Government announces 20% hike in minimum wage; biggest in 44 years: labor secretary

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December 16, 2019

The minimum wage will increase 20% to 123.22 pesos (US $6.50) per day on January 1, the federal government announced on Monday.

Speaking at the National Palace in Mexico City, Labor Secretary Luisa María Alcalde said the hike is the largest in real terms in 44 years. It is seven times the current annual inflation rate, which decreased to 2.85% in late November.

Alcalde said the increase was possible thanks to the support of unions, employers and President López Obrador.

The minimum wage will also increase in the northern border region, although only by 5% to 185.56 pesos (US $9.80) per day.

The decision to raise the wage both in the north and across the country was taken unanimously by the members of the National Minimum Wage Commission council. Some 3.44 million workers will benefit.

Alcalde said the 16% increase to the minimum wage implemented at the start of this year did not lead to higher inflation, pointing out that inflation rates are in fact among the lowest in four years.

The northern border region provided even greater proof that the minimum wage increase didn’t drive up prices, the secretary said, because the wage doubled there at the start of 2019 but inflation levels are lower than in the rest of the country.

For his part, López Obrador said the wage increase will help the economy “because it strengthens the internal market.”

Higher incomes will result in more sales for businesses which will stimulate economic growth, he said.

The president thanked the business sector for supporting the increase and said the government will continue to push for a higher minimum wage in order to recover lost purchasing power. However, he said that increases must occur gradually to ensure that they don’t hurt business.

López Obrador declared that the stage is now set for greater growth and wellbeing in Mexico, although he acknowledged that the government still has a lot to do to ensure that they are achieved.

“We have unbeatable conditions for growth and wellbeing . . . We’re going to pacify the country, we’re going to solve the serious problem of violence and insecurity . . . We’re going to be the happiest Mexicans and have a society that benefits the next generations. I’m aware that a lot still needs to be done,” he said.

Business Coordinating Council president Carlos Salazar Lomelín said the wage increase was “great news for Mexico.”

He said the business group will now push for Mexicans to earn salaries of at least 6,500 pesos (US $344) per month – a figure 73% higher than the minimum wage – so that workers can adequately support not just themselves but also their families.

“We will make constant efforts . . . to try now to . . . reach the minimum wellbeing line for families . . .” Salazar said.

The business leader’s commitment comes a month after 100 Mexican companies announced that they will raise the minimum monthly salary of their employees to 6,500 pesos.

According to the chief Mexico economist at the Bank of America, the minimum wage hike will likely prevent core inflation from slowing further even though the economy is weak.

In a report published last week, Carlos Capistrán argued that a 20% minimum wage increase will also limit the central bank’s capacity to further cut interest rates.

The Bank of México will only reduce rates by half a point to 7% next year, he predicted. That would still leave Mexico with one of the highest real interest rates (borrowing costs minus inflation) in the world, the news agency Bloomberg reported.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp)

Artisans and artists unite: exhibition breaks down barriers between the two

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Leigh Thelmadatter

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December 14, 2019

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One of the pieces on display at the exhibition in Mexico City.

Twelve years ago, the Museo de Arte Popular (Folk Art Museum) in Mexico City decided to establish an event to pair artisans with fine artists, designers, architects and the like to create and exhibit innovative works.

The idea was to erase the dividing line or barrier between fine and folk art as well as to encourage exchanges of ideas among the various fields.

And so the Bienal Arte/Sano ÷ Artistas was born.

The name is a play on words: arte (art) and sano (healthy) together spell artesano (artisan) and are followed by the division sign, which is read as divided by or among.

According to museum director Walther Boelsterly “. . . the barrier between the worlds of handcrafts and fine art is artificial. Both artist and artisan are creators. I think that the distance that has been created is because the market has decided that one is more important than the other.”

Artists and artisans worked together to create the pieces on display at the Folk Art Museum.

Over the years, the biennial, as it is known, has exhibited works such as vases, large jars, lamps, textiles, jewelry and furniture, along with more “typically artistic” pieces such as sculptures, murals and installations. All entries are based on materials that are traditional in Mexican handcrafts such as ceramics, blown glass, wood, leather, metals and more.

This year’s edition, the sixth, is dedicated to Oaxacan painter Francisco Toledo, who died this year. He was a noted promoter of the state’s handcrafts and participated in the first Arte/Sano event. The opening of the biennial also paid homage to the 100^th anniversary of Germany’s Bauhaus movement, which combined fine art, handcrafts and technology.

Invited artisans include traditional clothing weaver Remigio Mestas Revilla of Yalalag, Oaxaca, copper and silver smith Abdon Punzo of Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, and paper maché (cartonería) artisan Oscar Becerra of Mexico City. Invited artists and others include sculptor Angela Gurria, mathematician and sculptor Alba Rojo and sculptor Yvonne Domengue.

One of the pairings at the exhibition is that of mixed media artist Mary Stuart and Teotitlán del Valle (Oaxaca) weaver Enrique Jerónimo Hernández Ruiz to create a work called El Vacío.

The work consists of two woven pieces, one black and one white, both highly stylized arrows. The arrows are based on those found on Muslim prayer rugs, which are supposed to point toward Mecca at the indicated times. The design idea is based on Stuart’s experience in the Muslim world, as well as Hernández’s knowledge of how to weave (and unweave) his work to create unusual rug shapes.

Stuart has nothing but praise for Hernández’s professionalism and technique.

“My experiences with working with Mexican artesanos such as maestro Enrique Jeronimo have been absolutely positive. I have had the pleasure of working with this artisan for over 18 years. I knew nothing about weaving when I began and still do not know that much. However, we have no problems communicating. He has always understood my ideas and works with me to make them possible. Nothing has ever been ‘lost in translation’ in the collaboration.”

Mexico does have a history of contact and collaboration among artisans and artists. Artists such as Dr. Atl and Roberto Montenegro worked to promote traditional handcrafts after the Mexican Revolution, writing the first modern treatises on the subject.

Artisans have taken cues from fine art and other creative endeavors. The most famous examples of this is the image of La Catrina (attributed to graphic artist José Guadalupe Posada) and that of Frida Kahlo, which can be found in just about every medium available.

The exhibition runs until February 23.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Cozumel reefs reopened until March for recreational activities

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Cody Copeland

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December 14, 2019

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Coral reefs will be reopened to the public in Cozumel. — Coral reefs will be reopened to the public in Cozumel park. conanp

Coral reefs off Cozumel that were closed to the public for conservation purposes in September will be reopened for recreational activities.

The Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp) announced that the Palancar and Colombia reefs in the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park in Quintana Roo will be open from December 15 to March 31.

The reefs were closed to the public due to white band disease, which kills the coral.

The park’s El Cielo reef will remain closed until March 31, as it is a feeding and breeding ground for young fish and larvae that interact with the neighboring reefs, protecting and conserving the marine life in them.

A third stage in Conanp’s conservation strategy will begin in April, when the reefs will be closed intermittently to give them breaks from human activity.

Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park in Quintana Roo. conanp

“The conservation strategy will be strengthened through the work of collaborative networks and community vigilance,” said the department in a press release.

Academics on Conanp’s advisory council expressed the importance of constant biological monitoring of the reefs, the results of which will allow the department to adapt and improve its conservation actions.

“It should be noted that the proposed strategies can change depending on the conditions of the area . . . In this sense, we ask visitors to Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park to promote good tourism practices for the benefit of the reefs,” it added.

First detected in Florida in 2014, white band disease made its way to the reefs of Quintana Roo in 2018, and experts have since observed its rapid advance through the whole Mesoamerican Reef System.

It is attributed to poor water quality caused by lack of drainage and an excess of nutrients produced by the decomposition of sargassum.

The use of sunblock, overfishing and climate change are also factors.

Sources: Milenio (sp), Conanp (sp)

Bags of dismembered bodies those of kidnapped Villagrán police

By

Cody Copeland

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December 14, 2019

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The bodies were found in bags on the Celaya-Salamanca highway.

The dismembered bodies of four police officers kidnapped in a raid on a police station in Guanajuato on Wednesday were found in plastic bags on Friday.

The bodies of the Villagrán municipal police were found in bags abandoned on the side of the Salamanca-Celaya highway.

The municipality of Villagrán posted a black ribbon and two death notices with the names of the fallen officers on social media, including three others killed in Wednesday’s attack, and expressions of solidarity for the families of the victims.

A judge who was also kidnapped in the raid was released alive and with minor injuries.

The Villagrán government canceled the town’s Christmas parade as a result of the attack, which was followed up with a photo on social media Friday. It showed four men presumed to have been the four kidnapped officers surrounded by armed civilians.

Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo said that such videos are part of a strategy of criminal groups to cause fear and panic and announced the arrival of more officers of the National Guard to reinforce security in Villagrán.

National Guard chief Luis Rodríguez Bucio arrived in Guanajuato on Friday on orders by President López Obrador to supervise security operations and oversee the deployment of more security forces in the state.

They will be deployed in municipalities with the most security problems, which are Salamanca, Villagrán, Celaya, Cortazar, Juventino Rosas and Los Apaseos.

Guanajuato Security Commissioner Sophia Huett López said the identities of the gunmen who carried out Wednesday’s attack are still unknown.

“That is information that will come through the investigation. What we have to do is keep working together, working hard and trying to contain this phenomenon . . . [which] is part of a fight for territorial control for criminal activities,” she said.

She said that Villagrán authorities waited 10-15 minutes to activate a code red after Wednesday’s attack, letting “valuable time pass.” She acknowledged that some officers have been corrupted by organized crime.

She said her department is aware that Villagrán has become embroiled in the territorial struggle between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.

The Villagrán officers were among 10 killed in the state in just two days. A total of 64 officers have been murdered this year.

After the murder of an Irapuato officer on his day off on Thursday night, Police Chief Pedro Cortés Zavala said that police officers must be vigilant at all times, even when not on duty.

“We are obviously worried . . . all of the police forces in the state are on alert in the face of this situation and we’re instructing officers to be observant and alert both on duty and off,” he said.

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

LGBTI community joins artist for demonstration over Zapata painting

By

Cody Copeland

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December 14, 2019

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Zapata lookalikes at the Palace of Fine Arts on Friday.

Revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata appeared in drag Friday when members of the LGBTI community gathered at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts to show support for artist Fabián Cháirez and denounce violence against the community.

Cháirez’s painting La Revolución, which depicts a feminized Zapata, has sparked controversy since it was used as publicity for an exhibition at the arts center earlier this month.

But even more controversy has followed an agreement by the federal government with Zapata’s descendants to install a plaque alongside the painting to explain their dismay with it. The Secretary of Culture also agreed to withdraw the publicity that used the painting, in which Zapata is shown nude, wearing a pink sombrero and high heels and riding a horse with an erection.

Donning sombreros, makeup, fishnet stockings, women’s shoes, rainbow flags and false, Zapata-style mustaches, protesters expressed support for freedom of expression and spoke against hate crimes against the LGBTI community.

“I would rather die in ladies’ shoes than live on my knees!” and “If Zapata were alive, he would be with us!” were among their slogans.

Gay Zapatas kiss in protest in Mexico City.

A banner revealed there were over 1,500 hate crimes against the LGBTI community from 1995 to 2018.

Cháirez himself attended the protest and spoke to the crowd of around 300 people, denouncing the government’s decision to stop using his painting for publicity and to place the plaque alongside it.

“People who have expressed rejection and have made homophobic, macho and misogynistic statements do not deserve a space in a building like the Palace of Fine Arts. It will be worrying to share the space with such a statement,” he said.

He said he could empathize with the family of the “Strongman of the South,” despite disagreeing with their attempted censure of his work.

“I understand the anger of some because of an image that does not correspond to their expectations. I have felt rage when others have tried to impose an idea on me that does not fit with my way of thinking. This is something that many of us face every day, which is why with my painting I search for other possibilities of existing, of seeing and of interpreting reality.”

The curator of the exhibition, entitled Zapata Después de Zapata (Zapata After Zapata), also expressed his disapproval of the concessions made to the revolutionary’s descendants.

The offending publicity for the show has been withdrawn.

“It’s a shame that the Secretariat of Culture signed the agreement with the Zapata family,” said Luis Vargas Santiago. “I do not agree. It is an attack on my curating and against the work of Fabián Cháirez, and sets a precedent that invalidates freedom,” he said.

A protest by around 200 farmers at the Palace of Fine Arts on Tuesday turned violent when they attacked members of the LGBTI community who had gathered to show their support for the painting and freedom of expression.

A representative of the Network of Civil Society Organizations, David Contreras, spoke at Friday’s protest, proclaiming that the actions of the farmers on Tuesday do not represent the opinions of all farmworkers.

“In the fields there are men and women . . . who fight, that’s why we’re here. We can’t abandon our sexually diverse companions. We’re going to keep fighting with you hand in hand . . . Zapata lives! The fight continues!” he said.

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

Federal program dismisses 17,000 ‘tree-planters’ for collecting pay without working

By

Cody Copeland

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December 14, 2019

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The federal employment program is operating in eight states.

The national tree-planting program that was supposed to create 200,000 jobs this year has not only fallen well short of that goal but has been scammed by 17,000 supposed tree-planters.

The Secretariat of Welfare said it dismissed 17,000 beneficiaries of the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) program for collecting their pay without working.

The number of hectares planted is also well under the target of the reforestation program, which was presented by President López Obrador in February.

The president told reporters at a meeting in Teapa, Tabasco, on Friday that 150,000 hectares of trees had been planted, benefiting 60,000 rural farmers.

The program was intended to plant 570,000 hectares in eight states this year.

As remuneration for working just six days a month planting trees, workers are paid 4,500 pesos (US $236) in cash and another 500 pesos that goes into a savings fund. The budget for this year was 24 million pesos (US $1.2 million).

Before yesterday’s meeting, Welfare Secretary María Luisa Albores González admitted there was a shortfall of 150 million trees. In Tabasco, production was as low as 30% of the established goals.

“There is a lack of plants that is due in the first place to the fact that there was previously no demand for plants like those promoted by this reforestation program, and also to the ravages of droughts and prolonged low water levels . . .” she said.

Welfare undersecretary Javier May Rodríguez said the 17,000 workers dismissed from the program believed that the benefits they were receiving were “as before,” when they were not required to do the work in order to receive payment.

López Obrador also referred to practices from the past, pointing the finger at previous administrations for leaving things in a state that made things difficult for the program. He repeated a favorite analogy, describing the government they left as a “lazy, rheumatic, cunning elephant.”

In Tabasco alone 1,500 workers were sanctioned for not planting trees, initially with the withholding of payments and later with their dismissal, after visits to inspect their progress revealed they had not been working.

Albores said eight million trees were planted in the state, highlighting that over four million were planted in mountainous areas alone.

She said that next year the project should make up for what was not planted this year, for which she signed an agreement with the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) for the donation of 80 million trees.

Commercial nurseries are expected to provide 30 million primarily fruit-bearing trees and community nurseries should supply another 40 million to 50 million.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Former security boss had his own cartel and president was aware: ex-cop

By

MND Staff

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December 13, 2019

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Calderón, left, and García in a file photo.

Former president Felipe Calderón was aware of his security secretary’s complicity with the Sinaloa Cartel and an accomplice himself to organized crime, claims an ex-regional commissioner of the Federal Police.

“Calderón shouldn’t be surprised that they’re trying his accomplice in another country,” Javier Herrera Valles said Friday in reference to Genaro García Luna, who was arrested in the United States on Monday on charges that he allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in exchange for multimillion-dollar bribes.

“. . . He [Calderón] definitely had knowledge [of García’s criminality] and I hope that he faces up to his responsibility and the Mexican people for the betrayal he committed as president by also being involved in organized crime himself,” he said in an interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui.

Following García’s arrest in Dallas, Texas, Calderón posted a statement to Twitter in which he denied any knowledge of García’s alleged collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel and said that he was “deeply” surprised by his arrest.

Asked to respond to the statement, Herrera asserted that “Felipe Calderón had knowledge of all the accusations” faced by García, which included the fact that he provided security to the Sinaloa Cartel that allowed it to move drugs to the northern border and supplied confidential information about government investigations and other criminal organizations.

The ex-president was aware of “all the arbitrary actions” his security secretary was committing, he added.

“It’s a shame that he comes out and makes these declarations [to the contrary] . . .” Herrera said.

The former police commissioner wrote to Calderón on two occasions in 2008 to alert him to a range of irregularities within the Federal Police under García’s leadership.

In one of the letters, Herrera claimed that the security secretary had installed officers in the Federal Police with whom he had previously collaborated at the now-defunct Federal Investigation Agency to commit crimes including drug-trafficking and homicide.

In that way, García created his own cartel, the ex-commissioner asserted in today’s interview.

“Genaro’s cartel started to attack the other cartels, they [the latter] started to recruit common criminals to use as lookouts, they started recruiting, growing excessively – extreme violence originates as a result of that, the others swelled their ranks to respond to that violence.”

Calderón, right, was aware of accusations against García, says ex-cop.

In November 2008, Herrera was arrested on drug trafficking charges and spent four years in prison before he was absolved of the crime.

He told Aristegui that he held Calderón directly responsible for detaining him for a crime that he didn’t commit. The “hit” came “directly from the president,” Herrera said. “It was he who took me down.”

Meanwhile, President López Obrador warned on Friday that anyone in his government found to have collaborated with García in the Calderón administration will be dismissed.

He told reporters at his morning news conference that he had given instructions for a government-wide investigation to determine whether any members of the former security secretary’s team were serving in his administration.

“. . . If they passed through [the governments of] Calderón and Peña [Nieto] to us . . . they’re gone! We arrived here to change things and . . . corruption isn’t tolerated, not even in my family!” López Obrador said.

The president renewed his attack on the confrontational security policy implemented by Calderón and perpetuated by Peña Nieto, asserting that it is the cause of the high levels of violence Mexico is suffering today.

“We’re experiencing a very difficult moment in security because the policy at the start of 2007 was mistaken. What that policy caused was an escalation [of violence], disappearances, murders . . . corruption, everything! We’ve inherited that,” López Obrador said, adding that the arrest of García was indicative of the gravity of the security problems past government have passed on.

Source: Aristegui (sp), Milenio (sp)

León, Guanajuato, prepares for its annual 26-day party

By

Cody Copeland

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December 13, 2019

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León State Fair will draw at least five million people next month.

León, Guanajuato, is getting ready to host the 144th annual State Fair, a 26-day celebration featuring concerts, shows, rides, gastronomy, sports and much more.

“The 2020 edition of the León State Fair will surprise with its grand display of spectacles, presentations and shows for national and international visitors,” said the head of the festival board, Juan Carlos Muñoz Márquez, at a press conference in Mexico City.

From January 10 to February 4, Palenque de León park will dazzle with events such as the show Destino: A Trip through Mexico, created exclusively for the fair by Mexican producers, which features acrobats from 17 different countries.

There will also be a concert by DJ Steve Aoki, among other attractions for people of all ages.

“The Secretary of Tourism and the municipality of León are making a joint effort to create a more accessible fair, a fair for the whole family that offers security and respect on the part of the people of León,” said Muñoz.

Federal Tourism Secretariat official Hilario Pérez León acknowledged the importance of the fair to tourism at the national level.

“The León State Fair has been put on since 1876 and in 2018 it was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guanajuato,” she said. “It’s also celebrating its 144th anniversary, consolidating its place among the three largest festivals in Mexico.”

Guanajuato state Tourism Secretary Teresa Matamoros Montes said the fair only gets better each year.

“It’s an event that’s strengthened and eagerly awaited by locals, which provides a wide cultural offering for all families . . . It is estimated that the fair will bring in 3 billion pesos (US $157 million) in tourism [revenues],” she said.

More than five million people are expected to visit the fair.

Special guest municipality will be San Miguel de Allende, while Tamaulipas and Japan will be special state and country guests.

Other events that will complement the fair will be the traditional parade on January 20, which will be themed “The history of the movies,” as well as a spectacle on ice entitled Muzeo, soccer games, foot races and bicycle and motorcycle rallies.

Mexico News Daily

Water service suspensions in México state to allow maintenance work

By

Cody Copeland

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December 13, 2019

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Water system maintenance work will affect supplies for the next two weeks.

Residents in parts of México state will see suspensions in water service over the next couple of weeks to allow for maintenance work to be carried out.

The State Water Commission (CAEM) said in a press release that the affected communities will be primarily in the eastern and western parts of the state.

The maintenance will be performed by the National Water Commission (Conagua) “in order to have the state’s hydraulic infrastructure in optimal condition,” the commission said.

To be divided into four shut-off periods, the work will begin on Friday and conclude on Saturday, December 28.

The first period will be from December 13-15 to allow for work on the Tulpetlac pumping station at the Los Reyes-Ecatepec aqueduct, which will affect the water supply in Ecatepec and Tultitlán.

Beginning at 8:00am on December 19 and concluding at 8:00pm on December 21, the second period will affect Nezahualcóyotl, La Paz and Valle de Chalco, as work is done on the La Caldera pumping station at the Tláhuac aqueduct.

The third period will be from the early morning of Thursday, December 26 to 7:00pm on December 27 to allow for work on the Los Reyes-Ferrocarril and Teoloyucan aqueducts.

The water service suspension will affect the municipalities of Zumpango, Coyotepec, Teoloyucan, Cuautitlán, Cuatitlán Izcalli, Tultepec, Nextlalpan, Tultitlán, Atizapán de Zaragoza and Tlalnepantla.

The fourth and final shut-off period will be from December 26-28 as Conagua works on the Texcoco aqueduct from 9:00am on the first day until 9:00pm on Saturday the 28th. The northern areas of Nezahualcóyotl will be affected.

Residents are urged to store water to make it through the dry days.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

A 3D printer is building a neighborhood of houses in Tabasco

By

MND Staff

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December 13, 2019

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The future of home construction has arrived in Mexico: a giant 3D printer built two houses in Nacajuca, Tabasco, last week.

Built by the United States non-profit New Story in conjunction with Mexican social housing enterprise Échale and U.S. construction technology company Icon, the homes will form part of the world’s first 3D-printed neighborhood.

Fifty homes designed to withstand seismic activity and prevent flooding are expected to be built in Nacajuca with 3D printers by the end of 2020. The local government donated land for the project and will provide the infrastructure required by the new neighborhood such as electricity and roads.

The CEO and co-founder of New Story told CNN that vulnerable families living on about US $3 a day will have the opportunity to move into the neighborhood once it is finished.

Brett Hagler said that low-income residents in Nacajuca currently live in “pieced-together” shacks that flood during the rainy season.

“Some of the women even said that the water will go up to their knees when it rains, sometimes for months,” he said.

New Story has built more than 2,700 homes in Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador and Bolivia since it was founded in 2014 but the Tabasco project will be the first completed using a 3D printer.

“We feel like we’ve proved what’s possible by bringing this machine down to a rural area in Mexico, in a seismic zone, and successfully printing these first few houses,” Hagler said.

The Vulcan II printer was made by Icon, a Texas-based company that began collaborating with New Story two years ago.

The 10-meter-long printer pipes out a concrete mix that is used to build the walls of the homes one layer at a time. A 47-square-meter home with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen can be built in a few days.

Each 3D-printed home in the Nacajuca neighborhood will have curved walls and lattices to improve airflow and a reinforced foundation to help it withstand earthquakes. Échale has partnered with New Story to complete parts of the homes that can’t be 3D-printed.

New Story + ICON + Échale | “3D Printed Housing for Those Who Need It Most”

Watch this video on YouTube

“3D printed homes allow for safer, faster and higher quality housing,” the developers said in a promotional video.

Icon CEO and co-founder Jason Ballard explained that the construction process with the 3D printer has improved by “10 times” during the past year.

Referring to the Nacajuca project, he told CNN that “it is so rare that the-most-in-need of our sisters and brothers globally get first access to advanced technologies and breakthroughs in materials science.”

The innovative home-building technology has the potential to change the world, Ballard added.

“We think part of what 3D printing allows us to do is to deliver a much higher-quality product to the housing market at a speed and price that’s typically not available for people” in low-income housing, he said.

“It is a house that anyone would be proud to live in.”

Source: CNN (en), En Concreto (sp), Fast Company (en)