Hotels optimistic about stopping Puerto Morelos cruise ship arrivals

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October 10, 2019

Puerto Morelos: may not be a cruise ship destination.

A threat by hotel owners to protest the arrival of cruise ships in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, with a human chain appears to have had its desired effect: permission for the ships to dock will reportedly not be granted.

“That’s what they’re telling me. I hope so,” Roberto Cintrón, president of the Hotel Association of Cancún and Puerto Morelos (AHCPM), told the newspaper El Heraldo de México.

Cintrón, former AHCPM president Carlos Gosselin, and the director of the Quintana Roo Association of Vacation Clubs, Patricia de la Peña, last week condemned the plan to allow cruise ships to dock in Puerto Morelos, a Caribbean coast resort town about halfway between Cancún and Playa del Carmen.

They told a press conference on October 3 that authorities made the decision without regard for the poor condition of reefs in the area, despite the lack of economic benefits the ships will bring and the negative impact they will have on the accommodation sector.

Cintrón said that if state and municipal authorities don’t stop the arrival of a cruise ship scheduled for November 2, a call will go out for a human chain to be formed on the Puerto Morelos pier to stop passengers from disembarking.

“We’re not going to accept it. If it’s necessary . . . we’ll form a [human] chain on the pier. We’re not going to allow [the arrival of cruise ships],” he said.

Alicia Ricalde, head of the Quintana Roo Port Administration authority, said in September that two cruise lines, France’s Le Pontant and Vidanta Cruises of Mexico, were planning to dock in Puerto Morelos as part of their “Maya Route” voyages, which also include stops in Yucatán, Campeche and Tabasco.

However, it now appears that the cruise lines will have to change their plans. El Heraldo de México, which reported on Wednesday that permits for the ships to dock wouldn’t be granted, said that authorities’ change of heart may have been due to the “barrage of criticism” from the hotel association and others.

Cintrón claimed that cruise ships in the northern part of Quintana Roo pose a threat to the hotel industry and the state’s economy as a whole.

The claim that passengers will generate economic benefits for ordinary locals is not true, he charged.

“It’s a lie. The tours are pre-booked . . . There is a maximum of two nights in a hotel of the same category as the ship, super luxury. There’s no economic spillover,” Cintrón said.

After highlighting the environmental problems that the arrival of cruise ships would cause, the hotel association chief took aim at Puerto Morelos Mayor Laura Fernández whose government had approved charging ship passengers the environmental sanitation tax of 25 pesos (US $1.30) upon disembarkation.

“They’re putting everything at risk for 25 pesos. It’s complete thoughtlessness,” Cintrón said, adding that Mexico is the only Caribbean coast country that doesn’t currently charge passengers to disembark.

The average charge around the world is US $50 in each destination where passengers leave the ship, he said.

Gosselin presented similar arguments.

“. . . The damage to the hotel industry will be immense, [the sale] of airplane seats will be lost, there will be no [economic] spillover and no jobs will be created,” he said.

Source: Reportur (sp), El Universal (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp)

Puebla solar investment worth US $235 million

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 10, 2019

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solar power — New renewable energy projects will be delayed.

Two companies have announced an investment of US $235 million to build a solar electricity plant in the municipality of Cuyoaco, Puebla.

The Spanish company Iberdrola and Mexico’s Grupo Alquimara will start the project later this month and expect it to be finished by the end of 2020.

Representatives from the two companies met with Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta on Tuesday.

The investors said that the Cuyoaco plant will have a capacity of 300 megawatts, equivalent to the energy consumed by 162,800 homes. Around 1,500 people will be employed in its construction.

The plant will cover 755 hectares of agriculture land in the municipalities of Cuyoaco and Ocotepec, where solar panels will cover 674 hectares, and substations will occupy the remainder.

This is the third project carried out by Iberdrola and Alquimara in Puebla. The consortium has built a wind farm in the municipality of Esperanza, which was inaugurated in 2015 and has a capacity of 65 megawatts, and another wind farm in Cañada Morelos, which will be inaugurated later this year and will have a capacity of 220 megawatts.

Governor Barbosa said the projects fit with his government’s policy to promote investment in renewable energy.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Mexico City Grand Prix wins international sports award

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Cody Copeland

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October 10, 2019

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The Mexican Grand Prix, an award-winning event.

The Mexico City Formula 1 Grand Prix has won the award for best live sporting event at the 2019 Leaders Sports Awards in London, England.

The race held annually at Mexico City’s Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack was selected from among 450 events in five categories from around the globe.

The event was chosen as a finalist in August to compete against the 2018 US Open in New York City, the Drone Racing League in Munich, Germany, the Cricket Pool Deck in Brisbane, Australia, and the Overwatch League E Sports Finals in Brooklyn.

In addition to the skill of the competitors, the judges also recognized the creativity and quality of the 2018 F1 podium celebration, which included a live performance by Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren in front of 30,000 fans in Mexico City’s Foro Sol stadium.

Held in London’s Natural History Museum, the awards ceremony included a parade featuring soccer clubs Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool, basketball teams the Cavaliers, Clippers and Raptors, and the Williams F1 racing team.

Mexico Grand Prix general manager Federico González Compeán attended the event.

“Each year we strive to offer our attendees a memorable experience that also exalts the name of Mexico,” he said. “Receiving this award as the best sporting event represents the great pride and satisfaction of our work as organizers. Without a doubt, this will drive us to continue working to offer the best party to our Mexican fans.”

The Mexico City Grand Prix has also been named the Best F1 Race by the International Automobile Association (FIA) for the last four years in a row, and was also awarded Promoter of the Year at the FIA Americas Awards.

This year’s race takes place October 25-27.

Sources: Milenio (sp)

Local governments, university owe millions in unpaid water bills

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Cody Copeland

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October 10, 2019

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Water customers line up to pay their bills in Morelia, but many don't bother.

Arrears on unpaid water bills have reached hundreds of millions of pesos in Morelia, Michoacán, where state and local governments, as well as a university, have failed to keep their accounts up to date.

The general manager of the local water utility said the 500-million-peso (US $25.6-million) debt “has created financial problems.”

“The average rate of nonpayment is 10%,” said Julio César Orantes Ávalos. “Some of the users who account for unpaid bills are the largest users, to the tune of 500 million pesos. We have payment plans to allow them to get their accounts current. They are making weekly payments, like in the case of the state government.”

Orantes said the biggest debtor is the University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo, which owes 53 million pesos. The next largest are the state government at 16 million pesos, the Morelia municipal government at 11.5 million, and the Secretariat of Education, 11 million.

It’s not just large consumers who are behind, but small users too. Just half keep their accounts current.

The Morelia municipal council has suggested raising water rates in order to make up for the unpaid bills. The rates are already among the highest in the country.

Orantes said that although the water utility is currently functioning with a deficit of 150 million pesos (US $7.7 million), it has enough to pay its 700 employees for the rest of the year. He is hoping payment plans will help reduce the staggering debt.

“The state government, the university [and] the municipal government are getting their accounts current during this administration, [and] they are reducing their debts.”

Sources: Milenio (sp), La Voz de Michoacán (sp)

Results of National Guard deployment will be seen ‘very soon:’ interior secretary

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MND Staff

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October 10, 2019

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Interior Secretary Sánchez in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero has expressed confidence that the National Guard will achieve positive results in the fight against violence and insecurity “very soon,” but not by itself.

Addressing lawmakers in the lower house of Congress on Wednesday, Sánchez said the new security force “is taking the essential steps for its integration and deployment” and has a “solid legal framework” within which to operate.

“Results will be seen very soon,” she said.

Formally inaugurated at the end of June, about 70,000 National Guard members have already been deployed to 150 regions across the country but the government has said that its ranks will swell to 150,000 by 2021.

National homicide numbers remained unchanged between July and August – the first two full months of the National Guard’s nationwide deployment – but Guanajuato and Michoacán both saw significant increases in violence, and Mexico is still on track to record its most violent year in recent history.

State and municipal police part of the security plan, interior secretary reminds senators.

While expressing optimism that the National Guard will be successful in reducing violence, Sánchez stressed that it will not be able to achieve peace across Mexico on its own.

“. . . Without the purification, restructuring and strengthening of the state and municipal police,” it will be impossible to meet citizens’ demands for security in the nation’s “streets and squares, roads and highways, cities and the countryside,” she said.

Sánchez emphasized the importance of state governments’ “on-time” compliance with Article 7 of the reform decree that created the National Guard, “so that state and municipal police have the essential resources for their strengthening.”

Article 7 stipulates that state governments must present an assessment of the capacity of state and municipal police forces and a plan to strengthen them. They must do so by the end of November.

The federal government has allocated funds in the 2020 budget so that states can execute police reinforcement plans.

Asked by opposition lawmakers about the high levels of violence in the 10 months since the government took office, the interior secretary stressed that the situation isn’t new but one that has been inherited from past federal administrations.

“We have this problem [because] young people weren’t looked after, victims of violence, which mainly comes from organized crime, weren’t attended to,” Sánchez said.

Inaugurating the National Guard on June 30, President López Obrador acknowledged that his government has not yet made progress in combating the high levels of insecurity.

“Solving the serious problem of insecurity and violence is something we still have to do . . . We can’t say that we’ve advanced. Unfortunately, in that area the same conditions that we inherited from previous governments prevail,” he said.

In August, López Obrador took specific aim at former president Felipe Calderón, who launched the so-called war on drugs by deploying the military to fight cartels shortly after he took office in 2006.

“Calderón stirred up a hornet’s nest and we inherited all this that we suffer today,” he said.

“He didn’t even have a plan, and instead of attending to the causes, he wanted to solve the problem in a spectacular fashion, using only force.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Asylum-seeking migrants’ blockade closes Matamoros crossing

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Cody Copeland

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October 10, 2019

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Thursday's blockade at the Matamoros border crossing.

The Gateway International Bridge between Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, was blocked on Thursday by as many as 400 migrants waiting for asylum hearings in the United States.

The occupation, which began about 1:30am, affected drivers and pedestrians who cross the bridge on a daily basis for work or school.

Federal forces were sent to the Mexico side of the border crossing and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were posted on the north side of the bridge.

Activist Gladys Cañas of the migrants’ support organization Ayudándoles a Triunfar (Helping them Triumph) attempted to convince the migrants, most of whom are from Central America, to leave the bridge on Thursday morning.

“You are affecting the economy of us Mexicans and also of those in the United States. This is not worth it, guys. I’m asking you to reconsider; this is not the way to find a solution,” she said.

“You are affecting many people who work, and many people who study. We aren’t the ones responsible for the situation you are in,” she added.

The bridge is used primarily by local traffic, factory workers, tourists and pedestrians.

In July, the Associated Press found about 19,000 names on lists of asylum-seekers in four Mexican border cities.

The mayor of Matamoros told the migrants Thursday morning that he sympathized with their plight. “I understand how you feel, you’ve been here for months and we are doing everything we can but you have to understand that we are limited, as Mexican officials, because the ones who authorize political asylum are the American authorities,” Mario López said.

By mid-afternoon on Thursday, the crossing remained closed.

Source: Hoy Tamaulipas (sp), Brownsville Herald (en)

Oaxaca lagoon turns pink but not thought to be toxic: biologist

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 10, 2019

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Pink-colored water of Oaxaca's Manialtepec lagoon.

The water in a Oaxaca lagoon that is famous for its bioluminescence started changing color on Tuesday and is now a deep shade of pink.

Scientists are not sure about the cause of the color change at Manialtepec lagoon, which is located about 15 minutes away from the coastal city of Puerto Escondido, but suspect it is related to a change in the microorganism population in the water.

The lagoon is known for its glowing bioluminescence, which is caused by the decomposition of certain algae. According to biologist Alejandra Torres Ariño, the color change is probably related to a change in the composition of organisms present in the lagoon, which itself could be caused by a change in salinity or fertilizer runoff from recent rains in the state.

Torres, who teaches at the Universidad del Mar, said she is waiting for results to come back on tests to determine what organisms are present.

“At first glance, it doesn’t seem toxic, but we need to make sure . . .” she said.

Studies are under way to determine why the lagoon's water has turned pink. — Studies are under way to determine why the lagoon’s water has turned pink.

However, Torres noted that although the phenomenon is probably not a threat to human health, it is destructive to the ecosystem because it means the lagoon is being invaded by organisms that are not native to the region. The high nutrient load makes it hospitable to invasive species, she said.

The phenomenon is similar to another event that occurred in Bajos de Coyula, Oaxaca, in 2016, when a biological reaction caused lagoons to turn red and purple. Torres said that the cases appear similar, but could be caused by totally different phenomena.

Source: NVI Noticias (sp), El Sol de Puebla (sp)

Agroforestry employment program will encourage planting trees in narco land

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MND Staff

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October 10, 2019

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Chapo country, where agroforestry may replace narco crops.

The federal government will extend its agroforestry employment program to parts of the country where illicit crops are grown, such as Badiraguato, Sinaloa, the birthplace of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

President López Obrador said on Wednesday that the decision to expand the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) tree-planting program to such areas was made because the government has seen that farmers are willing to give up growing illicit crops and cultivate legal ones, such as corn and beans, instead.

The president also highlighted the success of the program to date, stating that timber-yielding and fruit trees have already been planted across more than 500,000 hectares by over 200,000 people.

“It’s the largest job creation program in the country, possibly in the history of Mexico, not just in the countryside . . . never were 200,000 workers hired in one program in one year . . . It’s definitely the best [program] of its kind in the world,” López Obrador said.

He said the program’s budget will increase to just over 25.1 billion pesos (US $1.3 billion) in 2020 from 23 billion this year, and that the aim is to provide employment for 400,000 people and plant trees on one million hectares.

Welfare Secretary Albores presents a report at Wednesday's presidential press conference. — Welfare Secretary Albores presents a report at Wednesday’s presidential press conference.

“Why abandon the countryside?” López Obrador asked.

“Why do the campesinos have to go to try to make a living elsewhere . . . on the other side of the border, if they can do it in their communities? It’s a paradox, it’s a contradiction to have natural resources, wealth, with people who are poor due to abandonment, due to a lack of attention to the countryside. So, we’re going back to the countryside, that’s helping a lot,” he said.

People employed by the Sembrando Vida program are paid 5,000 pesos (US $255) per month.

López Obrador highlighted that the government is also supporting similar tree-planting programs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of a strategy to reduce migration.

Welfare Secretary María Luisa Albores, who has responsibility for Sembrando Vida, said the program will be extended to municipalities in the Golden Triangle, a notorious drug producing region that extends across parts of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua.

She said the program has already had success in the Durango municipality of Topia.

“We were at an ejido [agricultural cooperative] in the Topia valley, where all the land was covered with drugs,” Albores said.

“Today the people tell us that it has decreased, that 90% of people are working on the Sembrando Vida agroforestry system. Between 5% and 10% are still sowing illicit crops, I’m talking about [opium] poppies and marijuana, but that’s going down . . .” she said.

Albores said that 229,091 people are registered in Sembrando Vida, a figure that represents 99.6% of the government’s target to create 230,000 jobs through the program this year.

She explained that it is operating in 362 municipalities in eight states, and that one in three people planting trees are women.

The Welfare Secretariat has an agreement with the Secretariat of National Defense to supply it with 100 million saplings that are grown at 12 army-run nurseries, Albores said.

Mahogany, cedar, cacao, rubber, cinnamon and soursop are among the trees currently being planted.

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

Business sector issues warning over kidnappings in Tamaulipas

By

Cody Copeland

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October 10, 2019

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Liana Jara is one of the people recently reported missing. She was last scene October 5.

A federation of business groups in Tamaulipas has issued an alert in response to a big increase in kidnappings in border cities, calling for urgent intervention by the government.

Federation president Julio César Almanza Armas described the border city of Matamoros as a “red zone,” as kidnappings there have risen sharply in the last two weeks.

“The Matamoros Chamber of Commerce is aware of actions against some businesspeople, professionals, who have been kidnapped in the last two or three months, and that is worrying,” said Almanza.

He also implored businesspeople in the most affected cities to take additional precautions and be more careful with their routines and schedules as much as possible, emphasizing that criminal groups no longer make distinctions between economic classes, putting all of society at risk.

Among the kidnapping victims are a well-known local doctor, manufacturing plant supervisors, business owners and female students who have disappeared during daylight hours in busy areas. In some cases, victims have been released following several days of captivity but relatives did not wish to reveal ransom terms, if any, reported Breitbart Texas.

Almanza mentioned a rumor about a possible criminal gang-imposed curfew that recently made the rounds on social media in Matamoros.

“There is a difficult situation, such as the one on social media last night, when people talked about a curfew at 8:00pm,” he said, although the claim was refuted by the local government.

Citizens in Matamoros have called for a demonstration on Saturday in the town’s main square to raise awareness of the kidnappings and overall insecurity in the city.

Sources: Milenio (sp), Posta (sp), El Mañana (sp), Breitbart (en)

Santa Lucía airport will be ‘white elephant,’ warns business group

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MND Staff

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October 9, 2019

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One of the designs that have surfaced of the new airport.

The Santa Lucía airport will become a “white elephant” in just “a few years,” according to the leader of a business group who claims that President López Obrador’s decision to build it was made on a “whim.”

Speaking out after a federal judge overturned one of eight suspension orders against the US $4.8-billion project, the president of the National Chamber for Industrial Transformation (Canacintra), José Enoch Castellanos, declared at a press conference on Tuesday that “we disagree” with the construction of the airport.

He called for “common sense” to prevail before public money is spent on the project, claiming that the airport won’t generate any “added value” for Mexico.

“There’s no point having strict austerity and even cutting jobs if the money [saved] is going to be invested in a black hole that will have no use,” Castellanos said.

The Canacintra chief claimed that the project is based on “fantasies” and “good wishes” rather than good planning as occurs for infrastructure projects in countries such as Singapore and China.

Canacintra chief Castellano: 'investing money in a black hole.' — Canacintra chief Castellano: ‘investing money in a black hole.’

“I have no doubt that projects like the [Isthmus of Tehuantepec] interoceanic corridor, which has been analyzed for years, can represent opportunity for Mexico,” Castellano asserted, adding that the same can’t be said about the Santa Lucía airport.

López Obrador made the decision to build the airport at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base in México state after canceling the previous government’s partially-built airport project at Texcoco.

The cancelation came after a controversial and legally-questionable public consultation last October that found almost 70% support to terminate construction of the new Mexico City International Airport.

Gustavo de Hoyos, president of the Mexican Employers Federation, said at the time that killing the airport project would be “the biggest waste of public resources in the history of the country.”

But López Obrador claimed that the project was corrupt, too expensive and being built on land that was sinking.

It is expected that around 18 million passengers will use the Santa Lucía airport in its first year of operations but its planned capacity is for 100 million passengers annually, although little detail has been provided to show how that will be achieved.

An official report released in April said the facility could reach saturation just 10 years after starting operations.

López Obrador announced the same month that construction would begin on April 29 but commencement has been delayed due to legal action filed against it by a collective that believes that reviving the Texcoco project is “legally possible.”

Source: El Economista (sp)