morena’s national executive committee, warned that the party will send a message of impunity to citizens if it allows him to run for governor.

During an appearance before Morena’s honesty and justice commission on Monday, one of Salgado’s alleged victims criticized López Obrador for his remarks and demanded that he take the side of victims rather than aggressors.

“I came to give my testimony so that he doesn’t keep saying it’s a dirty war and part of the [election] contest. … [The rape accusation] is not a lie, I’m here and I’m going to keep fighting until I’m heard. … This isn’t something [just] to try to stop him being governor. … A rapist is a rapist, whoever he is. I would tell [the president] to be serious and put himself in the place of the victim, he can’t defend a rapist,” said Basilia “N.”

A defense lawyer for the woman accused Morena’s honesty and justice commission of showing favoritism toward Salgado, criticizing it for allowing four lawyers representing the candidate to ask “hostile” questions of her client that re-victimized her.

The commission rejected a request for Salgado to appear and be questioned by the alleged victim’s lawyers.

Basilia “N.” accused the commission of running a “simulation,” asserting that it was not really working on the case.

“I believe that they don’t see me as a victim, I don’t see that they are listening to me, they’re not listening to me at all,” she said.

Source: Animal Político (sp)

Wyndham Hotels invests US $11 million in Tulum hotel

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Michelle Aguilar

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February 17, 2021

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The Esplendor hotel in Tulum will feature 96 rooms.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced that it will open a new 96-room hotel in Tulum sometime in the first half of 2021, part of a plan to open 10 new hotels in seven cities throughout Mexico during 2021–2022.

The new US $11-million, 96-room hotel will be named Esplendor by Wyndham Tulum. It will be located close to the tourist destination’s Mayan archaeological sites and a 10-minute commute to beaches.

The hotel’s opening, as well as that of the 112-room Esplendor by Wyndham La Condesa hotel in Mexico City, will mark the Esplendor brand’s debut in Mexico. Overall, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts owns 58 hotels in Mexico under 12 brand names in 34 cities. Fifty-three of those properties are currently in operation, Wyndham’s Eduardo Cruz del Río said.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic’s hits to the travel and hospitality industry last year, Cruz del Río expressed optimism about the upcoming openings, saying that in the third quarter of 2020 Wyndham’s occupancy in Mexico was up 21.6%. Seventy percent of the company’s reservations worldwide in that period have been for leisure purposes, he said.

The hospitality conglomerate is bouncing back from the pandemic’s effects better prepared to meet the needs of a clientele more concerned with hygiene and able to be choosy about where they stay, Cruz del Río said. The company has introduced procedures such as constant disinfection of properties and new employee orientation and training to give customers peace of mind.

“The pandemic brought important areas of opportunity to better the quality of our services and fully guarantee the safety of our guests,” he told the Mexican tourism publication Reportur.

Source: Reportur (sp)

Mexico City’s plastics ban doesn’t factor in the capital’s economic divide

By

Sarah DeVries

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February 17, 2021

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The city’s single-use plastics ban pulled plastic-applicator tampons off store shelves. Eco-friendly alternatives like the menstrual cup are pricier in the short-term.

As a preteen in the early ʼ90s, nothing mortified me more than the possibility of open talk about menstruation.

The day I started my period (Halloween, of all days), my voice shook as I told my mom about finding blood, still naively hoping that perhaps I’d just cut myself by accident. I knew she would be perfectly helpful and understanding, which of course she was; it didn’t matter. Even now, at a time when I’m closer to the end of my fertility than the beginning, I remember sixth grade as a time when I just felt dirty in general.

Oh, how times have changed!

Fast-forward almost 30 years, and it’s not only become not taboo (or at least not as taboo in certain circles) but it’s now practically a political issue. I’ve seen internet music videos about it, cute ones, where girls pretend to have their periods to feel grown-up and cool and get parties. I’ve seen women bleed on their clothes as political protest in order to draw attention to the issues of access surrounding essential products for women’s bodies. The Vagina Monologues is practically vintage theater now.

We’ve come a long way from the days in which my biggest fear was a boy realizing I was on my period and calling me gross for it, and this makes me happy.

As you might have guessed by now, today we’re going to talk about periods. Specifically, we’re going to talk about the abrupt absence of tampons in stores and pharmacies throughout Mexico City.

The ban, part of a policy to eliminate single-use plastics, happened on January 1, much to the surprise of plenty of Mexico City women who have been a bit busy to be following the step-by-step implementations of the city’s environmental policy.

Politically and socially, this is a tricky one. There tends to be quite a bit of overlap in the Venn diagram of feminist and environmentalist goals — on this issue an uncomfortable spot for those who consider themselves to be part of both groups. Let’s try to untangle it.

I’d posit that first, it’s not really a clash between feminism and environmentalism at all. When certain alternative products are out of reach for many, it becomes a class issue. This is especially true in this specific case, in which many well-meaning people have suggested that these women switch to a menstrual cup instead, long touted to be environmentally friendly, comfortable and discreet.

As a person who has used pretty much every menstrual product on the market by now, I feel qualified to weigh in on this one. I currently use a menstrual cup and have for the past several years. While it is indeed effective, it can be quite tricky at first, even for an adult. Not to get too graphic, but when I first tried one out in college, I experienced at one point such a horrifying suction effect when trying to remove it that I didn’t even try again for another 15 years. It’s certainly not something I’d suggest to my kid before she reached the hard-earned level of comfort that grown women (hopefully) learn to have with their own bodies.

And here’s where the class issue comes in: I recently switched mine out. The new one was 700 pesos. Even when we’re not in a pandemic, this is quite a lot of money for quite a lot of people, especially women, who are less likely than men to be earning their own money, and especially during a pandemic in which millions of jobs have literally vanished. Scrounging up 80 pesos once a month is easier than coming up with 700 pesos at once, even if it pays for itself eventually.

And as Jude Webber writes, there are 260,000 homes in Mexico City that don’t even have running water. As environmentally friendly as menstrual cups are, they can also be quite messy, requiring a thorough wash between emptying cycles (usually at least two to three times a day): three times for your hands (before taking it out, when rinsing it out and then again after replacing it). Add to that the fact that so many bathrooms here are built with the sinks outside of the actual room with the toilet, and it can really be an issue. As privileged as I am, even I’ve had to rush home because there simply wasn’t a private place to take care of those very basic hygiene needs.

Tampons, on the other hand, don’t require such a process. It’s true, one should always wash the hands before and after, but if it’s not possible, using one is still doable, unless they don’t have an applicator. (I’ve used these before as well — you guessed it, a messy ordeal.)

Pads are also available, of course, but the bulkiness can be quite uncomfortable to say the least, leading to a damper, itchier, more disagreeable experience the higher one’s absorption needs go. They can also move around and allow leaks anyway when the goal is, of course, to prevent exactly that. We’ve just got too much to do to be scrubbing blood out of our pants.

The truth is that being “eco-friendly” isn’t simply a choice that one makes because they’re so cool and self-aware; it’s a privilege, and often an expensive one. Let’s forget tampons for a minute and look at another example.

Most environmentally friendly versions of disposable products like cutlery and carryout dishes, which were also banned, are not cheap. At all. And many are indeed still using them. For those living hand-to-mouth, banning single-use plastic during a time when most food providers are only getting by because they have takeout and delivery services just seems cruel. Where are these businesses supposed to find the money to spend a significant percentage more than usual on disposables to sell their products when their bottom line has already been decimated?

So what can we do? Making sure there are affordable options on the market before implementing these kinds of rules would certainly be a start. If there aren’t affordable products that already exist, perhaps the government could even run a kind of competition for a scholarship or grant to invent something that could then be taken to the market. Mexican-invented, Mexican-made. Homegrown industries are waiting to come alive. Before what they’re to replace disappears, though, please.

Not only could we get ecological menstrual products with biodegradable applicators, but all sorts of problems could be solved: well-insulated glass for windows, for example, or low-cost portable car seats and seat belts that could be easily and quickly installed in taxis.

I’m not against the goal of reducing waste and increasing environmentally friendly practices. I’m not against the goal of reducing waste and increasing environmentally friendly practices, but insisting that people adopt alternatives that they cannot afford causes real hardship and is simply cruel when it makes their lives more difficult. It’s saying, “We’re going to pass the suffering from the environment onto to you now.”

And we really don’t need to do that. There are better ways, and I truly believe that Mexico has more than enough genius to create them.

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

Foreign minister, Mexico City mayor lead poll to succeed AMLO in 2024

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MND Staff

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February 17, 2021

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ebrard and sheinbaum — Ebrard lost ground to Sheinbaum in the new poll.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum are the leading contenders to become the ruling party’s candidate in the next presidential election, a new poll indicates.

The polling company Massive Caller asked 2,000 people to offer an opinion about who could best defend the legacy of President López Obrador.

Ebrard, a former Mexico City mayor and a minister in López Obrador’s 2000-2005 government in the capital, was chosen by 39.3% of respondents.

Sheinbaum, who was environment minister in Mexico City when López Obrador was mayor, finished a close second among 36.7% of those polled.

Morena party national president Mario Delgado, who garnered the support of 9.3% of respondents, was the third most popular choice among the five offered. Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier and Morena’s leader in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, garnered the support of 8.4% and 6.3% of respondents, respectively.

opinion poll — Front-runners are Ebrard and Sheinbaum in the poll by Massive Caller.

A graph published by Massive Caller shows that support for Ebrard has fallen 6.7% from 46% at the start of the year while Sheinbaum’s backing has increased 7.7% from 29% on January 2.

José Fernández Santillán, a political science professor at the Tec de Monterrey university, told media organization Grupo Cantón that López Obrador could trust both Ebrard and Sheinbaum to defend his legacy but predicted that he would ultimately choose the latter as his successor.

Citing an unnamed “old-fashioned politician with a lot of experience,” Fernández said that political power shouldn’t be bequeathed to one’s contemporaries or “siblings” but rather to one’s “children.”

“Claudia Sheinbaum is the daughter of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the political daughter,” he said.

The academic said that while Ebrard has served loyally under AMLO, as the president is known, he has his own political views and would be more likely to break with the polices and agenda of the current government. Sheinbaum is one of the so-called “pure” disciples of López Obrador, Fernández said.

If polls show that the foreign affairs minister and the Mexico City mayor are in a “technical draw” insofar as being seen as the best successor to AMLO, the president will “absolutely” opt for Sheinbaum, he said, adding that she is seen as less calculating and “Machiavellian” than Ebrard.

Massive Caller also asked poll respondents to indicate who they believed should lead the opposition to the president’s political agenda.

Ricardo Anaya, the National Action Party (PAN) candidate in the 2018 presidential election and a former lawmaker and PAN national president, was a clear winner with 43.7% of respondents nominating the 41-year-old.

Four other choices were offered to those polled: Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, who garnered 26.4% support; Senator Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, longtime politician and interior minister in the 2012-2018 federal government, who was nominated by 16.1%; Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, 9.7%; and businessman and prominent government critic Claudio X. González, 4.1%.

Mario Campos, a political scientist at the Iberoamericana University, said that Anaya is already positioning himself to be a candidate in 2024 but predicted that several other opposition figures will do the same.

One of the possible contenders is former first lady Margarita Zavala, who campaigned for president in 2018 but pulled out of the race before election day. She and her husband, former president Felipe Calderón, formed a new political movement in 2018 but it was denied party status last September due to alleged funding irregularities, a decision upheld by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp), Grupo Cantón (sp)

Diversify energy sources, boost storage capacity, experts urge

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2021

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solar panels — Solar is an option for diversification but the government has not been supportive.

Mexico urgently needs to diversify its power generation sources and increase storage capacity for both fuels and energy in order to avoid more major blackouts, according to two energy experts.

Juan Carlos García de la Cadena, CEO of sustainable energy firm Beetmann, told the newspaper El Economista that the dependence on natural gas to generate more than 60% of the energy used in Mexico implies a huge risk, as seen this week when there was a major outage in the northern states after cold weather in the United States affected the supply of natural gas to Mexico.

He said that distributed generation – a variety of technologies that generate electricity at or near where it will be used, such as solar panels – is one way that Mexico’s dependence on natural gas can be lessened.

“The most important thing is that as a sector we learn the lesson that we need a more diversified [energy] generation mix that is less linked to the United States price indices and imports from an open market that is subject to so many variables, some of them uncontrollable such as the weather,” García said.

About 95% of all natural gas imports come from the United States, mainly Texas. The heavy dependence on those imports and the energy system’s majority reliance on gas for power generation left Mexico in an extremely vulnerable position when the Lone Star state was hit by a cold snap this week.

What was a regional weather and electricity supply problem in the U.S. became a national economic problem in Mexico, El Economista said. The newspaper reported that the need to make extraordinary purchases of natural gas – Mexico has purchased shipments to be brought by sea from the United States – and to ramp up capacity at plants that use other power generation sources will cost the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) 5% of its annual budget in the space of just a few days.

One alternative source that is seen as having enormous potential is solar but the federal government has not been supportive of the sector and is only ramping up its hostility toward the renewable energy industry.

In addition to its heavy dependence on natural gas for energy generation, Mexico’s limited storage capacity for the fuel also makes it highly vulnerable in the case of an interruption to supply.

According to independent energy analyst Ramsés Pech, Mexico needs to increase its storage capacity for a range of fuels, especially natural gas. He also said that Mexico should be exploring possibilities to build small hydroelectric projects and store energy using large batteries.

The previous federal government announced in 2018 a plan to increase natural gas storage capacity to at least 45 billion cubic feet, or almost five days’ consumption, by 2026. However, the current government hasn’t proceeded with the projects outlined by its predecessor, including two in Veracruz.

Mexico’s current storage capacity might be best measured in hours rather than days, according to Nuevo León energy industry group president César Cadena, while the newspaper Reforma described it as “practically non-existent.”

In contrast, the United States has storage capacity for 65 days’ worth of gas consumption while some European countries have capacity for 100 days.

The CFE said Monday that it plans to increase capacity but it didn’t say when or how it intends to do so.

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

Opium poppy farmers in Guerrero accuse soldiers of theft, vandalism

By

Michelle Aguilar

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February 17, 2021

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Tuesday's confrontation between farmers and soliders in Heliodoro Castillo.

Opium poppy farmers in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero are accusing the military of violence, theft and destruction of property in retaliation for citizens banding together to prevent the soldiers from eradicating their illicit crops.

Residents of Los Hoyos, located in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, say that after an initial confrontation on Monday forced the military to leave, the soldiers returned on Tuesday afternoon, beating residents, shooting up their cars and breaking into homes to rob them.

“Yesterday [Monday], the residents blocked [the military] and didn’t let them destroy the crops,” he said, “and today [Tuesday, the soldiers] arrived, took away families, beat them and I believe shot up cars; all this is very difficult,” one farmer told the newspaper Reforma.

The initial confrontation on Monday was caught on a video now circulating on social media, in which a group of men armed with sticks, machetes and stones can be seen shouting at the soldiers and throwing stones at them while women and children look on.

When the soldiers returned Tuesday afternoon, residents said, they unleashed a wave of violence and destruction, only leaving after the church bells rang, a warning signal to others in the community, said one resident.

A farmer told Reforma that one person was severely beaten during the incident.

The farmers said they would not back down from protecting their crops, which are their only means of viable income.

“We’re not going to let them destroy the poppy plants because the government doesn’t support us at all,” one farmer said. “They’re trying to placate us with despensas [provisions] and doing a poor job of repairing the highways.”

The military has been eradicating opium poppy crops for years in states such as Guerrero, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango. Less than a month ago, a similar confrontation between farmers and the military occurred in San Miguel Totolapan.

Farmers from several communities confronted the military after the soldiers destroyed more than 50 hectares of crops. They demanded that the soldiers leave their communities for good and that the state and federal governments compensate them for their loss of income.

According to a farmer in San Miguel Totolapan interviewed by Reforma in January, a kilogram of opium paste currently sells for 8,000 pesos.

Guerrero farmers have appealed to President López Obrador to legalize the cultivation of opium poppies for use in manufacturing pharmaceuticals. While the government appeared to be open to the idea, nothing on that front has moved forward.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Blackouts extended to 29 states; gas control center issues alert over shortage

By

MND Staff

-

February 17, 2021

0

gas pipeline — Natural gas flowing through pipelines from the US hasn't been enough to meet demand.

Blackouts occurred in 29 states on Tuesday night, far more than had been anticipated, as Mexico continues to experience the fallout from an interruption to the natural gas supply caused by a cold snap in the United States.

The National Energy Control Center warned there would be rolling, random cuts to power supply in 12 states in order to reduce pressure on the electricity system but the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) announced that the blackouts had extended to 26 states, affecting 3.2 million people.

However, authorities and citizens in 29 states reported that power went off for varying lengths of time on Tuesday night.

The only states where there were no reports of blackouts were Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora.

In Mexico City, which wasn’t one of the 12 states where outages were scheduled, there were blackouts in parts of the boroughs of Tlalpan, Miguel Hidalgo and Iztapalapa, the newspaper Reforma reported. Some México state municipalities that are part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area, such as Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, were also left without power.

Authorities in Celaya, Guanajuato, said the city’s water and sewerage systems were affected by power cuts while water service was suspended in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Authorities in several states expressed concern about the possibility that hospitals would be left without power supply. In Nayarit, Governor Antonio Echevarría said patients connected to ventilators in hospitals in Ixtlán and Rosamorada had to be transferred to state capital Tepic.

In Yucatán, blackouts were reported in several municipalities including Progreso and Motul. Some neighborhoods in state capital Mérida also experienced outages.

In the neighboring state of Quintana Roo, parts of the tourist destinations of Cancún and Playa del Carmen were shrouded in darkness for up to two hours from about 7:30 p.m. More than 55,000 people in five municipalities in the Caribbean coast state lost power, according to the CFE.

Businesses affected by blackouts over the past two days – 4.7 million people in Mexico’s north were left without power on Monday – have incurred losses of some 54 billion pesos (US $2.66 billion), estimated Luis Manuel Hernández, president of the industry group Index Nacional.

He said that some factories in the north of the country were left without power for more than 24 hours, forcing their complete shutdown.

Volkswagen mexico — Volkswagen is one of 80 companies whose gas volume has been cut back.

Enoch Castellanos, president of the National Chamber for Industrial Transformation, said that he expected losses of 18 billion pesos (about US $890 million) between Tuesday and Friday due to the interruption in the natural gas supply from the United States, where sub-zero temperatures froze gas pipes.

The National Gas Control Center (Cenagas) issued a “critical alert” on Tuesday for the national gas system (Sistrangas) due to the limited amount of gas being sent to Mexico from the U.S.

The alert will remain in effect until further notice. The Ministry of Energy (Sener) said that injections of gas into the national system from the United States remain below scheduled levels.

“While Cenagas has the authority to carry out intervention actions through the purchase of natural gas … to remedy the situation, the market conditions currently reflect a low supply of that fuel,” the ministry said.

“As a control measure, the extractions from the entire gas system will be adjusted according to the availability of natural gas,” Sener said.

Cenagas published a list Tuesday afternoon of more than 80 companies that will have their gas volumes cut, among which were steel company Arcelomittal México, steelmaker Altos Hornos de México, glass producer Vitro, paper and cardboard company Bio Pappel and automaker Volkswagen. Some companies were to see cuts in excess of 99%.

President López Obrador acknowledged Wednesday morning that the situation is serious and warned that full electricity service might not be restored until Thursday or Friday.

“We hope that service is reestablished as soon as possible, they’re working on that,” he said.

The president said that three shipments of gas to be brought to Mexico by sea have been purchased in order to allow gas-fueled power plants to increase their capacity.

“[The situation] is fundamentally due to the freezing weather … in the north, mainly in Texas,” López Obrador said, ruling out any suggestion that the United States had withheld gas due to any problems in the bilateral relationship.

“To clarify, there is not any reprisal – that they’re not delivering gas is not because they don’t see us in a favorable light,” he said.

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