Another phone buyer gets carton of Boing; laptop buyer receives bags of salt

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September 10, 2020

Leaving the General Archive of the Nation with a document would be 'almost impossible,' UNAM researcher says.

A 16th-century document linked to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés that turned up in a New York auction was stolen from the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) in Mexico City.

A New York auction house had intended to sell it later this month.

The 1521 document – a royal order to Cortés, who led the Spanish forces, Pedro de Alvarado, identified as the mayor of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, and other conquistadores in New Spain – was listed by Swann Auction Galleries as one of almost 400 lots to go under the hammer on September 24 in its Printed & Manuscript Americana auction.

A group of researchers spotted the image of the document on the auction house’s website and alerted the AGN and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), both of which filed complaints with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The auction house, which cited a price range of US $20,000 to $30,000 for the document, said Wednesday that it was withdrawing the lot from the September 24 auction but did not say whether it would be returned to Mexico.

The stolen document linked to Hernán Cortés.

One of the researchers who saw the document on the Swann website told the newspaper El Universal that it was not the first time that a document from a section of the AGN that holds its oldest archives had been offered for sale.

Michel Robert Oudijk of the National Autonomous University’s Institute of Philological Research said that he and the other researchers decided that they had to alert the authorities because they felt a line had been crossed with the intended sale of the Cortés document. A Spanish academic had taken a photo of it during a visit to the AGN in 2010, which allowed the researchers to be certain that the manuscript in Swann’s possession had come from the General Archive.

Oudijk said that leaving the archive with a document is “almost impossible” and therefore the theft must have been perpetrated by someone who works there.

“At the archive they control everything, … there are police who register your details and check your computer to see if there are any documents. Apart from the police, the archive staff keep an eye on researchers. In other words, leaving the AGN with a document is almost impossible; this tells us that it had to be someone who who can enter and exit without being checked … someone within the archive, it’s as clear as water,” he said.

The researcher said it’s not enough for Swann simply to withdraw the document from its auction, and declared that the auction house must reveal how it obtained it. If the person who supplied it didn’t remove it from the AGN an investigation must be carried out to find out who did, Oudijk said.

“Simple detective work” is needed, he added

Marco Palafox, legal director of the AGN, said the General Archive also filed a complaint with the FGR against the auction house Morton’s, which is offering 75 lots that are probably part of the nation’s documentary heritage.

The complaint was submitted just hours before the auction, which went ahead regardless on Tuesday although some lots were withdrawn. Palafox said the AGN only learned about the auction on Monday when it was tipped off by researchers.

At least one of the lots the AGN was concerned about, a document signed by Mexican independence heroes, was sold.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Journalist found murdered and beheaded in Veracruz

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September 10, 2020

A journalist who covered the crime beat for a newspaper in Córdoba, Veracruz, was found dead Wednesday in Tezonapa, near the Oaxaca border. He had been killed and beheaded in an area known for gang violence.

The body of Julio Valdivia Rodríguez was found on railway tracks in the community of Motzorongo next to his motorcycle, which bore the newspaper’s logo. His head was found some 10 meters away.

Officials said the body was arranged in such a way to make it appear he had been struck by a train, but the Attorney General’s Office quickly discarded that theory.

The 44-year-old reporter with 20 years’ experience was nicknamed “El Tigre del Norte” for a lock of grey hair that made him resemble a member of the popular musical group. He leaves behind his wife and four children, the youngest of whom is 4 years old.

Valdivia’s friends and fellow journalists announced they would hold protests in the city of Córdoba Thursday to demand justice.

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The State Commission for Attention to and Protection of Journalists (CEAPP) condemned the murder and announced that it will initiate proceedings to follow up on the authorities’ investigations.

CEAPP pointed out that Valdivia did not have special protection measures offered to journalists in Veracruz who have been threatened with violence because there had been no evidence of any risk to his safety.

The state government condemned the murder and vowed there would be no impunity.

President López Obrador mentioned the incident Thursday during his press conference at the National Palace.

“I know Tezonapa and I know the importance of El Mundo de Córdoba [Valdivia’s newspaper], how heroic it is to practice journalism in that region as in other regions. That is why those responsible have to be investigated and punished,” the president said.

On March 31, journalist María Elena Ferral of the Diario de Xalapa was shot to death in Papantla. Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez of the daily Gráfico de Xalapa was assassinated in Actopan in August 2019.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) says 163 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, and 10 have been murdered this year. Since 2010, 25 journalists have been murdered in Veracruz alone.

Mexico is the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2019, nearly half of all murders of journalists worldwide occurred in Mexico.

Source: Reforma (sp)

106-year-old Querétaro man beats coronavirus

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September 10, 2020

Don Juan was born during the Mexican Revolution.

At 106 years old Don Juan has a lot of stories to tell, and now surviving the coronavirus pandemic is one of them.

On Tuesday the man who was born two months before the start of World War I was released from a hospital in Querétaro to return home, coronavirus-free.

Don Juan, who is three years older than Mexico’s constitution and lived through the Spanish flu pandemic, was born in Castillo, Guanajuato, on May 2, 1914, in the middle of the Mexican Revolution and before the discovery of penicillin.

He met and married Sebastiana Parra, with whom he had five children.

For a time he worked in a soap factory, and sold cleaning products from his home. He also worked as a taxi driver when gasoline cost only 1 peso per liter and ran a nixtamal mill with his wife.

Don Juan (his surname wasn’t given) joins a select group of centenarians who have recovered from the coronavirus, including María Branyas, the oldest woman in Spain. She celebrated her 113th birthday in May and has kicked both the coronavirus and the Spanish flu in her lifetime.

On April 14, a 106-year-old great-grandmother in Birmingham, England, recovered from the disease after being ill for three weeks and was applauded by nurses and doctors when she was discharged from the hospital.

In Mexico, seven out of 10 people aged 100 or over who have been infected with the coronavirus have survived, despite having the highest comorbidity for the disease worldwide: advanced age.

As of last month, 72 centenarians in Mexico had been infected with the virus, and 22 had died according to the Ministry of Health. In infected patients who are between 80 and 90 years old, the mortality rate is higher, at 43.4%.

The oldest person in Mexico who has survived the coronavirus is thought to be a 116-year-old man in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, who was not hospitalized during his illness despite presenting comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension.

Source: Excélsior (sp)

Russia to send Mexico 32 million doses of Covid vaccine in November

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September 10, 2020

Russia has announced an agreement with a Mexican pharmaceutical company to supply 32 million doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a statement that it had reached a deal with Landsteiner Scientific, which will distribute the vaccine in Mexico.

“Deliveries are expected to start in November 2020 subject to approval by Mexico’s regulators,” the RDIF said.

The Sputnik V vaccine was registered by Russian authorities in August after phase one and two clinical trials “demonstrated no serious adverse events and a stable immune response in 100% of participants,” the fund said.

“Post-registration clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine involving 40,000 volunteers are currently ongoing. First results of these trials are expected to be published in October-November 2020.”

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, said that “our Mexican partners clearly understand the advantage of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V compared to other vaccine candidates.”

“In particular, they highlight a much greater safety track record of human adenoviral vectors versus novel technologies such as monkey adenoviral vectors or mRNA,” he said.

Dmitriev noted that a survey conducted by the newspaper El Financiero found that 66% of Mexicans have confidence in the Russian vaccine.

“We have agreed to deliver the large batch of Sputnik V vaccine to Mexico which will help 25% of the Mexican population to receive access to the safe and effective vaccine,” he said.

The announcement of the agreement comes after Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in late August that 2,000 Mexican volunteers would participate in phase three trials of Sputnik V.

The participation of Mexicans in the trials was confirmed last week but only 500 to 1,000 volunteers are set to take part. The Sputnik vaccine is administered in two doses with the second dose applied 21 days after the first.

Coronavirus cases and deaths reported by day. milenio

Mexico has also committed to participating in late-stage clinical trials for vaccines developed by United States company Johnson & Johnson and two Chinese companies.

If it passes phase three trials, millions of doses of a vaccine developed at Oxford University are slated to be produced in Mexico after the Carlos Slim Foundation reached a deal with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which has been licensed to supply the vaccine.

President López Obrador said last month that he was confident that the vaccine would be available for application in the first quarter of next year.

But Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday that the arrival of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca in Mexico could be delayed as a result of the decision to pause the trials due to a serious adverse reaction in a participant.

According to medical news website Stat, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said in a private call with investors on Wednesday that the participant who triggered the suspension of trials was a woman in the United Kingdom who developed neurological symptoms consistent with a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s coronavirus case tally and death toll continue to increase.

The Health Ministry reported 4,647 new cases Wednesday, increasing the accumulated total of confirmed cases to 647,507.

There are an estimated 39,994 active cases across the country while the results of 83,537 Covid-19 tests are not yet known.

Mexico City has the highest number of active cases among the country’s 32 states followed by México state and Guanajuato. At the municipal level, Monterrey, Nuevo León, leads Mexico for active cases with 793.

Mexico’s official Covid-19 death toll increased to 69,095 on Wednesday with 611 additional fatalities registered by health authorities. Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is currently 10.7 per 100 cases, the highest rate among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Mexico City has the highest death toll in the country with 11,043 fatalities attributed to Covid-19. México state ranks second for deaths with 8,482 followed by Veracruz, Puebla and Baja California, each of which has recorded more than 3,000 fatalities.

Puebla city has recorded more Covid-19 deaths than any other municipality in the country with 1,973 as of Wednesday.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Chihuahua farmer killed; witnesses point finger at National Guard

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September 10, 2020

Yessica Silva and Jaime Torres were attacked following Tuesday's water protest in Chihuahua. Silva died at the scene.

The conflict between farmers and the federal government over water in Chihuahua that exploded earlier this week has claimed two victims.

A man and a woman who were protesting at the La Boquilla dam and were on their way home to Meoqui Tuesday night were found wounded in their pickup truck in the nearby city of Delicias.

The woman, Yessica Silva, died at the scene and her husband, Jaime Torres, was in serious condition Thursday morning.

Witnesses say the National Guard opened fire on the vehicle near a gas station. Two National Guard vehicles were seen in the area but were allowed to leave by local police, witnesses say.

Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral demanded that the Attorney General’s Office investigate the incident.

“They were attacked, according to various testimonies and accusations, by elements of the National Guard. We strongly condemn the events,” he stated and assured that those responsible will not go unpunished.

Chihuahua Attorney General César Augusto Peniche said he has requested a report from units involved in the incident and that their weapons have been seized in order to conduct ballistics tests and compare them to casings found at the scene.

Torres underwent emergency surgery yesterday at a cost of 100,000 pesos. The mayor of Parral, Alfredo Lozoya Santillán, offered to cover the costs out of his own pocket.

The National Guard says it was fired on first by armed civilians after they arrested three protesters found to be in possession of tear gas and ammunition.

“The National Guard repelled the aggression. After this, an examination was carried out, locating a vehicle with a deceased person and another injured person; the latter was transferred to a hospital for attention.”

Led by the mayor of Delicias, Eliseo Compeán, residents protested outside the National Guard barracks, demanding that the federal government answer for the murder. They blocked the road leading to the barracks and set up tents.

Farmers vs. the National Guard at the Boquilla dam.

In response, the National Guard has turned 17 officers over to prosecutors for investigation. “We, the National Guard, are in the hands of state authorities. They are the ones who are investigating, and we will help by contributing what they ask of us and demand,” Colonel Didier Peralta said.

Tensions in the area have been brewing for at least six months and erupted again on Tuesday when the National Water Commission (Conagua) allegedly violated an agreement with ranchers by diverting water from the La Boquilla dam to the United States.

An estimated 5,000 farmers stormed the dam, attacking members of the National Guard with Molotov cocktails, sticks and rocks and demanding that they shut the floodgates.

Guardsmen clad in riot gear launched tear gas at the protesters in a failed attempt to retake the water facility and were forced to withdraw.

The dispute traces back to a 1944 water rights treaty with the United States.

Mexico has fallen behind in the amount of water it must send north and owes the U.S. 426 million cubic meters, which must be paid by October 24 by releasing water from dams on the Mexican side of the border. The United States has been pressuring Mexico in recent weeks to abide by the treaty’s terms.

But for farmers desperate to irrigate their crops in the middle of a drought, sending water north has dire consequences.

Yesterday, President López Obrador asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the incidents at the dam, which he says were instigated by his political opponents.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Pemex could become ‘incurable cancer,’ warns Bank of México deputy governor

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September 10, 2020

jonathan heath — Heath: the oil company is a big 'headache' for Mexico's public finances.

Pemex could become an “incurable cancer” if the government doesn’t come up with a structural solution to the state oil company’s financial problems, according to the deputy governor of Mexico’s central bank.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the rating agency Moody’s, Jonathan Health said that Pemex is Mexico’s biggest public finances “headache.”

The state owned firm is the world’s most indebted oil company, owing in excess of US $100 billion.

Heath, who stressed that he was speaking as a private citizen rather than the deputy governor of the Bank of México, said that it’s not too late to rectify Pemex’s problems but asserted that the government needs to find a “structural and permanent” solution.

If a solution isn’t found,“this enormous headache will soon become a migraine and then an incurable cancer,” he said.

During the same seminar, Moody’s analyst Arianne Ortiz Bollin said the government should provide support of at least 1% of GDP to Pemex annually so that the firm can meet its financial obligations, although she personally recommended support equal to 2% of GDP in 2021.

She said that a growing problem for the state-owned company is that the government isn’t providing it with the resources it needs to invest and expand.

“Up to now, the support is not sufficient to reestablish cash flow nor to increase reserves and production,” Ortiz said.

“If they don’t do something to limit the company’s tax obligations, improve its capacity to generate cash or allow it to invest, it will end up affecting [Mexico’s] sovereign rating because 14% of revenue depends on what Pemex produces.”

Moody’s downgraded Pemex’s credit rating to junk in April, quickly following the lead of Fitch Ratings.

Marco Oviedo, chief economist for Barclays in Latin America, said the assumption in the proposed 2021 budget that Pemex will produce almost 1.86 million barrels of crude per day next year is very optimistic, pointing out that the state oil company has consistently failed to achieve production goals.

President López Obrador has pledged to “rescue” Pemex and make Mexico self-sufficient in gasoline by 2023.

To achieve the latter, the government is rehabilitating the country’s six existing refineries and building a new one on the Tabasco coast.

Investors and rating agencies have criticized the US $8-billion refinery project, arguing that it diverts funds from Pemex’s more profitable exploration business.

But López Obrador has rejected the claim that Mexico is better off sending crude abroad when it has to purchase gasoline, mainly from the United States, to meet domestic demand.

“There are still fools that say that it’s better to sell crude oil even though we have to buy gasoline. They forget that if we process our own raw materials jobs are created here,” he said in June.

Source: El Economista (sp)

500 market vendors close in Salamanca, Guanajuato, over extortion fears

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September 9, 2020

The curtains are down at Salamanca's Tomasa Esteves market.

Five hundred stall owners at a market in Salamanca, Guanajuato, have closed their businesses out of fear they could be targeted by violent extortionists.

Vendors at the Tomasa Esteves Market in downtown Salamanca shut up shop on Monday after rumors spread that an attack was imminent.

Two butchers were shot and killed last Thursday by a group of armed men who burst into the market.

“We’re very scared,” a shoe stall owner identified only as Margarita told the newspaper El Universal.

A grocery stall owner said that he and other vendors decided to close because they heard armed criminals were planning to show up at the market again and cause trouble for anyone who was still working.

They took the decision despite a strong presence of members of the National Guard and municipal police both inside and outside the facility.

“These people [the extortionists] are very dangerous, we don’t know when they might arrive,” said another market vendor identified only as Juana. She added that no date had been set for the market stalls to reopen.

“There’s a lot of fear,” said María, who sells birria, a goat stew.

“Threats have been directed at butchers … [extortionists] speak to them by phone to demand very large amounts ranging from 100,000 to 1 million pesos [US $4,700 to $47,000]. They can’t pay them. Who’s going to have those amounts [of money]?”

In addition to the attack last Thursday which also wounded a third butcher, a fruit vendor was murdered on Friday and two dead bodies were left outside the market on Saturday, María said. She added that another butcher was abducted a month ago and was only released after his family paid a ransom.

There was another armed attack near the market Wednesday afternoon that wounded two men who are believed to be market vendors, according to the newspaper El Sol de Salamanca.

It said that armed men in a vehicle shot at their victims while they were traveling in another vehicle. The wounded men were treated by Red Cross paramedics before being transferred to hospital.

Police attended the scene of the crime and began investigations but no arrests were reported.

Source: El Universal (sp), El Sol de Salamanca (sp)

Government to spend 500 million pesos to buy aircraft raffle tickets

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September 9, 2020

President López Obrador presented the design of the raffle ticket at a press conference in January.

The federal government will spend 500 million pesos (US $23.4 million) on tickets for the “presidential plane” raffle and distribute them to public hospitals treating coronavirus patients, President López Obrador said Tuesday.

He said the government will purchase 1 million tickets using resources obtained from the seizure of organized crime assets.

At the start of the year, López Obrador floated the idea to raffle off his predecessor’s luxuriously-outfitted Boeing 787 Dreamliner that he refuses to use and is trying to sell.

The idea sparked copious chatter on social media, with people musing about what they would use the plane for should they win the raffle and wondering where they might be able to park it.

But in February the president shattered ordinary Mexicans’ dreams of owning the plane, announcing that a raffle would indeed go ahead but instead 100 winners would each receive a prize of 20 million pesos.

The combined prize pool of 2 billion pesos (US $93.6 million) is supposed to be representative of the value of the plane, although its real worth has been estimated at $130 million.

López Obrador said Tuesday that the 1 million 500-peso tickets the government will purchase will be allocated to 956 public hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. Each hospital will get about 1,000 tickets, he said.

If one of those hospitals wins one of the 20-million-peso prizes – the raffle will be drawn on September 15 – its employees will decide how to spend the money, the president said.

He said it could be used to purchase medical equipment, an ambulance, workers’ uniforms or to improve the hospital’s general facilities. “Whatever they [the workers] decide,” López Obrador said.

The president reminded citizens that they still have time to buy their own raffle ticket and thanked business people and the heads of social organizations who have already purchased an allotment.

López Obrador hosted a dinner in February at which he asked some 150 company owners, chief executives and business leaders to commit to purchasing large bundles of tickets.

Ernesto Prieto, general director of the National Lottery, which is managing the raffle, told reporters Tuesday that just over 3.8 million of 6 million tickets have been sold, generating revenue of more than 1.9 billion pesos.

The raffle prizes will also be paid using resources obtained from the confiscation of criminal organization’s assets – the government has held several narco-auctions – allowing all the raffle’s revenue to go to health care.

López Obrador said that at least 2 billion pesos in raffle revenue will be used to purchase medical equipment, adding that all money raised will stay in the health sector.

Tickets can be purchased through links at the National Lottery’s website. However, the site was unavailable on Wednesday afternoon.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Unhappy citizens apprehend mayor and put her in jail

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September 9, 2020