5 cruise ship arrivals at Cozumel canceled due to coronavirus fears

By

-

March 13, 2020

The Regal Princess is among the ships that won't be operating for 60 days.

Princess Cruises has canceled five upcoming cruise ship arrivals to Cozumel, Quintana Roo, after it announced that it will voluntarily and temporarily suspend its global operations for the next 60 days.

The Regal Princess, set to dock on March 13 and 27, the Sky Princess, set to arrive on March 19 and April 10, and the Caribbean Princess, set to arrive on April 30, would have brought 21,546 passengers to Cozumel in the next couple of months.

The director general of the Integral Port Administration of Quintana Roo, Alicia Ricalde Magaña, said that the region will lose an estimated $1.76 million in tourism revenue from the one company’s customers alone, basing its estimate on the fact that the average cruise ship passenger spends around US $82 upon disembarking.

The economic impact of cruise ship passengers in Quintana Roo is seen in services such as tours, food and drinks in bars and restaurants, folk art and souvenir sales and transportation to other popular destinations on the Caribbean coast, such as Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

The port authority said that it will make all of its facilities available to Princess Cruises once the coronavirus scare has subsided. It also said that it has worked to maintain sanitary conditions throughout the crisis.

“Since the arrival of the first suspicious case aboard a cruise ship, we have implemented preventative hygienic measures, such as putting in handwashing sinks in every terminal we administer, as well as antibacterial gel,” said Ricalde.

She also urged the public to get information via official channels and avoid being misinformed by false news reports.

There are currently 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 in Mexico, but health officials say that a widespread outbreak in the coming weeks is inevitable.

Sources: Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp)

Denied access to US, travelers from Europe to remain in Mexico

By

Cody Copeland

-

March 13, 2020

0

Aeroméxico passengers flying from Europe to the United States with a layover in Mexico will not be allowed to board their connecting flights, but will instead be forced to wait 14 days before continuing on to their destinations.

Beginning Friday, the United States will not allow passengers from countries in Europe’s Schengen Area to enter the country directly in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus known as Covid-19.

The Schengen Area of the European Union includes France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Italy and other countries in mainland Europe.

Aeroméxico had a similar policy for travelers to the United States from China, where the virus originated.

“We did not allow passengers coming from China in the last 14 days to make their connection to the United States under instruction from the [U.S.] government. Now we’re including passengers from Europe in this scheme,” said Grupo Aeroméxico security director Arturo Duhart.

The airline added that it is reinforcing its sanitation protocols on its fleet of airplanes used for international routes.

“When a plane arrives from an at-risk area, we are cleaning the whole passenger cabin with a nebulizer and we’re also doing deep cleans,” said Duhart.

There are currently 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus, up from 12 cases yesterday, but health officials say that a widespread outbreak of the virus is inevitable in the coming weeks.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Político (sp)

Source of contaminated med sought after 7th death in Pemex hospital

By

MND Staff

-

March 13, 2020

0

The hospital where seven dialysis patients have died.

Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the contaminated medication that was administered to dialysis patients at the Pemex Regional Hospital in Villahermosa, Tabasco, where a seventh death linked to the tainted drug occurred on Thursday.

The Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risk (Cofepris) and the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said that they are investigating the possible adulteration or counterfeiting of the blood-thinning drug sodium heparin that was given to scores of dialysis patients almost two weeks ago.

Pemex last week accused the manufacturer of the drug of delivering heparin that was contaminated with bacteria.

Cofepris said that the investigation into the tainted medication was launched after the pharmaceutical company PiSA filed a criminal complaint with the FGR, alleging that its heparin was either adulterated or counterfeited.

PiSA said that it examined its sodium heparin at the Pemex Regional Hospital and detected signs that the vials it was contained in had been reused or tampered with. Testing found that the heparin contained substances that are not used by PiSa to manufacture the drug.

PiSA said that the person who delivered the drug to the Pemex hospital, José Roche Pérez, is not an authorized distributor of the pharmaceutical company, according to Cofepris.

The commission called on hospitals, pharmacies and other medication retailers to review their stock for INHEPAR 5000 manufactured by PiSA with a batch number of C18E881 and an expiry date of January 2021. Anyone who finds the drug in their stock “should secure it and notify this health authority,” Cofepris said.

The commission also recommended that no medication be purchased from José Roche Pérez until its investigation has been completed.

The tainted sodium heparin claimed its seventh victim on Thursday – 76-year-old Bienvenido Sánchez Feria of the Tabasco municipality of Huimanguillo. His granddaughter Yenny Lisbeth Sánchez said that he died of respiratory arrest.

The newspaper El Universal reported that six dialysis patients given heparin contaminated by the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae have now died and that one other person lost their life in the Villahermosa hospital after becoming infected with the same bacteria. The death of that person is considered “collateral damage” of the administration of the contaminated medication, El Universal said.

The deaths are under investigation to determine their exact cause and the role played by the tainted heparin.

Source: El Universal (sp)

UPDATE: Health authorities have confirmed that eight patients have died from the contaminated medication.

Widespread outbreak of coronavirus is ‘inevitable,’ health authorities say

By

MND Staff

-

March 12, 2020

0

Confirmed cases of novel coronavirus Covid-19 in Mexico remain low but there is a growing resignation that a much more widespread outbreak is only a matter of time.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Thursday that community transmission within Mexico could begin within about 15 days. All of the 12 confirmed cases to date were detected in people who have recently traveled abroad to countries including Italy, Spain and the United States.

“We detected the first case on February 27; in our mathematical modeling we had calculated up to 40 days before we would arrive at the community transmission stage,” López-Gatell told reporters at the president’s regular news conference.

However, the experience in European countries such as Italy and Germany showed that community transmission will likely occur within 30 days of the detection of the first case, he explained.

According to a model developed by Gustavo Cruz, a mathematician at the National Autonomous University (UNAM), a widespread outbreak of coronavirus will commence between March 20 and 30. “The spread of the disease is something that is inevitable,” he said.

As soon as community transmission is detected, López-Gatell said, the government will inform the public.

“We’re going to announce it not just because of an ethical conviction or transparency but because it’s essential as part of the scientific and technical response,” he said.

The deputy health minister said that efforts to detect potential cases of coronavirus at the nation’s main airports will be ramped up in an attempt to slow down transmission of the disease.

He acknowledged that the spread of Covid-19 could force the postponement or cancellation of as many as 8,000 events but stressed that the government will aim to ensure that there is not “unnecessary damage to the economy.”

Later on Thursday, federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco announced that the Tianguis Turistico 2020 – Latin America’s largest tourism industry event – would be postponed. The event will now take place in Mérida, Yucatán, from September 19-22 rather than March 22-25, he said.

For its part, UNAM announced that it was suspending all large gatherings such as meetings, concerts and graduation ceremonies from March 23.

The university also said that it would suspend classes if an outbreak in Mexico reaches so-called stage 3, in which thousands of people are infected. It also said that individual faculties could shut down if Covid-19 cases are detected among their students.

Meanwhile, doctors working at a makeshift migrant camp on the Mexico-United States border in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, are treating the arrival of coronavirus as a certainty rather than a possibility, according to a report by news outlet Al Jazeera.

One doctor said that when Covid-19 arrives at the camp, where some 2,500 asylum seekers live, the effect will be “catastrophic” and people will die.

Sam Bishop, Matamoros project coordinator for medical NGO Global Response Management, which runs the camp’s only clinic, told Al Jazeera that the biggest threat comes from volunteers who cross into the camp from the United States and might be carrying coronavirus without realizing it.

Despite the risks, one family in the camp said that they were not specifically worried about Covid-19 because they expected to get sick during the journey to seek asylum in the United States.

“If the sickness is going to happen, it’s going to happen,” one migrant said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Expansión Política (sp), Al Jazeera (en)

Why can’t you take a cold shower on a hot day and other mysteries

By

Sarah DeVries

-

March 12, 2020

0

Mexicans' ability and willingness to laugh and joke about nearly anything is unparalleled.

I moved to a different house this week. After a not-very-exhaustive search for movers, I settled on three guys and a decked-out pick-up truck from the mid-90s. They were congenial, hard-working, and got me completely moved in three trips.

I can’t find my tin of expensive coffee, but really, a possible fall off the truck or even swiping of caffeine is a small price to pay for having gotten all that done for a fraction of a fraction of the price it would have cost in the United States.

I marveled at how they hoisted the bed frames up and down balconies with rope and was 100% charmed by how the driver revved up to get some momentum in that old truck before driving up the hill to my new house while another stood at its open back to make sure all the contents didn’t spill out in the process. All the while I thought, “Wow, this would never fly in the U.S.”

They even hooked my stove up to the gas for me.

Things here in Mexico seem either to be taken dead seriously or not taken seriously at all.

Here are some things that are very important indeed: paperwork, not putting your feet on furniture, the need for salsa at all meals, doing anything at a bank, doing one’s best not to mix hot and cold in your body for any reason lest you fall ill from un mal aire.

Things that aren’t taken too seriously: insurance for dangerous jobs, fidelity, bedtimes for children and punctuality in general, showing up at a party whether or not you have been officially invited or even know anyone there.

Mexico is famous for its “red tape,” but really, it simply has different red tape than what foreigners are used to. You can hire movers who will show up at the appointed time and do the work as easily as if they were teenage babysitters coming to watch a movie while your kids slept, but if you want to get a credit card, you’ll need no fewer than 15 forms of ID and character references, and possibly a notarized and apostilled copy of your old Blockbuster membership card.

Getting into the country as a U.S. or Canadian citizen couldn’t be easier. Staying in the country legally takes quite a bit of work and precisely worded official letters. You need many documents and forms to get a driver’s license, but (in Veracruz, anyway) the only test you’ll need to take for it is a quick eye exam. You’d think they’d want to make sure I could at least identify a car, but not so!

Parts of my city look like an earthquake just hit (before many were able to put the finishing touches on their houses no less), with jagged pieces of sidewalk jutting out and top-floor balconies that toddlers presumably have easy access to completely free of protective railing. But you can bet that there will be someone scrubbing the concrete outside of their homes and businesses with soap and bleach each morning. Black patches of mold in houses are taken about as seriously as dust on knick-knacks.

No one dares take a cold shower after coming in from a hot and sweaty day, but most don’t seem to have a problem riding in the front seat of a car with no seatbelt while holding an infant.

Every culture has its own set of contradictions, and Mexico is no different. Depending on where you come from they might seem more or less extreme, but even after all these years, I frequently find myself newly delighted — or at least intrigued — by what people here decide to take seriously versus what they let slide.

I’m supposed to have visitors from the U.S. next week. Apparently, people in their immediate circles are panicking about the coronavirus and warning them not to travel, but from what I can tell, coronavirus is one of those things that (mercifully) is not perpetuating the kind of hysteria-driven frenzy it is in other countries.

After all, what’s coronavirus next to the constant stream of homicides and violence, dengue and car accidents? We seem to have collectively accepted the possibility of an untimely death in stride, which I think is probably a good, if not macabre, attitude to maintain for now.

One of my favorite things about Mexican culture is by far people’s easy sense of humor: their ability and willingness to laugh and joke about nearly anything is unparalleled. They know how not to take things too seriously, and that’s a big part of what has me constantly singing the praises of this country.

So here’s the lesson for today, courtesy of laid-back Mexicans in the face of many worrying issues: take some time to sit back, y’all, and enjoy the ride on this little spot on our spinning globe for a bit. Maybe have a beer. I think we’re going to be OK.

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Cancún at the limit: tourism agency declares no more space for hotels

By

MND Staff

-

March 12, 2020

0

In Cancún, no room for more hotels. — In Cancún, no room.

The National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) will seek to put an end to the construction of new hotels in Cancún, Quintana Roo, because the Caribbean coast resort city is starting to suffer from a lack of water supply.

“We don’t want to frighten away investment but we don’t agree [with] … overexploitation,” said Fonatur chief Rogelio Jiménez Pons.

According to a report by the newspaper El Financiero, Jiménez will ask the council of Benito Juárez, the municipality where Cancún is located, to stop granting construction permits for new hotels in the city, which the federal government first established as a tourism destination 50 years ago.

If local authorities refuse, Fonatur will cease to provide funding for upkeep of the resort city, one of eight destinations developed and maintained by the federal agency.

A report made public in January said that Fonatur planned to spend just over 1.1 billion pesos (US $50.3 million) this year on maintenance at the eight destinations, and that just under a quarter of that amount would go to the two Quintana Roo destinations – Cancún and Cozumel, a Caribbean island off the coast of Playa del Carmen.

Jiménez said that the resources earmarked for Cancún could go to other Fonatur destinations such as Huatulco, Oaxaca. The Pacific coast resort town does have room for more hotels, he said.

The Fonatur chief also said in February that the Cancún hotel zone doesn’t have the capacity to support new developments.

Jiménez said that Fonatur had offered land in other destinations to developers of two hotels because the Caribbean coast resort city is unable to provide the services that new rooms would require, such as water and drainage.

The two projects the tourism fund is trying to stop are the US $1-billion, 3,000-room Grand Island mega-hotel and the 500-room, US $95-million Riu Riviera Cancún, whose construction was halted in 2016 due to environmental concerns but subsequently got the green light to proceed.

Despite Fonatur’s intention to stop new hotel developments in Mexico’s premier tourist destination, hotel chain CEOs told El Financiero that they had no plans to cancel expansion in Cancún.

“We know that there are challenges, and taking that into account, I reiterate that Hyatt maintains the same expansion plan in the country. … We have projects that we are analyzing in the destination [Cancún],” said Camilo Bolaños, Hyatt’s vice president of development in Latin America.

Cancún currently has just over 37,000 hotel rooms but an additional 6,000 are already in the pipeline for the city’s hotel zone.

If Fonatur is successful in stopping new developments, investors could leave Mexico altogether and pursue projects in other Caribbean destinations such as the Dominican Republic and Aruba.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Over 18bn pesos for Texcoco airport project called into question

By

MND Staff

-

March 12, 2020

0

Sandoval: 'it's proven that the airport wasn't a good idea.'

The Ministry of Public Administration (SFP) detected irregularities of 18.6 billion pesos in spending on the previous government’s new Mexico City airport project.

Public Administration Minister Irma Sandoval said Wednesday that the irregularities – US $859.9 million at today’s exchange rate – in spending on the airport at Texcoco, México state, justified the project’s cancelation.

Speaking at a forum organized by lower house lawmakers with the ruling Morena party, Sandoval said that the SFP detected total irregularities of 20 billion pesos in public infrastructure spending by the previous government led by ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto.

“[Of that amount] 18 billion [was spent] on the so-called new Mexico City International Airport which, I can tell you, is now more old than new,” she said. “[It’s] clearly proven that it wasn’t a good idea, as was decided in the end.”

The minister’s remarks came almost a month after she revealed that audits had detected irregularities of more than 544 billion pesos in the spending of the administration led by Peña Nieto.

Presenting an audit report on February 13, Sandoval said that questionable expenditure on the airport included 6 billion pesos in advance payments that the government is trying to recover and an additional 6 billion pesos that was used to pay for work that remains unaccounted for.

President López Obrador, who long asserted that the US $13-billion project was corrupt, canceled construction of the airport after a public consultation held a month before he took office in December 2018.

Sandoval also said Wednesday that audits had detected the embezzlement of 940 million pesos in 2018 from the Seguro Popular universal healthcare scheme, which has been replaced with a new program run by the newly created National Institute of Health for Well-Being.

In addition, she said that during the six-year term of the previous federal administration, the SFP filed only 113 criminal complaints related to government corruption whereas under her leadership, the ministry has filed 128 complaints in 15 months.

“Fifty of the complaints relate to illicit enrichment, 44 … have to do with … crimes linked to the so-called Master Fraud,” Sandoval said, referring to the embezzlement scheme in which 11 government departments diverted billions of pesos in public money through public universities and shell companies.

She also said that the SFP has filed complaints in relation to corruption in the public health sector and that 316 fines totaling almost 1.5 billion pesos have been imposed on companies that entered into contracts with the past government and subsequently “tried to benefit and prosper with the money of Mexicans.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

After panic selling, peso’s value weaker than ever: 22.98 to the US dollar

By

MND Staff

-

March 12, 2020

0

The Mexican peso fell to a record low in relation to the United States dollar early Thursday, registering at 22.98 in international trading.

The declaration by the World Health Organization on Wednesday that novel coronavirus Covid-19 is a global pandemic sparked a wave of panic selling of the peso, which also took a hit earlier this week after global oil prices slumped due to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Before Thursday’s record low, the peso was at its weakest on January 18, 2017 when one dollar bought 22.25 pesos, 3.3% less than the 22.98 rate.

The more than 6% decline in the value of the peso in early morning trading came despite this week’s decision by the Exchange Commission – a body made up of representatives from the central bank and the Finance Ministry (SHCP) – to ramp up a three-year-old currency hedging program.

The Bank of México and the SHCP said in a statement Monday that the commission “has decided to increase the size of the currency hedging program for the equivalent in local currency of US $20 billion to $30 billion.”

“The Exchange Commission reiterates its commitment to continuing to evaluate the foreign exchange market operating conditions and to taking additional measures, if necessary,” the statement added.

After this morning’s slump to almost 23 pesos to the dollar, the interbank rate for the Mexican currency recovered to 22.12, the newspaper Milenio reported. According to currency exchange website xe.com, a single greenback was buying 21.93 pesos at 11:00 a.m.

Juan Francisco Caudillo, an analyst at the Monex financial group, said this week that 25 pesos to the dollar is possible in an extreme case in 2020. He said that the worst-case-scenario estimate took into account factors including the oil price slump, the impact of coronavirus on the United States – Mexico’s largest trading partner – and this year’s U.S. presidential election.

More widely, investors are increasingly concerned about whether the efforts of governments around the world to stimulate their economies in the face of the growing spread of Covid-19 will be sufficient to stave off recession.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend all travel from continental Europe to the U.S. for a period of 30 days starting Friday is predicted to have a massive financial cost.

Stock markets around the world have fallen as the number of coronavirus cases and deaths continue to climb. The Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark IPC index fell 9.18% on Thursday morning, the biggest single-day decline since September 1998.

Source: El Universal (sp), Financial Times (en), Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Hundreds of trees felled illegally in Michoacán butterfly reserve

By

Cody Copeland

-

March 12, 2020

0

Illegal logging has been a factor in habitat loss for the monarch butterfly.

National Guard troops and personnel from the federal environmental protection agency Profepa have discovered illegal logging operations within the boundaries of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

Profepa said in a statement that it detected over 200 cedar, oak and sacred fir trees cut down by loggers without permission from the Ministry of the Environment in Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, amounting to 142 cubic meters of timber.

“We also detected tree stumps cut with chainsaws without the mark of the manager in charge, [which is] a requirement in the authorization of resource use in order to identify the trees that can be extracted under planned forest management,” the agency said.

The agents found 176 stumps of white cedar, 17 of oak and 12 of sacred fir that were taken without authorization. They also found 72 cedar posts cut with a chainsaw.

Authorities secured the area in an effort to prevent further illegal logging.

Those responsible could face fines ranging from 8,688-1,737,600 pesos (US $398-$79,500) and be required to carry out reforestation actions in the area affected by the illegal logging.

Source: Milenio (sp)

DEA detains 750 linked to Jalisco cartel throughout US

By

Cody Copeland

-

March 12, 2020

0

More than 1,300 kilos of narcotics were seized in San Diego and Imperial counties in California.

Officers of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested 750 members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) throughout the U.S. this week in a series of operations called Project Python.

The DEA said that the goal of the operation was to disrupt the cartel’s capacity to distribute methamphetamine and other drugs in the United States.

A map published by the agency showed the areas in the country where the arrests were carried out. It included such cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Texas, New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and New York, among others.

Arrests were also made in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Project Python was the product of six months of investigations conducted by U.S. authorities into the operations of the cartel in the country.

However, despite the large number of gang members arrested, a former DEA agent doesn’t see it having a large effect on the day-to-day operations of the cartel’s leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, for whom the U.S. has offered a US $10-million reward.

“They aren’t going to betray him,” said Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA. He said that few operatives in the cartel even know where El Mencho is located.

He cited the case of drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, for whom there has been a $20-million reward offered for years, but no one has stepped up to turn him in.

Vigil is convinced the arrests will have little impact on the CJNG’s operations.

“Those arrested are very low-level; many don’t even know they’re working for the cartel,” he said, adding that “the structure in Mexico is still intact,” which means, based on his experience, that the structure in the U.S. can be maintained.

Vigil said that even family members are replaced in El Mencho’s operation without much fuss. Oseguera’s own son, Rubén “El Menchito” Oseguera González, was extradited to the U.S. in February, but Vigil said that he can likewise be replaced easily.

“El Menchito played an important role by being [Oseguera’s] son. He will be replaced,” said Vigil, adding that in the structure of the cartel, “anyone can be replaced easily … even his kids.”

Still, authorities see El Mencho’s inner circle collapsing in on him. His daughter Jessica “La Negra” Johana Oseguera González was recently arrested in Washington, D.C., while appearing before a federal court for a bond hearing for her brother.

Vigil, who led much of the operation to arrest Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life in prison in the United States in July of last year, said that the Sinaloa Cartel is still the “most powerful” mover of drugs into the U.S.

The CJNG, he said, has not only been documented as being extremely violent but it also has a broad distribution network which includes key cities in the U.S. In order to take on such violent organizations effectively, he added, there must be more cooperation between Mexico and the U.S.

He called for a strategy that includes a “broad exchange of information between the United States and Mexico,” and said that the latter must change the culture of impunity rampant in its justice system in order to have an effect on the problem.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)