Security Commissioner Huett: it's worse in Celaya.
Extortionists operating in Salamanca, Guanajuato, have diversified: they are now targeting doctors in addition to business owners.
Several doctor’s offices have recently closed in the city due to extortion demands made by suspected members of criminal groups, according to a report published Wednesday by the newspaper Milenio. Some clinics are not operating at night as a result of the same threat.
“They’re not opening anymore,” an unidentified doctor told Milenio. “My patients tell me, ‘when we went to clinics at night, they used to treat us, now the clinics are closed . . .’”
The doctor said there have also been cases in which patients’ vehicles have been stolen while they are receiving treatment, adding that some people are too afraid to seek medical attention at night and attempt to treat their problems themselves.
The doctor also said that he was once contacted by suspected members of a criminal group who asked him to treat a person who had been shot.
“I told them that I wasn’t a surgeon and that in these cases [the person] should be taken to a clinic,” he said.
Salamanca Mayor Beatriz Hernández said the city is affected by a range of crimes, including extortion, and that business owners bear the brunt of the scourge.
“. . . Those who have had the greatest number of problems with crime are shopkeepers . . . We’re reviewing the security strategy that will be applied by this new generation of police,” she said, referring to 30 recently graduated municipal police officers.
“. . . We have a high rate of vehicle theft . . . and of course, [we also have] homicides, shootings . . .”
According to the crime monitoring website elcri.men, Salamanca was the 16th most violent municipality in Mexico between April and September with a per-capita homicide rate of 84.1.
But according to Guanajuato Security Commissioner Sophia Huett López, the extortion problem in Salamanca is not as bad as in Celaya, where many businesses including tortilla shops and a Ford dealership have closed.
The new head of the Human Rights Commission is sworn in in the Senate.
After accusations of a rigged vote and claims that the new head of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) would be a puppet of the government, yet more controversy surfaced Tuesday when Rosario Piedra Ibarra indicated she was unaware that any journalists had been murdered this year.
After she was sworn in as CNDH president, Piedra was asked by a reporter about violence against journalists in Mexico.
“This year has been the worst for journalists,” the reporter said to the new rights chief.
“Have journalists been killed?” Piedra asked.
“Haven’t you heard about the murder of journalists?” the reporter responded.
Commotion in the Senate during the swearing in of human rights chief.
“. . . No, look, I’ve seen what happened in past presidential terms and it’s something terrible,” Piedra said.
According to Periodistas Desplazados México (Displaced Journalists Mexico), 13 journalists have been killed since President López Obrador took office in December.
The NGO announced on Twitter on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint with the commission over which Piedra now presides “for her regrettable responses” about the “grave problem” of murders of journalists in Mexico.
Her remarks are a violation of the human rights of the families of journalists who have been murdered, Periodistas Desplazados said in its complaint.
“[Piedra’s] response provokes a feeling of vulnerability,” the group said, adding that her “ignorance of such a difficult reality . . . generates uncertainty and fear in those who have been victims of attacks . . .”
The organization also said that data shows that Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.
Since 2000, 131 have been killed and more than 99% of the murders have gone unpunished, according to the human rights group Article 19.
Periodistas Desplazados said on Twitter that its complaint extended to the Senate for appointing a candidate to the role of CNDH chief who is “clearly not informed about extremely important issues.”
The NGO stopped short of calling for Piedra’s resignation but urged her to offer a public apology and commit to undertaking training about freedom of expression and violence against the press.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said on Twitter that Piedra’s comments were “deeply troubling,” adding that Mexico needs a human rights agency that fully defends the right of journalists to do their job without fear of reprisals.
“I hope that the new chief, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, recognizes the depth of the crisis,” he wrote.
Piedra faced staunch opposition to her election as CNDH president from opposition lawmakers.
National Action Party (PAN) senators charged that the commission’s autonomy would be lost under its new chief, claiming she would be acting under the orders of President López Obrador.
PAN Senator Gustavo Madero attempted to physically stop Piedra from being sworn in on Tuesday while other lawmakers shouted their disapproval and held up signs that read: “No to fraud in the CNDH.”
There were also accusations that the voting was rigged in Piedra’s favor.
La Ribera now has a fire truck thanks to the creation of a new fire department.
The tragic death of a woman trapped in a housefire in La Ribera, Baja California Sur, has spurred a former United States fire captain to found a volunteer fire department in the town.
The closest first responders to the August 7 fire that killed María Teresa Lomelí were located in San José del Cabo, over 70 kilometers to the south and almost an hour’s drive away.
This prompted part-time La Ribera resident and former fire captain Steve Alcorn to create a campaign to create a volunteer fire department. Alcorn, from Incline Village, Nevada, fell in love with La Ribera when he first visited in 2000.
He saw that most fires were dealt with by citizens without serious incidents, but Lomeli’s death showed him that response times for structure fires and other incidents were far too long to make a difference in an emergency situation.
The campaign began with the goal of getting La Ribera a fire truck and basic life-saving equipment, but it quickly grew into an international movement to establish a fully functioning volunteer fire department.
The La Ribera Volunteer Fire Department will also provide fire and emergency response service to neighboring communities that lack them.
Alcorn has received support from people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in the form of donations and locals willing to participate in the project.
La Ribera Mayor Juan Carlos Montano has accepted the post of chief of administrator for the department. He says the project has advanced rapidly thanks to cooperation from local government, business and citizens, and the monetary support of donors.
“We have advanced a lot in in just a few short months. We have acquired some life-saving equipment and are already training volunteers,” he told Mexico News Daily.
He said the department will change the lives of the residents of La Ribera and neighboring communities by drastically reducing response times.
“We’ll be able to respond much more quickly to fires and accidents,” he said. “Minutes are lives in these situations.”
The department is still in need of support to acquire personal protection equipment, fire rescue training, equipment maintenance and administrative and logistical support.
Federal Police officers who continue to protest against having to join the new National Guard clashed on Tuesday with Mexico City police outside the Mexico City airport.
About 60 police, including 32 on the city force, were injured in a violent confrontation on the Circuito Interior freeway outside Terminal 1.
Mexico City Police Chief Omar García Harfuch said that seven officers were taken to hospital but none was in serious condition. He accused federal officers of throwing 12 tear gas grenades at Mexico City police and said that another 22 gas grenades were seized.
About 1,200 Federal Police officers began blocking Circuito Interior shortly after 10:00am to demand compensation from the government because they don’t want to join the National Guard when the force is disbanded.
About 400 city police tried to dismantle the blockade, triggering a violent response. Officers from both forces were briefly detained by their opposite numbers.
Federal Police said that some of the officers they detained were armed, a claim that was denied by Mexico City authorities.
After the initial clash, an additional 300 Mexico City police arrived at the scene along with Harfuch, who initiated talks with protest leaders. But the talks quickly broke down and the Federal Police refused to lift their blockade.
The violence restarted within minutes, the newspaper El Universal reported. Mexico City police responded to the throwing of tear gas grenades by launching the same at their federal counterparts. Reporters and civilians were also affected by the gas.
Police maintained their blockade for more than six hours, causing traffic chaos outside the airport. Some people missed their flights, El Financiero reported, while others were escorted to the airport by police so they could arrive on time.
The federal Security Secretariat of Security (SSPC), which has responsibility for the Federal Police, condemned the blockade and violence.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the operation to break up the blockade was a success although she conceded that police protocols for responding to protests could be improved.
President López Obrador weighed in on the clash this morning, suggesting that it was no coincidence that police staged their protest outside the airport on the day that former Bolivian president Evo Morales arrived to take up an offer of political asylum.
“There continues to be a lot of provocation. It’s not possible, it’s not a coincidence that Evo arrives and at the same time they’ve organized a protest. It’s not spontaneous, there is someone that is rocking the cradle,” he said.
“. . . I’ve given instructions for there to be dialogue, for [officers] that don’t want to go into the National Guard to be paid off. We’re not dismissing anyone but we can’t have officers [in the National Guard] without a good track record. We have to have honest, professional people who are not linked to illegal acts,” López Obrador added.
Federal Police have staged several protests against their transfer including one in September that blocked the Circuito Interior outside the airport for almost nine hours.
Hackers have demanded a payment of almost US $5 million in bitcoin from Pemex after a cyberattack on the state oil company’s systems on Sunday.
According to the news agency Reuters, a ransom note that appeared on Pemex computers pointed to a dark net website affiliated with DoppelPaymer, a type of ransomware.
It demanded Pemex pay 565 bitcoins, or just over US $4.9 million, within 48 hours in order to have the ransomware removed.
The ransom note said: “Your network has been penetrated. This link and your decryption key will expire in 14 days after your systems were infected . . . We have gathered all your private sensitive data. So if you decide not to pay, we would share it. It may harm your business reputation.”
It also listed an email address to contact.
Reuters wrote to the address and received a response from the suspected hackers stating that Pemex had missed the deadline for a “special price,” apparently referring to a discount.
The state oil company said the cyberattack affected fewer than 5% of its computers and that its storage and distribution facilities were operating normally.
However, several workers told Expansión that Pemex didn’t reveal the true extent of the attack.
The hack, which Pemex said it detected on Sunday, forced the company to shut down computers across Mexico and froze systems such as payments, sources told Reuters.
Employees told Expansión that as many as five in seven computers are affected in some locations. The computer network at Pemex Tower in Mexico City was also breached.
One employee said that Pemex was forced to communicate with workers using the WhatsApp messaging service because they couldn’t open their emails.
The ransom note sent to Pemex.
“In finances, all the computers are off, there could eventually be problems with payments,” the anonymous source said.
Other sources told the news agency Bloomberg that the cyberattack was disrupting Pemex’s billing systems. They said the oil company is relying on manual billing that could affect payment of staff and suppliers and disrupt supply chain operations.
Invoices for fuel delivered to gas stations on Tuesday from Pemex storage facilities were done manually.
Some employees at Pemex’s refining division couldn’t access the internet on Tuesday and their computers were operating slowly, Bloomberg said.
A source in Villahermosa, Tabasco, said that well-drilling services employees were told on Tuesday that they could start their computers but not log on to the network. Telephone lines weren’t working and workers were unable to access email and Skype.
Employees at the Pemex refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato, told Expansión that administrative activities had come to a halt since Sunday because they had been unable to use their computer system.
“Here in Salamanca, not even the telephones are being used because they were also connected to the network. They’re transmitting data via radio and working with paper backups,” one employee said.
Cyberattacks on the computer systems of large companies are becoming increasingly common but the ransomware allegedly used in the Pemex hack is relatively new.
However, it is not the first time that it has been used to target a large computer network. According to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, DoppelPaymer was behind recent attacks on computer systems at Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture and the town of Edcouch, Texas.
CrowdStrike vice president of intelligence Adam Meyers said that DoppelPaymer attacks are typically made against “high value targets” and executed at a time when they need their systems to be “up and running.”
Therefore, those targeted may feel compelled to pay a large ransom, he said.
A source told Reuters that Pemex was reconnecting unaffected computers to its network on Tuesday and wiping infected computers clean.
The company has not commented on the ransom demand but cybersecurity firm MalwareHunter Team, which has investigated the cyberattack, confirmed that Pemex did not comply with the 48-hour deadline.
President López Obrador said Wednesday morning the attack was not serious and blamed it on interests that were resisting changes brought in by his administration. He said he would not discount the possibility that “conservatives” were behind it.
“. . . they are capable of anything.”
Whether Pemex pays the ransom or not, the hack could take a heavy toll on the state oil company’s finances.
After it was hit by a ransomware attack in March, Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro refused to pay the hackers but had to spend US $71 million to repair its systems. The company has so far only recovered $3.6 million from insurance.
Computer forensics expert Andrés Velázquez told Expansión that even if Pemex paid the ransom “there is a possibility that the malware won’t be eliminated and weeks later, an attack could occur again.
“Once a system is infected, there is not a lot that can be done but where there is a lot of work to do is in prevention. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen from this government is that cybersecurity. . . is not a priority,” he added.
Velázquez, CEO of the digital investigation firm Mattica, said that the attack should serve as a “wake-up call” not just for Pemex but for all public and private companies, especially those that manage critical infrastructure.
According to the Organization of American States, Mexico is among the least prepared of its members to confront a cyberattack that affects critical infrastructure.
The hack of Pemex’s systems comes seven months after a cyberattack on five Mexican financial institutions during which 300 million pesos was stolen via fraudulent transfers.
The Italian vessel targeted this week by pirates in the Gulf of Mexico.
Pirates attacked and robbed an Italian ship in the Gulf of Mexico in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Italian sailors were injured during the attack, the Efe news agency reported.
The vessel Remas, which was carrying a crew of 35, was boarded by eight people traveling on two small boats.
The 75-meter ship provides services to oil drilling platforms in the region and belongs to the Italian company Micoperi.
The pirates robbed everything they could during the attack, shooting one crew member in the leg and striking another on the head with a blunt object, but none of the injuries was reported as serious.
A patrol vessel on the lookout for pirates.
The two were taken to hospital after the boat was escorted by the Italian navy to Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.
Piracy has increased off the coasts of Campeche, Tabasco and Yucatán in recent years. There have been around 100 cases since 2017.
Armed thieves board vessels and drilling platforms late at night and move quickly to take anything they find of value.
In January 2019, pirates armed with machetes and shotguns attacked two boats off the coast of Yucatán. After tying up the crew, they took the boats’ motors, GPS devices, loads of fish and other goods.
The boats remained adrift for several hours before they were discovered by another boat that towed them to port.
In November 2018, four masked men attacked a fishing boat in the same area, taking with them the boat’s motor, GPS, 120 kilograms of octopus and the crew members’ cell phones.
Due to the high levels of insecurity in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen in Yucatán earlier this year called for authorities to reinforce surveillance efforts on the water.
The Yucatán Secretary of Public Security affirmed that it has launched operations to arrest pirates.
A rusty, old Volkswagen Beetle was the star of the government’s latest auction of assets seized from criminal organizations, selling for more than seven times its starting price.
The 1995 vocho, which had punctured tires and no side mirrors among other defects, sold for 20,000 pesos (US $1,035) at Sunday’s auction in Mexico City after going on the block at 2,799 pesos.
The 615% increase on the starting price was higher than that recorded for any other asset sold. Despite that result, the auction wasn’t anywhere near as successful as the government had hoped.
Sales of assets brought in a total of 16.2 million pesos (US $838,500), less than half the target amount of 32.5 million.
Six homes formerly owned by convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán went under the hammer but only three of them sold, bringing in revenue of 4.35 million pesos.
This house in Culiacán was owned by ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.
Ricardo Rodríguez, director of the Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, rejected any suggestion that the other homes failed to sell due to fear on the part of potential purchasers.
All three of El Chapo’s properties that did sell are in Culiacán, Sinaloa. In addition to the homes, the purchasers will take possession of their contents.
A home once occupied by Guzmán’s second wife, Griselda López, failed to sell, after going on the block at just over 11.2 million pesos.
The most lucrative sale at the auction held at the former presidential residence, Los Pinos, was that of a home in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. Formerly owned by Tijuana Cartel leader Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, the luxury beachfront property sold for 6.25 million pesos (US $323,000).
All 24 vehicles on offer sold, including a 2012 Mercedes Benz coupé that went for 810,000 pesos, more than four times its starting price, and a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette that attracted a winning bid of 165,000 pesos, 515% above the reserve price.
An 18-carat gold watch encrusted with 60 sapphires sold for 343,950 pesos, 50% less than its actual value. All told, 37 of the 45 lots on offer were cleared but neither of two cargo ships was sold.
The funds raised at the auction, the fifth of its kind held by the government, will be used to buy musical instruments for children in Oaxaca who play in bands.
Foreign Secretary Ebrard, left, greets Bolivia's Evo Morales in Mexico City.
Mexico has granted political asylum to former Bolivian president Evo Morales, who resigned this week under pressure from protests and the military after claiming victory in a disputed election held last month.
President López Obrador said on Tuesday that he personally took the decision to offer safe haven to Morales.
“Let it be clear . . . I gave the instruction to offer asylum,” he said. “I feel very proud to lead a government that guarantees the right to asylum, it’s a point of pride.”
But the decision has divided opinion in Mexico.
The hashtags #EvoBienvenidoAMéxico (Evo Welcome To Mexico) and #EvoNoEresBienvenidoEnMéxico (Evo You’re Not Welcome In Mexico) were the top trending topics on Twitter in Mexico City after the government announced that it would grant asylum to Morales.
The first indigenous leader of the South American nation arrived Tuesday on a Mexican Air Force plane at the Mexico City airport, where he was met by Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
His arrival comes three weeks after a presidential election that was plagued by irregularities. Millions of Bolivians claim that the results were rigged in Morales’ favor.
After an audit by the Organization of American States found “clear manipulation,” the president on Sunday offered to hold fresh elections but it wasn’t enough to put an end to protests that had spread across the country.
After the head of Bolivia’s armed forces asked Morales to step down in order to restore peace, he announced his resignation in a televised address to the nation, stating that “our great desire is for societal peace to return.”
Mexico’s government immediately offered asylum to the leftist leader, who held power in Bolivia for almost 14 years. Along with leftist governments in several other Latin American countries, Mexico characterized the ousting of Morales as a coup.
President López Obrador and Morales have a history of friendship and mutual admiration.
Morales in Mexico City today.
The former, who before entering politics was an activist who fought for indigenous rights, wrote to the Bolivian president in 2010 to convey his “deep respect for the way in which you have been able to represent the noble, conscious and progressive people of Bolivia.”
After López Obrador was sworn in last December, Morales called his fellow leftist “the shining hope for the people of Mexico.”
The two men have also bonded over their shared disdain for neoliberalism.
The decision to grant asylum to Morales allows López Obrador “to reaffirm his leftist bona fides,” The Washington Post said, in a year in which he has ramped up enforcement against migrants at the behest of the United States and urged approval of the new North American trade deal.
“I am sure giving Morales asylum is the good thing to do,” Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst, told The Post.
“But is it right for Mexican foreign policy interests? I don’t know. Where does this leave Mexico? Are we now part of the Bolivarian axis?”
Emilio Álvarez Icaza, an independent senator and former human rights activist, said he approved of the decision to grant asylum as long as it didn’t indicate tacit approval of the modification to the Bolivian constitution that allowed the former president to extend his rule beyond two terms.
Critics of López Obrador have claimed that the president’s intention to hold a revocation of mandate vote three years into his six-year term is part of a ploy to extend his rule beyond 2024.
“I hope that, with this, the Mexican government is not sending the message that there is ideological support for remaining in power beyond term limits,” Álvarez said.
“If this is only a humanitarian response, if it remains only that, I support it. But if the Mexican government wants to build from here in an effort to legitimize extending the mandate of López Obrador, I would raise my voice,” he added.
Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, leader of the National Action Party in the lower house of Congress, was scathing in his criticism of the government’s decision.
“Mexico has traditionally given asylum in our territory to those fleeing dictatorships. Now, they [the government] are not seeking to give asylum to those fleeing tyranny but . . . to the dictator himself!” he wrote on Twitter.
In contrast, the national secretary of the Democratic Revolution Party supported the asylum decision.
“Our international tradition of granting political asylum to . . . persecuted people materializes today in the case of former president Evo Morales. It’s the correct decision . . .” Ángel Ávila wrote on Twitter.
Foreign Secretary Ebrard told a press conference on Monday that the decision was taken for “humanitarian reasons” in light of the “emergency situation” in Bolivia, where he claimed Morales faced a risk to his life.
After touching down in Mexico City, Morales lent credence to that view, telling reporters that “the president of Mexico saved my life.”
He said that the day before his resignation, a member of the army showed him messages that indicated that there was a US $50,000 price on his head.
The former president didn’t reveal what he planned to do in Mexico or how long he intended to stay. In a Twitter post on Monday, Morales said that he would soon “return [to Bolivia] with greater strength and energy.”
Before meeting the ex-president at the airport, Ebrard told reporters at the presidential press conference that it will be up to Morales to decide where he will live and if he requires special protection from the National Guard.
“What Mexico is obliged to do is offer guarantees that he will be safe in our country, I don’t know the details because I haven’t spoken to him . . .” he said early on Tuesday.
Greeting Morales at the airport, Ebrard said: “Welcome, Evo . . . Regards from President López Obrador and all the people of Mexico. You will enjoy freedom, security . . . and protection of your life . . .”
The retired senior citizens are engaged through an agreement with the National Institute for the Elderly (Inapam) which states that they are volunteers.
“The elderly citizens who work in our stores are part of a program of senior citizen volunteers. We signed an agreement with Inapam, which is in charge,” said company spokeswoman Gabriela Buenrostro.
At a press conference for Walmart’s “Irresistible Weekend” campaign, the store’s own version of the national shopping event called “Buen Fin” (Good Weekend), she said the workers receive government pensions.
“They are not Walmart employees. They are part of an Inapam program . . . retired people between the ages of 60 and 65 can have additional remuneration [through tips] in our stores and elsewhere in the industry.”
Seemingly unaware of the program, the president said the Labor Secretariat would intervene, calling it “a great injustice against the elderly on the part of Walmart.”
“The Labor Secretariat must intervene, it will intervene because all human beings have the right to a fair salary, it’s an enshrined right in the constitution,” he added.
The president said he had faith that Walmart executives would decide to pay the baggers now that the issue was being discussed in the media.
Most big-box grocery stores participate in the program.
The number of letter carriers is on the wane as is the quantity of mail they deliver but one constant remains: November 12 is the “Día del Cartero,” or Postman’s Day.
According to Correos de México, the national postal service, there were 10,200 letter carriers working across the country in 2013. Now, the figure has fallen to 7,819, a decline of 23% in just six years.
The growing popularity of private courier services for the delivery of packages and the decline in traditional letter writing are both to blame for the lower demand for postal services and as a result, fewer letter carriers.
Among those that remain is Inés Monsalvo Nosedal, one of a small number of women working in an industry dominated by men.
In an interview with the newspaper El Universal in the lead-up to this year’s Postman’s, and Postwoman’s, Day – which has been celebrated in Mexico since 1931 – Monsalvo said she was saddened by the decline in the number of letter carriers and concerned that they have fewer letters and packages to deliver.
The postal service’s palatial headquarters in Mexico City.
But she remains optimistic about the future of her occupation and continues to carry out her work each day with the same enthusiasm and dedication as when she first started as a letter carrier 13 years ago.
Monsalvo said she faced a steep learning curve when she first entered Mexico’s postal service.
“My former mother-in-law was in the postal service in Naucalpan [México state] for many years. I previously worked as a bilingual secretary but I lost my job and she contacted me and said: ‘There’s work here but as a letter carrier, not in the administrative area,’ she explained.
“It was a challenge at the beginning because I didn’t have any idea about the work I had to do, it was something completely new for me but I liked it a lot,” Monsalvo added.
In addition to learning her mail routes, the cartera, as female letter carriers are called in Spanish, also had to learn to ride a bicycle to fulfill her duties.
Monsalvo now uses a sturdier tricycle to deliver mail in Mexico City but the dangers of the job remain.
“You have to be very careful in the street and here doubly so,” she said. “. . . I’ve fallen off, been knocked down – one day I arrived home with my knees scraped because I fell off my tricycle.”
Punctured tires and stolen mail are among other tribulations Monsalvo has faced while on the job.
When the volume of mail was greater, some workers dislocated their shoulders due to the weight they were burdened with on a daily basis, she said.
“. . . A lot of mail used to arrive [but] the advantage was that the routes were shorter [and] there were a lot of letter carriers,” Monsalvo said.
Despite the difficulties of the job, which also include making deliveries in dangerous parts of the capital, the postie has no desire to look for work elsewhere.
“Being a letter carrier is a very noble job, hopefully it will always exist and people won’t forget about the Día de Cartero,” she said, perhaps referring to the custom of giving a tip to letter carriers on November 12.
“Keep believing in the post office, keep sending letters and keep trusting us,” she said, although given the postal service’s record for painfully slow delivery, there might not be a lot of trust left.
