AMLO proposes armed forces manage company to operate train, 4 airports

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December 21, 2020

amlo and armed forces — Another reward by AMLO to the military?

President López Obrador has proposed that a state-owned company managed by the armed forces operate three sections of the Maya Train railroad and four airports, including the new one at Mexico City.

Speaking in Tulum, Quintana Roo, on Sunday, the president said the government is considering giving a military-managed state company responsibility for the Maya Train sections between Tulum and Palenque, Chiapas.

He said the government is also looking at giving the armed forces control of the Felipe Ángeles airport, currently under construction by the military at the Santa Lucía Air Force base north of Mexico City, the Tulum airport, which will be built by the army and is slated to open in 2023, and the airports in the Quintana Roo capital of Chetumal and Palenque.

The Chetumal airport is currently operated by Airports and Auxiliary Services, a federal government corporation, while the Palenque facility is operated by a company jointly owned by the federal and Chiapas governments.

López Obrador said that one objective of giving control of the Tulum-Palenque stretch of the Maya Train to a military-managed company is to ensure that the 1,500-kilometer railroad is not privatized at any point in the future.

“We have to protect this project so that there is no temptation to privatize it,” he said.

The president added that the operation of the Maya Train, which will run through Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas, will fund the pensions of marines and soldiers.

López Obrador said that a second objective of the plan is to guarantee the security of the projects and the region through which the Maya Train will run.

The president has depended heavily on the military since he took office in December 2018. In addition to using the armed forces for public security tasks, he has entrusted the construction of several infrastructure projects and the control of the nation’s ports and customs offices to them.

The president’s reliance on the military has been widely criticized, especially because he pledged to gradually withdraw the army and navy from the streets. His proposal to put the armed forces in charge of the Maya Train and four airports triggered more criticism.

The newspaper Reforma, which is frequently critical of the president, said in an editorial that giving the military control of the Maya Train would be “illegal, neoliberal and even dangerous.”

Protesters who want the Maya Train's route shifted await the president in Campeche. — Protesters who want the Maya Train’s route shifted await the president in Campeche.

It would be illegal, the newspaper said, because decisions about “the use and allocation of public resources” correspond to the lower house of Congress, not the executive power.

It would be neoliberal – López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, says he is staunchly opposed to neoliberalism, blaming the doctrine for all manner of problems his government inherited from its predecessors – because the state-owned company proposed by AMLO “falls into the same category” as the state firm that manages the Veracruz port, of which he has been critical, Reforma said.

The newspaper said it would be dangerous because “the role and mission of the armed forces is not to do business but rather defend sovereignty.”

“It’s curious that the plan proposed by López Obrador appears to be a copy of the Military Social Welfare Institute of Nicaragua, supposedly created to guarantee the pensions of soldiers but which has ended up turning into a conglomerate of companies, opacity and corruption,” Reforma said.

“And it’s not a coincidence that [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega has remained in power for 13 years by blood and fire thanks to the support of the armed forces, which [control] financial, insurance, agricultural, hardware, hotel and real estate development businesses and even supermarkets [in Nicaragua].”

Similarly, a columnist for the El Universal newspaper wrote that López Obrador’s aim in giving the military an ever-growing list of responsibilities is to “reward” it and ensure that it never opposes him or his political movement – the ruling Morena party.

“However, things could go wrong because not even the army and the navy themselves are sure they can fulfill the whims of the executive,” Mario Maldonado said in a column published Monday.

He also said that López Obrador’s heavy reliance on the military prevents private companies from participating in many large infrastructure projects. (The military is building a chain of government-owned banks in addition to sections of the Maya Train and the Santa Lucía airport, and is also responsible for distributing medications and school textbooks among other non-traditional tasks.)

“Putting the private sector to one side in the main government [infrastructure] projects is another breaking point between President López Obrador and businesspeople, who amid the Covid-19 economic debacle and the lack of stimulus from the federal government are suffering the worst crisis in recent history,” Maldonado wrote.

“In 2020, construction GDP will plummet 15%, the worst decline in the past 25 years, causing the doors of some 2,000 companies in the sector to close. That will leave at least 140,000 workers unemployed,” he said.

Maldonado noted that construction sector GDP fell 5% in 2019 despite the absence of an economic crisis, attributing the poor performance to uncertainty generated by the federal government and “the army’s meddling in infrastructure projects.”

He wrote that never before has the army had so many responsibilities or managed such large projects.

The Maya Train will run through five states in Mexico's southeast. — The Maya Train will run through five states in Mexico’s southeast.

“The projects it is in charge of represent investment in excess of 500 billion pesos [US $25 billion]. But the economic power of the armed forces is a double-edged sword for AMLO: on one side, the opacity in the management of resources could cause corruption scandals for the 4T [Fourth Transformation],” Maldonado wrote, referring to the government by its self-anointed nickname.

On the other side, he continued, the pressure on the ministries of National Defense and the Navy, “which don’t have the technological resources or management capacity” to execute the projects entrusted to them, could cause an explosion “against the president.”

“Whatever happens, the interference of the armed forces in the economic projects represents a serious problem for the government with businesspeople and investors,” Maldonado said.

Before it can hand control of the Maya Train to a military-managed state company, the government first has to build the new railroad — and overcome significant opposition.

A judge in Campeche this month granted a suspension order against the 222-kilometer stretch of tracks between Escárcega, Campeche, and Calkiní in the same state. The judge ruled that construction of the section could cause irreparable damage to the environment.

Members of a collective of residents intercepted a vehicle in which López Obrador was traveling through Campeche on Saturday to deliver a letter in which they asked for section 2 of the project to run along an alternative route.

They told the president that they are not opposed to the Maya Train project per se but fear they could be evicted from their homes and land due to construction of its Escárcega-Calkiní section.

“Each of the residents have different positions but we all agree on defending our assets and the neighborhoods we’ve lived in for so many generations,” the letter said.

Several suspension orders have been granted against construction of the railroad, the government’s signature infrastructure project, but a federal court revoked one in May after it was challenged by the National Tourism Promotion Fund, which is managing the 1,500-kilometer project.

Critics, including many indigenous groups, say that the construction and operation of the railroad will harm the environment and pose a threat to people’s traditional way of life.

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

4 dead, 3 missing after climbers swept away by river’s current

By

Michelle Aguilar

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December 21, 2020

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A waterfall jumper during a Tribu Wounaan excursion at the Oro River earlier this week.

Four people are dead and three are missing after members of a group of outdoor enthusiasts in San Andrés Tuxtla were dragged away Sunday evening by strong currents during a flash flood in the Oro River Canyon.

According to authorities, the levels of the Oro River, where the group of 21 was camping and engaging in outdoor adventure activities, had risen due to heavy rains, overwhelming members of the group and sweeping them away.

As of Monday afternoon, rescuers had recovered the bodies of four people and were searching for three more, Civil Protection authorities said. They found five group members alive but injured around midnight on Sunday and took them to a hospital in Catemaco.

While authorities continued searching for the other three until dawn, darkness and the heavy rains interfered.

The victims, from various municipalities of Veracruz as well as from Mexico City, were participating in an excursion with the Tribu Wounaan Tourism and Adventure Sports Company, which had scheduled activities such as camping, rappelling from heights of up to 24 meters, rock climbing, and waterfall jumping in the Oro River Canyon.

According to the company’s social media page, it had scheduled the tour to celebrate its recent win for best tourism product from “Mi Veracruz,” the state tourism and culture ministry’s annual awards for Veracruz tourism industry businesses. Tribu Wounaan organizers chose the Oro River Canyon because it was the site of their award-winning tourism product.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Mexico City police department has its first openly gay commander

By

Michelle Aguilar

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December 21, 2020

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Mexico City got its first openly gay commanding officer after Javier Berain took office earlier this month as the police department’s new general director of transit policing.

Berain has 800 officers under his command.

Berain told the newspaper Milenio that it was an honor to be the first openly gay person trained to take on a command position on on the city’s police force. He also pointed out that it was a particular victory for the LGBT+ community because in the past “the police were precisely the instrument that fomented discrimination and the repression of sexual dissidence in this city.”

“I’m honored … to go from activism in which we asked that they stop oppressing us to commanding and being in charge of the leadership of an institution once used to oppress [us],” Berain said.

Berain took the job on December 10, the day after he graduated from the police department’s officer training academy, a ceremony in which he was personally congratulated by Police Chief Omar García Harfuch.

“He has a firm, unwavering commitment to making any upstanding citizen from the LGBT+ community part of the police force if they have the call to service,” Berain said of García. “They always will be welcome.”

On his Twitter account on December 9, García congratulated Berain, saying, “Your integrity will give rapid results in this area that we are restructuring.”

Asked if his appointment meant that machismo and discrimination had been eliminated in the city’s governmental institutions, Berain pointed to the advances they have made in the last few decades.

“We’ve advanced pretty well as institutions compared to 20–30 years ago,” Berain said. “Now there’s not open discrimination. I’m not going to lose my job for being homosexual. That would have happened 30 or 40 years ago.”

He had never experienced discrimination personally, he said, although he added that he couldn’t speak for the 70,000 people who work with him on the force.

Berain stopped short of painting a completely rosy picture for the LGBT+ community and for women in the city’s government institutions, saying that discrimination and “macho microaggressions” still exist, but they push minority groups to keep fighting to end discrimination.

But he did say that he believed members of the LGBT+ community should feel safe when reporting a crime to the city’s police department.

“The [police department] attends to everyone equally, independent of their sexual preference or gender identity,” he said. “In addition, members of the community may need special attention and for that there are protocols within the institution and we have the special unit for sexual diversity, simply to avoid situations of revictimization and fitting service for those who need it.”

Berain told Milenio that he felt certain he has the respect of the officers under his command.

“But the most important thing for them is that we give them the tools to do their job effectively,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Hospitals at the limit: Mexico City calls on citizens for ‘total isolation’

By

MND Staff

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December 21, 2020

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A couple share a moment of grief in Mexico City. Mexico's official death toll stands at 118,202.

The Mexico City government has called for citizens to go into “total isolation” as hospitals in the capital come under intense pressure due to an increase in the hospitalization of coronavirus patients.

“Covid-19 emergency. The hospitals are at their limit. Return to total isolation,” the government said in a cell phone message sent to residents on Saturday, the day red light restrictions took effect.

“Only essential sectors are open from today. Don’t go out. No parties.”

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has blamed a recent increase of both coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the capital on people’s attendance at parties and large family gatherings.

Just over 85% of general care beds set aside for coronavirus patients in Mexico City are currently occupied, according to federal data, while 74% of those with ventilators are in use.

Accumulated Covid cases by state as of Sunday night. milenio

There were just over 5,000 coronavirus patients in Mexico City hospitals on Sunday night, including 1,280 on ventilators.

Many hospitals in Mexico City and the surrounding metropolitan area of México state, which has also switched to red on the federal government’s stoplight map, are completely full.

There were fewer than 700 general care hospital beds available in the capital on Sunday and just 365 intensive care beds, Sheinbaum said. Family members of some extremely sick coronavirus patients have found that locating an available bed is extremely difficult.

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), a major public healthcare provider, said on the weekend that its hospitals in the greater Mexico City metropolitan area have reached capacity.

Medical personnel at the IMSS La Raza National Medical Center in the capital’s north end told the newspaper Reforma that when intubated Covid-19 patients die, their beds and the ventilators they were connected to are immediately occupied by new patients.

Raúl Palafox, a nurse, said that many coronavirus patients are arriving at La Raza in a very serious condition and require immediate intubation. Some die shortly after they arrive, he said, adding that admissions to the facility and deaths have increased in the past two weeks.

“Up to eight patients are dying in a single shift,” Palafox said.

He said that the hospital is understaffed, explaining that only 60% of medical personnel are currently working because they are in isolation at home or on end-of-year vacations.

The IMSS has acknowledged its staffing problems in the Mexico City metropolitan area, announcing that health workers from states with lower numbers of hospitalized coronavirus patients will be transferred to the capital.

“In the coming days, 640 doctors and nurses from all over the country, especially the southeast, will arrive,” said director Zoé Robledo.

Hospitals in Mexico City operated by other public healthcare providers including the State Workers Social Security Institute, the federal Ministry of Defense and local and federal health ministries are also under severe pressure.

Admissions of coronavirus patients at the General Hospital of Mexico, operated by the federal Health Ministry, began increasing in the middle of November, and the facility is now at saturation point.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio

Workers say that many patients are arriving when they are extremely ill or even after they have passed away.

“Two dead patients arrived … [last] week,” one health worker told Reforma. “They arrive without vital signs; they’re dead when they arrive but their family members don’t realize.”

The health worker said that some patients remain in the hospital’s emergency department for up to a week because there are no beds available in the Covid ward. The medical personnel are exhausted, he added.

Despite the authorities’ appeal for Mexico City residents to stay at home, large numbers of people flocked to the capital’s downtown area on Saturday. Reforma reported that some nonessential businesses such as shoes, clothing and toy stores and Christmas decoration retailers defied the government’s order to close their doors.

Police officer Guillermo Salinas said it wasn’t easy to keep people a safe distance from each other with so many nonchalant shoppers in the streets.

“We came to … stop people crowding together but they don’t understand,” he said. “They keep coming in [to the historic center] and they don’t wear face masks. It’s very bad.”

Many other states are also facing difficult situations due to a recent spike in case numbers and hospitalizations.

In addition to Mexico City and México state, Baja California is currently classified as a red light “maximum” risk state while 24 states are at the orange light “high” risk level.

Occupancy of general care hospital beds is 78% in Baja California and México state, 71% in Guanajuato, 66% in Hidalgo and 63% in Nuevo León, according to federal data.

There are almost 90,000 active coronavirus cases across the country, according to Health Ministry estimates, and the accumulated case tally stands at 1.32 million after an additional 6,870 cases were reported Sunday.

The official Covid-19 death toll is 118,202, including 326 additional fatalities registered on Sunday. Mexico City’s death toll passed 20,000 on Sunday while there have been more than 13,300 fatalities in neighboring México state, which includes many municipalities that are part of the capital’s metropolitan area.

Mexico City leads the country for estimated active cases with almost 36,000 – a figure that is likely a significant underestimate – while México state ranks second with more than 9,600.

Estimated active cases across the country as of Sunday night. milenio

Active case numbers are in the thousands in many other states including Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Baja California, Coahuila, Sonora, Jalisco, Tabasco and Querétaro.

Authorities in Querétaro, an orange light state where hospital occupancy is just under 50% for both general care and critical care beds, announced that tighter restrictions would take effect Monday due to rising case numbers and hospitalizations.

Retail stores and shopping centers are now limited to 30% capacity and must close by 5:00 p.m., cantinas and bars are prohibited from opening and restaurants are required to close their doors by 8:00 p.m and mustn’t exceed 50% capacity. The sale of alcohol after 8:00 p.m. and all day Saturday and Sunday is banned.

Gyms are also limited to 30% capacity and customers must make a prior appointment before their workouts. Social gatherings of more than 25 people are banned and must conclude by 8:00 p.m.

Querétaro is one of six states that are at risk of regressing to red on the stoplight map, health official Ricardo Cortés said Friday. The others are Sonora, Zacatecas (red for the past two weeks), Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and Hidalgo.

The economic restrictions in Mexico City and México state are not scheduled to ease until January 11. They could be extended if the shutdown doesn’t succeed in driving case numbers and hospitalizations down. That is a real possibility as many people are likely to defy recommendations and gather with their extended families and friends for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

Covid shutdowns have taken their toll on Mexico City’s specialty farmers

By

Lydia Carey

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December 21, 2020

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Juan Rocha's livelihood selling handmade amaranth sweets has all but disappeared.

As we bump along the edge of the canyon road, it feels and sounds like Juan Rocha’s ’84 VW bus is leaving parts of itself behind. The ride down to his land – seven hectares sitting on the edge of a valley in a rural part of Santa Cruz Acalpixca – is so noisy that there’s no use in trying to talk or even think. Instead, we look out the window at the scruffy land below, scruffy now because it’s the heart of the dry season and most of the vegetation, including the corn yet to be harvested, has turned a dusty tan.

As the dust swirls away from the opening bus doors, we are met with a view that expands across a checkerboard valley that includes dozens of small farms like his.

“If you saw this land in the rainy season you would never want to leave,” says Juan. Even in the dry season, it’s beautiful.

The trip out is one that Juan usually takes on horseback from his house in the pueblo of Santa Cruz Acalpixca at the southern edge of Mexico City. His gentle-faced horse, Muñeca (Doll), is his companion most days out in the fields that have been worked by his family for three generations.

The main crops are corn and amaranth, a pseudo grain endemic to Mexico. There are also a handful of staples the family grows for its own consumption. Juan and his wife, Alva, both come from families that have grown amaranth in Mexico City and Michoacán for generations.

With Covid decimating his market, Juan now sells seed to other farmers.

“We have tried to keep the farming tradition alive,” says Juan, “not let it go. Because the land provides for us. It’s a lot and it’s hard, but it continues to feed us.”

This year, the family’s normal means of income, selling the sweets they make from amaranth, has been a bust. With no festivals to attend and fewer buyers on the street, they have sold next to nothing despite their best efforts. Juan says that it’s actually been difficult for a few years since the city government required them to form a cooperative – D’Alva Productos de Amaranto – and register with the tax authority.

Juan was told that the requirement was obligatory if they wanted to sell in any of the citywide festivals. But it meant that they had to begin paying taxes and accountants even before they received the support that the government promises the incorporating cooperatives – and the money, the equivalent of US $750–$1,000 won’t arrive for at least a year and a half. This year, most of their golden-brown amaranth, considered a superfood by the health food industry, has been sold as seed instead of being made into the bars and sweets that they usually produce.

Alegrías are the most ubiquitous form of amaranth that you will find in Mexico. These dense bars of puffed amaranth seeds are held together with honey and topped with peanuts and raisins; Juan and Alva add an extra touch by using cranberries instead. You can find these traditional sweets in every market and at every Metro stop in the city. They’re a filling and nutritious snack that has probably been around in some form or another for over 500 years.

Juan and Alva try to impress upon their customers that the secret to their alegrías is the artisanal production. Everything, from the planting of the seeds to the production of sweets in their home workshop, is done by hand. The workshop now sits spotlessly clean and organized, waiting for the day when they will be back to mass-producing.

The taste of their alegría bars is nuttier and fresher than any other I’ve had in Mexico, and the slightly higher price — about a dollar in comparison to the sometimes 10 cents for which you can find them on the street — reflects the quality of their ingredients.

“The land doesn't stop. The animals need to be fed,” says Ángel Galicia, who sold specialty meats and vegetables to local restaurants that closed for months. — “The land doesn’t stop. The animals need to be fed,” says Ángel Galicia, who sold specialty meats and vegetables to local restaurants that closed for months.

“I had a consumer that wanted me to sell him alegría at the price you buy in the Metro, about 3 pesos,” says Alva. “So I said, OK, bring me one of those bars. When I crushed the bars, I separated about 70% of it out and said, this part in those Metro bars is mostly Styrofoam. This 20% is garbage and rat poop. And the rest of it, might be real amaranth.”

Everyone gags a little at the idea of eating Styrofoam and rat poop, and I silently vow never to buy a bar of alegría in the Metro again.

“I don’t even like to make them weeks in advance,” says Juan about the various obleas, alegrías and a date and amaranth candy they invented called angelitos. “They don’t go bad, but I don’t like to do it that way. I want whoever eats this to be eating something fresh. That they enjoy it and say ‘Wow!’

“You just won’t find that anywhere else, only here. You will find the competition but not the same flavor. You carry the flavor with you.”

One-on-one conversations and tastings have been Juan and Alva’s biggest promotional opportunities during their five years of business. With Covid-19 essentially canceling the year, this face-to-face exchange has been impossible. They were recently invited to sell at a two-weekend Christmas tree fair, but the second weekend was canceled by the government because of a rise in cases.

Their situation is not an isolated one for farmers in the Valley of México during the pandemic. Ángel and Ernesto Galicia in Xochimilco farm one of the canals’ manmade islands. While they were at least able to receive a small sum from the government during the pandemic, it hasn’t been enough to meet their needs.

Amaranth treats Juan and Alva Rocha used to make to sell at festivals.

“We have to keep farming, though,” says Angel, “The land doesn’t stop. The animals need to be fed.”

The Galicias, who were previously producing mostly specialty vegetables for the local restaurant market, have now expanded their crops to include the produce that they as a family eat on a regular basis, things like Roma tomatoes, cilantro and chiles.

Many farmers in this area have suffered from reduced demand in Mexico’s largest commercial markets like the Central de Abastos, which shut down for the first time in 40 years during the pandemic. Smaller markets in the center of the city have also been shut down, albeit for short periods of time, because of Covid, and overall sales have been drastically reduced for everyone along the supply chain.

Juan recently sold the bulk of his amaranth seed to folks from the state of Michoacán who came to the city to buy it for their own land. They were also able to sell about 40 crates of tomatoes from this year’s crop out of the back of their pick-up by driving around the neighborhood.

Just like the Galicias, Juan and Alva have animals to feed and water — the horse, a dozen or so sheep, a handful of turkeys, geese and chickens and a mule. They slowly started to eat the turkeys and sheep once they were unable to sell them for meat, but all these animals take maintenance and water, another resource in short supply during this dry season, when water in Santa Cruz Acalpixca can be turned off for up to three weeks at a time.

All these factors have come to a head to make 2020 particularly difficult for this family. Their plot of land helps to keep them alive, and their business offers a tiny trickle of income, but like everyone else, they are holding their breath and hoping the Covid storm will pass with the coming of the new year.

“Until the pandemic ends, it’s going to be very difficult and we are going to have to adjust,” Juan says. “We are waiting for 2021, and then we will see.”

Mexico News Daily

After nearly two centuries, Laredo and Nuevo Laredo stay intertwined

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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December 19, 2020

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Nuevo Laredo on the left and Laredo on the right, divided by the Rio Grande river.

I hadn’t done a border run in well over a decade. But problems with my bank (what the heck happened to customer service in the U.S.?) meant heading up to the nearest branch office.

That’s in Laredo, Texas, so I decided to take advantage of the trip to see how the area was. It is easier and cheaper to bus into Nuevo Laredo, then walk across the border.

My first indication that something was odd was while still in Mexico. Normally, there is a long line of both cars and pedestrians waiting to cross into the U.S., but I got across the bridge and through immigration in less than 15 minutes.

What I saw in Laredo was almost a ghost town. At least two-thirds of the businesses were closed, and most had been for quite some time. The two Laredos are intertwined, but social, political and economic changes do not affect the two in the same way. And changes do not always favor the north side of the river.

Most expats know the area of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo simply as the most convenient border crossing into most of Mexico. Few think about either town except for how to get by the border area quickly and safely. But the two places have an interesting, symbiotic relationship.

Nuevo Laredo's historic center defines public life in a way that Laredo's does not. — Nuevo Laredo’s historic center defines public life in a way that Laredo’s does not.

For various purposes, the two cities are considered an economic and geographical unit called the Laredo Borderplex. They are one of six transborder agglomerations like this along the Mexico–U.S. border. The two cities are separated by the Rio Grande and spanned by five international bridges for pedestrian, road and rail traffic.

Like many border conglomerates between the U.S. and Mexico, the Mexican side is larger and more populated. The main reason travelers going south into Mexico do not stop on the Mexican side of the border is the reputation for violence there.

It is deserved, although it rises and falls depending on economics and politics. At the beginning of 2020, even local authorities were telling people to avoid the city, but at the moment it is much better.

Nuevo Laredo, in the thin panhandle of the state of Tamaulipas, was founded by Mexicans who chose to leave Laredo when it was ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War. So both cities have their roots in the founding of Villa de San Agustín de Laredo in 1755, when the region was called Nuevo Santander under Spanish colonial rule.

The region’s relationship with Mexico City was often rocky: Laredo even became the capital of the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840, a rebellion against the rule of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Then, in 1846, during the Mexican-American War, the town was occupied by the Texas Rangers.

After the war ended, the Rio Grande became the international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico, and Laredo became part of the United States. Townspeople who wanted to remain Mexican moved over the Rio Grande to found Nuevo Laredo.

Nuevo Laredo has many businesses related to warehousing and shipping.

History is apparent in the layout and architecture of both cities. The layout of Nuevo Laredo is purely Mexican. There is a plaza and church that is still the historic center and identity of the city, despite its tremendous growth. You know that you are in the center because the street names are the same as every other city center in Mexico – Hidalgo, Matamoros, Juárez, Pino Suárez. The historic gringo influence is best seen in the older residential neighborhoods with houses that would look out of place anywhere else in Mexico and some that would be absolutely at home north of the border.

On the U.S. side, the old Mexican layout can be seen in the historic downtown, but neither the now-Jarvis Plaza nor the Catholic church serve as a means of identity. Far more prominent are brick buildings reminiscent of the Old West and the early 20th century in the United States. Most of the street names were changed to U.S. heroes of the 19th century.

The economies of both are as intertwined as their histories. Over 47% of exports from the U.S. into Mexico and over 36% of exports going north cross through the Laredo Borderplex. Therefore, much of the industry on either end revolves around commercial and industrial warehousing, import and export.

Another important part of both economies is cross-border shopping, with people from southern Texas and northern Mexico crossing to buy products that are either nonexistent in their countries or are substantially cheaper.

Nuevo Laredo’s downtown shopping focuses heavily on pharmaceuticals, eyeglasses, cigarettes and alcohol. Handcrafts are not big business here like at some border crossings like Nogales at the Sonora–Arizona border. In Laredo, the main shopping areas for Mexican crossers is the downtown, within walking distance of the border and the Mall del Norte.

When I came to Mexico almost two decades ago, border runs were more frequent for both practical and nonpractical reasons. Over time, my visits to the States have gotten fewer. Each time I do go, it feels like being in a movie — familiar but not quite real.

[wpgmza id=”278″]

The economic desolation on the American side, with even the Mall del Norte’s future in doubt, is due to the extremely strong dollar for about a decade, now complicated further by the coronavirus.

And so after this border run, it was kind of a relief to be back in Mexico. Things in the downtown were quieter than I remembered them, but the masses of closed businesses were not to be found. Nuevo Laredo resident Ani Vargas says this is because there are still enough people coming south to keep businesses afloat despite the pandemic.

Whatever hesitance Americans may have about crossing during the pandemic, it is overcome by the buying power of their money — at least for now.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta , was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.

‘January will be a dark month:’ Mexico City dithered as Covid infections soared

By

MND Staff

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December 19, 2020

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Sheinbaum: political ambitions. López Obrador: 'denialist optics.'

The Mexico City government took too long to order a second economic shutdown and faces a dark month in January as coronavirus cases and the number of hospitalized patients mount, according to a health institute director.

Authorities on Friday announced a three-week suspension of nonessential economic activities in Mexico City and México state as both states regressed to “maximum” risk red on the coronavirus stoplight system.

But the director of one of Mexico’s main health institutes who spoke to Washington Post columnist León Krauze said the lockdown order in the capital should have come sooner.

“January will be a dark month, and I don’t think things will go well,” said the director, who requested anonymity in order to speak openly.

“It was a mistake not to go back into lockdown [sooner]. We missed a precious opportunity to contain the virus,” the official told Krauze. “They took too long” to implement red light restrictions, he declared.

Another patient enters a Mexico City hospital.

“Let’s hope it [the shutdown] helps in some way, but bed occupancy rate has been on a continuous and upward climb, and numbers are probably being underestimated. The government knows they don’t have enough infrastructure to handle what’s happening. They have been negligent.”

Writing in the Post on Friday, Krauze charged that Mexico City had become “the picture of pandemic denialism.”

Large numbers of people, including many not wearing face masks, last week swarmed the capital’s downtown area for Christmas shopping and “social distancing was nowhere to be found,” he wrote.

“And why would it?” Krauze continued. “With no consistent restrictions or enforcement in place, people chose to ignore the threats of mingling in public.”

The columnist charged that Mexico City’s health system could collapse in early 2021 if hospitalizations continue increasing at the rate seen recently and claimed that the “dismal scenario” the capital faces could have been avoided.

Krauze wrote that Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum “snubbed her own administration’s color-coded traffic-light system” by not implementing red light restrictions earlier.

He quoted political analyst Carlos Bravo Regidor who wrote a column on the news website Expansíon Política on Tuesday. “The epidemiological traffic light in Mexico City was supposed to turn red when hospital occupancy is greater than 65% or there is a two-week stable increase in the number of Covid-19 infections. The second condition had been met for several weeks and the first a few days back.”

Krauze asserted that “Sheinbaum’s dithering stems from her own political quandary.”

Writing that the mayor has long been considered a “natural successor” to the president, the columnist claimed that “Sheinbaum’s political ambitions have led her to put the denialist optics López Obrador prefers before sensible public health policy.”

(The president initially played down the seriousness of the pandemic threat, seldom wears a face mask and defends his government’s pandemic response despite Mexico having one of the worst coronavirus case tallies and death tolls in the world.)

Former federal health minister Salomón Chertorivski, one of several ex-health chiefs who have been highly critical of the pandemic response, told Krauze that all of the mayor’s decisions with regard to managing the virus have been politically motivated.

“For decades, Mexico City had been a counterweight to the federal government. Now, the mayor won’t dare contradict the president,” he said, although Sheinbaum has been a much more forceful advocate of mask use and coronavirus testing.

covid testing — Mayor Sheinbaum hasn’t strictly followed the federal government’s lead. She has gone her own way on testing and the use of face masks.

Krauze wrote that Sheinbaum’s loyalty to López Obrador (the mayor represents Morena, the party founded by the president) and his “worst impulses” are hurting Mexico City “when other state governments within Mexico have shown no qualms in enforcing restrictions to manage the disease.”

Sheinbaum said Friday that her government will provide financial support to people affected by the three-week economic shutdown but Krauze asserted that the mayor has so far adhered to López Obrador’s doctrine of providing scant assistance to prop up the economy despite the sharp coronavirus-induced downturn.

“Contrary to most countries in the world, López Obrador has rejected pleas for a vigorous stimulus package that could help small businesses in Mexico (more than 1 million have closed) and, crucially, could allow for a stricter lockdown,” he wrote.

“This has left millions of people with no choice. Caught between the pandemic and a lack of support that has bordered on moral indifference, many formal and informal businesses in Mexico had to stay open, risking the lives of employees and customers,” Krauze said.

“There’s a better way forward, but it requires divorcing political ambition from what experts say must be done. Mexico City’s mayor could choose to break loose from the stubborn policies of the president and instead deliver on the progressive policies she campaigned on for years.”

Source: The Washington Post (en)

Feminist protests reveal deeply embedded structural issues in society and culture

By

Shannon Collins

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December 19, 2020

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Feminists occupied the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission in September.

As women continue to gather and demonstrate across Mexico — acts which generate controversy just as much as they garner support — what nobody is questioning is the endemic scale of violence historically suffered by women in the country, which continues to be beaten, burned, forced, and cut upon their bodies and minds, today, right across the republic.

Damningly, both statistically and in the eyes of the watching world, the United Nations has rated Mexico as one of the most dangerous places for women to live. More locally, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) has reported that 45% of all women surveyed reported suffering violence at the hands of their partners.

Given that domestic violence is traditionally underreported for fear of repercussion, one can only guess at the real scale of that figure.

Yet even with heightened awareness of the danger faced by women every day, the uptick in femicides continues its upward trend. A report by Justice in Mexico on organized crime and violence in the country, released in July of this year, revealed that femicide — the murder of a woman because of her gender — has seen a rise of 130% since 2015.

In 2019, Mexico reported its most violent year on record for women, and between January and June of this year alone, 473 cases of homicide were officially classified as femicide.

While this does partly mesh with the fact that 2019 was a record year for violence in Mexico for both men and women, figures pertaining to violence against women are likely to be diminished by underreporting of cases, the impunity of abusers, and the lack of funding of attorney general’s offices in Mexico.

Measures taken by the state to rectify issues of funding and inconsistent penal codes have proven to be woefully insufficient. While President López Obrador has outwardly expressed outrage at the levels of violence against women, he has also sanctioned the slashing of funds given to the National Institute of Women amidst coronavirus austerity measures, and has threatened to withdraw government funding from shelters operated by non-profits.

This at a time when restriction of movement as a result of the pandemic means that women are forced to spend more time in spaces which are dangerous and abusive, or working for low pay in unsafe conditions.

Trying to appeal to the authorities, a group of relatives of victims of sexual abuse visited the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on September 2. When their pleas were not heard, one of the women, Marcela Alemán, tied herself to a chair and refused to leave. Within a week, amidst growing media attention, the self-styled “House of Refuge,” known as the Okupa, had begun its existence as a refuge for women — and their families — who have suffered gender violence.

At its zenith, the feminist occupation of the CNDH stirred great debate on social media, among political groups, and in mainstream media. Garnering broad support across Mexico, the Okupa Cuba Casa Refugio, or Cuba Occupation Shelter House (the name Cuba coming from the name of the street on which it is located), or the Okupa for short, and ongoing protests speak to a deep rage at the lack of justice for women, despite government promises of change.

A series of high profile femicides which garnered a great deal of media attention catalyzed an increase in the militancy of activists, and increasingly radical protest tactics, including graffitiing monuments and occupying the CNDH.

Women at a protest march earlier this year in Mexico City.

What the Okupa has dragged to the forefront of the Mexican social consciousness is this: the state has no solutions to gender-based violence and has very little inclination to look for them. The issue, then, is a structural one, which has its roots in the patriarchal system and the pervasiveness of machismo culture across Mexico.

A legal and social context which intersects at many levels of society generates the conditions in which femicides and other violence against women can occur. Penal codes on femicide vary between states, complicating the prosecution of perpetrators, and meaning that victims of gender violence are further discriminated against by the justice system.

Moreover, while the concern cuts across all demographics and affects all women, migrant, disabled, and working-class women, as well as women of colour, are disproportionately affected, and have fewer resources to leave abusive situations and seek support.

However, like all political movements whose significance takes on a life of its own, the Okupa has since been riven by disagreements, not least the declaration by the Bloque Negro in late October that transgender women would no longer be welcome in the space. It was a jarringly inconsistent political move which saw trans women — already at a greater risk of violence — marginalized and excluded from a space declaiming itself as a hub for safety.

There arises, therefore, a tension between the sweeping political message which lies at the heart of the protests, and the disparities and disagreements within the movement which have driven several women away from the Okupa.

As is often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The CNDH Okupa sparked protests and activism across the country and, for a brief time, united the feminist movement across Mexico. But while the symbolic resonance of the Okupa cannot be downplayed, the idealized narrative of a movement representative of feminism in Mexico generally is as deeply flawed as any other.

What is important is that the occupation and the protests should be linked to a broader fight. Amid the global #MeToo movement, the women of Mexico, including those involved in the Bloque Negro, know that justice will not come from the same institutions which are complicit in crimes against women.

Nor is the problem limited to Mexico: as eruptions onto the streets across the globe in recent years have made clear, violence and discrimination directed at women is systemic and facilitated by institutions, politicians, and governments, who are willfully deaf to desperate pleas for action.

Shannon Collins is environment correspondent at Ninth Wave Global, an environmental organization and think tank.

A Covid Christmas: not much cheer as case tally passes the 1.3-million mark

By

MND Staff

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December 19, 2020

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Mexico City, México state and Baja California are now red on the stoplight map.

With less than a week to go before Christmas, there is little reason for holiday cheer in Mexico.

The nation’s coronavirus case tally passed 1.3 million on Friday, the official Covid-19 death toll is approaching 120,000, almost 17,000 people sick with the infectious disease are in hospital and there are now three red light “maximum” risk states on the federal stoplight system.

The federal Health Ministry reported 12,248 new cases on Friday, the second highest single-day total of the pandemic.

Mexico’s accumulated tally now stands at 1,301,456, a number considered a significant undercount due to Mexico’s dismally low testing rate. Results of a serological survey presented this week suggested that about a quarter of the population, or more than 30 million Mexicans, have been infected.

Excess mortality data also indicates that Mexico is not counting a large number of deaths caused by Covid-19. Yet the country still has the fourth highest death toll in the world with 117,249 fatalities officially attributed to the disease. Another 762 deaths were reported Friday, lifting the number of fatalities registered this month to 11,309.

The death toll will inevitably continue to climb as the country enters the coldest months of the year and the rickety public health system comes under increased strain. The government has announced a vaccination plan but inoculating enough people to end the pandemic will take many months if not longer.

Federal authorities say the health system is under pressure but coping. President López Obrador has said that every coronavirus patient that has needed a bed has found one. But stories out of Mexico City this week painted a different picture – family members frantically traversing the capital to find a bed for their gravely ill loved ones.

Nationwide, hospital occupancy is just 43%, according to data presented at the Health Ministry’s Friday night press briefing, but several states have much higher rates – almost 85% in Mexico City, 78% in México state, 68% in both Guanajuato and Hidalgo and 65% in Baja California, where the number of coronavirus patients on ventilators reached a record high of more than 200 this week.

Many hospitals in those states, and others, are completely full. Some have been at 100% capacity for weeks, or even months.

The number of patients in Mexico City and México state hospitals reached record highs this week. Occupancy at hospitals operated by the Mexican Social Security Institute, a major healthcare provider, also hit a new peak this week.

The number of Covid patients in the health system as a whole is also approaching the maximum level seen earlier this year. There are currently 16,813 patients in hospital, the Health Ministry said Friday, a figure just 1,410 short of the pandemic peak.

With the situation arguably more dire now than at any other point since the coronavirus was first detected in Mexico at the end of February, federal authorities – who have faced intense criticism for their handling of the pandemic – have ramped up their appeals for people to take heed of health rules.

López Obrador urged citizens on Tuesday to stay at home as much as possible in the days leading up to Christmas. Three days later it was announced that Mexico City and México state were regressing to “maximum” risk red on the stoplight map, another sign that the situation is spiraling out of control.

The capital and its neighbor, where nonessential businesses must close from Saturday until January 10, along with Baja California will be the only red light states as the country mutedly celebrates Christmas and the end of a year like no other.

The health minister of Baja California, which has been red for the past two weeks, said Friday that the northern state is in the “darkest part of the night,” such is the gravity of the coronavirus situation. There has been an “explosion” of new cases since the middle of last month, Alonso Pérez Rico said after describing what the state is going through as a “nightmare.”

The risk level in 24 other states for the next two weeks will be orange light “high,” according to the updated map presented at Friday’s press briefing, and yellow light “medium” in three – Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Sinaloa.

The orange states of Sonora, Zacatecas (red for the past two weeks), Guanajuato, Querétaro, Aguascalientes and Hidalgo are all at risk of regressing to red, said health official Ricardo Cortés.

Baja California Health Minister Alonso Pérez: ‘We’re in the darkest part of the night.’

Mexico is back to only having two green light “low” risk states – Campeche and Chiapas – as Veracruz lost that status on the updated map.

Although traveling is probably not the best idea due to the current situation, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people will enter or move around the country in the coming days to visit family (against recommendations) or, in many cases, head to the beach.

Perhaps in anticipation of an influx of visitors, authorities in Quintana Roo, home to Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and Baja California Sur (BCS), where Los Cabos is located, announced decrees mandating the obligatory use of face masks in all public places. Masks are mandatory in many other states, although enforcement is lax in many cases.

Visitors and locals alike will face a range of other restrictions and rules in the final days of 2020 – and no doubt well into next year – as the 32 states seek to strike a balance between controlling their local epidemics and not destroying their economies and the livelihoods of their residents.

Mexico, like other countries around the world, will no doubt be happy to see the end of 2020 but with no clear end to the pandemic in sight despite the imminent rollout of vaccines, 2021 promises to be another challenging year.

Mexico News Daily

Jailed ex-governor of Quintana Roo weds Sinaloa beauty queen

By

Tony Richards

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December 19, 2020

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Borge and the former Miss Sinaloa are now happily wed. — Borge and the former Miss Sinaloa are now happily married.

Long days in a prison cell might have been relieved somewhat this week for a former Quintana Roo governor who can now enjoy matrimonial bliss.

Roberto Borge, 40, one of the up-and-coming young governors of the Institutional Revolutionary Party during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, married a former beauty queen on Thursday.

Borge governed from 2011 until 2016 at which point he was more down-and-on-the-way-out than up-and-coming, having been accused of embezzlement.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in May 2017 and he was detained days later in Panama as he was about to board a flight to Paris. Borge was extradited to Mexico in early 2018 and has been custody awaiting trial ever since.

On Thursday, a judge entered the maximum security prison in Ayala, Morelos, and officiated at Borge’s wedding to model Norma Patricia de la Vega, who was Miss Sinaloa in 2015.

A lawyer for Borge said the 20-minute ceremony, held in visitation booths, was conducted with strict sanitary measures and attended by Borge’s father and sisters and the father of the bride.

Raúl Karin de la Rosa said the bride will be permitted to visit her new husband once every 15 days but with Covid-19 prevention measures required, including face masks, face shields and gloves.

Borge faces charges of money laundering, organized crime, the illegal sale of public property and embezzlement.

Source: Reforma (sp)