Governor Murat presents his annual report on Friday.
Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat said this week in his annual report that the state’s annual economic growth has reached a record 3.9%.
Speaking at a conference on Friday, Murat said the numbers translate into an advance in the fight against poverty.
“For the first time in history, Oaxaca grew 3.9%. The challenge is to maintain [the growth] in a sustained manner,” he said, adding that the state is ready “to be the new motor of growth in Mexico.”
He also heralded the coming of natural gas through a new pipeline project that was announced last week.
“. . . with the interoceanic project, Oaxaca will have natural gas, which is cheap energy,” he said.
He said the Isthmus of Tehuantepec interoceanic corridor railway project is expected to be the “logistics project of the hemisphere,” and that its first stage will be ready in 2022.
Murat expects that by the end of 2019, Oaxaca will have welcomed over one million tourists for the first time in the state’s history. On top of this, he underlined the importance of the state’s support for businesses both big and small, creating “an ecosystem” for all.
The state has received 66 billion pesos (US $3.4 billion) in private investment during the three years of Murat’s administration.
Oaxaca is located in a high-priority region for the federal government. In August, President López Obrador signed the Oaxaca Pact, which aims to create a strategic association of sates to drive development.
The 44-year-old Murat is half-way through his six-year term as governor.
A burned vehicle blocks a highway in Nuevo Laredo Friday.
The United States Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, has issued a travel alert due to a wave of violence that has rocked the border town since Thursday.
In a Facebook post late Friday night, the consulate urged its personnel and United States citizens to take shelter or abstain from visiting Mexico.
Presumed members of the Northeast Cartel attacked military patrols and set up roadblocks with burned vehicles at different points in the city. One group of gangsters entered a commercial center, causing panic among shoppers and workers.
One suspected gangster was killed in the shooting.
“The consulate has received reports of multiple gunfights and blockades throughout the city of Nuevo Laredo. U.S. government personnel are advised to shelter in place,” the post read.
The consulate posted on Saturday that it had restricted the movement of personnel and enforced an evening curfew until further notice.
“The consulate continues to monitor the security situation in the city of Nuevo Laredo following violence between Mexican authorities and criminal organizations . . .” the office posted.
Consulate personnel were advised to notify friends and family of their safety and monitor local media to stay updated.
The posts provide phone numbers for emergency assistance and the consular affairs office of the State Department, and also suggest that personnel enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive updates on the situation.
Security centers are gathering numbers used by extortionists to create a database.
Extortionists used nearly 12,000 telephone numbers to make an estimated 18,000 calls in the first six months of 2019, according to the National Information Center (CNI).
CNI director David Pérez Esparza said the calls are only suspected to be extortion-related at this point but when they are determined to be genuine the Attorney General’s Offie will request a trace.
He added that combating extortion calls is a priority of the federal government, since the crime increased 29.6% in September over the same month last year.
His department is creating a database of extortion phone numbers, which will be fed by anonymous reports from calls made to the number 089 operated by C4 and C5 security centers across the country. There is currently no national database of this type.
The CNI will also promote at the national level the use of technologies that alert citizens to possible extortion numbers, as is done in states like Guanajuato and Hidalgo.
Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said that extortion calls are a public security priority that requires immediate action.
Federal authorities report that organized crime is turning to methods that pose less risk of being detected by authorities. Extortion is seen by many as a safe, easy way to make fast money.
National Public Security System (SESNSP) data reveal that 6,355 extortion cases have been opened so far this year. August was the month with the most cases at 787.
Authorities have identified at least six different extortion methods used in Mexico. A virtual kidnapping involves convincing someone to pay a ransom for a supposedly kidnapped family member. In another ruse, the caller pretends to be the kidnapped family member. A similar shakedown involves convincing someone to pay the bail of an allegedly arrested relative.
Some extortionists threaten their victims by claiming to be from a local criminal organization and request money in exchange for protection. Some claim that the victim has won a prize and only needs to make a small deposit to claim it.
The sixth type of extortion call comes from someone pretending to be a domestic employee, claiming that the victim’s relative — their boss — is in trouble and needs urgent financial help.
According to the CNI report, the states with the highest rates of extortion calls in the country are Puebla, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Quintana Roo, Veracruz, Chihuahua and Tabasco.
A misplaced comma on a promotional sign at a Mexico City Walmart gave shoppers a better deal than they expected on flat screen TVs this week.
The store in the borough of Azcapotzalco priced the televisions at 24,988 pesos (US $1,300), but seven lucky customers paid only 2,498 pesos (US $130) because the comma was in the wrong place.
The error was noticed by several customers who attempted to take advantage of the situation but the store refused to honor the advertised price. So the customers called the federal Consumer Protection Agency Profeco.
The shoppers provided photographic evidence of the error, and after several hours of negotiations between Profeco agents and store employees, seven customers were allowed to pay the misquoted price for the TVs.
Wrongly placed commas are not infrequent on store displays and are generally costly to the stores. Profeco usually insists they honor the advertised price, no matter how big the discount.
Profeco director Ricardo Sheffield Padilla confirmed the outcome of the negotiations and said it was the department’s first intervention in the annual shopping event called Buen Fin (Good Weekend), taking place November 15-18.
For the first time since the beginning of Buen Fin in 2011, Walmart decided not to participate this year, opting to launch its own event, El Fin Irresistible (The Irresistible Weekend), a day earlier than other stores.
Profeco has mobilized 1,300 staff, installed 147 modules and deployed 323 mobile brigades in preparation for dealing with consumer complaints during the high-volume shopping weekend.
IMSS chief Robledo announces plans for new hospitals.
The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) will invest 13 billion pesos (US $677.2 million) to build 111 new hospitals by 2024, director Zoé Robledo said on Thursday.
The social security chief also said that 132 family clinics will be built and 120 hospitals will be remodeled.
Speaking at an international healthcare conference in Mexico City, Robledo said the government’s healthcare infrastructure plans are the “biggest and most ambitious” in Mexico’s history.
He said the goal is to have one hospital bed for every 1,000 IMSS beneficiaries by the end of the government’s six-year term. There are currently 0.69 beds per 1,000 people with IMSS health insurance, Robledo said.
The IMSS chief pledged that none of the projects will become white elephants.
An abandoned, unfinished hospital in Veracruz. IMSS head Robledo promised no more white elephants.
“If something is budgeted for it’s because it has to be done. If it’s going to be done, it’s because it’s really needed,” Robledo said.
He also said that no new hospitals will be inaugurated until they have a full workforce and all the equipment and services they require to operate.
IMSS infrastructure coordinator Juan Manuel Delgado said that Coahuila and Sonora are priority states, explaining that the former needs 10 new hospitals and 14 additional clinics to meet demand.
A man accused of animal abuse has been remanded in preventative custody in Mexico City for the first time ever.
The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (PGJ) said in a statement that a judge ordered the man’s imprisonment as he awaits trial on cruelty charges.
It is the third time in Mexico that a person suspected of animal abuse has been sent to jail before facing trial. The other two cases were in Veracruz and Sonora.
According to the newspaper Excélsior, the jailed man doused a pit bull in solvent before setting it on fire and dumping it outside a property in the southeastern borough of Iztapalapa.
The PGJ also announced that authorities had rescued 10 dogs that were abandoned on a property in the borough of Tlalpan. All the dogs presented signs of neglect and some of them were suffering injuries.
They were taken to a veterinary clinic in Tláhuac for treatment before being placed in the care of an animal foundation.
Mexico City police arrested a 60-year-old man for animal abuse in August after they became aware that he was keeping 50 dogs inside a small area of his home in the borough of Gustavo A. Madero.
Congressional committees have approved the new bill.
Children in Mexico City might soon be able to legally change their name and gender through a “quick” formality at a government office.
A proposal to allow minors to change the details on their birth certificates with the authorization of one of their parents will be presented in the Mexico City Congress next week after it won support from two congressional committees.
Nineteen lawmakers voted in favor of the bill while just three voted against it.
The Morena party-backed bill proposes changing Mexico City’s civil code to enable transgender children and adolescents to change their name and gender by completing an administrative procedure at civil registry offices.
To do so they would have to be accompanied by either their mother, father or legal guardian.
As Mexico City law currently stands, only adults are able to legally change their name and gender on their birth certificates via an administrative procedure while minors must present their case in court.
Morena Deputy Paola Soto, one of the bill’s two main proponents, said the proposed law would guarantee the rights of transgender minors.
They would be able to complete a “quick and effective administrative procedure” that doesn’t impose a burden of proof on them to show that they really do identify as the gender they wish to legally assume, she said.
“. . . Above all, it doesn’t imply a revictimizing judicial process as is now in force,” Soto said.
The proposal faces opposition from lawmakers with the other three major parties but Morena has a majority in the 66-seat unicameral Congress.
National Action Party Deputy Christian von Roehrich said that only the federal Congress is authorized to make civil code changes as per a Supreme Court ruling.
“. . . The court established that precisely to avoid the madness . . . that Morena is proposing,” he said.
An acorn woodpecker hard at work inside a telephone pole.
I live in the rustic community of Pinar de la Venta, located high in the hills west of Guadalajara. For months I watched woodpeckers — which abound in this area — hollow out the telephone pole in front of my house to build their new home.
The problem was that the hole they were working on was their fourth attempt at nest making and I wondered just how many holes that pole could take before it snapped. I also wondered whether male woodpeckers face the same problems as male weaver birds which have to “try, try again” until their lady loves say, “Yes, this nest is perfect.”
Woodpecker homemaking seems to involve more destruction than construction and I’m amazed their species is still with us.
The day after the telephone pole broke in two, Telmex came out and replaced it — with a brand-new wooden pole identical to the previous one.
“Isn’t that funny,” I said to our sagacious gardener, Don Pancho. “You’d think they’d put up a concrete pole, wouldn’t you?”
Don Pancho: there are two ways to repair a cobblestone road.
Don Pancho had a very different take on the matter.
“Bueno, I wouldn‘t think that, at all. Putting up a concrete pole would be against the Ley de la Chamba.”
Now chamba is slang for a paying job. “What has chamba to do with it?” I asked Don Pancho.
“Those carpinteros (woodpeckers) are providing a big chamba for the Telmex guys who put up poles. If they installed concrete or metal ones, they’d be out of a job en un dos por tres [in nothing flat]. Instead, they’ve got a chamba permanente just putting up poles here in Pinar de la Venta.”
Well, a light went on in my head and suddenly a lot of mysterious things I’d noticed in Mexico no longer seemed so mysterious at all.
The mystery of Mexico’s perpetual potholes has been resolved.
Chamba’s Law, I think, might read as follows: “Fix it so it’ll soon need fixing again.” I asked Don Pancho if he could give me another example of Chamba’s Law in action.
He pointed beneath my feet.
“See these cobblestones? When they come loose, there are two ways to fix the problem. One way — which was developed during centuries of trial and error — results in such an excellent repair job that those cobblestones will never work their way loose again in your lifetime.
“The other way lasts about a year. Both repair jobs look the same to the untrained eye. If the maintenance men used the first method, they’d have to go far away from home to find more chamba.”
After hearing this explanation, I understood why so many streets and roads always seem to be full of baches (potholes) even though those baches are filled in on a regular basis.
I used to joke that the repair crews must be filling the potholes with atole (watery corn mush) because every time it rains, the same old baches always reappear as if by magic.
Weaver-bird nests. Male weaver birds go to great lengths to please their partners.
Now I know it’s not magic, but good old economics, maybe the very same principle impelling carpinteros to keep making more holes until they’ve destroyed their home. Ha ha, and I used to think they were the birdbrains!
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Jalisco Governor Alfaro is confident that corrupt judges are going to jail.
The Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) and Attorney General’s Office (FGR) have opened investigations into 12 Jalisco judges for corruption and ties to organized crime.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has already frozen the bank accounts of two of the suspects.
Among the judges under investigation is one who in April ordered the release of one of the state’s most wanted narco-traffickers. The released gangster is believed responsible for the murder of a police officer involved in his arrest.
Led by President López Obrador’s legal advisor Julio Scherer, the head of the CJF and Supreme Court president Arturo Zaldívar, the investigative unit is working in coordination with Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro.
Alfaro declined to comment on the investigation, but maintained that its results will be exemplary in the purge of Mexico’s judicial system, both at the state and federal levels.
“The committee already had initial results with changes to the federal judiciary branch, but I believe that in the following weeks, it will have important results in the state judiciary,” he said. “There are several cases currently under investigation, documentation is being consolidated, [and] in some cases we have already frozen accounts of some magistrates and judges.”
“It’s a program that is working well, and we hope that it can serve as a reference for other states, that they will be able to initiate purge processes in their judicial systems. In the case of Jalisco, it is an urgent matter, and although they are long and complex processes that are carefully being carried out, I believe that in the end they will yield good results.”
Alfaro is confident that the investigations will lead to the imprisonment of the corrupt judges.
“I believe that it will be highly relevant that these people that have so damaged our state with their power to impart justice will soon pay the consequences for their actions and end up in jail.”
Vandals start a fire at a university bookstore on Thursday.
Students at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) joined staff in cleaning up after vandals attacked a bookstore on campus.
“While criminals vandalize the university, the students protect their heritage,” read a tweet on the official UNAM account.
A march on Thursday to protest sexual assault carried out against students on campus ended in vandalism when protesters broke windows at a bookstore and looted books before setting it on fire.
They also burned a Mexican flag and spray painted messages including “Rapists” and “Not voting, Not praying, Fighting” on buildings and the flagpole plinth.
UNAM rector Enrique Graue and the university’s general secretary carried out an inspection of the damages after the protesters had left.
They confirmed that damage had also been done to a mural painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros on the facade of the rector’s building.
Students from many university colleges have shown their support for the movement by striking, including students at other campuses in Aragón, in Mexico City, and Cuautitlán, in México state.
There were also strikes in the colleges of political science, philosophy and literature and science and humanities.
