An illustration of the 'bomb' attached to the bank official's waist. excélsior
A “belt bomb” enabled thieves to help themselves to 14 million pesos (US $647,000) from a BBVA branch in Mexico City on Friday.
The bank said Tuesday that the theft was carried out with the use of a belt of fake explosives that a bank official was forced to wear to ensure her cooperation.
The official, a teller manager identified as Karina S., 36, was intercepted and kidnapped by the thieves while driving to work at a branch in the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero on Friday morning.
They forced the belt onto her and gave her a cell phone, with which they threatened her life and the safety of her family via video calls in order to compel her carry out the robbery.
The teller manager was ordered to continue driving to work, where she enlisted the help of another employee to remove cash from the vault and bank machines. Following the thieves’ instructions, she then delivered the money to a location in Ecatepec, México state, where she was told to abandon her vehicle.
The woman subsequently removed the “bomb” without incident and contacted the bank to report the theft.
According to Mexico City investigators, the thieves had studied her movements to and from work for weeks in order to plan their attack.
Police said the bomb was a “poorly made” device that employed four fireworks rockets but did not clarify whether it could have been detonated remotely.
Over 20,000 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 since the outbreak began.
Mexico’s coronavirus epidemic is “at its maximum level of intensity,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Tuesday as the biggest single-day increase in case numbers pushed the country’s cumulative tally toward 100,000.
“The Covid-19 epidemic isn’t over, it’s continuing. In fact someone said that it’s at its maximum level of intensity. That was me,” he told reporters at the nightly coronavirus press briefing.
His remarks came after Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that Mexico’s cumulative case tally had increased to 97,326 with 3,891 new cases registered on Tuesday.
Alomía said that 16,940 cases are considered active, an increase of 637 compared to Monday. He also said that there are 42,151 suspected cases across the country and that 293,078 people have been tested for Covid-19.
Coronavirus cases and deaths as reported daily in the last two weeks. milenio
Among the more than 97,000 people who have tested positive are 20,217 health workers, of whom 271 have died.
Mexico’s official coronavirus death toll increased to 10,637 with 470 additional fatalities registered on Tuesday. The number of deaths reported yesterday is the third highest after Tuesday of last week when 501 fatalities were registered.
An additional 924 deaths are suspected of having been caused by Covid-19 but haven’t yet been confirmed.
Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is still in a growth phase, federally mandated social distancing restrictions concluded on Saturday in favor of state-based restrictions.
Even though some parts of the country have been impacted by the pandemic much more than others, every state in the country except Zacatecas was allocated a “red light” last week on the federal government’s stoplight system to determine which coronavirus restrictions can be lifted and where.
The stoplight system will be updated this week and the color allocated to each state – red, orange, yellow or green – will be publicly announced on Friday before taking effect next Monday.
Virus case totals by state as of Tuesday. milenio
López-Gatell reiterated that four factors are taken into account to determine the risk level for each state: case number trends (whether new infections are increasing, decreasing or stable), hospital admission trends for coronavirus patients, hospital occupancy levels and positivity rates (the percentage of people tested who are confirmed to have Covid-19).
The stoplight color allocated to each state, at least in the early phases of the “new normal,” will be determined by its worst result in the four different areas, he said. That means that if just one of the four indicators is found to be at a “red light” level, the state will be allocated a stoplight of that color even if it has orange, yellow or green lights in all other areas.
López-Gatell said that the country is feeling its way into the “new normal” and as such must act cautiously to limit new outbreaks of Covid-19 that are seen as inevitable.
Ten people were murdered in two armed attacks in the municipalities of Celaya and San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato, on Tuesday.
Among the victims were three women who were working in a restaurant that was attacked.
The first incident occurred at around 4:00 a.m. when several individuals carrying high-caliber rifles entered a highway food stall in San Luis de la Paz and opened fire on those eating and working in the establishment. They killed three male diners and three female employees.
The second attack occurred around 4:00 p.m. when armed men shot up and allegedly detonated grenades in an auto repair shop on the Celaya-Cortazar highway. Police responded to a 911 call about the incident, which left four people dead and the business in flames.
The Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office (FGE) announced that its specialized homicide unit is investigating the incidents.
“Criminal experts processed the scene and gathered evidence in the [highway restaurant] …, among them ballistics that were preserved for analysis. The corresponding forensic studies are being carried out on the bodies … to determine their legal identities,” the FGE said in a statement.
More Covid cases could be the result of opening too early.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned Mexico not to reopen the economy if the Covid-19 pandemic is still growing because doing so will likely accelerate the spread of the disease.
Speaking at a press conference, PAHO Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa said “there is no magic formula” to help countries decide when to lift coronavirus restrictions, “but if transmission is still growing” – as is the case in Mexico – “that’s a sign that economic activities must not be immediately started.”
If Mexico’s economy is reopened too soon, there is a risk that transmission of the virus will speed up, he said.
Barbosa said the federal government needs to provide more support to economically disadvantaged people so that they are not forced to leave their homes while the risk of infection is high.
He also said that the government needs to ramp up coronavirus testing in order to detect more cases and limit transmission within the community.
The government has resisted doing either, insisting it won’t take on new debt to provide such support, and arguing that tests are expensive and have no value.
PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne also warned countries in the Americas – currently the world’s coronavirus epicenter – against opening up their economies before the pandemic is under control.
“Think twice before relaxing social distancing measures,” she said, adding that they are “our best tool” to control the virus.
“We have to be careful. My advice is not to open too quickly or we will run the risk of a resurgence of Covid-19 that could erase what we’ve achieved,” Etienne said.
In Mexico, federally mandated social distancing measures concluded on Saturday in favor of state-based restrictions.
Mexico has the 15th highest official case tally in the world, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University, and the seventh highest death toll behind only the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, France and Spain.
Land that was cleared of trees to construct a nursery to supply trees for planting.
The federal government’s tree-planting employment program is riddled with operational flaws and corruption, according to some participating farmers.
A report published by the newspaper El Universal says that many of the more than 230,000 farmers who are paid 5,000 pesos (US $230) a month to plant and tend fruit and timber-yielding trees have experienced a range of shortcomings in the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) program, one of the government’s most important social schemes.
They include the late distribution of saplings after the conclusion of the rainy season, a lack of water for irrigation, being forced to plant on drought-stricken land, the provision of dead saplings and a shortage of supplies and tools.
Ministry of Welfare documents obtained by El Universal via a freedom of information request support the farmers’ testimonies and suggest that the management of Sembrando Vida is based on improvisation rather than being guided by a well-thought-out plan.
Some farmers also say they have been forced to pay moches – cuts or kickbacks – to the on-the-ground officials in charge of the scheme.
Raúl Esteban, a farmer in Campeche, said he has been forced to make occasional payments of 100 to 200 pesos to the program’s operators, while Charly López of Tabasco said he has been threatened with removal from the program if he doesn’t pay the 50-peso monthly moches asked of him under the pretext that the cash will be used to buy supplies.
“Nobody questions anything because we live with the threat that they are going to remove us from the program. We hand over the money to avoid that,” said López, a 25-year-old farmer.
El Universal said there is also a lack of saplings to support the program, highlighting that nurseries operated by the army lack supplies, materials and tools to grow the number of young trees it requires.
The minutes of a meeting last September attended by members of the technical committee of the Sembrando Vida program indicated that “one of the most significant challenges” in the operation of the scheme was to ensure that the saplings are planted at a time when they have the best chance of not just surviving but thriving.
However, that goal is complicated by the fact that the number of saplings being grown is insufficient to meet demand, the minutes said. The program fell well short of its target last year, planting trees on 150,000 hectares of land, only just over a quarter of the goal of 570,000 hectares.
Minutes from a technical committee meeting in October said that it had not been possible to purchase all the tools and materials required for the program because suppliers’ capacities were exceeded.
Sembrando Vida has been touted by President López Obrador as a major job creation program.
One farmer said he was told by Sembrando Vida officials that he and other participants would have to buy their own seeds and saplings. Armando Cruz said he and other farmers were given about 200 saplings to plant on their land after they signed up in March 2019.
However, the farmers were subsequently told that they would have to purchase their own seeds and saplings out of their 5,000-peso monthly wage.
“I’ve spent up to 1,500 and 1,800 pesos a month so I’m left with 2,700 or 2,800 pesos to live off. … It’s nothing really, you can’t live off that but the technicians [the program officials] force us to dedicate ourselves 100% to the program; we can’t work in anything else,” Cruz said.
In response to the claims that the on-the-ground officials have committed acts of corruption, the Welfare Ministry said they are constantly supervised by superiors and corruption is not tolerated. It also said that new data about the program will be presented at a press conference this Thursday.
According to the president of the Mexican Network of Forestry Farming Organizations, another problem with the Sembrando Vida program is a lack of clarity with respect to how participants are selected.
Gustavo Sánchez said there is no public call for applications and it’s not clear what criteria are used to select participants. He added that there is no “external evaluation” of the recruitment process, a situation that allows corruption to occur.
Sánchez said that government financial support to combat poverty has traditionally been allocated in exchange for support at the ballot box and suggested that is still occurring.
“It’s a problem,” he said, adding that there is a lack of clarity about whether Sembrando Vida is an anti-poverty program, a reforestation scheme or an environmental assistance project.
Yet another problem with the scheme is that cases have been identified in which people have deforested parcels of land so that they can join it and thus collect a monthly salary from the government.
The practice – known in the context of the scheme as sembrando muerte, or sowing death – has occurred in several municipalities where the Sembrando Vida program operates, El Universal said.
Sergio Rivera, a member of a community organization in Veracruz, cited one case in which a coffee plantation was cleared in a mountainous region of the state so that locals could apply to participate.
The government has also been guilty of deforestation, ironically clearing trees from land in the Quintana Roo municipality of Felipe Carillo Puerto in order to set up a military nursery to grow saplings for Sembrando Vida.
Although trees were planted on just 150,000 hectares of land in 2019, President López Obrador said in December that the goal for 2020 is to plant one billion saplings on one million hectares.
However, the goal seems fanciful because an expansion of the program is likely to perpetuate and exacerbate the problems already identified and denounced by the participating farmers.
The navy has asked the Ministry of Finance (SHCP) to approve spending of 90.2 million pesos (US $4.2 million) to combat the arrival of sargassum on Caribbean coast beaches.
In a document seen by the newspaper Milenio, the Ministry of the Navy (Semar) proposes buying five sargassum-gathering vessels, materials for the construction of two more, containment barriers and beach sweepers.
Semar said the investment will allow Quintana Roo’s beaches to be kept clean and attract more tourists.
However, Quintana Roo is still classified as a “red light” maximum risk state, according to the federal government’s stoplight system to determine which coronavirus restrictions can be lifted and where.
But the color allocated to each state is updated on a weekly basis, meaning that there is hope that Quintana Roo will start next week with a lower coronavirus risk level. There are currently 284 active cases in the Caribbean coast state, according to official data published on Monday.
Before the emergence of the infectious disease, the biggest threats to the tourism sector were insecurity and the annual arrival of sargassum, an unsightly and smelly seaweed.
The amount of sargassum was up 40% last year, according to Semar, affecting the coastline of mainland Quintana Roo as well as the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.
In its submission to the SHCP, Semar said that almost 85 million tonnes of sargassum were cleared from beaches last year and that 544 cubic meters of the weed were removed from the sea off the Quintana Roo coast.
It said that an alternative to purchasing its own sargassum-fighting equipment – the federal government gave the navy the responsibility to combat the problem at the start of last year’s seaweed season – would be to hire a private company that specializes in the removal of the macroalgae.
However, containment barriers and machinery to clean beaches, such as tractors and sweepers, would still have to be purchased, Semar said.
The total cost, including the hiring of a private company, would be just under 111.4 million pesos, the navy said, over 20 million pesos more than its own proposal.
This year’s sargassum invasion is expected to be smaller than those seen in the last two years. The first of this year’s seaweed arrived in early May but as of late last week very little had arrived in Quintana Roo so far.
Crowds of people flooded the streets of three cities in Michoacán yesterday, flouting the plan to reopen gradually as the state begins lifting coronavirus restrictions and adjusting to the “new normal.”
According to the newspaper El Universal, Monday kicked off in virtual chaos in Morelia for both pedestrians and drivers as they flocked to businesses that did not respect the governor’s order to operate at 25% capacity. Neither did customers who chose not to respect the state’s recommendation to continue stay-at-home measures.
Banks saw lines up to two blocks long with people packed closely together, and restaurants and businesses opened their doors to the public for the first time in 2 1/2 months, although not all of them abided by coronavirus health protocols.
Department stores and shopping malls opened, but strictly enforced the wearing of masks. Customers were also made to apply hand sanitizer in front of security personnel.
About half of those on the streets were wearing masks, the newspaper reported, and most no longer fear the virus, adopting a “life goes on” attitude and welcoming the opportunity to get back to work.
Morelia resident Alejandro Arredondo spent Monday morning at a high-end shopping mall, then went to pay bills. He says he thinks reactivating the economy is important, as is adhering to health guidelines, noting that the coronavirus is not the only thing that can make one sick. Debt can as well, he said.
There were similar scenes yesterday in the cities of Zamora and Lázaro Cárdenas.
As of June 1, Michoacán had recorded 1,950 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 169 deaths.
Launch of the new network on Monday in Mexico City.
A coalition of Mexican academics, researchers, artists and politicians has created a new network to fight the growing tide of violence against women, which they say has only been exacerbated by stay-at-home measures due to the coronavirus.
Called “Red Nosotras Tenemos Otros Datos,” or “We Have other Information Network,” it was officially launched on June 1 via a virtual press conference. Broadcast on Facebook Live, it has received over 31,000 views.
(The organization’s name is taken from a phrase used frequently by President López Obrador to counter information that puts the government in a negative light.)
The group called on citizens to join them in their demand for transparency, equality and the participation of women in government decisions, cofounder Patricia Olamendi said.
Their goal is to ensure that public policies exist that further the objective of achieving equality for women, especially on issues like health, employment and access to services where the gender gap is particularly pronounced, Olamendi explained.
“We are going to ask (citizens) to request information, that the authorities present clear and transparent reports and are held accountable for how resources are used.”
Activist Beatriz Cosío explained that the government must adopt specific measures and programs that guarantee the investigation and statistical compilation of the causes, consequences and frequency of violence against women.
Cosió offered data obtained from the Ministry for Public Security that shows that violence against women increased during the first four months of the year with respect to the same period in 2019. This despite a statement by President López Obrador last month that 90% of emergency calls related to violence against women are fake.
Of particular concern to Cosío is the gap between the number of calls for help relating to domestic violence and the number of cases under investigation. “It is important to know what course of action was given to the calls and whether they reached the corresponding authority,” she said.
But members of the network also emphasized that it is important to look at the people behind the numbers and to support victims, which is one of its core principles.
The network said that from now on it will be holding virtual press conferences on social media each Monday with information on violence against women, and will host a virtual cultural festival on June 6 called “We Have Other Information For a Life Free of Violence” where they will hear public testimony and share alerts and information on cases of violence against women across the country.
The president kicks off construction of the Maya Train.
President López Obrador has officially inaugurated construction of the Maya Train railroad, an ambitious infrastructure project that will link cities and towns in five southeastern states.
Accompanied by state and federal officials, López Obrador waved a starting flag on Monday for the construction of a section of track between Izamal, Yucatán, and Cancún, Quintana Roo.
At a ceremony in the Quintana Roo municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, the president described the US $8-billion, 1,500-kilometer railroad as a historic and momentous project for the southeast of Mexico.
“A lot of years went by and this region wasn’t looked after. We’re going to continue supporting the north [of the country] the Bajío, central Mexico, the south and the southeast,” López Obrador said.
He said that construction of the Maya Train will help the economy recover from the coronavirus-induced crisis, asserting that it will create 80,000 jobs this year and 150,000 in 2021.
López Obrador pledged that the project will be finished in 28 months, or by October 2022, stressing that no excuses will be accepted for delays.
He added that the companies building the railroad should follow the example of the military engineers building the new Mexico City airport at the Santa Lucía Air Force base.
The Mexican company ICA will build the section between Izamal and Cancún, while a consortium led by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim won the contract for the construction of a stretch between Escárcega and Calkiní in Campeche.
A consortium led by Portugal’s Mota-Engil and the China Communications Construction Company won the contract to build a section of track between Palenque, Chiapas, and Escárcega, Campeche.
López Obrador said that he was “certain” that ICA, which was awarded a 25-billion-peso contract without having to participate in a competitive bidding process, will meet all of its commitments in the construction of the 257-kilometer section of track between Izamal and Cancún.
The section will have three stops between the two terminuses – one in the Yucatán municipality of Kantunil, one near Chichén Itzá, the ancient Mayan city, and one at El Tinte Holbox.
For his part, Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín described the Maya Train as much more than just an infrastructure project.
“In reality, it represents a new paradigm of economic integration, regional development and social equity,” he said.
Joaquín said that the train, which will run through the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas, will provide a boost to tourism in the region.
Rogelio Jiménez Pons also said that the construction and operation of the railroad will not have a negative impact on the environment, although experts have warned that the project poses risks to the region’s underground water networks and the long-term survival of the jaguar and several indigenous groups have opposed it on the grounds that it will adversely affect biodiversity and natural resources, including water.
Stores in the Medrano garment zone in Guadalajara remain closed.
It’s been a rocky economic restart for some businesses in Jalisco that were hoping to get back to work this week.
Governor Enrique Alfaro had announced that on June 1 some nonessential businesses that had obtained a state government health certification could reopen.
However, several such businesses expecting to open were asked to remain closed by municipal authorities, especially in areas of Guadalajara that are likely to draw large crowds such as the Medrano garment zone, the Obregón district where the San Juan de Dios market is located and the city’s historic center.
And in neighboring Zapopan, one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico, businesses were allowed to reopen whether they had the government health certification or not.
The resumption of nonessential economic activities is occurring despite the fact that the number of coronavirus cases in the state is on the rise, a trend that Alfaro says will continue at least for the next month. The state is still deemed to be at maximum risk by the federal government, much to Alfaro’s dissatisfaction.
In a statement posted to the state government’s website on Saturday, Alfaro claimed Jalisco had only 1.4% of the country’s deaths due to the coronavirus, despite being the third most populous state in Mexico.
“We said that first it was health and then the economy, and we fully complied with this principle, but our state cannot remain paralyzed,” Alfaro said. “Thousands of people lost their jobs and their source of income. Hundreds of businesses had to close or dramatically reduce their operating capacity. The blow has been brutal.”
Citizens need to get back to work and learn to live with the risk of infections, he added.
Nonessential businesses eligible for reopening include lumber yards, flower shops, furniture stores and beauty salons, although their status depends on approval from municipal authorities.
Schools, spas, movie theaters, nightclubs, casinos, gyms and shopping malls will have to wait, and social distancing measures are still in force. If people do not comply and the outbreak worsens in the future, the economy may have to be shut down again, Alfaro warned.
As of Monday, Jalisco had 1,802 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and had recorded 151 deaths.
