Cancún turns 50 this April and the local government, tourism service providers and other businesses in the popular tourist destination are getting ready to celebrate the anniversary with a bang.
The Cancún delegation of the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV) announced that special products, like limited-edition commemorative bottles of tequila and activities such as yacht processions will commemorate the city’s birthday.
AMAV president Sergio González Rubiera said in a press conference that the festivities will have the dual objective of celebrating Cancún’s success and taking advantage of the anniversary to better position the destination at the international level.
Companies like beverage retailer La Europea have announced that they will release commemorative products to be sold the week of April 20, Cancún’s de facto birthday.
The city was officially founded by way of federal decree on August 10, 1971, but popular culture marks its birthday on April 20, 1970, as that was the day that construction on the first tourist-oriented services began.
La Europea will release 3,500 limited-edition bottles of Las Garrafas mezcal to be sold in its Cancún stores. It is also planning a commemorative bottle of Cardenal Rojo tequila, but has yet to determine the number of units it will distribute.
French beverage company Moet will release around 1,000 commemorative bottles of its Moet Ice champagne, which will also be sold in La Europea outlets in Cancún.
Other businesses are also looking to join in on the celebration. Car rental company Avis and convenience store brand Go Mart have expressed their intentions of offering promotions.
González said that he is also working with various airlines to arrange the painting of airplanes with the logo for the city’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
In addition to the yacht procession, a concert and fireworks show are being organized by the planning committee, which will release details of the events soon.
The Morelos hospital where a kidnapping suspect was freed.
Armed civilians attacked police in a hospital in Tetecala, Morelos, early Tuesday in order to free a suspected gang leader who was being treated and guarded in the facility.
The attackers arrived at the Rodolfo Becerril de la Paz Hospital around 1:40 a.m. aboard two vehicles. Armed with long guns and wearing ski masks, they began to open fire on the building.
They then entered the hospital and searched out a patient identified as Diego Arturo Olivares Jiménez, who had been arrested on charges of kidnapping.
The men subdued the police officer in charge of guarding Olivares and forced him to give them the handcuff keys. They then took the suspected gang leader out of the hospital and loaded him into one of the vehicles.
A state police officer opened fire in an attempt to stop the men, but they fired back and he retreated. The officer’s ear was grazed by a bullet in the confrontation.
The initial gunshots had alerted other officers in the area to the trouble and they attempted to stop the rescue operation, but were repelled by high-caliber rifle fire. The fighting lasted about five minutes and left two police vehicles damaged by bullets.
Olivares was wounded and arrested during a confrontation with the military on January 17. Two of his accomplices were able to escape capture during the operation.
Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez has publicly accused the environmental protection agency Profepa of being corrupt after a Tijuana car manufacturing plant that was closed due to reports of pollution reopened only a day later.
He said that the agency cares more for the interests of the South Korean auto maker Hyundai, which citizens have denounced for emitting toxic gases, than it does for the health of people and the environment.
“Profepa is totally corrupted. It’s a shame that it has sold out. It does not care about the interests of the people, but rather the interests of its own pockets,” he said.
The Hyundai plant in the community of Maclovio Rojas was closed on Monday after neighbors complained that gases containing lead emitted by it were negatively affecting the health of students at a nearby school.
The plant was promptly reopened and functioning normally on Tuesday.
“The Hyundai company reestablished its operations without any justifications, and we are not going to let up on this issue,” Bonilla said.
He said that the Hyundai plant had promised to present a “contingency plan” to prevent the emission of pollutants into the environment before reopening.
Speaking on other allegedly corrupt behavior by Profepa in the region, federal delegate Jesús Ruiz Uribe said that construction companies continue to illegally extract sand and aquifer water in Tecate.
He said that the agency “has not done the corresponding inspections of those construction companies for the environmental impact” of their actions.
Playa Mayor Beristain and the couple who were removed from beach.
A couple who were arrested outside of a beach club in Playa del Carmen on Sunday got a public apology from the local head of government for what was widely viewed as an unlawful arrest and use of excessive force.
“In Playa del Carmen we will no longer tolerate these types of abuses, which in recent years had simply been forgotten. I will defend the rights of the citizens, of everyone, to enjoy their own land. Mexico is free and the beaches are public,” said Laura Beristain Navarrete, the mayor of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, in which Playa del Carmen is located, on Twitter.
Tourist police arrested the couple after the management at Mamita’s Beach Club called to complain that they were not purchasing food or drinks from the establishment.
Videos posted to social media by onlookers show the woman identified as Azeneth Marín crying and saying police were hurting her and officers threatening those filming the incident.
“The meeting I had today with Azeneth Marín and Daniel Sánchez … is a request to respect everyone who wants to make use of the beaches. We are no longer in the past,” Beristain said.
Federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués also commented on the incident on Twitter, saying that he was in communication with the Quintana Roo Ministry of Tourism, but that there are currently no charges filed by the affected citizens.
“I reiterate that in Mexico the beaches are public,” he said.
Solidaridad general secretary Alfredo Paz Cetina said that the municipal government has a zero tolerance policy for police and administrative high-handedness.
“We are not going to tolerate any bad conduct [by authorities]. We’re investigating in accordance with the law and whoever is responsible will be charged,” he said.
The incident went viral on social media, with many users denouncing the police and restaurant for taking such drastic action against the couple.
One user called for a beach picnic on the spot where it occurred next Sunday in order to protest the incident and raise awareness about Mexican citizens’ constitutional right to access the country’s beaches.
La Quinta is one of the Wyndham brands that will see new properties open in the next two years.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is aiming to grow its presence in Mexico to 100 properties by the end of 2022.
The United States-based chain currently has 56 properties in 34 destinations across the country but has plans to open 19 this year and next, and another 25 in 2020.
The company’s vice president for operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Eduardo Cruz del Río, said that reaching the goal of 100 properties will require investment of US $150-$200 million. The funds will come from private investors and other interested third parties, he said.
Separately, the company’s Latin America general director told a press conference that six new Wyndham properties are on the verge of opening.
Alejandro Moreno said that the Ramada in Acapulco, the Wyndham Puebla, the Ramada Encore Monterrey, the Wyndham Garden Saltillo, La Quinta Los Cabos and a Travelodge in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, are slated to open in coming weeks.
“With the openings we have scheduled, we’ll have 62 hotels,” he said. “We have some [ongoing] negotiations to reach 65 this year. For 2021, we have the TRYP Guadalajara, the Ramada Encore at the Guadalajara airport and the Wyndham Garden Mazatlán.”
In an interview with the newspaper El Economista, Cruz del Río said that the Wyndham Grand Hotel and a Wyndham Esplendor Hotel are expected to open in separate towers of the same building in Mexico City on August 31.
“In the beginning, it was said that it would only be one brand [Wyndham Grand]. But you’ll be able to find the Esplendor, a lifestyle brand, and the Wyndham Grand, which is aimed at the business segment,” he said.
Cruz del Río also said that Wyndham is forecasting 6% growth in its Mexico-sourced revenue in 2020.
“We grew 3% in 2019 and this year we expect that the figure will double to 6% with greater [economic] certainty,” he said.
Cruz del Río said that the company saw “favorable numbers” in the second half of 2019 after a slow start to the year due to the change of federal government in late 2018.
Ratification of the new North American free trade agreement and the ongoing trade war between the United States and China will help attract greater foreign investment to Mexico, according to two experts.
Raúl Feliz, an academic at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), a Mexico City university, and José Luis de la Cruz, director of the Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Growth, a think tank, told the newspaper El Economista that they expect foreign direct investment (FDI) to be higher in 2020 than last year.
According to preliminary figures from the Economy Ministry, Mexico attracted US $32.92 billion pesos in FDI last year, a 4.2% increase compared to 2018.
Feliz predicted that ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA (only Canada has not yet approved the new pact), and a global manufacturing recovery will help Mexico see a moderate increase in FDI in 2020.
He said that the contrast between growth in FDI last year and an expected 5% contraction of overall investment can be explained, in part, by the fact that local investors’ spending is more dependent on publicly funded projects, and the new federal government cut expenditures during its first year in office.
For his part, de la Cruz described last year’s FDI figure as “modest” and highlighted that just over half the total came from reinvestment of profits rather than new investment. He said that the stagnant economy in 2019 was a hindrance to investment.
In 2020, however, Mexico has the opportunity to attract manufacturing companies that are seeking to relocate their factories as a result of the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
To take advantage of the opportunity, de la Cruz said, Mexico must be able to provide effective logistics, cheap energy and a qualified workforce. He also said that tax concessions would help to attract new foreign-owned production plants.
The think tank chief said that the benefits of the ratification of the USMCA will be seen more in 2021 than this year because most large companies would have already made their 2020 investment plans before Mexico, the United States and Canada signed a modified version of the pact in December.
However, 38 economic analysis and consultancy firms surveyed by the central bank in late January just days after the U.S. Senate approved the USMCA appeared to indicate that the new trade pact will help FDI this year.
The consensus among analysts was that Mexico will attract $29.34 billion in direct foreign investment this year. While that figure is lower than the FDI attracted last year, it is 23.6% higher than the prediction for 2020 made by analysts whose opinions were canvassed by the Bank of México a year ago.
If their start-of-year prediction is exceeded by the same amount in 2020 as it was in 2019 – 32.7% – FDI will be just under $39 billion this year. The president’s chief of staff, Alfonso Romo, has said that Mexico should target $35 to $40 billion in foreign investment in order to stimulate GDP growth.
Bank chiefs and other business leaders who met with President López Obrador on Tuesday appear prepared to continue to invest in Mexico and consequently help the government achieve its investment goals.
Speaking at his morning press conference on Wednesday, López Obrador said that the bankers and directors of companies such as Walmart, Chevron, Cisco and Amazon made a commitment to maintain and increase their investments in Mexico.
“They all spoke about [different] amounts but I don’t remember, I didn’t add them up; but it’s billions of dollars of investment,” he said.
“In general, they’re very optimistic about the economic future of the country. It was a very good meeting.”
Arturo Herrera sees the new North American trade deal as a great advantage.
Finance Secretary Arturo Herrera is predicting that the economy will bounce back in 2020 after a GDP contraction of 0.1% last year.
In an interview with the news agency Bloomberg, Herrera said that last year’s recession was natural considering the decade of continual growth since the global financial crisis. He also said that the contraction was in line with disappointing levels of growth around the world.
The secretary told Bloomberg at the National Palace in Mexico City that there are various reasons for optimism in 2020, citing inflation and debt levels that are under control, the stability of the peso and Pemex’s halting of an extended production decline.
But the main boost to the Mexican economy is the pending ratification of the new North American free trade agreement, the USMCA, he said. (Mexico and the United States have already ratified the new pact but Canada has not).
“The Mexican economy’s performance is very different with this agreement,” Herrera said. “This is one of the great advantages we have now.”
The secretary said that companies that supply production chains may boost their investment in North America as a result of the certainty provided by the new pact, a modified version of which was signed by Mexico, the United States and Canada in December, especially considering that competing countries in Asia – especially China – are facing trade wars and a health crisis, namely the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus in mainland China.
Bloomberg noted that the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), which Herrera heads, has maintained its 2020 growth outlook at 2% even as economists have cut their forecasts to an average of just 1% compared to 1.7% six months ago.
The official, who succeeded former finance secretary Carlos Urzúa last July, declined to say whether the SHCP will lower its outlook when it presents a preliminary budget proposal to Congress in April.
With regard to interest rates – cut to 7% by the Bank of México last Thursday – Herrera said that low inflation (3.24% in January) and the stability of the peso (currently 18.6 to the greenback) mean that the central bank “clearly” has room to continue lowering borrowing costs.
“I’m not the only one saying it. It’s something that’s said by the Western Hemisphere director of the International Monetary Fund,” he said.
The Bank of México has cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point at each of its last five board meetings yet Mexico still has one of the highest inflation-adjusted interest rates in the world, Bloomberg said, adding that analysts predict that the bank will lop another half-point off this year to close 2020 with a 6.5% rate.
With regard to the exchange rate, Herrera said that the government is committed to a stable and flexible currency, explaining that the government’s fiscal responsibility and the relatively high interest rates were behind the strength of the peso, which hit its highest intraday level against the US dollar in almost a year and a half on Monday.
“It’s very risky for somebody to start playing with the exchange rate policy,” he said. “It has cost Mexico a lot of work to understand this and we’re very respectful.”
The fiery red pork meat of tacos al pastor is a favorite of both Mexicans and foreigners alike, but one Yucatán taquero, or taco cook, has put a regional twist on the recipe, proving that the cuisine is a living tradition.
The black tacos al pastor of chef Roberto Solís from Mérida are on the cusp of spreading across the country.
Instead of red chiles and the crimson pigment of the annatto plant, Solís uses a traditional Yucatán salsa called recado negro (literally, black message), which gets its dark color from the blackened skin of roasted chiles.
The taco made its debut in an event called Hokolvuh, a chefs’ conference organized by Solís himself. Not long after the conference, he heard that his black taco al pastor had already traveled across the country.
“About a year later they tell me, ‘Hey, I saw your black onions and black pastor in Monterrey,’ and I said no, it can’t be, and when I looked, they really were being sold in the restaurant [there],” he said.
Chef Solís of Mérida.
The recipe may have been appropriated but luckily Solís still got the credit for the taco he created to be the signature dish of his Taquería Kisin, in Mérida. It was featured on the Netflix food documentary Taco Chronicles, solidifying his reputation as its creator.
Although its popularity is growing, curious taco connoisseurs currently must travel to either Mérida or Monterrey, Nuevo León, in order to try one.
A taquería in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City makes a black taco al pastor, but the color comes from the mole negro sauce used to combine the style with Oaxacan influences. This is not the yucateco taco invented by Solís.
The taco al pastor is a product of the influence of Mexico’s Lebanese immigrant community, which created the dish in Puebla in the mid-20th century when it combined the vertical spit of the shawarma with Mexican chiles and spices.
In central Mexico it is traditionally served with fresh diced onions, cilantro and a slice of pineapple. In Yucatán, however, it is not served with pineapple, but salsas made with Greek yogurt, ground fried chicharrón pigskins and guajillo and xcatic chiles give it its own regional identity.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) is facing unprecedented hostility, institute President Lorenzo Córdova said on Monday in a thinly veiled criticism of the federal government.
“In its 30 years of history, the institute has never faced such a hostile climate against it as it faces now,” Córdova said at a swearing-in ceremony for new executive director Sergio Bernal.
“These are very complicated times for the National Electoral Institute. … It’s very probable that we have never faced such an adverse and hostile environment against the institute,” he said.
Córdova’s remarks came four days after the lower house of Congress voted in favor of filing a constitutional challenge against the legality of the INE remuneration manual, which stipulates salaries for some electoral institute officials above that earned by President López Obrador.
The government has passed a law stipulating that no public official can make more than the president but INE filed legal action against it and has continued to pay some high-ranking officials – including Córdova – much higher salaries than López Obrador, who earns about 110,000 pesos (US $5,915) per month.
Also on Thursday, federal deputies approved the process to elect four new INE councilors. Government critics and some opposition lawmakers believe that the ruling Morena party, which leads a coalition with a majority in both houses of Congress, will attempt to install government-friendly councilors on the INE board.
In that context, Córdova said that current INE officials have a “historic responsibility” to “look after the institution.”
He called on officials to “close ranks” and ensure that the 2021 mid-term federal elections provide a level playing field for all political parties. INE doesn’t belong to any one person, party or political force, it exists to serve “all of Mexican society,” Córdova said.
The INE president came under fire from some members of the federal government earlier this month after he brought forward a vote to ensure the re-election of executive secretary Edmundo Jacobo Molina for a period of six years. Molina’s current term doesn’t end until April but a majority of INE councilors voted in favor of his re-election on February 7. If the vote were held at the end of his term, the four new councilors would have the opportunity to oppose the re-election.
Public Administration Minister Irma Sandoval was one official who called Córdova’s bringing forward of the vote undemocratic.
Córdova – who has a strained history with López Obrador – is determined to ensure that the INE doesn’t become a partisan institution, a position shared by the majority of current institute councilors, including Ciro Murayama.
Murayama said in January that the INE is at risk of losing its autonomy if Morena is allowed to install government-friendly councilors.
“The rules that allowed Morena to reach power are the same rules that should be operating now that it’s the government,” Murayama said, asserting that Mexico must continue to have an “impartial and autonomous electoral authority.”
Placing partisan officials in the INE goes against reason, he added, because a democratic government needs certainty, credibility and legitimacy at election time.
A January protest against a shortage of medications.
A shortage of pediatric cancer medications continues to plague Mexico’s public health system, heightening the anxiety of parents whose children desperately need access to life-saving drugs.
Israel Rivas, father of a young cancer patient, told the newspaper El Financiero that the situation is going from “bad to worse” in the nation’s hospitals.
He said that the federal government has not provided children’s hospitals with a sufficient supply of cancer medications, as Deputy Interior Minister Ricardo Peralta promised would occur by Monday at the latest.
Rivas claimed that the government appears to be “rotating medicines from one state to another … without providing a certain solution to the problem.”
“Medications only last a few days and then there aren’t any. We’re worse off [than before] … because they [the government] suddenly take [drugs] from Puebla to give them to Michoacán, for example, or they supply certain regions and leave others short. That’s what’s happening. They’re failing to keep their word. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said.
“What I’ve found out is that … the situation is becoming more difficult in hospitals like the Siglo XXI [in Mexico City], the Ixtapaluca hospital [in México state] and the 20 de Noviembre [in Mexico City],” Rivas said.
He also said that no new children’s cancer drugs have reached Tijuana, supply is running out in Oaxaca and a very limited supply has been sent to Mérida. Rivas said that there is a nationwide or localized shortage of a range of drugs, including the chemotherapy agents vincristine, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and methotrexate.
Hermes Soto, a 5-year-old boy suffering from a rare and aggressive form of cancer that threatens his life, is one of scores if not hundreds of patients who have been affected by the drug shortage, which plagued hospitals for months last year after the government centralized drug purchases to reduce corruption and overpricing.
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Soto’s chemotherapy treatment for the soft-tissue cancer in his arm was delayed by a week in January due to a lack of vincristine at his Mexico City hospital.
“He can relapse. The cancer can come back,” the boy’s mother, Esperanza Paz, told Reuters.
The crafts-maker said that the possibility of more shortages is of particular concern because “Hermes is now in the final stage of his treatment,” explaining, “we only need two cycles of chemotherapy to finish.”
López Obrador, left, and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on January 23 there were no drug shortages.
Andrea Rocha, a lawyer representing the parents of more than 60 children who have been unable to access the medications they need in recent months, has filed lawsuits aimed at compelling the government to provide an adequate supply of medicine.
“We didn’t have a first-rate health system before but since the change of administration, the problem of shortages has grown immensely,” she told Reuters. “There has never been such a big crisis.”
President López Obrador has claimed in recent weeks that Mexico now has sufficient medicines, explaining that shortages were due to resistance by pharmaceutical distributors to the new procurement system as well as the hoarding of medicines by hospital officials and supply problems with drug companies in India and China.
However, his claim is inconsistent with the experience that many parents, such as Rivas, are having in children’s hospitals. Parents have protested on several occasions, including at the Mexico City airport.
Reuters reported that two young boys have died in recent months due to medicine shortages and that non-cancer patients, including children who underwent organ transplant operations, have also been affected.
Monica Márquez, a 41-year-old handicraft seller, told Reuters that she had to pay out of her own pocket or rely on donations in order to buy Tacrolimus and Mycophenolic acid – immunosuppressive drugs – after her 7-year-old daughter received a new kidney.
However, due to shortages, the price of Tacrolimus increased from 2,500 pesos (US $135) to 14,000 pesos (US $755) for a two-week dose, making it prohibitively expensive for many families.
Márquez said that she was afraid that her daughter, who waited four years for a kidney transplant, will relapse and “go back to the way she was before.”
The government, she claimed, is “underplaying” the drug shortage problem. “They are trying to cover the sun with a finger when clearly there is a very big problem.”
That claim is supported by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which said that it received 552 complaints against health authorities for drug shortages between November 16, 2019 and February 11, 2020.
Of the complaints, 421 were against the Mexican Institute of Social Security, a major public healthcare provider, and 112 were against the State Workers’ Social Security Institute.
Both the Democratic Revolution Party and the National Action Party have filed complaints with the CNDH against the government due to the medicine shortage.
The López Obrador administration has also come under fire due to problems with the introduction of its new universal healthcare system, which replaced the Seguro Popular program on January 1.
One criticism has been that the National Institute of Health for Well-Being, or Insabi, scheme, is only providing primary and secondary healthcare for free, while low-income patients have to pay for specialist medical services in public hospitals.
However, the problem with those pledges, said Esperanza Paz, the Mexico City mother whose son Hermes is still in the fight of his life, is that “cancer does not wait.”
