Hernández's cousin is a senior operator in the cartel.
The attorney general of Veracruz has confirmed that she is a cousin of a senior operator in the Los Zetas cartel.
Verónica Hernández Giadáns admitted her relationship to Guadalupe “La Jefa” Hernández Hervis during a five-hour hearing before the state Congress on Tuesday.
“I’m not going to deny a familial relation. Family isn’t chosen . . . I am only responsible for what I do and say,” she said.
Hernández Hervis has been identified by Veracruz authorities as the chief operations officer of the Zetas gang and a close associate of Hernán “El Comandante H” Martínez Zavaleta, the leader of the criminal organization who was arrested in Tabasco in 2017.
The Veracruz lawmaker said she has not had any contact with her cousin for over 30 years and that she made the relation known during her examination before the National Certification and Accreditation Center.
“Fortunately I mentioned [the relation] at the time I was evaluated and this speaks to my transparency and clear conscience,” she told the Congress.
The former Veracruz public security secretary, Jaime Téllez Marié, was accused in 2017 of being linked to “La Jefa” (The Chief) as well but he claimed that the gang leader was an informant for his department.
The accusation evoked criticism of then governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares’ administration, but federal authorities ultimately decided not to charge Téllez with any crime.
The Michoacán Attorney General’s Office is investigating 53 police officers in connection with the disappearance of monarch butterfly activist Homero Gómez González on January 13.
The investigations began on Monday with the interrogations of 29 officers from the municipality of Ocampo and 23 from neighboring Angangueo.
The officers were transported to the attorney general’s offices in Morelia by soldiers and state investigative police.
Security operations in the two municipalities were assumed by over 100 state police officers while the investigations are underway.
Attorney General Adrían López and Governor Silvano Aureoles both confirmed that the investigations have yet to produce information into Gómez’s whereabouts or the details of his disappearance.
Gómez, a ‘titan of conservation.’
Gómez is the head administrator at the El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary in Angangueo. He was last seen around 7:00pm on January 13 in Ocampo.
An official with Michoacán’s human rights commission, Mayte Cardona, said that although the circumstances of his disappearance are still unknown, it is likely that it was related to his conservation work.
“He was probably hurting the [business] interests of people illegally logging in the area,” she told Reuters.
Those who have worked with Gómez said that his efforts have been invaluable to the monarch butterfly species, which migrate thousands of kilometers each year to Mexico through the United States and Canada.
Donna Kelleher, a butterfly conservationist from Granbury, Texas, who has worked with Gómez told Mexico News Daily that “Homero Gómez González is a titan of conservation for the monarch butterfly.”
“Without oyamel trees, the species will not survive. His efforts have included planting one million oyamel trees, all with volunteers, at [the El Rosario Sanctuary],” she said.
For Gómez, butterfly conservation is part of local and family traditions.
“Our grandparents told us, ‘Take care of them. They’re angels,’” he told TheWashington Post for an article published earlier this month.
Gómez posted several tweets on the day of his disappearance. One post is a photo of several El Rosario tour guides in front of the sanctuary entrance. Others are videos of hundreds of butterflies fluttering through the forest.
Global Witness had documented 12 murders of environmentalists in 2019 by that time, and reported that there were 14 in 2018 and 15 in 2017, up from three the year before.
Demand for new bonds issued by Pemex is five times greater than supply, according to a report by the newspaper El Financiero.
The state oil company announced on Tuesday that it had issued US $5 billion in bonds that it will use to refinance existing debt.
Half of the bonds will mature after 11 years and pay annual interest of 5.95%, while the other half will mature after 40 years and pay 6.95%.
Pemex, which has debt of about US $100 billion even after receiving $9.5 billion in support from the federal government via cash injections, tax breaks and debt refinancing, said that part of the funds raised by the bond issue will be used to repurchase USD debt that matures this year and the remainder will go to refinancing.
The company stressed that it is not increasing its overall debt balance and that it remains committed to not doing so for a second consecutive year.
Unnamed sources with knowledge of investors’ intentions told El Financiero that Pemex has already received offers to purchase US $25 billion of its bonds, which will be sold via eight banks on January 28.
Similarly, an emerging market fund manager with Pictet Asset Management said that the appetite for the bonds is “insatiable.”
Guido Chamorro said that the demand was high because investors have faith that the government will always “rescue” the state-run company if it is unable to pay back its creditors.
However, he added that holding Pemex bonds is not completely risk-free because the state oil company “was already the largest corporate issuer in the world and it will now extend its lead.”
Fitch Ratings downgraded Pemex’s credit rating to junk status in June and if another ratings agency did the same, there would be a massive sell-off of bonds by investors who are required to maintain an investment-grade portfolio.
However, analysts at S & P Global Ratings said in November that they saw no reason to downgrade Pemex debt in the near future, indicating that its credit rating would only move if Mexico’s sovereign rating fell.
In addition to massive debt, the state company’s oil output has been in decline for more than a decade.
President López Obrador, who is determined to reduce Mexico’s reliance on gasoline imports by upgrading six existing refineries and building a new one, declared earlier this month that the federal government had “saved Pemex” and put an end to declining oil production.
However, some analysts disputed his claims and agreed that a second ratings agency would likely downgrade Pemex to junk status.
Oaxaca is not just a renowned center of culture, art and gastronomy: it is also home to a company that has made a prototype of the first military plane to be designed in Mexico.
The P-400T is a lightweight attack aircraft made by Oaxaca Aerospace, a company founded by the father-and-son team of Raúl and Rodrigo Fernández.
Raúl Fernández, who is also general director of Oaxaca Airspace’s parent company Traylfer, told the newspaper La Jornada that the P-400T was developed using a homegrown design and technology that is 100% Mexican.
Military aircraft were manufactured in Mexico in the 1960s, he said, but they were copies of existing planes, not original designs.
The P-400T, a prototype of which was presented at the 2019 Mexican Aerospace Fair, will cost US $3 million, Fernández said, explaining that the price is much lower than that of similar aircraft which can cost up to US $11 million.
The P-400T: cheaper to build and cheaper to operate, its designers say.
He said the use of modern aircraft design software has allowed Oaxaca Aerospace to become a world-class aviation company before reiterating that the P-400T’s design is “original – it’s not similar to any other.”
The aircraft is part of “a new generation” of fighter planes, he added, explaining that it only uses 57 liters of fuel an hour whereas similar models use as much as 189 liters.
Fernández also said that the plane can be flown at night and features a propeller that helps the aircraft stay in the air longer in the case of a mechanical failure.
Measuring 4.09 meters high and 8.39 meters long, the P-400T will have a top speed of 550 km/h during a maximum flight time of five hours. The cabin of the aircraft can be ejected in the case of an emergency.
According to Oaxaca Aerospace, the P-400T will be an ideal aircraft for maritime patrols and reconnaissance missions. It is capable of making agile evasive maneuvers and engaging in light attack missions.
Fernández explained that Oaxaca Aerospace has a collaboration agreement with the Secretariat of National Defense because only the Mexican state is authorized to install aircraft weapons.
The company is currently seeking additional investment capital and hopes to begin manufacturing P-400Ts by 2022, he said, adding that it will focus on selling the aircraft to developing countries such as Thailand.
Oaxaca Aerospace has also designed and developed a single-engine, two-seater non-military plane. A prototype of the Pegasus, an agile, fast and inexpensive aircraft, was unveiled in 2015.
There was an unexpected decline in noise complaints in Mérida, Yucatán, in December, according to a city official.
Urban development director Federico Sauri Molina said authorities issued 35 sanctions for noise-related offenses in the last four months of the year but only two were issued in December.
The Mérida government receives an average of 20 to 30 complaints per month, making the December decline unusual especially considering that a high number of parties and other events are usually held in the last month of the year.
The historic center of the colonial city has been known to be particularly raucous, drawing the ire of some expatriate residents.
In addition to responding to noise complaints, Sauri explained that the city government has a team of inspectors that makes the rounds of different parts of Mérida in order to detect establishments that are not complying with noise regulations.
“. . . It’s not just bars and restaurants that have been fined but also other businesses, religious centers and workshops,” he said
“. . . Party halls have been fined, factories, everyone can be punished. The fines range from 25,000 pesos up to 150,000 [US $1,300 to $8,000] if they’re repeat offenders. You can even pay up to 2 million pesos, which is the maximum amount . . .”
Sauri said that authorities also have the power to revoke business permits or shut establishments down temporarily until they can show that they can comply with the regulations that limit the noise levels they can emit.
Mexico is no longer among the 10 most attractive countries in the world for investment, according to the 23rd annual Global CEO Survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Presented Monday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the survey asked 1,581 CEOs in 83 different countries the question:
“Which three territories, excluding the territory in which you are based, do you consider most important for your organization’s overall growth prospects over the next 12 months?”
The United States was the most commonly cited country followed by China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, France, Brazil and Canada.
Unlike 2019, when Mexico ranked as the ninth most attractive country for investment, there was no spot in this year’s top 10 for the nation.
The newspaper El Economista reported that it is only the second time that Mexico has been absent from the top 10 in the PwC survey after appearing on the list the previous year. The same happened in 2018 after global CEOs rated Mexico the eighth most attractive country in which to invest in 2017.
Clues to Mexico’s absence this year may lie in the main economic threats identified by CEOs in the regions of North America and Latin America.
Cyber threats, policy uncertainty and trade conflicts were identified as the top three threats in the former region, while populism, uncertain economic growth and policy uncertainty were the top three in the latter.
At least five financial institutions operating in Mexico lost hundreds of millions of pesos in a cyber-attack in 2018, while the state oil company Pemex was targeted by hackers late last year.
Since President López Obrador took office in late 2018, policy uncertainty has been cited by several financial institutions and international organizations as a factor in cuts they have made to Mexico’s economic outlook.
Just last week, the leaders of two influential business groups said that policy changes that are friendlier to the state than private enterprise are scaring away foreign investment.
However, PwC conducted its survey in September and October last year when there was still considerable uncertainty about the new pact. Just a few months prior, United States President Donald Trump had threatened to impose blanket tariffs on Mexico’s exports if the government didn’t do more to curb migration.
Of the three main threats identified for Latin America, the second – uncertain economic growth – is particularly relevant to Mexico.
The economy stagnated in 2019 and the outlook remains pessimistic as far as the International Monetary Fund is concerned: it cut its growth forecasts for both 2020 and 2021 on Monday to just 1% and 1.6% respectively.
Authorities in Nuevo León have arrested the presumed leader of the state’s cell of the Northeast Cartel (CDN) who is also a longtime member of the Zetas cartel.
Rodolfo Garza Briseño, 38, was detained after months of investigations and intelligence gathering by the State Investigations Agency (AEI).
The Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office said five other members of the gang were also arrested.
The presumed gang members were arrested on charges of drug trafficking and weapons possession after a series of operations were carried out in San Nicolás de los Garza and Ciudad Apodaca, which are part of the Monterrey metropolitan area.
Prosecutors said that drugs, firearms and cash were seized in the operations and that the suspects are being investigated for violent crimes carried out in recent months in Nuevo León.
Since March 2018, the AEI has executed almost 300 arrest warrants related to homicides specifically attributed to organized crime.
In 2018, 98 arrests were made, followed by 184 in 2019 and 12 have already been made this year. Of all those arrested, 183 were affiliated with the Northeast Cartel.
The National Guard used tear gas and batons to repel hundreds of Central American migrants attempting to enter Mexico by wading across the Suchiate River on Monday, but hundreds more successfully entered the country, although the majority were quickly detained.
Taking advantage of low water levels, about 800 migrants decided to cross the river between Tecún Umán, Guatemala, and Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, at midday yesterday, the newspaper Milenio reported.
As they approached the Mexican side of the river, migrants began throwing rocks and sticks at the guardsmen and immigration agents who were awaiting them. The Mexican forces responded to the aggression with tear gas but the majority of the migrants continued to make their way across the Suchiate.
Confronted with a wall of baton-wielding police, hundreds of migrants decided to return to Guatemala after reaching the river bank but some 500 others managed to push their way through the Mexican forces to reach Ciudad Hidalgo. Five members of the National Guard were injured in the confrontation and received treatment in local healthcare centers, Milenio said.
National Guardsmen detain a migrant at the southern border.
The migrants who broke the Guard’s defenses left Ciudad Hidalgo on foot via a federal highway that connects the border to Tapachula, located about 40 kilometers to the north. Another large group of migrants stayed the night on the riverbank on the Mexican side under the watchful eye of guardsmen and immigration agents, the newspaper Reforma reported on Tuesday.
The National Immigration Institute (INM) said in a statement that its agents, supported by the National Guard, “rescued” (a euphemism for detained) 402 migrants who had entered Mexico illegally. Milenio reported that they were detained at a police checkpoint six kilometers from Ciudad Hidalgo.
The migrants were transported to immigration facilities where they were provided with accommodation, healthcare, food and water, the statement said.
The INM said that 40 migrants decided to return to Guatemala, while immigration agents are searching for 58 others who evaded authorities by fleeing via “unsafe paths in the region’s jungle area.”
Those already detained will be assessed by immigration personnel to determine their legal status and if they are not found to be genuine refugees, they will be returned to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, either by government planes or bus, the INM said.
The institute said Sunday that it expected that the majority of 1,087 migrants detained over the weekend would also be deported although the government has said that jobs in government employment programs will be on offer in Mexico’s southern border region for genuine refugees.
However, most migrants have indicated that they intend to travel to the northern border to seek asylum in the United States and have demanded the government issue them with transit visas to allow them to travel through Mexico legally.
But facing pressure from the United States government to stop migrant arrivals, Mexican authorities have made it clear that they will not issue such visas.
The government has increased enforcement against migrants since United States President Donald Trump threatened in the middle of last year to impose blanket tariffs on Mexican imports if the country didn’t do more to halt migrant arrivals to the Mexico-U.S. border.
Speaking to reporters at his morning news conference on Tuesday, President López Obrador defended the use of the new security force, asserting that it is currently at the southern border to uphold Mexican laws “without violating human rights.”
Many migrants are determined to avoid registering their entry to Mexico with authorities because they believe that it will only result in them being returned to the countries they fled.
However, López Obrador claimed that the purpose of registration is to protect migrants from harm’s way.
“. . . If we don’t know who they are, if we don’t have a record, they pass [through the country] and reach the north [where] they’re caught by criminal gangs and attacked . . . That’s the way it was before, they disappeared them [the migrants].”
'Eh, puto!:' fans shout it out, costing stadium a game.
The soccer stadium in which the chant Eh, puto! was born received an unprecedented sanction after fans refused to stop shouting the phrase at a match in Guadalajara on Friday.
The match between Atlas, of Guadalajara, and Tijuana’s Xolos on January 31 will now be played to an empty stadium.
The disciplinary commission of the Mexican Soccer Federation (FMF) announced on Monday that it had decided to sanction the stadium under its protocol for offensive expressions due to the behavior of spectators.
The disciplinary measure sets a precedent in the country, as it is the first time a soccer stadium has been sanctioned for the chant, regarded by many as a homophobic slur.
It was in the Jalisco Stadium that the chant was first shouted during a pre-Olympic match in 2004. The expression is prohibited by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) for being considered homophobic.
Despite many previous attempts to stop fans from shouting the phrase, the FMF has failed to change their behavior. None of the awareness campaigns it has attempted has been successful.
FIFA has threatened serious consequences if the phrase is repeated during international matches.
Referee Adonai Escobedo followed protocol established by new league regulations when the crowd first shouted the phrase. He issued a warning over the sound system.
He ordered a stop in play when the crowd repeated the chant a second time, and sent the teams to their locker rooms after the third.
Atlas captain Martín Nervo took advantage of the stop in play to address his team’s fans. The Argentinian soccer player begged them to stop shouting the phrase, but to no avail. When play was resumed minutes later, the fans once again repeated the chant.
As per the new regulations, the game was allowed to play out and the matter was sent to the league’s disciplinary commission.
The Atlas team issued a statement on Monday calling the punishment “very painful” as the stadium celebrates its 60th anniversary on January 31.
“We are against any type of discrimination both inside and outside of the club, so we’re calling upon the fans to eradicate these expressions which are out of line with the values we promote and aren’t constructive in any way,” the team said.
“Soccer is an opportunity for us to come together through sport and healthy coexistence. Nothing justifies this type of behavior,” it added.
Police in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, are better prepared to chase down criminals, having added two high-speed Ford Mustang patrol vehicles to their fleet.
The acquisition of the vehicles was part of an effort by the municipal government to strengthen the city’s security forces, efforts that have included pay raises, additional security cameras and the dedication of more tax dollars to security.
The Mustangs will be used to pursue suspects involved in robberies and arms and drug trafficking that try to enter or leave the city. As an eccentric affluent YouTuber recently posted online, those with enough money can easily outrun the average police patrol car in Mexico.
The Mustangs comply with all National Public Security System standards and norms and will be manned by two trained officers.
But San Miguel Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal García’s new security strategy doesn’t stop at fancy cars. His 2020 budget includes a 10% raise for all of the municipality’s police officers, making it the highest-paid municipal force in the state.
The lowest-paid officers on the force will earn a monthly salary of 18,100 pesos (US $967).
Villarreal also announced that 10% of the property taxes the city collects will go to security.
“We’re going to defend the employees, families and investments [of San Miguel] because we’re going to continue being this safe city where people live much, much better lives,” he said.
He also announced the installation of 100 new security cameras, many of which will form part of the “Belt of Security” that integrates video surveillance with smart stoplights at various entrance and exit points to the city.
With over 550 cameras, San Miguel will become the second-most watched city in Mexico.
“We’ll be after San Pedro [Garza García], Nuevo León, the most video monitored city in the country, and although this won’t be sufficient, we’ll keep working on human capital, training and equipment so that we can give confidence to our municipality,” the mayor said.
Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez congratulated Villarreal last month on the improvements to his policing strategy, saying that “you can’t have police that get results if you don’t pay them well . . .”
He added that Guanajuato will also have the highest-paid state police, since all state officers receive at least 20,000 pesos (US $1,069) per month as of January 1.
