US judge denies bail to ex-army chief; attorneys offered US $750,000

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October 21, 2020

Cienfuegos' attorneys charge up to US $1,000 per hour.

A United States judge has refused to grant bail to former army chief Salvador Cienfuegos on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, rejecting an argument that the ex-defense minister was not a flight risk because he is determined to clear his name.

At a hearing in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the attorney for Cienfuegos, who was arrested at L.A. airport last week, said that his client could offer bail of US $750,000, an amount he described as the former general’s life savings.

Duane Lyons, a partner at Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the largest litigation firm in the world, said that his client, who he called “a dedicated Mexican general who served his country honorably for a number of years,” has “every intention of clearing his name.”

If he were to be released on bail and flee, “his name and reputation would be ruined,” Lyons said. If he were to return to Mexico while out on bail, the United States’ extradition treaty with that country would help ensure that he was sent back to the U.S., he said.

The lawyer also argued that Cienfuegos, 72, was at risk of being infected with the coronavirus by being kept in jail, pointing out that he is vulnerable to a serious illness due to his age.

United States District Court Judge Alexander MacKinnon dismissed the argument that the former defense minister was not a flight risk, saying that Cienfuegos, who didn’t appear at the hearing, has a powerful incentive to flee because he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The ex-defense minister, chief of the army during the entirety of former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012-2018 term, could face a mandatory prison sentence of at least 10 years if convicted on conspiracy charges.

He is accused of helping the H-2 Cartel, an offshoot of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, to operate with impunity in Mexico and smuggle large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States. He is also accused of laundering the proceeds of his alleged illicit activities.

Mackinnon rejected the notion that Cienfuegos could be promptly returned to the United States if he fled to Mexico, siding with government prosecutors who argued that extradition could take years.

The district judge said that he would sign an order to transfer the former defense minister to New York – where the court that indicted him is located – on Friday, giving Cienfuegos time to meet with his Mexican attorney who is currently in Los Angeles.

Lyons said that Cienfuegos wouldn’t oppose the transfer.

Cienfuegos says he wishes to clear his name.

The firm for which he works is also representing César Duarte, a former Chihuahua governor who was arrested on corruption charges in Miami, Florida, in July.

Quinn Emmanuel Trial Lawyers also took on the case of former security minister Genaro García Luna, who was arrested last December on charges of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel.

But the ex-official, security chief in the government of former president Felipe Calderón, later changed his legal team, asserting that he couldn’t afford Quinn Emmanuel’s fees, which reportedly range from US $800 to $1,000 per hour.

President López Obrador, who has used the charges against Cienfuegos and García Luna to support his claim that Mexico’s recent past governments were corrupt, said Tuesday that he would be his administration’s sole spokesperson on the former army chief’s case.

He said that designating himself as the government’s spokesperson would avoid “manipulation of information” about the charges Cienfuegos faces. The president said Monday that his government would ask the United States to share all its information about the former defense ministers’ alleged ties to drug traffickers.

Speaking on Tuesday before MacKinnon denied Cienfuegos bail, López Obrador made it clear that he agreed with U.S. prosectors’ assessment that the former general was a flight risk, asserting that he has “very important connections in Mexico who could protect and hide him.”

The arrest of the ex-army chief raises awkward questions for the president because his government is relying heavily on the armed forces, not just for public security but also for the construction of key infrastructure projects.

It is also a sticky issue for López Obrador because he has repeatedly portrayed the army and navy as trustworthy, corruption-free institutions even though there was ample evidence to the contrary, even before Cienfuegos was taken into custody.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp), Associated Press (en)

Health Ministry warns of new virus outbreak; AMLO says there isn’t one

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2020

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President López Obrador today contradicted the federal Health Ministry, rejecting its assertion that at least eight states are facing new outbreaks of the coronavirus.

“There are no new outbreaks. There are some states where infections have increased but we can’t speak about a resurgence [of the coronavirus],” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

López Obrador noted that Covid-19 deaths are on the wane – they decreased 51% between October 4 and 10 compared to the previous week, according to Health Ministry data – and claimed that it is “very probable” that Chiapas will soon become the second green light “low” risk state in the country.

(Campeche is the only state currently painted green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight risk map.)

The president’s remarks came after the Health Ministry said Sunday that new coronavirus cases increased in Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Querétaro and Zacatecas in early October.

“There are eight federal entities with clear statistics of new outbreaks,” said Ruy López Ridaura, director of the Health Ministry’s National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Programs.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s coronavirus point man, presented national data on Tuesday night that showed that new cases numbers increased 4% between October 4 and 10 compared to the previous week.

The spike in new cases followed numerous weeks during which the pandemic in Mexico was on the wane.

López-Gatell said that there are “early signs” of a new wave of infections, noting that in addition to an increase in new case numbers, the positivity rate (the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive) and the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients have recently risen.

The deputy minister also presented updated coronavirus statistics showing that Mexico’s accumulated case tally had risen to 860,714, an increase of 5,788 compared to Monday, and that the official Covid-19 death toll had increased to 86,893 with 555 additional fatalities registered.

He highlighted that only 4% of just under 1 million “estimated” cases in Mexico since the start of the pandemic are currently active.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio

Despite its low testing rate, Mexico currently has the 10th highest case tally in the world and the fourth highest Covid-19 death toll.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Mexico has the highest case fatality rate among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, with 10.1 deaths per 100 confirmed cases. On a per capita basis, it ranks fourth for deaths among the 20 most affected countries behind only Peru, Brazil and Spain.

López Obrador’s claim that the eight states where numbers are on the rise are not yet facing large new outbreaks provides no comfort for the local authorities.

In Chihuahua, which recorded a 37% spike in new case numbers in early October – the second highest after Durango, the Covid-19 wards of four hospitals are already at capacity.

ISSSTE hospitals in Ciudad Juárez and Delicias are full as are the IMSS general hospitals in Juárez and Nuevo Casas Grandes. Across Chihuahua – which is estimated to have just under 2,400 active cases – more than 80% of hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are currently occupied.

Authorities in the other states where case numbers are on the rise are preparing to respond to a new wave of infections.

Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón warned that coronavirus restrictions could soon be tightened in the northern state, which has the second highest number of active cases among the 32 states behind only Mexico City. However, he acknowledged that the state lacks resources to confront a new wave of infections.

Coahuila Governor Miguel Ángel Riquelme said that authorities have agreed to place renewed limits on people’s movement between different parts of the state as part of efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

The northern border state is estimated to have 2,300 active cases, the fifth highest number in the country after Mexico City, Nuevo León, México state and Chihuahua.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp), Forbes México (sp)

López Obrador faces pension funds’ ire with commissions cut plan

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Jude Webber

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October 20, 2020

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President López Obrador’s plans to force fund managers to slash their commissions as part of a pension overhaul has triggered threats of litigation.

Private pension funds would have to nearly halve their commissions to 0.54%, from 0.92% according to a bill sent to Congress in September, which is expected to pass in both houses in the coming weeks. The industry has 4.5 trillion pesos (US $212 billion) under management.

The government is seeking to revise the private pension system, which was set up in 1997, to boost retirement pay by 40% and pulled off a coup by persuading the private sector to increase its contributions. Without changes, it says workers could expect to retire on just 30% of their salaries.

The planned commissions reduction took the fund managers by surprise, Bernardo González, president of the Association of Mexican Private Pension Funds, told the Financial Times. Several private funds would no longer be able to operate and would trigger litigation under international trade treaties including USMCA, he warned.

Funds with foreign capital were evaluating litigation under the USMCA or the Pacific Alliance treaties, González said. “They [the funds] are obviously very worried … because they would have to have recourse to the treaties to defend themselves,” he added.

The populist president has upset business leaders with other decisions during his nearly two years in office, including regulatory changes that penalize renewable energy generators and the scrapping of a partially built brewery and airport projects following informal “people’s polls.”

The government argues that commissions charged by the Afores, as Mexican private pension funds are known, are some of the highest in the world and wants to benchmark them to those in the US, Chile and Colombia — currently 0.45%, 0.54% and 0.62% respectively.

The commissions reduction was “fundamental and cannot be postponed,” the government said, adding that the pension system regulator, Consar, had calculated that if commissions were halved “the average saving per worker would increase by 12%” and boost cash available upon retirement.

“This is not about wanting to protect disproportionate profits,” González said. “It could force several private funds out of the market and concentrate resources in the hands of just a few Afores, which is not good for competition.”

López Obrador told a news conference: “I want this [reduction in commissions] to be by law because that will generate more savings. The fund administrators may say it would no longer be profitable, but it would.”

But capping commissions by law would prevent new entrants into the market because a low starting client base together with low commissions would be uneconomic, González said. Funds targeting lower-income workers would be most vulnerable.

Under the reform proposal, employers will increase their contributions to enable workers to retire after 750 weeks of contributions, rather than 1,250 currently. But those higher contributions from employers would happen in two years, meaning that if commissions were slashed before then “that would push some Afores into the red,” he said.

González said the push to slash commissions would favour funds with state participation. Mexico’s biggest Afore, XXI Banorte, is half-owned by IMSS, the state social security agency, while PENSIONISSSTE is fully state owned.

Oaxaca’s alebrijes get international protection against plagiarism

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MND Staff

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October 20, 2020

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Mother Protector Cat, a Oaxacan alebrije by Fátima Janice Fuentes. Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art

Wooden alebrijes made in Oaxaca are now protected against plagiarism in other parts of Mexico and abroad.

A geographical indication, or GI, designation for the brightly-colored sculptures of fantastical creatures was published on Monday in the federal government’s official gazette.

Published by the Economy Ministry and the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) on the request of the Oaxaca government, the GI designation states that authentic wooden alebrijes can only be made in five locations in the southern state: San Antonio Arrazola, San Martín Tilcajete, Unión Tejalápam, San Pedro Taviche and Oaxaca city.

The designation also protects Oaxaca-made sculptures of nahuales, supernatural beings with the capacity to metamorphose into animals, and other unique locally-made wooden carvings.

According to the Oaxaca government, the request for a GI designation it submitted to IMPI earlier this year sought to protect not just the alebrijes themselves but also the history surrounding them, the materials they’re made with and the artisanal process.

Economy Minister Juan Pablo Guzmán said in January that the GI designation would protect the wooden figurines “at the national and international levels so that they won’t be subject to plagiarism and piracy.”

He cited Chinese fakes as a particular concern to local artisans.

Guzmán also said that a GI designation, which already applies to products such as Roquefort cheese, Colombian coffee and Thai silk, will add to the commercial value of the wooden alebrijes made in Oaxaca.

He explained that the protection will prevent the export of foreign-made replicas of the sculptures just as fake tequila is blocked from entering different countries around the world.

“Tequila arrives that is made in other … countries and when it’s detected at customs, a report is sent to Mexico. [If] it’s verified that it’s not really that beverage, fines and sanctions are issued. In addition the product is destroyed,” Guzmán said.

A GI designation is similar to designation of origin status, the minister said, explaining that they both offer protection to a range of products. The former is more widely recognized in the United States while the latter is more prevalent in Europe, he said.

“They don’t compete with each other, … both seek to maintain the attributes of a product from a determined region. The difference is that in a GI [designation] not all of the elements of a product are necessarily from that place,” Guzmán said, explaining that if a gold adornment is part of an alebrije, the gold doesn’t necessarily have to come from Oaxaca.

However, all the work must be completed in the place to which the GI designation corresponds and the product must originate there, he said.

Among the Mexican products that have a geographical indication designation or designation of origin status are tequila, mezcal, talavera pottery, Morelos rice, Chiapas coffee, Olinalá wooden handicrafts from Guerrero and vanilla from Puebla and Veracruz.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Cienfuegos’ arrest raises questions about heavy reliance on military

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MND Staff

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October 20, 2020

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López Obrador and army chief Luis Crescencio Sandoval, whose institution has been embarrassed by the arrest of its former chief.

Is it a good idea to appoint an army general as the next federal security minister? Is it wise to give the military so much responsibility for public security tasks? Should the navy have been given control of Mexico’s ports?

They are some of the difficult questions President López Obrador might be contemplating in light of the arrest in the United States of former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Despite pledging to gradually withdraw the military from the streets when he took office in late 2018, López Obrador published a decree in May ordering the armed forces to continue carrying out public security tasks for another four years.

He also put the army in charge of building the new Mexico City airport and handed control of Mexico’s customs offices and ports to the military, a move that triggered the resignation of former communications and transportation minister Javier Jiménez Espriú.

López Obrador has repeatedly portrayed the army and navy as trustworthy, corruption-free institutions despite evidence to the contrary. Those qualities make them apt for the execution of key government tasks such as public security and infrastructure construction, he has argued.

But the arrest of Cienfuegos, army chief during the entirety of former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012-2018 government, raises awkward questions about the president’s reliance on the military, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.

It said that the detention of the former defense minister at Los Angeles airport last Thursday “sent shockwaves through the political establishment and embarrassed a once highly trusted institution.”

Reuters also said the arrest of the former army chief poses a threat to relations between the government and the military.

A rift between the two would place López Obrador in a very difficult position.

“He has placed his entire political capital on making his political project work through the armed forces,” Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, told Reuters.

“If he steers away from that, there’s no one else to turn to right now. He doesn’t have many other options left.”

Peña Nieto and then defense minister Cienfuegos, now in a US jail facing drug charges.

After Cienfuegos’ arrest, the president said he had complete confidence in the current army and navy chiefs, asserting that he vetted them personally and could vouch for their honesty.

Nevertheless, he committed to a “cleansing” of the army in order to remove any officials who might have colluded with the former general, a pledge at odds with his previous declarations of confidence in the security force.

Although López Obrador publicly remains committed to using the armed forces to tackle the high levels of violent crime, unnamed officials told Reuters that he may discard plans to appoint military officials to top civilian security roles in his government.

The news agency reported that before Cienfuegos was taken into custody, speculation was growing that the president would replace current Security Minister Alfonso Durazo, who has indicated that he plans to contest next year’s gubernatorial election in Sonora, with a general.

But López Obrador would have to “pay a high political price” to appoint a military official to head up a civilian security department, said a senior police official who described Cienfuegos’ arrest as a “game changer.”

Analysts have used similarly robust language to describe the detention of the erstwhile defense minister.

César Gutiérrez Priego, a lawyer who specializes in military matters, said the arrest deals a “very heavy blow” to the image of the army and the morale of military personnel, while León Krauze, a columnist for the newspaper El Universal, said the apprehension of Cienfuegos will have “profound implications” for the army, the former and current governments and the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States.

In light of Cienfuegos’ arrest, criminal justice researcher Layda Negrete questioned why López Obrador and his two most recent predecessors, Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón – who launched the so-called war on drugs in December 2006 – placed so much faith in the military.

Writing in El Universal, Negrete charged that the former presidents had – and López Obrador currently has – a “fanciful belief” that si está de verde no muerde, which roughly translates as, “If they’re in green uniforms they can do no wrong.”

With that prevailing view, the three presidents failed to implement accountability mechanisms to keep the armed forces in check, she wrote.

Thus in 2020 “there is a lack of impartial and effective supervision mechanisms” for the military, Negrete said. “We’ve given them a blank check.”

The researcher contended that the problem is “clear” – any person who is authorized to carry out security tasks and who is not subjected to effective oversight will face the temptation of colluding with organized crime.

Criminal justice researcher Negrete: ‘We’ve given the military a blank check.’

Low-ranking military personnel and generals are “human beings that make mistakes,” Negrete added. “With weapons and power and without supervision, they will be more prone to make more and more serious mistakes.”

Negrete also noted that Calderón’s decision to deploy the army to the nation’s streets almost 14 years ago, and the perpetuation of the strategy by Peña Nieto and López Obrador – despite the latter’s claim that he favors a hugs, not bullets, approach – has not improved the security situation.

“There is not more security, there are not fewer human rights violations and there is not less corruption. The lack of accountability is what creates a favorable atmosphere for collusion with cartels, torture, mass extrajudicial killings and excessive spending on [military-led] public projects,” she wrote.

“With [the arrest of] Cienfuegos, the vulnerability of a system — not a single person — is exposed. Andrés Manuel López Obrador shouldn’t wait for the results of foreign investigations against our compatriots [former security minister Genaro García Luna is also in U.S. custody] to act,” Negrete said.

“The prosecution of serious crimes cannot be optional. … Our president doesn’t need the support of foreign governments to act nor does he need the approval of the people. He needs his own resolution to extinguish the fire at home.”

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

Covid-19 not enough to stop annual Day of the Dead candy fair

By

Michelle Aguilar

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October 20, 2020

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Covid restrictions are in evidence at the annual event in Toluca.

The Alfeñique candy fair, a Day of the Dead institution that goes back at least 88 years, opened Monday to enthusiastic attendance despite its new traditions: masks, social distancing rules, temperature checks, and wares wrapped more hygienically in cellophane.

The event is a tradition in the México state capital Toluca, where Mayor Juan Sánchez Gómez said that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the city decided to hold the fair with strict safety protocols to allow traditional candy artisans to sell their wares. The city is currently at level orange — meaning medium risk level — on Mexico’s national coronavirus stoplight system.

This year, stalls have been placed at strategic distances to prevent Covid spread, said Daniel García, a health coordinator with the local government. Stalls have transparent rubber curtains separating them, and items must be sold in plastic or cellophane wrap.

Vendors must wear gloves and keep antibacterial gel on hand, by order of the city government, which is recommending that visitors spend no longer than 30 minutes at the fair nor open their purchases on site, and that children and the elderly not attend. In addition, health officials will be controlling capacity during the afternoon and on weekends, when greater crowds are expected.

The fair has fewer vendors than usual this year — 54, down by 30. Some vendors interviewed by the newspaper El Universal blamed that on confusion about whether the fair would take place due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Vendors interviewed said the confusion meant that some artisans didn’t have time to create the sugar, chocolate, and amaranth skulls, Catrinas, skeletons, and caskets that residents buy each year to decorate Day of the Dead altars.

Despite the confusion and new safety rules, the fair saw hundreds of visitors within its first few hours, although many showed up not wearing masks.

The fair is open until November 2.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Judge orders IMSS provide medications to young cancer patient

By

MND Staff

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October 20, 2020

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The judge assured Sandra she will get the medicines she needs.

A judge in Aguascalientes has ordered the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) to provide the medications a young cancer patient needs to continue her treatment.

The October 9 ruling came in response to an injunction request filed by the 7-year-old girl’s father, who said that his daughter, who has leukemia, has faced delays in accessing the drugs she needs since recovering from the coronavirus in May.

A longstanding shortage of medications has affected the treatment of child cancer patients across Mexico and triggered countless protests by their parents.

Judge Sonia Hernández Orozco, a district court judge in Aguascalientes, explained her ruling to the young cancer sufferer in simple language.

“Hello little one, the judge who knows about the problem [you face] is writing to you. … Your dad brought me a document in which he explained to me that you started having problems getting your medicines in May,” Hernández told 7-year-old Sandra Angélica García.

“For that reason, sometimes you’ve had to buy them so you can take them on time. … Let me tell you that one of the many rights you have is to to receive the medicines and medical care you need because that’s what article 4 of the Constitution says. … I want to tell you that … the authorities have to respect your rights,” the judge said.

“Realizing that your dad is right in saying that the authorities of the Mexican Social Security Institute have placed your health at risk, I issued a ruling ordering them to check that the pharmacy at the hospital you go to has the medicines you need.”

Hernández told the girl that she will follow up to ensure that IMSS complies with her order. In her ruling, she said that IMSS officials in Aguascalientes, the institute’s director and management at the IMSS hospital in the municipality of Jesús María where the girl receives treatment are responsible for ensuring that García has access to the medications she needs.

Failing to comply with the court order could result in them facing administrative or even criminal sanctions.

In response to the court order, IMSS Aguascalientes pledged to comply in a timely manner, stating that it would seek out domestic or foreign suppliers in order to purchase any medications it lacks.

It also said that it could seek to source medications from IMSS authorities in other states in order to ensure that patients’ treatment is not interrupted or delayed.

The court order and the commitment from IMSS to comply with it are welcome news for Emmanuel García and his daughter.

“I was sent [a letter] saying that I wasn’t going to miss out on my medicines anymore,” said the latter.

Her father said that they appreciated that the judge took the time to explain her ruling to his daughter in plain language.

“We’re very grateful to her and to everyone who supported us,” García said, explaining that relatives helped his family cover the costs of buying the medications IMSS failed to supply earlier this year.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp), El Sol de México (sp)

With no money for food mother poisons baby, attempts suicide

By

Susy Buchanan

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October 20, 2020

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The building in which the mother and child lived in Mexico City.

A 16-year-old mother poisoned her child and attempted suicide Saturday night in Mexico City, claiming that she did not have enough money for food, police say.

The woman, identified as Vanessa, told police she ingested the poison and also gave it to her 15-month-old child, Jesús. When Vanessa awoke Sunday morning, the child was unresponsive.

Neighbors saw her leave her home without the baby and decided to look through the young mother’s window to check on the child. They saw him motionless and called authorities.

Paramedics were unable to revive Jesús who had likely been dead for several hours, they said.

Police began canvassing neighbors in the search for Vanessa, who eventually turned herself in.

She told police that she and her son had gone without food for three days prior to the poisoning and that she couldn’t bear to watch him starve.

Vanessa was arrested and turned over to the special prosecutor for crimes committed by adolescents.

On average, more than 6,000 people commit suicide each year in Mexico, according to the Department of Psychiatry of the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Experts agree that poverty is one of the reasons why young adults commit suicide.

Silvia Ortiz León, chief of UNAM’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, says there are a number of factors that can cause despair in young people. “Violence, deprivation, poverty, family dysfunction,” coupled with “lack of access to areas where they can develop, for example, spaces for sports or culture,” can have serious consequences on a young person’s mental health and lead to mental illness and suicidal thoughts, Ortiz says.

The case is similar to one that occurred in August 2016 in Tlajomulco, Jalisco, where a woman committed suicide and killed her two children, a 14-year-old and a 7-year-old by leaving the stove’s gas on as they slept. In a suicide note, she said that poverty was the reason for her decision.

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

Beaches are open at Oaxaca destination, where virus cases are few

By

Susy Buchanan

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October 20, 2020

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Hotel owners in Huatulco, Oaxaca, want tourists to know that the resort destination is open for business, especially as other municipalities in the state are taking strict new measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Authorities in Santa María Colotepec, where part of the popular destination Puerto Escondido is located, have closed beaches and bars, banned the sale of alcohol and will only allow restaurants and hotels to operate at 20% of capacity, among other preventative measures in force for the rest of October.

That’s decidedly not the case in nearby Bahías de Huatulco where business is almost as usual, with hotels, beaches, tour operators, restaurants and other activities open although operating under strict sanitary protocols.

Huatulco Hotel and Motel Association manager Pía Oberholzer says that none of their 22 member hotels have received cancellations after the Colotopec announcement, but she’s worried that potential visitors might confuse the two areas and change their travel plans.

“We have received calls from visitors at the hotels asking if Huatulco is still open. There is a bit of uncertainty among tourists. We have not had cancellations, but many questions. That is why we want people to know that Huatulco is perfectly fine, that the beaches are open, hotels, restaurants and tourist services operate properly and sanitary measures are taken care of,” she said.

Oberholzer claims that Huatulco, an hour and half drive from Puerto Escondido, is the beach destination with the fewest cases of coronavirus in Mexico.

Currently, Huatulco is rated at medium risk yellow for the spread of Covid-19 — unlike the state which has returned to orange, or high risk on the stoplight risk map — and hotel and beach occupancy capacity is set at 50%, which is hoped will help reinvigorate a tourist industry that has been paralyzed for months.

Currently, occupancy is at 30% although the number of visitors is expected to pick up in December with Americans and Canadians fleeing winter weather.

The measures implemented in Colotepec have been harshly criticized by people in Oaxaca’s tourism industry, not only in the Puerto Escondido area but throughout the coast for generating confusion and uncertainty among potential visitors.

The municipality of Santa María Huatulco has just three active coronavirus cases. Since March, there have been 175 cases in total, and 11 deaths.

Colotepec’s numbers are even lower at 54 confirmed cases overall, three deaths and three currently active cases.

Across the state, 19,838 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed as of Monday and 1,583 people have died.

Source: NVI Noticias (sp)

As plan to abolish public trusts advances, the protests escalate

By

MND Staff

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October 20, 2020

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Protesters outside the Senate, hoping to prevent the abolition of 109 trust funds.

Opposition to the federal government’s plan to abolish 109 public trusts is growing as senators prepare to vote as soon as Tuesday on the proposal that has already been approved by the lower house of Congress.

A protest was held outside the federal Senate building in Mexico City on Monday while Mexican and foreign scientists have denounced the plan, which would transfer control of the trusts’ funds – they were allocated some 68 billion pesos (US $3.2 billion) this year alone – to the federal Interior Ministry.

Government watchdog Causa en Común (Common Cause) said earlier this month that funding for scientific research, cultural projects, disaster response, the defense of human rights, the protection of journalists, agricultural development, scholarships for students and attending to victims of crime would be placed at risk if the plan is approved.

Members of human rights collectives and family members of victims of violent crimes yesterday blocked one of the entrances to the Senate building to express their opposition to the plan, which President López Obrador supports on the grounds that the trusts represent opportunities for corruption.

The newspaper Reforma reported that the protesters were able to convey a message to ruling Morena party Senator Alejandro Armenta.

“You [members of the government] say ‘with the [support of the] people everything [can be done] and without the people nothing.’ Well the people are demanding that you don’t eliminate the trusts,” protester Karla Guerrero told Armenta.

“Morena cannot make history looking down on victims,” said Guadalupe Mendiola, making reference to the name of the coalition the ruling party led at the 2018 election – Juntos Haremos Historia, or Together We Will Make History.

Reforma reported that the Senate’s regular activities could not go ahead due to the blockade and that lawmakers retreated to a nearby hotel to discuss the proposal.

However, the plan has now passed the Senate’s finance committee, with only one Morena party lawmaker voting against it.

With the support of its allies, Morena has a majority in the upper house of Congress, meaning that the approval of the plan appears to be a mere formality.

Brenda Valderrama, a biotechnology researcher at the National Autonomous University and president of the Morelos Academy of Sciences, told a virtual press conference Monday that 15 senators affiliated with Morena would have to vote against the plan in order for the trusts to survive.

Protesters have included families of missing persons, whose efforts in searching for loved ones have been aided by one of the trusts.

Speaking on behalf of a collective of academic associations, societies and academies that have formed virtually under the hashtag #MásCienciaMenosObediencia (More Science Less Obedience), Valderrama urged senators to vote against the proposal, asserting that there is “abundant and conclusive evidence of the damage” the abolition of the trusts would do to the country.

She specifically appealed for the support of Morena party Senator María Celeste Sánchez Sugia, a fellow scientific researcher.

Valderrama said that opposition parties have rejected the proposal but stressed that the votes of their senators won’t be enough to stop it.

“Even with this support, we still need 15 [more] votes to avoid the disappearance of the research funds,” she said. “We demand that senators who have not spoken out against the proposal do so.”

Other academics who spoke at the virtual press conference said that 127 personalized letters have been sent to senators urging them to vote against the abolition of the trusts but none of the lawmakers has responded.

They argued that the elimination of the trusts, many of which support scientific research and none of which face formal corruption allegations, would represent a backward step. The academics said the country could return to times when public funding went to a select few researchers chosen by bureaucrats rather than specialist panels.

Several academics have already said that the abolition of the trusts would deal a historic blow to science and culture.

Causa en Común said that the elimination of the trusts would cause “incalculable damage,” while a group of 10 dissident state governors questioned the legality of the proposal.

Members of the #MásCienciaMenosObediencia were planning to protest outside the Senate today while a vote on the proposal could be taking place.

Mexican academics opposed to the abolition of the trusts are supported by more than 700 international scientists and researchers who put their names to a “Letter in Support of Mexican Scientists” that was recently published online and shared extensively on social media.

They described the move as “a heavy blow to science and technology in Mexico right when the country needs their contribution more than ever” in a letter signed by academics from universities all over the world including prestigious educational institutes such as Harvard, Oxford and Yale.

The international academics asserted that the abolition of the public trusts would close the door on new funding from private, international and multinational organizations that currently support academic research in Mexico.

“We are concerned that collaboration with Mexican colleagues, with whom we share interests and research projects, will be considerably limited.”

Opposition politicians claim that the funds currently held by the trusts will be used for discretionary spending by the federal government.

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

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