Election in the air: Morena party chief lashes out at ‘perverse alliance’ of opposition

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December 7, 2020

delgado-prian — From left: Delgado, Cortés, Moreno and PRD leader Jesús Zambrano.

The 2021 elections are still six months away but a war of words has already broken out between the ruling Morena party and a new three-party alliance determined to seize control of the lower house of Congress and win state gubernatorial races.

Morena national president Mario Delgado on Sunday described the coalition of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) as a “perverse electoral alliance” and a “cancer,” triggering strong rebukes from the opposition parties themselves.

“The people of Mexico will not allow the return of a cancer that has done so much damage to the country. In 2021 we’re going to eradicate the perverse electoral alliance of the #TUMOR, made up of the PRI, the PAN and the PRD,” he wrote on Twitter.

Speaking on Sunday, Delgado said the sole objective of the coalition is to defend its own interests rather than attend to the needs of ordinary Mexicans.

The PRI, the PAN and the PRD have demonstrated over the years that they are “machines of bad government,” corruption and “immoral practices such as the squandering of public funds,” he said.

'A malignant tumor called PRIAN,' reads a frame from the Morena video that shows former National Action Party chief Ricardo Anaya, left, and Peña Nieto. — ‘A malignant tumor called PRIAN,’ reads a frame from the Morena video that shows former National Action Party chief Ricardo Anaya, left, and Peña Nieto.

“They’re not worthy of the trust of the Mexican people,” Delgado said, adding that the coalition they have formed proves what President López Obrador has long been saying: “They’re all the same, conservatives that represent rancid neoliberalism, guilty of inequality and injustice in Mexico. They’re the mafia of power.”

Delgado, who left the lower house of Congress last month to assume the national leadership of Morena, expressed confidence that the ruling party will be well supported at the June 6 election at which the entire 500-seat Chamber of Deputies will be renewed.

“It will be very easy for the people to decide if they want to return to the politics of old, … which represents corruption and the privileges of the past, or if they want to keep trusting Morena so that the regeneration of the country’s public life continues,” he said.

Delgado also posted a 30-second video to Twitter featuring images of past PRI and PAN politicians including former presidents Carlos Salinas, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

“For decades Mexico suffered a serious disease, a malignant tumor called PRIAN that looted the country, took turns in power and pretended to compete with each other,” the narrator says.

“Today the mask is finally removed and they unite in a perverse electoral alliance. They are united by corruption, ambition and the fear of continuing to lose power. Don’t let them get away with what’s yours. Let’s eradicate the tumor of Mexico.”

The national leaders of the PRI and the PAN responded promptly to the video and Delgado’s remarks.

The PRI’s Alejandro Moreno, a former governor of Campeche, said on Twitter that if Morena is so interested in getting rid of a “tumor” it should instead focus its efforts on supplying medications to the “thousands of families that are watching their children die due to the incompetence of this government.”

Parents of children with cancer have held numerous protests since the current federal government took office to denounce ongoing shortages of drugs used to treat young cancer patients.

Moreno also took aim at Morena for cutting direct funding to daycare centers and abolishing 109 public trusts.

“The hypocrisy of Morena is so great that [its officials] are seeking to ignore their total responsibility for the closure of daycare centers, the theft of [public] trusts and the false austerity they proclaim. The reality is clear: Morena is the disgrace of Mexico, in 2021 they go! ”

PAN national president Marko Cortés said it was “pure shamelessness” for Delgado to criticize the new three-party alliance given that he was formerly a member of both the PRI and the PRD.

El pueblo de #México no va a permitir que regrese el cáncer que tanto daño le ha hecho al país. En el 2021 vamos a extirpar la perversa alianza electoral del #TUMOR, conformado por PRI, PAN y PRD. #ExtirpemosAlPRIAN pic.twitter.com/OGWBeODA0Y

— Mario Delgado (@mario_delgado) December 6, 2020

“Today the worst of the PRI and all parties take refuge in Morena,” he wrote on Twitter, citing López Obrador, Federal Electricity Commission director Manuel Bartlett (a former federal interior minister and governor of Puebla), current Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa and Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia as examples.

“We’re going to take its majority [in the lower house of Congress] in 2021!”

On its official Twitter account, the PRD wrote: “The mafia of power – full of corruption – is who is running the country today: they’re the poorly named 4T. That’s why we’re building a great opposition coalition from the PRD that will get results and [be a] counterweight [to the government]. … We will be the majority in 2021. 4T, you lie, steal and betray the country.”

The 4T or Fourth Transformation is the nickname the government has given itself because it claims to be bringing a radical change to Mexico that is comparable to those brought about by independence from Spain, the Mexican revolution and 19th-century liberal reform.

López Obrador, the embodiment of the 4T, also fired a salvo in the war of words on Monday even though the National Electoral Institute (INE) has warned him to abstain from making comments about the upcoming electoral process because doing so could violate the constitution.

Speaking at his regular news conference, the president accused the PRI, the PAN and the PRD, the last of which he represented in the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections, of being one and the same.

“It has already been discovered that they’re the same. They defend the same anti-popular, sellout politics. They’ve united to impose the neoliberal model, to loot, to impose a corrupt, anti-democratic model,” he said.

“Now that a transformation is being carried out, they can’t stand it, anxiety got the better of them and they decided to remove their masks and join forces. It’s a fact, the truth – it’s historic because the PRI and the PAN are officially uniting. Before there was a de-facto alliance … but now it’s legal, formal.”

Questioned about the INE’s warning, López Obrador said that he had the right to express himself.

“Even more so when [remarks are made] … against the project I represent, even against me. I’m not making anything up, they [government critics] say themselves that they are against me and it’s clear that’s why they’re joining forces. So I believe I have the freedom [to express myself] and I must exercise it to clarify, argue and reply,” he said.

The INE issued its warning after a group of 12 federal lawmakers as well as the PAN and the PRD filed complaints against the president for improperly using his position to intervene in the electoral process, criticize the three-party alliance and urge citizens to support Morena in the upcoming federal and state elections.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Universal (sp), Animal Político (sp)

Police find abandoned trailer loaded with US $63 million worth of drugs

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Michelle Aguilar

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December 7, 2020

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The trailer was carrying a load of plaster and drugs.

Authorities in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, say they confiscated an abandoned flatbed trailer loaded with US $63 million worth of illegal drugs hidden among sacks of plaster.

Local authorities, working with the military and the federal Attorney General’s Office, confiscated 2,894 pounds of marijuana, nine pounds of fentanyl, 144 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 13 pounds of white heroin after receiving a 911 call reporting the abandoned truck in the city’s Tierra y Libertad neighborhood.

No arrests were made.

“Upon doing a preventative inspection in accordance with police protocols, drug-sniffing dogs detected the presence of various types of drugs in the trailer’s platform that was transporting hundreds of bags of plaster,” authorities said in a press release.

The tractor-trailer was towed to a city police station where officers discovered the drug haul.

Authorities said the fentanyl was enough to make 4 million pills worth 1.2 billion pesos (US $60.5 million). The marijuana, wrapped in 437,900 individual packages, was worth 21.8 million pesos and the crystal methamphetamine was enough to make 328,000 doses, with a value of 26.2 million pesos. The heroin seized was enough to make 60,000 doses worth 3.6 million pesos.

Synthetic drugs have been omnipresent in recent years at the U.S.–Mexico border, with nearly every major drug cartel manufacturing or trafficking in methamphetamine and fentanyl.

Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protections officers at the Arizona-Mexico border seized 254 pounds of fentanyl, valued at US $3.5 million, hidden under the floor of a tractor-trailer carrying produce from Mexico. At the time, it was the largest-ever fentanyl seizure on record.

In October, authorities confiscated 56 pounds of fentanyl and fentanyl powder at the Otay Mesa, California, cargo inspection facility, along with 3,014 pounds of methamphetamine and 64 pounds of heroin. The total value of the seizure was $7.2 million, authorities said.

Sources: Reforma (sp), KTSM-9 News (en)

Mexicans have fond and vivid memories of Diego Maradona

By

Shannon Collins

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December 7, 2020

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In among the widespread international responses to the death of former soccer star Diego Maradona, from sporting icons to global politicians to celebrities, it perhaps escaped popular notice to what extent — especially with the pre-eminent focus being on Argentina and Naples — the reaction in Mexico was markedly different from elsewhere.

Globally, what is most remembered is a sporting icon seen on television sets and heard magically reported on radio, whereas in Mexico, a generation and a half ago, 100,000 people remember watching Maradona lift the World Cup, live, in the Azteca Stadium, with another few hundred thousand people able to witness him live across the other matches of the ‘86 World Cup.

Although international travel was possible in the 80s, it was nowhere near as affordable and prevalent as it is today (pre-pandemic, of course), so stadium audiences of the time tended to be composed much more of locals than is the case today. Thus, the popular memory of the live witnessing of that World Cup, in which one man — rather than a country — took the trophy home is directly remembered more by Mexicans and Mexico than by any other country in the world.

Initially slated to be held in Colombia, the original hosts of the 1986 tournament bowed out in 1982 due to a local financial crisis and spiralling endemic violence blighting the country’s political and economic system. It was deemed to be too big a risk to host such a major sporting event there.

As a result, and in what many suspected to be the result of underhanded dealings between FIFA’s Joao Havelange and the president of Mexican broadcaster Televisa, the Mexican football federation swooped in to fill the Colombian boots. The decision strained relations between the new hosts and Mexico’s U.S. neighbor, whose bid was never discussed, and who thought that Mexico’s heat, altitude, and unemployment difficulties made it an odd choice to host the most prestigious football competition in the world. Overt contempt was displayed from the northern neighbor to its southern partner — how little the world changes.

The tournament was jeopardized a second time just eight months before the tournament when a catastrophic earthquake hit Mexico City, killing an estimated 20,000 people and displacing a further 150,000. A United Nations report at the time estimated that the quake caused US $4 billion worth of damage in just three minutes, but despite the collapse of 412 buildings in Mexico City, none of the football stadiums was damaged.

And so the tournament kicked off on Sunday, June 1 with a 1-0 Brazilian victory over Spain and soon moved the fervor into the fervent following for the Mexican national side which, while winning their group and dispatching Bulgaria into the round of 16, could never quite shake the feeling that they weren’t the main draw in town.

That draw, of course, was Maradona.

“I remember it so vividly,” says Enrique Gutiérrez. “Maybe because I was young, and there was so much hardship around, and we had just lived through the earthquake, who knows? Our neighborhood was a mess, every third or fourth house had collapsed, but that summer I remember as though it was yesterday. I see it in technicolor. I proposed to my sweetheart that summer. That summer it felt like we were really living, whatever else was happening. And Maradona was the man at the heart of making the impossible seem attainable.”

Francisco Rodríguez, for his part, recounts how he would take his shoe cleaning stool to the Metro station outside the Azteca, and how much demand there was for his work: “It seemed as though every man would not go in without shiny shoes. Everyone knew even then that it was an event they were attending. When I think of The Hand of God, I don’t think of the goal against England, I consider it that God was on Maradona’s side throughout the tournament. It all felt pre-ordained.”

Tributes came from all corners, even President López Obrador: “In Mexico, Maradona lived his star moment as a footballer. It was through him that I discovered grace in the sport of football. But my greatest admiration for him was in his coherence. He never renounced his ideals, even when he paid the price for being regarded as ‘politically incorrect.’”

And there lies the nub, in the life and death of El Pibe de Oro, because just as he generated magic on the field of play, leaving generational memories for those who witnessed him, the man was always palpably, demonstrably one of them. He was always the boy from the barrio, the young man punching up, the idealist fighting injustice.

We all knew who he was, always. Out there on the pitch, the paths he lit were more than the work of a superhuman, they represented the paths to glory we might all have taken, once, if only we had not chosen different paths.

Maradona dreamed our dreams for us, and made them real.

Shannon Collins writes from Campeche.

Release of ex-defense minister a sign that AMLO wishes to coddle the army

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Milena Ang

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December 7, 2020

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cienfuegos and amlo — Cienfuegos, left, gets protection from López Obrador.

Last month, the U.S. government dropped drug-related charges against Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s former defence minister and a retired four-star general. The decision was surprising given the U.S. record of prosecuting top Mexican politicians for their links with organized crime.

Late last year, for example, the U.S. arrested Genaro García Luna, the minister of public security under former president Felipe Calderón, and charged him with taking bribes from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious drug lord now serving a life sentence in the U.S.

In that instance, President López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, claimed the charges demonstrated Mexico’s status as a “narco-state.” Now, by contrast, he has gone to considerable lengths to secure Mr. Cienfuegos’ release, successfully threatening a range of countermeasures, including the previously unthinkable expulsion of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration if the charges were not dropped. What, then, is different about Mr. Cienfuegos? And why did the Mexican government make such efforts to secure his freedom?

The decision seemingly reveals Mr. López Obrador’s continuing desire to coddle the army, an institution that has been gaining political power and funding for over a decade. In 2009, then-president Mr. Calderón announced the deployment of 2,500 soldiers to his home state of Michoacán to stop rising violence. From there, his administration deployed the military to “new hotspots” of violence with increasing frequency. The subsequent administration of Enrique Peña Nieto continued the trend. By 2018, the last year of that administration, 54,000 soldiers were deployed throughout Mexico.

During his 2018 presidential campaign, Mr. López Obrador pledged to reverse this escalation, and to “return the army to the barracks.” Yet, over the following two years, his administration instead expanded its reach, placing the military at the forefront of public security.

In the first months of his mandate, he created a National Guard, largely dependent on the army, tasked with “crime prevention, preserving public safety, and combating crime.” This militarization has since expanded far beyond security: the army is now in charge of customs programs and is even helping build one of the president’s pet projects: the Maya Train, a US $7.4-billion railway.

The growing militarization of civilian affairs was already troubling; the defence ministry is subject to more complaints filed over human rights violations (such as forced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial executions) than any other institution in Mexico. The release of the 72-year-old Mr. Cienfuegos suggests that the situation is only likely to get worse.

As defence secretary, he headed the military during its involvement in a number of well-documented scandals, most notoriously the disappearance — and suspected torture and murder — of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, plus the Tlatlaya massacre where 22 civilians were executed by soldiers after rendition. In both instances, lengthy and convoluted judicial processes clouded any chance of holding members of the military accountable. It is in this context of widespread human rights abuses and impunity that the López Obrador government has gone to unprecedented lengths to appease the military by protecting its top brass.

On the evening of November 17, Mr. Cienfuegos flew back to Mexico after the U.S. charges had been dropped. Upon his arrival, he was formally notified that an investigation had been opened against him. He then headed home.

All there is to do now is wait for Mr. Cienfuegos to be “investigated and, if appropriate, charged under Mexican laws,” as the U.S. and Mexican governments jointly put it. I’m not holding my breath.

The writer is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Guadalajara native Checo Pérez wins his first Formula 1; first for a Mexican since 1970

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MND Staff

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December 7, 2020

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Pérez on the podium Sunday after his big win.

In his 190th start, Guadalajara native Sergio Pérez won his first Formula One race on Sunday at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain.

Best known by his nickname Checo, the 30-year-old Racing Point driver qualified fifth on the grid but dropped back to last place after his car was clipped by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari on the opening lap and he was forced into the pits.

But Pérez was able to make up the ground he lost and took the checkered flag ahead of Frenchman Esteban Ocon of the Renault team and his Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll of Canada.

It was Pérez’s 10th podium finish in an almost decade-long Formula One career and his second in 2020 but the first time that he occupied the highest position. His victory was the first for a Mexican F1 driver since Pedro Rodríguez won the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix.

“I’m a bit speechless,” Pérez said before his trip to the podium.

Pérez's car at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain. — Pérez’s car at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain.

“I hope I’m not dreaming, you know, because I dreamed so many years of being in this moment. Ten years, 10 years it took me. Incredible. I mean, I don’t know what to say,” he said.

“After the first lap the race was again gone – same as last weekend. But it was all about not giving up, recovering, going for it, just making the best of what you possibly could. This season the luck hasn’t been with us, but we finally got it.”

While Pérez is in the best form of his career, he is not a guaranteed starter in the 2021 Formula One championship because German driver Sebastian Vettel will take his place on the Racing Point team for the upcoming season.

His only possibility to be on the F1 grid in 2021 appears to be with the Red Bull Racing team.

Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll, who decided to drop Pérez from his 2021 roster in September, said he hopes Red Bull signs the Mexican speedster.

“Checo has been a fantastic asset,” he said referring to Pérez’s six-year stint with Racing Point.

Pérez is 'the most reliable driver on the grid: — Pérez is ‘the most reliable driver on the grid:’ Carlos Slim.

“He’s been an asset to this team a long time before I arrived. He most definitely proves every weekend that he deserves to be in a car next year. And I hope he’s in … Red Bull.”

Carlos Slim Domit, whose company Grupo Carso has a sponsorship deal with Pérez, said he expects the driver will have more F1 success even if he doesn’t compete in next year’s championship.

“I’m sure that we’re going to have Checo for a while [yet] regardless of what happens next season. It doesn’t depend on us, it will depend on what decision the [Red Bull] team takes after Abu Dhabi,” Slim said referring to the last F1 race of the 2020 season.

“I have no doubt that he is the most reliable driver on the grid, he’s a driver who always ends races in the points, he’s always fighting for a podium position. I have no doubt that the best option for any team is Pérez.”

The driver himself admitted that his future is up in the air but expressed confidence that he’ll be on the grid in 2022 if not next year.

“[The win in Bahrain] gives me a bit more peace with myself to be honest,” Pérez said when asked whether his maiden victory will help him secure an F1 job next year.

“What happens is not so much in my hands at the moment but … I want to keep going. So if I’m not on the grid next year I will be back in ’22.”

Source: El Universal (sp), ESPN (sp), Formula 1 (en)

Sources say 3 parties will form coalition to defeat Morena in 2021 elections

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MND Staff

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December 5, 2020

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The National Action Party, the Democratic Revolution Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party are said to be joining forces.

Three parties from across the political spectrum have formed a coalition to challenge the ruling Morena party at the 2021 elections, according to the newspaper Reforma.

The National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will field common candidates in up to half of Mexico’s 3o0 electoral districts, say three sources involved in the inter-party negotiations who spoke to Reforma.

The federal midterm election, to be held on June 6, 2021, will renew the entire lower house of Congress, which has 500 seats, 300 directly elected and 200 by proportional representation.

Morena, founded as a political party by President López Obrador in 2014, currently occupies 251 seats in the Chamber of Deputies while its coalition partners hold an additional 81.

The three-party alliance will also field common candidates in some state gubernatorial elections, Reforma said, reporting that there are already preliminary agreements to do so in Baja California Sur, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Colima and Tlaxcala.

The conservative PAN and the leftist PRD, which López Obrador represented at the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections, ran on a joint ticket at the 2018 elections, nominating Ricardo Anaya in the presidential race.

The PRI, Mexico’s ruling party for most of the 20th century and in power federally from 2012-18, was the senior partner in a coalition that also included the Ecological Green Party of Mexico and the New Alliance party. The coalition’s presidential candidate at the 2018 election, former cabinet minister José Antonio Meade, attracted just 16% of the vote.

One of the sources who spoke with Reforma said the new three-party alliance will be a “flexible coalition” fielding common candidates in at least 100 districts.

The PAN and the PRD agreed to join forces three weeks ago and the PRI decided to come on board more recently, Reforma said.

“The news is the incorporation of the PRI,” said one source, adding that party president Alejandro Moreno, a former governor of Campeche, had “allowed his arm to be twisted” and agreed to join the coalition.

“He had asked for the support of the PAN and the PRD to nominate a [PRI] candidate for governor of Campeche but the PAN didn’t agree. At the last minute, Alito [Moreno’s nickname] agreed [to join] the alliance.”

A group of 17 former PAN governors known as Unidos por México offered their support for the alliance, saying in a letter to party bureaucrats that “defeating a populist government” and winning a majority in the lower house of Congress will require the united work of the opposition parties.

PAN Governor Javier Corral of Chihuahua said this week that he believed that a lot of the party’s members and supporters would support an alliance with the PRI because they are determined to defeat López Obrador’s Morena.

A poll he posted to his Twitter account on Thursday supported that view.

“This weekend the National Action Party will decide if it will join an electoral coalition with the PRI and the PRD for the renewal of the Chamber of Deputies in 150 districts. It’s one of the most important decisions in [the party’s] entire history. What do you think?” Corral asked.

As of Saturday morning, just under 89% of more than 33,000 respondents said that they were in favor of the PAN joining a coalition with the other opposition parties.

“I’m very surprised,” Corral told Reforma in a telephone interview, saying that he had “a lot of doubts” about whether forming an alliance with the PRI was a good idea.

“The big question is with which PRI you’re going to unite, in which states. I can’t stop thinking about Peña Nieto, the Duartes,“ Corral said, referring to former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who led a corruption-plagued government from 2012-2018, and the ex-governors Javier Duarte of Veracruz and César Duarte of Chihuahua, both of whom are in custody and facing corruption charges.

“With which PRI are we going to end up allying ourselves? For the first time I’m in a very complicated situation, it’s a very tricky debate.”

Corral said PAN supporters’ acceptance of an alliance with the PRI — a historical rival — was a reaction to polarization and division created by the president.

He said it was understandable considering “the magnitude of the discord, hate and fear spread by López Obrador.”

“The dynamic of polarization has had the objective of dividing and reducing the country into two visions, two blocs, with him or against him.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

From food to tourist attraction: the long road of Mexico’s sea turtles

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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December 5, 2020

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Turtle release by visitors in Playa Ventura, Guerrero. Alejandro Linares Garcia

There is just something so irresistible about baby turtles. No wonder their release is one of the most popular ecotourism activities in Mexico.

But it is so much more than seeing the hatchling make their way into the water. Mexico is home to nesting sites of seven of the world’s eight sea turtle species – the loggerhead, hawksbill, green sea (Chelonia mydas), olive ridley, Kemp’s ridley, green (Chelonia agassizii) and the leatherback.

Almost all of Mexico’s coastal states have at least one breeding site. In the east, nests are found from the Texas border to the border with Belize. On the west coast, they congregate mostly from Los Cabos/Mazatlán south.

Turtle release areas popular with tourists include Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Costalegre (Jalisco), Puerto Vallarta, Mazunte (Oaxaca), Akumal and Río Lagaros (Yucatán). The season on the east coast runs officially from July to mid-November, and from December to March on the Pacific side.

After mating at sea, female sea turtles always return to the exact beach on which they were born to lay up to 200 eggs at a time. The hatchlings emerge somewhere between 40 and 70 days afterwards, depending on species and environmental conditions.

Recovering sea turtle in a tank at the National Mexican Turtle Center in Mazunte, Oaxaca. Alejandro Linares Garcia

As popular as it is to protect sea turtles, this was not always the case. Nesting turtles were stalked for their meat, shells, and eggs. Mazunte had a seasonal industry of slaughtering the wild creatures by the thousands. By 1990, all sea turtle species were critically endangered. Under international pressure, the Mexican government decided to shut down the entire trade.

Enforcement of the new laws was necessary, but also providing economic alternatives to those who had depended on sea turtles before. Mexico’s thriving beach tourism provided an obvious alternative, converting the animals from food to tourist attraction. In the case of Mazunte, the old slaughterhouse was destroyed, and the National Mexican Turtle Center built in its place.

The town was named a Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town), a tourism program supported by the federal government. But the most successful strategy nationally has been to set up opportunities for tourists to release baby turtles into the sea.

These release programs vary in size and the formality of the procedures. Turtle nesting sites in just about all of Mexico are watched by authorities and/or volunteers for returning females. After eggs are deposited, they are collected and taken to incubation sites. This gives the eggs the best conditions in which to hatch. It also protects the eggs from predators, including human poachers because the eggs are still highly regarded as a “male virility enhancer.”

After the eggs hatch, release days are scheduled, when the babies are taken to the areas in which their eggs were laid. They are placed on the sand and required to walk/crawl the last meters to get to the breaking surf. This is necessary to imprint the location, so they know where to return later. As this is a particularly dangerous time for the turtles, volunteers do their best to keep them safe until they disappear into the surf.

Most hatching sites welcome both locals and tourists to help release baby turtles. Those with the strictest protocols do not allow volunteers past a certain line in the sand. You may pick up the turtles with your hands to place them in their start position, but those hands must be wet and sandy from the beach itself. On the Pacific side, released are usually scheduled at sunset as the light guides the turtles, and there are fewer predators.

Incubation area for turtles in Boca del Cielo, Chiapas. The netting is to keep (animal) predators away. Alejandro Linares Garcia

In tourist areas such as Puerto Vallarta and the Cancún area, many hotels and tour companies will offer tours of incubation facilities and release events during the season. It has become fairly big business, leading places such as Akumal to bill itself as the “Land of Turtles.” Tulum, Quintana Roo, Puerto Arista, Chiapas, and other places have sea turtle festivals at the height of nesting season.

But, the tourist attention is something of a mixed blessing. The economic benefit means that locals now have a stake in preserving the species on their coasts, but crowds of people may negatively affect nesting. This year has been a record year for the number of turtles hatched in several states. This may be because tourism numbers dropped from Covid-19, and fewer nests were disturbed before collectors got to them.

Despite the attraction of the turtles, not all nesting areas have seen the same benefit. Programs on smaller, lesser-known beaches do not get the funds, public or private, that sites in the more developed areas do. In Puerto Vallarta alone, about 170,000 turtles are released by volunteers yearly. In Mazatlán, one major turtle project is located at and supported by Estrella del Mar, a golf resort and luxury development.

Compare this to efforts in the tiny town of Tecolutla, Veracruz. This beach’s olive ridley and leatherback turtle sites are protected primarily due to the efforts of one man – Fernando Manzano (aka “Papa Tortuga”) who began his work in 1974 when his neighbors thought he was crazy. Over the decades, he has raised awareness and brought up generations of conservationists, but almost all efforts here are still done by volunteers, with no government help.

Because the task at hand is so vast, it is relatively easy to get involved as volunteers. Depending on need in a specific location, you can get involved in almost all aspects of the breeding process. One good place to start looking is through the Sea Turtle Conservancy, an international organization and the oldest of its kind in the world.

A Mexican organization for Baja is Grupo Tortugero de las California. It was founded by two Americans in the 1960s, but today it has fishermen, students, housewives and many others who support its work.

Turtle incubation area in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. Andrea Tosatto

Although numbers have climbed, sea turtles are still endangered. Of 1,000 turtles released, only one makes it back to reproduce. While the trade in sea turtle products has been prohibited now for decades, with the overwhelming majority of Mexicans supporting the ban, poaching is still a problem.

During breeding seasons, newspaper stories appear regularly talking about catching poached products, in particular eggs. The Mexican government also tries to discourage the idea that the eggs somehow have particular health benefits. Lastly, Mexico’s beaches continue to attract development, encroaching on breeding habitat.

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

Interjet workers still waiting for pay; new owner says payments coming Tuesday

By

MND Staff

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December 5, 2020

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Employees of the airline Interjet who haven’t been paid since September will receive some of the money they are owed next week, the budget carrier’s new owner said Friday.

Alejandro del Valle, who will officially be appointed Interjet president on Monday, told employees they will receive two fortnightly payments next Tuesday and three other quincenas, as the payments are known, later this month.

Del Valle had said that the employees would be paid two quincenas at the end of this week but that didn’t happen.

“He said ‘Thursday or Friday ‘I’ll transfer two [salary payments], another two on Monday or Tuesday and the last one [next] Friday,’” said one employee who attended a meeting with the new owner. “His word, being the only thing a human being has, is worth nothing.”

Del Valle previously pledged to pay employees some of the money they are owed at the start of November but failed to do so.

In a letter sent to employees on Friday, Del Valle said that he was unable to authorize the salary payments this week because he won’t officially take control of the airline until Monday.

In light of the situation, Interjet employees look set to go ahead with a strike planned for Monday. The workers’ union, section 15 of the Mexican Workers Confederation, said Friday that it supported job action given that its members haven’t been paid for 10 weeks.

Interjet has been plagued by a plethora of problems in 2020. The beleaguered airline, which has a large tax debt, canceled all its flights for two days at the start of November because it was unable to pay for fuel for its planes. The same thing happened last weekend.

In addition, the federal tax agency SAT placed an embargo on property belonging to the father of former Interjet president Miguel Alemán Magnani due to the airline’s unpaid tax bills, 25 of its leased aircraft were repossessed, the city of Chicago launched legal action against it for failing to pay taxes and fees owed to O’Hare International Airport, customers are preparing a class action suit against it over the constant cancellation of flights and its reimbursement practices and the Canadian Transportation Agency suspended its license to operate in Canada for failing to have liability insurance coverage.

One positive was that Del Valle and banker Carlos Cabal Peniche announced in July that they were providing US $150 million in capital for the airline. But Cabal subsequently decided to withdraw his share of the investment, leaving Del Valle as the sole new owner.

Source: Expansión (sp), Reforma (sp), El Universal (sp)

Expats give Mexico low ratings on environmental sustainability

By

Greg Custer

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December 5, 2020

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A survey on sustainable expat destinations ranked Mexico at 43 out of 60 countries, giving it low environmental marks on policy and public awareness.

Counting yourself as one of the estimated 9 million U.S. passport holders living overseas, it is enlightening to take note from time to time about how your new home stacks up against the rest of the world.

Expats take pride in our chosen places of residence; it is part of a compare/contrast mindset that put us living abroad in the first place. So, when the expat think-tank organization Internations.org published data from their 2020 Expat Insider survey in October, I dove excitedly into its Environment & Sustainability Ranking findings.

The ranking asks respondents to rate 60 countries in areas such as sustainable goods and services, energy supplies, recycling and waste management, green policies, environmental awareness, the natural environment and air and water quality. The 15,000 expats who participated live in 181 countries and represent 173 nationalities.

I immediately looked for an easy-to-digest infographic or map showing my adopted country’s status. It did not take long to find Mexico, painted in black and next door to a gray U.S. and orange Canada. Most of Central and South America was similarly oscuro.

It will not surprise many expats and those interested in living overseas that Nordic nations and Western Europe dominate the ranking’s upper shelf; Asia falls to the lower levels. And Mexico? The news is not great. Mexico comes in at a very disappointing 43rd out of 60 nations, the worst-ranking country out of the North American destinations featured in the report. This puts Mexico eons behind Sweden, Finland and Austria, though ahead of India, Egypt and Indonesia. Tiny Costa Rica ranks best in the Western Hemisphere.

Lake Chapala's natural beauty attracts expats, but it is subject to the whims of manufacturing in upriver states. — Lake Chapala’s natural beauty attracts expats, but its health is subject to the whims of manufacturing in upriver states.

Mexico manages to stay out of the top 10 (and bottom 10) in all subcategories, should this be any consolation. However, it does get one notably low mark: 51st place (out of 60) for none other than water quality and treatment.

For someone who lives along the shore of Mexico’s largest lake, Chapala, this is not a big surprise. Lake Chapala’s health rises and falls with whatever happens upriver in the México state, Guanajuato and Michoacán. The effluent from industry, agriculture and ranching is often debilitating to the lake’s health, mirroring a general apathy toward water issues across Mexican society.

In the green products and utilities ranking, in which respondents shared their satisfaction with the availability of green goods and services like renewable energy, organic food, sustainable products, clean energy, and waste management and recycling efforts, the contrast between top-ranked Sweden (thanks to progressive taxation) and last-place India (failing hard in waste management and recycling) could not be starker.

And Mexico? With a ranking of 43, do not expect much good news. Almost half, 47% of respondents, rank Mexico’s waste management and recycling negatively. Of course, the waste management debacle belies what happens at the pueblo level of Mexican society. In this stratum, nothing is wasted, thrown away or discarded haphazardly without ensuring the article has no remaining value; even then, little of material heft is discarded by Mexicans in the lower economic stratum.

If the global mantra be “reduce, reuse, recycle,” then Mexico’s nonurban dwellers are beholden to the first two but utterly helpless when it comes to the last. Only 35% of Mexico expats are happy with the waste management and recycling efforts, as opposed to overall 60% globally.

In Mexico, just 32% of expats say the local population is interested in environmental issues, and only 31% say the government in Mexico supports policies to protect the environment, versus 55% globally. It is, of course, important to remember that these statistics are subjective, based on respondents’ awareness. There is no doubt some ignorance about successful, grassroots environmental advances in Mexico that have not reached English-only readers.

Readers of this fine online newspaper may cringe reading about the Mexican government’s shortcomings and private-sector abuses related to the natural world.

In the policies and people subcategory of the survey, the Nordics are believed to take the environment most seriously. Egypt, Kuwait and India round out the bottom dwellers. Mexico stays out of the bottom 10, no doubt thanks to a generation of ecologically aware urban activists who continue to push for progress. There is a positive vote for Mexico’s youth and expat-led farmers’ markets and organic food producers, as 61% of Mexico’s migrants are happy with the availability of green goods and services.

In the quality of environment subcategory of the survey, Mexico came in 45th, but there is a mixed bag of findings: 85% of expats in Mexico rate the natural environment positively, as opposed to 82% globally. I believe that is because we live in an adopted nation labeled by naturalists as “mega-diverse.” Our natural surroundings are a constant source of awe and inspiration to us, giving Mexico a head start over whatever the Nordic and European leaders can claim.

Some readers may react to these findings about Mexico with a certain “love it or leave it” mindset. If we expats are cast as invaders from abroad, then why not just pick up and invade somewhere else like, say, Costa Rica?

I prefer to take the report’s benchmarking for what it is, while helping my Mexican neighbors understand the road ahead may be potholed but navigable. And what a road it is.

Greg Custer is as a permanent resident of Ajijic, Jalisco. He operates the online community www.choosingmexico.com.

Baja California, Zacatecas regress to red on coronavirus stoplight map

By

MND Staff

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December 5, 2020

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The new stoplight map shows two states at maximum risk, 24 at high, three at medium and three at low.

Baja California and Zacatecas will regress to red light “maximum” risk on the coronavirus stoplight system while Veracruz will become the third green light “low” risk state, the federal Health Ministry announced Friday as Mexico recorded its highest single-day case tally of the pandemic.

As of Monday, Baja California and Zacatecas will be the only red light states in the country as the two current ones, Chihuahua and Durango, will revert to the orange light “high” risk level.

The government of Zacatecas announced at the start of this week that red light restrictions would take immediate effect due to an increase in coronavirus cases. There are currently more than 5,700 active cases in the state, according to state authorities.

Baja California, a hotspot state early in the pandemic, has recently seen a rise in new infections just as its United States neighbor, California, faces a surge in case numbers. There are currently just under 1,000 active cases in Baja California, according to state government data.

Veracruz, which has the third highest Covid-19 death toll among Mexico’s 32 states with more than 5,800 fatalities, will paradoxically become the third green light state on Monday, joining Campeche and Chiapas. The Gulf coast state has recorded more than 40,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic but only 1% of that number, about 400, are currently considered active.

Twenty-four of Mexico’s states are painted orange on the stoplight map that will take effect Monday while three are yellow, indicating “medium” risk.

Ten states regressed to orange from yellow on the updated map. They are Nayarit, Michoacán, Quintana Roo, Morelos, Puebla, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Baja California Sur and Yucatán.

The other orange light states as of Monday will be Chihuahua and Durango, which will switch to that color from red, and Coahuila, Nuevo León, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Mexico City, Sonora, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state, Guerrero, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí, which are already orange and will remain so for another two weeks.

Oaxaca, Colima and Tlaxcala are the three yellow light states on the updated map. All three are already yellow.

Health Ministry spokesman Ricardo Cortés told Friday night’s coronavirus press conference that 10 orange light states – Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo, México state and Mexico City – are at high risk of regressing to red.

The ministry uses 10 different indicators to determine the stoplight color allocated to each state including the Covid-19 effective reproduction rate (how many people each infected person infects), the weekly positivity rate (the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive) and hospital occupancy levels.

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

It also recommends coronavirus restrictions for each risk level but several states ease and tighten rules according to their own criteria rather than that of the federal government.

In addition to presenting the updated stoplight map, the Health Ministry reported 12,127 new confirmed cases, a tally that exceeded the previous daily record – set November 27 – by 46. Mexico’s accumulated case tally now stands at 1,156,770.

An additional 690 Covid-19 fatalities were also reported, lifting the official death toll to 108,863.

Almost 40% of the new cases reported Friday – 4,826 – were detected in Mexico City, the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the start of the pandemic

Among the orange light states at risk of turning red, the capital currently faces the most difficult coronavirus situation with more than 16,000 active cases. Mexico City has recorded more than 224,000 confirmed cases and 18,037 Covid-19 deaths since the coronavirus was first detected here in late February. Both figures are easily the highest among the 32 states.

The capital’s health system is coming under increased pressure as case numbers rise and some Covid-designated hospitals are already full.

Mexico City Health Minister Oliva López Arellano said Friday that the situation in the capital is “complex,” warning that there is a risk that case numbers will explode.

“This moment is a moment of risk of very fast … [growth] of the pandemic. Therefore we have to take care,” she said.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that authorities will once again urge residents of the capital to stay at home and only go out if they really need to.

López highlighted that health workers have been under pressure from the pandemic since early in the year and that fatigue is catching up with them.

“All the health workers are facing a long pandemic but they are very committed,” she said, adding that demand for emergency room services is currently high and that “difficult times are coming because a lot of medical personnel are going to take vacations.”

But low risk states such as Campeche will send brigades of health workers to the capital to support the pandemic response, López said.

The health minister urged residents to avoid gathering with family and friends for traditional end-of-year celebrations, saying that “there will be a time to meet, to have a big celebration” but it’s not now.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)