OECD lowers its 2020 Mexico growth forecast to -10.2% from June’s -7.5%

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September 15, 2020

The presidential plane, a Boeing Dreamliner, is still up for sale.

One of the more surreal episodes of President López Obrador’s 21-month-old government is coming to a close. The draw in the raffle for the presidential plane, in which the aircraft is not in fact the prize, began at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and was expected to take a few hours to complete.

The president announced Monday that enough tickets had been sold to cover the 2-billion-peso (US $95 million) prize pool, made up of 100 prizes of 20 million pesos (US $950,000) each.

“We met the goal to obtain [the money for] the prizes, that’s resolved so the raffle will take place [Tuesday] ” López Obrador said.

In fact, the money raised from the sale of the raffle tickets was never intended to be used to pay out the combined prize pool, which is supposed to be representative of the value of the plane, although its real worth has been estimated at $130 million.

The funds for the prizes were actually transferred to the grandiloquently named Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People by the federal Attorney General’s Office in February. The money was obtained via a successful lawsuit against a company found guilty of defrauding the previous federal government.

Indeed, López Obrador, after telling reporters that the funds needed to pay the prizes had been raised, contradicted himself by saying that all of the raffle revenue would be used to purchase medical equipment.

“Everything we’re getting from the sale of tickets is to purchase health equipment, equipment for hospitals. … Next week, we’ll present a report about the money obtained, and all that money will be [used] to buy medical equipment,” he said.

The president said the government will buy the equipment via a tendering process and that a small plaque will be placed on each purchase that reads: “Resources obtained from the presidential plane raffle. Contribution of the people 2020.”

López Obrador first floated the idea to raffle off his predecessor’s luxuriously-outfitted Boeing 787 Dreamliner in January.

He had described the jet, which was actually purchased by the government of former president Felipe Calderón but not delivered until after his term ended, as an “insult to the people” and an “example of the excesses” of his predecessors. A year ago he presented infographics that showed that the government of ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto had spent more than 1 million pesos for supplies for a single flight on Mexico’s equivalent of the United States’ Air Force One.

The president pledged repeatedly that he would never step foot on it.

Shortly after he took office in late 2018, López Obrador put the plane up for sale but with the market for opulent, expensive aircraft undoubtedly small, it failed to sell.

As a result, AMLO, as the president is best known, came up with the idea of offloading it via a raffle but in February shattered ordinary Mexicans’ dreams of owning the plane, announcing that a lucky draw would indeed go ahead but that cash prizes rather than the jet itself would be up for grabs.

That decision came after the idea that an ordinary person could become the owner of a $130-million plane – and have the means to pay for its hangaring and operational expenses – was widely ridiculed on social media.

The president’s raffle plan became something of a national joke, with social media users musing about what they would use the plane for should they win it and wondering where they might be able to park it.

Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C., told The New York Times that López Obrador’s efforts to keep his promise to get rid of the plane became more elaborate, expensive and just “too weird” over time.

“If this was an episode of Black Mirror, it wouldn’t make it to the screen,” he said.

Black Mirror is a dystopian television series that explores a wide range of weird and wonderful premises.

Apparently undeterred by the criticism his raffle idea faced, and it becoming the brunt of countless jokes and memes, López Obrador forged ahead with his plan and turned his focus to the most important job in any raffle: selling tickets.

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

The president has also repeatedly urged citizens to buy tickets for the draw and even broke his promise never to enter the plane when he stepped aboard last month to record a video designed to boost slow sales.

But despite his best efforts to get Mexico’s business elite as well as ordinary citizens to buy the raffle tickets at 500 pesos (about US $24) a pop, millions remained unsold, prompting López Obrador to announce last week that the government would spend 500 million pesos (US $23.7 million) on 1 million cachitos, as the lottery tickets are known in Mexican Spanish.

Still, as of Monday, 30% of 6 million tickets – 1.8 million in total – hadn’t been sold, the newspaper Reforma reported. Members of the general public have only purchased just over 1 million tickets since they went on sale in February, it said.

Reforma also pointed out that none of the revenue raised by the raffle will be used to offset the costs that the unsold plane, which returned to Mexico from a hangar at the Southern California Logistics Airport in July, continues to generate.

“Not a single peso from the raffle will be used to pay for the purchase, maintenance and storage of the presidential plane, which is [still] stranded without a solid purchase offer 21 months after it was put on the market,” the newspaper said.

Critics say that the entire raffle spectacle is part of efforts to divert attention at a time when Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll continues to mount – it currently stands at more than 71,000 – and the economy is facing its worst crisis since the Great Depression. López Obrador’s brother is also embroiled in a possible corruption scandal, which is not a good look for a president who has pledged to eliminate the scourge and is looking to lead the ruling Morena party to success at federal midterm and state gubernatorial elections in 2021.

Carlos Elizondo, a government professor at the Tec de Monterrey university, told The New York Times that part of the motivation for the raffle was to “keep alive the idea of the abusive political class of the past” and portray the current administration as “the austere ones.”

But “along the way,” he added, “he’s gotten entangled in an increasingly ridiculous exit strategy.”

Paula Ordorica, a columnist for the El Universal newspaper and a television host, told the Times that the plane is a “symbol” that the president is “not willing to let go.”

“The two rallying cries of this president are the fight against corruption, and austerity, and the plane allows him to address both,” she said.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico edges out Brazil as chief supplier of orange juice to US

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September 15, 2020

More than half of Mexico's orange harvest comes from Veracruz.

Mexico has once again surpassed Brazil as the major supplier of orange juice to the United States.

Although the dollar amount of orange juice shipped to the U.S. between January and June is half as much as it was last year, Mexico exported US $142 million of juice in the first six months of 2020, considerably more than Brazil’s US $91 million.

Mexico exported $333 million worth of juice last year, beating Brazil by $3 million.

A recent study by CitrusBR, an organization representing the three largest Brazilian exporters of orange juice, showed that sales from Mexico to the United States have skyrocketed since 2008, when U.S. customs eliminated tariffs on imports of concentrated and frozen orange juice from Mexico as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In contrast, U.S. imports of orange juice from Brazil pay a tariff of US $415.86 per ton.

In 1993, when the U.S. tax on juice from all sources was still US $490.02, Brazil exported 144,500 tons of concentrated and frozen orange juice to the United States. That volume has dropped to just 71,100 tons in 2019. According to CitrusBR, Mexico’s exports of concentrated and frozen orange juice went from 9,800 to 74,700 tons in the same period.

“With a good quality product, similar to that produced in Florida, and land freight around 50% cheaper than Brazilian maritime logistics, the Mexican product continues to gain [ground],” Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported in reference to the CitrusBR study.

The United States Department of Agriculture forecasts that Mexico’s exports for the 2019-2020 season will total 104,850 tons, as drought has decimated the orange production affecting the supplies available for processing.

The vast majority of concentrated and frozen orange juice production in Mexico is destined for export to the United States. There is some small trade with Europe, depending on prices. Likewise, Mexico imports a small amount of orange juice for supermarkets or small processors that have their own juice brands.

Mexico has 342,885 hectares of orange orchards, 55% of which are located in Veracruz. Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Sonora also produce oranges.

This year the heat and drought are expected to drop Mexico’s orange production per hectare by 34%. Most of Mexico’s orange trees are older, and therefore harder hit by the drought than other fruits.

Orange varieties grown in Mexico include Valencia, Lane Late Navel, and Navelina. Valencia oranges ripen in December and are the most widely produced variety in Mexico for juice.

Orange is the main citrus fruit consumed in Mexico, with per capita consumption of 37.4 kilograms. Mexicans mainly use oranges for fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Passenger numbers slowly rising at Mexico City airport

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September 15, 2020

Airport passenger numbers since February. el economista

Passenger numbers at the Mexico City airport are slowly recovering after plunging more than 90% during Mexico’s coronavirus lockdown period, but still remain well below 2019 levels.

A total of 1.34 million national and international passengers passed through the Benito Juárez International Airport in August, according to its operators.

It was the third consecutive month that passenger numbers rose but they were still 70% below the level recorded in August 2019.

In February, some 3.82 million passengers used the Mexico City airport, a 9% increase compared to the same month last year but numbers dropped to 2.67 million in March, a 35% annual reduction.

In April, the first full month of the national social distancing initiative, only 300,000 passengers used the airport, a 93% decline compared to the same month last year. Numbers fell to 280,000 in May, a 94% year-over-year drop.

Passenger numbers rose to 560,000 in June, the month in which federally-mandated coronavirus restrictions were replaced by rules that applied on a state by state basis, and just exceeded 1 million in July. But despite the growth those figures represented annual declines of 87% and 78%, respectively.

Passenger numbers in August rose about 30% compared to July, giving airlines and other businesses that depend on travelers cause for muted celebration.

Mexico City airport operators said the busiest day last month was August 21 when 49,795 travelers passed through the facility. More than 80% of people who used the airport last month were domestic travelers.

Aeroméxico, the national flag carrier, increased flights between Mexico City and the cities of Cancún, Mérida, Durango, Los Mochis, Chihuahua and Culiacán in August. It also reopened the route between the Mexican capital and Quito, Ecuador, as well as those to the U.S. cities of Las Vegas, Denver and San Francisco.

In addition, Aeroméxico increased the frequency of flights to Miami, Paris and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

But no matter how many extra flights are added in the final months of the year and how many passengers resume air travel, 2020 is certain to go down as a year the airline industry and airport operators would prefer to forget.

In the first eight months, a total of just over 14.2 million passengers passed through the Mexico City airport, a 57.4% decrease compared to the same period of 2019.

Source: El Economista (sp)

AMLO sends proposal to Senate for national vote on prosecuting ex-presidents

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September 15, 2020

amlo — Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, left, and federal legal counsel Julio Scherer applaud the document that was sent to the Senate.

President López Obrador sent a request to the Senate Tuesday to approve a national consultation in which citizens would be asked whether the five most recent former presidents should face justice for crimes they allegedly committed while in office.

“Our decision is to submit a document to the Senate [proposing] the carrying out of a consultation of the people of Mexico about the possible prosecution … of the ex-presidents of Mexico from 1988,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

López Obrador said that any prosecution of past presidents would proceed only after a proper investigation was carried out within the framework of the law and with respect to due process.

His decision to submit a formal request for a vote on whether past presidents should face justice means that the ruling Morena party’s efforts to collect signatures of support were essentially pointless.

According to the constitution, a consultation can be approved by the Congress if it receives a request for one from the president, 33% of the members of the lower or upper house or at least 2% of citizens who are enrolled to vote.

Ex-presidents Salinas, Zedillo, Fox, Calderón and Peña Nieto.

Morena launched a campaign earlier this month to collect 2 million signatures in support of a consultation. Party president Alfonso Ramírez said the aim was to collect that number of signatures — only 1.8 million were needed — to ensure that there were no excuses for a consultation not to go ahead.

Members of Congress and the president himself predicted that the effort to collect the signatures required would fail but López Obrador said today he had been informed that the 2 million mark had been reached.

Nevertheless, he said he decided to present his own request in order to ensure that a consultation proposal is put before the Congress.

“I believed that it was important to present this document as well to have more certainty about the request for a consultation of all citizens,” López Obrador said.

While supportive of a consultation – the president likes to portray himself as a champion of “participatory democracy” – AMLO, as the president is widely known, has said that he won’t vote in favor of prosecuting his predecessors because he prefers looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past.

However, López Obrador is prone to abandon that stated mindset, frequently railing against his recent predecessors and blaming them for all manner of problems that plague the country including insecurity, inequality, impunity and corruption.

Despite his formal backing for a vote, there is no guarantee that one will be go ahead, according to Marco Pérez, a law professor at the La Salle University in Mexico City.

In an interview with Forbes México, Pérez described the plan to hold a consultation as “cheap politicking” and “totally unviable.”

He said the constitution establishes that human rights and mechanisms designed to protect those rights cannot be subjected to consultation. “It’s clear that due process is a human right” and it would be violated by a vote because ex-presidents would be “prejudged” for alleged crimes they may not have committed, he said.

If a consultation is given the green light, Pérez said, the Supreme Court would have to review the wording of the question posed to citizens to ensure that it was not biased and didn’t violate the ex-presidents’ rights.

The academic also said that authorities have an obligation to advise the federal Attorney General’s Office if they have proof that a current or former official has committed a crime. No consultation is needed, Pérez said.

Felipe Calderón, who along with Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and Enrique Peña Nieto could be investigated should a majority of citizens support the initiative, said much the same.

felipe calderon — Calderón: if president has no proof, ‘he should stop harassing me.’

“López Obrador is confusing the [Mexican] republic with a Roman Circus: instead of going to the Attorney General’s Office [FGR] with proof, he’s asking the masses if innocent people [should] be convicted or forgiven by giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. [It’s] a regression of thousands of years in terms of justice,” he wrote on Twitter.

“If he has well-founded proof against me, he should go to the attorney general today and present it without the need for a consultation. But if he doesn’t have proof or specific accusations, … he should stop harassing me and respect my rights like any other citizen,” Calderón said.

The former president, who defeated López Obrador at the 2006 election and has long had a testy relationship with him, accused the current president of political persecution and abuse of power.

Calderón also said that AMLO’s proposal to hold a consultation violates the “fundamental guarantees” of “presumption of innocence, due legal process, justice via an independent court, exclusive investigation by the [attorney general], protection of life, honor and dignity.”

Source: El Universal (sp), Forbes México (sp), Reforma (sp)

Families of lost miners sign accord for ‘immediate’ start to recovery of bodies

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September 15, 2020

A monument to the miners was erected in Mexico City in 2018.

The government will proceed immediately with the US $75-million recovery of the bodies of 63 miners who perished in a coal mine collapse in Coahuila in 2006.

It will also pay compensation of 3.7 million pesos (US $170,000) to the victims’ families before the end of the year year and place a monument to the victims at the accident site. Excavations are set to begin in January.

The decision came Monday after President López Obrador met for a second time with the miner’s families. An initial meeting was held in late August when the government presented the offer of compensation and the placing of a monument dedicated to the memory of the lost miners. A decision whether to undergo the costly recovery process was left in their hands.

After yesterday’s three-hour meeting, Alejandro Encinas, deputy minister of human rights, announced that the recovery will proceed and that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will manage the operation.

It will also extract coal from the Pasta de Conchos mine during the excavation to help finance the recovery effort.

“The parties agree to immediately begin the rescue process through the Federal Electricity Commission. The families present give their consent for the CFE, once the rescue is completed, to extract the coal [to pay the cost],” the agreement between reads.

López Obrador is making good on a promise he made in 2019 to exhume the bodies of the miners, whose relatives have pleaded with the government since 2006 that the effort be made.

For years mine owner Grupo México has insisted that conditions are too dangerous to make the attempt.

However, family members suspect that the company did not want to conduct the search because poor and dangerous working conditions would be revealed, a suspicion supported by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Grupo México promised to hand over the title to the mine, located in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila, to the federal government in February at President López Obrador’s request. The president will visit the site on October 23 to supervise compliance with yesterday’s agreement.

“Grupo México expresses its wish that the efforts undertaken by the government are successful and translate into peace for the families,” the company said in a statement.

For those who lost a loved one in the blast, some closure is now in sight. “The rescue is going forward! Because it is our right to rescue the mortal remains of our relatives. Truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-repetition,” a group representing families of the miners posted to their Facebook page yesterday after the agreement was reached.

Source: El Universal (sp)

#LadySidewalk: woman walks across wet concrete to make a protest

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September 15, 2020

#LadySidewalk makes a statement in Villahermosa.

#LadyBanqueta, or #LadySidewalk in English, is the newest member of Mexico’s hashtag nobility.

The government of Villahermosa, Tabasco, has filed a lawsuit against a woman who they say deliberately walked on a freshly-poured concrete sidewalk, ignoring the shouts of workers as she left her footprints in the wet concrete.

Dumbfounded workers filmed the woman on their cell phones as she did so.

In an interview, Mayor Evaristo Hernández Cruz explained that the woman was upset because a step had not been placed in front of her business, whose floor was left somewhat high with the sidewalk upgrade.

“Some citizens do not want progress, they do not want the development of their area, and they do this type of thing,” he said. “It’s not right that someone wastes the resources that we have,” he added, saying her attitude was more harmful than the actual loss of workers’ time.

The woman leaves her footprints in the newly-poured concrete. — The woman made at least two passes over the newly-poured concrete.

The term “Lady” is not a reference to royalty in Mexico, but rather an ironic designation earned by women of a certain class who choose to humiliate others in spectacular ways.

The woman joins the ranks of those shamed on social media when caught behaving outrageously, including last month’s #Lady3Pesos who was fired from her job at a real estate firm after she was filmed berating a Walmart security guard last month in the borough of Azcapotzalco in Mexico City.

That woman earned her nickname after she launched into an expletive-laden classist tirade against security personnel who refused to let her enter the store with her child, a policy clearly stated at the entrance of the store in order to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

She later apologized.

Last week an Argentinian woman who objected to the pruning of a tree in Mexico City was christened #LadyArgentina after she berated a woman filming her objections using racist insults. “You’re an Indian,” she proclaimed. “Do you know who you are? You are an Indian,” adding “film me, horrible Indian.”

Her words not only earned her disdain on social media but also the attention of immigration officials who, upon learning she had left the country, announced she would be barred from returning.

The woman, a tango instructor, offered a written apology, saying her words were unfortunate but taken out of context. “First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for calling the lady what I called her, and to all those who have been offended by my comment,” she wrote.

In June, #LadyPizza was born after a video surfaced of a woman attacking and threatening workers with a lengthy barrage of expletives at a Little Caesars pizzeria in Naucalpan, state of México, who did not want to serve her as she refused to wear a face mask.

The term “Lady” is believed to have first surfaced in Mexico in 2011 when a woman caught screaming insults at a police officer in Polanco was dubbed #LadyPolanco.

#Lord is another common hashtag, bestowed on men for similar behavior.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Nationwide the cry of independence has been hushed by coronavirus

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September 15, 2020

Last year's grito in the zócalo in Mexico City. This year will look rather different.

Mexico’s “new normal” due to the coronavirus pandemic means a rather somber 210th celebration of the country’s declaration of independence from Spain.

Whereas in other years parties, mariachis, parades, streets flooded with people and food vendors that accompany the “cry of independence” were de rigueur, this year health measures mean the celebrations have been mostly canceled.

Many state governments are opting for a virtual commemoration of independence or a simple ceremony that will be broadcast on local television and social media networks Tuesday evening.

In Michoacán, the entire ceremony has been canceled by Governor Silvano Aureoles, who has tested positive for coronavirus, and no alcohol will be sold on Tuesday.

Veracruz is also under a dry law for the occasion, effective Monday and Tuesday. In Aguascalientes, a statewide dry law has been decreed from September 13 to 20 in order to discourage large public and private events.

In Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, where priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla delivered the speech that started the independence movement in 1810, a solemn ceremony will be held in which Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez will ring the bell of the Parish of Nuestra Señora de Dolores.

Restaurants and entertainment centers in Cuernavaca, Morelos, must close tonight at 11 p.m., and operations will be carried out to prevent private gatherings.

In Culiacán, Sinaloa, only 500 people will be allowed to gather in front of city hall for the cry of independence ceremony. Normally some 20,000 people crowd together for the event.

Around 80 specially-lit drones are being used in Hidalgo’s celebrations, and residents are invited to celebrate and view the show from their balconies and rooftops.

Doctors and nurses who have been working in the fight against the coronavirus will be the only guests invited to Jalisco’s official ceremony, which residents can view on television.

Veracruz, Sonora, Baja California Sur, Tabasco, Durango, Colima and Nayarit have all planned virtual ceremonies.

Zacatecas will launch fireworks from the top of La Bufa hill, while in the city of Puebla eco-friendly pyrotechnics have been announced.

A torch will be lit tonight in Mexico City’s zócalo, symbolizing hope, and a map of Mexico will also be laid out using LED lights.

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico, large conglomerations of people must be avoided, officials say.

“I recommend that the public stay at home. National holidays can be celebrated from home. The Cry of Independence will be without people in the zócalo.” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said. “The epidemic has not ended, we entrust you to follow general precautionary measures. Do not forget about handwashing, healthy distancing and the proper use of a mask.”

The president expressed a similar sentiment and asked that people celebrate from home.

“I invite everyone to celebrate our national independence … there will be music and fireworks, it is going to be an interesting night,” President López Obrador said Tuesday morning. “We are suffering from the pandemic, we are going to remember that, too. Remember the deceased, hug their relatives, always keep them in our hearts but at the same time we must lift our spirits because of the greatness of Mexico.”

As of Monday, there have been 671,716 accumulated cases of the coronavirus and 71,049 deaths, placing Mexico in seventh place worldwide for the number of cases, and in fourth place for the number of fatalities.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Protesters continue to occupy human rights office; director says she’s a victim too

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September 15, 2020

Monday's 'anti-grita' at Human Rights Commission headquarters.

Feminist activists who continue to occupy the Mexico City headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) after seizing the premises earlier this month held a boisterous event on Monday at which they burned a piñata of President López Obrador.

The so-called antigrita or anti-cry event was held outside the CNDH headquarters a day before Independence Day celebrations kick off with the commemorative Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores), a reenactment of the original shout for independence by Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo in 1810.

“The country does not represent us,” women shouted late Monday night after denouncing gender violence and calling for justice with their anti-cry.

The event, which also featured live music, dancing and cultural activities, came 10 days after the CNDH headquarters in the historic center of Mexico City was taken over by a feminist collective and turned into a shelter for victims of gender-based violence.

According to the newspaper La Jornada, about 300 women attended Monday’s event, which began in the late afternoon and concluded after the antigrita at 11:00 p.m.

“We’re bad, we can be worse, … whoever doesn’t like it can get screwed,” the activists chanted.

Photographs published on social media and news websites showed a stocky piñata of López Obrador with a bulbous head being burned as hundreds of activists looked on and cheered. A painting of Miguel Hidalgo that was removed from the CNDH premises was also destroyed.

“This is a fucking painting, it’s not worth more than a life,” said Bertha Nava, whose son was one of 43 students who was abducted and presumably killed in Guerrero in September 2014. Nava claimed last week that the president appeared more concerned about damage to the painting than the cause for which the women were protesting.

Other family members of people who have disappeared in Guerrero were also in attendance at Monday’s event.

“We’re fed up, tired of the government and the authorities mocking our pain. My father disappeared two years ago, they don’t understand our pain,” a woman identified only as Flavia told the newspaper El Universal.

Prior to the event, the CNDH issued a statement that said that it has sought dialogue with the activists with a view to retaking possession of its premises.

The rights commission offered to issue a recommendation that the activists not be prosecuted for their actions and said it was prepared to allow them to use another building as a base to carry out their activities in defense of women’s rights and against gender violence.

Meanwhile, CNDH president Rosario Piedra said Monday that she was also a victim, explaining that she suffered human rights violations that were never resolved, referring to abuse against family members in the 1970s.

Piedra, who is currently facing calls for her to resign from feminist activists, some federal lawmakers and others, said the CNDH is facing “a formidable media campaign of smear and lies.”

Speaking during a virtual meeting with members of the Chamber of Deputies’ human rights committee, the rights chief said that the CNDH today is managed with “complete honesty and transparency.”

“They’ve tried to disseminate scandalous and slanderous … [information about the CNDH] but in the end the truth will come out and what will be left are the results,” Piedra said.

She rejected claims that she and other CNDH employees were served gourmet meals at the headquarters now occupied by the activists. Meat found at the premises that was denounced on social media as “cortes finos” or fine cuts was nothing of the sort, Piedra said.

“The menu was like that in any middle-class home: pasta soup, rice, beans, stews, agua fresca [water flavored with fruit], no gourmet food. [The meat] presented as ‘fine cuts’ was beefsteak, pork and beef shank. What I ate was exactly the same as what the cleaning and security staff ate,” she said.

Addressing criticism that she is too close to López Obrador and unduly influenced by him, Piedra responded:

“I exercise my powers fully as head of the commission, removed from pressure and influence other than those of the victims [of human rights violations]. I have done that and I will do that … with a multidisciplinary team in which each person fulfills his or her role and responsibility without overstepping the mark nor subjugating others to ensure teamwork that is efficient and empathetic with the victims. The autonomy of the commission is guaranteed.”

Piedra was appointed human rights chief last November amid claims that she would be a puppet of the federal government. Upon being sworn in she immediately courted more controversy by indicating that she was unaware that any journalists had been killed since López Obrador took office in December 2018 when in fact at least 13 had been murdered.

Source: El Universal (sp), La Jornada (sp)

Billions of dollars in freight tied up by Chihuahua farmers’ water protest

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September 15, 2020