Mexico, US agree to launch joint initiatives on health, crime and security

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October 8, 2021

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard participated in Friday's bilateral talks. — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard participated in Friday's bilateral talks.

Mexico and the United States have proposed “a new vision of regional security and collaboration” after top officials held bilateral talks in Mexico City on Friday.

In a joint statement, the two countries – which will celebrate 200 years of bilateral relations in 2022 – announced “a bicentennial framework for security, public health, and safe communities.”

“This new framework establishes a comprehensive and long-term approach to guide bilateral actions going forward. Together, we can build a system of peace, justice, and respect for the rule of law,” the statement said.

Mexico and the United States pledged to take concrete actions to “protect our people,” prevent transborder crime, and pursue criminal networks.

“To protect our people, we intend to pursue a memorandum of understanding to reduce substance abuse disorder and associated harms, with the intent to develop plans to prevent drug consumption, provide evidence-based treatment, and strengthen early warning systems and ability to track demand,” the statement said.

In pursuit of the “protect our people” objective, the two countries also pledged to create a network for homicide prevention.

The network will “provide a platform for the exchange of best practices in crime and violence prevention, homicide reduction, work with at-risk youth, and work toward safe and peaceful communities,” the statement said.

It also said the network would consider creating multidisciplinary homicide task forces focused on high-impact crimes linked to transnational criminal organizations, with a focus on forensic laboratories and support for investigation and prosecution.

To prevent transborder crime, Mexico intends to work with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to strengthen control and management of incoming shipments for precursor chemicals, the statement said. Such chemicals commonly arrive at Pacific coast ports on ships from Asia.

Mexico and the United States also affirmed their commitment to work together to combat arms trafficking. The joint statement said the two countries will work together on the detection and interdiction of firearms and consider new strategies to combat the flow of weapons across their shared border.

“… We affirm our support for current initiatives and the need to continue current efforts to stop firearms sold in the United States from reaching Mexico, and actions to identify, target, and investigate financing, transportation, and communication methods employed by smuggling networks in order to disrupt and dismantle their operations,” the statement said.

The Mexican government is currently pursuing legal action against U.S.-based gun manufacturers, accusing them of negligent business practices that have led to illegal arms trafficking and deaths in Mexico, where U.S.-sourced firearms are used in a majority of high-impact crimes. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said last month that reducing violence in Mexico will be very difficult if the United States doesn’t do more to stop the illegal flow of weapons into the country.

Mexico and the United States also committed to expanding bilateral cooperation to counter human smuggling and human trafficking by transnational criminal organizations.

“… To pursue criminal networks, the United States and Mexico commit to increasing bilateral and parallel actions to disrupt illicit actors and their financial networks,” the statement said.

The two countries said they would target importers of chemical precursors and their their financial networks, “with special focus on import companies suspected of diverting precursor chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl and methamphetamine, to transnational criminal organizations.”

They also said they would target underground drug laboratories. “We intend to create a bilateral working group on precursor chemical regulation to standardize protocols and regulation for dual-use substances to prevent their use in the production of synthetic drugs,” the statement added.

It also said that both countries were committed to human rights and to advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity. In addition, the two countries pledged to “work with our youth to provide them with options other than joining organized crime” and share information to detect money laundering, among other initiatives.

President López Obrador says that his government employment programs such as the “Youths Building the Future” apprenticeship scheme can help steer young people away from a life of crime.

The governments of both countries also committed to forensic cooperation to help solve the thousands of cases of disappearances and forced disappearances in Mexico.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were among the U.S. officials that met with López Obrador, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and other Mexican functionaries in the National Palace.

Mexico News Daily

In unprecedented move, Mexico denies permission for new variety of GM corn

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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Mexico has never allowed the commercial cultivation of GM corn but it has permitted their importation for years, mainly for livestock feed. — Mexico has never allowed the commercial cultivation of GM corn but it has permitted its importation for years, mainly for livestock feed.

For the first time ever, health regulator Cofepris has refused to issue a permit for a new variety of genetically modified (GM) corn, according to Mexico’s top farm lobby.

Juan Cortina, president of the National Farm Council (CNA), told the news agency Reuters that Cofepris rejected a permit for a new GM corn variety in late August. The permit was sought by German pharmaceutical and crop science company Bayer.

CNA data showed that Cofepris determined that the new seed variety was designed to withstand glyphosate, a herbicide that is the active ingredient in Roundup, which is made by Bayer. Cofepris, which considers the herbicide dangerous, said its rejection was based on a “precautionary principle.”

Mexico has never allowed the cultivation of GM corn on a commercial scale but has permitted the importation of such varieties for decades. Most imports come from the United States and are mainly used as livestock feed. Before a new variety of GM corn can be imported, Cofepris must authorize it.

Reuters reported that Cofepris’s rejection of Bayer’s application was not disclosed publicly, and that its press office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bayer also initially refused to comment on the rejection, the news agency said, but later came out strongly against the decision.

“We are disappointed with the unscientific reasons that Cofepris used to deny the authorization,” a Bayer press release said of the rejection, which involved a corn variety with the company’s proprietary HT3 x SmartStax Pro technology. Bayer will evaluate its legal options for moving forward, it said in a statement to Reuters.

Bayer also criticized regulatory delays and said further permit denials could have a “devastating impact” on the Mexican supply chain.

Cortina said that Mexican corn importers will start feeling the impact of the rejection as early as next year.

“This is the first obstacle, which isn’t immediate, but it’s coming,” he told Reuters. The CNA chief said he believed the decision violated the new North American free trade agreement, the USMCA, which took effect last year.

Cortina also said that seven other applications for permits to import GM have been awaiting resolution for periods between 14 and 34 months. He complained about the delays in an interview with Reuters in June, asserting that Cofepris had effectively brought forward an import ban that is not scheduled to take effect until January 2024.

Reuters reported that previous Mexican governments approved some 90 GM corn varieties for import and granted approximately 80 other permits for the import of GM seeds for crops such as cotton and soybeans. However, since President López Obrador took office in late 2018, Cofepris hasn’t approved any new GM seeds.

The federal government published a decree on December 31 that stated that biosecurity authorities would “revoke and refrain from granting permits for the release of genetically modified corn seeds into the environment.”

The objective of the decision is to “contribute to food security and sovereignty” and protect “native corn, cornfields, bio-cultural wealth, farming communities, gastronomic heritage and the health of Mexicans,” the decree said.

The government has not clarified whether the importation of GM corn for use as fodder and to make products such as cereals and sauces in the industrial sector will also be banned.

Cortina has warned that grain buyers, especially those within Mexico’s large livestock sector, won’t be able to substitute current GM corn import levels with domestically grown corn by 2024, as the government believes can occur.

With reports from Expansión and Reuters

Security forces capture Santa Rosa cartel leader in Guanajuato

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Rose Egelhoff

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October 8, 2021

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Authorities have captured Fernando Emmanuel “N,” also known as “El Panther,” leader of the powerful Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL), according to the Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office.

The suspect, who is wanted for a number of crimes, was captured in an operation led by the state criminal investigation agency with the assistance of other state and federal authorities. The authorities did not share where the operation took place.

“El Panther” had taken great pains to avoid capture, even undergoing cosmetic surgery to change his appearance with face and hair grafts. He was apprehended with a “large, very peculiar” firearm, authorities reported.

“El Panther” was designated leader by José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez, who was captured in August of last year. “El Marro” was followed by Adán “El Azul” Ochoa as cartel leader, but Ochoa was captured in October.

The CSRL operates in the center of the country, where it is fighting a territorial war with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The repeated loss of leaders diminished the power of the cartel, but it remains firmly rooted in Guanajuato where it operates in municipalities including Celaya, Villagrán and Cortazar.

For the past four years, Guanajuato has been the state with the most murders in Mexico, with nine out of 10 incidents having some kind of link to fights between criminal organizations.

With reports from Expansión Política

652 migrants found aboard 3 tractor-trailers in Tamaulipas

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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The semi-trailers in which the migrants were traveling toward Monterrey.

Federal authorities found more than 600 Central American migrants hidden in the refrigerated containers of three tractor-trailers traveling in Tamaulipas on Thursday night.

Tamaulipas authorities said that the army and National Guard stopped the trucks at a military checkpoint on the Ciudad Victoria-Monterrey highway in the municipality of Hidalgo. A total of 652 migrants, including 197 unaccompanied minors, were found in the containers. Another 158 minors were traveling with adults.

Authorities said the group was made up of 564 Guatemalans, 39 Hondurans, 28 Nicaraguans, 20 Salvadorans and one person from Belize. Four people were arrested in connection with smuggling the migrants in the trucks, which authorities said had departed from Puebla and were headed for Monterrey.

The migrants were taken to state police facilities in Ciudad Victoria on Thursday night and some received medical assistance from the Red Cross. Some were taken to federal Attorney General’s Office facilities on Friday morning, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Tamaulipas health authorities said that nine of the migrants had tested positive for COVID-19, but most had only mild symptoms. State Health Minister Gloria Molina Gamboa said they had been placed in isolation and were under medical supervision.

Other migrants had ailments including dehydration and respiratory problems. At least two pregnant women were among those traveling in the refrigerated containers.

The discovery comes amid a record influx of migrants into Mexico. Some 147,000 migrants were counted in Mexico in the first eight months of the year, and almost 80,000, including large numbers of Haitians, applied for asylum here.

Many have entered the country via Mexico’s border with Guatemala in Chiapas before making their way to Tapachula, where there are currently more than 100,000 migrants, according to civil society organizations. Most migrants who have arrived this year are Central Americans, Cubans and Haitians. However, almost 1,700 Africans from 35 countries have also sought asylum in Mexico this year after crossing into Chiapas.

Among them are 329 people from Senegal, 247 from Ghana, 179 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 151 from Angola and 111 from Guinea.

With reports from El Universal, Reforma and El Orbe

Transfers to inefficient state companies hurt health, education: economist

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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Restructuring could help address Pemex's inefficiency, according to one think tank expert. — Restructuring could help address Pemex's inefficiency, according to an expert.

Government transfers to two inefficient state-owned companies are an obstacle to the allocation of greater resources to sectors such as health and education, according to a think tank budget specialist.

Mariana Campos, coordinator of México Evalúa’s public expenditure and accountability program, told a business conference she was concerned about the government’s allocation of large sums of money to state oil company Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission.

Money allocated to address their “inefficiency” diverts resources from other areas, she said.

“The cost … of investing in companies that are not efficient is extremely high,” Campos said, adding that the health and education sectors are left with “two measly pesos” each, despite the challenges they face.

“… Thirty per cent of schools have serious infrastructure problems,” she said.

According to a México Evalúa analysis, investment in Pemex – which has more than US $100 billion in debt – will total 381 billion pesos (US $18.4 billion) in 2022, a 20.8% increase compared to this year.

Campos said the government’s absorption of Pemex liabilities is not a bad idea because it could help the state oil company obtain lower interest rates for debt repayment. However, assisting the company without requiring it to undertake reforms and restructure is not the right thing to do, she said.

“It’s a company that perhaps needs to be less integrated,” Campos said, suggesting that its component parts should be broken up. “… The structure [of the company] is still very big …”

With reports from Reforma

Protest in Yucatán over bid to prohibit leaving food for street animals

By

Rose Egelhoff

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October 8, 2021

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Stray dogs on the streets of Merida — Stray dogs on the streets of Mérida.

The local government in Mérida, Yucatán, has backtracked on a controversial new law prohibiting residents from leaving food in public places for animals.

The regulation, which included large fines for those who broke it, drew criticism from animal rights advocates and inspired protests, leading the government to reconsider.

The proposed fines ranged from 8,962 to 448,100 pesos (US $430 to $21,600) for “leaving food in public places.” But animal advocates said that given the number of stray animals in the city, denying them food amounted to animal cruelty.

“Rather than prohibit this activity, we should be inviting citizens to take in these animals, and give them a real home,” said María Vivas Sierra, local manager of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In a Tuesday press conference, local officials explained that the rule did not prohibit feeding animals, but rather leaving food unattended in public places, which could contribute to populations of pests like rats, and animal-borne diseases. They said that giving food directly to a street animal was still allowed.

But opposition continued and on Wednesday it was announced on Facebook that Mérida Mayor Renán Barerra Concha had instructed the city not to officially publish the new law until it had been reviewed and possibly revised.

“Citizens of Mérida can rest well assured that their voice will always be heard and taken into account by the local government,” the city wrote on Facebook.

Despite the announcement, plans moved ahead for two animal rights protests on Saturday, the newspaper El Universal reported.

With reports from El Universal, PorEsto! and Diario de Yucatán

US delegation visits Mexico in push to reset bilateral security relationship

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Christine Murray

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October 8, 2021

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López Obrador and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the National Palace Friday morning.

Top U.S. and Mexican officials are meeting Friday to try to revitalize a bilateral security relationship that has been blighted by the high-profile arrest of a former Mexican defence minister last year.

Having just sought to patch up relations with France after the fallout from the Aukus submarine deal, Antony Blinken, U.S. secretary of state, is leading the country’s delegation to meet President López Obrador and participate in talks on migration, drug trafficking and criminal justice.

“It’s time for a comprehensive new approach to our security co-operation,” Blinken said in Mexico City on Friday.

The two sides are working on a new, broader framework for security co-operation that will include public health and economic opportunities, though experts said concrete outcomes were unlikely in this first round of discussions.

Some see the mere existence of high-level talks as a step forward for the rocky relationship between the countries, which share a border that is nearly 2,000 miles long.

“The fact that we’re talking again is enormously important, the fact that not a lot will come out of it is secondary,” said Pamela Starr, a professor at the University of Southern California who has advised both the Mexican and U.S. governments on foreign affairs. “Talking and collaborating is the first step to getting stuff done.”

U.S.-Mexico relations grew more fractious under former president Donald Trump, and sustained significant damage last year when U.S. authorities detained Salvador Cienfuegos, a former Mexican defence minister, on drug trafficking charges without tipping off Mexico in advance.

In response, Mexico’s government launched a campaign to have him released, calling the allegations baseless and passed a law limiting the activities of foreign agents on Mexican soil.

The U.S. ultimately relented and dropped the charges, citing “sensitive and important foreign policy considerations.” But when Mexico later published hundreds of pages of evidence from the case, Washington threatened to end criminal co-operation.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister, said this week that the basis for Friday’s dialogue was mutual respect, and that Mexico was now focused on reducing homicides, including stopping the flow of U.S. guns.

“It would be very unfortunate if we didn’t understand each other, if the relationship wasn’t strengthened” López Obrador said at a breakfast on Friday with the U.S. officials.

The Mexican delegation during Friday's breakfast with officials from the US. — The Mexican delegation during Friday’s breakfast with officials from the US.

Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. homeland security chief, also attended the meeting. Immigration through Mexico has become a political problem for Joe Biden, U.S. president. U.S. authorities’ handling of the arrival of thousands of Haitians migrants who arrived at the border drew condemnation from left and right.

In recent years the U.S. has pushed Mexico to step up enforcement against migrants, including the use of the National Guard and deportation flights. That reliance has made Washington reluctant to criticize López Obrador publicly over other policies, experts said.

“There’s no question in my mind the Biden administration is trying to be as quiet and as diplomatic as they possibly can with López Obrador,” Starr said. “They just don’t have the political space in the United States to lose Mexico’s co-operation on migration.”

The U.S.-Mexico security relationship has long been focused on drug trafficking and related violence. Since 2007, Mexico has seen a surge in its homicide rate, with organized crime infiltrating government, almost 100,000 people missing, and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes.

López Obrador has taken a less confrontational approach to the country’s drug cartels than his predecessors, in what he calls a “hugs not bullets” strategy. In a seminal moment in 2019, his government released the son of notorious drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán not long after capture to avoid civilian deaths.

“There is a strategy to avoid confrontation,” said Romain Le Cour, co-ordinator of the security and violence reduction program at the think tank México Evalúa. “In terms of figures it’s apparently not working, homicide rates are not dropping.”

A cornerstone of the bilateral security relationship has been the Mérida Initiative, a U.S. funding stream that became synonymous with military equipment for Mexico’s war on drugs. Mexico has asked for it to be replaced.

Blinken said Friday that after 13 years of Mérida, it was time for something new to tackle the root causes of the countries’ security problems.

The U.S. state department said on Thursday that it hopes to have a plan by the end of January 2022.

In addition to rising violence, the U.S. has become increasingly concerned over the booming trade for Mexican cartels in synthetic drugs like fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of people a year in the U.S.

Le Cour is hoping that the dialogue will acknowledge the past failures and look for ways to build public institutions rather than just react to threats.

“There have been billions of dollars poured into the U.S.-Mexico security co-operation, and the situation is not improving in objective terms,” Le Cour said. “On the ground, it’s a total failure honestly.”

During 6 years, Michoacán spent 1.2 billion pesos to rent 7 aircraft

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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José Alfredo Ortega Reyes, a senior official in the new government, denounced the spending of the previous administration. — Security Minister José Alfredo Ortega Reyes denounced the spending of the previous administration on Thursday.

The previous Michoacán government spent more than 1.2 billion pesos to rent six helicopters and a stealth aircraft, the state’s new security minister said Thursday.

José Alfredo Ortega Reyes, a senior member of the new Morena party government, told a press conference that the government led by former governor Silvano Aureoles signed a 1.23-billion-peso (US $59.2 million) contract with the company B3 Fly Services for the use of five Airbus helicopters, one AugustaWestland helicopter and a Stemme plane between January 2015 and August 2021.

The contract, signed by former security minister Antonio Bernal Bustamante, was plagued with irregularities, he said.

Ortega said that B3 Fly Services was registered as a company just two weeks before the contract was signed on December 17, 2015. In the 14 days between the registration of the company and the signing of the contract, the state government took the decision to award the contract directly to B3, he said.

The security minister said the contract required the company to forward a bond equivalent to 10% of its value to the state government in order to secure it. He questioned how a new company would be able to pay a bond in excess of 120 million pesos, asserting that it was implausible it would have access to that much money.

The minister also questioned the previous government’s commitment to cover the total cost of an aircraft in the event of theft, confiscation, expropriation, damage or total destruction.

Government Secretary Carlos Torres Piña told reporters that such a large outlay was unjustifiable, noting that the contract cost the previous government 18.24 million pesos (US $879,000) a month or almost 610,000 pesos (US $29,400) per day. The annual outlay was almost double the budget granted to small and medium-sized municipalities in Michoacán, he said.

Torres also said that some officials used the aircraft for personal and family matters.

“We want to tell you that we won’t repeat or allow this kind of excessive and unjustifiable spending. We’re not like them, we’re not here to throw money away or obtain luxuries and privileges,” he said.

With reports from El Universal

Canadian curling team faces a challenge — from Mexico

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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Mexican curlers compete at a competition in Finland in 2020. — The Mexican men’s curling team competes at the world qualification event in Finland in 2020. World Curling Federation

Mexico will challenge Canada and Brazil for a spot at the 2022 world men’s curling championship, to be held in Las Vegas next April.

There are just two spots available for Americas region countries and the United States was automatically allocated one as it is hosting the event.

The Mexican, Canadian and Brazilian teams will play off for the second spot in an Americas Zone Challenge, to be held at the Lacombe Curling Club in Alberta from October 29-31.

It will be just the second time that Canada has faced a challenge for a spot at a world championship. The first time was in 2018 when the championship was also held in Las Vegas. Canada prevailed over Brazil on that occasion and went on to take second place in Nevada.

Mexico has never competed at a world curling championship. Hoping to change that is the Mexican team of Jesús Barajas, Christopher Barajas, Ramy Cohen and Alex Sánchez, who will take to take to the ice in Canada later this month.

Canadian skip Brendan Bottcher said his team is taking the threat from both Mexico and Brazil seriously.

“Obviously, this is an important event for Canada, and we take that opportunity to wear the Maple Leaf very seriously, so we are already preparing for this event,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

“We have nothing but respect for any team that steps onto the ice to represent their country, and I know Mexico and Brazil will be bringing their best to Lacombe, so we will have to be ready.”

Curling is a little known sport in Mexico but there has been a national curling federation since 2014. Canadian curler Kaitlyn Lawes, who won gold at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, traveled to Mexico in 2017 to help the federation promote the sport. During her visit, she gave a curling exhibition at the Ice Dome, a winter sports center on Mexico City’s south side.

With reports from CBC

New governor creates elite SWAT team to fight crime in San Luis Potosí

By

Rose Egelhoff

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October 8, 2021

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San Luis Potosí Governor Ricardo Gallardo, right, meets with members of the National Guard and the military.

San Luis Potosí will soon have a new weapon in the fight against crime: an elite SWAT team created by the new governor.

The unit is the first of its kind designed to combat crimes that fall within state jurisdiction, the newspaper Milenio reported. The force will be made up of state police with training in weapons and tactics for combating robbery, assault and other crimes.

It is a model that is already familiar in the United States, where SWAT teams typically respond to acts of terrorism, hostage situations and reports of heavily armed criminals.

Governor Ricardo Gallardo Cardona said that like in the U.S., the San Luis Potosí SWAT team will respond quickly to urgent situations — but is not designed to fight cartels.

“They will be the ones who react immediately. People are tired of robberies, they are tired of assaults, they are tired of extortion … that is where we have to step in,” Gallardo said, adding that the group will work to “repel all the evil that exists in San Luis Potosí.”

The state government said the force will start with 200 members and have 450 by next January.

Homicides in the state have trended upward over the last several years due to confrontations between criminal groups, though the 2020 homicide rate of 28 murders per 100,000 residents remains slightly below the national average. The rate of killings of police officers also increased from four cases in 2019 to 19 in 2020.

With reports from Milenio