Senate approves bill that would make Mexico world’s biggest marijuana market

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November 23, 2020

Social Encounter Party Deputy Nayeli Salvatori lights up a pipe of marijuana to celebrate last week's Senate vote.

Mexico is one step closer to becoming the world’s largest legal marijuana market after the Senate passed a bill last week to legalize the recreational use of the plant.

Eighty-two senators voted in favor of the legalization of pot while just 18 voted against it. The bill now needs to be approved by the lower house of Congress to become law.

That is expected to occur before a December 15 deadline set by the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that laws forbidding the use of marijuana are unconstitutional.

Most lawmakers with the ruling Morena party, which has a majority in both houses of Congress, as well as some from opposition parties support the legalization of marijuana so the bill’s final passage is expected to be a mere formality.

With a population of almost 130 million, Mexico would become the most populous country in the world to legalize the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.

The bill passed by the Senate allows the possession of up to 28 grams by adults but they would be prohibited from smoking in front of children. People would be permitted to grow up to six plants at home and a licensing system for large-scale production and sale would be established.

One critic of the bill is the Catholic Church. The Archdiocese of Mexico said in a statement on Sunday that the lower house of Congress should modify it to “emphasize health and public safety.”

“The bill that was approved does not address the health damages that arise from an ever increasing use of marijuana, does not address the effects on families due to young people’s consumption of drugs, and does not contribute to reducing and inhibiting exposure to drugs,” the council said.

“Public health and welfare are no longer the priority,” the bishops said, charging that the bill cedes to “the tastes of individuals, even though they may damage others.”

The council also said that “the demands for irresponsible liberty for a few are placed above the common good and health.”

Although the bill received strong support in the Senate, not all pro-cannabis senators were happy about it.

Zara Snapp, marijuana activist: ‘A historic step in the right direction.’

The day before it was approved, Emilio Álvarez Icaza, an independent, and Indira Kempis Martinez of the Citizens Movement party, held a bizarre press conference to announce that they would vote against the bill.

Appearing alongside the senators at the press conference in an outdoor patio of the Senate was prominent marijuana activist José Rivera, who compared prohibition to a “subtle holocaust” over the past century and asked for forgiveness from the Jewish community.

He compared to the federal government to Nazis because the legalization bill requires licenses to be obtained in some instances and doesn’t allow smoking in public places.

A live stream of the press conference on the official Twitter account of the Senate was abruptly cut off when Rivera lit a joint.

Although his remarks were not entirely coherent, Rivera’s protest “reflected a growing dissatisfaction with the bill,” Vice News said, noting that it has been revised on numerous occasions in recent weeks and months.

Zara Snapp, a pro-marijuana activist and co-founder of the Mexican research and advocacy organization Instituto RIA, said that “Mexico has taken a historic step in the right direction” in moving to legalize recreational pot.

But she added that “we are passing a law that does not fully decriminalize the activities related to the plant before regulating it.”

Snapp said that some aspects of the bill, including limits on the number of plants people can grow at home and where they can smoke, constitute a restriction on rights.

Some advocates of legalization argue that changes to the bill were designed to make it more favorable to wealthy Mexican investors and large foreign marijuana producers interested in entering a new, large and potentially very lucrative market. According to Vice News, the advocates say there will be limited business opportunities for “humble marijuana-cultivating communities, small Mexican entrepreneurs, and local home aficionados.”

Snapp highlighted that there was a late modification to the bill which removed limits on “vertical integration.”

The bill had stipulated that businesses could only be licensed to participate in one of four parts of a legal cannabis industry – cultivation, transformation, research or commercialization. Only poor residents of communities who have long grown marijuana would be eligible for multiple licenses.

However, as a result of a last-minute modification, everyone – even big businesses – will have the opportunity to participate in multiple parts of a legal weed market.

Additional addendums could be made to the bill before the Chamber of Deputies votes on it but that would appear unlikely because a new vote would also be needed in the Senate.

Nevertheless, Snapp said that “we will continue to push for this to be a better bill until the last moment,” adding “then we will work on the implementation.”

“[We] believe that drug policy reform is one of the crucial steps towards peace building in the country,” she said. “And if we do it with a social justice focus it will have the impact that we all desire here in our country.”

Source: Vice News (en), The Associated Press (en)

Coronavirus leaves record 45% of population in poverty, up from 36% in January

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MND Staff

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November 23, 2020

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Poverty has increased to record levels this year due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Between the first quarter of the year and the third, the percentage of the working-age population considered poor increased to 44.5% from 35.7%, according to the national social development agency Coneval. It is the highest percentage since 2005 when Coneval began keeping comparable records.

People are deemed to be living in poverty if their monthly income is insufficient to purchase a canasta básica, a basic selection of foodstuffs including beans, rice, eggs, sugar and canned tuna. The monthly cost of the canasta is about 1,700 pesos (US $84) in urban areas and 1,200 pesos in rural parts of the country.

The increase in poverty is attributed to the loss of jobs, a reduction in incomes and an increase in the price of the goods that make up the canasta básica.

Over a million formal sector jobs were lost due to the pandemic, although a recovery is now underway, and millions more who work in the vast informal sector also became unemployed or saw their incomes drop or dry up completely. Wages have decreased 6.7% in real terms compared to 2019 and people’s purchasing power declined 12.3% on average between the first and third quarters of 2020.

poverty levels by state — At top, states with poverty levels over 50% as of the end of September. Below them are those at the other end of the scale. el economista

Annual inflation was 3.9% in the third quarter, 0.6% higher than in the same period of 2019. Higher prices for fruit and vegetables, which are included in the canasta básica, are partially responsible for higher inflation.

Among Mexico’s 32 states, Chiapas has the highest levels of poverty among working-age people, according to Coneval. In the third quarter of the year, 69.3% of people in the southern state earned incomes below the value of the canasta básica.

Guerrero, Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz had the next highest poverty levels at 62.6%, 60.4%, 55.1% and 55%, respectively.

Poverty has increased across the country this year but Quintana Roo, which is heavily dependent on tourism, saw the biggest spike. Just over half the residents of the Caribbean coast state – 51.5% – were living in poverty in the third quarter, a 23.1% increase compared to the first quarter.

Mexico City saw the next biggest increase, with poverty levels spiking 16.7% to 45.1%, followed by Tabasco, where the percentage of poor residents rose 15.9% to 54.8%.

Coneval also determined that income inequality has significantly increased this year. In the third quarter of last year, the average income of the richest 20% of the population was 34.3 times higher than the average wage of the poorest 20%.

In the third quarter of 2020, the average salary of the richest 20% was 146.3 times higher that that of the poorest quintile, Coneval found.

There is also a significant difference in the incomes earned by indigenous and non-indigenous Mexicans.

In the third quarter, the average income of residents in mostly non-indigenous municipalities was 4,253 pesos (US $211) per month whereas in mainly indigenous municipalities it was just 1,999 pesos (US $99).

Average incomes declined 218 pesos between the first and third quarters in mainly indigenous municipalities, while they only fell 155 pesos in non-indigenous ones.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Narco-submarine abandoned off Oaxaca coast

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Michelle Aguilar

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November 23, 2020

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The submersible vessel found off the coast of Oaxaca.

An anonymous tip led navy personnel to an abandoned makeshift submarine on the Oaxaca coast that is believed to have belonged to drug traffickers operating between South America and Mexico.

It is not known which criminal organization it belonged to and neither people nor drugs were found on the vessel, which had appeared near the town of Barra de la Cruz, located about 30 kilometers east of Huatulco.

Drug traffickers frequently use various marine routes to transport a myriad of drugs from Central and South America to destinations all over Mexico within five to 15 days. Authorities believe that in this case, traffickers were intending to transport cocaine or amphetamines on the submersible vessel.

It first became evident that cartels were building DIY submarines to transport drugs by sea in 2005. Authorities believe the submarines are built in Columbia, Ecuador or Guyana.

In December 2019, a submarine carrying over a tonne of cocaine bound for Mexico was caught off the coast of Peru with a Columbian, Ecuadorian, and a Mexican aboard. At the time, authorities said the vessel had been loaded in Ecuador near the border with Peru and that it was the first such drug-trafficking submarine ever caught in Peru.

According to the country’s anti-drug agency, the majority of Peru’s cocaine is exported via maritime routes.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Health authorities highlight decline in Covid fatality rate from 9.8 to 3

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MND Staff

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November 23, 2020

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hospital patient — About 50% of Covid hospital beds are unoccupied, the president said.

With 9.8 deaths per 100 confirmed coronavirus cases, Mexico has the highest fatality rate among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

But Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said Sunday that the fatality rate has been on the wane since July and was about 3 deaths per 100 confirmed cases in recent weeks.

He said the availability of hospital beds for coronavirus patients and the resultant capacity to provide timely medical care were factors behind the reduction in the rate.

“Always having a hospital bed available can help to reduce the death rate,” Alomía told reporters at the Health Ministry coronavirus press briefing.

At the opening of a new hospital in Texcoco, México state, earlier on Sunday, President López Obrador said that no coronavirus patient has been unable to access medical treatment or a hospital bed because the health system hasn’t been overwhelmed during the pandemic.

Mexico has led in terms of the fatality rate among countries most affected. johns hopkins university

“Of course it’s a pandemic of a terrible virus that has caused a lot of damage, a lot of pain and suffering but we’re overcoming it because the management [of the health crisis] was good, because people behaved very well,” he said.

The president said that about 50% of beds in the approximately 1,000 Covid hospitals across the country are still available despite a recent increase in infections. Mexico last week became the fourth country in the world to record 100,000 Covid-19 deaths but López Obrador said that doctors are now able to save more seriously ill patients.

“It’s a new stage now, … medical personnel have more experience [in treating Covid-19], we’re choosing the best hospitals [as designated Covid hospitals] so that patients can recover and [we can] reduce the number of deaths. That’s the main aim now,” he said.

Alomía reported 373 additional Covid-19 fatalities at the Sunday night press conference, lifting Mexico’s official death toll to 101,676. It was the first day since last Tuesday that the daily reported death toll was below 500.

Alomía also reported 9,187 new coronavirus cases, increasing the accumulated tally to 1,041,875. The daily tally was the second highest of the pandemic excluding the 28,115 cases reported on October 5 due to a change in the methodology used to determine whether a person is infected.

Mexico City leads the country for confirmed cases and deaths with 187,229 of the former and 16,870 of the latter.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio

Campeche, one of two states classified as green light “low” risk on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map, has recorded the lowest number of confirmed cases among the country’s 32 states with 6,703 as of Sunday. Baja California Sur has recorded the lowest number of Covid-19 deaths with 652.

The Health Ministry estimates that there are currently 45,445 active cases across the country. More than a quarter of the estimated cases – 12,683 – are in Mexico City, where an increase in hospitalizations of coronavirus patients triggered the implementation of slightly stricter restrictions.

Guanajuato ranks second for estimated active cases, with 3,444, followed by Nuevo León and México state, where 3,441 and 3,327 people currently have coronavirus symptoms.

Campeche has the lowest number of active cases with just 65, while Chiapas – the other green light state – has 108, according to Health Ministry estimates.

Source: Milenio (sp)

AMLO to G20 leaders: ‘Priority for the poor,’ universal access to medical care

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MND Staff

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November 23, 2020

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lopez obrador — The president at the G20 summit on the weekend.

President López Obrador advocated free and universal access to vaccines and declared that the poor must be prioritized in the government response to the coronavirus-induced economic crisis, in an address to the G20 leaders’ summit on Saturday.

López Obrador delivered a five-point speech to his fellow G20 leaders at the virtual event, saying that the dual health and economic crises precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic have caused “suffering and calamities” but also provided “important lessons.”

The first lesson learned, he said, is that “health is a fundamental human right that the state has to guarantee, putting the desire to profit to one side.”

Medical care, vaccines and medications must be free and available to all citizens, López Obrador said, noting that 179 countries supported a resolution to that effect that was put forward by Mexico at the United Nations early in the pandemic.

Secondly, “prevention is better than cure,” the president said.

For that reason it is important to promote a healthy diet, he said, recommending that people avoid foods with excessive salt, sugar, fat and chemicals.

“Those most affected by the pandemic have been patients with hypertension, diabetes and obesity,” López Obrador said. “These chronic diseases … are caused by poor diet and a lack of physical exercise and sports.”

In a sermon-like address to leaders including United States President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president said the third lesson of the pandemic is that the family should be considered “the main institution of social security.”

López Obrador advocated the avoidance of family breakdown and said that senior citizens should not be “abandoned” in nursing homes. As comfortable as they might be, “they will never be a substitute for the love offered by loved ones,” he said.

Fourthly, there should be more confidence in people’s capacity to be responsible, and freedom must be guaranteed in all circumstances.

As the pandemic continues, governments should “abandon the temptation to impose authoritarian measures” such as unreasonable lockdowns and curfews, he said, adding: “Nothing by force, all by persuasion and reason.”

poverty mexico — Focus on the poor first, AMLO tells world leaders.

Finally, governments should focus their economic recovery efforts on the poor, López Obrador said.

“The economic rescue should be done from the bottom up. Help the poor first and don’t focus government actions only on allocating public funds to companies and bankrupt financial institutions,” he said.

The president also said that private debt should not be converted into public debt, adding that governments should avoid debt altogether, especially if it is taken on for the benefit of a small number of people and to the detriment of many.

In a second G20 video address on Sunday, López Obrador proposed the elimination of external debt for poor countries in order to give them greater capacity to respond to the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

“Our proposal consists of … making a reality the commitment to remove sums of debt and debt-servicing to the poor nations of the world,” he said.

The president also urged G20 leaders to “guarantee that middle-income countries can access credit at interest rates equivalent to the current ones in developed countries.”

It was the first time that López Obrador has participated in the annual G20 summit after choosing not to travel to Japan last year because he had more pressing issues at home and didn’t want to be drawn into a “direct confrontation” between the United States and China with respect to their trade war.

He was the only G20 leader absent at last year’s summit. This year’s event was originally planned to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but was moved online due to the pandemic.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mazatlán leading tourism recovery with strong domestic visitor numbers

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MND Staff

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November 21, 2020

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Eight out of 10 tourists in Mazatlán were Mexican. — Eight out of 10 tourists in Mazatlán have been Mexican.

Mazatlán, Sinaloa, is leading Mexico’s tourism recovery thanks to an influx of visitors from other parts of the country.

The Pacific coast resort city had the highest hotel occupancy among Mexico’s main tourism destinations during the November 13-16 Revolution Day long weekend.

Figures from the federal Tourism Ministry (Sectur) showed that average hotel occupancy in Mazatlán over the long weekend was 72%. By comparison, occupancy in Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Cancún was 56.8%, 52.6% and 50.2%, respectively.

Some 225,000 people descended on the “Pearl of the Pacific” and injected 300 million pesos (US $14.9 million) into the local economy, according to municipal tourism authorities.

Mayor Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres told the newspaper El Universal that Mazatlán is more fortunate than most tourism destinations because the majority of visitors arrive by car rather than on flights.

“We had greater luck in Mazatlán because most visitors arrive via land thanks to the Matamoros-Mazatlán highway, the super highway,” he said.

Benítez said the city welcomed tourists from states including Tamaulipas, Sonora and Nayarit as well as people from other parts of Sinaloa. Municipal tourism chief Luis Terán Tirado said people also flocked to the city from Guadalajara, Jalisco.

The mayor said the pandemic’s impact on tourism hasn’t been felt as acutely in Mazatlán as other destinations.

Mexican visitors are driving the tourism recovery in the city. Since hotels reopened after closing in April, May and June due to the coronavirus pandemic, eight of 10 tourists staying in Mazatlán hotels have been Mexicans, according to Sectur.

Thanks to the support of domestic tourists, the city will be the first in Mexico to recover fully from the pandemic-induced downturn, Benítez asserted. Tourist numbers in 2021 could be even higher than in 2019, he said.

“We’re leading the tourism recovery; we’re even ahead of Acapulco, the Riviera Maya and Los Cabos,” Benítez said. “I estimate in a month or two months maximum that we’ll reach 100% air connectivity,” he added.

Statistics show that just under 64,000 domestic passengers flew into the Mazatlán airport in October, the highest level since February. Flights are also currently arriving from United States and Canadian cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas and Edmonton but international arrivals remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Other destinations that are more dependent on international tourists and haven’t recovered as strongly as Mazatlán look set to get a boost next week from American Thanksgiving travelers. Air traffic departing the United States will be significantly lower than during the Thanksgiving break in recent years but those who do travel are likely to be visiting Mexico.

An analysis by the insurance company Allianz found that Cancún, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta are, in that order, the top three international destinations for Thanksgiving tourists.

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

Unique Chiapas church keeps alive its parishioners’ pre-Hispanic traditions

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Leigh Thelmadatter

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November 21, 2020

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The community church of Chiapas's San Juan Chamula, on the main square. (Frans-Banja Mulder, CC) — The community church in San Juan Chamula, on the main square. Frans-Banja Mulder, CC

In the parish church of Chamula, Chiapas, it is always time for Mass — sort of.

I approached this church with some trepidation, despite having visited countless parishes all over Mexico. It’s famous for being “strange” and “different” and for its rule of absolutely no photographs allowed.

I was also quite annoyed with the tone of what I’d read in English about it online, focusing on almost otherworldly indigenous people in strange clothing, speaking a strange tongue, and doing incomprehensible things with eggs, Coca-Cola and live chickens

I am not a religious person per se, but I understand and appreciate how ritual has a psychological/spiritual (take your pick) importance for many people. No matter how strange a practice might seem superficially, it fulfills a human need.

Cameras tucked away, I paid for permission to enter and for a guide. Unfortunately, I had to studiously ignore a young woman posing for a selfie at the church facade. As a kind of counterbalance, my guide inside would not let me record his talk; I had to listen with my head and my heart.

Elements used in ceremonies in San Juan Chamula's unusual Catholic church. — Elements used in ceremonies in San Juan Chamula’s unusual Catholic church.

He spent a good 15 to 20 minutes telling me about the church. It was light on history, but he did begin by stating unequivocally that it was a “traditional” Catholic church, just with a different definition of traditional.

The building is much like any small-town Mexican church built in the early colonial period. Inside there are some familiar things as well — a main altarpiece on the apse, many side altars holding images of various saints and a baptismal font. These altars and the images would not be out of place in any other Mexican church. The saints are wearing local clothing, but I have seen this before, especially with images of the infant Jesus.

What strikes the eye is the lack of pews and the hundreds upon hundreds of candles burning in front of the saints, with more being lit on various parts of the floor where worshippers sat and prayed.

Because I visited during the pandemic, and because it was early in the morning, the church was quite peaceful, with few worshippers or tourists. The atmosphere was serene, and I was struck by the passion with which people prayed — and not just local indigenous people; at least two were obviously European or North American.

The church does not have a priest assigned to it. One comes from San Cristóbal on Sunday and certain festival days to officiate at Mass and to do baptisms. In fact, baptism is the only church rite of passage that the Tzotzil people here accept. There is no presentation of the child to the church at 4 years old, no quinceañera, no church marriage and no confession booth. Confession is “self-confession” with certain saints’ images that have mirrors on their chests to allow the confessor to remember that it is his confession. Marriages are called uniones libres (free unions) and happen in families’ homes.

This is a “people’s church.” They control the church; the church does not control them. They do not depend on a priest for most of their religious life, a system they fought for in order to preserve as many of their old beliefs as possible. This is no mean feat. It’s not just a matter of hiding old gods behind the masks of saints (which occurs here, too) or letting a jaguar appear (as it does in the cupola) or letting elements of animal sacrifice (or other offerings) continue.

Artwork inspired by Tzotzil religious rituals. Akio Hanafuji — Artwork inspired by Tzotzil religious rituals. (Akio Hanafuji)

The church is administered and maintained by the parishioners themselves with little input from Catholic hierarchy. Administration is shared through a mayordomo system: each person volunteers for a year of duty. It is no minor undertaking. Mayordomos don’t just clean up, they pay for the constantly-burning candles, the twice-weekly replacement of the pine needles that cover the floor, the food and any other expenses that accompany the year’s calendar of festivals, starting with Carnival. They do this all out of their own pockets.

According to my guide, Agustín Hernández de la Cruz Perez, this costs the mayordomo about 200,000 pesos (nearly US $10,000) for the year — enough money to buy a decent-sized plot of land. Despite the cost, the waiting list to serve is decades long.

Many tourism articles in English give the impression that Chamula is this isolated and backward society hostile to outsiders. But that is not the case. Canadian American Carol Karasik, a longtime Chiapas resident and writer and editor about Mayan culture, says that foreigners are welcome in the church.

“In fact, I think Chamula want foreigners to witness their ceremonies,” she says.

Anthropologist John Burstein also agrees that charging for admission indicates a certain welcoming attitude but that the situation can be complicated.

Because of the boorish nature of so many tourists, it is likely that this welcome gets tested. The prohibition on photography helps to keep some discourteousness at bay, but I cannot imagine having to have to pray while someone is walking around me and gawking.

Chamula is at a disadvantage. In other churches, tourists are prohibited from entering and taking pictures during Mass precisely because it interferes with a sacred time and space. At Chamula, the church is sacred space 24/7, with worshippers and rituals at all hours. If at some point the community decides to ban or severely restrict visitors, I certainly would not blame them.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta , was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.

Mexico made deal to arrest narco boss in exchange for Cienfuegos’ release: report

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MND Staff

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November 21, 2020

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If there was a deal made likely targets are Zambada, left, of the Sinaloa Cartel and Oseguera of the CJNG.

The federal government made a commitment to the United States to arrest a high-level cartel leader in exchange for the dismissal of drug trafficking charges against former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos, according to the news agency Reuters.

Cienfuegos, army chief during the 2012-2018 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto, returned to Mexico this week after a United States federal judge agreed to a request from the U.S. Justice Department to drop charges against him. He is now under investigation by the federal Attorney General’s Office, which has received evidence gathered by U.S. authorities.

Several sources have said that the United States government agreed to a request from Mexico for the general to be returned because the Mexican government threatened to end or limit cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The U.S. government said “sensitive and important foreign policy considerations” were behind its decision, saying they outweighed its “interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant.”

But Reuters said it was told by a senior Mexican source that the government struck a deal with U.S. Attorney General William Barr for the charges against Cienfuegos to be dropped and in exchange it committed to arrest a narco boss.

According to the source, the government privately told Barr that it would work with the United States to arrest a cartel leader involved with trafficking fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.

“Mexico committed to collaborate with the United States in the capture of a primary objective,” said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity and declined to name the cartel leader out of fear that doing so would place the investigation at risk.

The source said the idea to drop the charges against Cienfuegos and make a deal to cooperate on the capture of a cartel capo came from Barr, not the Mexican government.

The latter hasn’t revealed exactly how the plan to bring the former defense minister home came about but President López Obrador said Wednesday that it had not committed to giving anything to the U.S. in exchange for the dismissal of the charges.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said this week that he spoke to Barr on the phone in October and again on November 6. Barr proposed to drop the charges against Cienfuegos and cooperate on the capture of a cartel leader during the second call, the Reuters source said.

A spokesman for Ebrard told Reuters that he didn’t have any information about such an agreement. Daniel Millan said that what the two counties did agree was to “maintain a united front against crime and cooperation that respects the sovereignty of each country.”

salvador cienfuegos — Cienfuegos: traded for a high-level narco leader?

Reuters noted that a spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department said there was no deal involving a commitment to catch a cartel leader. She referred the news agency to statements that said the case against Cienfuegos was dropped due to diplomatic considerations and the United States’ confidence in the Mexican justice system.

Reuters said the DEA didn’t immediately respond to its request for comment about an agreement to pursue a high-level cartel leader.

If a deal does exist, the most likely target would either be Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes or Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

According to the DEA, those two cartels are “likely the primary trafficking groups responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the United States.”

Both Oseguera and Zambada are on the DEA’s most wanted fugitives list and a US $10-million reward is on offer for information that leads to the capture of the former.

A DEA agent in charge of capturing Oseguera said last year that he had retreated to remote areas controlled by the CJNG.

“He hides in the mountainous areas of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima. We think he’s not in the cities anymore,” Kyle Mori said.

There were also reports last year that El Mencho was preparing to return to his home town in the Michoacán municipality of Aguililla.

Zambada, a 72-year-old drug lord at the helm of the cartel once led by notorious kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is most likely living in remote mountain areas of Sinaloa. During more than half a century in the drug trade, he has never been arrested.

Source: Reuters (en)

Virus numbers will remain high till March; Chiapas goes green on stoplight map

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MND Staff

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November 21, 2020

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coronavirus stoplight map — The new stoplight map shows two states at maximum risk, 14 at high, 14 at medium and two at low.

Mexico will see high coronavirus case numbers until March, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell predicted Friday as the country recorded its highest daily case tally in over a week.

“In October what we predicted in March happened: [we said] that all northern hemisphere countries would have an upturn [in coronavirus cases in the colder months]. … It’s therefore predictable that we’ll have a new epidemic cycle until March 2021 during which our fundamental objective will be to continue to reduce deaths,” he said.

Mexico recorded almost 182,000 new coronavirus cases in October, the second highest monthly figure since the start of the pandemic. In November, the average daily number of cases reported in the first 20 days declined 14% to 5,050 compared to 5,853 in October, but the daily tally spiked to 6,426 on Friday, the highest number since Wednesday last week.

Speaking at the virtual forum “Experiences and Challenges in the Management of Covid-19 in Mexico and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,” López-Gatell said the federal government will face various challenges in the near future to mitigate the spread of the virus.

However, he once again ruled out any possibility of the government using coercive measures to ensure compliance with coronavirus restrictions.

“Our principles of public ethics as well as our convictions with respect to how the country’s public life should be managed are based on strict respect for human rights,” the deputy minister said.

Mexico at no time enforced a strict lockdown and President López Obrador and López-Gatell late last month ruled out any possibility that the federal government will mandate the use of face masks.

López-Gatell said Friday that the course of the pandemic – Mexico has recorded more than 1 million coronavirus cases and over 100,000 Covid-19 deaths – would have been different if half the population didn’t live in poverty, a situation which made it impossible for millions of people to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus.

He also noted that Mexico has high levels of health problems such as obesity, diabetes and certain kinds of cancer, which make many people more vulnerable to serious Covid-19 illnesses and death. In addition, the deputy minister said that the medical response to the pandemic has been challenging because the government inherited a run-down health system with a shortage of personnel.

Later on Friday, the Health Ministry announced at its regular coronavirus press conference that Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally had increased to 1,025,969, the 11th highest total in the world.

The official Covid-19 death toll rose to 100,823 with 719 additional fatalities registered. The daily death toll was the highest since September 1.

Health promotion chief Ricardo Cortés presented an updated coronavirus stoplight map, on which the most notable change was that Chiapas will become Mexico’s second green light “low” risk state as of Monday.

The southern state, estimated to have just 108 active cases, will be the second state to achieve green light status after Campeche, which switched to that color in late September and has seen no change to its risk level since.

Chihuahua and Durango will maintain their red light “maximum” risk status for a further two weeks, while six states – Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Querétaro and Mexico City – are at high risk of switching to that color from their current orange light “high” risk status, Cortés said.

Eight other states will retain their orange light status for a further two weeks. They are Baja California, Sonora, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state, Guerrero, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí.

As of Monday there will be 14 yellow light “medium” risk states. They are Nayarit, Michoacán, Quintana Roo, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Sinaloa, Baja California Sur, Yucatán and Colima.

The first 10 states listed are already yellow and will remain at that level for another two weeks, while the last four will switch to yellow from orange on Monday.

Each stoplight color is accompanied by recommended restrictions to slow the spread of the virus but some states have chosen to follow their own guidelines rather than those drawn up by federal authorities.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Dry law, more restrictions on business hours announced in Mexico City

By

MND Staff

-

November 20, 2020

0

Alcohol sales will be banned in 8 boroughs this weekend.

Mexico City will remain orange light “high” risk on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight system next week but some new restrictions will apply due to a further rise in hospitalizations.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that a prohibition on alcohol sales will take effect in eight of the capital’s 16 boroughs at 6:00 p.m. Friday and remain in place until 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The so-called ley seca, or dry law, will apply in Gustavo A. Madero, Iztacalco, Iztapalapa, Magdalena Contreras, Miguel Hidalgo, Tlalpan, Tláhuac and Xochimilco this weekend.

“It’s eight boroughs one weekend and the other eight boroughs next weekend,” Sheinbaum said.

Restaurants are permitted to sell alcohol with meals but only until 7:00 p.m. The mayor reiterated that restaurants are only permitted to operate at 30% capacity in indoor dining areas and 40% outdoors. They must close by 10:00 p.m.

Gyms, sports clubs, 10-pin bowling centers, cinemas, theaters, museums, casinos, hair salons, theme parks, shopping centers, department stores and most other nonessential businesses must close at 7:00 p.m.

Such businesses had been permitted to remain open until 10:00 p.m. but the government ordered them to shorten their opening hours until the end of the month.

Sheinbaum said last Friday that bars and cantinas, which were allowed to reopen in August as long as they offered food and table service to customers, would have to close for two weeks starting last Monday. But many in the historic center of the capital have continued to operate.

Sheinbaum said earlier this week that parties, family gatherings and the operation of bars were probably the main cause of higher coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations.

She said Friday that there were 3,427 coronavirus patients in hospitals in the capital including more than 800 on ventilators. In the Valley of México metropolitan area, there were 4,519 Covid patients in the hospital, Sheinbaum said.

The hospital occupancy level in Mexico City hospitals increased from 42% to 49% between November 12 and 19, the mayor said, adding that as many as 200 new coronavirus patients per day were admitted over the past week.

“If this trend continues until the end of December we’ll have the same hospital occupancy as [the peak in] May,” Sheinbaum said.

As of Thursday, Mexico City had recorded 183,253 confirmed coronavirus cases and 16,677 Covid-19 deaths. Those figures account for 18% and 17%, respectively, of Mexico’s accumulated case tally, which is currently just above 1 million, and death toll, which passed 100,000 on Thursday.

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