UNAM has made efforts 'to become a more global institution.'
For the first time ever a Mexican university has been ranked in the top 100 in the world by QS World University Rankings.
The organization, which claims to be the “world’s most-consulted, most-covered source of comparative information about university performance,” has ranked the National Autonomous University (UNAM) as No. 100 of the top institutes of higher learning around the globe.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Harvard topped the list in that order. The highest-ranked university in Latin America was Argentina’s University of Buenos Aires, which came in at No. 66.
The second-best university in Mexico, the Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), came in at 155th place, moving up three in the rankings since last year and marking its ninth consecutive year of improvement.
Schools are assessed by their academic reputation, employer reputation, facility to student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international student ratio. ITESM’s rise is primarily due to a 28-place jump in the employer reputation indicator, which measures how each institution is viewed by academics worldwide.
How the National Autonomous University has ranked since 2012.
The ranking organization’s director of research, Ben Sowter, applauded the Mexican universities’ progress. “The rise of UNAM and ITESM has not been accidental. ITESM has highlighted the provision of world-class teaching in its institutional strategy, which has helped cultivate its outstanding consideration among employers,” Sowter said.
“UNAM has also made credible efforts to become a more global institution, a strategy that involves future improvements in academic recognition and research performance. This is a deserved, decisive moment for Mexican higher education.”
The complete list can be viewed at www.TopUniversities.com, which received over 149 million visits in 2019.
Founded in 1551, UNAM is the oldest university in Latin America and has about 140,000 students.
Sending power through the grid is going to be more costly.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has raised transmission costs by as much as 800% for some private energy companies.
The CFE published new transmission rates on Wednesday for private companies that signed contracts with the government before the 2014 energy reform.
To transport their power on state-owned high voltage transmission lines, such companies will pay 0.2785 pesos per kilowatt hour, a 469% hike compared to the current cost.
The cost of transmission on medium voltage lines will increase 428% to 0.2586 pesos per kilowatt hour, while transmission on low voltage lines will go up by a whopping 811% to 0.8928 pesos per kilowatt hour.
The CFE didn’t say when the new rates will take effect. The announcement of the steep hikes comes two weeks after the Energy Regulatory Commission approved a request from the CFE to increase transmission costs.
Power plants that generate electricity from both fossil fuels and renewable sources such as wind and solar will be affected by the price hikes.
The federal government is currently waging a quasi-war on the private, renewable energy sector. The Energy Ministry published a new energy policy in May that imposes restrictive measures on the sector that could effectively prevent its expansion in Mexico and consolidate control of electrical power in the state-owned CFE.
Bartlett accused renewable firms of not paying the CFE for using its transmission lines, a claim the sector rejects.
The CFE said this week that it has incurred losses of around 8 billion pesos (US $366.3 million) this year alone because private energy companies are paying low transmission rates, if at all.
However, reducing those losses is unlikely to be just a matter of publishing new, higher rates in the government’s official gazette.
Energy sector sources expect private energy companies to initiative legal action against the new rates, thus adding to the court battles the CFE will face in the coming weeks and months.
Protesters call for justice for woman assaulted Friday by police.
Some Mexico City police officers say they feel powerless and have lost respect as a result of orders from Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum not to act against people behaving aggressively or committing acts of vandalism during protests.
Officers in the historic center of the capital told the newspaper La Jornada that they were targets of abuse during a protest on Monday in which participants committed acts of vandalism, looted stores and acted aggressively against officers.
The officers said they were told by passersby they were useless and lazy because they failed to respond.
One policewoman said “we can’t do anything because of orders from the mayor” and complained that the Mexico City government had “protected” the teenage girl – who admitted to throwing rocks at police before she was kicked in the head by officers – “but sent its police to jail.”
An auxiliary police officer told La Jornada that he was disappointed by the order to do nothing against troublemakers at such protests.
Una vez más, estos p1nch3s vándalos haciendo destrozos so pretexto de manifestarse contra una desaparición en GDL??? Ó sea, no mamen! pic.twitter.com/NpzfiphIu2
“Even foreigners complain about it. One person, I think he was from Spain, told me: ‘This doesn’t happen in my country.’”
“Senior citizens, young people, everyone insults us” for allowing aggression and vandalism to go unpunished, the officer said.
Another said the order “not to do anything” is unreasonable because some people attend protests with the specific aim of attacking officers.
A policewoman said officers are given orders not to violate the human rights of protesters but officers are not afforded the same protection.
“What about our rights? Who’s looking after them?” she asked.
For his part, President López Obrador condemned the vandalism and aggression during Monday’s march, which was held to protest against police aggression toward a 16-year-old girl at another protest — it too was against police brutality — last Friday.
The president proposed a new strategy to prevent such violence.
“There was a protest of young people yesterday [Monday] and about 100 people, 150 at the most, wreaked havoc and the Mexico City police didn’t intervene because the mayor is acting with tolerance and not falling into provocation. … They provoke and provoke and provoke because what they want is a clash. We have to find a way [to avoid that], create a kind of peace group, without weapons but well protected,” he said.
López Obrador also said that people who commit acts of violence at protests should be punished.
“The police have instructions not to respond [to aggression] but they’re attacked with force, [the protesters] carry sticks with nails in them and it’s a provocation. A lot of police … are beaten and it must be punished.”
The arrest of protesters triggered a demonstration outside the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office last Friday and some of those in attendance were abducted by police who intended to kill them, according to Governor Enrique Alfaro.
The governor said that the quick response of his attorney general to the abductions had saved the lives of protesters, some of whom were abandoned outside Guadalajara after enduring hours of terror while held in police vehicles.
The Mexicali clinic that offered a cure for Covid-19.
A Baja California medical clinic advertising a cure for the coronavirus has been shuttered by authorities for promoting and administering medical products of “dubious origin.”
The Clínica Ríos, located in Mexicali and owned by Juan Carlos Ríos Sotelo, promised social media followers that it could cure the virus and offered an attractive alternative to staying in that city’s crowded hospitals for those infected with Covid-19.
The Baja California State Health Hazard Prevention Commission (Coepris) raided the clinic on Tuesday, much to the doctor’s consternation and the bewilderment of his patients, seizing several bottles of the supposed coronavirus cure, as well as testing kits that the doctor was also using on patients.
The cure and tests, which the doctor had stored under lock and key, will now remain in the hands of authorities until a hearing can be held. The cure will also be tested to determine its content.
Mexicali is a hot spot in Mexico for the coronavirus and as of June 9 had 3,120 confirmed cases, according to data from the state’s website, with the total number of cases in Baja California numbering 6,297.
President López Obrador has asked the Canadian government to help persuade Canadian mining companies to pay their tax debts in Mexico.
López Obrador said Tuesday that “a few Canadian mining companies” are not up to date with their tax obligations and want to dispute the fact in international courts.
He “respectfully” called on Canada’s ambassador to Mexico, Graeme Clark, to convince them to settle their debts with the Federal Tax Administration (SAT).
“What are we going to court for? It’s very clear that they have these debts with the SAT. Hopefully they’ll help us to convince them [to pay],” López Obrador told reporters.
He didn’t name the companies to which he was referring but First Majestic Silver Corp said last month that it served notice to the Mexican government under North American Free Trade Agreement provisions to begin negotiations to resolve disputes with the SAT.
Almost 70% of foreign-owned mining companies that operate in Mexico are Canadian, according to Global Affairs Canada, that country’s foreign affairs department. Canadian mining assets here were worth CAD $18.4 billion (US $13.7 billion at today’s exchange rate) in 2017, according to the Mining Association of Canada.
In calling for Canadian miners to settle their tax obligations, López Obrador pointed out that several large companies, including Walmart and Coca-Cola bottler Femsa, are paying back what they owe. He also said that Japanese automaker Toyota has agreed to settle its tax bill in Mexico.
“We thank the companies that decided to catch up and not go to court,” López Obrador said.
The president has made recouping unpaid tax a central objective of his administration as Mexico’s economy takes a battering from the coronavirus crisis.
The newspaper Milenio reported that SAT chief Raquel Buenrostro is ready to file criminal complaints against some large companies that have allegedly committed tax fraud.
She said that previous federal governments allowed large and powerful firms to get away with not paying their taxes but stressed that business owners now know that if they commit tax fraud, they will face legal action.
Buenrostro declined to name the companies that the government is planning to take legal action against but said that they operate in a range of sectors including steelmaking, food production, automotive, pharmaceuticals, energy and mining.
Fueled by high temperatures and the Santa Ana winds, around 24 separate fires were burning Tuesday afternoon in Tijuana, Baja California, one of which claimed the lives of two soldiers in the Aguaje de la Tuna area of the border city.
Authorities say a man has been arrested for burning copper near the area, the location of military barracks, where the two men were killed.
Firefighters from 17 different stations took part in extinguishing yesterday’s blazes scattered around the city of more than 2 million.
In the Las Cruces neighborhood, fires that began in fields spread quickly and 300 homes were evacuated. Families were also evacuated from the Torres del Lago subdivision as their homes were threatened by a fire on the hillside near the Alamar Expressway.
Near San Antonio de los Buenos, smoke reached the Rosas Magallón bypass and slowed traffic due to poor visibility.
Fire department officials say the main problem they are facing in fighting the fires is a lack of water and scarcity of fire hydrants.
As temperatures are expected to reach 31 C and the dry Santa Ana winds continue today, fire officials asked Tijuana residents to avoid lighting bonfires and throwing matches or cigarette butts in grassy areas and urged residents to report all fires to 911.
Costa Careyes, Jalisco, where guests remain in quarantine.
A large luxury resort spanning four beaches on Jalisco’s southern coast has announced it will open its doors once again to guests but will require them to complete a 14-day quarantine before accessing public areas.
Located on the Costalegre coast between the sea and the jungle, Costa Careyes is one of Mexico’s most exclusive resorts and offers a variety of different lodging options including complete villas, some with their own pool, where guests would wait out their two weeks in isolation, although they will have access to one of the beaches.
The resort says the villas’ staff will remain on-site to minimize health risks, although thus far the area around Careyes is reported to be virus-free.
Careyes spokesperson Kim Kessler told CNN, “The immediate vicinity has had absolutely no cases of coronavirus to date, and they are doing everything to keep the area safe and protected.”
To sweeten the deal, Careyes is offering discounts. Those who stay 14 days will only be charged for 10, and guests who stay the entire month will only pay for 20 nights.
Upon arrival, guests will be given a red wristband which will be exchanged for a green wristband giving them full access to the property’s restaurants, water sports, tours and other amenities after the two-week period.
The resort plans to keep the quarantine system in place at least through September.
Liverpool has opened 25 stores with coronavirus measures in place.
Department stores across Mexico are taking measures to keep shoppers safe as they reopen with new health protocols to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Liverpool, which operates the largest chain of department stores in Mexico, is implementing a “safe space” plan in the 25 that have reopened and is also following health guidelines in its warehouses to protect workers.
One of the practices the chain is encouraging is “click and collect,” where shoppers can place online orders they can later pick up in person at the stores. Safe distancing signs have also been posted, and for those who try on clothing in the store, special equipment will collect discarded clothing items in dressing rooms and take them to a room where they will be sterilized using ultraviolet light. The number of shoppers allowed in the store at one time is also being reduced to avoid crowding.
At C&A Moda Mexico, 15 of its stores are open, says chief marketing officer Marcos Guerrero. Cleaning and disinfecting is constant, the use of masks is mandatory, social distancing is enforced and only 50 to 60 people are allowed to shop at the same time.
The number of staff at each store has been reduced, and hours have been limited.
Electronics chain Best Buy has eight open stores in Mexico for in-store pickup of online orders, and shoppers can also schedule an appointment for shopping at the store or request home delivery of products.
According to April figures from the National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores, specialty shops saw a 17.5% drop in revenue, whereas department store sales decreased by 72.7%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and federal Health Minister Jorge Alcocer have offered very different assessments of the coronavirus situation in Mexico.
The Mexico representative of the WHO said Tuesday that the country is currently going through “one of the most complex and dangerous moments of the epidemic.”
Cristian Morales told a virtual press conference that several states are advancing toward the peak of their local epidemics, some are already at the peak while others have begun to descend but “are still very close to the peak.”
For his part, WHO adviser Jean-Marc Gabastou stressed that Mexico is not in a situation in which social distancing restrictions can be abandoned.
“We have to maintain a healthy distance regardless of the color [denoting the coronavirus infection risk level] until a vaccine is available,” he said.
Health Minister Alcocer: situation stable.
The officials also said that recent street protests could cause Covid-19 case numbers to spike and that more testing is needed before a wide-scale economic reopening.
“We have to immediately … detect any suspicious case in order to avoid a local spark becoming a fire,” Gabastou said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Alcocer told reporters at the presidential press conference that “the epidemic in our country is stable and going down, albeit slowly.”
However, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, the government’s coronavirus point man, said at the same press conference that Mexico has not yet reached the “maximum” point of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“For several more weeks, we will keep announcing there are more cases today than yesterday,” he said.
The Health Ministry reported on Tuesday night that the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased to 124,301 with 4,199 new cases registered and that the death toll had risen to 14,649 with 596 additional fatalities.
Active Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday evening. milenio
It was the first time in three days that the number of Covid-19 deaths reported was above 500.
Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said that an additional 1,478 deaths are suspected to have been caused by Covid-19 but have not yet been confirmed.
He said that 357,055 people have been tested for Covid-19 and that the results of 50,677 tests are not yet known. Of the total number of confirmed cases, 18,904 are considered active, Alomía said.
Mexico City has recorded more than 30,000 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic while neighboring México state has the second highest case tally in the country at almost 20,000.
Three states have registered more than 5,000 cases: Baja California with 6,297; Tabasco with 5,750; and Veracruz with 5,529.
At the other end of the scale, two states have recorded less than 500 cases since Covid-19 was first detected in Mexico at the end of February: Colima with 224; and Zacatecas with 403.
The latest Covid-19 death statistics. milenio
Mexico City also has the largest active outbreak in the country with 3,891 cases, followed by México state and Jalisco, where there are 2,274 and 1,2014 active cases, respectively.
Two states, Colima and Baja California Sur, have fewer than 50 active cases, while five others – Zacatecas, Durango, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí and Nayarit – have fewer than 100.
Mexico City has the highest Covid-19 death toll, with 3,941 fatalities, according to official data. However, an analysis of death certificates issued in the capital between March and May suggested that authorities have not reported a large number of coronavirus-related fatalities.
México state has the second highest death toll, with 1,651 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, followed by Baja California, where 1,302 people have lost their lives to the disease.
National data presented by the Health Ministry Tuesday night showed that 46% of general care beds set aside for patients with serious respiratory symptoms are currently occupied while 38% of those with ventilators are in use.
However, hospitals in coronavirus hotspots, such as Mexico City and México state, are much closer to full capacity.
AMLO presents the anonymously-submitted document to reporters on Tuesday.
President López Obrador has been criticized by business groups, governors and others for wasting time and attempting to distract attention from his administration’s performance after revealing a document that outlines a possibly fictitious plan for a “broad opposition bloc” against Mexico’s ruling party.
Presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez read the contents of a “confidential document” entitled Let’s Rescue Mexico at the presidential press conference on Tuesday morning.
Among the supposed supporters and members of the broad opposition bloc, or BOA as it is being called, are opposition parties and lawmakers, business groups, the governors of 14 states, two former presidents, National Electoral Institute councilors, federal judges and national newspapers.
The document, which Ramírez described as an “executive summary” of the BOA’s plan, notes that the president has an approval rating above 50% and that the ruling Morena party is in a good position to be successful at the federal midterm and state gubernatorial elections in 2021.
In that context, it sets out a 12-point plan to improve the electoral chances of non-Morena party candidates.
The document, whose authenticity has been questioned and remains unverified, proposes nominating BOA candidates rather than ones that represent single parties such as the National Action Party (PAN) or the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
It also proposes that the BOA focus on blaming López Obrador and his administration for worsening the unemployment and insecurity situation in Mexico. A media and social media campaign would seek to highlight the failures of the government in those two areas as well as in combating poverty and corruption.
The document also proposes that the BOA send lobbyists to Washington D.C. to highlight damage that López Obrador’s administration is doing to United States investment.
It says that the opposition bloc must emphasize to the United States that the migration of Mexicans to the United States will massively increase if “the unemployment and security crisis deepens.”
The “narrative” that López Obrador is a danger to Mexico and its commercial partners should be perpetuated in the United States and European press, the document says. It also outlines a range of other strategies whose aim is to discredit the government.
López Obrador said the document was sent anonymously to the National Palace by someone who “must be working” with the so-called broad opposition bloc, although he conceded that the document’s validity was uncertain.
The Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex), supposedly one of the bloc members, said that it has no knowledge of the opposition group. Coparmex said in a Twitter post that it doesn’t participate in or support the “imaginary” BOA.
“We condemn the frivolity of the use of government time and space to present pamphlets, start rumors and cause controversy,” it said.
The Business Coordinating Council (CCE), an umbrella organization representing 12 business groups and another supposed BOA member, also said it had no knowledge of the documented.
Michoacán Governor Silvano Aueroles, another alleged BOA member, urged the president to be serious.
“Enough distractions, concentrate on dealing with the pandemic. People are dying,” he wrote on Twitter.
Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, yet another supposed BOA affiliate, turned to humor to respond to the government’s apparent claim that opposition forces are uniting against it.
“Up in the [ivory] tower, they’ve discovered us,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that the opposition front is preparing a “catchy” jingle to encapsulate its opposition to the federal government, known colloquially as the 4T in reference to López Obrador’s pledge to implement a fourth transformation as monumental as events that include gaining independence from Spain and the Mexican Revolution.
The association of PAN governors said that López Obrador should be worrying about the health and financial well-being of Mexicans rather than frivolous political matters while the national president of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno, said that it’s regrettable that the state is using its “entire apparatus to attack opposition political parties.”
“Instead of looking for solutions for the country in very serious times … they’re [talking about] conspiratorial ideas to divert attention from what really matters,” Moreno said.
He also said the PRI had no knowledge of the Let’s Rescue Mexico document, while Democratic Revolution Party national leader Ángel Ávila said he didn’t belong to the seemingly non-existent BOA.
Ávila urged López Obrador to focus on the pandemic, the economic crisis and insecurity rather than “politicking.”
Former president Felipe Calderón, who along with his predecessor Vicente Fox, is allegedly a BOA conspirator, also said that he had no knowledge of the document in question.
“I’m not even sure that it exists but if that were the case: 1) the opposition has the right to organize; [and] 2) that the government is spying on [the opposition] is a crime,” he said.
