Elections body rejects candidates for governor after they failed to file spending reports

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March 26, 2021

Félix Salgado at a campaign rally in Guerrero. 'We're still in the fight,' he said despite the INE ruling.

The National Electoral Institute (INE) has barred two Morena party candidates for governor from contesting the June 6 elections in a move that is certain to inflame tensions between the agency and the ruling party.

The two are among several candidates, most of whom belong to Morena, who were disqualified because they failed to submit reports detailing their pre-campaign expenses.

Out of the running unless a court rules otherwise are Félix Salgado, a former senator who won Morena’s nomination in Guerrero despite facing several accusations of rape, and Raúl Morón, an ex-senator who left his position as mayor of Morelia in January to contest the gubernatorial race in Michoacán.

A majority of INE councilors voted in favor of deregistering the candidates in a marathon meeting on Thursday. In the case of Salgado, seven councilors voted in favor of rejecting his candidacy while four opposed the move.

A majority of councilors also voted in favor of barring former Acapulco mayor Luis Walton, current Acapulco Mayor Adela Román and the federal government’s super-delegate in Guerrero, Pablo Amílcar Sandoval, from contesting the elections because they too failed to file spending reports. That means none of the three morenistas, as Morena party members and supporters are known, will be able to replace Salgado on the ballot in Guerrero.

In the case of Morón, six councilors supported the disqualification of his candidacy while five opposed it.

The INE also barred 61 candidates for mayor and federal deputy positions from running because they didn’t report their expenses or there were inconsistencies in the information they provided. At least 42 of the disqualified candidates were nominated by Morena, a party founded by President López Obrador.

INE councilor Adriana Favela noted that any person aspiring to be a candidate at an election must submit a pre-campaign expenses report to the Electoral Institute.

Morena said that in the cases of Salgado and Morón, there were no pre-campaign events and therefore there were no expenses to report.

However, councilor Jaime Rivera said it was proven that there were costs associated with Salgado’s participation in the pre-campaign process to seek Morena’s nomination. Councilor Claudia Zavala said that there is a reporting requirement even if no pre-campaign expenses were incurred.

Uuc-Kib Espadas, one of the INE councilors who voted against disqualifying the candidates for governor, said the punishment didn’t fit the crime, asserting that barring them from running in the election was an excessive penalty.

Raúl Morón, candidate for governor of Michoacán, called the INE’s move ‘an illegal decision.’

However, councilors who voted in favor asserted that while the punishment might seem excessive, the law stipulates that candidates who fail to report pre-campaign expenses must be disqualified from running. Espadas acknowledged that the INE hadn’t acted illegally and accepted that it is not biased.

The decision to reject the candidacies of the two aspirants for governor comes after INE’s audit committee warned in late February that there was a risk of Morena party candidates being disqualified because they hadn’t submitted spending and income reports.

On February 26, the INE general council issued fines for more than 7.1 million pesos (US $345,000) to numerous parties, including Morena, that had not filed expenses reports for their pre-candidates. It gave the parties five days to do so but many Morena candidates didn’t comply with the directive.

Salgado, whose candidacy was confirmed by Morena earlier this month after it completed a new selection process amid calls for the 64-year-old alleged rapist to be dumped, said Thursday – prior to the INE councilors voting to reject his candidacy – that he would fight any such move in the Federal Electoral Tribunal, adding that he would take his case to the Supreme Court if necessary.

In a Facebook post published early on Friday, Salgado asserted that the INE was “mistaken,” describing the decision to reject his candidacy as “objectionable and arbitrary.”

He also said that he was confident that the electoral court would overturn the decision and deliver justice. “We’re still in the fight. Everyone cheer up!” Salgado wrote.

Morón also said that he would challenge the INE decision in court.

“INE took an illegal decision. We will not allow it to trample on the will of our people; we will go to the electoral tribunal to defend democracy,” he wrote on Twitter.

President López Obrador took aim at the INE at his regular news conference on Friday, charging that it had become a “supreme conservative power.”

“It’s strange because it didn’t do it before, now it’s turned into the supreme conservative power, it now decides who is a candidate and who isn’t. It wasn’t like that before. Maybe they changed the laws or didn’t apply them before,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

Ex-governor of Tamaulipas pleads guilty to money laundering in US

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MND Staff

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March 25, 2021

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Yarrington during his arrest in Italy in 2017.

Former Tamaulipas governor Tomás Yarrington has pleaded guilty in the United States to a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery announced Thursday that Yarrington, who was in power in the northern border state between 1999 and 2004, had admitted he accepted more than US $3.5 million in bribes and used the resources to purchase property fraudulently in the United States.

The United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Texas said the 64-year-old former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governor admitted to a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering in a “pay to play type of scheme.”

“As part of the plea, Yarrington admitted he accepted bribes from individuals and private companies in Mexico to do business with the state of Tamaulipas while he served as governor,” the statement said.

The Attorney’s Office said the ex-governor, who was a PRI pre-candidate for president in the lead-up to the 2006 election, used the bribes he received to purchase several properties.

“He had prestanombres – nominee buyers – purchase property in the United States to hide Yarrington’s ownership of the properties and the illegal bribery money used to purchase them,” it said.

The Attorney’s Office said that Yarrington admitted that one of the illegally purchased properties was a condominium in Port Isabel, a Gulf coast town 40 kilometers northeast of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. He has agreed to forfeit that property.

“He also acknowledged he knew it was against the law in Mexico to take the bribes and to hide the over $3.5 million in illegal bribe money in the United States by buying real estate, cars and other personal items,” the Attorney’s Office said.

A U.S. district judge accepted Yarrington’s plea and will set a sentencing hearing at a later date. The ex-governor, extradited to the United States by Italy in April 2018, faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

The ex-governor allegedly has ties to criminal organizations including the Gulf Cartel. He became a fugitive from justice in 2012 and was arrested in Italy in 2017 while traveling under an assumed name with a false passport

Mexico News Daily

Beware the politics behind vaccines from China, Russia, US official warns

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MND Staff

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March 25, 2021

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The Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine arrives in Mexico City earlier this month.

A senior United States official has warned Mexico to be wary of Covid-19 vaccines delivered by China and Russia because they are motivated by their own political interests.

Juan S. González, the top diplomat on western hemisphere affairs on the White House National Security Council, told the newspaper Milenio that there might be geopolitical calculations and specific interests behind the delivery of vaccines from those countries.

Mexico has a deal with Russia to purchase 24 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine and agreements to buy 35 million doses from Chinese companies Sinovac Biotech and CanSino Biologics. The Russian vaccine was developed by a state-owned research institute but the Chinese shots were developed by private companies.

Asked to explain why China and Russia appear to have more interest in supplying vaccines to Mexico than the United States – which announced last week that it would loan 2.5 million AstraZeneca doses to Mexico – González responded:

“There is a great difference here. [On] one [side there] is vaccine diplomacy in exchange for political capital while for us the motivation is the wellbeing of the Mexican people.”

Juan S. González — González: US assistance doesn’t come with conditions.

He also warned that China and Russia might not deliver all the doses they have promised.

The United States’ assistance doesn’t come with conditions, González added. The most important thing from the U.S. government’s point of view is the prosperity and safety of Mexicans, he said.

(A first shipment of 1.5 million AstraZeneca shots from the U.S. will arrive Sunday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday.)

González also said that in contrast with other countries, Washington’s focus in distributing vaccines internationally is not commercial.

“We’re obviously focused on recovery [from the pandemic] in the United States but we’re also focused on the entire world with an emphasis on Latin America,” he said, adding that the Biden administration has donated US $4 billion to the intergovernmental Covax initiative, which aims to ensure rapid and equitable access to vaccines for all countries.

Probed further as to why the Mexican government should be wary of vaccine supply from China and Russia, González said:

“I would say that Mexicans have to decide what’s in their interest. We’re betting that there will be very close collaboration between the United States and Mexico in the future. That’s the relationship we’re looking for with Mexico, one of mutual interest. Not one in which we try to intimidate, threaten or gain a benefit for ourselves at the expense of the Mexican people.”

The official said that he couldn’t make any announcement about whether the United States would supply more vaccine doses to Mexico beyond the 2.5 million to which it has already committed but asserted that the U.S. government has a “North American plan” to combat the pandemic.

“… It’s not just vaccines, it’s the medical system and how we’re sharing information, how we’re developing vaccines, not those of today but those of tomorrow,” González said, adding that the U.S. government is also collaborating with its Mexican counterpart on border issues so that the pandemic can be controlled “without sacrificing our economic collaboration.”

He agreed that a “healthy North America” is not possible without the pandemic being controlled in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

“The president [Joe Biden] obviously made a promise to the American people that we’re going to vaccinate Americans [first]. Once we’ve done that, the focus will be on how we can help the rest of the world combat this pandemic, but that entire conversation begins in North America and that’s why the first announcement about sharing vaccines was with Canada and Mexico,” he said.

Responding to González’s remarks on Thursday, President López Obrador said that in order to obtain Covid-19 vaccines, it’s necessary to engage with all countries that could supply them.

López Obrador, who described Russian president Vladimir Putin as “genuinely affectionate” after reaching the Sputnik V supply deal in January, told reporters at his morning press conference in Campeche that “universal fraternity must prevail over hegemonies” in matters that affect people’s health.

“When it comes to obtaining vaccines to protect people we have to interact with everyone and seek solidarity and universal fraternity,” he said.

Mexico has so far received just under 9.76 million vaccine doses, according to data presented by the Health Ministry on Wednesday night, of which about 4.55 million, or 47% of the total, were manufactured in Europe by United States pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Sinovac has supplied 3 million doses, 940,470 CanSino shots have arrived and a shipment of 870,000 AstraZeneca doses manufactured in India reached the country last month. Only 400,000 of the expected 24 million Sputnik V doses have arrived to date.

As of Wednesday night, 6.1 million vaccine doses had been administered in Mexico, mainly to health workers and seniors. According to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, 4.2% of Mexico’s population are vaccinated and 0.4% are fully vaccinated, meaning that they have received both required doses of two-shot vaccines.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Guerrero charity promotes whale watching that avoids stress for the animals

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Elisabeth Ashe

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March 25, 2021

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Catching a whale in the act. — Catching a whale in the act of breaching.

Although I have lived many years in Zihuatanejo, I have never before taken the opportunity to book a whale tour in Barra de Potosí, a small community not far from there and basically in my backyard. With the Whales of Guerrero concert held recently in March, I decided it was time to take advantage of the proximity.

Whales of Guerrero is a charitable organization that facilitates community-driven conservation in the fishing village of Barra de Potosí and throughout Guerrero. Among many other initiatives, the organization trains locals to take tourists on safe whale and dolphin watching excursions. Guides trained by the charity are certified by Mexico’s Environment Ministry and gain access to a whale-spotting network, allowing them to work together to find whales and to coordinate to give the whales space and avoid causing them stress.

Some conservationists and marine mammal researchers are concerned that whale and dolphin watching drives the animals away from preferred areas and forces them to move away from their feeding zones in order to avoid boats.

Together with three other friends, we took the trek to the village of Barra de Potosí. We met our guides Raúl, Jorge and Jesús, who were already waiting for us at Restaurante Gaviotas, one of many restaurants that dotted the beach. As we donned our lifejackets and had a brief safety meeting, I was happy to see that our panga (boat), which was immaculately clean, had a canopy for shade and that the guides all wore masks, as did we.

The waters can be choppy in that area, and the swells can look daunting. I sat in the boat’s prow to take photos, which was thrilling as we maneuvered through the waves. However, our captains were proficient at steering, and it didn’t take me long to relax.

Guides take customers on a small boat and keep a respectful distance, which nevertheless allows a closer view of whales than on watches in crowded waters. — Guides take customers on a small boat and keep a respectful distance, which nevertheless allows a closer view of whales than on tours in crowded waters.

I knew from reading their website that the guides belong to an association and are continually upgrading their skills and knowledge of whales and natural habitat funded through the Whales of Guerrero organization.

The boat sliced through the water past the surf to the open sea relatively quickly. Although I was expecting that it would be some time before we would see anything, it was probably no more than 15 minutes before we got our first glimpse.

We raced towards the “blow,” and Raúl explained that you could see the whale’s “footprint” on top of the water after it breaches the surface. As we rode, he imparted more of his knowledge to our group. For instance, the song a whale sings depends on its purpose. Since we were now entering the area where they breed, he told us, the male whales sing beautifully to entice a mate. Rather romantic, I thought. Whales telling rivals to stay away sound much different.

Like people and their fingerprints, no two whales have the same design on their flukes. In this way, they are identified and tracked by conservationists when they breach. If you manage to capture a fantastic shot, as we did, you can send it to Whales in Mexico via their website and they will know if it is a whale they already are familiar with or a newcomer that you have discovered. Today, their catalog has documented more than 320 individual whales.

A few miles out from our last sighting, our captains lowered the speed and we bobbed on the waves waiting for a closer look. Fifteen minutes passed before they breached again, a truly wonderous sight to behold as we counted three whales in the pod. When the whales emerged the third time just eight minutes later, our guides told us it meant that they were not bothered by us or the other boat a little bit off in the distance.

I was impressed that the boats kept such a space between them because I recall that in Quebec, on my only other whale watching tour years ago, that was not the case. There, we found that the waters were quite congested, with several boats packed with people hoping to get a closer look and probably the reason we could only get a glimpse at a distance. But here in Mexico, it was an entirely different experience.

The author ready for a Covid-safe whale watching excursion.

After nearly two hours and numerous sightings, we headed to shore but not before stopping to watch a mother and her calf on the way back.

It was clear our seemingly determined captains wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth. And in my opinion, it was well worth the 800-pesos price, and an experience I will be sure to repeat.

Whale watching prices can range from 2,400 to 9,000 pesos, depending on the captain and the boat. Many of the crews are bilingual. Working with a trained guide increases your chances of finding whales; plus you’ll have the security of knowing that the animals are not stressed by your presence.

You can book an excursion on the organization’s website. Whale watching season has ended until next December, but in the meantime, for a US $100 donation, you can adopt a whale for the next two years, and then track it. For more money, you can even get it named after you.

The writer divides her time between Canada and Zihuatanejo.

1,100 evacuated after winds fan flames of Nuevo León forest fire

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Michelle Aguilar

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March 25, 2021

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The Sierra de Santiago fire on Wednesday night.

A total of 1,100 people in at least 14 communities of the Sierra de Santiago region of Nuevo León were evacuated from their homes overnight Wednesday after 90 kilometer-per-hour wind gusts refueled a 10-day wildfire that has already consumed more than 8,000 hectares of land.

Nuevo León Civil Protection officials had announced on Monday that the wildfire was 70% under control. But by Tuesday, high winds associated with cold front No. 44 and drought conditions reinvigorated the blaze, which began getting dangerously close to homes in the area on Wednesday.

Residents in communities in the blaze’s path who have not yet been evacuated are preparing for the possibility of leaving on their own, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Emergency authorities began at first by evacuating 80 people from the community of San Isidro yesterday evening. However, later into the night, as the fire advanced, authorities began evacuating larger numbers of people.

The gusts also forced firefighters to discontinue on Wednesday afternoon their efforts to extinguish the fire by helicopter.

The fire began in Arteaga, Coahuila, on March 16 and has extended over the border into Nuevo León, where authorities already have had to evacuate 400 residents in the municipality of Galeana as well as people from 19 other communities in a different part of the Sierra de Santiago.

Nuevo León firefighters have been battling four other wildfires in the state simultaneously.

Mexico is facing one of its worst forest fire seasons in a decade. Last month, the federal forestry agency Conafor issued a warning that due to drought conditions and the presence of La Niña weather phenomenon this year, Mexico was in danger of experiencing a critical wildfire season this year.

Already blazes have affected 29,559 hectares of forestlands nationwide, the third most extensive loss of forest lands in a decade, Conafor said in a report last week.

According to the most updated information available from the agency, there are currently 75 active wildfires in 20 states being fought by 3,593 emergency personnel.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Jornada (sp), Excélsior (sp)

Farmers group says corn production likely to miss forecast by 3 million tonnes

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MND Staff

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March 25, 2021

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Corn yields in 2021 will likely be about 3 million tonnes lower than the federal government is forecasting, according to the head of one of Mexico’s largest corn farmer associations.

Juan Pablo Rojas, president of the National Confederation of Corn Producers (CNPAMM), told the Reuters news agency that the production estimate of almost 27 million tonnes by the Agriculture Ministry’s SIAP statistical agency is not reliable because budget cuts have reduced its capacity to conduct field work.

“The SIAP doesn’t have a way of knowing how much is being produced, or how much will be produced, because it doesn’t have the technical personnel that can verify the information,” he said.

Rojas predicted that corn production this year will be no more than 24 million tonnes. The CNPAMM chief said the government’s direct cash payment program that benefits more than 2 million small plot farmers, most of whom grow grains, is unlikely to lead to larger yields despite official claims that it would.

Farmers can receive up to 8,000 pesos (US $386) a year from the program’s 13.5-billion-peso (US $651.6 million) annual budget but Rojas said the amount is insufficient to boost production.

“You’re not making the land more productive with 8,000 pesos per year,” he said, adding that the payments can be used for any expense and are therefore more akin to social spending designed to increase political support for the government, which has made welfare programs a central part of its agenda.

Rojas also noted that the government’s plan to phase out use of the controversial herbicide glyphosate is likely to increase farmers’ costs.

Reuters reported that the Agriculture Ministry declined to comment on the CNPAMM president’s assertions due to their “lack of any substance.”

The ministry defended SIAP, describing it, according to Reuters, as “an accredited institution that performs essential work in the design and operation of public policies and decision-making across domestic farm supply chains.”

SIAP forecast in late February that corn production in 2021 would be 26.9 million tonnes, a reduction of about 2% from 2020 levels.

Even if that forecast were to come true, Mexico would still be moving away from, rather than toward, President López Obrador’s goal of making the country’s self-sufficient in corn by 2024.

Although the SIAP is forecasting slightly lower corn production this year, the president claimed this month that output was on the rise.

“The production of corn is growing because corn farmers are being supported,” López Obrador said.

However, drought – currently affecting about four-fifths of the country – is a major threat to farmers’ capacity to produce food, let alone boost production levels.

The CCI farmers association warned this week that low water levels in 16 dams used for agricultural purposes will limit corn production and force Mexico to increase imports of the grain.

“The low availability of water will result in a reduction in agricultural production,” said CCI president José Amadeo Hernández.

He estimated that Mexico will need to import 16.5 million tonnes of corn this year, which would represent a 9.1% increase over 2020 levels.

Hernández said that farmers in the north of Sinaloa will have to reduce the area on which they plant corn and sorghum. He also noted that farmers in Guanajuato and México state face severe drought conditions.

The 16 main agricultural dams, located in seven states, are currently only 33.7% full on average, Hernández said, adding that the level is a reduction of 51.7% compared to a year ago.

Source: Reuters (en), Excélsior (sp)

Nearly 9 million students have dropped out during the school year

By

MND Staff

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March 25, 2021

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student studying at home — Many families didn't have the resources to allow their children to study at home.

Almost 9 million students aged 3 to 29 abandoned their studies during the 2020-2021 school year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a lack of money or because they had to work, according to the national statistics agency Inegi.

Results of an Inegi survey on the pandemic’s impact on education show that 8.8 million children, teenagers and young adults were forced to abandon their studies this academic year, which began virtually last August.

That figure is higher than the entire population of Jalisco and almost equal to that of Mexico City (excluding the greater metropolitan area).

Of the 8.8 million students who stopped studying, 2.3 million did so for reasons directly related to the pandemic, 2.9 million left their educational institutions due to a lack of resources (meaning their families couldn’t afford to pay expenses associated with online learning) and 3.6 million made the decision because they had to work.

An additional 738,000 students abandoned their studies during the 2019-2020 school year. Almost 60% of that number cited the pandemic as the reason why they left.

The Inegi survey also found that students are dedicating significantly less time to their education while studying virtually at home. Only 11.8% of students spend eight hours per day or more attending virtual classes and doing schoolwork, while 48.3% spend three to five hours studying and 23.5% dedicate fewer than three hours of their time to their education.

In addition, the survey found that more than a quarter of households where students live had to purchase electronic devices and/or install internet service so that they could study during the suspension of in-person classes.

The most commonly cited advantage of virtual classes was that students’ health is not placed at risk while the No. 1 disadvantage was that learning is not as successful as it is in the classroom.

Manuel Gil Antón, an education researcher at the Colegio de México, told the newspaper El Universal that the pandemic has deepened educational inequality in Mexico.

Mexico’s poorest children – “the forgotten ones” – have been most affected by the shift to online learning and have left schools in the greatest numbers, he said.

Gil pointed out that poor households usually don’t have computers and charged that the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) “could have done things better.”

“It could have been more creative, delivered less generalized content,” he said.

Alma Maldonado, an education researcher at the National Polytechnic Institute, said the Inegi numbers are indicative of the failure of SEP’s education strategy during the pandemic. She asserted that its online curriculums have been largely irrelevant to students’ needs and have failed to appeal to them.

Maldonado also said there has been a lack of support for teachers giving the virtual classes, although she acknowledged that educators have done their best. She asserted that it will take years to recover pre-pandemic school enrollment levels.

Schools closed due to the pandemic a year ago and have not reopened in any state in the country, but President López Obrador said Thursday morning that classes could resume soon in Chiapas, Veracruz, Sonora and Chihuahua, depending on the coronavirus risk level as established by the stoplight risk map. Sonora, Campeche and Chiapas are already green, the color at which schools may reopen.

A large association of private schools, many of which have seen their revenue plummet during the pandemic due to students moving to public schools, called for its members to reopen on March 1 but the Education Ministry quickly warned that reopening would be a violation of government policy.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Residents close Oaxaca tourist destination, claiming only outsiders benefit

By

MND Staff

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March 25, 2021

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Unusual rock formations are the attraction at Hierve el Agua.

Community landowners in San Lorenzo Albarradas, Oaxaca, have announced the closure of the Hierve el Agua tourist attraction because the revenue it generates hasn’t benefited the local area.

A lawyer for the landowners told a press conference Wednesday that access to the site, which includes natural rock pools and a petrified waterfall, will be closed to both tour groups and visitors who arrive independently.

Eder Salinas Cortés said that local residents have fought for 18 years against political groups and tourism companies that benefit financially from the site, located about 70 kilometers southeast of Oaxaca city.

“It’s political groups and tourism companies that receive all the royalties … and the community remains mired in poverty; there are no roads, no schools, no drinking water. The situation is alarming,” he said.

“The people are tired, this [press] conference is to advise domestic and foreign tourists that [Hierve el Agua] will be closed. Don’t let yourself be fooled because nobody … will be allowed to enter,” said a representative for the residents.

Rock formations look like waterfalls at the Oaxaca tourist attraction.

Salinas said Governor Alejandro Murat, who has been in office for more than four years, made a promise while on the campaign trail in 2016 to address the tourism revenue issue if elected.

“I think he forgot or who knows what happened,” he said, adding that other government officials have also failed to respond to requests for meetings.

Salinas said that cronyism and political protection has allowed political parties and political figures to benefit from the Hierve el Agua site. Among the beneficiaries he cited were the Social Democratic Party and Jorge Vargas Franco, a former secretary general of the Oaxaca government.

“… In the end they have prevented the population from receiving the benefits,” Salinas said.

The Hierve el Agua site generates about 2 million pesos (US $96,000) per month in revenue, according to landowners, but none of that money is spent in the local area.

“We’re asking for an apology, … it’s not fair that about 2 million pesos a month that could be used to pave streets or help the community is used to enrich politicians and fund political campaigns,” Salinas said.

Landowners said the situation could lead to violence. “Any … act of violence there is, we will blame the state governor, Alejandro Ismael Murat,” they said.

Source: Infobae (sp)

‘Don’t come’ rings hollow to migrant hopefuls who are out of options

By

Sarah DeVries

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March 24, 2021

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Only parents desperate to give their child a better life would send them on a dangerous migration to the US alone.

Opening the news apps on my phone almost the minute I wake up is a habit I’m trying to get out of, but so far, I’ve been unsuccessful. It’s depressing, and exactly none of us needs more depressing. But I also want to know what’s going on in the world, so here we are.

This morning when I was once again unable to avoid the pull, I was greeted with a harrowing photo editorial about families deported from the United States shortly after arrival: a mother crying, her 5-year-old daughter standing at her feet and her 2-year-old son, with a full and dirty diaper, in her arms. A father with his young daughter, struggling to keep his face from contorting as he cried, trying to get cell phone reception to let his family know that they didn’t make it after all. The bitterness of the pictures was almost too much to handle.

They’d been taken to the bridge between El Paso (where they’d recently been flown) and Ciudad Juárez, and then essentially dumped on the Mexico side of the bridge. They hadn’t been told where they were being taken before that and must have felt trapped in a nightmare when they realized what was happening.

The huge number of migrants showing up on the United States’ southern border is a challenge if there ever was one, and it’s all the greater in the midst of a pandemic.

After president Donald Trump’s senselessly cruel policies that separated children from their parents at the border (some of whom have yet to be found and reunited), many have assumed, wrongly, that the current administration’s talk of “a gentler approach” meant that the border would simply be open to whoever wanted to show up and get in.

Desperate migrants making their way north are no doubt occupied with many things besides being glued to the news in order to check out the policy du jour, but I’d be willing to bet that Republicans’ hyperbolic fearmongering about “open borders” and “free health care” — neither of which are true — are getting back to migrants through traffickers eager to make a profit and are being treated as gospel by those with too few options to be skeptical.

Meanwhile, President Biden has left in place a Trump-era pandemic emergency rule that Border Patrol agents can turn back pretty much anyone, including families with small children, except unaccompanied minors.

It’s a problem that defies any kind of simple solution. “Don’t come” is a message that rings hollow when it’s coming from the equivalent of a slightly stern but ultimately civilized irritated rich guy in front of you while you’ve got the equivalent (and sometimes the very real personification) of a guy behind you with a gun pressing against your body.

It’s easy to scowl at and judge people when we’re the ones on the accommodating end. We humans are in the habit of doing that anyway, after all, especially when children are involved. “I just don’t understand how they could do all that with their kids!” is something I’ve seen many exclaim, as if these families had decided to flippantly use their children as gaming chips.

But I’d bet money that many of us in their same situation would do exactly the same thing given the chance … I know I would. And besides, another thing about desperate people: they don’t care that you’re scowling at and judging them. They’re just trying to live.

Think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: someone who’s struggling to get their basic needs of safety, food and shelter met are not yet going to be worrying about what others think of them. One thing at a time.

We all want to live, preferably well, and we all especially want our children to live as well as they can — hopefully, better than us. Desperate people will always play the odds to get to where they’re most likely to survive. For many migrants showing up at the southern border, that ain’t their home countries where, presumably, they’d certainly prefer to stay if they could.

It ain’t Mexico either, apparently. And who can blame them? Though AMLO scoffed at the assertion that narcos control a third of Mexican territory, those who are dealing with the reality on the ground, and not from the National Palace, know what’s up. I often think of the perilous journey north as a video game: the hardest and most treacherous part is right before arrival. It’s darkest before the dawn and all that.

Not that the United States is sunrise. But if I were a vulnerable person having to bet on one or the other law enforcement systems to keep me safe, I’d bet on the U.S. every time. Mexico simply is not in a position to guarantee anyone’s safety. If they can’t reasonably provide it for their own citizens, what does that mean for migrants, an exceedingly more vulnerable group?

I can’t get the picture out of my mind of those parents sobbing together with their tear-streaked, unbathed children as they stood on the wrong side of the Ciudad Juárez bridge with the bitter realization that they’d been escorted out of the country that many had spent their life savings to get to. What would they do? Where would they go?

It would behoove the U.S. to help its next-door neighbor to the south, where so many rejected asylum seekers are being dumped indefinitely. The nation surely has enough on its plate, but so does Mexico. And in the end, dealing with seas of desperate people is everyone’s problem, especially when they’re so pessimistic about their prospects that they’ll send their kids on their own to give them a fighting chance.

That’s some “I’ll stay back here and maybe die, but you go on and try to find happiness” level stuff, y’all. And all of us would do the same for our children if it came to that. Surely there’s more we can do collectively than ensuring they stay locked in their own impossible communities to deal with whatever atrocities knock on their doors alone.

When I saw those pictures of the parents losing their last bit of hope for them and their children, I saw myself. There but for the grace of God go us all, people. Here’s to finding humane and empowering solutions.

And some fresh diapers, for goodness sake.

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

Case for legalizing marijuana is not as straightforward as its advocates say

By

The Financial Times

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March 24, 2021

0

To chants of “legal weed boosts morale” and the spectacle of a legislator rolling a joint, Mexico’s lower house of Congress passed a sweeping legalization of marijuana this month. The measure, which President López Obrador is expected to sign into law within the next month, will allow Mexicans to grow several marijuana plants at home, purchase cannabis from licensed vendors and possess up to 28 grams for recreational use.

The consequences are likely to be felt beyond Mexico’s borders. The U.S., architect of the global war on drugs, finds itself sandwiched between two neighbours that are legalizing marijuana (Canada decriminalized it in 2018). More than a dozen U.S. states already allow recreational use of the drug and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has pledged to push legislation this year to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.

Advocates of legal marijuana, including several former heads of government, claim a low risk of harm from the drug and cite the benefits of prising the trade from the grip of illegal cartels: the opportunities for regulation, control of quality and taxation, as well as freeing up police for other law enforcement priorities. A previous Mexican president and outspoken supporter of legalization, Vicente Fox, has put his money where his mouth is and joined the board of a Canadian-Colombian medical cannabis company.

Opponents argue that the health risks of regular marijuana use have been underestimated. They see dangers of legalization leading to increased addiction and of the drug acting as a gateway to other, more powerful, illegal narcotics. A majority of Mexicans appear to share those views; according to a recent poll, 58% oppose legalization.

Whatever the pros and cons of Mexico’s marijuana move, experts agree that it is unlikely to dent the enormous power of the drug cartels or their propensity for appalling violence. The country has paid a terrible price for its location as a key shipment point for drugs entering the lucrative U.S. market, with more than 300,000 homicides since 2006, many of them narcotics-related.

Although marijuana was the original illegal crop of choice for Mexican traffickers, they have diversified extensively in recent years into newer, more lethal and more profitable drugs, such as the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Many times more potent than heroin, fentanyl can be produced cheaply and easily using precursor chemicals from Asia and then smuggled across the border. Seizures of fentanyl rose 486% last year in Mexico, and confiscations of other hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin also increased sharply.

Supporters of legalization argue that addicts to hard drugs should be treated as medical rather than criminal cases — an approach taken by Portugal. Faced with one of Europe’s highest rates of drug-related deaths, the Iberian nation decriminalized possession and use of small amounts of all drugs in 2001, though not their sale or production (deaths have since fallen).

But given how dangerous some hard drugs are, even the most ardent decriminalizers struggle to explain how heroin or fentanyl could be produced, sold and used legally and safely. It is also not a given that legalization eliminates illegal drug-dealing; two years after permitting marijuana sales, Canada has found that underground sellers still thrive because they have a price advantage over (taxed) legal ones.

Legal weed may boost morale for some but the effect on the illegal drug trade — like that on the mind — is likely to be transitory.