Environmentalists challenge limits on renewable energy firms

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May 28, 2020

Two environmental groups have initiated legal action against federal measures that seek to limit the participation of private renewable energy companies in the electricity market.

The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) and Greenpeace filed complaints against measures announced by the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) that suspended national grid trials for wind and solar projects.

Renewable energy companies are required to complete the trials before they can sell power to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

According to federal judiciary records, injunction requests filed by Cemda and Greenpeace also challenge a new energy policy published by the federal Energy Ministry (Sener) on May 15. The policy imposes restrictive measures for the renewable energy sector that could effectively prevent its expansion in Mexico and consolidate control of electrical power in the state-owned CFE.

Several private energy companies have already successfully challenged the Cenace measures, winning more than a dozen suspension orders against them, but none have yet taken legal action against the Sener policy.

Cemda and Greenpeace argue that Sener does not have the legal authority to enforce a policy related to regulations and reliability of the national electricity system. They say that the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) may have improperly delegated the responsibility to the Energy Ministry.

An administrative court judge said today that she was unable to make a ruling on the requests and referred them to a court that specializes in economic competition matters.

Earlier this week, a federal court judge granted 13 definitive suspension orders against the Cenace measures to an equal number of companies.

In his rulings, Judge Rodrigo de la Peza López Figueroa said that delaying or preventing the entry into operation of renewable energy projects would have a serious adverse effect on society. He said that the Cenace measures alter the functioning of the electricity market, pushing it more towards a monopoly than one in which there is free competition.

That could cause electricity rates to go up and make the system less efficient, de la Peza said.

As things now stand, the companies that successfully challenged the measures – among which are Kenergreen, FV Mexsolar XI y Dolores Wind – will be able to carry out pre-operational national grid trials.

However, Cenace said last week that it would challenge all of the suspension orders granted against its measures, which also include ramping up energy generation at old CFE plants using surplus fuel oil produced by Pemex in order “to improve the reliability of the electricity system” during the coronavirus crisis.

Cenace on Monday filed its first challenge against one provisional suspension order that was issued last week but a federal court said it wouldn’t consider it because it didn’t receive it before the established deadline.

The legal battles between Cenace and renewable energy companies, and between the environmental groups and the federal government more broadly, are likely to last for months.

The director of the Federal Electricity Commission has vowed to put an end to “simulation and fraud” committed by renewable energy firms at the expense of the state-owned company.

Manuel Bartlett said the CFE has filed complaints against renewable energy firms with the CRE because they don’t pay for using the state-owned company’s transmission lines and backup power and have entered into “simulated” partnerships with other private companies.

In response to his remarks, the Confederation of Industrial Chambers denied that private energy companies are getting a free ride.

The Cenace measures and Sener policy are part of President López Obrador’s broader plan to “rescue” the CFE and the state oil company, Pemex, by increasing the participation of the state in the energy sector and limiting that of private and foreign companies that were allowed in as a result of the former government’s 2014 energy reform.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Sol de México (sp), Milenio (sp)

Pianist wins scholarship to Juilliard School of Music

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Susy Buchanan

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May 28, 2020

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De la Vega: showed the highest level of master this year. — De la Vega showed the highest level of master this year.

Nuevo León pianist Eduardo de la Vega has cause for celebration after being accepted into New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music to earn his master’s degree.

“Thank God for my family, teachers and friends who supported and encouraged me to achieve this dream,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

De la Vega is the second Latin American to be accepted by the school and awarded the coveted Kovner Fellowship which provides enhanced programmatic content and full financial support for exceptional students.

Lydia Brown, chair of the Juilliard piano department, said de la Vega’s audition showed the highest level of mastery this year.

The Juilliard, founded in 1905, is highly competitive, accepting only around 7% of applicants, or about 850 students.

De la Vega, 24, who has been winning national piano competitions in Mexico since 2017, first applied to The Juilliard School five years ago but was rejected.

“The best thing that happened to me was having received that refusal because it allowed me to continue searching and doing many things,” said de La Vega, who financed his second audition trip through private music classes.

His teachers were overjoyed for his new opportunity. Tere Treviño calls him “a great student and an excellent musician. I wish you much more success.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Poll: 52% say virus situation out of control; 64% say maintain lockdown

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MND Staff

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May 28, 2020

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pedestrians with face masks — A majority of those polled said stay-at-home measures should continue.

More than half of Mexicans believe that the coronavirus situation is out of control and nearly two-thirds want lockdown measures to continue, a new poll reveals.

Conducted by the newspaper El Financiero on May 22 and 23, the poll found that 52% of 410 adult Mexicans believe that the coronavirus situation has not been controlled, as President López Obrador claimed a month ago and repeated Thursday morning.

In contrast, 44% of respondents said that the government has the situation under control.

The percentage of respondents who believe that it is out of control is up 13% compared to a poll conducted by El Financiero in mid-April while the percentage of those who think it is under control is down 12%.

In the period between the dates when the two polls were conducted, Mexico recorded almost 60,000 Covid-19 cases and more than 6,500 deaths.

Asked to offer an opinion on the government’s coronavirus mitigation measures, 64% of poll respondents said that more restrictions should be enforced and stay-at-home orders/recommendations should be extended, while 35% said that it’s time to lift restrictions and attempt to live life normally in order to limit damage to the economy.

Six in 10 poll respondents said that they mostly believe the information provided by the government about the number of coronavirus cases in Mexico while four in 10 said they don’t.

Thirty-eight percent of those polled believe that the pandemic is in a growth phase, down from 43% on May 9, while 41% think that Mexico is currently at the peak of the outbreak, 6% higher than the previous poll.

Just under one in five respondents – 18% – believe that the pandemic is on the wane.

The percentage of respondents who said that they personally know someone who has been infected with coronavirus increased to 25% in the latest poll compared to just 12% in the survey conducted two weeks earlier.

Two-thirds of those polled said that they are very worried about coronavirus, up from 60%.

Just under seven in 10 respondents said they expected new outbreaks of Covid-19 to occur once restrictions on the economy are lifted while 27% took the opposite view.

Asked to offer their opinion on how six different countries including Mexico have responded to the coronavirus crisis, poll respondents rated China most highly.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said the East Asian country has done a very good or good job in fighting the virus, while 58% said the same about Germany.

Spain responded well to the crisis, according to 46% of those polled, while 41% said that the United States has done a good job in combating Covid-19.

However, 42% said that the U.S. – the global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – has performed badly or very badly in its response to Covid-19.

Mexico rated fifth among the six countries, with 36% saying that the response has been good or very good. A third of respondents said that Mexico has done a bad or very bad job in fighting the coronavirus while 27% said that the response has been neither good nor bad.

The only country to rank below Mexico in terms of its response to the pandemic was Brazil, which has recorded the second highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world, according to statistics compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Quintana Roo launches campaign for June 8 reopening of tourism

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MND Staff

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May 28, 2020

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A graphic from Quintana Roo marketing campaign.

The tourism sector in Quintana Roo has launched a new promotional campaign to attract visitors to the Caribbean coast state once it reopens for business on June 8.

Designed by the Atelier hotel group and officially presented at a virtual event on Wednesday, the campaign is called #Come2MexicanCaribbean in English and #VenAlCaribeMexicanoX2 in Spanish.

The aim is to attract Mexican and international visitors who are eager to travel after being cooped up in the “great lockdown” to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Eleven different destinations in Quintana Roo will be promoted, with special deals and discounts on offer to lure tourists to the state’s white sand beaches and turquoise waters.

Roberto Cintrón Gómez, president of the Hotel Association of Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, said that employees will return to work next Monday to prepare hotels and resorts to receive guests starting June 8 and to get up to speed with what will be required of them in the “new normal.”

Atelier commercial director Vicente Madrigal said that the discounts and promotions on offer will revolve around the number two but he stressed that there won’t be two-for-one deals.

It’s not about “cheapening the destination,” he said. “What we’re asking is for the promotions to be related to the number two.”

Participating hotels will offer two free nights to guests paying for two or more nights, two children will be able to stay for free with two paying adults and car rental companies will offer two free days to customers already paying for at least two days’ hire.

Participating golf courses and businesses offering spa treatments will offer 20% discounts to tourists while some theme parks will in fact offer two-for-one deals on entry. Some restaurants and bars will also offer deals and discounts to visitors.

More than 150 hotels and several theme parks, tour operators, golf courses, car rental companies and restaurants, among other tourism-oriented businesses, have indicated that they will participate in the new campaign.

The destination will be more “accessible” for potential tourists, said Atelier CEO Olivier Reinhart. “Take advantage because it won’t last forever.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Virus testing ‘useless and costly:’ minister defends decision not to test widely

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MND Staff

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May 28, 2020

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A healthworker administers a coronavirus test.

The federal government is not interested in testing Mexicans en masse for Covid-19 because doing so would be “useless, impracticable and very expensive,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Wednesday.

He also said that testing all Mexicans for the infectious disease would be “a waste of time, effort and resources.”

“We’re not interested … [in testing] the 130 million people who live in Mexico,” the deputy minister said during a virtual appearance before federal senators.

López-Gatell, the federal government’s coronavirus czar, said that a false perception has developed that Mexico is the only country in the world that has not identified all coronavirus cases within its borders.

However, “nobody knows” how many cases they have in their country, he said, adding that “this should never be interpreted as a phenomenon of deliberate negligence or incompetence.”

His remarks came in response to a question posed by a ruling party senator.

“Why are you applying 0.4 tests per 1,000 inhabitants [the rate is now 1.9] when the [OECD] average is 22?” asked Morena’s Ricardo Monreal.

“That could have created a significant underreporting of infections,” he charged.

Alejandra Reynoso of the National Action Party (PAN) pursued an even more aggressive line of questioning.

“Aren’t you ashamed that we’re the country that has applied the least tests?” she asked López-Gatell. “Where does this controversial decision leave us in the [eyes of] the world?”

The deputy minister dismissed the questions, telling Reynoso that she has “scant familiarity” with the public health system.

Other PAN senators protested silently during López-Gatell’s virtual appearance by wearing face masks emblazoned with the word “tests.”

The government had already come under fire for not testing more widely for coronavirus, especially in the lead-up to the gradual reopening of the economy starting June 1.

Reopening the economy without widespread Covid-19 testing is “irresponsible” and will cause Mexico to “lose control” of the pandemic for a second time, former Health Minister Julio Frenk said last week.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is also advocating for more testing. It said in a new report that rigorous testing and tracing (TT) of Covid-19 infections “is strongly related to lower labor market disruption … [and] substantially smaller social disruptions than confinement and lockdown measures.”

In countries with strong testing and tracing, the average drop in working hours is reduced by as much as 50%, the ILO said.

“There are three reasons for this: TT reduces reliance on strict confinement measures; promotes the public confidence and so encourages consumption and supports employment; and helps minimize operational disruption at the workplace,” the organization said.

“The estimated average loss of hours for countries with the lowest intensity of testing and tracing is around 14%, compared with 7% for those with the highest intensity. This is an important factor to consider in the design of policy measures aimed at facilitating a safe return to work.”

The ILO also said that “testing and tracing can itself create new jobs, even if temporary, which can be targeted towards youth and other priority groups.”

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

Telcel service interrupted by damaged fibre optic cable

By

Cody Copeland

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May 28, 2020

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Telecommunications company Telcel announced Wednesday night that a damaged fiber optic cable caused intermittent service slowdowns and outages in various parts of Mexico during the afternoon.

The company said in a press release that it redirected the traffic through alternate servers, which put increased pressure on the rest of its network.

“Service is gradually returning to normal. Telcel offers an apology for the inconvenience its clients are experiencing because of this,” it said in the statement.

However, many customers reported problems Thursday morning as well, mostly with telephone service.

Customers in several areas of the Mexico City metropolitan area reported poor service and outages throughout the day on Wednesday, as did some in Chihuahua and Nuevo León.

The website Downdetector said millions of users were affected by the outage over the course of seven hours.

Technology experts announced at the beginning of the quarantine period that the increased number of workers switching to a home office would slow but not break the internet in Mexico, but Wednesday’s outage was the fourth such incident this month.

Telcel users had to deal with network failures on May 7, 9 and 20, as well. On those occasions, Telcel’s sister telecommunications company Telmex also had trouble providing its services.

The companies said that the outages were due to damage done to their fiber optic networks by third parties, not server overload.

As of March, Telcel had a total of 77.21 million cellular phone customers, while Temex had 9.79 million home internet clients.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Citizens go on rampage in Chiapas: ‘coronavirus doesn’t exist’

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Susy Buchanan

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May 28, 2020

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A mob went on the ramapage Wednesday night in Venustiano Carrranza, burning houses and vehicles.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, Wednesday night after rumors spread on social media that the government was trying to kill them.

Around midnight Wednesday and into the early hours of today, residents went on a rampage provoked by false reports that the municipal government was using drones to spray a deadly chemical at residents who do not believe that the coronavirus exists.

Angry mobs of citizens armed with sticks and stones looted an Elektra department store and burned down the home of Mayor Amando Trujillo Ancheyta, that of his in-laws, as well as the residence of Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón’s elderly mother, who escaped the blaze unharmed.

Streets were blocked off and vehicles belonging to medical personnel were looted and burned.

Residents were enraged by social-distancing measures and the municipal government’s crackdown on those who refused to follow sanitary guidelines as confirmed cases of the coronavirus mounted.

The message disseminated on WhatsApp and Facebook said that a community member had shot down a drone and discovered it was carrying a box of white powder, said to be Paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide.

Some residents said that the mayor was using the herbicide to kill them, decried the existence of the coronavirus and believe that a local saint, “El Señor del Pozo,” would protect them from sickness, just as he is believed to have cured a woman of leprosy in the 1690s.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mexican Caribbean first destination in Americas to receive Safe Travels stamp

By

Susy Buchanan

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May 28, 2020

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Cancún hopes to assure travelers that it's a safe destination.

As Cancún and the Mexican Caribbean prepare to reopen for tourists after suffering an estimated US $1 billion in lost revenue, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has given the destination its safety stamp of approval.

The WTTC has announced that the Mexican Caribbean will be the first destination in the Americas to receive a newly created “Safe Travels” global safety and hygiene certification, backed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and more than 200 CEOs in the tourism sector.

The region joins cities in Saudi Arabia, Portugal and Spain that have adopted globally standardized protocols recognized by the WTTC, with the hope that the certification will increase travelers’ confidence in the approved destinations.

The stamp will be offered to hotels, restaurants, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, restaurants, shops, transportation services and airports that adopt the WTTC’s guidelines.

“We have learned from past crises that global standard protocols and consistency provide confidence for the traveler. Our new global safety stamp is designed to help rebuild consumer confidence worldwide,” the WTTC said in a press release.

“We appreciate being one of the first destinations to receive this certification from [the WTTC],” Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González said. “The state authorities and tourism companies have worked as a team to guarantee the trust and safety of tourists.”

Major tourism operators are hopeful that the industry can rebound. “We see the early signs of our industry’s resiliency, but we also believe that restoring consumer confidence is the greatest accelerant to increasing traveler demand,” says TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer, who applauded the WTTC’s initiative. “Safety has always been top a priority for travelers, and the need to feel safe will only become more important in the months and years ahead.”

The WTTC safe travel protocols were developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the International Air Transport Association, the Airport Council International and the Cruise Lines International Association.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Model projects 136,000 Covid-19 deaths by September; over 2 million now infected

By

MND Staff

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May 28, 2020

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Covid-19 death projections by MIT for Mexico, the US and Canada. The figures have gone up since the chart was created earlier Thursday.

Mexico’s coronavirus death toll will soar well above 100,000 by September 1, according to a model developed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) data scientist that predicts fatalities will peak in August.

Developed by Youyang Gu using machine learning techniques in combination with the SEIR epidemiological model, the model is predicting as of Thursday morning that 136,769 people in Mexico will have lost their lives to Covid-19 by September 1.

The figure is more than 15 times the current official death toll.

In a worst case scenario, coronavirus fatalities in Mexico would total 215,212 by September 1, according to the MIT model, while in a best case scenario the death toll would reach 39,775 by that date.

The model predicts that Covid-19 deaths will peak on August 9 and 10 with 2,064 fatalities on both dates.

It also predicts that 19.44 million people – about one in six Mexicans – will have contracted the new coronavirus by September 1. In a worst case scenario, 30.3 million people will have been infected by that date.

The model estimates that 2.16 million people in Mexico have already been infected, a figure more than 27 times higher than the current official tally.

It predicts that new infections will peak between July 18 and 25 with more than 250,000 people projected to contract the coronavirus each day in the weeklong period.

The predictions make for sober reading as Mexico enters the fourth month of its Covid-19 pandemic with more than 8,000 people already having lost their lives to the disease.

The federal Health Ministry reported an additional 463 coronavirus-related fatalities on Wednesday, lifting the death toll to 8,597. The number of deaths reported was the third highest on a single day after 501 on Tuesday and 479 on Friday last week.

However, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell explained that not all the deaths reported at the nightly coronavirus press briefings occurred in the previous 24 hours. He said that the fatalities reported each night are indicative of the number of deaths that were confirmed in the previous 24 hours and consequently reported to the federal Health Ministry by state authorities.

The daily tally of Covid-19 cases and deaths. The latter is not necessarily the number of deaths that occurred each day, but the number confirmed. milenio

Given that test results may not be known until days after a suspected Covid-19 patient dies, a fatality confirmed to have been caused by the disease might not be reported by the federal Health Ministry until well after it occurred.

López-Gatell said that while the highest number of Covid-19 deaths was reported on Tuesday this week, the highest number of fatalities actually occurred on May 15. He said that 261 coronavirus patients died on that date but only 48 of the fatalities were confirmed the same day and consequently reported by the Health Ministry on May 16.

The other 213 deaths were reported on subsequent days, he said. López-Gatell said that the second and third highest number of Covid-19 deaths occurred on May 14 and 18, with 258 and 252 patients, respectively, succumbing to the disease on those dates.

Of the 463 Covid-19 fatalities reported by the Health Ministry on Wednesday night, only 62 occurred in the previous 24 hours, he said.

Given that the Health Ministry has reported more than 261 deaths – the May 15 peak – on 10 separate days, including five on which more than 400 were reported, the number of deaths reported on several other days must have been much lower than the actual number of fatalities that occurred in the previous 24 hours.

During the past two weeks, the number of Covid-19 deaths reported by the Health Ministry on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays has been significantly lower than in preceding days, seemingly indicating that there is a delay in confirming and/or reporting deaths over the weekend.

In any case, Mexico’s official death toll has risen rapidly over the past month, increasing from 1,434 on April 27 to 8,597 yesterday, a 500% increase.

More than a quarter of the total deaths – 2,313 – occurred in Mexico City, the country’s coronavirus epicenter, but several media reports based on a range of evidence including death certificates issued in the capital claim that fatalities are being drastically underreported by authorities.

López-Gatell has acknowledged that Covid-19 has killed more people than official statistics show but rejects any suggestion that the government is deliberately underreporting deaths.

In addition to the more than 8,500 people confirmed to have lost their lives to Covid-19, 727 fatalities are suspected to have been caused by the disease but have not yet been confirmed, Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía told reporters on Wednesday night.

He also reported 3,463 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest single-day increase to Mexico’s case tally since the virus was first detected in Mexico at the end of February. The figure is indicative of the positive test results reported in the preceding 24 hours, Alomía said.

A total of 78,023 people have now tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic. Alomía said that 15,592 cases – one in five of the total – are considered active, an increase of 874 compared to Tuesday.

He also said that there are 33,566 suspected cases of Covid-19 across the country.

Almost 245,000 people have now been tested for coronavirus in Mexico, a figure that equates to about 1,900 tests per one million inhabitants.

Mexico’s testing rate is about 40 times lower than Spain’s, 25 times lower than that of the United States and more than two times lower than the rate in Brazil, according to data published by the German statistics portal Statista.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

Scared citizens overload Sonora labs for coronavirus tests

By

Cody Copeland

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May 28, 2020

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Technicians conduct Covid tests at a laboratory in Hermosillo.

Panicked citizens in Sonora have responded to reports of increased cases of Covid-19 by flocking to certified private laboratories to be tested.

Laboratories in Hermosillo and other cities in the state reported that the crowds have exhausted their daily testing capacities in recent days.

Worried residents begin to line up in their cars around 7:00 a.m. and wait for laboratory staff to come to their windows and take the necessary samples.

Costs of coronavirus tests at private labs in the state currently range from 3,000 to 8,000 pesos (US $135-$360).

The laboratory overload is a response to recent reports from the federal and state Health Ministries that rates of both confirmed cases and deaths from the disease are on the rise.

The most recent data released by the Sonora Health Ministry reveal that there are 1,809 confirmed cases and 139 people have died from Covid-19 in the state.

Federal Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell announced that the transmission curve in Hermosillo is expected to peak on June 4, meaning the city will see elevated rates of cases and deaths for months afterward.

“My message is this: if we don’t reduce mobility, we’re not going to have a reduction in infections. The technical report the mathematicians shared with us shows that in the case of Hermosillo, the acme of the epidemic curve will occur on June 4 and the epidemic there will propagate until the first week of August,” said López-Gatell.

Source: El Universal (sp)