López Obrador celebrates start of construction of Santa Lucía airport

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October 17, 2019

The official ceremony Thursday to mark start of construction of the new airport. — The official ceremony Thursday to mark start of construction.

President López Obrador officially inaugurated construction of the Santa Lucía airport on Thursday, declaring that it will open in early 2022.

“We’re going to build two runways for civil aviation . . . in two and a half years,” the president said at an event at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base.

“We’re going to be inaugurating this new airport in April of 2022,” López Obrador added before turning to the military architect in charge of the project and asking him to aim for an inauguration date of March 21, 2022.

“I’m sure that this commitment will be met,” he said.

The commencement of construction comes a day after a federal court revoked the seventh and final suspension order against the project, which will officially be called the Felipe Ángeles International Airport.

There was a festive atmosphere at the Santa Lucía air force base today as the army rolled out its heavy construction equipment.

This “is the beginning of an important project,” López Obrador said, adding that the government had shown that it is capable of solving problems “with efficiency, austerity and honesty.”

He renewed his pledge that “all the information about the construction of the airport will be disseminated,” asserting that there will be “complete transparency, absolutely nothing will be hidden.”

The president estimated that construction of the new airport will cost 75 billion pesos (US $3.9 billion).

However, once the expense of canceling the previous government’s airport project and other necessary outlays are factored in, the government will end up paying about 180 billion pesos (US $9.4 billion), López Obrador said.

He pointed out that the figure represents a saving of 120 billion pesos compared to the 300 billion the new airport at Texcoco was expected to cost. López Obrador also stressed that funding for the project is guaranteed.

“We already have the budget, the project will never stop due to a budget shortfall,” he said.

Aeropuerto Internacional "General Felipe Ángeles", Santa Lucía, Estado de México.

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“Why do we believe this option is better than building the airport on Lake Texcoco? . . . History . . . and the facts will speak [for themselves] but I can say in advance that this decision is better because this land is better to build on, there is solid land here, it’s a lake there,” he said.

Prior to López Obrador’s address, presidential legal adviser Julio Scherer Ibarra praised the government for “overcoming the legal obstacles” that delayed the project for months.

The #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) collective, a group that supported the resumption of the Texcoco project, filed close to 150 injunction requests against the Santa Lucía airport and was granted seven.

The new airport, Scherer said, will bring “great benefits” to the country and fill Mexicans with pride and satisfaction.

“The Santa Lucía airport is a reality today. We shall not allow its construction to cause further division.”

Military architect Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, who will head up the defense department team that has been given responsibility for the project, said the challenge is to “design and build an exceptional airport.”

He said that “two hard years of construction work are ahead of us” after which “six months of preparation and certification” will follow prior to opening.

In contrast to a claim made by a lawyer for #NoMásDerroches on Wednesday, Vallejo said the government has all the necessary studies to begin work.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

Coyoacán’s heritage seen at risk for lack of protection for historic sites

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MND Staff

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October 17, 2019

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Casa de Cortés, a historic site in Coyoacán.

Unauthorized changes to heritage sites along with the proliferation of bars, nightclubs and restaurants pose a risk to historical neighborhoods in the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, local residents say.

The neighborhoods of Santa Catarina, Villa Coyoacán and Barrio Coyoacán as well as part of Del Carmen were classified by the federal government in 1990 as an area of historical monuments.

As a result, any construction and restoration projects in the 86-block area – within which 50 historically important buildings are located – must receive prior approval not just from local authorities but also the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

However, local residents claim that the municipal government and some private citizens have carried out work that has altered the appearance of the historical streets and buildings of Coyoacán without first seeking permission from INAH.

Leticia Perdiz of the Villa Coyoacán residents’ association laid blame squarely at the feet of the Coyoacán mayor.

Work in Coyoacán that doesn't have approval from INAH. — Work in Coyoacán that doesn’t have approval from INAH.

“Manuel Negrete is a mayor whose priority is soccer,” she said about the 60-year-old former professional footballer who represented Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.

“Since he arrived [in 2018], his lack of knowledge about historical monuments has been noted,” Perdiz said.

During Negrete’s administration, the façade of the old town hall (also known as the House of Hernán Cortés) has been altered and pavilions have been installed in the central square without INAH approval, she said.

Perdiz added that authorities also failed to seek INAH permission to replace sidewalks in Francisco Ortega street.

INAH official Manuel Villarruel confirmed that there was no collaboration between the Coyoacán government and the institute on the projects but added that the two parties have recently begun working together.

He also said that INAH has shut down some projects that were being carried out without authorization.

Perdiz also said that large numbers of bars, nightclubs and restaurants opened in the area during the administrations of previous governments.

But she charged that even more establishments have arrived since Negrete took office and claimed that the mayor is allowing them to violate local regulations.

“We don’t have anything against commerce, the problem is that all the [traditional] stores have been lost,” Perdiz said, referring to businesses such as stationary stores and tortilla shops.

“They’ve been driven out by bars and nightclubs. A lot of residents have moved because of the excessive noise. We want the law to be respected and the [cultural] wealth and diversity of the neighborhood to be preserved,” she said, explaining that a lot of establishments remain open beyond legal operating hours.

Villarruel said that INAH doesn’t have any authority over what kind of businesses can operate in central Coyoacán but explained that the institute does seek to ensure that new construction projects “don’t alter the heritage value” of the area.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Immigration agency returns 311 illegal migrants to India

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Cody Copeland

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October 17, 2019

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Undocumented migrants board their plane for India. — Undocumented migrants board their flight for India.

In the largest deportation in the country’s history, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) sent 311 undocumented migrants back to India on Wednesday night.

Accompanied by federal immigration agents and National Guardsmen, the migrants were put aboard a Boeing 747 headed for New Delhi from Toluca International Airport.

The migrants had been detained Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Sonora, Durango, Baja California and Mexico City before being transferred to the migrants’ center in Acayucan, Veracruz, for identification and transfer to Toluca.

The INM reported that the detainees included 310 men and one woman, all of whom were adults.

The action was unprecedented in the history of the INM, both in the procedure by which it was carried out and the number of people deported.

“This action, in which we had the support of the Federal Protection Service (SPF) of the Secretariat of Security . . . was carried out without setbacks and with the respect of the human rights of the foreigners transferred to their country of origin,” the INM said in a statement.

The deportation comes after the Mexican government deployed thousands of National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala in June after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump had threatened to levy tariffs on Mexican goods if Mexico did not slow the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)

2 Mexicans named to list of world’s most influential women

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Cody Copeland

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October 17, 2019

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Aparicio, left, and Villarreal among world's most inspirational women.

Two Mexicans are on a list of the world’s 100 most influential and inspiring women of 2019.

Oscar-nominated actress Yalitza Aparicio and computer programmer Paola Villarreal are among the British Broadcasting Corporation’s 100 Women of 2019.

The two share the spotlight with teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg, American soccer star Megan Rapinoe, United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale and Malaysian transgender rights activist Nisha Ayub.

“This year 100 Women is asking: what would the future look like if it were driven by women? . . . Many on the list are driving change on behalf of women everywhere. They give us their vision of what life could look like in 2030,” the BBC said.

While employed as an elementary school teacher, Yalitza Aparicio was chosen for the leading role in Roma, the Oscar-winning film by Alfonso Cuarón.

A Mixtec woman from the state of Oaxaca, she became the first indigenous woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for best actress. She now advocates for gender equality, the rights of indigenous communities and constitutional protection for domestic workers.

“The ideal future for women is one in which we achieve gender equality,” she told the BBC. “We have the same rights and the same opportunities as men. In the workplace, a future in which we receive just pay and are compensated for the value we create would be a good start.”

The MIT-trained computer programmer Paola Villarreal helped to overturn 20,000 racially biased drug sentences through the development of Data for Justice, a tool with an interactive map that compares police activity in white and minority neighborhoods.

She also made the 2018 MIT Innovators Under 35 LATAM list for this project.

“There is still time to use data and technology to redistribute power among those that have been historically forgotten,” she said. “If we don’t do it now, the data and technology will only automate the status quo and all the biases and inequalities that currently exist.”

Sources: El Financiero (sp), BBC (en)

Armed robbers enter classroom, steal belongings of 30 students

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 17, 2019

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Police attend the robbery of a Chiapas secondary school.

Two armed men entered a classroom at a secondary school in Cacahoatán, Chiapas, this week and robbed 30 students of their belongings.

The victims said the men entered the classroom while a class was in session. The teacher initially panicked, but then told the students not to resist.

The thieves collected cell phones and other belongings from the students and the teacher, including the latter’s computer, before fleeing on a motorcycle.

The Jaime Sabines school is located in the Álvaro Obregón neighborhood of Cacahoatán, a city on the Pacific coast near Tapachula, and has 26 teachers and an enrollment of 420 students.

Source: Turquesa News (sp), Proceso (sp)

Slain officer’s body returned to family wrapped in plastic bags

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MND Staff

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October 17, 2019

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The widow of one of the slain officers at his funeral on Wednesday in Michoacán. — The widow of one of the police officers at his funeral on Wednesday in Michoacán.

The body of one of 13 state police officers killed in a cartel ambush in Michoacán on Monday was returned to his family wrapped in nothing more than black plastic bags.

María Guadalupe Reyes, mother-in-law of slain officer Juvenal López Castolo, rebuked the Michoacán government for not making the effort to properly prepare the body for the funeral.

Authorities delivered Lopez’s plastic-cloaked body with a state police uniform placed haphazardly over it, she said.

Another relative, Soledad Medina, told the newspaper Milenio that blood and other bodily fluids were leaking out of the plastic into the box in which López was placed.

“. . . Blood was dripping from the head . . . liquid was coming out of the body . . . It’s not right,” she said.

A funeral was held for the 29-year-old victim on Wednesday at a cemetery in Charo, a municipality that borders the state capital Morelia.

Milenio reported that the song Historía de un Policía (Story of a Police Officer) accompanied the funeral procession, its lyrics eerily reminiscent of the fate López and the other slain police officers met at the hands of suspected Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) gunmen.

“Unfortunately, here in my land the damn war has no end. Hooded men, strong and armed . . . ambushed us . . . shot from different sides. They riddled us [with bullets] in seconds,” the song says.

State police deployed to the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán said that before Monday’s attack, CJNG members threatened to retaliate if officers didn’t agree to work for them.

Leading yesterday’s funeral procession was López’s widow and mother of his two daughters, Jazmín Guzmán, who a day earlier confronted Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles at a memorial service in Morelia.

“What’s the use of this [service] if [all] I want is him alive,” she asked.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Pemex workers union leader resigns after 26 years

By

Cody Copeland

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October 17, 2019

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The secretary general of the Pemex petroleum workers’ union resigned on Wednesday amid accusations of corruption.

Carlos Romero Deschamps had held the post for 26 years. His right-hand man, union official and federal Deputy Manuel Limón Hernández, is expected to succeed him.

Romero has faced many accusations of corruption over the years, but is now facing charges of money laundering and illicit enrichment.

Romero joined the union in 1969 and was named secretary general in 1993 during the administration of then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. He has also served in both houses of the Mexican Congress.

He has been a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1961 and has coordinated political campaigns for the party in Tamaulipas.

President López Obrador commended Romero’s decision to step down during his morning conference on Thursday.

“I’m really pleased by what happened yesterday and that it happened without violence, because in other cases there is violence and now this is being achieved peacefully,” he said.

He went on to state his hopes for a future without union corruption.

“How is a labor union leader going to be a tycoon at the same time? Where does that money come from? We have to end this stage and put democracy and honesty first,” he said. “. . . We now have to respect workers so they can freely and democratically elect their leaders.”

He said he views the resignation as an opportunity to effect change in union procedures.

The union must hold an election to replace Romero’s successor, whose appointment is only temporary, the president said. “There is an opportunity to . . . do things right and legally . . . We must not fear democracy.”

Yesterday, Mexico News Daily reported that federal financial authorities had frozen bank accounts belonging to Romero and family members. The information, provided by Romero’s lawyer, was later denied by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Secretariat of Finance.

Sources: Milenio (sp)

Biodiversity pavilion is gift of Carlos Slim Foundation to UNAM

By

Simon Schatzberg

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October 17, 2019

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Carlos Slim looks on as new museum is unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday. — Carlos Slim looks on as a scale model of new museum is unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday.

Businessman Carlos Slim has announced that the Carlos Slim Foundation will donate a biodiversity pavilion to the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

In a press conference on Wednesday, Slim said the 3,800-square-meter installation on the main UNAM campus will promote science education.

To be built with an investment of 200 million pesos (US $10.4 million), the museum will be three stories high and have the capacity to house 300,000 species in 12 exhibition rooms, one of which will be dedicated to the origins of life, and another to megadiversity in Mexico.

The pavilion will be located near the University Contemporary Art Museum, and will house a significant part of UNAM’s Biology Institute, as well as a digital library.

Slim is a graduate of the UNAM’s School of Engineering, and has a degree in civil engineering. In 1993, he joined a group of other UNAM graduates to found the UNAM Foundation, a scholarship program for students with limited economic resources.

Source: Infobae (sp)

Slim plans infrastructure investments of up to 120bn pesos, with focus on southeast

By

MND Staff

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October 17, 2019

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Carlos Slim will continue to invest in Mexico.

Telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim said on Wednesday that he would invest up to 120 billion pesos (US $6.3 billion) in infrastructure projects during the six-year term of the federal government.

The billionaire businessman, who is Mexico’s richest man, told a press conference that he is particularly interested in investing in the southeast of Mexico, stating that economic development there is “urgent” and “essential.”

Slim said that he was “100% behind” the government’s plans to boost development in the region as well its wider agenda.

He said that his companies would bid for contracts for the Maya Train project, which will link cities in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche.

“There will [other] infrastructure projects,” Slim said. “I think it will depend on what [contracts] we win but obviously [investment] could be more than 100 billion pesos.”

The businessman also said that his companies Telcel and Telmex will invest 40 billion pesos (US $2.1 billion) annually in the coming years of the López Obrador presidency.

Investment in telecommunications will extend to Guatemala and El Salvador, Slim said, adding that he has already spoken with the governments of both countries.

He also said that Carso Energy will invest 20 billion pesos (US $1 billion) annually and that another 12 to 14 billion pesos per year will go to real estate projects.

Turning to the outlook for the Mexican economy, Slim said that it was possible that there will be no growth at all in 2019.

“That’s the bad news but what’s the good news? The good news is that inflation is going to fall by half,” he said.

Inflation was 4.8% last year and this year it will drop below 3%, Slim predicted.

He said the government could take credit for lower inflation, praising its policy to eliminate excessive operating costs and implement other austerity measures.

Slim also praised the government for increasing the minimum salary and offered support for its fiscal reform that seeks to crack down on companies that sell fake invoices and receipts and those that purchase and use them to avoid paying tax.

“The [fake] invoices thing is a scandal,” he said, adding that companies have made use of them as though it was “the national sport.”

Slim downplayed the possibility of a downgrade to Mexico’s sovereign credit rating, highlighting the stable exchange rate and healthy public finances.

While praising the government’s policies, the businessman stopped short of offering a full-throated endorsement of the president.

Asked to evaluate López Obrador’s performance as he approaches the completion of his first year in office, Slim replied “I’m not an evaluator of presidents.”

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

Public-private partnership eyed for high-speed Querétaro train

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MND Staff

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October 16, 2019

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high speed train — Mexico City to Querétaro in 58 minutes.

The high-speed passenger rail line between Mexico City and Querétaro, suspended four years ago by the previous federal government, could go ahead through a public-private partnership, says the governor of Querétaro.

Francisco Domínguez Servién told the newspaper El Economista that the Querétaro government will continue to meet with its federal counterpart to discuss the viability of a rail link between the state and national capitals.

The master plan for the project, which was postponed in 2015, is in the hands of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT), the governor said.

Domínguez acknowledged that no funds were set aside in the 2020 budget for the rail link but he noted that the right-of-way for its construction has already been obtained.

He said he hoped to meet with officials from President López Obrador’s office as well as representatives of Canadian manufacturer Bombardier to discuss the possibility of establishing a public-private partnership to complete the project.

“. . . Remember that Bombardier, their train division, is in Mexico, in Hidalgo . . .” Domínguez said.

Two months before he was sworn in as president, López Obrador announced that Bombardier would make the rail cars for the Maya Train at its Ciudad Sahagún plant.

El Economista said the company could also play a key role in the revival of the Mexico City-Querétaro project.

Domínguez said the railroad would trigger economic development in Querétaro and the wider Bajío region and would also be of “great utility” for Mexico City.

In contrast to the previous government’s plan to run only passenger trains on the line, the current proposal is for freight trains to use it as well, the governor said. The aim of that proposal is to ensure that the rail project doesn’t operate at a loss, Domínguez explained.

Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú said even before he took office that the Mexico City-Querétaro project was part of the government’s transportation plans.

He reiterated in February that the López Obrador administration remains interested in carrying out the project and estimated that an investment of 50 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion) would be required.

Jiménez is expected to travel to Querétaro on Thursday to discuss a range of issues with state officials.

Under the previous government’s plan, the 210-kilometer train would have carried up to 23,000 passengers a day at speeds up to 300 km/h. Traveling time between the two cities was to be 58 minutes.

A decision to revive the rail link would add to an already ambitious infrastructure plan being pursued by the government.

Among the projects the López Obrador administration intends to build are the Santa Lucía airport in México state, a new oil refinery on the Tabasco coast, the Maya Train railroad on the Yucatán peninsula and a trade corridor on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.

Source: El Economista (sp)