Public Administration Secretary Irma Eréndira Sandoval has declared that “there are no untouchables” in the federal government after confirming that the head of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is under investigation for allegedly providing false information in his declaration of assets.
Sandoval told reporters on Tuesday that the results of the probe into Manuel Bartlett’s personal wealth will be publicly announced as soon as they are available.
“The investigation is open, the only thing I can say is that there is no fear or favor in this case, there are no untouchables here . . .” she said.
The newspaper El Universal published a report in late August saying that Bartlett had declared assets worth 51 million pesos (US $2.6 million) as well as an annual income of 11 million pesos ($560,000).
But the report contended that the assets of the CFE chief – who has previously served as a senator, governor of Puebla, federal interior secretary and secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party – are actually worth more than 800 million pesos (US $40.9 million), or around 16 times higher than the figure he declared.
Bartlett is the owner of 23 houses and two parcels of land registered in his name or those of family members, private companies and alleged prestanombres, or front men, El Universal said.
Bartlett said on Wednesday that he is the target of a smear campaign as a result of his efforts to combat corruption in purchases by the electricity commission, spending that amounts to 250 billion pesos (US $12.7 billion) a year. He claimed there was resistance against measures to control those expenditures, and denied that he had engaged in any act of corruption or conflict of interest.
National Action Party lawmakers have called for the government to dismiss the 83-year-old public utility chief but Mario Delgado, leader of the ruling Morena party in the lower house of Congress, said that any decision about Bartlett’s position won’t be made until the investigation has been completed.
President López Obrador said on Wednesday that he was confident that Bartlett had not committed any wrongdoing, charging that he was the victim of a smear campaign.
“I’m sure that this is all going to be cleared up . . . I don’t trust the people that do these [journalistic] investigations because they’re not honest, there’s always an economic or political interest.”
The construction of new warehouse space on the Mexico-United States border for inspections of Mexican tomatoes will cost U.S. importers more than US $200 million, according to an industry association.
The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA), an Arizona-based agricultural group, said in a statement that the new Tomato Suspension Agreement between Mexico and the United States – which removes tariffs on Mexican exports – will ensure continued market access for Mexican tomatoes but comes at “an extreme cost” to importers.
The FPAA said they “will face unjustified costs and disruption to business due to the controversial border inspection mechanism, which acts as a technical barrier to trade.”
Under the terms of the bilateral agreement, which was signed last Thursday, 92% of Mexican tomato trucks will be subject to quality control inspections.
The United States Department of Commerce said in August that the inspection mechanism will prevent imports of “poor-condition” tomatoes that have “price suppressive effects” for the broader market.
But FPAA president Lance Jungmeyer said “it is completely unnecessary to require USDA [the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to conduct quality inspections on an item that has already demonstrated a historical pass rate of 99.76%.”
In addition to an upfront cost of more than US $200 million to build warehouse space, the agricultural association said that importers will have to fork out another $50 million a year in fees and other costs.
The FPAA is also concerned that there are no protections in the suspension agreement if tomato inspections take longer than expected.
Tomato producers said in July that the requirement would create “a logistical tangle” at the border, given that 120,000 trucks a year would have to be inspected, a process estimated to take an hour and a half for each truck.
The agreement states that USDA will complete the inspection “normally within 24 hours” but it “falls short of providing a waiver in case the inspection cannot be done,” the FPAA said.
“Vine-ripened tomatoes are sensitive perishable items that continue to ripen after harvest, and typically must be delivered to customers within seven days after harvest. Adding a day or two for inspection at the border reduces shelf life,” it added.
Jungmeyer said that as the “USDA has assured us the inspections can be done within 24 hours . . . there should be no problem including language for a waiver in the instance the deadline can’t be met.”
The FPAA said “the imposition of a non-tariff trade barrier represents a step backward in international trade,” while Jungmeyer said that the move is “truly short-sighted.”
There are concerns that importers of other fresh produce such as avocados, grapes and citrus fruits could take an economic hit due to a slowdown in inspections as a result of the increased scrutiny of tomatoes.
“Food is a just-in-time business,” Jungmeyer said. “All around, this is a total step backward.”
The Mexico City government is locked in a feud with private technology startups over who can warn residents of an imminent earthquake.
Authorities in the capital issued a decree in August stating that the only entity authorized to send early earthquake alerts was the non-profit organization Center for Seismic Instrumentation and Registry, or Cires.
Cires’ 28-year-old system – the world’s oldest early earthquake warning service – gives Mexico City residents about a minute’s warning for most strong temblors whose epicenter is off the Pacific Coast – time that people can use to evacuate their homes, schools or office buildings.
The system is widely considered to be both fast and reliable but that hasn’t stopped two tech startups, Grillo and SkyAlert, from trying to develop an even better one.
Cires’ system relies on 96 sensors, most of which are placed on Mexico’s Pacific coast, that detect an earthquake’s seismic waves and transmits them via radio frequencies.
If a temblor is considered strong enough to cause damage, earthquake alerts are broadcast on television and radio and an alarm sounds in the capital from around 12,000 loudspeakers mounted on utility poles and 20,000 speakers in schools.
In contrast, Grillo and SkyAlert have adopted a more digital approach to earthquake monitoring, sending warnings more quickly via wireless internet, processing seismic data using cloud-computing and alerting people to approaching earthquakes via mobile apps, Twitter and in-home alarm systems.
While the startups’ services have proved popular – SkyAlert has 1.9 million Twitter followers – the Mexico City government says that having more than one alert system is confusing for residents and could undermine confidence in early earthquake alarms.
“If we continue to over-alert people, it will have two effects: we’ll lose people’s trust, and we’ll cause mass panic in places like subway cars or in large office buildings,” said Guillermo Ayala, a Civil Protection official who is responsible for natural disaster early warning efforts in Mexico City.
Two alerts issued by SkyAlert’s app in February and August overestimated the magnitude of earthquakes and caused tens of thousands of people to unnecessarily evacuate their workplaces, he said.
Ayala added that many private companies import cheap earthquake sensors from Asian countries without adapting them for use in Mexico.
“The point is not to prohibit the emission of seismic alerts,” he said. “The more support we have, the safer we will be, but only as long as all the alerts comply with the technical regulations,” he said.
In response to the criticism of SkyAlert – which imported sensors from Japan in 2016 and offers an alarm device for large buildings that costs about US $2,000 per year – the company’s founder told The Wall Street Journal that no early warning system is perfect.
Alejandro Cantú said that the government regulation that seeks to prevent private companies from issuing earthquake alerts “sends a terrible message” to people using technology to try to make people safer. More competition provides an incentive for alert systems to improve, he said.
“If we put in laws that limit innovation, we are doomed to forever have the same system that was installed years ago,” said Cantú, whose company also plans to bring in revenue by selling a premium mobile app.
The founder of Grillo, which operates a network of 50 Chinese-made sensors that it designed itself, told The Journal he is optimistic that the company will be able to comply with the Mexico City regulation.
Andrés Meira, an Anglo-Colombian architect, described the government’s decree as “vaguely worded” and said that Grillo intends to go ahead with a plan to sell small early-warning devices to homeowners for around US $50.
“The poorest people in Mexico live in the worst-designed houses, so you have to reach those people,” he said. “If you just sell early alert devices to a few large skyscrapers, you’re not going to save many lives.”
These were among the pieces auctioned in France. More are available for sale online.
Pre-Hispanic artifacts from Mexico are not only sold at international auctions such as the one held in Paris, France, last week: they’re also hawked on e-commerce sites and social media platforms such as Facebook.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has filed 21 criminal complaints with the federal Attorney General’s Office in the past five years for the illegal online sale of relics that date back to pre-Hispanic times.
Among the artifacts put up for sale online and detected by INAH are an anthropomorphic figure that was advertised on a Facebook marketplace and 41 archaeological objects listed on eBay.
A review of online market places by the newspaper El Universal found that several other archaeological relics are currently available for purchase.
On the e-commerce site MercadoLibre, 12 pieces from a pre-Hispanic shaft tomb that was presumably looted in Nayarit are on sale for 130,000 pesos (US $6,700), while a stone axe that was supposedly found at the site of the abandoned airport project in Texcoco, México state, is advertised for 800 pesos (US $40).
Also on sale on the same site is a supposedly 16th-century zoomorphic archaeological piece listed by a vendor in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa for US $40,000 and a small sculpture that, according to the seller, is a relic of the Zapotec culture and was found five meters beneath the surface of a field in Veracruz.
A pre-Hispanic necklace and an earthen “idol” are also up for grabs on MercadoLibre. According to the vendor, the pieces were found on a private property in the state of Colima.
Pre-Hispanic artifact dealers face stiff penalties if they are caught. Under federal law, a person convicted of illegally selling archaeological pieces faces a prison sentence of three to 10 years and a fine of up to 3,000 times the daily minimum salary, or about 306,000 pesos (US $15,700).
Carrying out archaeological excavations without permission from INAH carries the same penalties.
The museum is located in a restored, 19th-century building on Calle Tacuba.
There is no doubt that a visit to Mexico City is a sensory experience with sounds, sights, tastes and smells that are unique to its bustling streets and busy neighborhoods. Ask locals what Mexico City smells like and you might get a list of not so flattering answers.
The pollution and over-population problems certainly spice the city with a less than favorable aroma, but there are other more appealing smells that fill the air around the capital.
The smell of tacos, for example, or the deep scent of cempasúchil (marigold) flowers in the market during Day of the Dead, or even the aromas of second-hand books that permeate Calle Donceles in the historic center.
Another street in the city’s downtown area is filled with the sweet, spicy and pungent smells of perfumes and has been known for its perfumeries since the 1930s. Stepping inside one of these perfume apothecaries on Calle Tacuba, lined floor to ceiling with shelves of dusty glass bottles with cork stoppers, is like stepping back in time.
Take a number and wait in air thick with aromas of violets, roses and lavender until you are called to pick your scents from the line-up. Some of the less popular scents are likely still waiting to be decanted from the almost 90-year-old receptacles they were poured into decades ago.
A human form fashioned from wax to create an evocative, sweet-scented candle.
Given Calle Tacuba’s sensorial history, it is perfectly fitting that Mexico City’s latest addition to its bulging selection of museums would revel in perfumes. Located opposite Perfumería Tacuba 13, one of the oldest and most iconic perfumeries on the street, the museum is in a stunningly-restored building constructed in the early 19th century.
In previous incarnations, the building has served as a flag factory and a military tailor — called La Principal — neither of which seems consistent with the building’s beauty and its tall ceilings and elaborate central staircase lined with gold-embossed decoration.
Currently entry to the museum is restricted to guided tours that must be reserved. While a permanent collection is expected to open early in 2020, there will be a selection of temporary exhibitions and they have certainly started with a bang.
The current collection showcases the work of six different artists from Mexico, Brazil and Poland, each showing unique pieces inspired by their olfactory senses.
Climbing the ornate staircase, we reached the first floor to be confronted with a giant inflatable figure. It took a while to see that it was a four-headed inflatable dog. As we listened to information about the piece and the artist, a scent started to fill the air and the keen-eyed among the group noticed that mist was coming out of small nostril holes.
An interesting reflection on a dog’s keen sense of smell, it certainly made for a striking entry piece.
You can put your head right inside these lily-infused space helmets.
Next, we were guided into a low-lit room, illuminated only by two burning candles in the shape of people. The human forms held positions of pain and anguish with wax dripping from their heads as if their brains were somehow spilling to the ground.
But, in contrast, the sweet smell of cinnamon from the candles intermingled with the scene.
Another fascinating part of the exhibition involved what appeared to be a scientific experiment complete with test tubes, Bunsen burners and distillation flasks. Drawing from cooking and the knowledge that our sense of smell is inherently linked to our sense of taste, we were asked to take sample droplets given on wooden sticks.
The challenge was to see what memories came to us. No sooner had the molecules hit our taste buds than almost everyone in the room was transported back to memories of their childhoods.
Other exhibits involved lily-infused space helmets, a variety of hanging bell-shaped objects into which you could climb and sample different smells.
There was also a room inspired by motherhood as well as the unique smells we emit as human beings that either attract or repel others. Think about an ex-partner, our guide suggested. Could we conjure up their smell? Surprisingly, many of us could.
Like much of the art and culture in Mexico City, this exhibit is world-class. Curated by Iván Edeza with such intriguing takes on the role that smell plays in our lives, this tour took participants on a rather emotional journey that conjured up images, memories and thoughts in each room.
The connection between smell and memory is said to greater than that of any other sense and this collection really illustrated that. Be prepared to be transported out of the moment and into your past during your visit to Mexico City’s perfume museum.
The permanent collection that will open to the public in 2020 has some 3,000 pieces, including books and receptacles dating back to the 19th century. They present the history of perfume in Mexico and beyond. If the temporary exhibition is anything to go by, El Museo de Perfume is likely to be a new favorite in the city.
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00am to 6:00pm but reservations are required. Admission is 50 pesos with discounted rates for students and senior citizens. For more information, visit the MUPE website.
Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.
Tourism service providers have protested the decision to close some of the reefs around the island of Cozumel due to the presence of a disease that destroys coral.
The Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp) announced this week that it will restrict access to much of the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park beginning on October 7 because 40% of coral is affected by white band disease, an ailment that destroys the tissue of Caribbean acroporid coral.
(Mexico News Daily earlier referred to the disease as “coral bleaching,” which is in fact something else.)
The disease, which was first detected in coral reefs off the coast of the United States Virgin Islands, was noticed in reefs off Quintana Roo in 2018. The disease gets its name from the white bands of dead coral tissue that it forms.
In response to Conanp’s decision, reef tourism operators protested outside the Cozumel offices of the commission, where they claimed that close to 500 families will lose their sole source of income.
One of the protesters questioned why reefs at the Palancar and El Cielo beaches were being closed but those at the Paraíso and Chankanaab beaches were not.
In an interview with the newspaper Noticaribe, Víctor Torres acknowledged that reefs at Palancar and El Cielo are damaged but said that those at the two other beaches are even worse.
“. . . Why aren’t they closing that area?” he asked.
Torres said that authorities may have underestimated the economic impact of the decision to close some of Cozumel’s most popular reefs.
“I don’t know if they have really calculated the economic impact on all the people that work in [reef tourism]. We know that there are people with permits but there are also a lot of people that don’t have them but work [in the industry] with dignity and honesty,” he said.
Torres said that a lot of people on the island will be left without a source of income and contended that the government should pay compensation to them.
In Baja California and Yucatán, financial support was given to fishermen when fishing restrictions were imposed to protect the vaquita marina porpoise and the sea cucumber but “they’re not thinking about that here,” he said.
While the reef tourism operators recognized that the reefs are sick, they said that restricting access to them is not the solution, explaining that they take precautions to ensure that they don’t contribute to further damage.
Torres predicted that the decision will not only affect the economy but damage the island’s reputation as a tourist destination.
“. . . The state [Quintana Roo] suffers from sargassum but Cozumel is free of it and that’s why people come. By sending this message, they’ll stop coming,” he said, adding that he personally stands to lose at least 4,000 pesos (US $205) per day.
Other reef tourism operators said that tourists will chose to go to “Cuba or Belize” if they can’t dive and snorkel on Cozumel’s reefs.
The exact cause of white band disease is unknown but scientists believe that it is linked to pollution and the presence of seaweed such as sargassum in seawater.
Healthy Reefs, a group that tracks the health of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, says the effect of the disease is “unprecedented” as mortality rates are high and around 20 different types of coral are susceptible to it, including brain, pillar and star corals.
The government of Veracruz announced that 14 tonnes or 25 cubic meters of garbage had been removed from the Río Blanco by Tuesday, but there was still a lot left.
But the garbage removed only accounts for a fraction of the estimated 60 tonnes of organic and inorganic waste that have covered a six-kilometer stretch of the river since last week.
According to Veracruz Governor Cuitláhuac García, the trash likely came from illegal landfills located near the river. The garbage would have been carried away after water levels rose during heavy rains. He said a Veracruz environmental prosecutor is investigating the case.
The initial response focused on containing the trash in the coastal municipality of Alvarado to prevent it from reaching the sea.
Veracruz Environment Secretary María del Rocío Pérez said that 16 boats worked to remove the trash, of which six belong to the Veracruz port authority. After the trash was removed, it was loaded onto trucks and deposited at the El Guayabo landfill in the municipality of Medellín.
She added that authorities continue working to clean up the river and prevent the trash from reaching the Alvarado and María Lizamba lagoon systems.
The garbage was removed by state and federal officials, private businesses and local fishermen and boat owners.
Deputy Quiroga proposes that the state provide sex-change surgery.
A member of the Mexico City Congress has proposed a reform to the city’s health laws to make sex change surgery free in public hospitals.
Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Deputy Gabriela Quiroga Anguiano, herself a transgender woman, said the reform would allow public hospitals to offer vaginoplasty (removal of the vagina), metoidioplasty (conversion of the clitoris into a penis) or phalloplasty (removal of the penis), as well as all necessary follow-up attention.
“A person’s sense of self is not determined by chromosomes, sexual organs, sex assigned at birth, or initial gender roles, so neither are one’s identity or abilities restricted by what society says is masculine or feminine,” said the legislator.
“We have taken important steps in giving attention to the transsexual population, such as funding for hormone treatment and name changes on birth certificates, as well as defending their rights in order to prevent discrimination.”
She recalled Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s announcement of the construction of a hospital for the treatment of the trans population and acknowledged that such surgeries could be carried out there, but said she didn’t want the services to be limited to one such institution.
“We would end up causing discrimination,” she said.
Quiroga emphasized that in the last 20 years, Mexico City has taken it upon itself to defend the rights of the most vulnerable sectors of its population, such as by recognizing same-sex marriage.
In accordance with the Mexican Institute of Sexology, a person can have sexual reassignment surgery after receiving two years of psychotherapy and hormone therapy.
The average cost for the surgery is 500,000 pesos (US $25,500).
Quiroga said that such treatment should be carried out by the necessary personnel and under quality conditions so that no one suffers any negative consequences.
The United States company Hughes Network Systems announced on Tuesday that it will expand its satellite internet service to most of Mexico starting on October 1.
According to a press release, HughesNet high-speed satellite internet will be available for 95% of Mexico, including rural and marginalized areas. According to a 2018 report by Freedom House, only 63.9% of Mexicans were connected to the internet in 2018, and only 14% of internet users were in rural areas.
HughesNet provides satellite internet service to 1.4 million people in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States. The service offers download speeds of up to 25 megabits per second, much higher than Mexico’s national average of 6 Mbps.
Hughes hopes to deliver internet to the millions of Mexican homes that are not connected, especially in remote areas where infrastructure is limited.
“We don’t depend on cable or fiber infrastructure,” said marketing manager Cristina Mendoza at an event to inaugurate the service on Tuesday. “That means we can offer our services in our coverage areas independently of geographic conditions or population density.”
Initially HughesNet will only be available to residential customers, but the company hopes to offer internet to small and large businesses in the future.
Quake damage in Iztapalapa. Some people want to move away.
The Mexico City government is considering a program that would provide economic support to victims of the September 19, 2017 earthquake who want to move elsewhere in the country.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum explained that the support would come in the form of 525,000 pesos (US $27,000) or new housing. The idea is being discussed with the federal Secretariat of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning (Sedatu) and the Reconstruction Commission.
“If someone says, ‘I don’t want to be relocated there, I want to move out of the capital,’ we’re working with [federal authorities] to see how and with what resources the government can help families move to other parts of the country, but the program still isn’t fully developed,” she said.
The Reconstruction Commission plans to relocate 832 housing units in shanty towns of the boroughs of Iztapalapa, Tláhuac and Xochimilco. Of these, 573 are in areas where the ground was fractured by the quake.
Calculating an average of five people per family, the government estimates that it will have to relocate 4,160 people. It has already identified the land for the families’ relocation and plans to buy it soon.
But at least 15 families in the affected boroughs have shown their unwillingness to be relocated in the city.
Sheinbaum emphasized that the program is still in development and that it will be put before the victims for consultation and to come to a consensus.
She added that those who have been notified of relocation will be moved to different areas of the same boroughs in which they already live.
“What we want to do is inform the victims first and make everything public so that no bad information is circulated, to come to a consensus,” she said.
