Exports hit a record US $42 billion in October, up 2.9% over previous year

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November 27, 2020

Mexican exports hit a record high of almost US $42 billion in October, according to data published Friday by the national statistics institute Inegi.

Exports totaled $41.94 billion, a 2.9% increase compared to October 2019 and the highest monthly amount since records were first kept in 1991.

It was the second consecutive month that the value of exports rose on an annual basis after a 3.6% spike in September. Exports slumped earlier in the year due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially in April and May when they declined 40.9% and 56.7%, respectively.

Total exports between January and October were worth $336.19 billion, a 12.6% decline compared to the same period last year.

Petroleum exports last month were worth $1.28 billion, a 30.2% decline compared to October 2019, while non-petroleum exports were worth $40.66 billion, a 4.5% increase.

About 94% of the latter amount, or $38.33 billion, came from manufactured products including vehicles, whose export value was up 12.8% to $13.98 billion.

Agricultural exports were worth $1.45 billion in October, a 5.7% annual increase, while mining exports accounted for $873 million, a 66.4% surge.

On the other side of the ledger, imports to Mexico totaled $35.72 billion last month, 13.8% less than in October 2019. The value of imports has now declined for 15 consecutive months.

Petroleum imports were worth $2.71 billion in October, 33.4% less than in the same month last year, while non-petroleum imports were worth $33.01 billion, an 11.7% decline. Consumer goods imports declined 34.4% to $4.05 billion.

During the first 10 months of the year, imports to Mexico totaled $311 billion, an 18.8% decline compared to the same period of 2019.

The Inegi data shows that Mexico had a current account surplus of $6.22 billion in October – a record high – and $25.18 billion in the January-October period.

The surplus is partially attributable to a decline in demand for imports as consumer demand fell because millions of Mexicans lost their jobs or saw their income reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions.

GDP plummeted 18.7% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year and declined 8.6% on an annual basis in the third quarter.

The central bank is predicting a contraction of between 8.7% and 9.3% this year, which would be the worst result for the Mexican economy since the Great Depression.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

97-year-old Nuevo León woman beats coronavirus

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Michelle Aguilar

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November 27, 2020

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Leonor leaves a Monterrey hospital to the applause of staff.

A 97-year-old Nuevo León woman who beat the odds and survived Covid-19 left a Monterrey hospital Thursday to the applause of medical staff celebrating the end of her 21-day stay.

The woman, identified as Leonor, survived despite a hypertension condition and being the oldest patient ever treated at Santa Cecilia Hospital, an IMSS facility, said Cinthia Mariel Mota Guzmán, the hospital’s Covid response leader.

“Leonor’s case was a challenge for the medical stuff,” she said. “Fortunately we have a geriatric treatment setup as well as interdisciplinary care management … Integrated treatment was important.”

Leonor was on antibiotics and supplemental oxygen and received respiratory and mobility therapy, she said.

“Little by little we were able to reduce the amount of oxygen she needed,” general practitioner Liora Elizabeth Barra Farfán said.

She said working with Leonor made her think of her own grandparents. The elderly woman looked fragile on the surface, Barra said, “but in fact, she’s quite strong.”

Leonor left the hospital quietly upbeat, rolled out in a wheelchair by a staff member, and thanked her doctors for their care.

“I am happy and thankful,” she told them. “Thanks to everyone, I’m leaving here very content with all the services you gave me … Everything you do is a great sacrifice for the sick; may God pay you back for it.”

She told the newspaper Milenio that she doesn’t know the secret to longevity, but despite aches from a previous leg surgery, she keeps herself active even at 97.

“I feel good. I still get up in the morning to bathe and tidy up my room. I am also able to cook for myself. I use a walker and a cane, and I get along.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Removing president’s protection from prosecution advances with Senate vote

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MND Staff

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November 27, 2020

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mexican senate — Senators voted Thursday to eliminate the fuero.

The Senate on Thursday approved a constitutional reform that eliminates legal immunity for Mexico’s sitting president.

Eighty-nine senators voted in favor of the reform, which has already been approved by the lower house of Congress, while 23 opposed it.

It must now be ratified by a majority of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures in order to be declared constitutionally valid.

While in office “the president of the republic can be charged and tried for treason, acts of corruption, electoral crimes and all crimes for which any citizen can be tried,” the reform says.

The constitution currently states that the sitting president can only be tried for treason and “serious crimes of the common order,” a protection known in Spanish as the fuero.

The Senate also approved a constitutional reform stipulating that federal lawmakers can be charged with and tried for any crimes they commit while in office. That reform has been sent to the lower house of Congress for revision.

President López Obrador, who has informally accused his recent predecessors of all manner of corrupt and illicit activities, described the approval of the reform that removes the head of state’s protection from prosecution as an “historic act.”

“[I want to] thank the senators because the initiative to remove presidential immunity was approved. It’s an historic act, the sitting president couldn’t be tried … except for treason and that meant immunity,” he said.

“This was established … in the 1857 constitution, it was maintained in [the] 1917 [constitution]. It’s not until now that presidential immunity is removed, we’re talking about 150 years that this privilege was maintained for the president,” López Obrador said.

“In half plus one of the state legislatures, 17, there won’t be any problem [ratifying the reform]. Before the year ends this constitutional reform will come into force.”

Some lawmakers were critical of the reform because prosecution of a sitting president has to be approved by the Senate.

National Action Party Senator Víctor Fuentes labeled the process “fifí,” or elitist, a word the president favors for describing his adversaries. Fuentes said that in reality the president will not be treated as a common citizen because of the requirement for Senate approval.

Juan Zepeda Hernández, a senator with the Citizens Movement party, said that there was no possibility that López Obrador could face justice should he commit a crime because the ruling Morena party has a majority in the upper house.

“His majority in the Senate gives him unanimous support. The issue has a propagandistic purpose,” he said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Taxes will be halved in southern border region states effective January 1

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MND Staff

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November 27, 2020

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Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo, will become a duty-free zone.

Lower tax rates will apply in Mexico’s northern and southern border regions until the end of 2024, President López Obrador announced Friday.

A northern border free zone where the IVA value-added tax is 8% instead of 16%, the maximum income tax rate is 20% instead of 30% and the minimum wage is 50% higher than the rest of the country was established by the federal government on January 1, 2019. The zone was initially created for a period of two years but will now remain in place for four more.

“We started this program in 2019 at the start of the government and it has yielded very good results – it’s extended,” López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference.

The president announced that tax breaks and a higher minimum salary rate will also apply in the southern border region effective January 1.

“Two decrees will be signed. One to extend the tax support on the northern border … with the United States. The other very important announcement is that similar treatment will apply … on the southern border,” benefiting Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo.

Fuel will also be cheaper on the northern and southern borders because it won’t be subject to the same taxes that apply elsewhere in the country.

In addition, López Obrador announced the creation of an additional special economic zone in Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo, located just north of the border with Belize.

“There is something very important that I believe will make the people of Quintana Roo, in particular those in Chetumal, and the residents of the southeast in general very happy. Chetumal will once again be a free economic zone, free of import duties for countries with which we don’t have trade agreements,” he said.

“Tax on imports won’t be charged. Goods at very low prices will be able to arrive in Chetumal, like before the changes at the start of the neoliberal period.”

Finance Minister Arturo Herrera noted that Chetumal was located in its own special economic zone from 1934 until the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

“That was the status it maintained until 1993 but when NAFTA came into force [the special economic zone] stopped operating,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Historic rail cars will form part of ‘cultural corridor’ at new airport

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MND Staff

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November 26, 2020

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The Adolfo Ruiz Cortines will be part of the train corridor at the new airport.

The new Mexico City airport, currently under construction at an air force base north of the capital, will not just have runways and an innovative terminal building but also a “cultural corridor” with three museums and repurposed historic train cars.

There will be an aviation museum, mammoth museum – the remains of at least 200 of the extinct mammals have been found at the airport site – and army and air force museum at the Santa Lucía airport, said Miguel Guerrero, the military engineer in charge of the cultural corridor project.

He also said that three 20th century train cars will together form an “historic cultural train” that will house a library, cafe, meeting rooms and other cultural and educational spaces.

The oldest train car to be restored and included was built in the United States in 1918. The Francisco I. Madero, named after the revolutionary and former president, was a luxury train carriage used to transport high-ranking military personnel.

While operational, it was decorated with fine furniture and blinds, classic lamps and wooden doors and had sleeping quarters with their own small bathrooms and kitchenettes.

Manufactured in 1926 in the United States, the Adolfo Ruiz Cortines car, named after Mexico’s president from 1952-1958, will also be part of the cultural train as will the Jalisco car, which was built in Mexico in 1980.

The former was also used to transport military personnel while the latter was used as a dining car, Guerrero said.

A replica 20th century train station will also be built in the cultural corridor. It will be named Santa Lucía station after the air force base and a stop on the now-defunct passenger train route between Veracruz and northern Mexico City.

The station will house a general services office, Guerrero said.

The cultural corridor is expected to be completed well before the airport begins operations. Construction of the US $4-billion airport began just over a year ago and is slated for completion in early 2022. The facility is being built by the army.

President López Obrador held a four-day public consultation a month before he took office in December 2018 in which almost 70% of participants voted in favor of canceling the previous government’s US $14-billion airport project in Texcoco, México state, in favor of turning the Santa Lucía Air Force Base into a commercial airport.

In arguing for the cancellation of the previous government’s project, López Obrador said it was corrupt, too expensive and being built on land that was sinking. He says that his plan is not only far cheaper but will solve the saturation problem at the current Mexico City airport more quickly.

Source: Excélsior (sp), Milenio (sp)

Youths join violence against women forum on Zoom — and masturbate

By

Michelle Aguilar

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November 26, 2020

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Forum participant Paulina Monreal: 'Political gender violence.'

A virtual youth forum conducted on Zoom to mark the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women got a nasty surprise Tuesday when a group of young men quickly hijacked the event, making insulting sexist comments and then masturbating on camera.

Paulina Monreal Castillo, a Durango city councilor who participated in the event — the topic of which was gender equality and feminist empowerment, denounced the incident and the young men involved, calling it an act of “political gender violence,” saying the young men had had no intention of participating in good faith.

“We began to talk, but in the chat room, which we could all see, various young men began to address me, saying, “Why are you talking?” and other such things. Someone in the forum then pointed out that one of [the young men] was projecting images from a pornographic movie and that another was masturbating.”

The act apparently emboldened two others, who also began to masturbate on camera.

Forum participant Ana Luz Sánchez Soto also criticized the young men’s behavior, pointing out that it happened in a space created to discuss violence against women.

“How ironic,” she said on Twitter Tuesday. “We were putting on a forum about violence against women, and various men began calling us whores and masturbating on camera. This is what it’s like to be a woman in Mexico.”

The event had been created by Youth in Movement, a political youth organization connected with Mexico’s Citizens Movement political party, which is hosting events this week related to the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women. Organizers had put out a public call for participants in the forum, which was how the young men had been able to join it.

Organizers said the four youths have yet to be identified although they were kicked out of the forum’s online platform fairly quickly. Nevertheless, said Monreal, the young men’s “obscene attitudes” cast a pall over the rest of the event.

State cybersecurity authorities were informed of the incident and are investigating, she said.

In a video she posted on Twitter, Monreal lamented the fact that women had to confront sexist stereotypes and attitudes that they can’t be political, but she also said that this was a moment to remind women and girls that they are not alone.

“The women who decide to better our environment via politics deserve respect … We’re tired and fed up with [men] considering themselves superior and that they have the right to reclaim their spaces from us,” she said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

New ethical guide offers the route to redemption for criminals and corrupt

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MND Staff

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November 26, 2020

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The federal government has published an ethical guide that suggests criminals and the corrupt “can redeem themselves through reflection, education and psychological therapy.”

“The crisis of Mexico is not just an economic crisis, it’s not just a crisis of material wellbeing,” President López Obrador said Thursday while presenting the Ethical Guide for the Transformation of Mexico.

“It’s also a crisis of the loss of cultural, moral and spiritual values. In recent times a whole process of degradation of public life arose – a decadence. To confront this degradation, this decadence, actions that improve material conditions aren’t enough; it’s also important to strengthen values and obtain wellbeing of the soul,” he told reporters at his morning news conference.

The president said the guide, which was drawn up by a committee of six people including his communications coordinator Jesús Ramírez, is similar to the Cartilla Moral, a 1944 booklet by celebrated Mexican writer and diplomat Alfonso Reyes, written at the request of the minister of education at the time.

The new guide was written “in light of the new times,” López Obrador said.

It contains teachings about 20 different values, principles and subjects including respect for difference, life, dignity, freedom, love, suffering and pleasure, the past and the future, gratitude, forgiveness, redemption, equality, truth, fraternity, laws and justice, authority and power, work, wealth and the economy, agreements, family, and animals, plants and things.

Redemption in the current day, the guide says, “means overcoming mistakes, awareness of wrongdoing and regret that implies recognition of guilt and intention not to commit a crime or immoral action again.”

It goes on to say, “From a humanist perspective, criminals and the corrupt can redeem themselves through reflection, education and psychological therapy.”

However, punishing criminals and the corrupt through means such as imprisoning them remains a possibility, the guide says.

The section on forgiveness says that he “he or she who grants it and he or she who receives it” is liberated, contending that people who forgive let go of pent-up bitterness, hate and the desire for revenge.

“To ask for forgiveness and to forgive are among the most difficult things in our relationships with others. There is a natural resistance to forgiving because he or she who does it humbles oneself, humiliates oneself or gives in,” the guide says.

“To ask for forgiveness if you acted poorly and to grant it if you were a victim of mistreatment, aggression, abuse [or] violence … will allow the release of guilt.”

López Obrador said that 8 million of the new ethical guides will be distributed to senior citizens across Mexico.

“The elderly, in a voluntary way, in their free time, can, if they want to, if they have the capacity to do so, pass on what this guide says to their children and grandchildren and analyze it with them … in order to strengthen our values.”

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

José Manuel Mireles led call to arms against cartels in Michoacán

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MND Staff

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November 26, 2020

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Mireles won national acclaim for standing up against cartels.

A man who co-founded and led a self-defense force that took the fight to the drug cartels in Michoacán died on Wednesday from Covid-19.

José Manuel Mireles Valverde, a medical doctor who more recently worked as an official in the state health system, died in a hospital in the Michoacán municipality of Charo three weeks after he was admitted. He was 62.

Mireles led a call to arms in 2013 against the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) cartel, which at that time was the main instigator of violence in Michoacán, especially in the Tierra Caliente region.

He helped put together a self-defense force made up of vigilantes from several regions of Michoacán. They fought to retake control of scores of communities where the Caballeros Templarios and other organized crime groups held sway.

Mireles’ bravery in standing up to the criminal organizations won him national fame and acclaim. He was the self-defense force’s leader, spokesman and most visible figure. Mireles was widely respected in Tepalcatepec, where he worked as a doctor prior to helping clear that municipality and others of criminal activity.

A gun-toting Mireles when he headed a self-defense force.

Less than a year after co-founding the self-defense force, the doctor-turned-vigilante survived a light plane crash that he always believed was an attempt on his life. The January 2014 accident left him with a punctured lung and 48 screws had to be inserted into his skull.

Five months later Mireles was arrested along with scores of other self-defense members on weapon possession charges. He would spend almost three years in jail before being released in May 2017 following the introduction of the new criminal justice system under which his alleged crime was not classified as serious. A federal court dismissed the case against him in July 2018.

Mireles was aligned with the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in the 1980s but in more recent times was an ally of President López Obrador and his Morena party.

The current government appointed him to the position of medical services sub-delegate of ISSSTE, the government workers health service, in Michoacán in August 2019, a role that allowed him to use his training and experience as a doctor.

But while in that job, Mireles faced heavy criticism for referring to the female partners of ISSSTE beneficiaries as “whores” in a video that circulated on social media in September 2019. In March this year he was suspended from his duties for five days for the derogatory comment and similar remarks he made about women.

In addition to facing allegations of misogyny, Mireles was accused of domestic violence by his first wife and two of his children. The latter allegations were investigated but Mireles was never charged. His ex-wife said that he reconciled with his children before passing away in hospital Wednesday night.

A charismatic yet controversial figure, Mireles also made headlines in 2019 when he married a woman almost four decades younger than him.

Despite the controversies he created, the criminal charges he faced and accusations that he was actually in cahoots with some criminal groups, Mireles will be best remembered for his willingness to do what most people are too afraid to do: take on Mexico’s notoriously violent cartels.

“He will be remembered as a great social fighter,” said Ramiro López Elizalde, an ISSSTE director.

López Obrador acknowledged Mireles passing at his regular news conference on Thursday, sending condolences to his family and all Mexicans who are suffering in any way from the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 103,000 lives across the country.

Source: El País (sp), El Universal (sp), Expansión Política (sp)

‘No entry — crocodiles only:’ Oaxaca lifeguards watch out for reptiles too

By

Michelle Aguilar

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November 26, 2020

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The crocodile crossing in Puerto Escondido.

Lifeguards in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, have created a 100-meter-wide “no people” zone between two of the city’s beaches for a stranded crocodile in the hopes that it can return to a nearby lagoon.

The crocodile has been swimming in the waters off Bahía Principal and Marinero Beach for several days. It was first discovered by a sunbather, who took pictures of it as the reptile tried to enter the beach but got scared off by the presence of people and retreated to the ocean, where it has remained.

The lifeguards who created the crocodile crossing, a restricted area lined with poles and police tape, hope to lure the the 2-meter-long reptile onto dry land and relocate it where they think its destination is: the lagoon in the vicinity of a nearby bridge.

Well accustomed to dealing with crocodiles — American crocodiles are common in the area — the lifeguards said they created the restricted zone after hearing about the crocodile and then spotting it themselves in the water near the shoreline.

They believe it wants to cross land to get to the lagoon but say the animal will stay in the ocean waters as long as it can see humans — hence the no-people zone.

“If it sees people moving on the beach,” he said, “it will go back to the ocean.”

The lifeguards say they have informed local authorities and tourism officials of the situation. Their decision to create the zone is a temporary solution to get the crocodile where it needs to go with the least amount of trauma to the animal.

“It’s so it has confidence and can leave the waters calmly,” said Godofredo Vázquez Bohórquez, the city’s lifeguard coordinator. “If we can trap it to relocate it, that would be easier than trying to do so in the ocean.”

Source: NVI Noticias (sp)

GDP rebounds in third quarter but year on year it’s down 8.6%

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MND Staff

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November 26, 2020

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Mexico GDP from 2010 to the third quarter of 2020. inegi

The Mexican economy bounced back strongly in the third quarter compared to the previous three months as industrial activity surged, but GDP was still well below 2019 levels.

Revised, seasonally-adjusted data published Thursday by the the national statistics institute Inegi showed that the economy grew 12.1% between July and September compared to the second quarter.

The quarter-over-quarter growth, 0.1% higher than that shown by preliminary data published late last month, was the highest since comparable data was first kept in 1990.

Economic activity in the secondary sector, including manufacturing, mining and construction, increased 21.7% between July and September compared to the second quarter but was down 8.8% compared to the same three months last year.

The primary sector, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, grew 8% compared to the second quarter but was down 8.8% annually, while the tertiary or services sector, including commerce, transport, financial and media, expanded 8.8% on a quarterly basis but contracted 8.9% compared to a year ago.

The quarter-over-quarter and annual statistics for the three individual sectors show that a recovery is underway but that the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions nevertheless continue to exact a heavy toll on the economy.

Overall GDP in the third quarter was 8.6% lower than in the same period of 2019. The year-over-year contraction follows an 18.7% decline in the second quarter, a period that included two full months – April and May – during which the government ordered the suspension of nonessential economic activities.

The economy was floundering even before the pandemic: GDP also declined on an annual basis in the first quarter of 2020 and the final three quarters of 2019.

According to Banco Base economic analysis director Gabriela Siller, the last time Mexico recorded six consecutive quarters of negative growth was in 1982.

It appears almost certain that Mexico will record its largest economic contraction since the Great Depression in 2020 even though the central bank on Wednesday revised its forecast upward for this year.

The Bank of México (Banxico) predicted a contraction of between 8.7% and 9.3% in 2020, an improvement from its previous quarterly report when it forecast a recession in the 8.8% to 12.8% range.

“There is still a high degree of uncertainty about the future evolution of both domestic and global activity; this is reflected in the breadth of the growth interval,” Banxico said.

For next year, the central bank is less optimistic than it was.

It is forecasting growth of between 0.6% and 5.3% in 2021 whereas in its previous report it predicted GDP expansion of 1.3% to 5.6%.

Banxico also predicted a net loss of 700,000 to 850,000 formal sector jobs this year and the creation of 150,000 to 500,000 in 2021. Both the former and latter predictions are more optimistic than those made by the central bank in its previous report.

Source: El Economista (sp), El Universal (sp), Reuters (en)