Former ambassadors warn of unwelcoming signs for investors

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July 14, 2020

Mexico needs to do more to create a welcoming environment for foreign investors, three former ambassadors said Monday.

Speaking during a virtual forum on the future of North America beyond the coronavirus pandemic and the ratification of the new free trade pact between Mexico, the United States and Canada, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson said the Mexican government is failing to demonstrate that it really welcomes foreign investment.

Jacobson, ambassador between 2016 and 2018, said that Mexico needs to establish a level playing field on which foreign investors and their capital are not unfairly disadvantaged.

She said that she receives telephone calls on a daily basis from business people in the United States who complain about a “capricious and dark” business environment in Mexico.

“This is something that is very serious for the [foreign] companies that are already in Mexico,” Jacobson said.

Former ambassador Jacobson. — Former ambassador Jacobson: a ‘capricious and dark business environment’ in Mexico.

“I don’t know how many companies haven’t invested in Mexico [due to the unfavorable business environment], it’s a cost … that can’t be measured.”

The former ambassador said that Mexico still has an opportunity to attract more foreign investors but warned that they could choose to go elsewhere if investment rules remain unclear and subject to sudden change, and the legal system and security situation don’t improve.

Jacobson’s remarks came two weeks after her successor, Ambassador Christopher Landau, said that it’s not a good time to invest in Mexico. Specifically citing recent changes to energy policy, Landau said that the federal government failed to keep its pledge not to change investment rules that were in place when it took office in late 2018.

The “uncertainty” created by the government could be a barrier to increased investment, he said.

Speaking at yesterday’s forum, former Canadian ambassador Pierre Alarie expressed a similar sentiment, asserting that clear rules and a stable political environment are paramount to attracting foreign investment.

Alari, ambassador between 2015 and 2019, said it is incorrect to think that the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, can fix the situation and that foreign investment will automatically flow into Mexico.

Former Canadian ambassador Alarie. — Former Canadian ambassador Alarie: clear rules and stable political environment are necessary.

The USMCA isn’t a “panacea” and thinking that it is “would be to fall into a very big trap,” he said. “The political position, political openness [to foreign investment] is very important in any country.”

During the same forum, former Mexican ambassador to the United States Gerónimo Gutiérrez also said that the accord will be insufficient to attract foreign investment while there is still uncertainty.

“You have to do the work, investment won’t arrive on its own,” he said, adding that investment in infrastructure will help to attract foreign investors.

“Foreign companies make a checklist,” Gutiérrez said, explaining that they look at whether electricity and water is available at competitive prices in a country where they are considering investing and whether there are reliable communication systems.

He also said that they look at the capacity of ports while considering how they will bring supplies into the country. Having good infrastructure is “fundamental” to attracting investment, Gutiérrez said.

President López Obrador says that he welcomes foreign investment – and traveled to Washington D.C. last week to celebrate the entry into force of the USMCA alongside United States President Donald Trump – but some policies enacted by his government have made it harder for foreign companies to enter into and operate in some sectors of the Mexican economy, especially the electricity and oil industries.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Mexicans design transparent face mask that costs under 50 pesos

By

Michelle Aguilar

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July 14, 2020

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The new mask under development in Guadalajara.

Student ingenuity may soon result in Mexico producing an innovative, widely available protective face mask that shields the wearer from Covid-19 and other infectious germs, is ergonomic, reusable, and best of all costs under 50 pesos.

A team of Mexican student designers at the Jesuit University of Guadalajara have produced schematics for a transparent mask that they say will not only be safe but environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. According to Miguel Huerta, a researcher at the institution who is the student team’s leader, they are seeking to contract with manufacturers who can produce the mask for a retail price of under 50 pesos.

Huerta’s Twitter account recently posted the mask’s schematics, developed by students Michelle González and Paulina Ramírez, which showed how the final design could be secured to the face using two adjustable bands.

The mask is still in the development stage but it promises to have a reusable protector to be made with recycled materials — the team is exploring using PET plastic and silicon as possible materials, to have anti-humidity and anti-fogging features and, best of all, to guard the wearer as safely as would an N95 mask, a product that meets United States air filtration standards.

In an interview with Vogue México, Huerta said the university would administer the patent process and sign contracts with manufacturers to begin producing the mask in the coming months.

The mask has similar features to the widely publicized Leaf product, currently being crowdfunded on the Indiegogo.com website. Both will be made of clear plastic, will be reusable, and will have a higher degree of protection for wearers than the surgical and homemade masks that many people now use.

However, the Mexican team’s product will not have the same level of protection as promised by Leaf masks, which are expected to provide protection analogous to an N99 mask along with automatic sanitization features using UV light.

Creators González and Ramírez told Vogue that their mask will not only create jobs but protect the environment since it will be reusable. That may be a big factor in its favor given that disposable masks and latex gloves are ending up on some beaches and in municipal sewer systems.

A typical hospital worker in a Covid-19 infectious environment may have to change protective gear as many as 16 times a day, according to a National Autonomous University researcher.

The mask’s creators also believe their invention will also serve an important social purpose, allowing wearers to communicate with others more effectively, since it will allow others to see their facial expressions better than under a cloth or paper mask that obscures the nose and mouth.

Sources: Vogue México (sp)

Employment/tree-planting program bears little fruit in first year

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MND Staff

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July 14, 2020

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President López Obrador tours a military tree nursery in Tabasco. The military failed to deliver anywhere near the required number of trees last year.

Only half of 80 million timber-yielding and fruit trees planted during the first year of the federal government’s reforestation/employment program have survived, according to a report by the newspaper Reforma.

The government’s original aim was to have participants in the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) scheme plant 575 million trees in 2019.

But Welfare Minister María Luisa Albores, who is responsible for the program, said that only 80 million trees, 14% of the target, were actually planted.

Of that number, only half survived, Reforma said in a report published Tuesday. That means that only 40 million trees, or 7% of the total number that were supposed to be planted in 2019, are still alive.

An investigative report published in early June said the government’s tree-planting program is riddled with corruption and operational flaws.

Military experts discuss tree propagation with the president.

Many of the identified flaws likely had a direct impact on a young tree’s ability to survive. They include the late distribution of saplings after the conclusion of the rainy season, a lack of water for irrigation, the provision of dead saplings, a shortage of supplies and tools and forcing program participants to plant on drought-stricken land.

Reforma said that a lack of supervision of participants and the payment of their monthly wages in advance were also factors in the low survival rate of newly-planted trees.

For its part, the government’s social development agency, Coneval, found that the Sembrando Vida program hasn’t followed a schedule in tune with agricultural cycles that would give young trees the best chance for survival.

Another operational flaw of the scheme is that the army, tasked with growing saplings at military nurseries, failed to supply the number of young trees expected of it last year. That was one factor that contributed to the program falling well short of its target.

“We made an agreement with 12 military nurseries for the production of 100 million plants in 2019. Then they told us there would be a reduction to 80 million. … [The] reality is that they delivered 37 million,” Albores said.

A researcher at the Chapingo Autonomous University in México state, which specializes in agriculture and forestry education, said the the target of planting hundreds of millions of trees in the space of a year was doomed to fail.

“Mexico has never had the capacity to produce the millions of plants the program promises,” Jorge Antonio Torres said.

Eraclio Rodríguez, a federal deputy with the Labor Party, said there are also question marks over how funds allocated to the Sembrando Vida program have been used.

“There is a lot of discretion in the application of the resources and to date they haven’t made the full register of beneficiaries public. We’ve asked for it but we’re never given information,” he said.

The president of the Mexican Network of Forestry Farming Organizations said last month that there is a lack of clarity with respect to how Sembrando Vida participants are selected. Gustavo Sánchez suggested that some of the participants – who are paid 5,000 pesos (US $220) a month – were selected by the government in exchange for support at the ballot box in upcoming elections.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Mayor forced to walk 20 km for failing to complete paving project

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 14, 2020

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The mayor of Ixmiquilpan, center, is punished for unfinished projects.

Residents of a community in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, were not pleased with the performance of the mayor, so they made him go for a long and supposedly humiliating walk.

Mayor Pascual Charrez Pedraza, whose term ends this year, has failed to pave streets in Ignacio López Rayón, claim residents, who gathered Monday outside city hall holding banners denouncing the mayor and demanding an audience with him.

Charrez had promised to pave the streets in 2018, but the work has yet to be completed, the angry crowd said.

In accordance with indigenous Otomí custom, they forced the mayor to walk 20 kilometers from city hall to their town so he could see the unpaved streets for himself.

Such a walk is considered a form of humiliation according to the Otomí, the inhabitants of the region before they were subjugated by the Toltecs and later the Aztecs.

“We come to look for the mayor since a project started in 2019 has not been completed. He is leaving and has not complied,” said one angry resident, who noted that the unfinished paving project is the only thing the mayor has done during his administration

Resident Ángel Martínez Montúfar noted that during his campaign the mayor indicated that he was going to remodel the garden in the main square.

“Pascual Charrez boasted that he would bring a unique marble from Italy, and he even presented the project to residents and the priest,” he said, adding that Charrez had also promised to build a medical clinic with funds from the mayor’s office but neither of those projects proceeded.

The mayor is the brother of former federal deputy Cipriano Charrez, who is currently incarcerated in a Pachuca jail on charges of attempting to murder Pascual Charrez, who is no stranger to controversy himself.

On June 18 Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad Meneses linked him and 16 others to the fuel theft ring Los Hades in a presentation to President López Obrador, for which Charrez demanded a retraction and an apology.

“This is slander. Politics is a very complicated environment and there must be a collaborator who does not like me, not everyone does, and someone may have passed a tip on to the governor,” Charrez said of the accusation.

Source: La Jornada (sp), Criterio (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

Archaeologists uncover more Mexico City history under pawnshop

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MND Staff

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July 14, 2020

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Archaeologists excavate and clean stone floor dating back to the early 16th century. Raúl Barrera R./PAU-INAH

Archaeologists in Mexico City have uncovered remains of a pre-Hispanic palace once occupied by several rulers of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.

Specialists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found remains of the Palace of Axayácatl while excavating the courtyard and an adjacent room of the Nacional Monte de Piedad pawnshop, a stately 1755 building located a stone’s throw away from the Metropolitan Cathedral in the historic center of Mexico City.

During renovations of the building, INAH urban archaeologists found numerous basalt slabs that are believed to have been part of an open plaza of the palace occupied by Axayácatl, the sixth ruler or tlatoani of Tenochtitlán, and his successors.

Axayácatl, ruler of Tenochtitlán between 1469 and 1481, was the father of Moctezuma II and Cuitláhuac, who were the ninth and 10th rulers , respectively, of the Aztec, or Mexica, capital.

Moctezuma II is believed to have been killed on the balcony of his father’s palace in 1520, possibly by stone-throwing Spaniards.

Stones engraved with images of Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent god. Oliver Santana/Nacional Monte de Piedad

He and other tlatoanis, including his brother Cuitlláhuac, were also held captive in the palace by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men after their arrival in Tenochtitlán in 1519.

In a statement published on Monday, INAH said that in the same location archaeologists also found the remains of a house Cortés ordered to be built in the early 1520s and subsequently occupied.

Built using materials of the Palace of Axayácatl after it was razed, the home later became the first cabildo, or government house, of the colony of New Spain, INAH said.

Urban archaeologists were carrying out an archaeological salvage project at the Monte de Piedad building between September 2017 and August 2018 when they found the remains of both the palace and Cortés’ home, INAH said.

They first came across a room built from basalt and tezontle, two volcanic rocks commonly used in construction in Mexico. Further analyses concluded that the room was part of the house occupied by Cortés after the fall of Tenochtitlán in 1521.

Archaeologists concluded that the materials used to build the room came from the Palace of Axayácatl. Two of the stones used in the room’s construction were engraved with glyphs, including one of Quetzalcóatl, a feathered serpent deity worshipped by the Mexica people.

The Monte Nacional de Piedad, where the palace remains were found. Raúl Barrera R./PAU-INAH

Archaeologists also found ceramic remains that dated back to both pre-Hispanic and early colonial times.

More than three meters below the floor of Cortés’ home, archaeologists Raúl Barrera and José María García found the remains of another floor built from basalt slabs that dated back to pre-Hispanic times.

“Given its characteristics, the specialists deduced that it was part of an open space in the former Palace of Axayácatl, probably a courtyard,” INAH said.

The institute said that the discovery of the palace remains beneath the pawnshop was not a surprise because “historical sources” guided the archaeologists to its location.

Archeologists are now endeavoring to learn more about both the Palace of Axayácatl and Cortés’ home in a “post-dig research phase,” INAH said.

Mexico News Daily

Canadian energy investors warn of trade deal violations

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MND Staff

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July 14, 2020

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A distributed power generation system installed by the Canadian firm Atco in San Luis Potosí.

On the same day as the new North American free trade agreement came into force, a group of Canadian energy investors wrote to their government to warn that Mexico could already be violating the three-way pact by failing to respect existing contracts.

The companies Canadian Solar Inc, Atco Ltd, Northland Power Inc and JCM Power wrote to several senior officials on July 1 to express concern that their investments in Mexico were under threat.

In a letter seen by the news agency Reuters, the companies said that decisions to suspend national grid trials for new renewable energy projects and to limit the development and operation of privately-owned power stations could pose a risk to their projects in Mexico.

The four companies, which have several projects in Mexico including solar and hydroelectric ones, argued that Mexico risked violating provisions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, and other trade deals to which it is a party.

They urged the Canadian government to take up the issue with officials in Mexico.

A spokesman for Canadian International Trade Minister Mary Ng, to whom the energy companies also wrote, said the government is worried about the issues the energy investors raised.

“Canada shares these concerns, as Canadian companies have invested close to [US] $9 billion in the energy sector, including over $3.1 billion in renewable energy,” Ryan Nearing said.

He said Ng had raised the concerns with Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Márquez in late May and that the two agreed to maintain dialogue. Nearing also noted that Canada’s embassy in Mexico has engaged with the Mexican government on the matter.

The decision of the four companies to write to the Canadian government came six weeks after Canada and the European Union sent letters to the Mexican government to warn that energy policy changes could have an adverse impact on renewable power projects worth billions of dollars.

The Supreme Court has since suspended a new Energy Ministry policy that imposed restrictive measures on the renewable energy sector in response to a complaint filed by Mexico’s antitrust regulator. However, a final decision is still pending.

Energy companies and environmental organizations have also launched legal action against measures that seek to make it more difficult for private and renewable projects to operate in the Mexican energy market.

An energy reform enacted by the previous federal government in 2014 opened up Mexico’s energy market to private and foreign companies but President López Obrador, a staunch nationalist, appears determined to give the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission more control of the electricity sector.

The president has accused former governments of showing bias toward private companies, a situation he says caused electricity rates to rise. López Obrador has sought to renegotiate contracts worth billions of dollars in order, he says, to get a better deal for citizens.

Private companies that operate in Mexico, some of which are Canadian, have denied the claim that they have unduly raised prices, while the antitrust regulator, Cofece, has warned that the government’s actions will cause rates to go up.

Canada has been the third biggest foreign investor in Mexico over the past two decades, according to Mexican government data that shows that only the United States and Spain invest more.

In 2019, Canadian investment in Mexico exceeded $2.9 billion, the data shows, a figure that accounted for almost 9% of total foreign investment in the country.

Source: Reuters (en)

Science agency delivers new Mexican-made ventilators

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 14, 2020

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The two science council ventilators were unveiled Tuesday at the National Palace in Mexico City.

President López Obrador today presented two new ventilator models designed for seriously ill coronavirus patients.

The National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) built the devices with help from private organizations and universities. Speaking at his morning press conference, the president applauded Mexican innovation as a way for the country to avoid depending on “international solidarity” in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Health Minister Jorge Alcocer was also upbeat.

“It has been possible to build two types of highly specialized ventilators, accessible to everyone, in response to the most urgent needs in this scenario of the pandemic. While reducing expenses and increasing efficiency we strengthen our technological presence and gain national sovereignty,” he said.

One ventilator model is called Gätsi, which means “sigh” in the indigenous language Otomí, and the other has been dubbed Ehécatl 4T or “God of the Wind” in Náhuatl, the president said.

The latter costs 70% less than the current market price of such ventilators, and 500 more units have been ordered. The device has a microcontroller capable of calculating and applying the necessary pressure during patient ventilation cycles.

The Gätsi ventilator, made in conjunction with Dydetec, a private software and hardware design company, is 60% cheaper than commercially available models and has a microprocessor control system that allows it to be adapted for adult or pediatric patients. Five hundred units of this model will also be produced.

Both ventilators are designed with control, pressure and volume sensors, are easy to clean, were tested on artificial lungs and biological systems and meet international specifications.

The cost for 1,000 ventilators will be 259 million pesos, around US $11.5 million, a unit cost of $11,500.

“In five months we achieved what usually takes between three and five years to develop,” said María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, director of Conacyt. “Scientific sovereignty and technological independence are how this government responds to challenges. We are seeing the birth of a national industry to save lives.”

Another made-in-Mexico respirator was announced in May by the National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition. It designed and built a product, in partnership with private sector partners in Nuevo León, with a cost of $10,000, the first of which were expected to be delivered this month.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

Bankruptcy threatens hotels up to 100 years old in Puebla city

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 14, 2020

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Some longstanding hotels in Puebla are on the verge of bankruptcy.

More than 40 hotels in Puebla’s historic center — some of which have been operating for as long as 100 years — are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the coronavirus, says the president of the local hotel association.

Manuel Domínguez Gabián said the affected hotels, which employ 1,500 people in the state capital, have already cut back on staff, but low occupancy rates of around 5% aren’t helping ease the financial burden the pandemic has caused. Normally at this time of year occupancy would be around 65%.

“For the association, it is worrying that businesses that have been around for two generations are about to close. We would lose a part of our history,” Domínguez said.

Taking out loans would not suffice as they would only cover payroll, he says, and urged state and municipal authorities to step in and help.

The association predicts at least 10 hotels will permanently shutter by August unless the economy is reopened, especially in the commercial and residential Angelópolis district. Puebla is currently at the maximum risk level for the coronavirus under the federal government’s stoplight system.

One of the hotels that has dismissed more than 100 employees and closed is the Hotel Royalty, which has been in operation since 1943 and is located in front of Puebla’s cathedral. Domínguez says the Royalty hopes to reopen in January or February 2021 after remodeling and will hire back its staff.

Other independent hotels are considering selling to national chains that are more economically resilient, Domínguez said.

Fifteen hotels closed permanently at the beginning of June due to bankruptcy, and 300 people were let go.

As of Monday, Puebla had 14,349 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and had seen 1,799 deaths.

Source: El Economista (sp), e-consulta (sp), El Popular (sp)

Petroleum theft has poisoned water source of 10,000 in Hidalgo

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 14, 2020

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Hueyapan Lake: polluted by pipeline spills.

For at least two years residents of three communities in Hidalgo have been complaining about their water, which has become contaminated due to leaks caused by petroleum theft along the 50 kilometers of pipeline that traverses the area.

The water source for the 10,000 residents of San Juan Hueyapan, Santa María Nativitas and Guadalupe Victoria is Hueyapan Lake, which is also where residents used to fish and swim, but now it smells of petroleum.

Residents had once considered their water to be pure and were accustomed to drinking out of the tap, but now that water comes out brown, full of sediment and foul-smelling, they say.

“We began to notice because my mom had a headache and her stomach hurt, and she said to me ‘Hey, every time I come here and I drink water my tummy hurts.’ We noticed that when we put water in a tray or something it always remained dirty … as if it had mud,” María Isabel Espinoza told the newspaper Milenio.

“People began to have hair loss problems, irritation, gastrointestinal problems, the situation is serious,” said resident Gavino Ortiz.

In November 2018, after authorities declined to take action, residents decided to block the flow of water from the lake to their homes to avoid becoming ill.

Officials suggested installing a pump to bring water in from another source, but because the municipality was in debt to the Federal Electricity Commission that option was discarded.

A neighboring community managed to build a separate system to bring water in, but it had to be abandoned after it was discovered that the source they were pumping from was also contaminated.

In Guadalupe Victoria, residents must contend with brown, smelly water which stains any receptacle in which it is placed.

“The information that the municipality gives us is that the water is supposedly suitable for domestic use and I don’t know where domestic use would start because ultimately you brush your teeth and bathe with this water and many people continue to cook with it because they can’t afford to buy water for daily use,” said Guadalupe Elizalde.

In February, a judge ordered local, state and federal authorities to supply communities in the area with water “in quality and quantity,” but any progress toward that goal has been derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Ministry announces safety certification for tourism businesses

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 14, 2020

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Health standards have taken on a whole new meaning since coronavirus.

The Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) has developed a new sanitary certification system to draw foreign visitors back to Mexican tourist destinations.

The “Punto Limpio” (Clean Point) designation, which is an update to a similar program implemented during the swine flu pandemic of 2009, is earned by establishments that meet government hygiene standards after taking a free two-month course, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco announced at a virtual press conference on Monday.

To create the new program, guidelines were reviewed and revised, new protocols were introduced and feedback was sought from several agencies. The new certification has the endorsement of the ministries of health, labor and social welfare as well as Mexico’s coronavirus czar, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell.

The program is designed for a variety of tourism-related businesses, Torruco said, including hotels, cafés, car rental agencies and travel agencies. “With this model, tourist agencies will be able to provide tourists with a model of safety and hygiene, and greater confidence is generated among travelers,” he said.

Businesses adopting the measures defined in the Clean Point guidelines will have to incur costs, warned the president of the National Tourism Business Council (CNET), Braulio Arsuaga.

The Ministry of Tourism's seal of hygienic approval. — The Ministry of Tourism’s seal of hygienic approval.

“The seal and the processes that are being established will give us an important differentiation, and without a doubt we will have to apply them. This will imply certain costs for the industry; however, there is no intention of transferring this to the final consumer,” he stated.

In May, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) launched the Safe Travels program for tourism destinations that comply with hygiene and sanitization standards based on recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

Thus far Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, Yucatán, the Riviera Nayarit, Jalisco, Campeche, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Michoacán and Guanajuato have qualified for the global health designation.

Currently, 1,250 establishments have obtained Mexico’s Punto Limpio certification, which is valid for two years. Participation in the program is voluntary, and businesses that do not choose to participate can operate normally.

Source: Milenio (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)