Congress agrees to punish dads who skip out on their obligations.
By unanimous agreement, Nuevo León lawmakers voted this week to hold accountable fathers who abandon their pregnant partners with fines and up to six years in prison.
The reforms to the state’s penal code will mean punishment for fathers who skip out on obligations to a woman pregnant with their child, as well as persons who ignore their legal responsibilities to someone dependent on them such as an elderly or handicapped person.
Jorge De León Fernández, the local deputy who proposed the reforms in November of last year, said the law is meant to counter the practice of men impregnating women, abandoning them and then ignoring their financial responsibilities.
Discussions among lawmakers eventually expanded de Leon’s proposal to include the elderly and incapacitated.
Violators of the new law could also be fined 15,000–31,000 pesos (US $750–$1,540) and be subject to the loss of paternity, guardianship, inheritance, and custody rights over the child in question. In addition, they could be liable for damage payments as compensation for the time the child was deprived of support.
Fathers who refuse to acknowledge their unborn child could also be charged the cost of a paternity test if it comes out positive.
López-Gatell checks his phone as a video message by the mayor of Mexico City is played for reporters Friday.
Health authorities have chosen not to designate Mexico City at the highest risk level on the coronavirus stoplight system, even though hospital occupancy is now approaching the peak numbers recorded in May.
Instead, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum issued an emergency call on Friday, making an impassioned plea that residents follow measures to combat the spread of the virus.
She said in a video message there were 4,454 hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, which is just 119 shy of the 4,573 beds occupied on May 20, the highest number recorded during the pandemic.
The figure represents a 74% occupancy rate, well above the 65% threshold at which the city would be declared red on the coronavirus stoplight map.
Sheinbaum dismissed the importance of the stoplight, insisting that what was important was to alert the public that without “collaboration and co-responsibility” it would be difficult to slow the virus’s spread.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
She said an acceleration in hospitalizations and new cases was principally due to an increase in the number of fiestas and family gatherings at which safe distance measures are ignored and face masks are taken off.
The mayor repeated the five measures which the government has called on citizens to observe:
Stay at home. If you don’t have to go out, don’t.
If you must go out, use a face mask and maintain a safe distance from others.
Don’t go to fiestas, posadas or gatherings of friends and family.
As much as possible, shopping should be carried by only one person.
And if tested positive for Covid-19 isolate for 15 days and seek medical attention.
Speaking at Friday night’s coronavirus press briefing, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell reiterated Sheinbaum’s message, saying it was “extremely urgent” that citizens follow the recommended measures to slow the rate of contagion.
He too dismissed the importance of the city’s color on the stoplight map. At a certain point, he said, “it’s not significant. [There’s an] alert for Covid-19, an emergency for Covid-19. Is there any doubt?”
He also implored media outlets to help get the message across.
“Let’s work together. Please, let’s work together.”
The federal government’s coronavirus point man began the press briefing by announcing that Cofepris, the federal health regulator, had given emergency approval for the vaccine developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Mexico has already agreed to purchase the vaccine, the first shipments of which are expected this month and will be administered by following a multi-stage national vaccination plan.
Also on Friday, López-Gatell said there were 12,253 new coronavirus cases registered, the highest number yet in a single day. It brings the total of reported cases to 1,229,379.
There were 693 deaths, bringing that total to 113,019 since the pandemic began.
For 30 years, Rancho Río Caliente attracted clients who wanted to unplug.
A few days ago, a quiet but feisty Englishwoman named Caroline Durston passed away in the little town of Ajijic, located on the north shore of Lake Chapala, and with her ended the story of Rancho Rio Caliente, for many years one of Mexico’s most famous spas, a favorite of cognoscenti from New York to Paris.
Every soul in Guadalajara knows about the marvelous hot river hidden deep inside the nearby Primavera Forest and many of them faithfully visit it (in droves) during Semana Santa every year, but few local people know about the private spa situated just beside the source of Río Caliente.
The spa is built upon a spot once considered sacred by indigenous people as a place of healing, long before the Spaniards arrived. Here you have only to dig a hole anywhere you like and at a depth of about a meter you will find steaming hot mineral water.
“It’s highly alkaline,” Durston told me years ago,” with pH of 8.3 and traces of almost every known mineral salt on the planet, including natural, organic lithium.”
My wife and I spent our first night at the spa in 1985, at the end of a hectic week of house hunting.
Hot vapors rising at the source of Río Caliente.
It was our first introduction to the Primavera Forest, and just reaching the place was an adventure. The dirt road we were following brought us through tall pine and oak trees.
The dirt eventually changed to what looked at first like black gravel but turned out to be nothing less than shards of black volcanic glass: a road naturally paved with obsidian! And then, deep inside the forest, we came to a locked iron gate. When it opened for us, we found that we now had to drive across a river that, of course, was steaming. It was so hot that you could not have crossed it in bare feet.
The spa turned out to be a gorgeous oasis of green meadows, flowers of all colors and tall, funky palm trees. Here there was no electricity, no telephones, no TV and no internet, which meant there was also no roar of traffic, no blaring radios. Instead, there was a magnificent silence that actually allowed you to hear and appreciate the buzzing of bees, the rustle of leaves in the wind and the trill of songbirds.
Serenaded by nature, you wander from your picturesque cabin to soak in the hot, warm or cool pool of your choice or perhaps spend half an hour in the naturally heated steam bath or maybe opt for a soothing massage.
Then, with mind and muscles totally relaxed, you return to your cabin to fall asleep in front of a crackling fireplace.
The next morning, you discover the unforgettable sensation of sitting on a hot-water toilet seat, and then off you go for breakfast — one that you know is vegetarian but is so incredibly delicious that you can’t quite believe it.
A peek inside one of the cabins at the Río Caliente spa.
Just one night at Rancho Rio Caliente convinced us that we had to live in that magnificent pine and oak forest. Only minutes after leaving the spa, perhaps guided by ancient spirits, we happened to see the entrance to a community called Pinar de La Venta, and there we found a home for ourselves in our own corner of the enchanted Primavera Forest.
For some 30 years, Hotel Rancho Río Caliente attracted the attention of spa-goers all around the world.
In 1991, Sue Chastain wrote in the L.A. Times, “If you’re aching to retreat about half a century from the tensions of modern living — to soak in hot mineral waters, laze in a eucalyptus-scented steam room designed in the ancient Aztec manner, detoxify by slathering your body with the local mud, visit a primitive nunnery to see age-old techniques of natural healing at work, this just may be the spa that hits the spot.”
“The water kind of seduces you,” Chastain was told by an architectural designer from Los Angeles on her third visit. “It puts you in a place where you can let go.” It does take time to adjust to such a totally relaxed lifestyle, said the designer, “but it’s a great stress release.”
Chastain was surprised at how good the food was:
“Not at all the bland stuff I’d expected from a lacto-vegetarian menu low in sodium and fat. I had never imagined raving about a nut loaf, or taking two helpings of a dish of chickpeas, lentils and brown rice, but it happened here.”
A 2011 U.S. travel advisory turned the heavily booked hotel into a “ghost spa”.
Over the years, the spa turned into a legend: even the Discovery Channel was talking about it. Then, in 2011, disaster struck. Was it a forest fire? An earthquake? A terrorist attack?
No, none of the above, just a little change in the U.S. government’s travel advisory list, shifting Mexico into the same “danger” category as Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
“Overnight they decided that Guadalajara was dangerous,” the spa’s owner, Caroline Durston told me in 2011, “and overnight all my clients canceled their reservations.”
A month later, this spa — so popular that guests often had to make reservations a year in advance — was forced to shut down.
“Just how many of your former guests have been mugged, murdered, attacked or otherwise accosted?” I asked the soft-spoken woman.
“What?” she said, her eyes widening, “Attacked? No one has ever been attacked or accosted in any way, not even once, neither here at the ranch nor on their way to or from the airport — never.”
Caroline Durston was a feisty and knowledgeable expat Englishwoman.
Rancho Río Caliente is spread over 10 hectares, with 53 cabins as well as several houses, not to mention the dining hall, gym, sauna, massage rooms and the palapa.
Ah, yes, the palapa. It was a sort of multipurpose gathering place where my wife Susy used to give Spanish classes. One day she came home and said, “Now I’m teaching Spanish to a movie star!”
“Oh, really?” I replied. “And what’s this star’s name?”
“Louise Fletcher.”
“Good grief? You’re teaching Louise Fletcher who played evil Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — that horrible creature who had Jack Nicholson lobotomized? That must be terrible!”
“Oh no,” replied Susy. “She’s the sweetest thing!”
After Durston’s passing, Lisa Versace, a frequent visitor to the spa, wrote:
“When I found Rio Caliente, I found more than a spa or a ranch, but a home away from home in the truest, deepest sense of the word. I returned over and over again, for the love, warmth, joy and community that I would experience there. For many of us, the place was magical, healing and transformative.
“By returning year after year, our lives changed, through both the healing we experienced there and the deep relationships cultivated and carried on, far outside our little spot in the Primavera Forest.
“For me, these relationships were mostly with her staff or with people connected to Caroline or the ranch in some way. She brought together the most amazing people and provided a place for those visiting to flourish.”
Rumor has it that Rancho Río Caliente will soon be reopened by new owners inspired by the achievements of Caroline Durston and determined to preserve this magical spot as a place of healing. That will be a tall order to fill, but I wish them the best.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years, and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.
CORRECTION: The previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Durston as an Australian. She was, in fact, from England. Our apologies.
Hikes in the Primavera Forest were a daily offering at the spa.
The Little Lane of Dreams, so quiet you can hear the birds and the bees.
Passengers check in at Guadalajara airport, whose operator plans to make it the best in Mexico.
The upgrade to the Guadalajara airport announced at the start of the year will be carried out over seven years rather than five, the facility’s director said Thursday.
Speaking at a meeting on Thursday, Martín Pablo Zazueta said that a new proposal had been developed and that the upgrade in the Jalisco capital will be completed in 2026 rather than 2024.
He said that GAP is awaiting approval of the new plan from the federal Ministry of Communications and Transportation.
An additional runway and new terminal building are planned for the airport while the existing terminal will be renovated and expanded. The facility’s parking lot will also be expanded and a new “mixed use” complex that includes a hotel, offices and commercial establishments will be built.
Zazueta said that 6 billion pesos will be invested in the upgrade in the five years to the end of 2024 and an additional amount of about 4 billion pesos will be allocated in 2025 and 2026. The total investment of 10 billion pesos is 4 billion less than the amount announced in February.
Still, Zazueta said “the Guadalajara International Airport will achieve what was promised at the start of the year,” asserting, “we’re going to turn it into the best airport in Mexico.”
Once the upgrade is completed, the airport will have the capacity to handle more than 30 million passengers per year, according to GAP. Sixty percent more flights will be able to depart from and arrive at the facility.
That the upgrade is going ahead, albeit over a longer period, is welcome news for the airport, which saw passenger numbers slump due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zazueta said that in 2019 and the first two months of 2020 passenger numbers were at record levels.
“Everything pointed to us having double digit growth [this year] and breaking the 16 million passengers barrier,” he said.
However, due to the pandemic the current projection is that only 8 million air travelers will have passed through the airport by the end of 2020, which would place this year’s passenger traffic on a par with 2013.
“That’s the size of the impact we’ve had,” Zazueta said.
However, the airport director expressed confidence that the airport can recover reasonably quickly.
“At a global level they’re saying that airports with the quickest recoveries could reach the level of passengers they had before the pandemic in a period of three years. The Guadalajara airport is in that range. We estimate that in 2023 we’ll reach the traffic we had in 2019.”
The governors have agreed on a common approach to combating the coronavirus.
Mandatory face masks and increased Covid-19 testing are among five measures Mexico’s nine National Action Party (PAN) governors have agreed to implement to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The governors of Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Tamaulipas and Yucatán announced that a common health policy will be implemented in the nine states due to the imminent arrival of winter at a time when the country is experiencing a “serious increase” in coronavirus case numbers.
The five pillars of the policy are the mandatory use of face masks, increased Covid-19 testing, improved contact tracing, the strengthening of social distancing measures and preparation for the timely application of vaccines.
In a video message, Diego Sinhue of Guanajuato said that Mexico’s coronavirus statistics – more than 1.2 million confirmed cases and over 112,000 deaths as of Thursday – are “very concerning,” asserting that they are indicative of a “humanitarian tragedy unparalleled in the country’s history.”
“The states governed by the PAN are taking the decision to work with complete seriousness based on scientific knowledge to protect families’ health,” he said.
Francisco García of Tamualipas said that the use of face masks will be obligatory in all public spaces in the nine PAN states. He said that each state will announce specific rules for their use and sanctions for those who don’t comply.
“The best vaccine we have to this day is to use a face mask and [maintain] permanent hygiene,” he said.
Carlos Mendoza Davis of Baja California Sur said the PAN states will substantially increase Covid-19 testing.
“Mexico is in 156th place in the world for the application of Covid tests,” he said. “In this way, we can’t see the true magnitude of the pandemic nor confront it successfully.”
Mendoza said that just 9.7 tests per 100,000 residents are performed per day on average while the average in PAN states is 14.1.
“The objective is to at least double this number and we’ll do it via tests at home, [testing] workers at businesses and [performing] random tests of the population in general,” he said.
Francisco Domínguez of Querétaro said the third pillar of the new health policy is the “expansion of data tracing networks.”
Widespread testing and timely contact tracing have been hallmarks of the strategies of the countries that have had the greatest success in controlling the pandemic, he said.
“We will increase the efforts that are already underway [in the PAN states],” Domínguez said.
Referring to measures to strengthen social distancing, Martín Orozco of Aguascalientes said that celebrations for the Day of the Virgin (December 12), Christmas posadas and all other social gatherings to mark the end of the year are prohibited.
“Let’s celebrate but at home and only with our families. Let’s all look after each other, especially our senior citizens,” he said, adding that “complaint centers” where people can report violations of the ban will be established.
Finally, José Rosas Aispuro of Durango said PAN states will work together to ensure that vaccines – when they arrive – are administered as quickly as possible.
He said the National Action governments have started working to identify people who qualify for early access to vaccination, including people vulnerable to a serious Covid-19 illness.
“We’re ready to provide and train the personnel that are required to apply the vaccines,” Rosas added.
The nine PAN governors have been critical of the pandemic response by the federal government, which has sent mixed messages about the efficacy of face masks, rejected the importance of widespread testing and refused to enforce a strict lockdown in the early months of the coronavirus outbreak.
Valenzuela appealed to the president for help getting her son out of jail.
A Sinaloa man who was imprisoned 13 years ago on organized crime and weapons charges was released on Friday a day after his journalist mother appealed to President López Obrador to intervene in the case.
Judith Valenzuela appeared at the president’s regular news conference on Thursday and for the second time in two weeks asked for López Obrador’s help in getting her son out of jail.
Rafael Valenzuela remained in prison even though he completed his sentence three years ago due to what López Obrador called “a misinterpretation of the law.”
Addressing the president, Valenzuela said: “He completed his sentence three years ago and even so he’s still detained – you say due to legal questions of the judicial power. The court is closed [and] the investigations of torture [of my son] are still shelved. So I came here, Mr. President, because the truth is I had nowhere else to go.”
López Obrador promptly asked Interior Minister Olga Sánchez whether he had the authority to pardon Valenzeula’s son to secure his release, saying that if he did he would do so immediately.
Sánchez responded that the case was complicated because the man is currently serving a non-existent sentence due to the judicial power’s decision to retry him.
“The case of this young man is a legal tragedy, Mr. President. There is no sentence [that can be pardoned]; if you allow me, we’ll see what alternatives we have,” she said.
López Obrador then told Valenzuela that he would speak with Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar and give her a response on Monday. However, minutes later Sánchez told the president that he could indeed pardon the woman’s son and he quickly committed to doing so.
López Obrador subsequently wrote to Zaldívar, who contacted the judge responsible for the case and arranged for Rafael Valenzuela’s release. He left prison shortly after 3:00 a.m. Friday, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Just a few hours later Valenzuela was back at the National Palace for López Obrador’s Friday news conference.
She thanked the president for his intervention. “Thanks to your political will to do things well, to serve justice, my son is free.”
Visually emotional, Valenzuela added: “I’m now going to Culiacán, I want to be with my son, I want to hug him. … Thank you very much, Mr. President. … A lot of open wounds can still be healed; one of them is mine, I’m going to heal it. … God bless you.”
The legislation was approved unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies.
The lower house of Congress has unanimously approved modifications to the General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents to prohibit corporal punishment and humiliation of children.
The law now states that “it is forbidden for the mother, father or any person in the family to use corporal punishment or any type of humiliating treatment and punishment as a form of correction or discipline of children or adolescents.”
It defines corporal punishment as “any act committed against girls, boys and adolescents in which physical force is used, including blows with the hand or with any object, pushing, pinching, biting, pulling hair or ears, forcing them to maintain uncomfortable postures, burns, ingestion of boiling food or other products or any other act that has the object of causing pain or discomfort, even if it is slight.”
In addition to parents and other family members, the ban on corporal punishment and humiliation applies to anyone who has custody or legal guardianship of children as well as people who spend time with minors in educational, sporting, religious, health and social settings.
Verónica Juárez, leader of the Democratic Revolution Party in the lower house, said the law prohibits a range of disciplinary practices that are deeply-rooted in the country.
“Canings, ruler beatings, smacks with flip-flops, smacks on the bottom, pinches, slaps in the face, hair pulling, pulling, chaining [children up], cigarette burns, baths with cold or [very] hot water, throwing [whiteboard] erasers [at students], withholding food, … sending children under the sun, forced labor, lashes with a belt and burns on the hands and feet among other [punishments] … will now be prohibited for people who have custody [of children], teachers and everyone who has children under their care,” she said.
Juárez said the aim of the modified law – which doesn’t stipulate any punishment for adults who inflict physical abuse on minors – is to promote timely public intervention to prevent corporal punishment and humiliation of children.
In extreme cases of violation of the law, parents and guardians could lose custody of their children, she said.
Rosalba Valencia, a Morena party deputy and president of the lower house’s children’s rights committee, said it is regrettable that corporal punishment and humiliating treatment are practices that are widespread across Mexico.
She cited a survey that found that 63% of minors aged between 1 and 14 have suffered psychological and/or physical abuse in their home.
Pilar Ortega, a National Action Party deputy and president of the justice committee, said the reform is timely and necessary. Various studies have proven that corporal punishment and humiliating treatment of minors contribute to the development of a violent society, she said.
“There is no small insult or soft blow; violence is one and the same and when it’s normalized from a young age of course it becomes acceptable conduct for people in the long term.”
The Guadalajara youth who was allegedly beaten by police.
Authorities are seeking two missing Guadalajara police officers in connection with the death of a young man the officers had detained and has since died.
According to accounts by his family, Luis Daniel Córdoba Becerra, 18, was picked up in the Morelos neighborhood by the two officers in their patrol car on November 26. While Córdoba was in the car, the officers beat him and then took him outside the city, where they abandoned him with serious injuries near the highway to Chapala.
A passerby found Córdoba and called authorities. The youth was taken by ambulance to a hospital in the city, where he remained in serious condition until his death on December 6.
The victim sustained several broken bones and kidney damage from the attack and suffered a stroke and a heart attack while hospitalized. His family, who had reported him missing when he did not return home, was reunited with him in the hospital on December 4 once they were able to track down his whereabouts.
The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the officers after Córdoba’s death.
Guadalajara Mayor Ismael del Toro said that the city was working with the Attorney General to locate the officers. A warrant was issued for their arrest after they did not report for work once they learned that they were being investigated. Del Toro said the city had delivered all corresponding evidence in the case.
“We understand that the behavior of the officers, viewed in any light, was irregular,” del Toro said. “They did not make a report [of the incident]; there was no communication, not by radio, nor to authorities … that is to say, they acted irregularly.”
While generally supporting the city’s police officers, del Toro also said he was committed to doing everything to punish those responsible and bring justice for Córdoba’s family.
“We cannot permit these types of bad actions in the police department,” he said.
The Mexico-United States land border will remain off-limits to nonessential crossings for another month, until January 21.
The border has been closed due to Covid-19 concerns since March 21, when it was shut down for one month. The closure has been extended every month since then.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter Friday that given the situation with the coronavirus in both countries, it had asked the United States to cooperate in continuing the ban on nonessential crossings until January.
“After reviewing the development of the propagation of Covid-19 and due to the various states found to be at the color orange on the coronavirus stoplight system, we have asked for an extension of one month of the restrictions on nonessential land travel on our common border,” the ministry said. “The restrictions will be maintained under the same terms as since its implementation on March 21.”
Nonessential air-travel between the two countries is still permitted as it has been throughout the land border closure, and crossing by land for reasons of work, business or emergencies is also permitted. Those who cross into either country are potentially subject to health screenings and requests to quarantine.
“This year, holiday celebrations have to be moderated so that in the future we can return to the happiness that characterizes them and so that the family members that we love so much remain with us,” said Edgar Ramírez, an attaché to the Department of Homeland Security at the U.S. Embassy.
“A global pandemic is not the time to go shopping, to take trips or visit your family on the other side of the border,” he said. “And illegal immigration in these times of the pandemic, and putting yourself in the hands of traffickers, is not a solution but a bad decision.”
Mexico has recorded 112,326 deaths due to Covid-19. This week, the U.S. broke a record with 3,202 Covid deaths in a single day, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Legislation passed Wednesday by the Senate that would force the central bank to buy up all foreign cash that commercial banks can’t trade or sell abroad attracted heavy criticism on Thursday, even from the Bank of México itself.
The bill must still be passed by the lower house of Congress to become law. The ruling Morena party, which has a majority in both houses of Congress, says the objective of the legislation is to ensure that migrants can send remittances home in cash.
It says that an accumulation of foreign cash in Mexico could disrupt foreign currency markets and spur black market trading in which migrants’ family members get fewer pesos for the foreign currency – most commonly US dollars – they are exchanging.
Senator Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the upper house, said that tourism workers in Mexico – who often receive tips in dollars – would also benefit from the law because banks would more readily accept foreign cash knowing that the Bank of México will buy what they can’t sell themselves.
Some banks don’t exchange foreign currency at all due to concerns about its origin, or only provide the service to their customers, forcing many people to exchange foreign cash elsewhere.
Bank Governor Alejandro Díaz: it could be a first step toward a loss of autonomy.
“A lot of the time they have to go to the tianguis [street market] or market, to the informal dollar exchange options, and a lot of the time they’re surprised that they’ll buy their dollars for [just] 15, 14, 13 or [even] 9 pesos,” Monreal said.
The Bank of México and several other organizations were critical of the legislation that was green-lighted by the Senate, saying that it could force the central bank to buy cash obtained by drug cartels and other criminal organizations via illegal means.
There was also concern that the legislation violates the central bank’s autonomy.
The bank issued a rare public statement on Thursday to outline its opposition to the bill, pointing out that less than 1% of the remittances sent to Mexico by migrants arrive in foreign cash, and that almost all the money is transferred electronically.
Some foreign cash in Mexico comes from tourists and Mexicans who use dollars here – a common practice in some popular destinations and in northern border cities – while there is evidence that cartels send large amounts of ill-gotten greenbacks here from the United States, the world’s largest illicit drugs market.
The Bank of México said that commercial banks were able to trade or return to its country of origin 98% of the US $4.7 billion that entered Mexico in foreign cash between January and September. Only about $100 million was stuck here, it said.
That is the money that Morena would like to see the Bank of México purchase and add to its reserves.
But the central bank said that forcing it to do so could would increase the risk of private banks relaxing their anti-money laundering rules and accepting deposits of ill-gotten cash because they could subsequently offload them in Mexico rather than abroad.
The Bank of México’s relations with its counterparts abroad could be negatively affected and foreign countries could impose restrictions on the entire Mexican banking sector.
“The danger is that the central institution could be sanctioned by foreign authorities which, among other actions, could include a prohibition on carrying out transactions with counterparts abroad as well as the freezing and even confiscation of international reserves,” Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León said in a radio interview.
The central bank said in its statement that the legislation would cause “substantial risks [to] and impacts” on its work and also expressed concern that the law could be the first step toward a loss of the autonomy it was granted in 1994. Prior to that year, the bank was at the whim of the president of the day.
Díaz de León said that if the law passes, the Bank of México could challenge it in the Supreme Court.
“The option is open,” he said before adding that resolution via dialogue was preferred. “I would like to open the opportunity of dialogue in the Chamber of Deputies in order to find better alternatives.”
Among the other organizations that criticized the government’s legislation were the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF) and the rating agency HR Ratings.
“Cash operations entail the possibility that resources of illicit origin are incorporated in the circuit of foreign cash managed by the financial system,” the IMEF said, adding that the risk will be transferred to the Bank of México if it is forced to buy overseas currency from private banks.
“That could lead to sanctions at the international level that inhibit the foreign currency operations of the central bank,” it said.
HR Ratings said that “the danger” is that the legislation could encourage money laundering. “That is a risk. … It could complicate relations with other countries, especially the United States.”
